Thomas Jefferson has so many important areas of his life upon which historians have focused–his drafting of the Declaration of Independence, his work as Ambassador to France, his time more »]]> Congressman Ron Paul has been called by many the “Thomas Jefferson of our times,” yet perhaps this moniker is even more true than they first understood…

Jefferson Supports Paul

Thomas Jefferson has so many important areas of his life upon which historians have focused–his drafting of the Declaration of Independence, his work as Ambassador to France, his time in office as President, etc.–that there is one area which tends to get overshadowed: his Vice-Presidency from 1796 – 1800.  In these early days of our Republic, prior to passage of the 12th Amendment, the President was determined by being the person receiving the highest number of electoral votes; the second-place finisher became Vice-President.  Thus, in contrast to what modern Americans have grown accustomed to, two candidates of widely disparate political views could end up serving as President and VP simultaneously.  For acclaimed Anti-Federalist Thomas Jefferson, his second-place finish ensured that he would be serving as Vice-President under the staunch Federalist President, John Adams.  Fireworks were sure to erupt.

The Vice-President’s primary responsibility, as enumerated in the Constitution, is to preside over the Senate.  Thomas Jefferson took this responsibility seriously, drafting the “Manual of Parliamentary Practice” which was to become the guiding document for the Senate’s internal rules and procedures.  While these efforts were important to the makeup of the young legislative body, it was Jefferson’s work beyond the enumerated responsibilities of his office that was among the most compelling of his life.

The late 18th Century was a time of tumult and strife worldwide… not too entirely different from today.  Fear of popular uprisings-turned-ugly overseas (such as with the French Revolution) happening in America led the majority Federalist party to increase the power of the federal government and the Executive, culminating in the fiercely unpopular and patently unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.  Both acts gave the power to detain and/or deport foreigners and even US citizens merely under suspicion of opposing the government.  In the most egregious acts of abuse, under the Sedition Act, publishing “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or certain officials was made an offense punishable by fine and imprisonment.

While Thomas Jefferson could do little by virtue of his office as Vice-President to prevent these horrific laws from passage, he was able to make immense contributions through his continued advocacy for the primacy of Liberty and limited government.  Working anonymously along with James Madison, he help craft the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which appealed to the doctrine of interposition as a duty of the several States to protect their citizens from unconstitutional federal laws.  He also continued his advocacy of ending the Bank of the United States–the first central bank in US history–and ending recent new federal tax levies.  These efforts ultimately culminated in nothing less than the “Revolution of 1800,” with his ascendency to the Presidency upon an overwhelming surge of popular support for the ideals he had been championing as VP.

Flash forward 216 years and the United States again finds itself in a similar, difficult position.  The undefined “War on Terror” enabled the passage of the Patriot Act, the most abominable, Constitution-shredding piece of legislation to have passed through Congress since the Alien and Sedition Acts.  The recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 authorizes the military to arrest and infinitely detain US citizens merely suspected of terrorism–no trial, no due process, “no nothing”… except a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay.  Fiscally we are completely awash in debt; our constitutional monetary system has been plundered by the current central bank (the Federal Reserve) ensuring the destruction of the US dollar and the annihilation of the US middle class along with it.  And almost all of the “solutions” being presented to these problems are more of the same old failed ideas that got us into this predicament in the first place: more debt-financed spending leading to more taxes, more money printing leading to rampant inflation, larger and larger government leading to less and less individual liberty.

This election cycle is very, very different than most, however–a true revolution in the making.  For the first time in decades there IS a legitimate, viable alternative to the status quo: Congressman Ron Paul (for more information on the details of his positions, we urge you to explore Scuttledd’s exclusive “Ron Paul Starter Kit“).

While Ron Paul may be running as a Republican, he is the utter antithesis of any of the other Establishment candidates, in either party.  His broadest appeal lies with independents and those less associated with straight-ticket voting.  His support base lies all across the conventional political spectrum and continues to grow, as witnessed by his recent first-place tie for delegates in the Iowa caucuses.  While it remains to be seen if Congressman Paul’s support is large enough to secure the nomination outright, four (4) crucial elements are undeniable:

1. His grassroots popular support and financial war chest is strong enough for him to remain in contention all the way through to the nominating convention;
2. Should he not get the nomination, his supporters will NOT fall in line to support any Establishment nominee, but will follow him in a third-party bid and/or support whoever he endorses in a third party (e.g., Gary Johnson on the Libertarian ticket);
3. The Establishment Republicans know that if he takes his support to a third-party, they WILL NOT be able to defeat Obama;
4. If the Establishment Republicans could get him onto the ticket as VP, his support combined with theirs WILL defeat Obama.

–More After the Jump–

Selling Out?

No doubt, there will be some who meet the scenario I have detailed herein with derision; who say that Ron Paul, in accepting a VP nomination, would have just sold out all that he has worked so hard and long to defeat.  To these people I ask, was Thomas Jefferson a sell-out when he became Vice-President in 1796?  Did he alter his views in any way to accept that position, or after taking office?  No.  As a matter of fact, he only strengthened and expanded upon them, magnifying them through the “bully pulpit” of his office.  For Ron Paul, how would this be any different?

Keep in mind that the President cannot “fire” his VP (I’m sure President Adams would have loved to fire his VP Jefferson if he could have).  The undefined nature of much of the VP’s job responsibilities would be seized upon by a man of Paul’s initiative as an incredibly powerful tool.  Would he, as President of the Senate, convene a special senatorial commission to explore auditing the Federal Reserve? or a return of the gold standard? or of sovereignty-violating treaties?  Would he, as an ambassador to other nations, address foreign leaders as to the prospects of future US non-interventionism?  The possibilities for sewing the seeds of Liberty are endless.

Would this lead to direct legislative action on any of these matters?  No–at least not immediately.  But it would continue to further the public discourse on such vital subjects that were, until only a few years ago, completely ignored.  Think about what Ron Paul has done to shape the national debate to this point, as a Representative for one Congressional district.  Imagine for a moment the impact he could have with a megaphone as loud as the Vice-Presidency.  Perhaps we underestimate the incredible potential here because typically the VP is just a proxy for the President’s message.  But we all know that WOULD NOT be the case with a Vice-President Paul.

Jefferson’s support was strong, yet just not quite strong enough to secure his election to the Presidency in 1796.  That would have to wait only four more years, as an overwhelming majority of the public came to recognize that they had a powerful, ready alternative to the Federalist tyranny being thrust down their throats.  By 1800 Jefferson’s candidacy was an unstoppable juggernaut–truly, not just another election, but the culmination of a total Revolution (a R3volution…?).

Ron Paul’s message of Liberty and the Constitution, and the sensible policies that follow from it, are needed now more than ever.  A President Paul would clearly be ideal.  Thanks to years upon years of Establishment conditioning, however, the full public may not quite be ready to put that into motion… but it won’t take much longer.  In the years that follow, as the economy continues to disintegrate, as the police state continues to balloon out of control, as new unconstitutional wars are begun, resulting in more American lives lost, an angry, hurting, and desperate public will be ready for MAJOR change.  In the past, situations as dire as these have led to the rise of absolute despotism, typically with a man in uniform promising “security” for all.  We all know where that leads.

Fortunately, when late-1700s America was in such a similar dire state of affairs, it had a ready alternative promoting Liberty, sound money, the Constitution, and the peace and prosperity that comes from them: Vice-President Thomas Jefferson.  Would it really be such a bad thing to have a Vice-President Paul “priming the pump” for a powerful return to Liberty over the next four years?

Jefferson Supports Paul

The Take Away

So what does this all mean in the current presidential campaign?  For Ron Paul supporters, it is amazingly GOOD NEWS.  The next election hangs in the balance, and Ron Paul holds the keys.  He either wins the Republican nod for President outright (and from there the general election) or gets ready to assume duties as the most vocal and independent Vice-President since Thomas Jefferson.  There is simply no way for the Establishment to get around this fact.  All we’ve got to do as supporters is keep doing what we’ve been doing–grassroots organizing, personal outreach campaigning, phone-from-home calling, innovating new methods of reaching out to new people, and holding moneybombs galore to keep the campaign coffers full.  Whether he wins outright or comes in a close second, the reality is that Ron Paul and the message of Liberty CANNOT lose in 2012!

Something tells me Thomas Jefferson would be pleased.

Scott Ledd swore an Oath to support and defend the Constitution and has never forgotten it.  He can be reached at scuttledd@gmail.com.

This is Part Two of a letter to my family and friends.  Part One can be viewed here first.

I’d like to ask you to take a quick glance at the picture of these two simple pennies and see if you can determine which more »]]> (12/15 UPDATE with Must-Watch Video at Bottom)

This is Part Two of a letter to my family and friends.  Part One can be viewed here first.

A Tale of Two Pennies: Pre-1982 vs. Post-1982

I’d like to ask you to take a quick glance at the picture of these two simple pennies and see if you can determine which one is worth more.  “Trick question!” you may be thinking, “It is OBVIOUS to everyone that they are each worth exactly the same: 1 cent.”  Ah, but here you would be mistaken, my dear friend… for I did not ask you for their price.  I asked you how much each was worth.  And worth implies a judgement of value, not merely a nominal price amount stamped on a coin.  In all actuality, at the time of this writing, the penny on the left is worth more than twice as much as the penny on the right.  In case you don’t believe me, you can check it out for yourself here.

Now this is not because the penny on the left has some sort of rare defect that has collectors swarming to get it.  This penny is no different than any of the untold millions minted prior to 1982.  But in 1982 something about all new pennies changed: their composition.  You see, from 1909 until 1982 (with one exception during 1943), all pennies were comprised of 95% copper.  But after 1982, the metallurgical content of all pennies was altered from 95% to just 2.5% copper (current pennies are 97.5% zinc, in case you were wondering).  Why?

The answer is as seemingly innocuous as it is utterly devastating: the US government, the seat of the most powerful sociopolitical-economic entity in world history, simply could no longer afford to mint pennies--mere pennies!–any longer.  And if you can begin to grasp the sheer magnitude of this fact and its dire implications, then you will have begun to make the vital and necessary paradigm shift that I alluded to in Part One of this letter: our money is not what you think it is.  In fact our “money” is not even money at all (still think the Sun orbits the Earth?).

What is Money?

If you do a little research into economic history and monetary policy you will find varying viewpoints on what exactly money is.  Most viewpoints, however, will ultimately align on five main criteria that something must have in order to be properly understood as money.  These five components are:

• portability
• durability
• divisibility
• fungibility
• safe store of value (i.e., intrinsic value)

Most are familiar with the first three terms and can readily see why money would need to be portable, durable, and divisible.  Imagine trying to conduct a transaction using huge boulders or diamonds or tissue paper: each of these would fail at hitting all three of the first three markers in one way or another.  Fungibility refers to the ability of a substance’s individual units to be mutually interchangeable (for example, a barrel of crude oil is a barrel of crude oil, a bushel of wheat is a bushel of wheat, the world over, each being completely interchangeable for the others).

Money to Burn: The Best Use for Paper Notes during Germany's Hyperinflation

Now if you look at what is currently used in the United States (and every other country in the world) for “money,” the first four criteria are met most easily.  But it is the fifth criterion that is the troubled spot.  For what is the intrinsic value of paper money?  Well, you could use the paper bills to wallpaper your room or burn them for heat or scrawl short messages on them, but that’s about all.  And of course there are far better materials to utilize to do each of these things.  So paper bills’ inherent value is pretty dang low.  In fact, the only reason these bills have perceived value is because the government declares that they do–that’s it.  This type of monetary system is called a “fiat” monetary system, which comes from the Latin for “let it be done” (because the government decrees it to be so).  But no matter what a government may say, fiat currencies cannot be properly classified as true money.  Fiat monies are currency, NOT REAL MONEY.

Now why am I placing so much influence on the distinction between money and currency?  Well, history shows us, time and time and time again that once this distinction gets forgotten and the People start using mere currency instead of real money, the economic underpinnings of a society (even the most mighty and advanced societies in world history–the Greeks, the Romans, the Germans, et al.) will inevitably break down, bringing the majority of people in those societies to calamitous ruin.

And I am here to tell you, America is no different.

How can I be so certain?  Well, aside from the massive amount of historical evidence to back up my claims, the most fundamental truth of the matter is this: the laws of economics are no different than the laws of physics.  What goes up MUST, eventually, come down.  There is no person nor known technology in the Universe that can alter this reality.  The problem comes when people begin to take examples of what appear to violate the laws of physics (or economics) as objective reality.  They are setting themselves up to be completely unprepared for the inevitable fall.

Let’s take orbiting spacecraft as an example.  These objects get launched into orbit and they appear to have escaped Earth’s gravitational pull.  Everyone has seen footage of astronauts floating around in side spacecraft in a weightless environment, and it is easy to see how one might start to believe that there must be no gravity in outer space.  Of course, nothing could be further from the truth–the astronauts are simply in a state of extended falling.  They are moving sideways so fast that, as gravity pulls them downward, the Earth’s surface has simply curved away beneath them, allowing them to fall without fear of hitting the ground, as they orbit over and over again.

Unfortunately, this state of affairs will not and CANNOT last forever.  Every microscopic particle the spacecraft plows into will slowly, but inevitably, slow the speed of the vehicle, and bring it closer in, whereby it will collide with denser particles, and the pattern gets worse.  Eventually, if more energy is not exerted to correct this–firing booster rockets or the like–the spacecraft’s orbit will degrade, and inevitably return to the ground, in a condition far worse than when it left.  Gravity may have appeared to be beaten by many observers on the ground, but it inevitably–always–wins out in the end.

The failure of a recent Russian space mission to leave low-Earth orbit has made many people on the ground concerned that fiery pieces of the spacecraft will be raining down upon them.  They should be infinitely more concerned about the global financial system crashing down on top of them.  For perhaps this system can best be compared to a wayward and listless space vehicle, careening out of control and progressively lower into the atmosphere.  Enormous effort has been exerted by central banks and their servant governments around the world to “fire booster rockets” and push the ailing craft into a higher, sustainable orbital path.  The only problem is, there is only so much booster fuel in the tank, and we are getting dangerously close to the day when it simply runs out.  When the world’s financial system crashes down and disintegrates, most people will be completely unprepared to deal with the chaos and calamity that ensues.  I urge you to avoid being in that number (more to come on that in Part Three of this letter).

A Problem of Debt

Without going into all the intricate details of our irreparably hopeless global economic order, I’m going to attempt to explain my position from a common sense perspective that I would hope most can readily understand.  In simplest terms, that is this: governments and banks are just as controlled by the laws of economics as individuals are.  An individual understands that if his income is less than his expenses, he will have to borrow in order to make ends meet.  An individual also understands that there are limits to the amount of credit other people will be willing to give him.  Therefore he only has a finite amount of time in which to restructure (either by increasing income or decreasing expenses or a combination of the two) and get his fiscal house in order.  Failure to do so leads to bankruptcy.  Very. Straight. Forward.

Governments of course are no different in being subject to these basic laws of economics.  Where they do differ from individuals, however, is in their ability to bend these rules and warp outward appearances.  There are a multitude of ways in which they do this and get away with it, but their method par excellence has been via subtle devaluation of their own currency.  When this happens, governments stealthily, surreptitiously, but inevitably, steal the wealth of their own People away from them.  For exact detail on how this happens, please view our special report on inflation.

The short version is that, when a government has unlimited ability to print up as much fiat currency as it may deem necessary to pay its debts (like ALL governments do today), they will NEVER default on any debt obligation.  All of the recent Congressional debt super-committee “negotiations” have been a side show.  There will never come a day when social security checks don’t arrive in the mail or soldiers don’t receive their paychecks.  The only problem is… so much currency will have been created out of thin air to meet all of these unfunded liabilities, eventually even the once mighty US dollar will not be worth the paper it is printed on.  (Remember those pennies at the beginning…?)

During the age of the classical gold standard, when the US dollar was fully backed by gold (AS THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES: Article I, Section 10), the ratio was roughly one dollar to one twentieth of an ounce of gold (or ~$20/oz).  In 1933, during the height of the Great Depression and wielding dictatorial powers, President Franklin D. Roosevelt required that all US citizens turn in their gold, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, in exchange for paper notes.  The government gave each person one $20 paper note for every ounce of gold handed over.  After the month-long gold confiscation period ended, the dollar was then revalued to one thirty-fifth an ounce of gold (or ~$35/oz.), an approximate 70% devaluation of the dollar in terms of gold.  Once this happened, a massive wave of inflation caused prices to rise by as much as 70%, while the People only had been given as much paper currency to pay for the same amount of good and services as at the pre-devaluation prices.

By the conclusion of World War II, a new economic world order had been constructed.  Known as the Bretton Woods system, it established fixed exchange rates between the major world currencies and the US dollar, and then allowed foreign central banks to exchange US dollars for gold at the rate of approximately $35/oz.  As long as the US government kept a disciplined fiscal house, this system survived and provided the world with a reasonably stable monetary system.  Unfortunately, by the time of President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, which pursued a “guns and butter” policy (by simultaneously attempting to finance the Vietnam War and the Great Society welfare programs at home), the jig was up.  Countries like France recognized that the only way the US could pay for such an immense expense was via money printing from the Federal Reserve, and decided to call the US’ bluff, demanding debts to France be paid in gold instead of depreciating paper dollars.  The gold reserves of the US started rapidly declining.

In August of 1971, President Richard Nixon ended the convertibility of the US dollar into gold by foreign central banks.  Instead of reigning in fiscal deficits to stem the tide of money creation by the Fed, Nixon simply cut any gold backing to the dollar whatsoever.  In the aftermath, the the dollar became completely fiat (i.e., backed by nothing except debt) and floated freely against most of the other major world currencies.  Those alive in the mid-and late-’70s will recall a massive surge in inflation, as the removal of the dollar’s gold backing massively devalued the dollar yet again.  Dollars declined to a new all-time low in their valuation.  But worst of all, the last physical restraint against totally unchecked money creation had been removed.

Over the last forty years, the only real restraint on dollar creation has been the judgement of a few individuals in the private Federal Reserve banking cartel.  Under Fed Chairman Paul Volker in the early 1980s, interest rates were dramatically increased to prevent the continued collapse of the dollar during that time period.  At that time, however, the United States was still the largest creditor nation in the world and positioned to weather any economic downturn caused by high interest rates far more favorably.

RED ALERT: The Money Supply Swells to Unimaginable Proportions after the 2008 Crisis

Flash forward to today, where only 30 years later the unchecked spending and growth of the US federal government has turned the number one creditor nation into the largest debtor nation in human history.  Fed Chairmen Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben Bernanke, have maintained excessively easy monetary policy for so long that there is literally no going back at this point.  The US has crossed the point of no return: over forty cents of EVERY dollar in the federal budget must be borrowed from someone else, like creditor nations such as China.  And when other nations’ desire for US debt runs out, the only source left to fund such massive deficits is BRAND NEW MONEY PRINTING by the Federal Reserve, hammering the value of the dollar lower and lower with every new unit of currency brought into creation.

But the US is not alone in its debt problems.  Almost every developed, Western nation is completely awash in unsustainable, growing levels of debt.  The solution posed to these countries is the same as the solutions posed in the US: more debt (created out of thin air).  The entire globe is on an unrestrained fiat currency standard that has become completely and utterly hopeless.  “Solutions” always include more taxpayer bailouts of banks, increased taxes to pay for these banker bailouts, and naked money printing to cover the rest, further decimating the value of what little money a person might be able to maintain.

If there were any question as to which direction things will be going, let me explain exactly why there is only one direction forward for the economic powers that be: the continued degradation and eventual destruction of the US dollar.

The Race to Debase:

•  The Federal Reserve has already announced extended super-low interest rates through at least mid-2013.  This is being done to discourage savings (since who wants to leave their money in the bank earning only 0.05% annually?) and encourage spending and investment.  The idea is to “jump-start” economic growth via the availability of massive amounts of cheap money getting injected into the system.  At the very least, more cheap money getting channeled towards real estate and stocks helps temporarily prop up asset prices and gives the appearance that positive things are happening in the economy (while nothing could be further from the truth).

• The federal government is currently paying super-low interest rates to its creditors.  If the bond market is allowed to act freely, the absence of enough buyers for US government debt (without the Fed to buy up the leftovers with newly printed money) will drive interest rates skyward.  Soon the debt service alone will end up taking larger and larger portions of the federal budget, requiring even more borrowing just to make up the difference, in the absence of politically unpopular spending cuts.  Thus the Fed MUST ensure rates stay as low as possible, just to keep US debt service obligations “manageable.”

• With the economy still reeling and unemployment still far too high, the intentional debasement of the US dollar is seen as a good way to make American exports cheaper to foreigners and put Americans back to work.  Unfortunately, cheaper dollars also mean the prices at Wal-Mart (which is stocked full of goods made in China) and everywhere else now become more expensive.  Additionally, the export “benefit” from having a devalued currency only lasts until other nations devalue their own currencies in retaliation.  We are literally in a worldwide race to debase/currency war, and it is the Peoples of each nation which will be the losers of this most egregious contest.

• Financial disruption is always a means to further consolidate power by those already in control.  In Europe, for example, calls for a new massive bailout of the European banking system are only happening in accordance with the corresponding loss of individual national sovereignty of the EU member states.  Whether in Dublin, Rome, Athens, or Madrid, a citizen of each separate nation-state will see her life being increasingly controlled not by democratically elected local representatives, but by unelected bureaucrats and banker cronies in Brussels (transnational capital of the European Union).  And of course a similar consolidation of power is ongoing currently in the United States, as the mega-rich Wall Street Banks–the shareholders of the private Federal Reserve in charge of monetary policy–continue to gain even more power and control, with every new taxpayer bailout of banks that are simply “too big to fail.”

A Black Hole of Debt: No Escape

Teetering on the Brink: Worldwide Debt Black Hole

I hope by now you can see how the United States and indeed the whole world is teetering on the brink of falling into a black hole of debt.  And as with all black holes, once trapped in its grip, there is no escape.  Every attempt at “fixing” the problem only makes it worse: for how can the solution to a world saddled with too much debt be the addition of ever more debt?!?! An individual in such a situation may try to keep rolling over debt, by doing balance transfers from one credit card to another, over and over again, but eventually the cards all become maxed out.  We are nearing the day when the world’s “credit cards” are completely and utterly maxed out.

Unfortunately that will not happen before every fiat currency, and in particular the US dollar, is ground up to a pulp.  Think about it… it became too expensive for the US to mint pennies starting in 1982… think of how worse the situation has become a mere 30 years later.  During the recent Zimbabwe hyperinflation of 2005-2009–the last note to have been printed was a $100 Trillion note… that could only purchase one hard-boiled egg–the country could not even afford the paper its currency was printed on.  They actually started printing bank notes on paper the consistency of “monopoly money” to try to lower costs.

Zimbabwe: $100 Trillion for One Hard-Boiled Egg

What will you do the day a $1000 US note again goes into circulation?  Will you remember this letter?  Will that finally be the day you give up on what the “experts” are saying?  Will you be prepared for a day when that $1000 bill buys you one tank of gasoline or half of your grocery list?  (If you still don’t believe me that currency debasement is INEVITABLE, why not read it from the horse’s mouth, the World Economic Forum: “World needs $100 Trillion More in Credit“)

As utterly painful as the coming economic chaos may be, there are steps that everyone can take right now to prepare for it.  In Part Three of this letter, I’ll lay out my suggestions for how to weather the coming storm.  Perhaps the worst case scenario may never materialize–how fortunate we all will be in that case!  But should the worst happen, I would greatly prefer a situation whereby as many people as possible–and certainly my family and friends–are prepared.

The next time you reach into your pocket to pull out some loose change, and you casually happen to find a real copper penny buried in a clump of what are the equivalent of arcade tokens, please take a moment to remember, consider, and reflect on the information presented herein.  Pass it on to others, if you deem if worthwhile.  Part Three comin’ up… until then please watch the following regarding fiat currencies:

P.S.–For added insight/support for information referenced above, I suggest reading the following books:

The Dollar Meltdown, by Charles Goyette

Currency Wars, by James Rickards

The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin

An open Letter to My Family and Friends on this Thanksgiving Day, November 24th, 2011

With another Thanksgiving Day upon us, I pause once again to reflect on all the wonderful benefits for which I am truly, truly thankful in this world.  The list is more »]]> (The Following is the First Installment in a Three-Part Series)

An open Letter to My Family and Friends on this Thanksgiving Day, November 24th, 2011

With another Thanksgiving Day upon us, I pause once again to reflect on all the wonderful benefits for which I am truly, truly thankful in this world.  The list is so long and wide I cannot hope to encapsulate even a fraction of it within the confines of this page.  I am thankful to have been born an American citizen, a privileged heir to the greatest political, philosophical and economic experiment in Liberty in the history of the world.  I am thankful for my education–not mere training, but real elucidation–which has allowed me a greater ability to distinguish fact from fiction, reality from fantasy.  I am thankful for the genuine friends I have, who add meaningful, positive impact to my daily life.  And I am supremely thankful for my family, who have always supported and encouraged me in just about every way possible, and then some.  I am indebted to all of the above to such a degree that I can never hope to fully repay them.

Let this letter be one meager attempt at doing so.

A Deep Pink Sky

What if one day you woke up and walked outside to start a beautiful new day… the air was crisp and the warming sunshine felt great on your body.  Perhaps you see your neighbor out walking his dog and couldn’t help but comment on how striking the sky above looked on this pristine morning.

“Wow, what a gorgeous, deep blue sky today,” you exclaim with gusto.  But as soon as the words leave your mouth, a look of puzzlement on your neighbor’s face quickly indicates something amiss.  “Um… you feeling alright?…  because that sky is as pink as Barbie’s dream house.”  Not wanting to offend your neighbor by pointing out his silliness, you let it pass and move on with your day.

Later you catch up with a good friend at lunch, and recount the story of your nice, albeit somewhat kooky, neighbor.  Upon hearing the tale, your friend, realizing you weren’t joking and not wanting to attract more attention to you both, leans in and whispers “you do know your neighbor was correct, right?  Everyone knows the sky is pink.”  You pause in disbelief, then quickly change the subject onto something innocuous like the recent football scores.

At home that night you turn to the TV to distract and delude your thoughts, only to have the late local news come on and show some video of that same amazing sky during the weather report.  The weatherman drones on about records and temperatures and then adds “Gosh, that’s a great pink sky, isn’t it folks?” and you want to fall out of your chair.  No matter, you think, “I’ll settle this once and for all,” and go to the bookshelf in the next room, where an old physics textbook has been sitting for years collecting dust.  A quick thumb through to the index, then onto the page of reference, and then… whamo!  The text reads: “The sky’s pink color is due to….”

You didn’t have to read any further.

Imagine how disconcerting it would be to actually experience a day like the one described above.  Would you face the laughter, ridicule, and derision of your friends and loved ones, by standing up for the objective truth of the blue sky?  Or would you just cave and accept the path of least resistance, regardless of the erroneous path you were on?  What if your professional reputation were staked on it?  Would you publicly admit that the sky was indeed blue if it meant the end of your progression up the latter? or of your chances of winning public office? or of maintaining the respect of your family and friends?

Ask yourself the following question: how much of what you “know” in this world has actually come from your own experience and empirical research, versus what you have simply been taught to believe?  And of those things you were taught, how much of it might actually be wrong?

“Not much,” I bet you are saying to yourself.  And I would bet the reason you are confident in this answer has something to do with the notion that “there are so many intelligent people out there that someone would have pointed out the fallacies along the way,” so as to prevent incorrect teachings from being passed on.

I believe most people must feel as though humans’ understanding of the Universe moves in a constant linear progression upwards, towards higher refinement and certainty.  It is easy to see why they may think this, when we live in an age of nearly constant technological advances.  But history shows this idea to be utterly mistaken: new concepts come along, they can become wildly popular, and soon enough you literally must be “crazy” to doubt them, regardless of what the objective facts may demonstrate.

Map of the Square and Stationary Earth by Prof. Orlando Ferguson, 1893

History is rife with examples of fallacies being perpetuated by “intelligent” people (both innocently and also with malicious intent), time and time again.  At different points in time, a person would have been despised and ridiculed by her peers for asserting: that the Earth was round; that the Earth was not the center of the Universe; that leeching blood from the bodies of the ill was a bad idea; that tulip bulbs were not worth one’s life’s savings; that sneezing was not a sign of demonic possession; that the US real estate market was doomed to collapse; and so on, ad infinitum…

Again, the most trusted and “intelligent” people of each era have helped perpetuate (knowingly or otherwise) some outrageously absurd notions, while some who have done their own research, consulted their own common sense, and summoned the courage to move past the herd mentality have had incredible opportunity presented to them; say, for example, the first person to realize that tulips were in fact not worth more than their weight in gold, and sold out at the top of the mania.  Surely he would have been laughed at by the most of the masses.  But as we all know it is he who laughs last that laughs best.

Why do I belabor the idea that what we are so often fed as objective “truth”–by the mainstream media, by our school systems, by our friends and peers, by the “authorities,” etc.–might be sorely mistaken?  If in fact it is incorrect, and the world is in actuality a vastly different place than the one you have been taught to know, then some of the things you have always just taken for granted might be completely off-base, leading to potentially disastrous consequences down the road.  Yet by that same token, those who are willing to reexamine their suppositions, and potentially modify them based upon an honest assessment of the facts, stand to benefit from their courage and foresight.

As it should be clear by now, what I am describing here is known as a paradigm shift: a simple shift in the way in which one conceptualizes the world around him.  Nothing in the objective Universe changes in a paradigm shift–the Sun still comes up in the morning, whether you believe the Sun revolves around the Earth or vice versa–but the implications of a new paradigm on human action and decision making are utterly extreme.  Would humanity have ever been able to take to the stars without the heliocentric paradigm? Doubtful.  Alternatively, would humanity have been able to achieve space flight 1000 years sooner, if the heliocentric paradigm had been widely adopted soon after Aristarchus first proposed it in the third century B.C.?  Perhaps.

The paradigm that prompted me to write this letter in the first place is one that affects every single person on this planet.  If we conceive of it properly, the foundations for unparallelled wealth and abundance will have been laid.  But conceive of it erroneously and unmitigated suffering–including the breakdown of prosperity, peace, and law and order on a global scale–lies at hand.  The stakes are truly this high.

If you’ve made it this far, you have proven that at least you have the patience and willingness to learn more.  I am grateful for that and for your maintenance of an open mind.  In Part Two of this letter, I will go on to explain the case for the crucial paradigm shift to which I refer.

And that paradigm shift–the one that literally holds the fate of the world in the balance–regards… money.

I’d like to invite you, Dear Reader, to participate in a brief thought experiment with me.  Read the following statement, then shutter your vision for a moment and imagine in your mind’s eye what this scene and the person described therein would have more »]]> An Interview with the “Rosa Parks of Monetary Liberty,” Bernard von NotHaus

I’d like to invite you, Dear Reader, to participate in a brief thought experiment with me.  Read the following statement, then shutter your vision for a moment and imagine in your mind’s eye what this scene and the person described therein would have looked like.

Statement: I just completed an interview with a known terrorist.  Our government recognizes him as a clear and present danger to the security of the United States itself.  He has been tried and convicted in US federal court, and is awaiting sentencing into the federal penal system.  It is possible he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

What did your terrorist look like?  What crimes did he commit?  How deeply does he endanger the United States?  Do you feel safer with him locked up?

Now I am not a betting man, but if I were, I would be willing to wager your terrorist had a thick, black beard.  He probably spoke a different language than you do and he may even have been adorned with subtle religious accoutrements.  His deep, brown-black eyes likely betrayed a seething hatred for America and all things sheltered beneath the Stars and Stripes.  He’d kill you in an instant, if he only had the chance, out of a genuine “hatred of your freedoms…”

Okay, now take that image in your mind, and compare it to the picture of the real person to which I refer below. Let’s see how close the two resemble each other….

Terrorist? Bernard von NotHaus

Are you terrified yet?  Quaking in your boots?  No?  Well, you should be–but for reasons very different from what the government is suggesting… more on that below.

The man pictured above is named Bernard von NotHaus, a friendly and engaging man who is the former Mintmaster at the Royal Hawaiian Mint, and later the creator of the Liberty Dollar, a free market, commodity-backed, private currency used in bartering between some 250,000 Americans in communities all across the States.  And, according to the US government, that is where the roots of this “terrorist” begin…

You see for some reason, the idea of conducting barter via a private currency which actually maintains its purchasing power seemed like a good idea to the hundreds of thousands of people which began using the Liberty Dollar.  In contrast to Federal Reserve notes—a paper currency backed by nothing other than the “full faith and credit of the US government” (and we’ve seen how “ironclad” that is, with the recent downgrade of US creditworthiness, and a persistent “negative” outlook)—the Liberty Dollar was backed by precious metals, allowing the holder to redeem his certificates for metal at any time of his choosing.

While most Americans using Federal Reserve notes see prices rise year after year, diminishing their FRN’s effective purchasing power, those bartering with Liberty Dollars would spend just as much for a gallon of gas now as ten years in the future—if not considerably less.  Hmm… if you had a choice between money that continuously loses its value versus one that maintains, if not gains in value, which would you choose?

Most people are not aware that the US Constitution is very explicit in this matter. Article I, Section 8 states:

“No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

The Founders’ knew all too well the calamitous dangers associated with fiat currencies, thanks to their financial experiences during the Revolution and throughout the time of the Articles of Confederation.  But this wisdom was eventually lost, first with the institution of an unconstitutional central bank in 1913, and then when President Nixon removed the last remnants of a gold backing to the US dollar in 1971.

When a currency is backed by nothing but promises, that just is not enough to prevent the corrupting influences of man from simply printing more money when the need arises.  And the more new money that is printed, the less each individual bill of fiat cash is worth.  Prices rise in order to account for the diminished value of each new note in circulation, forcing each citizen to continually try to earn larger and larger sums of money, just to keep pace with inflation.  If an American cannot consistently increase his wages, his standard of living will decline.

Bernard von NotHaus was not unique in recognizing this surreptitious destruction of the American People’s wealth, via erosion of their purchasing power.  He was unique, however, in deciding to take direct action against it.  In creating the Liberty Dollar, Bernard did far more than simply provide people with a private, sound money alternative to Federal Reserve notes.  In essence he created an existential threat to the private central banking cartel ensconced in the heart of the federal government.  And they would not react kindly to this threat…

2003 Silver Liberty Dollars

In post-9/11 America, civil liberties are perhaps the only things being eroded away faster than the fiat dollar’s purchasing power.  With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the pronouncement of numerous draconian Executive Orders, and enactment of the Patriot Act (an Orwellian name if ever the was one), nearly anyone can be declared a terrorist, and as such can expect to find the full weight and force of the federal government arrayed against him.  For Bernard, the full weight and force of the federal government began to make itself known when the Liberty Dollar offices were raided by armed agents of the FBI and Secret Service on November 14, 2007.

Over eight tons of precious metals—the money backing all Liberty Dollar certificates—were confiscated by the federal government and he was indicted in May of 2009, on a litany of fraud and counterfeiting charges.  On March 18, 2011, Bernard was convicted in federal court and now faces up to fifteen years in prison—all for trying to provide a Constitutional monetary alternative to a system which clearly wants no such choice to ever again exist.

I spoke to Bernard briefly between staggered doctors’ and dentists’ appointments, as he made all preparations he could before being sent “up the river” for who knows how long.  By his positive attitude and jocular quips, one might never guess that he was talking to a man who might potentially spend the rest of his life behind bars.  But to hear him recount the fascinating odyssey that has led him to this point, it becomes immediately clear that Bernard is a man who has dutifully chosen to put his own life and freedom on the line so that others’ liberty might still persist.

Bernard has been called by some the “Rosa Parks of Monetary Freedom,” and no doubt that is a fitting moniker.  Rosa Parks had the courage to stand up to the face of naked governmental and societal injustice, and we as Americans are all the beneficiaries of her courage and commitment.  May the same be held true with Bernard von NotHaus, that his sacrifice and dedication to freedom may eventually help form the foundation of a reinstated system of Constitutional money and rebirth of the American Republic.

Interview:

Scott Ledd: I’m pleased to be able to talk to you now, it’s a great honor for me.

Bernard von NotHaus: Well, thanks, but you know we’re all in this together, I just happen to be the point person right now.

SL: I know it, but it’s incredibly brave, what you have done. You are at the tip of the spear and I hope that we can, like you said, work towards creating a better tomorrow. We sure need one.

BVNH: Yeah, well, at lot of it hinges upon money, because when the money goes bad, everything else goes bad. When I had my epiphany on September 11, 1974, I spelled out in my economics research paper the interrelationship between economic, political, and social systems, and when you take the value out of one of those, like the monetary system, well then you have a loss of equal value in the social and political systems, and I think we are seeing this now.

SL: I think you’re absolutely right, we’re seeing this played out on a daily basis now; it’s happening so fast.

BVNH: Yeah well it’s been a while since September 11, 1974… I don’t know where you were then but that’s almost 40 years ago for me.

SL: The last that I researched, the average time for a fiat money system is approximately 29 years or so, so this one is past due.

BVNH: Yeah I saw some articles about that too, recently. I know someone ran the average time for a fiat system, it was something like 20-30 years.

SL: So we have really been on borrowed time with this one, and of course now we’re seeing the death throws of it and it is just a complete disaster. I just wish more people could understand what was going on. If they understood what was happening to them, as you know Henry Ford said: “It’s a good thing Americans don’t understand their banking system, for if they did there would be a revolution by tomorrow morning.”

BVNH: Yep, that’s what Henry said… but the problem is that people really just don’t care and they have been “educated” not to care about the monetary system: that it’s boring, it’s difficult to understand, we need to have high minded people like “Greenscum” and Bernanke to do things like this (and don’t forget Volker, there’s the whole cast of them). The thing is that people have been educated or miseducated or brainwashed into believing that this is wayyyy too complicated for regular people to understand and that we need to let PhD economists guide us along in terms of what’s right… and that’s all bull.

SL: I agree with you. Inherently people have to be able to understand, at least in their own life, that if there’s more money going out than coming in, they are going to ultimately end up in major trouble. So the weird thing is, how does that inherent understanding you would have for yourself–where is that disconnect, that if you apply that to the government or the banking system, that it’s somehow magically different?

BVNH: Well the thing is the government is very good at hiring the “brightest” and most glib people around and you’ve probably heard this phrase: “What’s with the national debt? Why should we worry, we just owe it to ourselves, why should we even be concerned about that?” And not so bad as that, when I was on tour, people would say “We don’t need a value-based currency, we can go out and buy gold and silver with US dollars now.” I mean that it is so utterly brain dead, because they miss the whole point: the reason we need to have a gold and silver based currency is to bring discipline to the financial system so the government can’t go out and do all sorts of bad things. I’ll throw out there 9-11 and the wars, and the list starts at Ruby Ridge, and it ends at your doorstep, and well, it ended at my doorstep when they came knocking. So the thing is that people don’t understand these things; they’ve been misled and miseducated, and the government is very good at doing this.

SL: Well, I understand your background and where you are coming from with this.  Would you be able to give a little bit more biographic info of how you came to your understandings and ultimately how you came to create the Liberty Dollar?

BVNH: Sure. The thing is I don’t have a background in this field whatsoever at all. I’m very proud to say I only took one course in economics in college, and it was on Saturday morning–Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8 o’clock. Now I don’t know what your college experience was like, but I’ll tell ya, on Saturday morning at 8 o’clock, the last thing I wanted to do was go to economics class. And the guy was BORING to death, I mean he was just terrible, and to make matters worse, he knew nobody wanted to come on Saturday morning at 8 o’clock so he gave a pop quiz that constituted 50% of your grade. So a lot of people would come just to take the pop quiz at exactly 8 o’clock on the money, every Saturday morning. In any case, this was my only exposure that I had to economics, and I really hated it. I hated the professor, I hated Saturday morning, I hated everything about it, because to me everything about it, it was just absolutely terrible—I think I got one of my rare C’s in that class. So anyway, I had a bad attitude about economics, but then I had my epiphany on September 11, 1974, which really was fantastic in the sense that it opened me up to not so much economics, but it opened me up to the world of money and how exciting it is and the cause and effect of money…

SL: September 11, 1974, is that the day it became legal to buy gold again?

BVNH: No it wasn’t, this was the year before that. It became legal on January 1st, 1975.

SL: So what was the actual epiphany event? Why September 11, what happened?

BVNH: I wrote an economic research paper entitled “To Know Value” and it opened me to realize that the physical manifestation of gold is nothing more than the physical manifestation of value itself, a spiritual one–there’s a strong interrelation between spiritual values and physical values exemplified by gold in that economic research paper–which is actually included as an appendix in the book I wrote in 2003, 29 years later. Anyway I wrote that and it became the basis of where I went with this, I got involved in gold and silver markets, distributed a lot of gold and silver to people, friends of mine, in Ahualoa, a little area on the Big Island [of Hawaii]. It’s a pretty remote place. I was living in a little house without electricity, lived there for three years, grew up in the gold market, moved over to Oahu and started the Royal Hawaiian Mint, did that for 25 years and retired in 1998, launched the Liberty Dollar as my philanthropic, nonprofit entity to awaken Americans to two things: 1) to the dangers of fiat currency, and 2) to the solution to fiat currency was of course the Liberty Dollar. So I retired, I moved to the mainland and I was on tour for the next ten years until I was arrested in 2009.

SL: And when you would go on tour, you would go to colleges, convention centers, anywhere you would be able to talk and try to explain this to people?

BVNH: Oh yes, right. As the Liberty Dollar became better known, I was invited to participate in a variety of forums–as a matter of fact, I was the keynote speaker for the Liberty Forum, I believe that was 2008, maybe 2006, but anyway I was the keynote speaker there–so yes, I did a lot of phone calls, conference calls, meetings, we held Liberty Dollar University (we had 15 of those across the United States) and the organization just grew and multiplied as more people heard about it. And of course as the price of silver went up, more and more people started paying attention. When we got started, silver was in the $4 to $5 range, so how things have changed, right?

SL: Going on ten times as much now.

BVNH: Yes, amazing, huh?

SL: Yes and I’m afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg…

BVNH: Well maybe it’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of people getting informed and taking action too, because it’s really only through people’s action where we will find a solution, and that is what distinguishes the Liberty Dollar from any of the others. And you know there a lot of organizations out there, and a lot of them are not worth a damn. A lot of them just suck you dry of money, making you feel good, and deceiving you into thinking you are doing something. The Liberty Dollar was not one of those organizations, this was a grassroots, bottom-up, activist organization putting our money where our mouth was, and doing a damn good job of it, and attracting a lot of really quality people in terms of doing this, because we were DOING something, we weren’t talking about it. First thing I told to Ed Griffin, who became a good friend of mine, is “the last thing we need is another damn book about the problem!” I mean, I like “Creature [From Jekyll Island]” I think “Creature” is a great book, he did that in 1995 so, I couldn’t fault Ed for that because it was good book, a legendary book in our movement, but as time went on, I realized that we don’t need any more books. And of course when it comes to the Federal Reserve, there’s an awful lot of books out there; in my library, I bet I’ve got 200 books if I’ve got any on the Federal Reserve. And we don’t need any more books, we need action, and that’s what the Liberty Dollar did, it gave people a way to take action. Our catch phrase was you want to “make money, do good, and have fun,” and people really responded to that.

What Paper Notes Backed by Precious Metals Still Look Like

SL: Yeah well it’s kinda amazing to people when they start to realize that it’s a pretty simple thing to do, to get back into a sound money system by buying at the very least some sort of precious metals, taking your money out of the banking system that is completely corrupt. It simultaneously allows you to protect yourself while collapsing their corrupt system; there’s really nothing easier you could do.

BVNH: Well, yes, in that regard, it’s pretty damn easy, take your money down and buy some gold and silver. But that doesn’t do anything towards actually creating a value-based monetary system. That turned out to be a lot more difficult and a lot more thoughtful, on my part anyway–and maybe I’m just slow–but I worked on it and researched it and read a lot of Austrian economics of course, but I mean a lot of other stuff too–Murray Rothbard a good old favorite of mine, I like Murray, he was a character, I just wish I had a chance to meet him–but the bottom line is that it was really, really difficult, from my point of view, to come up with a free market currency–the world’s first free market currency–that was 100% backed by a commodity which is very volatile in terms of prices. We were starting a $5 and I knew that it could certainly go a lot higher, and of course it was a lot higher–it was $50 back in 1979, 1980–so how do you accommodate wild, volatile price swings like that and base a value-based currency on a commodity which is so volatile? It was difficult to, as I say, be a monetary architect: to actually come up with the model. And as a matter of fact, that’s what I’m writing about right now, which is how that happened, and how I designed the Liberty Dollar to withstand those swings because as you know when the Liberty Dollar came out, it was $5, so it was a $10 base, then it went to a $20 base, then it went to a $50 base. This didn’t happen, this econometric price structure did not happen overnight, because I didn’t have a model, there was nobody around to help me–plus I was stuck out there on an island in the middle of the ocean (actually, that was good, because I didn’t have any negative influences, and I didn’t have anybody trying to tell me what to do, if I didn’t like their idea). But that’s how that came about, it was not simple–23 years of designing and developing actually–before I launched it on October 1st, 1998.

SL: So I actually just watched an interview with a Mexican citizen named Mr. Price…

BVNH: Oh yeah, Hugo.

SL: Yes and he’s been leading a charge to get silver reintroduced as a peso, but not with any actual peso amount minted on the coin, but that it does just circulate…

BVNH: Can I give you my opinion?

SL: Certainly.

BVNH: Hugo is a well-intending guy, but his system is never gonna fly.

SL: And why is that?

BVNH: Because he doesn’t have a denomination on it, is the first reason, and second, it has to be run through the central bank of Mexico. These are the people who gave us the problem; these are not going to be the people who will give us the solution. And I really slam Hugo because, for all of his money–he’s a billionaire!–do you think that if he was really serious about doing something other than just “ego-ing out” that he could have spent–I spent $3 Million and guess what? we had the Liberty Dollar, which is the most successful, most vocal, most active organization PERIOD, in terms of presenting a positive solution–if Hugo was serious, he should put his money where his mouth is. I’m sorry, I don’t have any respect for Hugo, because he could have done, should have done, and I’m waiting for him to do something more than fly in his private jet, and show up at this conference, and fly in his private jet and show up at that conference. Hey, that doesn’t get it, I’m sorry.

SL: Well I think that’s the big distinction, because…

BVNH: …I don’t have a private jet!

SL: (laughing) Well, that. And I think you summed it up: he is obviously ridiculously well-to-do, has so many resources at his availability, but I guess he only wanted to go so far, so as not to upset the apple cart.

BVNH: Well not only that, when he first came out, he said he was the first person to develop a free-market currency. I emailed “Hugo, you missed by 8 years, Jack.” (laughing) Don’t give me this line of crap, just go and google “libertydollar.org.” Don’t make that claim because that claim is false and it brings dishonor to what you are trying to do–which is good, what he’s trying to do–but he really hasn’t, he talks the talk but he doesn’t walk the walk. I can tell you after I was arrested and after I… was convicted, Hugo, you know he doesn’t wanna do what I’m doing. He’s too lily white. I know Hugo, I stay on top of all the different currency models.

SL: The main reason I mentioned him is that it seemed his idea was more simple in the sense that, because he didn’t put the actual amount on the coin… ultimately at least I heard him say, he’d like to get to the point back to where you could buy stuff in pesos or you could buy stuff in these rounds of silver, which are an ounce, and ultimately bring money back to the understanding of money being ounces of metal… How did you come up with the way to deal with the underlying volatility of the commodity backing the Liberty Dollar?

BVNH: I don’t think we have the time to answer that… that’s a long story. Not that I don’t want to tell you the story, but you’ve only got so long to do this interview… it took 23 years of research, design, and development for the Liberty Dollar, and you already know that it moved up from the $10 base, to the $20 base, to the $50 base. It is a very disciplined econometric system and guess what? It worked. Just look at the numbers, millions of Liberty Dollars are out there in circulation. That’s without any advertising, without any marketing, just two ladies sitting in an office…. what do you think Hugo could do? I do this driving around in my fat-ass Cadillac… what do you think Hugo could do in his private jet?? I mean, my god!

SL: So, in specific relation to the Constitution, Article I, Section 8 says Congress shall have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof (with the emphasis being COIN money) and then Article I, Section 10 says no State shall coin money, again COINing money; it says no State shall emit bills of credit–which is basically a paper, fiat dollar–or make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. So how do you interpret these lines of the Constitution with respect to the Liberty Dollar?

BVNH: Well, you know, in the first section.. Article I, Section 8, it says the government can coin money. Well they’re using the word “coin” as a verb, and so they can mint money and that’s good, but they don’t say that Congress has the EXCLUSIVE power to do that. If you go and you look at Article I, you’ll see that there are two other sections where the word “exclusive” is used in Article I, so it proves that the Founders were not adverse to using the word exclusive when they wanted to. They used it twice in the same Article I, so if they wanted to give the government exclusive rights, they would have, but they didn’t. And how could they? Because at that time the Piece of Eight and the Russian Ruble, and the [Spanish] Peseta, and gee, there were so many other different currencies that were being used in the colonies and then in the States at that time, so the reality was that they didn’t have exclusive right. Banks can’t do it, banks that are creatures of the State; the States couldn’t do it because of Section 10; ok, so what that means is that we can fall back on the 10th Amendment. The 10th Amendment says those powers that are not reserved for the federal government, or prohibited to the States, are the right of the People! Well dammit, the last time I looked in the mirror, I’m a People!

SL: (laughing) Right, the 9th and 10th Amendments are very clear on this.

BVNH: They are very clear on that. So the thing is, there was no exclusive power given, and I felt a patriotic urge to exercise my right in the Republic. You know the thing that distinguishes our country is that it is a republican form of government–anything that is not outlawed or specifically barred or regulated by the [Constitution] is LEGAL. So this was not barred or specifically prohibited at all. And so it was absolutely legal for me to coin my own money if I so chose, because I am an individual, dammit! And I’m pretty individualistic about it!

SL: I think you’re right… and I don’t just think you are right, anybody that can read the Constitution knows you’re right.

BVNH: Yeah, and hopefully the Court will agree with you, and agree with me, but my two… attorneys, who did a really piss poor job, when my one attorney wrote the motion for a new trial, he refused to put the “exclusive clause” in his 71-page motion–71 pages and he still couldn’t fit it in there! As a matter of fact, two days before the deadline, he refused to put it in there. So the following day, I busted my buns and I was at the courthouse window at 3:59 (it closes at 4 o’clock). I was there at 3:59 on the last day that I could file an addendum to his motion, that brought up the exclusive clause. And then I fired his ass. So now I’m a pro se litigate.

SL: And your second attorney, did you get another one right after that?

BVNH: No I had two at the same time and I fired both.

SL: So did the exclusivity clause finally sneak in, or no?

BVNH: Oh yeah, it’s going forward to the appeal, its definitely in there, but what’s interesting is that it was also brought up by the two amicus attorneys–two appellate attorneys who wrote the amicus briefs–and they brought up that point quite well, as a matter of fact. And that was without me even asking them. I didn’t participate in the amicus brief, because although I was the subject to the amicus brief, I was not the client, the client was GATA. They were actually doing it for GATA; they didn’t interview me, they never even called me, they went ahead and did it as they thought best, and they did a hell of a good job.

SL: Well again, you read the Constitution, it’s quite clear, and you also can’t put the TV on without seeing ads for coins that have been minted by the Franklin Mint–

BVNH: Nope–no, no, no, no. I gotta correct you there. There is no… Franklin Mint never did any coins except for foreign governments. A COIN is something issued by the government. That’s why I could never do a coin, that’s why we never called the Liberty Dollar a coin, and we never allowed people to call them coins because they’re NOT coins. They can’t be coins because, guess what? I’m not the government. Nor would I EVER want to be the government– I don’t know how you feel about government, but I’m not really happy about them… So we never did any coins, Franklin Mint never did any US coins, nobody is doing anything like what the Liberty Dollar did. Nobody put denominations, or as we morphed it into, MSRP, on any pieces of gold and silver out there.

2008 Liberty Dollars with MSRP

SL: So then, that’s why the Liberty Dollar was targeted specifically by the government, because–

BVNH: No, no, no–it was not. It was not targeted because we used the dollar sign. It wasn’t targeted for any of those reasons. It was targeted purely on political grounds. They were scared. I just kept always laughing about it, to be honest with you… hey, look, [I'm] a happy-go-lucky surfer from Hawaii, and the government is going to be scared of me?? I mean, give me a break. And don’t think anything scares this god damned government–and I use that phrase specifically.

SL: But obviously, it’s because essentially you… you are a person who is telling the People the emperor is not wearing any clothes.

BVNH: Right.

SL: As long as everyone goes on believing that he is [clothed], and they are afraid to say otherwise, then everything still works. But you were one to stand up and say, “Look, this is not real,” and of course that’s why they were terrified.

BVNH: I don’t know, terrified may be stretching it, but yes, they were obviously concerned enough to launch into the investigation and indictment and arrest and trial. The trial… I should have won the trial hands down, but the attorneys did just a god awful job. Now it remains to be rectified in the appellate court, but yes, I think what they were afraid of—if they were afraid of anything—they were afraid of the idea and they were also afraid of the competition. Just look at it. In eight years while “Bushwhack” was in office, we went from $10 dollar base to a $50 base. That means that the Liberty Dollar appreciated 500%. In that same time frame the US dollar lost 50%. So the difference between where the US dollar went and where the Liberty Dollar was was a 1000% difference. My god! If I had a competitor beating me by a 1000% difference, and I had the power of the court and the power of the gun, well then, I don’t know, maybe I’d be corrupt enough to use those powers. Obviously the government has those powers and has corruptly used those powers, and has convicted me.

SL: So, specifically, can you go into what happened that day? Lately a lot of things have been in the news, now we’re seeing federal agents coming and raiding Amish farmers because they’re selling unpasteurized milk; Gibson Guitars just other day was raided because they didn’t select the appropriate type of wood for some of their guitars. Can you actually describe the scene on November 14, 2007, when the FBI and the Secret Service raided your establishment?

BVNH: Actually, I’d like to, but I’m gonna have to ad lib, because I wasn’t there. I was out on my speaking tour. I only went to the office two or three time a year. I was never at the office—why would I want to be hanging out at the office? I mean Evansville, Indiana is a nice small town area but, listen, I got bigger fish to fry. I gotta be out there on the circuit, talking to people, meeting with people, stirring up things. So yeah, I never even sold any Liberty Dollars; of course I motivated a lot of people who did own a lot of Liberty Dollars. You know that in a three-day period, we distributed over a quarter of a million Liberty Dollars, in three days. So no, I wasn’t there, but Sarah did call me while the FBI was there, and they bagged everything except for the carpet and some of the second-hand desks that we had at the office. Of course they ordered her to open the safe, and they’ve got the guns, so she opened the safe and they took everything out, I mean EVERYTHING, of course they went to Sunshine [Mint] and they confiscated about nine tons of gold and silver there, and they actually hit six different places in four different States on November 14, 2007.

SL: Wow.

BVNH: Yeah, “Wow” would be an apt description.

SL: I can only imagine. And then from there, the indictment, the trial, and then ultimately the conviction. And then in the post-trial discussion, US Attorney Anne Tompkins described what you were doing with the Liberty Dollar as “a unique form of domestic terrorism that’s trying to undermine the legitimate currency of this country.”

BVNH: Can you imagine that? They built me into a “unique terrorist.” And you know why they built me into an “unique” terrorist, don’t you?

SL: The Patriot Act?

BVNH: Well, no, it has to do with the crime of being a terrorist. You see, every statute for terrorism requires violence. No violence on my part… for them to build me into a terrorist, when there was no violence means they are lying. Now I know this is gonna shock you, the fact that the federal government would flat out lie…

SL: Well that’s why I bring up the Patriot Act, because of the terrible provisions in there, essentially anyone that’s labeled a terrorist–and it’s down to the President essentially saying if the person is or is not. If they’re labelled as such, now they can be prosecuted under the Patriot Act as well. Are you concerned about that, as hopefully your conviction is overturned? Do you think they will come back at you again with the Patriot Act this time?

BVNH: You know, that’s all conjecture, I have no idea. What I’m really concerned about is the way the government is trying to use my case as a gross door-opener to Gibson Guitars and the Amish and you know the world is beginning to see this trickle out, who knows where this will be a year from now, two years from now, five years from now… I mean it used to be illegal to confiscate people’s property, look at what’s happening now: last year they did something like 5.7 Billion DOLLARS in confiscations! It used to be ZERO! So the government gets their foot in the door, and then they drive a tank through it. This is what I’m really, really concerned about. I mean I may make light of being a domestic terrorist, but if they can brand me a domestic terrorist and confiscate all my materials, and then expand into confiscating other people’s materials, and then go after Gibson Guitars and so many other different people… they can go after you, they can go after everybody, we could all be “terrorists.” That’s really the big concern.

Feds Raid Sound Money, Natural Foods, Guitar Makers, the Amish... Who's Next?

SL: As you say, that really sums it up, that essentially all the mechanisms are in place–and we’ve seen it now happening time and time again–where essentially any person can be labeled a terrorist and then have the full weight of the federal government come down upon them. This is something that is so far removed from what the Founders could possibly have ever conceived of, it’s atrocious.

BVNH: Well I think the Founders probably did conceive of it, that’s why they made the Constitution as ironclad as possible, and of course the populace was concerned of it too, and that’s why there was such a push in terms of the Bill of Rights. You know nobody else has a Bill of Rights, nobody in Europe… Germany doesn’t have a Bill of Rights, England doesn’t have a Bill of Rights, nobody else has a Bill of Rights. You know, the United States is very unique, and that is in the Bill of Rights and the fact that one third of the population is armed… nobody’s armed in Canada, nobody’s armed in England, nobody’s armed in Germany, it’s amazing, the United States is a really stand alone class act.

SL: At least it has been… and let’s hope that it able to persist in this way, but with these types of things coming down against you, it’s going to be very difficult for other people to be able to avoid the same types of things coming down onto them. So I hope that more and more people are able to learn from this, see what’s going on and wake up, and do what they can to wake others up.

BVNH: Well I think it’s noble, but I think in reality people are gonna be more scared than they ever were because of my conviction. Most people are cowards.

SL: Speaking of your conviction, what is the status of your sentencing and the appeal? How much time could you serve, and what is the likelihood of getting this conviction overturned?

BVNH: Who knows? All those questions, wonderful questions… there are no answers to any of them. I mean, the answer is I could get sentenced up to 15 years, so it could be anything from a year to 15 or something like that. Appeal can’t happen until I’ve been sentenced.

SL: Do you have a better defense team or someone that’s able to help with your defense this time around?

BVNH: There is no defense, I already lost.

SL: I guess I should say for your future court dealings, for the appeal.

BVNH: The attorneys who wrote the amicus brief are appellate attorneys and they want to do my appeal. That’s already been squared away. I’m just waiting to be sentenced right now. I’m waiting for the judge to rule on a post-trial motion, that’s what I’m waiting on.

SL: Alright Bernard, if people would like to learn more about the Liberty Dollar, where can they go for information on it?

BVNH: Google “Liberty Dollar.” The website is down, we had to take the website down, and if they want to stay in touch with the Liberty Dollar, they should sign up for my monthly newsletter. I’ve written a monthly chronicle as a history of the Liberty Dollar, ever since day one, October 1, 1998. Every month I write a newsletter, I do an update in there about the legal happenings every month. It’s free and we email it to you. All they have to do is go to: www.libertydollarnews.org and sign up. If they go there, they’ll also see all of the newsletters, alerts, and notifications since the time of the raid, posted on that same website.

SL: Okay, and that one is still up and running?

BVNH: Yeah, because that is freedom of speech, I still have freedom of speech; I’m convicted but I still have freedom of speech, I’m still doing this interview. So yeah, I cannot sell Liberty Dollars, I can’t market Liberty Dollars, and as you notice I’m not telling you or anyone to buy any Liberty Dollars, right?

SL: Right.

BVNH: So I can talk about the trial. There’s been no gag order about the trial, so I write the newsletter and it goes out to about 25,000 people every month.

SL: One last question, specifically for the Liberty Dollar as it is: I saw that CoinWorld was trying to determine the status of what it is, as far as the Feds are concerned, and essentially they’re saying now that it is “contraband.” What about the people who participated in the Liberty Dollar? They have a claim on those dollars with government, don’t they?

BVNH: They have a claim on the certificates. People who have paper or digital certificates have a bonafide claim on the silver and the gold that backs it up. Now if it becomes contraband, then the government would return the market value. In other words, if they own ten one-ounce Liberty Dollars, then they would get 10 times the market price of the silver on settlement day, probably mailed to them. Hopefully they are going to get their silver back; the good thing is that the money is in silver, so it keeps appreciating, even though it’s in bad hands right now.

SL: Right.  And well that’s the trick, isn’t it?  Conceivably they will have to do a class-action lawsuit to get it pried out of the government’s hands.

BVNH: Oh yes, they will have to fight for it unless I win on appeal.

SL: It’s just a disaster.

BVNH: It is a disaster, I agree, I agree. That’s why I’m still staying plugged in and doing everything possible to get that silver back for the people who trusted in the Liberty Dollar. They deserve to get their property back. The government has acknowledged that the paper certificates and in fact the digital certificates are legal, so they have every basis to get their property back. It may take some time–silver might be a couple hundred dollars an ounce–but they will get their property back… or the fair market value.

SL: Bernard, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your time for speaking with us. You’ve been called the Rosa Parks of monetary freedom and Constitutional money, and I think that’s pretty accurate and I really salute you.

BVNH: Actually that was two different people, Alex Jones said that just recently on an interview, which I thought that was pretty cool, but actually before he said that rather impromptuitively, Judy Shelton–a PhD economist whom I do like and I do respect–she called me the “Rosa Parks of monetary policy.” I thought that was very cool.

SL: I salute you for that, and I thoroughly agree with them both. It takes a lot of guts–

BVNH: I’m not much into policy, but monetary freedom, yeah… Monetary Liberty, that might even be best.

SL: And that’s it, you touched on it–that’s something I came to realize myself, and the Scuttledd project is really about that. The three different areas of focus are the politics, philosophy and economics of freedom. In the past, I was like you in that I had initially discounted economics. I focused on the politics of freedom, the philosophies underlying it, but I didn’t understand the economics of freedom, until several years back I started to understand it was the CRUCIAL component: if you can’t have monetary freedom, then that gives way to the state ultimately growing up so powerful that it is going to deprive you of your other liberties.

The Rosa Parks of Monetary Liberty

BVNH: There you go, you got it. Without your right to have money that holds it’s value, all else just fails because you don’t have any real money. And that’s what they’re doing–they are robbing us blind.

SL: They’re robbing us blind. Bernard, thanks so much for your time and all that you’ve done.

BVNH: Thank you for the interview.

Did you ever stop to wonder about this fact: if we still live in at least a mildly capitalistic system, why do prices continually go up, instead of down?  In a free market, various competitors all vie against each more »]]> Economics Special Report #1 Details How Inflation is used to Transfer the Wealth of the People

Depreciating Dollar due to Inflation

Did you ever stop to wonder about this fact: if we still live in at least a mildly capitalistic system, why do prices continually go up, instead of down?  In a free market, various competitors all vie against each other to sell you their own product or service.  To be successful, the competitors innovate to increase quality and improve efficiency, in order to make a better product at a cheaper price.   This is the fundamental crux of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” whereby actions for private gain can be translated into public good.

Yet over time we see the opposite thing happening–prices for the same good or service consistently rise over time.  Something smell fishy to you here?  It should.  This counter-intuitive rise in price is the result of inflation, and in Scuttledd’s Special Economics Report #1, we explore the REAL causes and effects of what amounts to not just a hidden tax on us all, but furthermore the means by which the wealth of the People is transferred away from them.  If it sounds diabolical… it is.

You can check out these new reports on inflation here.  They are also accessible via the main Economics Homepage.

–Scott Ledd

I must admit that the Occupy Wall Street protests of the last few weeks have been somewhat perplexing.  They could either lead to a better, freer tomorrow, or a more oppressive, authoritarian one.  On the one hand, they more »]]> UPDATE: Occupy Wall Street is rightfully morphing into Occupy the Fed

I must admit that the Occupy Wall Street protests of the last few weeks have been somewhat perplexing.  They could either lead to a better, freer tomorrow, or a more oppressive, authoritarian one.  On the one hand, they represent a great deal of hope.  The fact that the People have begun to make the mental leap to see beyond the puppet show that is their government, and to protest the puppet masters themselves–the corporate Banksters who dominate the government–is surely a step in the right direction.  Yet on the other hand many of these protesters still fail to recognize the puppet masters’ master: the Federal Reserve.  Without this crucial understanding–that a private bank, owned by the very same Wall Street Establishment they decry, controls the issuance and valuation of their money–the overall movement is susceptible to hijacking by those who would have them gleefully clamor for their own further enslavement.

Already we have seen Michael Moore do this, exactly on cue.  When asked a substantive question about ending the Federal Reserve, the source of the Banksters’ power, he quickly glosses over the question to vilify “capitalism” itself.  Check it out:

Let us be clear here.  True free market capitalism has not existed in this country for the last 100 years.  Capitalism requires savings for investment, in a free market where the profitable are rewarded and the unprofitable go bankrupt.  It allows for true competition, which in turn keeps the best products and services offered up to the People at the lowest prices.  It is a system that rewards innovation and efficiency.  And it is a system which has not existed in this country since long before the Great Depression.

Instead, the corporatist system which subsumed legitimate capitalism has continued to grow unabated.  A few, enormously powerful banks and corporations utilize nearly unlimited funds to dominate the government and then utilize its coercive powers to destroy any competition in their respective spheres of influence.  And let us not forget the words attributed to infamous fascist Benito Mussolini himself: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”  A system where corporations dominate governments and compel the passage of laws to help their own interests while hurting the interests of the People is the utter antithesis of capitalism.  The Michael Moores of the world are certainly smart enough to understand this (heck, he even admits it here), so their motivations in continuing to demand the end of “capitalism” are highly, highly suspect.  Let us not forget that the Banksters publicly protested against the Federal Reserve Act which they wrote themselves.  There is no better way to dominate the masses than to whip them up into a furor and then provide them with a false solution which is more of the same from whence they came.

Truth Spreading

Fortunately the Occupy Wall Street movement is truly comprised of views from across the political spectrum, and in the throngs of the masses assembled there, a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the woes afflicting our Union exists too, beyond the Michael Moore acolytes.  Take for example the man speaking below.  He gets it.  And my hope is emboldened that there are many more out there like him, educating and inspiring those around them.  May his message resonate and swell, and help usher in a better, freer, more prosperous day for us all. (clip contains adult language)

–Scott Ledd

P.S. Please TWEET, SHARE, LIKE, FOLLOW THIS LINK OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.  LEGALIZE FREEDOM.  END THE FED.

The problem with all parasites is that the more adept they become in leeching the lifeblood out of their unwitting hosts, the sooner they speed their own demise as well.  Such it has happened with the US–indeed the entire world’s–banking system.  The parasitic system of central, fractional reserve banking has been more »]]>

The Simple Plan to Let Wall Street be its Own Undoing

10/4 UPDATE AT BOTTOM

The problem with all parasites is that the more adept they become in leeching the lifeblood out of their unwitting hosts, the sooner they speed their own demise as well.  Such it has happened with the US–indeed the entire world’s–banking system.  The parasitic system of central, fractional reserve banking has been steadily sucking out the wealth of the People for around a century, but as the People are now hitting the inevitable end stages of bankruptcy and desolation, the six “mega-banks” (i.e., those of “too big to fail” infamy) find themselves in an increasingly precarious position.  With their hosts nearly sucked dry, and the massive TARP bailouts fresh in the mind of a disgruntled populace, the big question remains: will the People at long last swat off these engorged blood-suckers, or will they silently acquiesce and allow the Banksters to make off with what little wealth they have left?

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests going on in the financial districts of not only New York City, but also in multiple cities across the Union, seem to suggest that perhaps the public has finally begun to tire of being ground up inside the Wall Street machinery.  In itself, this is a positive sign: people from across the political spectrum have come together via their common recognition that any sector with this much power becomes a menace to a free, republican form of government, as bought-and-paid-for politicians service their corporate patrons, not their popular constituents.

Veterans, White Collar, Blue Collar: #Occupy is Drawing from Across the Spectrum

While these protests are growing and raising awareness of this critical matter, Establishment media are working as fast as possible to use the protests to divide the People against themselves.  Geraldo Rivera was quick to brand the entire #OccupyWallStreet movement (as it is known in Twitter parlance) as the “Anti-Tea Party,” and Keith Olberman mused the activities were “the first real surge in a revitalized Left since perhaps the Vietnam War.”  Both comments are either terribly ill-informed or deliberately disingenuous; anyone individually searching Twitter for the #occupy hash tag will quickly see people from across the political spectrum taking place in the protests.  Perhaps most compelling of all were the tweets of some Marines who stated they would be going down to Wall Street to protect the People simply exercising their First Amendment Rights from an overzealous and mace-happy NYPD.  The Marines’ message? We signed on to defend the Constitution, not monstrous corporations who have subverted the Republic.

Just as the original Tea Party (sparked by a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party by Ron Paul supporters on December 16, 2007) began as an amorphous, widely popular movement which was quickly co-opted by the Republican Establishment, so too are the wheels in motion to do the same to #Occupy by the Left.  That is why it is imperative to shift gears quickly in this campaign, and move from protest into simple, yet decisive action, before the tentacles of the Establishment slide in once again to divide the People against themselves.

From #Occupy to #Withdraw

What is needed is a simple plan that resonates with nearly all the People, regardless of political stripe.  And no matter what one’s background, nearly everyone is united in abject disgust at the reckless greed of Banksters run amok and its deleterious effects on the United States’ economy, political process, and national sovereignty.  Fortunately for the People, the very system of greed the Banksters established will be their own undoing.

While we have discussed the intricacies of the fractional reserve banking system elsewhere, all that must be understood here is that for each $10 deposited in a bank, only $1 is kept on reserve and $9 are lent out at interest in the form of loans to other people.  The bank is statistically confident that not everyone will arrive on the same day to withdraw their money, so they can keep this house of cards standing, making money hand over fist all along the way.  And typically speaking, the People will not come and withdraw their money all at once.  But we are now in atypical times, and a fervent, impassioned movement can turn mere shouts of protest into the seeds of watershed change.

The Withdrawal Plan:

1. Each and every member of #Occupy commits to opening an account and depositing $100 at Bank of America (Bank #1 of 6).
2. $90 of each deposit is quickly lent away by the bank.
3. #OccupyWallStreet participants focus on spreading this one message; to current B of A customers, to newcomers, to Tea Partiers, to all who would listen and participate, over the next several months.
4. On an undetermined day in the future, the call goes out: “Withdraw from Wall Street” (suggestion for the one to make “the call” is Max Keiser and/or Alex Jones).
5. All participants immediately return to Bank of America, withdraw their $100, and close their accounts.
6. Bank of America, overwhelmed by the sheer number of withdrawals, will not have enough money in reserve to cover all of them and will shut down, on the verge of collapse.  Other B of A depositors will not be injured by the run, as their money is insured by the FDIC.
7. B of A will ask for bailouts, ultimately turning to the Federal Reserve to backstop them through money printing.
8. The sham of the circus that is central banking will be thrown wide open into the teeth of a now VERY angry public, and any type of bailout of B of A may simply prove politically untenable.
9. The first of the six mega-banks will fall, the sham of central and fractional reserve banking will be thoroughly exposed, and a public growing in awareness will remove their deposits from any Wall Street bank, in favor of local banks and credit unions which help their local communities.
10. The Wall Street system will implode under the weight of its own greed, and the fraud which is the Federal Reserve will at last be undone, approximately 100 years after its creation.

From Protest to Action – It Has Never Been Easier

As we have stated elsewhere, despite the disenfranchisement of the People in a political system almost completely given over to corruption, the power of the People is perhaps greater than at any time since the Revolution.  In the Information Age, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and the ability to communicate this knowledge into actionable steps en masse is more powerful than ever.  We, the People, can simply “vote” through our everyday choices, whether that be what news outlets we listen to or which banking institutions we choose to patronize.

Want to take down the corrupt banking system which has lead to the serfdom of the masses?

Don’t occupy Wall Street. Withdraw from it.

UPDATE 10/04/11: Has the run begun?  St. Louis Bank of America using SWAT Team to prevent depositors from physically withdrawing their money?