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IPFS News Link • Philosophy: Socialism

Socialism, American Style, Part 5

• https://www.fff.org, by Jacob G. Hornberger

Government officials plan, in a top-down, command-and-control manner the monetary affairs of hundreds of millions of people. It is impossible to overstate the disastrous consequences of this system of monetary central planning, not only in terms of monetary debasement but also in terms of the economic booms and busts that this system has produced since its founding in 1913.

The United States once had the finest monetary system in history, one that was brought into existence by the Constitution, the document that called the federal government into existence. Its system was based on making gold coins and silver coins the official money — or "legal tender" — of the United States.

The Constitution did not call into existence a government of general powers. Instead, the document made it clear that the government would be one of limited, enumerated powers. If a power wasn't enumerated, then the federal government was prohibited from exercising it.

The Constitution delegated the power to "coin" money to the federal government. At the risk of be-laboring the obvious, "coinage" means coins, not currency represented by paper. If the Framers had wanted to delegate the power to print currency to the federal government, they would have delegated the power to "print" money, not "coin" money, to the federal government.


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