Free Competition in Currency Act

[Harald]

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2007/cr121307h.htm

Statement Introducing the Free Competition in Currency Act

13 December 2007

Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.

Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Competition in Currency Act. This act would eliminate two sections of US Code that, although ostensibly intended to punish counterfeiters, have instead been used by the government to shut down private mints. As anti-counterfeiting measures, these sections are superfluous, as 18 USC 485, 490, and 491 already grant sufficient authority to punish counterfeiters.

The two sections this bill repeals, 18 USC 486 and 489, are so broadly written as to effectively restrict any form of private coinage from competing with the products of the United States Mint. Allowing such statutes to remain in force as a catch-all provision merely encourages prosecutorial abuse. One particular egregious recent example is that of the Liberty Dollar, in which federal agents seized millions of dollars worth of private currency held by a private mint on behalf of thousands of people across the country.

Due to nearly a century of inflationary monetary policy on the part of the Federal Reserve, the US dollar stands at historically low levels. Investors around the world are shunning the dollar, and millions of Americans see their salaries, savings accounts, and pensions eroded away by rising inflation. We stand on the precipice of an unprecedented monetary collapse, and as a result many people have begun to look for alternatives to the dollar.

As a proponent of competition in currencies, I believe that the American people should be free to choose the type of currency they prefer to use. The ability of consumers to adopt alternative currencies can help to keep the government and the Federal Reserve honest, as the threat that further inflation will cause more and more people to opt out of using the dollar may restrain the government from debasing the currency. As monopolists, however, the Federal Reserve and the Mint fear competition, and would rather force competitors out using the federal court system and the threat of asset forfeiture than compete in the market.

A free society should shun this type of strong-arm action, and the Free Competition in Currency Act would take the necessary first steps to freeing the market for competing currencies. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

[Hangly Man]

Who wants to bet he'll be the only one to vote for it... if it even reaches the floor.

[stefans]

in case you're interested, in most european countries gold is not taxed.

in germany e.g. there is no sales tax, and no capital gains tax if you keep the gold for 6 months.
you can even get a gold account at some banks as ron paul proposes.
but I've never heard of anyone using one, so I'm not sure how effective this is.
on the other hand, the monetary policy of the european central bank isn't as inflationary.

[jonahtrainer]

in case you're interested, in most european countries gold is not taxed.

in germany e.g. there is no sales tax, and no capital gains tax if you keep the gold for 6 months.
you can even get a gold account at some banks as ron paul proposes.
but I've never heard of anyone using one, so I'm not sure how effective this is.
on the other hand, the monetary policy of the european central bank isn't as inflationary.

The ECB just injected 348B Euros in one day. I thought the Fed was bad with $20B every two weeks. The ECB will be just as inflationary with competitive devaluations. Birds of a feather flock together.

Beware of the gold accounts at the banks. They are not allocated storage nor is title in your own name.

However, if there are not tax hindrances then use something like GoldMoney.com (http://www.goldmoney.com). That would be awesome. In America we have a 28% rate gain tax which stinks.

[american.swan]

Is there anyway for an American to buy gold abroad, like in some Asian country and have it stored in such a way that the USA can't touch it or tax it?


The ECB just injected 348B Euros in one day. I thought the Fed was bad with $20B every two weeks. The ECB will be just as inflationary with competitive devaluations. Birds of a feather flock together.

Beware of the gold accounts at the banks. They are not allocated storage nor is title in your own name.

However, if there are not tax hindrances then use something like GoldMoney.com (http://www.goldmoney.com). That would be awesome. In America we have a 28% rate gain tax which stinks.

[american.swan]

Who wants to bet he'll be the only one to vote for it... if it even reaches the floor.

It won't get out of committee. No committee chair will consider the bill. But if Paul was President, they might HAVE to consider the bill because if they don't pass it, Paul just refuses to pass the spending bill to keep the government running.

[stefans]

The ECB just injected 348B Euros in one day. I thought the Fed was bad with $20B every two weeks. The ECB will be just as inflationary with competitive devaluations. Birds of a feather flock together.


i don't follow it day to day but I know that the increase of money supply has been between 6 and 8 percent a year since the introduction of the euro which is less than the increase of the $ money supply.

but on the other hand you're right, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's less inflationary, it may just mean that the $-demand e.g. of foreign central banks is higher than the euro-demand.
however, I've heard several experts who are critical of the whole system, just like ron paul is, that the european central bank acts more conservatively when it comes to inflation.
but inflation as measured by the official index is on the rise in europe.

[stefans]

Is there anyway for an American to buy gold abroad, like in some Asian country and have it stored in such a way that the USA can't touch it or tax it?

I guess not. not legally at least. you have to pay capital gains tax on everything, not just stuff which is stored inside the US.

[stefans]

However, if there are not tax hindrances then use something like GoldMoney.com (http://www.goldmoney.com). That would be awesome. In America we have a 28% rate gain tax which stinks.


I'm not that fond of gold investment. as long as most of the money is paper money the gold market is almost as influenced by the central banks as paper money is. so you have to be a real expert on when and how much gold the banks inject into the market.
and even ron paul can't predict that: he talked about it in an interview once, that by his economic judgement the gold price had to rise but it didn't. much later he read that the italien central bank was selling tons of gold at the time.

[skeptic]

Is there anyway for an American to buy gold abroad, like in some Asian country and have it stored in such a way that the USA can't touch it or tax it?

Check out the Cental Fund of Canada. Not an endorsement - check with a financial professional.

[Ilhaguru]

Is there anyway for an American to buy gold abroad, like in some Asian country and have it stored in such a way that the USA can't touch it or tax it?

Two words: Tax Havens

[Hangly Man]

Is there anyway for an American to buy gold abroad, like in some Asian country and have it stored in such a way that the USA can't touch it or tax it?

I actually looked into that.

In Japan you can store your money in what are called "gold accounts." That is you deposit your money in the bank and they keep it just like a regular account, except in the form of gold.

I think you can only buy whole 1-kg ingots, but I think you're allowed to take them home if you want.

[Hangly Man]

Also

I bought about 30 oz of gold in 1999 for about $280/oz and sold them after the NASDAQ bubble for $360/oz, which I thought was a tidy profit.

If I still had them now I would have quadrupled my money. Scratch that, I would have money. The dollar lost 3/4 of it's value since the late 90's??? Christ almighty!

[Dr.3D]

The day will come when the central banks will run out of gold to dump into the market to suppress the price of gold. When that happens, the price will jump up fast. Silver has been gaining better than gold. If one watches, they will notice the price of silver goes up almost exactly as the price of gold goes up. So the central banks can control the price of silver by dumping gold into the market. I would be willing to bet, there is very little gold left in the governments stockpile.

The price of gold and silver have been kept artifically low for many years now so people would think they are not valuable and skip over them as investments. Also keeping the prices artifically low makes the dollar look better. The truth is, the entire basket of currencies used to calculate the U.S. dollar index are all being devalued by the so called inflation and thus this makes the dollar look better than it really is. All of the central banks are pretty much together in what is going on and this is how the illusion of low gold and silver prices and a healthy dollar is maintained.

The view I have at this point is, at the current rate of the collapse of the housing bubble combined with inflation and a probable recession, the temporary halt of foreclosures will be of little value as people lose their jobs and then get their homes foreclosed anyway. When this happens, there will be a world wide depression to make the 'Great Depression' look like a cake walk.

It is probably best to buy gold and silver now before this happens.

[Dr.3D]

Here is an article that may be of interest:

http://silverstockreport.com/2007/ron_dollar_collapse.html

[Hangly Man]

According to some people, all the gold in the Fed was gone by the early 1970's.

Some go on to say that Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Act, which locked off huge areas of public land, so he could use that land as collateral on new debts.

[Dr.3D]

This is a very interesting story! Seems the value of the U.S. Silver Eagles is $1.00 and the value of the U.S. Gold Eagles is $50.00. When being used in payment, only the face value need be reported!

See how this was used to defeat the IRS in the link below:


http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/366287.shtml