Currency Controls and the War on Money

If you keep your money or savings in US dollars inside of the United States, you are a risk taker of epic proportions. Have you not been paying attention to what is going on?

To begin with, the U.S. Government now employs cash-sniffing dogs at most international airports. If you are carrying more than $10,000 in cash and don’t declare it to the Government when coming in or out of the U.S., your cash will be seized.

According to a blatant propaganda “newscast,” $3.2 million has been seized at Logan Airport in Boston in the last year.

Some government apologists might say, “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, why wouldn’t you mind being x-rayed, sniffed, patted down, detained and questioned?”

Besides the obvious absurdity of that question, the main reason this is of concern is because in every case in history when a government has inflated its currency into worthlessness they always institute capital controls. Just ask anyone from Argentina or Italy. And it won’t take much to change the rules from having to “declare” $10,000 to “not being allowed” to take $10,000 out of the country.

Not to mention that if you do declare you are taking $10,000 out of the country, who knows what kind of database you will end up on. You are obviously highly suspicious if you have more than a few hundred bucks! Only Wall Street bankers and others associated with the Government are supposed to have more than a couple dollars! The most ludicrous example of the War on Money came across the newswire today, “Feds Seek $7 million in Privately Made Liberty Dollars.”

The news story is only about 10 paragraphs long yet it has dozens of logical absurdities. Even in the Headline is one.

According to the headline, part of the reason they want to seize these dollars is because they are “privately made”? Yes, we wouldn’t want to compete with the private Federal Reserve banking cartel!

And I know the Constitution is passé in the US, nowadays, but how in the world can this man be in trouble for making silver coins? The constitution states:

No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.

He is in trouble because he is making currency out of gold or silver yet, the Federal Reserve, another private organization, is not doing anything wrong by making paper currency NOT backed by gold and silver coin?

Apparently, the thing they “got him on” was the following:

Federal prosecutors successfully argued that von NotHaus was, in fact, trying to pass off the silver coins as U.S. currency. Coming in denominations of 5, 10, 20, and 50, the Liberty Dollars also featured a dollar sign, the word “dollar” and the motto “Trust in God,” similar to the “In God We Trust” that appears on U.S. coins.

Ignoring the fact that the dollar sign was originally used for Spanish and Mexican pesos and was stolen by the U.S. to use for its dollars and the fact that the word dollar actually comes from the word thaler which was a silver coin minted in Bohemia, according to the Feds, he was trying to pass off coins, made of silver, worth more than $35/ounce, as quarters, which are now made from 92% copper and 8% nickel, and worth $0.06 in metal value.

Boy, that’s quite the racket! Passing off highly valuable silver to people who were expecting to receive near-worthless copper and nickel tokens! It’s a good thing they stopped him before it was too late!

Anne Tompkins, the U.S. Attorney who was put on this important case, stated:

“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism.”

Anne, if attempting to undermine the currency of the US is a form of terrorism, why has Ben Bernanke not been tracked down and sent off to the Guantanamo concentration camp?

This “news” story finished by quoting an unbiased source: a group named the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks political extremism which has apparently been tracking Bernard Von NotHaus, the proprietor of the silver coin making terror enterprise. According to the story, long before the government began its investigation into von NotHaus, the group was raising concerns about the popularity of Liberty Dollars among fringe groups on the far right.

“He’s playing on a core idea of the radical right, that evil bankers in the Federal Reserve are ripping you off by controlling the money supply,” said Mark Potok, spokesman for the group. “He very much exists in the world of the anti-government patriot movement, whatever he may say. That’s who his customers are.”

The U.S. has started another war. The war on money. Anyone with any amount of cash more than will buy them a couple NFL tickets, beers and enough to pay for parking is suspect. And if you are one of those deluded people who think the Federal Reserve is evil and is ripping you off and you buy gold or silver to protect yourself, you are a domestic terrorist.

It’s going to be a fun few years ahead in the U.S. If you live there and haven’t defected yet, time is running out. If you choose to stay or are unable to leave, I wish you luck!

Regards,
Jeff Berwick
The Dollar Vigilante
Whiskey & Gunpowder

April 11, 2011

Currency Controls and the War on Money was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

This story was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder.

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