The ETF Report 

Lawrence Sarsoun
321-259-4729
sarsoun@hotmail.com
                             
Melbourne, Florida

 

Week of February 28, 2011

 

Dear Mr. Bernanke, a dollar is….It was astounding. Ron Paul, the Conservative Congressman, in Congressional hearings, asked Mr. Bernanke what a dollar is. Of course, Mr. B, who is completely out of touch with reality, didn’t know. But my readers, if you’ve been paying attention, should know. The dollar, as defined in the Coinage Act of 1792, says that the dollar is a silver coin, 371 ¼ grains of silver 9/10ths fine. I know some of you have probably bought a recent coin of 1 full ounce of silver, which, on its face, calls itself a dollar. It isn’t. It’s a nice silver coin, but it’s not a dollar.

Let me explain. We, the People, set forth in Article one, section 8, those things that we wanted the Congress to do or not do. In clause 5, we enumerated things concerning money. Let’s read. “The Congress shall have Power …..(cl. 5) to coin money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.

All right, let’s review. We want Congress to coin money. We are not looking for them to make cowrie shells or wampum our money. We want coins. We didn’t tell them to print money.

And we wanted them to regulate the Value thereof, meaning if you made the main coin of 371 ¼  grains of silver and called it a “dollar”, the ½ dollar would be ½ of 371 ¼ grains of silver.

Now, here’s the kicker. We wanted the Congress to “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”. The key word is “fix”, which my dictionary says means….”become firm, make firm, settle, set, establish, unchanging, make or become rigid”. In other words, we were going to fix the length of measure (the foot, the yard, etc.), the weight of measure (the ounce, the pound, etc), the standard of value (the dollar, the ½ dollar, etc.) in something that would be rigid and unchanging.

I tell the story in my book of the ludicrousness of devaluation. One day, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed rookie Congressman (aren’t they all) comes up with what he feels is a sure-fire way to get elected forever. He runs down to Congress with the idea of proposing to everyone a way in which the congressmen can pass a law that will give every American a bigger house. He and his fellow Congresspeople will devalue the inch. Then they will issue new rulers with the inch devalued to something less than its current size. Lo, and behold, when the citizens go out with their new rulers to measure their homes, their homes will have miraculously gotten large.

It makes about as much sense to devalue our coinage. That’s why the Founding Fathers used the term “fix” The Coinage Act is alive and well, there was no gold standard (we’re still on silver, will always be). The dollar is a silver coin, always has been, always will be, and its doing quite well theses days (a coin dealer will trade one with you for about 34 Federal Reserve Notes). Or you can get a dollar for 34 FRNs,

Now, why silver? A few key attributes of money are, whatever we decide to use, it needs to be intrinsically valuable. How do we get silver? It needs exploration, investment, it needs to be portable, malleable, divisible, somewhat scarce (precious). That’s why silver is so much better than paper. It takes some labor to bring it up out of the ground, so it’s a form of canned labor. That’s why it has worked so well for 1000s of years.

Now, we have headed off on the path of fiat money. There is nothing to stop the rise of prices to hyperinflation levels. The Good Book says a days wage for a loaf of bread. We don’t doubt it.

The final hurrah. Article one, section 10 says “No State shall make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in Payment of Debts. Did they lend you “dollars” or were you defrauded? Take it to court. Take it to Foreclosure court, tax court, any state court. Were you lent a dollar (pre-1965) or was it a FRN. FRNs  lent since 1965 are fraudulent. This applies to SS and pensions as well. FRAUD!!!!

…To the Shores of Tripoli. We’ve been in this neck of the woods before. A group of camel-jockeys years ago (the Barbary Pirates) thought they could hold us up, much like those Somali Rascals have been doing lately. One of our previous Presidents (one with glands) sent some Marines over there,  and gosh-o-golly, the Marines got the job done, and settled the problem. Now, we get to see the Rascals on TV (if we can get a camera in there, can’t we get a gun in there? And maybe one or two Marines). Heck, if someone’ll cover the airfare, I’ll go. My Dad was a Marine. What more do we need?

 

 

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