South Carolina Lawmaker Introduces Legislation To Ban Dollar; Would Substitute Gold & Silver Coins
If passed it would be ruled unconstitutional very, very quickly. But it's illustrative of the anger that grows more entrenched with time. A few more years of the Government economy and you'll be seeing bills like this in every state legislature. The notion of spend, extend and most importantly, pretend, remains in 'full effect.'
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South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.
Pitts, a Republican, introduced legislation this month banning "the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin" in South Carolina.
In an interview, Pitts told Hotsheet that he believes that "if the federal government continues to spend money at the rate it's spending money, and if it continues to print money at the rate it's printing money, our economic system is going to collapse."
"The Germans felt their system wouldn't collapse, but it took a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread in the 1930s," he said. "The Soviet Union didn't think their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of collapsing also."
The lawmaker believes that a shift to an economy based on gold and silver coins would give the state a "base of currency" should that collapse come. As one expert told the Scoop, however, his bill would likely be ruled unconstitutional because it "violates a perfectly legal and Constitutional federal law, enacted pursuant to the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, that federal reserve notes are legal tender for all debts public and private."
In addition, since gold and silver regularly fluctuate in value, they could not easily function as stable currency.
But Pitts maintains that his state is better off with something he can hold in his hand and barter with as opposed to federal currency, which he described to the Scoop as "paper with ink on it." He says he resents what he considers the federal government's intrusions on states' rights.
Though he did not offer a timeframe, Pitts told Hotsheet that he anticipates a nationwide economic collapse "if our federal government continues the course it's been traveling under the previous administration and this administration."
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Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Dogged by deep public-sector deficits and dubious budget accounting, Greece must soon test bond market sentiment again in order to cover its funding needs.
The nation's next bond issue could come as early as next week and market watchers will be scrutinizing it closely to see how readily Greece can refinance its maturing debts with new borrowing.
Greece will need to borrow EUR20 billion to repay debts coming due in April and May, out of a total of more than EUR54 billion of debt it has to issue this year.
Euro-zone nations have pledged their support for Greece, but have so far failed to put any hard cash on the table. Greece has until March 16 to begin cutting its budget deficit, with the European Union threatening to intervene if Athens doesn't deliver.
"The EU want to show they are behind the peripheral [euro-zone countries] without having to put their money where their mouths are," Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said Thursday.
"Such commitment seems to be enough to stabilize the situation in the short term but will it be enough to leave it at that by the time the next funding point comes around? We're concerned that it won't be," he added.
So far this year, Greece has raised EUR13.6 billion via the sale of Treasury bills and bond syndications, according to the Public Debt Management Agency. In addition, the nation now reportedly plans to sell as much EUR5 billion worth of 10-year bonds as soon as next week, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
However, investment bankers say investors are likely to be cautious after Greece's previous five-year syndicated bond performed badly. The bonds lost as much as 2.5% of their value soon after the issue, partly because of the decision to increase the size of the deal to EUR8 billion from the initial EUR3 billion to EUR5 billion.
"Part of the reason the Greek bond didn't perform is that is it was too big," one senior European syndicate banker said this week. This suggests that Greece will stay within its stated size limits because buyers will want to be sure they aren't going to suffer a repeat performance this time around.
Such concerns are balanced by the fact that other embattled sovereign borrowers have proved it is still possible to tap markets for cash at the right price.
Portugal, which has also been in the spotlight recently due to its large debt pile, passed a key test of investor sentiment last week when it managed to sell EUR3 billion in 10-year bonds.
The Spanish government also got a much-needed boost Wednesday when its new EUR5 billion bond issue was well received by investors.
"Peripheral concerns will have been soothed somewhat by the carefully managed issuance of EUR5 billion of 15-year notes by the Kingdom of Spain," said Barclays Capital's Puneet Sharma. "With a significant amount of issuance expected in 2010, the calm market reaction to this deal could encourage further transactions to come to market."
Both Portuguese and Spanish issues priced with a premium of around 0.1 percentage points over existing bonds, much less than the 0.5 percentage points Greece paid to sell its January deal. Bankers said that in an effort to bring down its debt-servicing costs, Greece will be looking to be "more aggressive" on its next issue.
Indeed, Greece needs to cut costs wherever possible if it is to bring its budget deficit of nearly 13% of gross domestic product within the European Union's 3% limit.
Greece is due to present its first deficit-reduction plan by March 16 for scrutiny by the EU, which puts Greece's government firmly between the proverbial rock and the hard place.
Some elements of the Greek population have already judged the current plan--which includes slashing four percentage points off the deficit this year through freezing or cutting wages, increasing taxes and capturing tax evaders--as too aggressive.
Thousands of Finance Ministry workers and customs officials walked out in a recent protest over the cuts. At the same time, customs officials have also declared a three-day strike, while tax officials taxi drivers and fuel-truck drivers are also threatening to strike.
However, Brussels has so far expressed only tentative support for the plan, with some EU officials saying the cuts aren't big enough. If the country's euro-zone partners aren't convinced by the report, they could force Greece to take even more painful steps to reduce its deficit.
http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html
1. That law maker either has one brain cell or taking money from Gold Market bosses.
2. Do that and the United States will lick the mud like a cliff fall as the dollar will become garbage world wide.