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IPFS News Link • Currencies

All This Fuss About a Fiat Dollar

• www.lewrockwell.com/Jeff Thomas

There are even those who, over the years, have predicted that the continued massive creation of fiat dollars may well lead to price controls, destruction of savings, looting, riots and, possibly, even revolution. A decade ago, such predictions were regarded by most as nonsense. Today, all of these eventualities seem more likely, although there still remains a strong contingent (possibly even a majority) who believe that, "It can't happen here."

A Brief History of Colonial US Fiat Currency

At this juncture, with regard to the US, it may be helpful to mention that not only can it happen here... it in fact, already has – back when the US was first created.

Much has been said about the American founding fathers having been "visionaries," and this is most certainly true. But how was it that so many people in pivotal positions in late 18th-century America possessed such insight, such inspiration in terms of designing a country whose Constitution was based upon free-market values, and avoided, as much as possible, a central government that had its fingers in the economic pie?

 

12 Comments in Response to

Comment by PureTrust
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A time is coming, and is almost here, when fiat money will collapse around the world, and the big bankers right along with it. The knowledge of the ways the world bankers have been stealing the peoples' money is spreading worldwide. With today's communications the way that they are, this knowledge can't be stopped. And the people are fed up with what has been happening to them, how they are being, and have been stolen from, how the wealthy banking thieves have used what they have stolen to cause strife throughout the world.

Right now, with money as it is, the financial systems of the world act like a one-world currency. The only questions are, will the world banking system be able to introduce a formal one-world-currency before it collapses? Or have we already seen the furthest that the banking system will go along these lines?

Everyone who reads this should realize that financial collapse is imminent. Prepare by stocking up on things that can be bartered, and on money that has inherent, intrinsic value.

To this end, Freedom's Phoenix has been doing what they can to prepare people by advertising dime cards. Other groups have been selling instruments that contain amounts of actual gold and silver. The time for preparation is NOW, before the fiat money systems collapse, and it is too late.
 

Comment by panocha
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Right on the dot, PureTrust. Now you can leave. Don't live and eat what fiat money can buy! You will choke.

Comment by PureTrust
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What would have happened if there had been no fiat money, if all money had inherent, intrinsic value? Nobody knows for sure, because that is not what happened. And it's difficult to envision a whole nation of multiple millions of people existing in some other way than what they exist.

U.S. Highway 41 in northern Wisconsin has changed over the years. It has been rerouted here and there, slightly. It has been reconstructed, repaved, and redone. It has had to be, just like all the other highways, because they all deteriorate with time and use.

There are sections of the old, pre-1960, U.S. 41, in northern Wisconsin that are still in use today locally. These have had little or no repair, yet they remain strong. To be sure, they are less traveled than present U.S. 41, but the point is that they have lasted. They have lasted through deep, sub-zero temperatures in winter, to high temperatures - at times greater than 100 - in summer. They have lasted through spring thaws and autumn frosts. How could they do it? They were built well.

You can't build anything well on fiat money. Why? You only get what you pay for. And fiat money doesn't have any value in itself. The only reason that it has worked as well as it has in the past is, the people have erroneously believed that it has value.

But the people are waking up. They are realizing that the things purchased by fiat money are valueless, just like the money behind it. They are realizing that, like fiat money, all their highways, moon shots, Disneylands, property ownership, and super-what-nots have no foundation. They are worthless, like the fiat money they have used to buy or build these things.

Many of the old, pre-fiat-money purchases - things bought by the old money that had inherent value - are still lasting, even though they are multiple decades old. Consider the patented lands, the homesteaded lands, lands that can be made to legally resist eminent domain. These lands were put in place at a time when there was no fiat money, when Congress had such strength that the declarations of the land patents are acts of law that even the Congress of today cannot repeal. Our whole nation today, and its Government are extremely weak... all because of fiat money. See: http://www.teamlaw.net/land.htm.

Look at the ancient Roman roads from as much as 2,000, or more, years ago. Some have lasted, and are in use, right up to the present. Can you imagine a U.S. highway lasting 2,000 years? Ours don't even last a decade without need of repair. Why? No value in our money, no value in the things that we buy or build with it, that's why!

To be sure, it is difficult to determine what would have happened if there never had been any fiat money. But one thing is certain. If there had been no fiat money, the greatness of the American people would be many times what it is presently. And our financial foundations would have been built on rock rather than on the shifting financial sands that we see today.
   

Comment by panocha
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There was once a riddle Confucius asked of the kids gathering around him: If a fool calls you ignorant, what that makes out of you?

The answer: A Genius! Congrats, A-75!

Comment by Joseph Vanderville
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The truth of what Ann-75 is saying is self-evident. Fiat money was the engine of growth -- and it is still today -- that transformed the United States from a buffalo-hunting economy, to a shop-economy and to what it is today, the richest and the mightiest on the planet. It is fiat money that propelled us to this Millennium, and now to outer space.

But in the comfort of life, there are always groaners – the malcontent that even complain of carbuncles growing on their toes as a disagreeable act of God.

Comment by Anonymous75
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A lot, lot more to thank for than fuss about, fret and freak out because of fiat money. If you think all your miseries are due to fiat money, you can disrobe, grow long beards, go to Timbuktu and live there, or go back to the cave just to get away from everything what you have which without fiat money, you would never have. But when you started to condemn fiat money or criticize it with such stupid contempt of a donkey, you waited first until fiat money made you grow fat, let you drive on paved roads and superhighways, fly you to the Moon, created a free world of liberty and freedom, made you the leader of the world, and man ... what have you that you are now foolishly fretting, fussing, and vexing about.

Do we ignore the discomfort fiat money brought about with the comfort of life it provided not only you and I but the whole of mankind? Of course we do not. In fact we are always doing something about it to neutralize if not erase the discomfort that turns some of us into ingrates. But if you have to fret about it, it is essential for you to recognize first that what you are and what comfort you have today are all creations of fiat money!

However, if you are just your own self-proclaimed economist, you will never know what I am talking about. You have to go to graduate school like I did to be able to flatly tell the likes of you that you should learn first and know more about fiat money when it took over and replaced all the goldmines of the world as a generator of wealth-creation – a tremendous discovery mankind ever have even predating Einstein, which absolutely nothing can match.

And for you --Birdbrains should know that only stubborn mules kick the hay it feeds on!

Comment by SamFox
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Anon75, you leave out one or 20 reasons why fiat paper was used for those projects.  

The main reason is crap paper was the ONLY $$ available. So yes, the roads ect were built with that phony, UN-Constitutional junk. They had to be financed by  'Fed' notes as those are the only game in town.

Olde Reb gets it. What he listed is a short list of further very negative results from using junk paper that is backed by 00000000. Results you Anon, like a willingly ignorant & complicit Congress, ignore. 

You also seem ignorant of the Collapse The [US] System agenda Cloward & Pivon wrote about. The privately owned 'Fed' is a major player in that agenda. As have been many US Prez's, including GWB & 0.

SamFox

 

 

 

Comment by panocha
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I agree. As shown in these short exchanges, there is no doubt that A-75 is intellectually multi-dimensional, as opposed to a one-track mind that can only think in a singular dimension. The latter is also called short-sighted or narrow-minded.

Comment by Suka
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You scored a bull's-eye, Annonymous75! You are brilliant when viewed against this background of donkeys.  What you said is true. With fiat money, humankind has its bitter melon and sweet potato at the same time. I like sweet potato. And I like you.

Comment by Anonymous75
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So with fiat money, you are about even. If that is so, what then are you fussing, jumping, fretting, niggling, nagging and freaking about?

 

Comment by Olde Reb
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It has also brought perpetual warfare, the Manhatten Project, confiscation of 50 percent of your paycheck, destruction of the World Trade Center, the mortgage crisis, the past Savings and Loan crisis, the Great Depression, etc. 

Comment by Anonymous75
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You are not driving on pave roads and superhighways, landed on the Moon, brought the kids to Disneyland and what else super-what-nots you have now in life,  had it not for fiat money. Trust me.



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