Just two years ago the first “End The Fed!” rallies were being held in 39 cities across the country. It’s now been 100 years since the creation of what became the Federal Reserve – it’s time to pull the plug! Legislation to audit the private central bank garnered over 300 co-sponsors in the House and 30 in the Senate during the 111th Congress. Legislation will be introduced in the next Congress as well. I’m confident that one of the two Dr. Paul’s will also introduce legislation “To repeal the legal tender laws, to prohibit taxation on certain coins and bullion, and to repeal superfluous sections related to coinage.”
However, it is being reported Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned Republicans against politicizing the central bank. “It is very important to keep politics out of monetary policy,” Geithner said, “You want to be very careful not to take steps that hurt our credibility.” As if having a $14 Trillion debt is “credible”? This is the same Secretary Geithner who attempted to assure the world that the United States wasn’t inflating its currency to devalue it in order to pay it’s debt – even though the dollar has lost 97% of its value since 1913.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick even suggested a return of sorts to the gold standard. That would certainly be a start, though abolishing central banks and implementing a system of competing commodity based currencies is the goal I envision.
Last year, Ron Paul spelled out the steps that must be taken for this to happen. “The first step consists of eliminating legal tender laws. Article I Section 10 of the Constitution forbids the States from making anything but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts. States are not required to enact legal tender laws, but should they choose to, the only acceptable legal tender is gold and silver, the two precious metals that individuals throughout history and across cultures have used as currency. However, there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the Congress the power to enact legal tender laws. We, the Congress, have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, but not to declare a legal tender. Yet, there is a section of US Code, 31 USC 5103, that purports to establish US coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, as legal tender…
The second step to reestablishing competing currencies is to eliminate laws that prohibit the operation of private mints…
The final step to ensuring competing currencies is to eliminate capital gains and sales taxes on gold and silver coins. Under current federal law, coins are considered collectibles, and are liable for capital gains taxes…
allowing for competing currencies will allow market participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of the government.”
We’ve come a long way in two short years, but we still have a long way to go before the Fed is shut down. While some recent polls show nearly 3/4 of Americans support an audit of the Federal Reserve, no numbers are available on a complete end to the Federal Reserve System. We still need to educate people to the fact that the Federal Reserve System is nothing more than a group of private banks that has been given an open contract to print and control the nations currency. We need to educate people about what money really is – something we’ve been lacking in the USA for the most part since 1933, when the paper currency was no longer redeemable for gold. Money isn’t a worthless piece of paper; currency can be – thanks to Legal Tender laws and the monopoly held by the Federal Reserve. We need honest money and competitive currency. We need to “End the Fed!”