On Saturday, I received three pennies in change at a store. Looking at the pennies in my hand, one jumped out for its unique color. I was happy to see it — the happy penny.
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Tag: gold
The United States government says it has about 261 million troy ounces of gold in its gold reserves. That is rather impressive, if true.
The US government is not a great role model for honesty, though. So, it seems a good idea to put its gold claim to the test.
A January of 2017 Smithsonian article by Kat Eschner placed the wealth of John D. Rockefeller as peaking at almost 900 million dollars in 1912. A little over a hundred years later, Elon Musk is the wealthiest American. How does the wealth of Musk compare to that of Rockefeller who is frequently presented as the wealthiest person in American history?
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Bring Back Constitutional Money
The United States Constitution specifies that gold and silver are money. “No State shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts,” declares the Constitution. Further, one of the enumerated powers the Constitution lists for the US Congress is the power to “coin Money” (not print money) and “regulate the Value thereof.” Indeed, coining money containing gold and silver was ordered by the new US Congress via the Coinage Act of 1792. Lower value coins such as pennies and half pennies containing copper also circulated.
There has been increasing talk about the potential restoration of a gold standard arising from people and governments across the world seeking to protect themselves from the weaponization of the United States dollar’s world reserve currency status. How long can dollar hegemony last when the government behind the dollars is sanctioning people and governments around the world with abandon? There must be a way out of this mess, and the many centuries long history of using gold as money points to one tried-and-true path.
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Going for the Gold in Texas
This March, voters in the Texas Republican primary election will see on their ballots a proposition calling for the state government, utilizing its Texas Bullion Depository that began operations in 2018, to advance the use of gold and silver as legal tender.