Many years ago, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. famously stated, “Competition is a sin.” He preferred a monopoly, the very antithesis of economic freedom, in order to increase profits.

A monopoly accomplishes for its creator the opportunity to gouge the public, a consequence generally well-known, and generally despised. There is, however, one commodity existing as a monopoly that the public does not loathe, the creation of money.  This monopoly seems to most Americans to be the only way to proceed. They are unaware that our nation once had competing currencies and this competition led to honesty in the field of money.

Several Spanish coins made of precious metal were circulating during colonial days, even after the Declaration of Independence. In 1792, the U.S. Mint began its constitutionally authorized operations and the people brought their gold and silver to be stamped into coinage of a fixed size, weight, and purity. Also, there were private mints issuing precious metal coinage; the government did not have a monopoly in the field of coining money. As a result, the nation thrived, as one always will when there is sound money. But, today, the only legal money is fiat money issued by the Federal Reserve that is deemed money by law. Its value continues to decrease because there is virtually no limit on how much of it can be issued. If our country were on a gold or silver standard, inflating the supply of those precious metals would be impossible. 

Congressman Ron Paul has become well-known and equally well-admired for his advocacy of sound money and his opposition to the Federal Reserve. In addition to his bill calling for auditing the Fed, he has now introduced the “Free Competition in Currency Act of 2009.” He notes that, to be useful and honest, currency has to be durable, portable, divisible, uniform, stable, reproducible, and scarce. And he notes that mankind’s history demonstrates that gold and silver, not paper bills, have been the choices arrived at for money throughout the millennia.

The congressman’s new measure calls for three steps. The first is to repeal legal tender laws that give paper bills issued by the Fed the monopoly always sought by thieves and tyrants. The only legal tender in our nation today is the paper currency issued by the Fed. But Congress has constitutional power to coin money, not to monopolize paper.

The second step in this new bill would eliminate laws that prohibit private mints from creating coinage to be use as currency. If numerous mints were producing gold and silver coins and bars, the public would cease relying on the increasingly less valuable paper issued by the Fed. Would some mints possibly defraud customers by adding base metal to supposedly pure gold or silver?  That’s a possibility and the recourse would be to take the mint owner to court and sue for fraud.  What exists today is a Federal Reserve that defrauds everyone.

In his final step, he calls for eliminating capital gains and sales taxes on gold and silver coins. The congressman provides a clear explanation of the absurdity and injustice of taxing the purchase of gold and silver coins by noting how stupid and unjust it would be if a sales tax were charged every time a person exchanged a ten dollar bill for a roll of quarters.

The Texas legislator also makes the realistic assertion that a return to competition in money would see an end to inflation, even an end to unconstitutional wars financed by the Fed’s paper bills.  Deficit spending for numerous other unconstitutional programs would also be phased out.

Let us ardently hope that this very sensible and very much needed measure receives the kind of support that 317 members of the House of Representatives have given by co-sponsoring H.R. 1207, the bill calling for the General Accounting office to audit the Federal Reserve. America needs competition in money as in the production and use of any commodity. Competition is a sin only in the eyes of monopolists or would-be monopolists who want to control the market.

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Bonnie said:

	Gresham's Law Competition is fine, even desirable, but we must not forget Gresham's Law: "Bad money drives out good." Witness 1965. The US Mint stopped production of silver coinage and switched to cupro-nickel coinage. The silver coins disappeared in a very short time. If precious metal coinage is introduced to compete with junk, the precious metal coins will disappear like water on sand.
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December 11, 2009
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Brian Hansen said:

... If this were to happen, no doubt Ben Barnake, Alan Greenspan, and Mr. Rockefeller would be screaming like a two year olds over a broken toy. I suppose the other interesting thing would be, how would vending machine manufacturers cope with all the dozens of new types of coin that would pop up? Oh well, useless vending machines would be a small price to pay for the restoration of a constitutional republic.

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December 11, 2009
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Sitting-Bull said:

Sound money ist good but will have no effect without other changes- like the fractional reserve lending fraud, or the "positive" interest that leads to forces no one can contain. There are quite a bunch of people who adress these problems, like Bernard Lietaer, Helmut Creutz or Stephen Zarlenga. Basic is: Change is possible- our today money a simple fraud. "When these truths are known, and the American people demand their constitutional right of an honest money system, this country will enter upon an era of material and physical prosperity; of opportunity, and spiritual and cultural advancement that will not only charm and delight its own people but will become a model for the rest of the human race." Senator Robert Latham Owen.

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December 12, 2009 | url
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Derby said:

	... Bonnie, bad money drives out good money only when we are forced to accept the bad. That is the point of Gresham's law: legal tender laws eliminated good money. Competition is the way to make sure our money is sound.
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December 13, 2009
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Rumplestiltskin said:

	What are you smoking? Ron's right. And there's no way in hell this get's any traction politically. Come on, why would they give us the weapon to destroy them?
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December 13, 2009
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Bonnie said:

... Derby, if you have a silver dollar and a fiat paper dollar, which one will you keep and which one will you get rid of? You will keep (hoard) the silver and get rid of (spend) the paper one. Other people will do the same. Fiat paper will circulate, silver will not. Good money has value, bad money does not. As a businessman, you would rather accept the silver than the fiat paper.With legal tender laws, you MUST accept the paper. Without legal tender laws, you have a choice. So does the consumer. You want only silver, the customer wants to spend only paper. Unless ALL businessmen conspire to accept only silver, you will lose customers to businessmen who accept paper. Unfortunately, what REALLY happens, the ordinary consumer and the ordinary businessman can't afford to discriminate, so they accept and spend either. The wealthy, however can hoard the silver and spend the paper. The silver disappears into the hands of the wealthy. The fiat paper remains. Bad money drives out good.

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December 13, 2009
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doron said:

	... How would this effect future budgets would they still be able to over spend would the gov't still be able to borrow and run defficts and if not this could lead to a civil war as the poor in america will stop being subsidized by the rest of this country.
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December 13, 2009
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Benjamin Vander Jagt said:

	Simple Freedom This simple freedom would solve our inflation problems overnight.
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December 13, 2009 | url
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cheap ugg said:

	http://www.uggs-outlet.org Spam (deleted)
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January 05, 2010 | url
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