U.S. Government Financial Bail-Out

How Deep into Debt Should We Go?

Another note on Bush's proposed bail-out plan for the largest financial institutions regards the mindset that a debt of that magnitude could break the American taxpayer, bankrupt the government and force the U.S. Dollar down a path towards fiat currency status. Some goldbugs contend that once the U.S. went off the gold standard, leaving currency to be backed only by the word of the government and bouyed by peoples faith in that word, we were already there.

While there is something to be said for that line of thought, I would have to say that fault lies more with our federal governments break of faith with it's populace than in it's break with a method of currency backing. It has taken a long time for the world to loose faith in the U.S. government, through many presidents of both parties, a do nothing pork-bellied congress and through a magnificent build up and useless expansion of bureaucracy. That scenario, more than any other pocket of factors, is most resposible for the decilne of the U.S. Dollar.

But of course, we in numismatics are most concerned about coinage and in particular, gold and silver coins of value. I noticed a reference to the Bernard Von Nothaus NORFED silver coins in a blog commentary today. Most of these coins are listed on our NumisMaster website and in the KP Book of Unusual World Coins. This got me thinking about the FBI raid on the Liberty Dollar facility and wondering how Bernard's case was progressing. The Fed's siezed a hoard of coins and will probably try to hold them indefinitely until the Liberty folks can force a judge to free these assets.

One of the last Liberty Dollarsstruck in 2007 before the raid featured then presidential candidate Ron Paul and carried a reverse legend of "Vote for Truth". Well,as I was reading through the evening news, I came across an interesting article expressing Ron Paul's thoughts on the Bush financial bail-out proposal. Paul has always been a big proponent of smaller government, so you can certainly predict his take on this matter, but I'd suggest you take a few moments and read his comments. It's worth taking the time to develop a balanced point of view before jumping at a giant debt.