September 30. 2008
Alert #29: Aloha Liberty Dollar

Now I am not usually a doom-and-gloom guy. I developed the Liberty Dollar to bring a real solution to the currency situation that I realized in 1974… some 34 years ago! And for all these years I have strived to bring about a proven, positive, peaceful and profitable solution to our country’s controlled fiat monetary system.

And while I greatly appreciated your support (ala the Choir), at almost every turn there has been an invisible force that has thwarted the Liberty Dollar development and larger use. At first you may think, I mean the government. That is not the case. The government had been amazingly supportive up until the raid. The most disturbing “invisible force” is bunch of traitors who confess to have the very ideals that you think they endorse. Unfortunately, most of the time I found our supposed “leaders” to be vain little men, who were much more interested in maintaining their position than saving the country.

Who are these traitors who have steadfastfully blocked or secretly worked to undermine the Liberty Dollar and its ideals? Well over the years I have made several lists, but I am now on Tour and time has long dulled that list… but it is easy to list a few and you may know a few more from your own efforts with the Liberty Dollar.

List of Bellybuttons:
Lew Rockwell, Von Mises Institute
Mark Skousen, Newsletter
Bill Bonner, Agora Publishing
Addison Wiggin, Newsletter
John McManus, John Birch Society
Ed Crane, Cato Institute
Jack Pugsley, Sovereign Society
Vin Suprynowicz, Las Vegas reporter
Charley Reese, Orlando reporter
Sheldon Richman, writer
Doug Casey, Newsletter
Franklin Sanders, Moneychanger-my-ass
Jim Cook, Investment Rarities
Peymon Mottahedeh, Freedom Law School
Ron Paul, Politician

I contacted every one of these bellybuttons. Each had the opportunity to really advance the ideals of liberty but didn’t. They are liars and traitors to the ideals that you may think they support. I would never trust any of them. None will address the issues or even state their objections to the Liberty Dollar. Most will not even reply. A few have said I don’t like them because they would not endorse the Liberty Dollar. Hell, I have never asked for an endorsement from anyone and don’t care if someone endorses the Liberty Dollar or not. But I brand these traitors as bellybuttons because they stonewall, back stab and take adverse positions against the Liberty Dollar while publicly stating that they support the very same ideals but refuse to enter a discourse to move a viable solution forward.

As a student of Austrian Economics, I was particularly drawn to the Mises Institute so I made an appointment to meet Lew Lockwell. When the day finally arrived, his secretary kept me waiting for an hour, then he stood me up and had me forcibly evicted into a driving Alabama rainstorm without a car. Nice business manners, eh?! For that and ten years of behind-the-scenes of negativity, I name Prickwell king bellybutton of the government controlled opposition. Skousen, Bonner, McManus, Crane and Casey are not far behind. Be very careful of whom you ask advice. If you have any doubts, just ask this list of American traitors, because I have and they all made me sick.

Contrary to these lying bellybutton traitors, there have been a great many “ordinary Joes” who have exemplified the greatness of our original Founding Fathers. These men and women have won my heart, not because they support the Liberty Dollar, but because they have devoted their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to furthering the ideals as represented by the Liberty Dollar.

I don’t know what happened at his appointment nor do we know why he’s pissed at the rest of those listed but I’m not getting the feeling that it was anything to garner this kind of response. In my opinion the Liberty Dollar little more than a scam. Selling a one troy ounce silver round for $50 is 3.66 times the spot price of $13.64 (bought in 50 to 100 troy oz batch) at the time of writing. They then attempt to use the $50 face valued coin as if it was worth as much as a $50 FRN. As the cost of silver rose so did the profit margin when it was re-minted with a higher face value. It is no wonder that these individuals didn’t want to associate themselves with von NotHaus and the Liberty Dollar. It’s obviously of questionable legality (not that any of those listed agree with that status but they likely don’t want to be directly affiliated with that) and it questionable morally too. If someone wishes to invest in metals the Liberty Dollar is a complete waste of money and if you wish to use metals as a currency or barter buying generic rounds is not only significantly cheaper but it doesn’t have the legal issues. Those “ordinary Joes”, of which I know a few personally, who are RCOs or are purchasers and users of the Liberty Dollars were suckered into a pyramid scheme.

The idea is right but the implementation is just too off to be an honest business.

http://mises.org/…

1. Introduction: Money and Politics
2. The Genesis of Money
3. What is the Optimum Quantity of Money?
4. Monetary Inflation and Counterfeiting
5. Legalized Counterfeiting
6. Loan Banking
7. Deposit Banking
8. Problems for the Fractional-Reserve Banker: The Criminal Law
9. Problems for the Fractional-Reserve Banker: Insolvency
10. Booms and Busts
11. Types of Warehouse Receipts
12. Enter the Central Bank
13. Easing the Limits on Bank Credit Expansion
14. The Central Bank Buys Assets
15. Origins of the Federal Reserve: The Advent of the National Banking System
16. Origins of the Federal Reserve: Wall Street Discontent
17. Putting Cartelization Across: The Progressive Line
18. Putting a Central Bank Across: Manipulating a Movement, 1897-1902
19. The Central Bank Movement Revives, 1906-1910
20. Culmination at Jekyll Island
21. The Fed at Last: Morgan-Controlled Inflation
22. The New Deal and the Displacement of the Morgans
23. Deposit “Insurance”
24. How the Fed Rules and Inflates
25. What Can Be Done?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/

I’m a few days late reporting this but Lew Rockwell (LewRockwell.com,Mises.org) has started the daily podcast “The Lew Rockwell Show.” They average about 15mins each and have so far been decent enough.

Enjoy.

OK, here is what I’m going to try to do. I’ll give what I feel is an objective and brief summary of what I read, set up the goal for next week and we’ll use the comment area for discussion. Please help me revise the summary in the comment area and join in the discussion.

Fourth Edition Forward:

Bettina B. Greaves appears to be an economics scholar affiliated with the Austrian school who edited this edition. I couldn’t find out much other info about her (him?). The forward does a nice job summing up the gist of the book and references things we won’t hit for weeks. It’s nice to know where it’s going.

Third Edition Forward:

Contains some updates and thank you’s by Mr. Mises. He talks about his usage of the terms psychology and liberal and mentions how nicely the book is bound. Too bad I’m reading it online.

Chapter 1 - Acting Man

• Action is defined as something someone does consciously and purposefully.
• It is easy to distinguish between conscious and unconscious action.
• Actions are measurable.
• We can’t get too mired down in worrying about what caused the actions or tacking value judgments onto those actions.
• People often act to decrease their uneasiness but human goals are very complex.
• There is a bunch of things other economists and scientists do that I’m not going to do.
• Without causality we couldn’t function in the world so it is fair to assume that most humans use the idea of causality to interact with other humans.

Next Installment: Both Forewords, Introduction, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 for Sunday 6/14. Once you finish Chapter 1 feel free to add your input to this thread of comments.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

Tom Woods blogged about people starting book clubs, and yesterday Revolutionaries in Maryland had their first book club meeting. I was in attendance, and it was everything I hoped for and more.
Ron Paul’s message was discussed as an abstract philosophy and as it applies to certain issues. The meeting lasted about 3 hours and the last half-hour or so was spent discussing what we do next. It seemed that everyone was in agreement that this is a long-term movement that will go well past November, and also everyone felt strongly that education of our fellow citizens was extremely important; not coerced education - but a presentation of the ideas of the movement at every opportunity.
We’re going to meet monthly, choosing books from The Manifesto’s extensive reading list. Next up, I am pleased to say, is Rothbard’s “What has Government Done to Our Money?” published by the Mises Institute.

This is good to hear. Hopefully the idea spreads. The biggest thing to come out of the Ron Paul Revolution has been the social component. From the Meetup groups to moneybombs and driving crossing state lines to canvas and rally. The libertarian movement really didn’t have that before and most people need that sense of belonging in order to stay focused and not get discouraged. The stereotypical libertarian is the rugged individualist who’s likely introverted. The rugged part is generally way off but we do tend to be self motivated. This is a fairly small component of the population. That’s not to say that libertarianism only appeals to that minority. I think historically you can show this isn’t true. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense got the Colonists all worked up and it’s a very libertarian work for the time. Perhaps you could say that it was just the anti-King rants that got them going but it would seem to me it wouldn’t require Paine’s help in order to do that. There was something more about it. The idea that every man is a sovereign. The common man does believe in liberty they just need to be reminded of it. This revolution is made up of the common man and the social networks that are being created are both a sign of that and also means to sustain them. Or maybe the technology we have now makes herding cats easier.

Whatever the case it seems to me this movement has more staying power then similar ones before it. The participants are often younger and the belief in freedom rarely fades the way other political fads do. The Free State Project is showing us that even a very small percentage of the population being active on behalf of freedom can make a obvious differences in the political and apolitical spheres. Now we will bring that nationally through organizations like DownsizeDC, Free Talk Live, the RLC and maybe even the LP. And of course through the actions of dedicated individuals at their local levels.

Video MP3
This is a big sticking point for many libertarians. Like contract enforcement it seems to me to be inconsistent with general libertarian philosophy or at the least given a pass and not well explained.