The National Debt is over $22 trillion, correct? Not counting $200 trillion pledged in the future for Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, etc. All impossible to be repaid, other than with ‘Monopoly Money,’ which is what the dollar is anyway, to be truthful. If you do not remember, go back a couple of columns and check out my column on “Jubilee.” In that column, I suggested that, as in the time of Biblical Israel, every 50 years, all debts were forgiven. Let’s further examine the federal debt as it currently exists. Most of the debt (over $16 trillion) is owed to holders of Treasury bonds, and Treasury devices of all kinds, which simply are individuals, corporations, and others who have ‘invested’ in government by loaning their hard earned money to it. Doesn’t that sound beneficent of them? Loaning their hard earned money to the benevolent, always truthful, U.S. government who needs it so much, and will pay you a percent or two interest, while maintaining a 2% inflation rate? Free money, ‘investors’ are loaning, but of course they never realize it, because most Americans are morons as far as economics are concerned. You need to go to “usdebtclock.org” to be really shocked as to how much is owed.
Every year, the U.S. Government pays close to $400 billion in interest to the Federal Reserve, for the money it borrowed from it, and which money the fed has created out of thin air. The interest paid, after expenses, goes to member banks which own the Federal Reserve. All ‘National Banks’ are members and beneficiaries of the fed, and therefore receive part of the interest paid by the Treasury to the fed for money loaned which was created out of thin air. Sound complex? It is.
The current Federal Reserve, is the successor to a couple of similar efforts created in U.S. history; the main one was squashed by Andrew Jackson, who vetoed Congressional efforts to renew its charter.
There are current babblings by would be politicians, to re-create a gold standard in the U.S. In other words, all dollars would be backed by gold, and I assume silver would be once again used in U.S. coinage, although the progenitors of the gold standard proposal, have not mentioned silver coinage. A gold standard would actually get rid of the Federal Reserve, and maybe put something in the now empty Ft. Knox, which was last thought of in the 1964 movie “Goldfinger,” which is without doubt the best of them. I made a lot of money with Goldfinger in my Lansdowne Theatre in suburban Philadelphia. What a blast that was!
If, and it will never happen, but if the U.S. ever returned to the gold backed dollar and silver coinage, it’s difficult to imagine how much gold and silver would be required, and what price they would be raised to, to cover it, but it would be a lot. And then of course, the silver coins and gold backed dollars would be hijacked around the world, causing ever so much more confusion and theft. Don’t worry, it won’t happen, as the Swamp is far too inculcated in Washington D.C. Actually, even though I was born in and descended back to 1760 in Washington D.C., I’d love to see it abolished, and then we could return to the Founders desire for simplicity.
Meantime, the Jubilee idea would work out well for everyone, except the Swamp, so you can forget that one too. Wouldn’t you love to read history books a hundred years from now, and see how the current time was recorded? Save and gold and silver, not un-backed paper dollars, and base metal coins. That’s my advice, if anyone’s interested. – don@coloradogold.com