Forgotten Anniversary Haunts the Nation

Kitco Commentaries ^ | March 28, 2008 | Antal Fekete

[DivaDelMar]

Exactly correct. Gold is a store of value....a store of purchasing power. Those who own gold do not pay “the inflation tax” the FED likes to inflict on an unsuspecting public.

[DivaDelMar]

“Education is expensive however you get it.” -—My dear departed Dad.

[Travis McGee]

Very true.

[Richard Kimball]

Something tells me you've seen Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Howard: Say, answer me this one, will you? Why is gold worth some twenty bucks an ounce?
Flophouse Bum: I don't know. Because it's scarce.

Howard: A thousand men, say, go searchin' for gold. After six months, one of them's lucky: one out of a thousand. His find represents not only his own labor, but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That's six thousand months, five hundred years, scramblin' over a mountain, goin' hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin' and the gettin' of it.

Flophouse Bum: I never thought of it just like that.

Howard: Well, there's no other explanation, mister. Gold itself ain't good for nothing except making jewelry with and gold teeth.

Howard: Aah, gold's a devilish sort of thing, anyway. You start out, you tell yourself you'll be satisfied with 25,000 handsome smackers worth of it. So help me, Lord, and cross my heart. Fine resolution. After months of sweatin' yourself dizzy, and growin' short on provisions, and findin' nothin', you finally come down to 15,000, then ten. Finally, you say, "Lord, let me just find $5,000 worth and I'll never ask for anythin' more the rest of my life."

Flophouse Bum: $5,000 is a lot of money.

Howard: Yeah, here in this joint it seems like a lot. But I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn't be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death would keep you from trying to add 10,000 more. Ten, you'd want to get twenty-five; twenty-five you'd want to get fifty; fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more.

[eXe]

Pay cash, buy in small amts (I only buy a few 1/10 or 1/2 oz coins at a time.. and that should be pretty anonymous.

I have also found gun shows a good source.. there are a few coin dealers here who always set up shop.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, and a lot of it fits. The characters themselves are a very odd combination. I just tend to get a little skeptical when others create an entire philosophy that the author never claimed. Baum was politically active, though, and so it's possible some of the allegories are correct.

When I read through the account, I found it pretty interesting. I'd always considered myself somewhat well read, I was totally unaware of the battle over monetary standards that raged, well, almost unabated from the time of reconstruction to today.

[muawiyah]

The deal with eating a whole cow is to dig a very large pit. Throw in lots of rocks ~ maybe even pack the sides of the pit with rocks. Then, bring in the trees and other burnables. Set fire to it ~ make nice coals. Take that cow and slaughter her right there, remove the entrails, etc. and hand them over to the women folk to boil and prepare into more stable foods. Give the hide to the Eta to tan. Toss the whole carcass into the pit, cover it over with pineboughs and stuff, and let 'er cook for several hours.

Call in your friends and neighbors for a feast.

The people will love you for your generosity. As you move from village to village, cooking a cow here, a bull there, and so forth, you will earn everyone's admiration and loyalty.

It's good to be the king.

[Christopher Lincoln]

There was, or should have been, no need for the Constitution to deny to Congress a power which it did not grant in the first place.

[Lurking Libertarian]

There was, or should have been, no need for the Constitution to deny to Congress a power which it did not grant in the first place.

The Constitution gave Congress the power "To coin Money, [and] regulate the Value thereof," (Art. I, sec. 8, cl.5), which the Supreme Court held way back in 1870 included the power to make paper money legal tender.