Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[Harmon Seaver]

On Tue, Jul 02, 2002 at 11:34:17PM -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 7:31 PM -0500 on 7/2/02, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> 
> 
> >Wasn't the dollar backed by silver for quite awhile? There were definitely
> > real silver dollars coined for quite awhile, and the dollar said
> >something on it
> > about silver certificate. Likewise many smaller coins had a high silver
> >content
> > -- this ended sometime during Vietnam, not sure the year. I've still got
> >a bag
> > of silver coins laying around somewhere.
> 
> There were silver certificates, yes, and silver coins, until the market
> value of the silver exceeded the value stated on the coin. Pennies have a
> lot of zinc in them now, for the same reason.
> 
> I'm not sure when the silver certificate notes stopped being issued, though
> it seems to me that FDR had something to do with that. I'm pretty sure they
> were being honored at least into the 1970's, and it seems to me that they'd
> just give you $20 worth of silver at market prices if you gave them a
> silver certificate, which wasn't much help unless you thought either the
> future price of silver was going up, or the dollar going down against
> silver sometime later one.


   I did a quick search -- started issuing silver certificates in 1878, quit in
1957, but kept redeeming them for silver dollars until 1964, and for silver
bullion until 1968. 


-- 
Harmon Seaver   
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Tim May]

On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, at 08:50  AM, Michael Motyka wrote:
> IIRC many of the wealthy were quick enough to ship huge amounts of gold
> to Europe. That is one reason I have heard given that the St Gauden's
> $20 gold pices of that era are possibly poor investments - there is a
> reservoir of them overseas.

But St. Gaudens coins were readily available during the time when gold 
ownership was banned.

(Let me be overly careful: They were purchasable from coin stores and 
mail order places in the mid-1960s. I know because I used to see them 
listed at a price I clearly remember: $49.50.)

I assume they did not just suddenly become available at the time I 
happened to be paying attention, and that they were purchasable in 1960, 
1950, 1940, etc. The exemption for numismatic value, of course.

Owning coins for collector, or numismatic, value, is of course a 
different kettle of fish than owning gold as bullion.




--Tim May
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, 
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance 
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give 
orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, 
pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, 
die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." --Robert A. Heinlein

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[John Young]

Socialism in the US, and elsewhere, transmogrified into other 
movements which adopted some of its aspects and mixed them
with other social and political intentions. To be sure, socialism
was such a mongrel itself, as was and is, capitalism. Hardly
a political ideology is not an opportunistic blend of what will
work, and which will evolve in a winning direction, hopefully.

Capitalism is infused with socialist benefits for its practitioners,
and democratic socialism pervasive in Europe is infused
with luxurious elitism which favors those who enjoy heirarchies.

Anti-political ideologies are about the only schemes which
do not hide what they are made of, have stolen from, deny
they are, all the while reaping rewards that come with
dissimulation.

Even anarchy as most often practiced benefits mostly its
promulgators at the expense of their followers -- yes,
anarchists are composed of dues-stealing leaders and 
dunned followers no matter what its ideolgues preach.

A most pernicious ideology is that of individualism,
particularly the "rugged" version, in which person espouses
a rejection of all ideology while gobbling among the
garbage heap of ideology for bits and pieces to confect
a seemingly unique brew of convictions which when examined
shows nothing more than what ignorance can engender in the
way of mongrelism triumphant.

Sometimes, praise allah, ignorance does surpass wisdom
in weeding out incestous ideologies, so contaminated by
each other's liftings and copyings and prevarications that
they are hulks without substance, and instead of these
skins of shallowest appearance grow a novel set of ideas
which fit the times, for a brief period at least. Those who
follow these novelties are considered mad by the main
street phlegmatics who may insist the sheriff kill the 
terrifying varmints, and the sheriff may do that provided 
deputies sent to do the pesticide are not members of the
rebellion always bubbling beneath the appearance of
law and order.

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Michael Motyka]

Anonymous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 

>> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private posession
>> of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...
>
>
>
>However doing a straight devaluation was politically unacceptable
>at the time.  Because the dollar was pegged to gold, devaluing the
>dollar meant in effect increasing the value of gold in terms of dollars.
>This would represent a tremendous windfall to holders of gold.  And gold,
>by and large, is owned by the rich.
>
>
>
>By eliminating private gold ownership, Roosevelt was able to take a
>necessary step to invigorate the economy, devaluing the dollar, while
>reducing the risk of a civil war.  The rich protested, of course, but
>in practice they went along with the measure as they were terrified
>of a workers' revolution.
>
>
>

IIRC many of the wealthy were quick enough to ship huge amounts of gold
to Europe. That is one reason I have heard given that the St Gauden's
$20 gold pices of that era are possibly poor investments - there is a
reservoir of them overseas.

Mike

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Patrick Chkoreff]

> > Roosevelt needed to in effect devalue the dollar during the Great
> > Depression.  
> > However doing a straight devaluation was politically unacceptable
> > at the time.  Because the dollar was pegged to gold, devaluing the
> > dollar meant in effect increasing the value of gold in terms of dollars.

Roosevelt did devalue the dollar.  On January 31, 1934, he issued an 
Executive Order which devalued the dollar from 23.22 grains of gold down to 
13.71 grains.  That was a 59% devaluation.

As you say, devaluing the dollar did increase the value of gold in terms of 
dollars.  The value of gold in terms of dollars jumped from $20.67 to 
$35.00, an increase of 69%.

>Roosevelt did not have the advantage
> > of modern economics and he made many economic mistakes which prolonged
> > the depression, but devaluing the dollar was not one of them.

Yeah, good thing Roosevelt didn't make the mistake of devaluing the 
dollar!  Whew!  :-)


> > Americans could be living in a People's Republic today.
> > Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.

Yes, the only way to avoid communism was to devalue the dollar and make 
possession of a yellow metal punishable by fine and imprisonment.  Anybody 
can see that.  :-)

Seriously though, we didn't avoid communism at all.  FDR was our first 
communist president.


-- Patrick

P.S.  http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Chkoreff/chkoreff1.html

[OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[James A. Donald]

--
On 3 Jul 2002 at 2:36, Anonymous wrote:
> At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a 
> Communist/Socialist revolution such as had been seen in several 
> other countries.  Class warfare was widespread,

The high point of support for socialism among the masses in the US 
was the 1870s, give or take a couple of decades.

By 1900 socialists around the world had given up all hope of 
genuinely revolutionary seizure of power, and were pursuing 
conspiratorial paths.

The 1930s was the high point of support for socialism among the 
intellectuals, the privileged, and the elite.  Their efforts to 
foist their preferences on the American masses met with resounding 
hostility and reluctance.  Not only was there no danger of a 
socialist revolution, in the US or anywhere else, but in the US 
the leadership's attempts to force socialism down peoples throats 
met stubborn resistance.

There was more mass support for socialism in other countries, but 
no socialist revolutions in those countries, nor any danger of 
such revolt.  There were socialist coups, and conspiratorial 
seizures of power by socialists in other countries. 

--digsig
 James A. Donald
 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
 3x+jv+MnH33X3HSDdYMeLIgT55+H4ekUhpOMDJDS
 2vKGDwf7SNzlVqX8Hi5qcbp51h1c6SSx0sz6gRDeI

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Michael Motyka]

Tim May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote :
>
>On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, at 08:50  AM, Michael Motyka wrote:
>> IIRC many of the wealthy were quick enough to ship huge amounts of gold
>> to Europe. That is one reason I have heard given that the St Gauden's
>> $20 gold pices of that era are possibly poor investments - there is a
>> reservoir of them overseas.
>
>But St. Gaudens coins were readily available during the time when gold 
>ownership was banned.
>
>(Let me be overly careful: They were purchasable from coin stores and 
>mail order places in the mid-1960s. I know because I used to see them 
>listed at a price I clearly remember: $49.50.)
>
>I assume they did not just suddenly become available at the time I 
>happened to be paying attention, and that they were purchasable in 1960, 
>1950, 1940, etc. The exemption for numismatic value, of course.
>
The opinion I am repeating ( not mine, but seems plausible ) is that the
supply of numismatic quality St. Gauden's may be such that the current
premiums are not justified.

>Owning coins for collector, or numismatic, value, is of course a 
>different kettle of fish than owning gold as bullion.
>
The premium over the bullion value is a very large component of the
price.

I've tried to learn a bit about coin collecting but I find myself
hesitant to plunge right into it. It's just like any other "investment",
subject to bubbles, busts and shady operators. I don't know enough to
feel comfortable with it.

Having watched bullion prices for a while it appears to have two major
factors : a bet on fear ( peaked during the India/Pakistan prick wagging
contest ) and against a strong dollar. Yet another trading option. 

>--Tim May

Mike

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Marcel Popescu]

From: "Anonymous" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> Even libertarian
> monetarists such as Milton Friedman agree that this is the proper approach
> when dealing with a depression.

Murray Rothbard's law number 17: all economists specialize in the field they
suck most. Friedman is good in many areas, but he sucks in monetary stuff,
so obviously he specialized in it. There is NOTHING libertarian in
Friedman's ideas about money.

> At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a Communist/Socialist
> revolution such as had been seen in several other countries.  Class
> warfare was widespread, with armed violence between workers and management
> a common occurance.  Transferring a huge bounty into the hands of the
> rich would have inflamed the working class and risked plunging the
> country into chaos and revolution.

Oh, a socialist... ok, that's why you like Friedman when he speaks about
money.

> Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.

ROTFL...

Mark

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Ian Grigg]

> From: Anonymous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> > Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private posession
> > of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...
> 
> Roosevelt needed to in effect devalue the dollar during the Great
> Depression.  In a deflationary depression, this acts as an inflationary
> force to cancel the negative effects of the deflation.  Even libertarian
> monetarists such as Milton Friedman agree that this is the proper approach
> when dealing with a depression.  Roosevelt did not have the advantage
> of modern economics and he made many economic mistakes which prolonged
> the depression, but devaluing the dollar was not one of them.
>
> However doing a straight devaluation was politically unacceptable
> at the time.  Because the dollar was pegged to gold, devaluing the
> dollar meant in effect increasing the value of gold in terms of dollars.
> This would represent a tremendous windfall to holders of gold.  And gold,
> by and large, is owned by the rich.
> 
> At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a Communist/Socialist
> revolution such as had been seen in several other countries.  Class
> warfare was widespread, with armed violence between workers and management
> a common occurance.  Transferring a huge bounty into the hands of the
> rich would have inflamed the working class and risked plunging the
> country into chaos and revolution.
> 
> By eliminating private gold ownership, Roosevelt was able to take a
> necessary step to invigorate the economy, devaluing the dollar, while
> reducing the risk of a civil war.  The rich protested, of course, but
> in practice they went along with the measure as they were terrified
> of a workers' revolution.
> 
> Looking back, since there was, in fact, no revolution, it is easy to
> forget today how perilous the state of the country was in those times.
> For all those who curse Roosevelt's name, the U.S. at least ended up
> the decade in better shape than many countries, and things could have
> been far worse.  Americans could be living in a People's Republic today.
> Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.

One is troubled by this rather excellent post by
anonymous.

I accept at face value the comments made, and they
certainly seem to match the facts and circumstances
of the times (the arisal of Keynsianism from the
roots of the Great Depression).

What troubles me is the pressumption of modern
economics somehow presenting an advantage.  What
would that advantage be?

And if that advantage would somehow ease the pain
of the Great Depression, or not have started it in
the first place, why is it that the IMF (claimed by
some to be a body that dispenses American economic
thought and American loans), advised the Argentinian
government to peg the peso, and gave them lots of
loans to keep it there?

Argentina is now in its 1st Great Depression of this
century, and it's pretty clear that the IMF and the
fixed exchange rate together were responsible as the
external events.

The only way I can reconcile this is to negate the
advantage or benefit conferred by modern economics?

Any other takes?

-- 
iang

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[jamesd]

--
On 3 Jul 2002 at 2:36, Anonymous wrote:
> However doing a straight devaluation was politically
> unacceptable at the time.  Because the dollar was pegged to
> gold, devaluing the dollar meant in effect increasing the value
> of gold in terms of dollars. This would represent a tremendous
> windfall to holders of gold.  And gold, by and large, is owned
> by the rich.
>
> At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a 
> Communist/Socialist revolution such as had been seen in several
> other countries.  Class warfare was widespread, with armed
> violence between workers and management a common occurance.

Bullshit.

In the 1930s Stalin's servants, Foster and Ford, ran for
president, all the great and the good, the top intellectuals at
the top universities, all fulsomely backed them, and of course
they got votes down in the asterixs.

In America the communist threat was always conspiratorial.  Actual
support by the actual working class was as near to nonexistent as
makes no difference.

In the 1870s there was in America working class movement bent on
class warfare.  It utterly discredited itself with murder,
sabotage, and crime, and by the 1890s was dead as a doornail,
never to rise again.

Ever since then, socialism in America has been an elitist
movement, composed of the children of the rich and powerful.



 

--digsig
 James A. Donald
 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
 dgflRx/7/dpa85Fuwux6fcCT/aaJHKjlLtPqXDNO
 2jxFJfp/F0zYFH6XlMgbJ27tHh7BnwTMX+V/TULJW

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 2:36 AM +0200 on 7/3/02, Our Paleo-Keynsian Idiot from Austria wrote:


> Looking back, since there was, in fact, no revolution, it is easy to
> forget today how perilous the state of the country was in those times.
> For all those who curse Roosevelt's name, the U.S. at least ended up
> the decade in better shape than many countries, and things could have
> been far worse.  Americans could be living in a People's Republic today.
> Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.

Jesus Christ.

Quit humping FDR's leg, already. Not only could the man not feel it, he's
dead already.

Besides, that's Falla's job, and, like little men, you don't *ever* want to
get a little dog pissed off.

Go clean yourself off, man. There's hose out back...

Cheers,
RAH


-- 
-
R. A. Hettinga 
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 7:31 PM -0500 on 7/2/02, Harmon Seaver wrote:


>Wasn't the dollar backed by silver for quite awhile? There were definitely
> real silver dollars coined for quite awhile, and the dollar said
>something on it
> about silver certificate. Likewise many smaller coins had a high silver
>content
> -- this ended sometime during Vietnam, not sure the year. I've still got
>a bag
> of silver coins laying around somewhere.

There were silver certificates, yes, and silver coins, until the market
value of the silver exceeded the value stated on the coin. Pennies have a
lot of zinc in them now, for the same reason.

I'm not sure when the silver certificate notes stopped being issued, though
it seems to me that FDR had something to do with that. I'm pretty sure they
were being honored at least into the 1970's, and it seems to me that they'd
just give you $20 worth of silver at market prices if you gave them a
silver certificate, which wasn't much help unless you thought either the
future price of silver was going up, or the dollar going down against
silver sometime later one.

Cheers,
RAH

-- 
-
R. A. Hettinga 
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

RE: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[Blanc]

Duncan Frissell said:

By forcing Americans to turn in
their gold before devaluation, the Feds got more gold for less money.




But:  the individual common folk couldn't be forced to turn in their gold if
the govmt didn't know they had any, right, since gold wasn't/isn't
trackable.  So it would only have been highly visible commercial entities
who couldn't refuse?

  ..
Blanc

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[Duncan Frissell]

On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Adam Back wrote:

> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private possession
> of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...
>
> Adam

Eric's comment are correct.

A bit more info.  The US wanted to devalue the $ and substitute a general
gold standard for a government to government gold standard.  The gold
standard price of gold was $20.67/ounce.  By forcing Americans to turn in
their gold before devaluation, the Feds got more gold for less money.
They also wanted the freedom to inflate.  Gold clauses were common in
contracts and they would have made soft money difficult.

As is traditional under US law, gold ownership was banned for US citizens
and permanent residents anywhere on earth.  There were controlled
exemptions for coin collectors, jewelers, and dentists.

Gold smuggling became popular during the Vietnam war and the monetary
crises of the '60s and '70s.

It was re-legalized in January of 1975 (the only decent act of the Ford
Admin).

DCF

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Anonymous]

> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private posession
> of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...

Roosevelt needed to in effect devalue the dollar during the Great
Depression.  In a deflationary depression, this acts as an inflationary
force to cancel the negative effects of the deflation.  Even libertarian
monetarists such as Milton Friedman agree that this is the proper approach
when dealing with a depression.  Roosevelt did not have the advantage
of modern economics and he made many economic mistakes which prolonged
the depression, but devaluing the dollar was not one of them.

However doing a straight devaluation was politically unacceptable
at the time.  Because the dollar was pegged to gold, devaluing the
dollar meant in effect increasing the value of gold in terms of dollars.
This would represent a tremendous windfall to holders of gold.  And gold,
by and large, is owned by the rich.

At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a Communist/Socialist
revolution such as had been seen in several other countries.  Class
warfare was widespread, with armed violence between workers and management
a common occurance.  Transferring a huge bounty into the hands of the
rich would have inflamed the working class and risked plunging the
country into chaos and revolution.

By eliminating private gold ownership, Roosevelt was able to take a
necessary step to invigorate the economy, devaluing the dollar, while
reducing the risk of a civil war.  The rich protested, of course, but
in practice they went along with the measure as they were terrified
of a workers' revolution.

Looking back, since there was, in fact, no revolution, it is easy to
forget today how perilous the state of the country was in those times.
For all those who curse Roosevelt's name, the U.S. at least ended up
the decade in better shape than many countries, and things could have
been far worse.  Americans could be living in a People's Republic today.
Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[Harmon Seaver]

   Wasn't the dollar backed by silver for quite awhile? There were definitely
real silver dollars coined for quite awhile, and the dollar said something on it
about silver certificate. Likewise many smaller coins had a high silver content
-- this ended sometime during Vietnam, not sure the year. I've still got a bag
of silver coins laying around somewhere. 


On Tue, Jul 02, 2002 at 07:37:48PM -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> At 8:53 PM +0100 on 7/2/02, Adam Back wrote:
> 
> 
> > Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private
> > posession of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the
> > mind...
> 
> Roosevelt wanted to make the dollar a fiat currency, IIRC. Before
> then, you could redeem dollars for gold, after then you could redeem
> dollars for, well, dollars.
> 
> This was slid sideways a bit after the war by the Bretton Woods
> agreement, which made various European currencies exchangeable into
> dollars at mostly fixed rates, and *foreigners* could exchange
> dollars into gold.
> 
> Which, once Europe was on its feet financially, and Johnson's
> democrats began inflating the dollar to pay for Vietnam and other fun
> things,  deGaulle's France (did I spell those both right, AAA? :-))
> happily started changing dollars into gold, FOB Paris, thank you very
> much.
> 
> At which point, Nixon floated the dollar, and, at the same time,
> allowed the private possession of gold in the US again. Then he did
> something really stupid and instituted price controls, but, he was
> always an Nerf-Conservative political opportunist anyway, or at least
> a Keynesian, which is the same thing, even Le Monde Diplomatique says
> so ;-)...
> 
> Fortunately, the rest of the innumeracy that was the New Deal has
> been going down the shitter since then. They finally got rid of the
> Glass-Stegal act a few years ago, for instance, the law that
> bifurcated investment banks and banks of deposit.
> 
> Cheers,
> RAH
> 
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
> Version: PGP 7.5
> 
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> =iCZG
> -END PGP SIGNATURE-
> 
> -- 
> -
> R. A. Hettinga 
> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
> "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
> [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
> experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

-- 
Harmon Seaver   
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[R. A. Hettinga]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

At 8:53 PM +0100 on 7/2/02, Adam Back wrote:


> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private
> posession of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the
> mind...

Roosevelt wanted to make the dollar a fiat currency, IIRC. Before
then, you could redeem dollars for gold, after then you could redeem
dollars for, well, dollars.

This was slid sideways a bit after the war by the Bretton Woods
agreement, which made various European currencies exchangeable into
dollars at mostly fixed rates, and *foreigners* could exchange
dollars into gold.

Which, once Europe was on its feet financially, and Johnson's
democrats began inflating the dollar to pay for Vietnam and other fun
things,  deGaulle's France (did I spell those both right, AAA? :-))
happily started changing dollars into gold, FOB Paris, thank you very
much.

At which point, Nixon floated the dollar, and, at the same time,
allowed the private possession of gold in the US again. Then he did
something really stupid and instituted price controls, but, he was
always an Nerf-Conservative political opportunist anyway, or at least
a Keynesian, which is the same thing, even Le Monde Diplomatique says
so ;-)...

Fortunately, the rest of the innumeracy that was the New Deal has
been going down the shitter since then. They finally got rid of the
Glass-Stegal act a few years ago, for instance, the law that
bifurcated investment banks and banks of deposit.

Cheers,
RAH

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: PGP 7.5

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=iCZG
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

-- 
-
R. A. Hettinga 
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

Re: [OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US?

[Eric Cordian]

Adam Back writes:

> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private posession
> of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...

Roosevelt called an emergency session of congress to pass the Emergency
Banking Relief Act, an amendment to the Trading With the Enemy Act.  He
then seized the gold of all US citizens, compensating them at a rate of
twenty-some dollars an ounce.  

Subsequently, he set an exchange rate for the dollar of $35 per ounce of
gold, and this revaluation of the government's new gold stocks wiped out
the national debt.

Where the President and Congress are concerned, "Emergency" is generally a
code word for "The Constitution is toilet paper."

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

[OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

[Adam Back]

Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private posession
of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...

Adam

On Tue, Jul 02, 2002 at 08:46:46PM +0300, Marcel Popescu wrote:
> Now, I love hyperbole as much as the next guy, but you have no idea what a
> Chinese-type police state could declare outlawed. I heard about a country
> that declared illegal people's own gold. Wait, maybe you heard of it too!
> [Duh...]