Trust-Busting the Money Monopoly

Moneys let us coordinate what work we do and what products we buy. But our need to use money has been used against us by governments.

From its founding, the United States government hasn’t required that before bankers lend money, people must first store value by earning, saving, and depositing. Government people have instead given bankers the privilege to simply create money to lend. Governments and their crony bankers have pushed unsustainably cheap loans, driving producers and customers to buy unsustainably, making lots of new investment projects soon fail. This sequence is called a business cycle, but it’s really a Government-Money-Error cycle (a “gimme” cycle).

Since 1862, the national government has forced people to accept government monopoly money as legal tender. Since 1913, the monopolists have been the Federal Reserve plus current banks.

Opportunities Call

Monopoly moneys include fiat dollars and other current currencies. Monopoly moneys destroy life, liberty, and property, and reduce cooperation and civility.

Commodity moneys include gold, cryptocurrencies, and ultimately, stock-based moneys. Commodity moneys build up cooperation, civility, and living standards.

Table. Opportunities from Busting the Government’s Money Monopoly

Gold money with 100%-reserve banking. Stock-based moneys based on productive assets, so in the long run increase in value the most. Takings in all jurisdictions in the USA and in the American Colonies. Recent value of money based on PCE Index, historical value based on CPI. Fed planning targets core PCE. Recessions per Jeffrey Rogers Hummel. War frequency per Lew Rockwell. GDP ratio to prevent wars based on ratios pre-war and at end in WWI and WWII. Civilization effects per Jörg Guido Hülsmann.

Limited takings, moneys that over time buy more, no recessions, no wars, civilization—in the short run, these payoffs seem small. But even the partial payoffs so far have been great.

From 1609 to 1802, the Bank of Amsterdam maintained 100% reserves on all accounts of deposits redeemable on demand. Full reserves provide inherent stability and sustainable growth. The Dutch Republic, with its sound Bank of Amsterdam, let the Pilgrims find refuge, work, and voyage to change the world.

In the American Colonies, the world’s lowest taxes let people’s purchasing power build up to exceed that of Great Britain’s people by 68%.

In the early USA, better moneys were prioritized by the leaders of the initial Jeffersonian Republican Party and later the initial Democratic Party. Each parties’ leaders abolished earlier crony-favoring politicians’ central banks—the first and then the second Bank of the United States, both early versions of the Fed.

Also, through 1913, the world’s lowest taxes let the USA people build up into the world’s most productive large nation.

The politicians who brought these gains won enduring majorities.

Focused Limiting

Trying to improve government money has always failed sooner or later. Instead, libertarian populist politicians need to bust up the government’s money monopoly and keep crony-friendly politicians from reforming it.

Private producers of moneys will develop and sell new moneys as rapidly as they choose to. The government can maintain the dollar in parallel, for as long as customers keep using dollars.

In 1798, opposing the Federalists’ unconstitutional sedition laws, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions in secret, calling for multistate actions. The plan was cumbersome, but the sentiment was received well. The adopted resolutions served as political messaging that rapidly swept the Jeffersonian Republicans into an enduring majority (making the sedition laws moot).

The stronger way is to openly support having any and all officials act independently. Good ideas can be started in any government jurisdiction or branch. Somewhere, some person must take action.

The actions that every person can take become clear enough from just considering the many ways that a president should use his own formal and persuasive powers to lead:

Legislatively:

1. Recommend that legislators formally repeal legal-tender laws and taxes on all possible bases for commodity moneys.
2. Direct the vice president to preside over the current senate and enforce constitutionally-required simple-majority voting.
3. When congressmen pass full repeals, sign them.

Executively:

4. Independently interpret that legal-tender laws are unconstitutional, and that taxes on all possible bases for moneys are unconstitutional.
5. Order all employees to not execute such laws. Lay off employees as appropriate.
6. Monitor to ensure full compliance. Fire as necessary.

Judicially:

7. Direct the attorney general to bring cases to challenge all legal-tender laws and to challenge all taxes on assets that can be bases for money.

Federally:

8. Openly lobby for state legislators, executives, and judges to independently interpret that legal-tender laws are unconstitutional, and that taxes on all possible bases for moneys are unconstitutional.
9. Openly lobby for them to protect their residents by enacting, executing, and opining about suitable offsetting state rules and sanctions, and by maintaining this protection until the national legislature and president formally repeal these national laws.

Legislation is powerful. But legislation typically gets developed slowly and ends up compromised. Parallel executive actions, lawsuits, and state actions are each the very opposite of disreputable failure; each is honorable success. Each is required by officials’ oaths and provides independent protection.

Using constitutional powers fully in an initial push will ensure that the money monopoly gets busted. Using constitutional powers fully in the future will ensure that attempts to create new money monopolies will be quenched, protecting freedom.

Each government person can take focused actions to protect the people, freeing them to build up cooperation, living standards, and civilization. Or each government person can instead protect a few tyrants in governments and their cronies.

Government people should choose wisely and lead powerfully. Present and future generations are calling.