Fed cuts interest rates to 3.5%

[dragonrider]

Goldfinger nearly succeded in vaporizing the national horde of gold in Fort Knox wtih a stolen nuke.

[thcbongman]

Thomas Jefferson opposed the first bank. Followed by andrew jackson's distruction of the national bank.
Banks will be the death of us.
Lets hope that another pres commits to something similar.

Let's start using bills printed by Charleston Glass Co. That's the solution to US economic woes. To hell with banks! :tin foil hat:

[dragonrider]

I'm going to print my own currency backed by navel lint. Of course, at the rate I produce navel lint, this currency will be inflated to worthlessness in a very short time.

[epxroot]

We do not need a Central Banking system to control the economy.

[angry nomad]

Yes, the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, and there were other national banks before it, but notes were backed by gold until 1933 and backed by silver until 1963.

The Roosevelt Gold Confiscation Order Of April 3 1933.

The Gold Confiscation Of April 5, 1933

"All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933..."

"Whoever willfully violates any provision of this Executive Order or these regulation or of any rule, regulation or license issued there under may be fined not more than $10,000, or,if a natural person may be imprisoned for not more than ten years or both..."

Ten grand was like a 100,000 dollars today.

Why did Roosevelt force us to give up our gold and Gold Certificates to the Federal Reserve, a private bank, in exchange for crappy Federal Reserve notes under threat of imprisonment or an impossibly huge fine?

What was so wrong about individuals owning gold or gold certificates?

Ron Paul said he wants to introduce a competing gold backed currency. What is the harm in that? We compete with currencies from all over the world anyway.

[yokinazu]

What was so wrong about individuals owning gold or gold certificates?

in 1933 gold was at something like $40 an ounce today it like $800 an ounce. in 1933 $1 was $1 today tha same dollar is worth $1. in 1933 $1 could feed your entire family today $1 barely will buy anything, well you can get a McDonalds double cheese burger. but you see my point.

[dragonrider]

The Roosevelt Gold Confiscation Order Of April 3 1933.

The Gold Confiscation Of April 5, 1933

"All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933..."

"Whoever willfully violates any provision of this Executive Order or these regulation or of any rule, regulation or license issued there under may be fined not more than $10,000, or,if a natural person may be imprisoned for not more than ten years or both..."

Ten grand was like a 100,000 dollars today.

Why did Roosevelt force us to give up our gold and Gold Certificates to the Federal Reserve, a private bank, in exchange for crappy Federal Reserve notes under threat of imprisonment or an impossibly huge fine?

What was so wrong about individuals owning gold or gold certificates?

The gold confiscation act definitely was screwed up, and of course it was eventually repealed. You are free to own gold now.

Ron Paul said he wants to introduce a competing gold backed currency. What is the harm in that? We compete with currencies from all over the world anyway.

I'm not sure I get what is meant by a "competing gold backed currency." We don't actually "compete" with other currencies. Our currency is traded agaisnt other currecies, but would you call it competing? Our currency is also traded against gold, and this is one of the reasons I don't really see what the point of a gold backed currency is. You can buy gold if you don't have faith in the Dollar, and you can also buy Euro's, Yen, whatever other more favorable or stable currency or commodity you want. So there already is an international gold standard --- it's called gold.

Basically, I think the time for hard currecies has passed because the value of the economies of the world have exceeded the value that could be assigned to any kind of commodity that exists in the world.

For example, how would you ever switch over to a gold standard in which every thing of value in the economy had to be calculated in terms of gold and exchangeable for gold? I don't see how it would even be possible. The value of the goods of the world is so much higher than the value of the gold of the world. Right now the exchange rate for gold is about $900.00 ounce. What would happen if the government were to say, "As of today, we are guaranteeing that every dollar is exchangeable for gold at the rate of $900.00 per ounce"? There is not that much gold in the world.

Gold has value as a commodity bacause it has some certain amount of industrial value, a value as a luxury good for things like jewelry, and a value as an exchange commodity that people artificially assign a value to becasue of their faith in it as something of stable value. If it were to become the sole exchange currency, it's value would be distorted out of all proportion.

[Zcomp]

Hmmm. I have a currency for ya. And its green as well.
I'll trade my "currency" for say an IT techs "currency". I could see many a ways to replace currency with commodity. If we were all free to pursue which ever currency we could produce.