Free Republic

Strike, the world’s leading digital wallet built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, welcomes legislation announced today to make El Salvador the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. This move will help unleash the power and potential of Bitcoin for everyday use cases on an open network that benefits individuals, businesses, and public sector services. Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers, one of the earliest Lightning Network developers, has been providing market insights to help make El Salvador’s world-changing effort successful and build the country’s modern financial infrastructure using Bitcoin technology. This technology delivers...

SANTA FE, N.M. — When a mutual friend of long-time Santa Fe restaurateur Murphy O’Brien and hotel entrepreneur Allan Affeldt introduced them a year ago, little did O’Brien know that he would end up re-opening the Legal Tender, Lamy’s landmark bar and restaurant. Those who know the enthusiastic Affeldt and his passion for renovating the classic American railroad hotels of Fred Harvey would not be surprised. Affeldt acquired, renovated and opened La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, several decades ago with his wife Tina Mion and, more recently, the Castañeda Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico – both former Harvey...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Thursday vetoed Senate Bill 1439 which would have made Arizona the second U.S. state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. In a letter to Arizona State Senate President Andy Biggs, Brewer said, “While I believe the concern over a devalued dollar as a result of an unsustainable federal deficit is justified, I am unable to support this legislation.” “I believe the provisions in this legislation need to be more carefully examined and there should be prior coordination with those government agencies tasked with the oversight of these transactions,” she stressed. See also: Navigating gold,...

Cold hard cash. It's good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything. But that's not the case here in Louisiana now. It's a law that was passed during this year's busy legislative session. House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it. "We're gonna lose a lot of business," says Danny Guidry, who owns the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette. He deals in buying and selling unique second hand...

VERNAL, Utah (AP) - A Utah man has been cited on a charge of disorderly conduct after paying for a disputed medical bill with 2,500 pennies. The Deseret News of Salt Lake City reports Jason West went to Basin Clinic in Vernal on May 27 prepared to dispute an outstanding $25 bill.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Utah Approves Gold!“The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle class,” said Republican Congressman Ron Paul From Eric Dondero: Utah Governor Gary Herbert has just officially signed a Bill to completely legalize gold and silver as legal tender in the State. The Bill was originally proposed by libertarian Republican state legislator Rep. Brad Galvez. From FutureofCapitalism blog: Utah has become the first state to pass a law exempting gold and silver coins from the state's capital gains tax and requiring the state to recognize gold and silver coins as legal tender,...

Gather 'round, gold standard enthusiasts. There is a new law in the state of Utah that might be of interest. The Beehive State has a new measure on the books that eliminates state taxes on the exchange of gold and silver coins and directs the legislature to study an "alternative form of legal tender." The law, signed by Gov. Gary Herbert last week, also recognizes gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal tender in the state. Of course, they already are. But people use them as investments, not pocket change. The big legal change in Utah...

Believe it or not Ripley! The People’s Bank of China(PBOC) recommended yesterday that 1 billion Chinese consider buying gold as a hedge against inflation and to preserve values in a world where currencies can fall. The PBOC Financial Markets Review came out just as several major currencies were indeed declining in value against gold; the dollar,1%, the Swiss franc,2.5%, t he British pound, 2%, and the Japanese yen, 2%. Wow! Be like the Fed telling you to buy oil stocks or crude oil futures due to expectation higher gasoline prices this summer. So, add the PBOC to other secular influences...

Salt Lake City - The state of Utah is on the verge implementing its own proto-Gold Standard. The House and Senate have voted in favor of HB317, which would make gold and silver coins legal tender. Governor Gary Herbert has until the end of the month to veto the bill. “The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle class,” said Republican Congressman and potential 2012 Presidential candidate Ron Paul. “Every country where you have runaway inflation, there's no middle class. Mexico, there's no middle class, you have a huge poor class, and a lot of...

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

Communities across America are bypassing the dollar and creating their own currencies in an attempt to help both consumers and businesses struggling in the recession. The idea, borrowed from the Depression era when the currencies were known as "scrip", is designed to boost local spending and keep money circulating within the community.

BRUSSELS: Slovenia converted to the euro Monday, officially becoming the 13th member of the euro zone — and the first among the newest EU members to qualify to use the currency. But at least half a dozen other European mini-states and territories are using the currency as legal tender — without approval from the European Central Bank. The euro was introduced five years ago to provide economic cohesion among EU countries. But euros also are in circulation in dozens of countries and overseas territories from the North Atlantic to the Pacific. In Europe, Montenegro, Vatican City, San Marino and the...