Let's End the Money Racket (Part I)
What Would a True Gold or Silver Standard Look Like?
It should be noted at the outset that all of the hullabaloo about the failure of the postwar Bretton Woods Agreement and the consequent belief that gold standards do not work is just one additional source of subterfuge among the wealthy, powerful, and influential few who control our nation’s money supply to cover up a monetary racket that they and those before them have nurtured since our founding, and against which many a patriotic American — politician and citizen alike — had fought for many decades up until the Lincoln Administration and the passage of the National Bank Acts of 1863 and 1864.1 The second act was a refinement of the first act, and both acts together replaced the Legal Tender Acts of 1862 and 1863 that were responsible for what became known as the “Greenback”. Both the National Bank Acts and the Legal Tender Acts were introduced to fund the Union war effort, and in both cases was issued a form of statutory counterfeit. In the first instance the currency of issue was printed and spent into existence; in the second instance the currency of issue was printed and lent into existence. It was the National Bank Acts of 1863 and 1864 that resulted in the national institutionalization of phony American money — what we know today, after several transformations, as our national currency.
This currency is essentially legalized counterfeit based on a system of fractional reserve banking in which banks are able to lend out in paper far more than they hold in gold and silver. The racket worked then and continues to work today, but in a different and much worse form, because the member banks of the Lincoln system were obligated to keep a promise called specie on demand. In brief, government authorized banks were required to provide their customers with an amount of specie (gold and/or silver coin) equal in market worth to the value stated on the paper currency presented them by their customers. Keeping this promise gave the appearance to the general public that what they held in their hand was a mere representation of what a bank held in its vault. Member banks that could not keep their promise were assisted by the national government, if their need was deemed worthy by a bank inspector. Or, they were forced to relinquish their membership. Joining this racket was optional, but the advantages to membership were obvious: one, you could issue a currency recognized and honored around the nation; and two, you could receive interest on outstanding loans far in excess of your true capital worth.
The system that we have today is a direct spin-off of the system signed into law by Lincoln. However, rather than holding real money (gold and silver specie) in reserve, banks must hold Federal Reserve Notes printed and issued by the US Treasury, lent into existence by the Federal Reserve System, and approved by Congress and the President of the United States. These notes are printed out of “thin air” so to speak, and there is nothing backing them up, but the sheer stupidity of the American people and those members of the elite political establishment who insure that We, the People, remain stupid.
What is particularly disturbing about the whole affair today are the advertisements for gold and silver that I see on so many websites and hear in so many podcasts and other forms of information distribution coming from people who claim that they represent the truth and are there on behalf of the American people. Rather than promoting gold or silver as money, these charlatans or poorly informed do-gooders are advertising it on behalf of gold and silver traders as a commodity hedge against inflation. These charlatans or poorly informed do-gooders include online platforms such as the Tucker Carlson Network, Right Side Broadcasting, The Epoch Times, and even Glenn Greenwald’s nightly weekday podcasts. In effect, nearly the entire MAGA movement has fallen prey to the money racket, and those at the head of the movement should know better including its leader Donald J. Trump.
In liberty,
Roddy A. Stegemann, First Hill, Seattle 98104
Author of Mount Cambitas - The Story of Real Money and “A Call for the Restoration of Monetary Order”.
That we not discount those who are still fighting against this monetary racket. Unfortunately, we are few, because the wealthy, powerful, and influential have gone way out of their way to convince the average citizen in America that it is the role of government to control the money supply that forms the market lifeblood of each and every market economy around the world. In fact, an entire economic discipline called macroeconomics has been created to propagate this myth.