Bankruptcy of Our Nation (Revised and Expanded). Jerry Robinson

      Modern U.S. Dollar Bill (Federal Reserve Note)

      Did You Know?

      On April 2, 1792, the United States Congress passed the Coinage Act. This act established the United States Mint and regulated coinage of the United States. President George Washington and the Congress strongly detested paper currencies and therefore made special provisions within the act to ensure that anyone who attempted to debase the currency would be put to death. Ironically, today George Washington's face is plastered on the front of the fiat U.S. one dollar bill — the same kind of currency that would have brought the death penalty just two short centuries ago.

      The difference between these two dollar bills is a visual representation of America’s shift from receipt money to fiat money. You should try taking these modern “Federal Reserve Notes” into your local bank and asking the bank teller for some silver in exchange. You will either be laughed out, or thrown out, of the bank.

      In summary, today’s U.S. dollar is a completely worthless piece of paper that derives its value through the faith of the public and the policies dictated in Washington. Isn’t it amazing that after all of the fiat failures throughout history, here we are standing at the same cliff of disaster yet again?

      Quick Summary

       Fiat currencies require an enormous amount of faith and trust in the monetary authorities by the public.

       Inflation is defined as an increase in a nation’s money supply.

       Hyperinflation occurs when a nation’s money supply becomes out of control.

       Every fiat currency devised throughout history has faced the same embarrassing and miserable death: utter collapse by overproduction.

       While the landscape of world history is littered with failed fiat currencies, history is also replete with warnings from our ancestors regarding the inherent dangers of fiat currencies.

       Biblically speaking, fiat currencies are modern versions of “unjust weights” and “false balances.”

      Endnotes

1. John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008), p. 168.

2. Mark Watterson, Don’t Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing, 2008), p. 68.

3. George Selgin, “Adaptive Learning and the Transition to Fiat Money,” The Economic Journal 113 (484) (2002): 147–65.

4. Scientific Market Analysis, The Nightmare German Inflation (Princeton, NJ: Scientific Market Analysis, 1970).

5. Saturday Review, editorial, April 15, 1978.

6. Bob Davis, Whatever Happened to High School History? (Ontario: James Lorimer & Company, 1995).

7. “Roman Currency of the Principate,” Tulane University, http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm.

8. Addison Wiggin, The Demise of the Dollar — And Why It’s Even Better for Your Investments, Chuck Butler, contributor (England: John Wiley and Sons, 2008), p. 59.

9. Dave Ramsden, “A Very Short History of Chinese Paper Money,” June 17, 2004, http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/ramsden/2004/0617.html.

10. Richard M. Ebeling, The Great Austrian Inflation, http://www.fee.org/pdf/the-freeman/0604RMEbeling.pdf.

11. Moriah Saul, Plantation Earth: The Cross of Iron and the Chains of Debt (Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2003), p. 24.

12. Herbert G. Grubel, World Monetary Reform: Plans and Issues (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1963), p. 333.

13. Ludwig von Mises, Percy L. Greaves, trans., On the Manipulation of Money and Credit (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Free Market Books, 1978), p. 279.

14. Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick, editors, Thomas Paine Reader (New York: Penguin Classics, 1987), p. 197.

15. Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2006), p. 66.

16. The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1890), p. 413.

17. Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books, 1949), p. 448.

18. Forrest Capie, Major Inflations in History (Brookfield, VT: E. Elgar Pub., 1991), p. 304.

      Chapter 3

      The Rise and Fall of the

      Golden Permission Slip

      Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world.

      — Alan Greenspan, Testimony before U.S. House Banking Committee, May 1999

      “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,” says the Lord of hosts.

      — Haggai 2:8

      OVERVIEW: The entire global economic order was shattered after the devastation of World War II. Re-establishing economic stability was of vital concern to global leaders. A plan for restoring order to the international economic community came at a historic conference held in July 1944 in the state of New Hampshire. More commonly known as the Bretton Woods conference, the meeting created a new global fixed exchange rate regime with a gold-backed U.S. dollar playing a central role. This is the story of the rise and fall of this “dollars for gold” system.

      The “Economic” D-Day of 1944

      When historians write about the year 1944, it is often dominated with references to the tragedies and triumphs of World War II. And while 1944 was truly a pivotal year in one of history’s most devastating conflicts of all time, it was also a significant year for the international economic system. With Europe in shambles, and Britain on the proverbial “ropes,” global leaders resolved to restore confidence and order to the financial markets. Creating viable solutions to fix the global economic instability would require international cooperation.

      In July 1944, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (more commonly known as the Bretton Woods conference) was held at the Mount Washington hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, with 730 delegates from 44 Allied nations attending. The express purpose of the historic gathering was to regulate