Hightime for America to Return to Gold Standard

By DREW FREAKLEY

In the modern political stage, we constantly hear talk about debt and monetary policy. Rarely, however, are there alternative solutions as to how our money supply should be regulated.

Libertarians are a group often on the fringe, arguing for competing currency.

Competing currency is good for the economy because introducing currencies with different values, such as gold and silver, would keep the others in place, preventing artificial increases or decreases in value.

The value of the U.S. dollar has been rapidly declining for decades. Today, the dollar is worth roughly half of as much as it was in the mid-1980s.

According to the economist Jerry Strzelecki, since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the dollar has lost a whopping 97 percent of its purchasing power. The Federal Reserve’s practice of excessively printing money has devalued our currency, which means the dollar can’t buy as much as it used to.

But wait! Everyone says that the increase in prices over time is just a natural occurrence.

However, that’s not true. The Federal Reserve’s manipulation of the money supply is primarily responsible for the rising prices of goods and services. The more dollars in circulation, the less the money is worth. When the Federal Reserve prints extra notes, it increases the total amount of money in circulation. If that is not immediately followed by an increase in production of goods, there is more money to spend on the same amount of goods and services as before. Everything costs more, making our money worth less.

This also leads to further separation between economic classes, as it is the economically impoverished who feel the cost of rising prices, since they have less disposable income.

As a result, more Americans and important trading partners around the world are understandably losing trust in the dollar.

The first laws against competing currency emerged under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Domestically, the U.S. dollar stopped being backed by gold in 1933, when he abolished the gold standard to allow the value of the dollar to be regulated by the government. This only affected U.S. citizens, who could no longer exchange their money for gold.

In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon’s abolishment of gold backing completely eradicated foreign investors’ ability to exchange gold for the dollar.

Our government does this to make sure Americans trade on fiat currency so the Federal Reserve maintains its monopoly on currency.

Unlike the paper dollar, gold and silver hold their value over time. Our government believes that, without laws such as Public Law 92- 268, which prevents exchanging gold or silver for Federal Reserve notes, Americans would likely start using valuable alternative currencies instead of the paper dollar.

However, just because you can’t exchange gold for dollars doesn’t mean individuals can’t sell their gold for market prices, depending on the buyer. This is different than trying to buy an Xbox over the counter with a couple ounces of gold bullion.

It’s time for Americans to be free to use whatever currency they desire. The game the Federal Reserve plays has only further impoverished Americans. Just think of the housing market crash in 2008.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and his cronies created a housing bubble that was artificial in order to create a market that Americans would want to buy into. They did this by artificially determining the values of the housing market, based on dollar. Americans gambled on this system, and it failed in a big way, accumulating crippling debt in the process.

Gold and silver are tangible items whose value cannot be artificially created. A solid foundation is the basis for any stable building. Competing currency is the stability for the foundation of a healthy monetary system.