Introduction
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” Henry D. Thoreau
President of the Gold Standard Institute, Rudy Fritsch:
Welcome to The Gold Standard Institute web site. As the newly appointed editor, I would like to use this opportunity to tell you a bit about the Institute, its ‘mission statement’, and about the articles pages.
The Gold Standard Institute has a motto; Liberty Prosperity Peace… this motto grew out of the purpose, or ‘mission statement’ of the Institute.
The purpose of the Institute is simple indeed… it is To Change The World…!
Very well, are you finished chuckling and sneering? When our founder Philip Barton first told me that this was the ultimate purpose of the Institute, I did manage to refrain from laughing, sneering, or showing any reaction. In fact, I took it rather blandly… all right, change the world, great, what’s next?
Of course, the reality is that the world changes constantly, so maybe our purpose is not so bizarre after all… perhaps it would be better to say, and easier for you to swallow, that we merely want to channel inevitable changes into a better direction… but this is still kind of steep, isn’t it?
Then again, who would have thought that the USSR, the ‘second greatest power’ on earth would simply collapse like a house of cards? Clearly, major changes in the word do happen – often without any clear cause – so why NOT change the world?
The Fabian Socialists set out to change the world, but there is a big… a monumental… difference between our approach to changing the world, and the Fabians’. The Socialists want to change the world to conform to their own ideas of how the world should be… whereas The Gold Standard Institute intends to bring truth into the open… and allow, no encourage, people to make up their own minds as to any changes that should occur. Far from us to try to impose our ideas on anyone!
In fact, The Gold Standard Institute is a free market organization, very much against imposed ‘regulation’. We judge all ‘regulations’… sometimes called Legislative Laws… by the standard of the Two (natural) Laws, as best stated by Mr. Richard Maybury;
Law 1. Do not encroach on other persons or their property.
Law 2. Do all that you have agreed to do.
These two laws are at the root of all civilized societies, of any affiliation whatsoever. The relative level of Liberty, Prosperity and Peace in any society is proportional to how closely the society hews to these two fundamental laws. In fact, Americans had their own version of the two laws;
Law 1. Live and Let Live, and
Law 2. Let’s make a Deal.
While these two laws were obeyed, America was indeed Number One. Unfortunately, the laws are now largely ignored, as government seeks to control (regulate) everything and every one… and clearly, America is going downhill by all three measures; liberty lost, prosperity spent, and peace replaced by perpetual war.
So how, specifically, does TGSI expect to change the world?
The very name gives a clue; The ‘Gold Standard’ Institute… but if you think this means going back to the 19th century gold standard, you are wrong.
In fact, there was not ‘a’ gold standard… there were many flavors of what may be better called ‘monetary metal’ standards. For example, the USA was (and still is!) on a Constitutionally defined silver standard. Other countries were on gold, for example Great Britain… even though the Pound Sterling was also defined in terms of silver… but the basic problem with all these gold standard systems was that they were all ‘adulterated’… i.e. they all had a fiduciary component.
In other words, Gold (or silver) were only a part of the monetary base; printed money (bank notes not backed by specie or real bills; the fiduciary component) were also a part of the money supply. Even the very best currencies, like the Swiss Franc, were only backed by 40% gold… the rest of the bank notes in circulation were simply printed.
Although these monetary systems were far better than our current fiat ‘system’, not one of them was unadulterated. The fiduciary component gave plenty of opportunity for scoundrels to tamper with the money supply. In fact, Mr. Benjamin Strong, the first chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, publicly announced that he would ‘give a coup de whiskey’ to the stock markets!
He did this in the nineteen twenties, just a few years after the creation of the Federal Reserve itself, through the fiduciary component of the American gold standard. He printed money for political reasons; money that led to the great boom, the ‘Roaring Twenties’… that in turn led inexorably to the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties… the consequent, unavoidable bust.
The monetary system championed by TGSI, the unadulterated gold standard, does not have a fiduciary component… and is thus invulnerable to chicanery or manipulation for political or any other purposes. This, the achievement of an Unadulterated Gold Standard as the root of the world’s financial system, is in fact the goal and purpose of The Gold Standard Institute.
Are you interested in helping us with this work? Are you eager to set up an honest, reliable monetary system that will in time lead to Liberty, Prosperity and Peace for all mankind?? If you are, then I invite you to join the Institute, and to contribute articles that will promote our work. We will accept articles that promote understanding of the Gold standard and its components… and we will accept links to other sites with similar goals.
I am looking forward to hearing from you, and to reading… and publishing… your Gold Standard articles!
“The Buck Stops Here.”
Rudy J. Fritsch
Rudy Fritsch
Thank you for visiting this website. Only by reading about who we are and what we are doing can you decide for yourself whether we and our ideals are worthy of your support.
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Canada, May 19th, 2009