04/12/11 If you keep your money or savings in US dollars inside of the United States, you are a risk taker of epic proportions. Have you not been paying attention to what is going on?
To begin with, the US Government now employs cash-sniffing dogs at most international airports. If you are carrying more than $10,000 in cash and don’t declare it to the Government when coming in or out of the US, your cash will be seized. Thanks to these cash-sniffing canines, US customs officials seized $3.2 million at Boston’s Logan Airport last year.
Some government apologists might say, “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, why would you mind being x-rayed, sniffed, patted down, detained and questioned?”
Besides the obvious absurdity of that question, the main reason this is of concern is because in every case in history when a government has inflated its currency into worthlessness they always institute capital controls. Just ask anyone from Argentina or Italy. And it won’t take much to change the rules from having to “declare” $10,000 to “not being allowed” to take $10,000 out of the country.
Not to mention that if you do declare you are taking $10,000 out of the country, who knows what kind of database you will end up on. You are obviously highly suspicious if you have more than a few hundred bucks! Only Wall Street bankers and others associated with the government are supposed to have more than a couple dollars! The most ludicrous example of the War on Money came across the newswire today, “Feds Seek $7 million in Privately Made Liberty Dollars.”
The news story is only about 10 paragraphs long yet it has dozens of logical absurdities. Even in the Headline is one.
According to the headline, part of the reason they want to seize these dollars is because they are “privately made”? Yes, we wouldn’t want to compete with the private Federal Reserve banking cartel!
And I know the Constitution is passé in the US, nowadays, but how in the world can this man be in trouble for making silver coins? The constitution states:
No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.
He is in trouble because he is making currency out of gold or silver yet, the Federal Reserve, another private organization, is not doing anything wrong by making paper currency NOT backed by gold and silver coin?
Apparently, the thing they “got him on” was the following:
Federal prosecutors successfully argued that von NotHaus was, in fact, trying to pass off the silver coins as US currency. Coming in denominations of 5, 10, 20, and 50, the Liberty Dollars also featured a dollar sign, the word “dollar” and the motto “Trust in God,” similar to the “In God We Trust” that appears on US coins.
Ignoring the fact that the dollar sign was originally used for Spanish and Mexican pesos and was stolen by the US to use for its dollars and the fact that the word dollar actually comes from the word thaler which was a silver coin minted in Bohemia, according to the Feds, he was trying to pass off coins, made of silver, worth more than $35/ounce, as quarters, which are now made from 92% copper and 8% nickel, and worth $0.06 in metal value.
Boy, that’s quite the racket! Passing off highly valuable silver to people who were expecting to receive near-worthless copper and nickel tokens! It’s a good thing they stopped him before it was too late!
Anne Tompkins, the US Attorney who was put on this important case, stated:
“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism.”
Anne, if attempting to undermine the currency of the US is a form of terrorism, why has Ben Bernanke not been tracked down and sent off to the Guantanamo concentration camp?
This “news” story finished by quoting an unbiased source: a group named the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks political extremism which has apparently been tracking Bernard von NotHaus, the proprietor of the silver coin making terror enterprise. According to the story, long before the government began its investigation into von NotHaus, the group was raising concerns about the popularity of Liberty Dollars among fringe groups on the far right.
“He’s playing on a core idea of the radical right, that evil bankers in the Federal Reserve are ripping you off by controlling the money supply,” said Mark Potok, spokesman for the group. “He very much exists in the world of the anti-government patriot movement, whatever he may say. That’s who his customers are.”
The US has started another war. The war on money. Anyone with any amount of cash more that will buy them a couple NFL tickets and beers for the game is suspect. And if you are one of those deluded people who thinks the Federal Reserve is evil and is ripping you off and you buy gold or silver to protect yourself, you are a domestic terrorist.
It’s going to be a fun few years ahead in the US.
Regards,
Jeff Berwick
for The Daily Reckoning
Jeff Berwick
Jeff Berwick, a self-described financial freedom fighter, is the founder of Canada’s largest financial website, Stockhouse.com. He now writes the libertarian, Austrian-economics based newsletter, The Dollar Vigilante and is a regular speaker at many of the world’s most important investment, resource and freedom-focused conferences where he is known as the most dangerous man in finance.
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Excellent article! Hopefully the Govstapo won’t kick in your door as they will to any economic terrorist in that Database. I don’t fear being put on that blacklist–I’m assuming that I’m already on it because I’m disorderly.
Really good points. So now what? I really have the feeling they will be going after gold and silver soon. I do have some gold coins and they will probably make it illegal to trade, buy, or barter with them. I for one am leaving this country soon. I have been out of it many times and know exactly where I will go. What upsets me is that flight seems the only alternative left. I do not believe that a vote of mine will change anything and it is ignored any way by even those I vote for thinking they may do something about it. This country is so divided on so many idiotic issues. I would like to stay around and watch the biggest crash in history but they will keep things going right into 1984.
How delightfully Orwellian: sound money terrorists.
“He’s playing on a core idea of the radical right, that evil bankers in the Federal Reserve are ripping you off by controlling the money supply,” said Mark Potok, spokesman for the group.
That sounds like 2008 Obama campaign rhetoric – Wall Street -vs- Main Street and all.
Potok reveals what a thumping dumbf*ck he truly is – Sen. Bernie Sanders (socialist) is equally critical of the Federal Reserve.
Please post more of this guys stuff!! This was the best article I read all month!
Glad to see Daily Reckoning is putting out some of Jeff Berwick’s stuff! For those who don’t know, he writes The Dollar Vigilante (http://dollarvigilante.com). Wicked stuff
I am becoming very pessimistic about the future of this clown like nation. I’d love to be able to watch the whole thing crash from a distant vantage point but like most Americans I’m going to be right in the middle of it when the final collapse comes.
I wouldn’t call the man a terriorist, but I’d say that putting denominations on the coins was a blunder. Private mints produce silver coins all the time, but they know not to put denominations on them.
Why does anyone think that having gold or silver will help them do anything besides be accepted into a foreign country if things go as bad as all the apocolipsists say? Quite honestly, if a hyperinflation were to occur, purchasing consumer durables would be a better investment; at least you would have something useful and you would have paid half price for it yesterday if the hyperinflation happens “today”.
But I guess investing is for people who have more money than they could possibly spend.
@beatnuts. Thanks for the link. I’ve already sent one article on by e-mail to a friend. See how quick it spreads? Good site. Richard, regards! Thanks, as always.
Oops. Forgot I had moved away from the Mogambo Guru, but you all still get the point.
As far as government gold confiscation goes, I challange anyone out there to come up with a reasonable explanation for why it would happen now that the US monetary system is off the gold standard.
Even I wouldn’t mess with the US banking cartel. We all have our limits. Just ask any GOPer.
I just saw the author, Jeff Berwick, speak at the Calgary Resource Show, if you get the chance go see him or subscribe to his free blog or paid newsletter… he’s one of the brightest new guns in the war against state oppression! The young Doug Casey they call him
@JMR.
What is the reasonable explanation for why von NotHaus’s coins are being confiscated by Uncle Sam?
The coins aren’t legal tender, are they?
The government has confiscated gold before and it will do it again at will. And there won’t be a thing you can do about it because you lost control of your government to the Bank of England and its 12 Federal reserve branches a long time ago.
Here I thought the BOE was the 13th Fed branch.
@2funny
As I said, there are many private mints in the USA that mint silver coins daily. There was a buffalo silver round that became so popular that it was trading at about $90 each. Unlike NotHaus’s coins, they don’t have denominations on them.
Ummm not trying to sound like a braggard but it is easy to beat their $10,000 limit using their own system against them.
I am not going to state the obvious because the Gestapo has not yet figured it out but if you can’t get millions out undetected then you are smart like dump truck…just saying.
Great article and I appreciate the link to dollarvigilante – thanks Beatnuts.
About gold confiscation – what would the excuse be? Not that the Government ever felt the need for an excuse to steal, but wasn’t the stated reason for gold confiscation in the past that we were on a gold standard and the gold was needed to “back” the currency?
As we’re not on an “official” gold standard I can’t see how they’d claim it’s necessary to take people’s metal (though the intentional wording in the liberty dollar ruling does seem to point towards declaring those with gold/silver “domestic terrorists” which may provide a clue to the Government’s angle of approach on the issue…)
The guy screwed up and put himself in a position where they could get him. He should have not used the word dollar, dollar symbol, nor the denominations. Make a 1oz. coin, 5oz. and 10oz. Calling it a dollar is meaningless anyways. Unfortunately, the guy blew it. We all need to be smarter.
Watch this @ 7:32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9im9FsaqpQY
Getting out of the matrix is a political choice against your government.