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Home > Archives for Philip Barton > Page 33

The Gold Standard #40 – April 2014

April 15, 2014 by Philip Barton

TheGoldStandard40Apr14

Filed Under: Journal, Uncategorized

The Gold Standard #39 – March 2014

March 15, 2014 by Philip Barton

TheGoldStandard39Mar14

Filed Under: Journal, Uncategorized

Gold – Monetary Utopia?

February 26, 2014 by Philip Barton

 

I have written many articles about Gold, about the Unadulterated Gold Standard, about the components of a Gold based economy. Perhaps it’s time for a bit of a ‘reality check’. Is the very idea of Gold money, the very idea of honest money in an honest society Utopian? Especially in this day and age, an age of the big lie, of tyrannical governments, of crony capitalism, of loss of human vitality…

 

After all, families run and have always run without money, except as needed to deal with the outside world. Same with the extended family; work is done, responsibilities shared, but money never changes hands. Why does this kind of very human interaction have to be limited to families, or at best to small tribes; why can’t the whole world run this way? Why not a world without money, with only the best interest of all as the driver? Why a ‘profit driven’, money based economy?

 

Many attempts have been made in just such efforts; efforts to replace the money based economy with an economy based on altruism, on human understanding, on shared responsibilities… the classical Marxist cry ‘from all according to their ability, to all according to their need’. Indeed, communal living has been tried on many scales, many times, from small ‘hippie’ communes to the great socialist experiments of Soviet Russia, of Communist China. The very same socialist experiment is now being tried in the formerly capitalist USA.

 

All these attempts have failed dismally; more than dismally, have failed tragically and with lethal consequences for hundreds of millions of innocent human beings; in Stalin’s five year plans, Mao’s Cultural Revolution… and perhaps soon in the USA’s ObamaCare as well. Why do these social experiments fail… and why does Humanity keep trying them, in spite of repeated tragic failures?

 

Why these Utopian experiments fail is easy to see, if we but choose to look and see the truth; the idea that what works in a family or small tribe can be scaled up without limit is Utopian. It is a false belief, and a lethal belief. Sociologists have researched this very topic; money-free societies can exist, do exist, direct democracy can exist, does exist, in communities of up to about 250 people. Once this number is exceeded, the family based, altruism based system starts to break down.

 

No rocket science or brain surgery is needed to see why; in a small group, every one knows every one else; knows who to trust, knows who is a good leader, knows who is a dead-beat… and the family connection brings forgiveness to relationships. As the group grows, it becomes harder to know whom to trust, whom to vote for… and much less forgiveness is given to strangers than to ‘Aunt Mindy’ or ‘Uncle Joe’.

 

The effort to scale up small scale communities to thousands, indeed millions, is doomed to fail. The hard reality is that a different system must be used to enable society at large to survive; if we don’t know who is making a promise, if we don’t know whether the promise maker can be trusted or not, the system itself must generate trust. Without trust, society breaks down and civilizations collapse.

 

Fiat currency is always and everywhere a promise; we don’t know, indeed cannot know if the promise maker is to be trusted. After all, Ben Bernanke is not our intimately known ‘Uncle Joe’… and Janet Yellen is not our ‘Aunt Mindy’. We cannot trust them, as we do not know them… we only know stories that are spread about them… stories that are mainly ‘spin’… i.e. mainly lies.

 

We do not have an intimate knowledge of their personality, their mindset, their belief systems; we don’t have a long term history of direct interaction with them. If we do trust them, we are being naïve; and naivety generally leads to trouble… just as Utopian social experiments lead to trouble.

 

No system based on trust can work, unless there are solid grounds for giving trust; either intimate knowledge of the players based on living in close proximity, as in an extended family, or a strong case of common interest. The interests of Central Bankers bear very little commonality with the interests of the average wage earner; and I suggest very few people on this planet have lived as part of Bernanke’s or Yellen’s family… extended or otherwise.

 

So we come to it; the Fiat system cannot be trusted, as the purveyors of the system cannot be trusted. The very idea of trusting a Fiat system is Utopian, and therefore lethal. Only a system that is inherently trustworthy, and is not dependent on the promises of either Bernanke or Yellen or of any other power seeker can possibly work. Only a system that is not under the control of and cannot be controlled by any ‘special interest’ can be trusted.

 

Of course, there is such a trustworthy system, a system not controlled by any special interest; it’s called the Unadulterated Gold Standard. Gold is not a promise, but a present good, a ‘bird in the hand’ vs. a promise of ‘two birds in the bush’. Gold is the touchstone, the acid test of any promise ever made. Gold is the ultimate extinguisher of debt; that is Gold fulfills any economic promise made.

 

A bond is a promise; and if redeemed in Gold, a promise that proves itself to be true. A Real Bill is a promise; and if redeemed in Gold, a promise that proves itself to be true. A bank note is a promise; and if redeemed in Gold, a promise that proves itself to be true. A promise that is ‘redeemed’ in another promise is proven to be what? Proven to be nothing but a lie.

 

Fiat currency is a lie, Fiat bank notes are lies, Fiat denominated bonds are lies… an economy based on Fiat is an economy based on lies. That is where we are today, living under a system based on lies… and the results are starting to show. Just as the lies of the Utopian socialist experiments in the USSR and China showed up… in the form of war, famine, death… so the results of living under a Fiat system of lies are starting to show up.

 

Is war far away? Is famine far away? I suggest both are already upon us. Thousands are dying in wars at this very moment… hundreds of thousands have died in the last few years… and the death of millions is in sight. The push of a button by a power mad psychopath would ignite the conflagration.

 

One third of the world population is already hungry; and not just in the so called ‘underdeveloped nations’. In the UK thousands of retirees are facing a choice; freeze or starve. These poor innocents cannot afford both food and fuel. In the meantime, the power mad psychopath running the US government is busy shutting down power plants, pushing energy costs to the sky. How many American retirees already face the same choice; freeze or starve?

 

Why Humanity keeps trying Utopian experiments is a conundrum; the special interests, the power seekers, the parasites spread reams of propaganda promoting their Fiat system; the very heart of the ‘big lie’… but why do people swallow the lie? Is it as simple as Santayana’s famous ‘those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them’… or is it more than that? Why do we fail to see the truth? Do we fear to see the truth?

 

The truth will set you free. Do right and fear not.

 

Rudy J. Fritsch

 

Editor in Chief

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Rudy Fritsch

The Gold Standard #38 – February 2014

February 15, 2014 by Philip Barton

TheGoldStandard38Feb14

Filed Under: Journal

Swiss Gold Coins, Ready to Change the World.

January 17, 2014 by Philip Barton

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” was the famous question that Steve Jobs asked PepsiCo’s vice president John Sculley to win him for his company. We ask you the same question to win you for the Swiss Gold Coin Initiative. It is a project with historic potential, fully developed and ready for one or several visionary investors to make it happen.

Let’s get to the point:

Switzerland is in a unique position, thanks to its direct democratic rights, to legalize, via a popular initiative, the introduction of constitutionally protected private gold coins. The constitution shall be amended as follows:

Article 99bis (new)

Swiss Gold Coins

1. The Federal government shall define the rules for the issuance of a set of quickly and easily tradable gold coins with a solid, clearly recognizable gold content starting at 0.1 grams.

2. The issuance of the coins (production, coinage, placing on the market) is provided by Swiss companies. The coins bear a unified symbol of Swiss origin, indicate the gold content in grams and a freely designed identification of the issuer.

3. The issuance, acquisition and trading of the gold coins are tax and duty free.

I spare the distinguished readers of this journal the arguments of why gold is the best known hedge against the dangers in today’s paper money regime.

Less well known are the obstacles in today’s gold market. In Switzerland, for example, the federal government has the monopoly for minting coins which means the private production of gold coins is illegal. The last government made gold coins, the “Vrenelis”, were manufactured in 1949. They cost about 220 Dollars per coin and their buying generally requires professional advice.

Even more serious is that the tax exemption for gold as an investment is regulated in an ordinance and ordinances can be changed relatively easily. As long as the ownership of gold is, according to ProAurorum, limited to 13% of the Swiss population, a sudden tax on gold would leave 87% of the population unaffected and therefore likely unconcerned. At the same time the tax exemption for gold is an essential precondition for gold to serve as an investment hedge.

The Gold Coin Initiative will remove these obstacles and allow the private production of simple and practical gold coins.

The smallest size will be regular metal coins with 0.1 gram gold in their center, available for about 5 Dollars, which will open up a new dimension in accessibility to the gold market. The new coins will be standardized, suited for daily use and readily available, even from ATM’s. With their introduction it may be expected that ownership of gold increases from 13% of the population to 99%. This is decisive because only when the great majority of the population has an interest in it is the taxfree status of gold guaranteed in a democracy!

The initiative not only has advantages but at the same time no disadvantages. The reason ultimately lies in the fact that technically we are just facilitating the already existing gold trade and anchoring the also already existing tax exemption in the constitution. There are no costs and no risks to the public and the taxpayer.

To illustrate the potential benefits let’s take a look into the future, let’s say three years after the acceptance of the initiative.

Today, that is, three years after adoption of the initiative, gold coins are as familiar to the Swiss as Euros and Dollars. Small savers diversify their investments with gold as easily as only specialists and big savers used to. Gold coins serve as part of investment plans, as presents and kids once again love to save in piggy banks. Pension fund clients may choose to save up to 10% in physical gold coins, in life insurance contracts up to 20% can be selected.

On the international level large scale investors value the constitutionally protected tax exemption for gold coins. Insurance companies offer life insurance policies with gold coin annuities and their VIP clients can tour the gold storage facilities. Banks plan to issue debit cards, gold bonds and international commercial contracts in gold.

Swiss Gold Coins are produced for the whole world and foreign gold producers are building Swiss subsidiaries. A new high tech industry is developing around the technology to prevent forgery through new alloys, holograms and even microchips for large coins, in cooperation with the jewelry and watch industry.

Marketing departments and artists love to issue coins with innovative designs, tourist regions and hotels use gold coins sold exclusively on site as an additional unique selling point.

The highly visible and popular gold coin souvenirs are appearing all over the world and are causing grass root “bottom up” political pressure in other countries to introduce Gold Coins as well, while the manufacturing and financial industries there are putting on pressure “top down”.

The Swiss experience has shown that Gold coins are used not as a medium of exchange, but as an additional “safe haven” alternative for investors. Gold coins will therefore not be monetary competition for the Central Bank’s independence. In the special Swiss case the National bank was even helped in its fight for a less volatile exchange rate by the gold coins function as a safe haven alternative to the Swiss Franc.

These are only rough sketches of already foreseeable developments while we may expect that reality will far surpass them. Who would have thought, for example, that the opening up of the airwaves for personal communication, the “democratization of the walkie-talkie” so to speak by the mobile telephone would simultaneously lead to SMS to mobile Skype apps, and Twitter? Reality has in that case far surpassed even the imagination of science fiction writers and it is quite possible that the “democratization of Gold” will lead to similarly surprising innovations.

Conclusion: The Swiss Gold Coin Initiative is a unique, politically realistic and potentially far reaching reformation of the monetary system. The next step is the collection of 100 000 signatures in Switzerland. To get started requires about the same number Dollars Considering the dangers in today’s paper money system and in view of the anticipated benefits of the initiative its realization is not only a urgent opportunity, but a moral obligation for whoever can contribute to it.

More information under www.goldfranc.org

 Mail Attachment

Thomas Jacob

President Gold Franc Association

Gold Coin Initiative

Graphics by Robert Ruggiero

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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