A Heartless Radical
As the shadows grow long and the rocking chair on the back deck beckons
for more frequent workouts, I find my mind wandering back through a
long life to scan incidents nearly forgotten. How does the human
brain do it? How does it dredge up a memory from more than eighty
years ago complete with details about the flavors of ice cream nearby
adults were eating?
My earliest recollection is riding in the passenger seat of an
automobile peering at a sky full of small aircraft. Mostly
bi-planes. It was an airshow, I was later told, and it was a time
when people looked skyward whenever even one airplane passed
over. The
view of so many planes all at once must have made a strong impression
on me. I also recall a blue bassinette suspended by chains from
the ceiling of the sedan, and in the back seat my grandmother and
mother eating ice cream from small round cardboard containers. My
grandmother had vanilla ice cream and my mother's was
strawberry. Their spoons resembled wooden tongue depressors with
a hollow place at one end.
Not long ago I checked the air show schedule from that era in that
location and concluded I was not yet three when the spectacular air
show
took place. My younger sister was the occupant of the swinging
bassinette.
Fast forward through childhood and the teen years, all of which contain
plenty of vignettes that intrude on these "waiting yiears." Some
aspects to an August visit to the 1939 World's Fair spring to mind with
amazing clarity. We spent three full days in the fairgrounds and
remember several scenes with astonishing clarity such as the
closeup of the trylon and perisphere, the time capsule (which is still
buried in Flushing Meadow), seeing row upon row of television sets and
wondering if such a wonderful device would ever appear in our own
living room, and the memorable "World of Tomorrow," a panorama of
cities of the future - including modern highways with looping
cloverleaf intersections.
That August I also climbed the interior of the Statue of Liberty to
peer out of the crown. I recall being disappointed that visitors were
no longer permitted to climb a ladder up the statue's arm to the torch
which Lady Liberty holds high.
Not long ago I went back through the newsreel of my life trying to find
the point at which I took an interest in such things as politics and
economics. More important, to discover what led me up the path to
the world
of the lonely radical
independewnt? Practically everyone I knew
had fallen into lockstop with the popular trend of ever-expanding
government as a means to improve the lives of one and all. And
why, for Pete's sake, did I become interested in the dreadfully dull
field of economics? Particuarly such a boring thing as monetary
history!
I have traced the turning point to nearly fifty years ago. The assassination of President Kennedy brought me to earth with a thud and I began looking into the "why" of things. By 1964 I became aware of the chatter about silver being in short supply and kept an ear on the public conversation about it. I began to notice such things as the disappearance of the solemn pledge printed on Federal Reserve notes stating they could be redeemed at any time in "lawful money." However, one could always swap a paper note for silver coins, at least until 1965 when copper/nickel tokens quickly took the place of circulating dimes, quarter-dollars, and half-dollars. Silver dollars had long since stopped circulating. Who wanted to carry a heavy silver dollar when a paper $1.00 silver certificate was available?
All of this triggered great interest in monetary history, which
persists to this day. I discovered great nations through the ages
eventually disintegrated when they debauched their monetary base.
The Byzantine republic seems to have had the longest run chiefly
because it stuck with a money unit of precious metal for several
centuries.
It wasn't possible to explore history from a monetary standpoint with
bumping into the narratives of some of the early 20th century
libertarians such as Albert J. Nock, Frank Chodorov, and several
others. From there we were drawn into the scholarship of Ludwig
von Mises, surely one of the greatest economists to set pen to
paper.
In the 1970s, when the U.S. was strangling itself with
inflation, I came across excellent books, pamphlets and tracts
published
by the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, then based in
Greenwich, CT. One thing led to another and I found myself
attending some of CMRE's meetings. The famous Arden House
conferences were well attended and it was there I had the chance to
hob-knob with some remarkable people such as Otto Scott (who coined the
phrase "The Silent Majority) and Ed Vieira, whose "Pieces of Eight"
precisely explains what the Founders had in mind when they established
the monetary system in the late 18th century.
Through CMRE I had the good fortune to meet and interview such sound
money lumenaries as Henry Hazlitt, one of the most influential of the
economics writers of the 20th century. Hans Sennholz and several
others sat for our series on inflation, and by
the time we were finished I was convinced fiat printing press currency
must eventually reach its intrinsic value and the rational
solution to a monetary crisis is to restore a monetary system which
limits the political class to spending within the means of the
people.
By
1980 I was following closely the establishment of the Gold Study
Commission, appointed by Ronald Reagan. I put my 2¢ worth in when
public comments were solicited and my little argument for sound money
appears in the Commission's final report along with many others, pro
and con. Those opposed to reestablishing a precious metals money
standard prevailed, although it all led to the establishment of the
1985 Gold Bullion Coin Act which authorized the mintage and issue of
legal tender gold coins. Americans, by the way, had not been
permitted to own gold coin or bullion from 1933 to 1974. Why
Americans were so docile about gold ownership I still can't
understand.
My
first awareness of Congressman Ron Paul occurred in the early
'80s. He was a member of the Gold Study Commission. I had
supper with him one evening in late 1988 when he was touring as
presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. We agreed on
everything from enduring marriages, large families, and sound money to
smaller government, less military involvement around the world and more
free commercial trade. I'm still in general agreement with the
Paulian
principles.
I'm
not comfortable with the excesses of the Democrat Party
and wince when the Republicans insist on
micromanaging private lives, and - in the backround - pound
on the drums of war. So I find myself wandering among the
minority of minorities - the Radical Independents.
It
really sounds stupid to say that restoring an honest money system is
the only way to bring a spend-thrift Congress back to earth.
However, the evidence is mounting every day that the present debt-based
money, which can be created by politicians from thin air in any
quantity, is leading the United States (and the world) to financial
ruin. We have precise measuring standards for everything except
our media of exchange, and not even the most influential economists can
guess what the value of a dollar will be in the future. We know
there will be three feet in a yard, sixteen ounces to the pound, and
5,280 feet in a mile - but the unit with which we measure our financial
transactions changes. Chances are inflation will continue to
nibble away at it thanks to Congress and the Administration. As a
measuring tool over time the dollar is all but useless.
Should
some miracle occur and sound money was reintroduced the effect would be
painful. Congress would suddenly have to restrain itself to
spending whatever it could lay its hands on. Gold and
silver cannot be mined nearly as fast as printing presses can be run or
digital numbers typed into Treasury Department computers. And
that's the beauty of a gold and/or silver standard. Congress
can't print it. It's nature's own restraining mechanism defusing
the human inclination to self-destruct under under the illusion that
debt = wealth.
Another thing we've noticed since our epiphany nearly 40 years
ago. When nations become over-indebted and their currency loses
most of its value, they tend to find a way to get themselves involved
in war. As smart as we consider ourselves we can't seem to avoid
violence and massive destruction in settling our political (or
religious) disagreements.
~John Wrisley, March 7, 2013
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