Down in South Carolina, they're banking on the collapse of the Federal Reserve.
"If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup," said State Senator Lee Bright (irony?). To help with his crisis of conscious, he's introduction a bill to look into the development of a state currency. And like all lunatics, he's even citing the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents to prove the bill's legality.
Similar bills in are circulating in Georgia and Virginia, and the legislation is part of a growing trend of lowly state politicians boosting their profile with outrageous monetary policy. The bill in Georgia would require all debts to the state be paid in pre-1965 gold and silver coins. The Virginia proposal would let the state print its own money. And it's not just the ghosts of the Confederacy - even in Utah, one little politico wants to allow the state's residents to run their very own mints.
You can thank the extremists like Ron Paul, who is Congress' most visible anti-Fed leader. He argues the Fed devalues the dollar, and proposes that the United States should gradually return to gold-backed currency. But what he doesn't see, like the logistical chaos of states adopting a new currency, is the volatility of commodity-backed currencies. For example, if a state collects income taxes in gold and then a big new gold mine is discovered, the metal's value would decline along with the state's revenue holdings.
Sure, it's nice to have lots of cute little papers from each of the states, but it's enough to have the complete series of states quarters. Letting every Chicken Little make their own pretty legal tender is not such a grand idea. Just ask the good 'ol boys from the losing side of the war how inflation and state currency worked out...
"If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup," said State Senator Lee Bright (irony?). To help with his crisis of conscious, he's introduction a bill to look into the development of a state currency. And like all lunatics, he's even citing the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents to prove the bill's legality.
Similar bills in are circulating in Georgia and Virginia, and the legislation is part of a growing trend of lowly state politicians boosting their profile with outrageous monetary policy. The bill in Georgia would require all debts to the state be paid in pre-1965 gold and silver coins. The Virginia proposal would let the state print its own money. And it's not just the ghosts of the Confederacy - even in Utah, one little politico wants to allow the state's residents to run their very own mints.
You can thank the extremists like Ron Paul, who is Congress' most visible anti-Fed leader. He argues the Fed devalues the dollar, and proposes that the United States should gradually return to gold-backed currency. But what he doesn't see, like the logistical chaos of states adopting a new currency, is the volatility of commodity-backed currencies. For example, if a state collects income taxes in gold and then a big new gold mine is discovered, the metal's value would decline along with the state's revenue holdings.
Sure, it's nice to have lots of cute little papers from each of the states, but it's enough to have the complete series of states quarters. Letting every Chicken Little make their own pretty legal tender is not such a grand idea. Just ask the good 'ol boys from the losing side of the war how inflation and state currency worked out...
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