LIBERTY DOLLAR NEWS:
October 2012 Vol. 14 No. 10
Prison May Be the Next Stop
Dear Liberty Dollar Supporters!
Table of Contents:
1. Legal Update
2. Prison May Be the Next Stop
3. Additional Articles re The Times
4. Bernard von NotHaus' Accomplishment
5. Beer on Tap
6. The Potential for Private Money
7. The Case For Monetary Freedom
8. Bitcoin Prevents Monetary Tyranny
9. Welcome to Wild Colorado!
10. And Oklahoma is Packin'
1. Legal Update
If I was not facing 22 years in federal prison, I might be inclined to say this is getting boring! Thankfully, anxiety bars that from happening. Plus as I have pointed out before the arrest and conviction, I had no idea as to what it would take to return our great country to a value based currency. Guess what?! I still don't know what it will take. Hopefully it will not take 22 years in prison. But I decided to make a stand. And I am appreciative that many of you decided to join me. So, here we stand, waiting for Judge Voorhees to take action and hope for the best. As of October 18, it has been nineteen months since my conviction. WOW, in a few more months, I could be back in court on the second anniversary of my conviction. Whenever, I hope some of you might join me.
2. Prison May Be the Next Stop -
Well now all is lost! Now the mainstream media has discovered the Liberty Dollar. I didn't ever think this would happen! Not only was the interview very enjoyable here in Malibu - the article in the New York Times, of all places, was terrific. And while the Liberty Dollar has been covered in hundreds of newspapers since my conviction, The Times lived up to the standards that makes it one of the top papers in the country. Or, maybe more accurately, Alan Feuer did some fine writing and the editors, "let it be." Seriously, the full page article, "Prison May Be the Next Stop on a Gold Currency Journey" was very well written as Alan sorted out tons of material that we covered during our extensive four hour interview.
The article opens with: High above the cliff tops and the beach bars, up a winding mountain road, in a borrowed house on someone else's ranch, an unusual criminal is waiting for his fate. And closes with: "The thing that fires me up the most," he will say, "is this is what happens: When money goes bad, people go crazy. Do you know why? Because they can't exist without value. Value is intrinsic in man."
Please click HERE and judge for yourself. I would love to hear your comments via
Bernard@LibertyDollarNews.org
Thanks Alan for your interest and the fine reporting.
The New York Sun wrote a very eloquent and well reasoned editorial: 'Rosa Parks' of the Dollar in response to The Times article. It addresses an important point of the Liberty Dollar case that The Times article failed to address.
Please click HERE for the 'Rosa Parks' Editorial.
3. Additional Articles re The Times
The Times article was picked up by an amazing number of newspapers, sites and blogs.
Here are just a few. Please search "new york times" + nothaus for more articles.
The Dilemma of False Terrorism
Sound Money Advocate Faces Terminal Jail Sentence
Gold "Liberty Dollar" Creator Awaits His Sentence
Bernard von NotHaus, Awaiting Sentencing for Competing with the Federal Reserve with a Hard Money "Liberty Dollar"
Liberty Dollar creator awaits his fate
Liberty Dollar Creator Awaiting Prison: When Money Goes Bad, People Go Crazy
4. Bernard von NotHaus' Accomplishment
By Nathan Lewis for Forbes.com
A U.S. businessman, Bernard von NotHaus, established Liberty Services, which in 1998, began issuing an alternative currency based on gold. Although Liberty Services created gold and silver coins, a far more interesting development was the issuance of small denomination paper banknotes. These represented warehouse receipts for gold and silver bullion, held in a vault in Idaho. [Technically the paper certificates did not "represent", they WERE warehouse receipts. And a warehouse receipts were not "banknote" as Liberty Services was not a bank.]
By introducing small-denomination notes, von NotHaus created a system with enough utility to conceivably compete with and displace the existing floating fiat dollar, in some situations. This apparently scared someone in Washington, because von NotHaus was harshly persecuted by the federal government. In 2009, he was arrested and charged with numerous crimes related to counterfeiting, although the Liberty Dollar notes and coins bore no resemblance to Federal Reserve Notes. In 2011, he was convicted on several counts, faced up to 22 years of jail time, and was declared a domestic terrorist by the FBI.
Thus, we have to give credit where it is due: to Bernard von NotHaus, for introducing the first, and apparently only, gold-based system of small-denomination paper banknotes since the end of the world gold standard in 1971. He doesn't seem to be well appreciated here in the U.S., but perhaps those large Chinese banks will learn something from his accomplishment, and implement it in China.
Editor Note by BVNH: While several hundred articles have been written re the Liberty Dollar over the past 14 years, this is the first article that actually acknowledges me to be the first and only person to issue gold-based warehouse receipts and even used my name in the title. I consider this a unique honor as I respect Lewis as being the point person working towards a new gold standard, for the huge volume and quality of his on-going work and his book: Gold: The Once and Future Money. His work is outstanding and a must read. Click HERE for his archived work or visit
www.newworldeconomics.com for additional info. Thanks Nate.
The complete article is available HERE.
5. Beer on Tap by Seth Lipsky, the notable editor of the New York Sun
This is the most important monetary case this year! The case with the biggest potential impact before the federal courts this year is not the saga of Obamacare. There's no gainsaying that Obamacare was an important case, and it's hard to sugarcoat the majority opinion vouchsafing the power of Congress to impose a mandate for health insurance via the taxing power. But what does one figure that will impact-5 percent of Americans? Twenty? Twenty-five? How about a case that has, if only on the ricochet, the potential to impact everyone who uses American money?
Welcome to Beer v. United States, a lawsuit brought by a rainbow coalition of some of the most distinguished judges on the federal bench. They are suing-in their own court system-for a raise in their pay. They contend that when Congress suspended an automatic pay increase previously legislated to protect the judges against inflation, it violated the Constitution - specifically, the diminishment clause, which says that the compensation for federal judges "shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office."
Please click HERE for the complete article.
Additional info re Beer v United States is HERE.
Here is another major article re Beer v. United States by Seth Lipsky
Is Legal Tender Next?
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, handed down the ruling on Friday. The ruling hasn't received much coverage in the press, though - at least in our view - it's one of the most important cases of our time. The reason is that it has to do not only with the question of need for Congress to keep its promises and the need to attract a first class judiciary but also the question of constitutional money.
The judges turn out to be a special case because it is unconstitutional ever to diminish their pay. This is American bedrock that was laid down by the Founders because of the British tyrant George III. The king made judges dependent "on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries," as America's revolutionaries put it in the Declaration of Independence. So it was written into the United States Constitution that the compensation of judges "shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office."
The court deciding Beer didn't get into legal tender per se. But the legal tender question is the elephant in the courtroom, so to speak. If a dollar can't be diminished for judges - that is, if the legal tender laws are not good enough for judges - why should they be good enough for the rest of us? If they are not good enough for the contract between the government and judges, why should they be good enough for contracts between private parties?
I encourage you to read this terrific editorial HERE! Both articles are historic!
6. The Potential for Private Money
On May 23, 2012, Cato issued Policy Analysis no. 698 by Thomas L. Hogan an assistant professor of economics at West Texas A&M University titled: Competition in Currency: The Potential for Private Money written by Jon Matonis for Forbes
Privately issued money can benefit consumers in many ways, particularly in the areas of value stability and product variety. Decentralized currency production can benefit consumers by reducing inflation and increasing economic stability. Unlike a central bank, competing private banks must attract customers by providing innovative products, restricting the quantity of notes issued, and limiting the riskiness of their investing activities. Although the Federal Reserve currently has a de facto monopoly on the provision of currency in the United States, this was not always the case. Throughout most of U.S. history, private banks issued their own banknotes as currency. This practice continues today in a few countries and could be re-instituted in the United States with minimal changes to the banking system.
This paper examines two ways in which banks could potentially issue private money. First, U.S. banks could issue private notes redeemable for U.S. Federal Reserve notes. Considering that banks issuing private notes in Hong Kong, Scotland, and Northern Ireland earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually, it appears that U.S. banks may be missing an opportunity to earn billions of dollars in annual profits. Second, recent turmoil in the financial sector has increased demand for a stable alternative currency. Banks may be able to capture significant portions of the domestic and international currency markets with a private, commodity-based currency. Legislation clarifying the rights of private banks to issue currency could help clear the path toward a return to private money
Hogan writes that, "the lack of participants in the private banknote market appears to be due to the uncertain legal status of private note issue and the rigorous prosecution of currency-related crimes."
The complete article by Forbes is HERE.
Please click HERE for the complete Paper.
7. The Case For Monetary Freedom
Recently, Forbes published Ron Paul's The Case for Monetary Freedom. In that work Paul states: I took the position that I wouldn't close the Federal Reserve down in one day. The Fed will close itself down eventually when it destroys the value of the dollar. But I don't want that to happen, either closing it down in one day or waiting for a collapse of the whole system. My idea is similar to what F. A. Hayek (1976, 1978) had talked about. Why don't we denationalize money, legalize competition, allow free markets to work, and allow free-market banking to work. I think we should legalize competition in currencies, which means that first we recognize the Constitution and repeal the legal tender laws.
As I have pointed out to Paul and this readership, there is NO need to repeal the legal tender laws before we take action. And to make this a requirement is a non-starter and damns any initial development. Please remember, I was NOT convicted of violating the legal tender laws because they don't apply to a private voluntary barter currency. In fact, I didn't violate any other federal laws! I remain convinced of my innocence.
Please click HERE for Paul's complete keynote address at the Cato Institute's 29th Annual Monetary Conference, November 16, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Why Monetary Freedom Matters.
Click HERE for the Forbes article.
8. Bitcoin Prevents Monetary Tyranny
Bitcoin is not about making rapid global transactions with little or no fee. Bitcoin is about preventing monetary tyranny. That is its raison d'être.
Monetary tyranny can take many ugly forms. It can be deliberate inflation, persecutory capital controls, prearranged defaults within the banking cartel, or even worse, blatant sovereign confiscation. Sadly, those threats are a potential in almost any jurisdiction in the world today. The United States does not have a monopoly on monetary repression and monetary tyranny.
The article covers extensive details about Doug Jackson and his e-gold project. It also details BVNH efforts with the Liberty Dollar and observes that many commentators have pointed out the absurdity of penalizing honest money to strengthen the facade of manipulated money.
Further contributing to the disturbing trend against monetary freedom and financial privacy are initiatives like the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and that many countries are ready to embrace the promises of decentralized nonpolitical currency until it can come to terms with the fact that money in a free society should not be used for the purposes of identity and asset tracking.
This is another fine article by Jon Matonis for Forbes HERE.
9. Welcome to Wild Colorado!
There is no doubt that Colorado is not for a big intrusive federal government! Two major actions are in the works:
Colorado bill would legalize gold, silver currency
Colorado State Senators will consider a bill that would allow people to use gold and silver as currency. A similar measure is already in place in Utah and is being considered in 12 other states, reports CBS Station KCNC. Supporters are concerned about the strength of the U.S. dollar. The sponsors of the bill say they are concerned about the strength of the U.S. dollar, public debt, and currency devaluation.
"Over history just about every country in the world that has had a serious debt crisis has intentionally inflated their currency," Sen. Kent Lambert, R, told KCNC's Michelle Griego. More info HERE.
Colorado legalizes Cannabis
Fifty five percent of the voters in Colorado decided in favor of Amendment 64, which allows for the legal possession of up to one ounce of cannabis and/or the cultivation of up to six cannabis plants in private by those persons age 21 and over. NORML said, "The passage of these measures strikes a significant blow to federal cannabis prohibition. Like alcohol prohibition before it, marijuana prohibition is a failed federal policy that delegates the burden of enforcement to the state and local police. Alcohol prohibition fell when a sufficient number of states enacted legislation repealing the state's alcohol prohibition laws. With state police and prosecutors no longer engaging in the federal government's bidding to enforce an unpopular law, the federal government had little choice but to abandon the policy altogether. History is now repeating itself." More info HERE.
10. And Oklahoma is Packin'
Oklahoman's new law that makes guns a common sight has taken effect. Now anyone licensed to carry a concealed firearm can choose to carry a weapon out in the open, in a belt or shoulder holster, loaded or unloaded. Five minutes after midnight on Thursday, Mr. Hull and his friends - supporters of a gun rights group - marked the occasion by wearing their unconcealed handguns while dining at Beverly's, a 24-hour restaurant.
"It's just a peaceful assembly," said Mr. Hull, 44, the association's co-director. "We're all licensed by the state to carry. We've all been trained and vetted. Why wouldn't somebody want to have that kind of a group do business with them in their establishment?"
Please click HERE for the article.
More info on the Oklahoma Open Carry Association is available HERE.
Closing Remarks:
Did you happen to notice how many time Forbes is mentioned in this Newsletter? Six times! It would seem that Mr. Forbes, who is long time fan of the gold standard, is taking a more active role in bring the gold standard to the attention of the marketplace. Of course, that could be a huge assistance towards returning the country to a value based monetary system.
Many thanks for your continued support. For it is only by banding together and adopting a free and independent currency that provides us with "just weights and measures" will we be able to throw off the yoke of a manipulated monetary/tax system and generate a peaceful and prosperous society.
Thank you again for all your efforts to return America to value - one dollar at a time!
Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect/Editor
Editor@LibertyDollar.org
