“The Congress shall have power: To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;”

The majority attendees of the Constitutional Convention, years after declared independence (through real time experience) understood the value of a regulated weights and measures (inherent value) monetary system. The unconstitutional and despotic statist theocracy now infesting this land has, contrary to fiscal law / the laws of nature and of nature's God, legislated a funny money's tyrannous monopoly (helping to realize one of the founders biggest criminal nightmares).

They forgot to post art. 1, sect. 8, clause 6; "To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States". I never hear anyone quote this; says it all...and no prosecutions of the Fed YET, but I have some small hope for Ron Paul's quest in his new position. Not even one attourney general speaks to this, or ever has, including our present one of course, as they print away all our savings.

The Fed 101: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD1G7f4bE0w&feature=related

Well quoted... nothing says that "money" is only based upon minerals mined from the earth. Such minerals have no inherent value, only the value that human beings grant to them, and such value can be granted to any form of representation... yes Virginia, even to paper money or accounts which live no where other than in a computer's memory.

Wrong Reston, In fact you couldn't be more wrong. At what point would Human Beings give any kind of real value to paper tickets? And at what point are we supposed to hand our well being over to a bunch of criminals who couldn't care less about any of us...Oh Wait! we already have. Through a criminal act perpetrated in 1913.

"A" from Reston, thank you for catching my super early morning opps. Instead of inherent, I meant to say 'intrinsic' . Intrinsic: belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law) Gold and silver, called noble metals, have 'intrinsic' value. The thing (gold and silver) takes man hours to extract and it takes man hours to turn it into a malleable state. Such can be used in medicine, industry, a measure against other man hours of value, etc. One ounce is always the same. One paper note can be 1, 5, 10, more or less, etc.

Reston, yes, currency can be made of many things, including poker chips. That poker chip represents something put on deposit that can be retrieved when the poker chip is exchanged back for it. Now a poker chip has absolutely no value on its own, but when it represents real property stored safely somewhere, it can be used as a medium of exchange -- and if we trust the people who issue these chips and store the property it is to represent in trade, then we have confidence in that poker chip and will use it to make purchases and exchange our own property and labors for it. But what if the bank issued itself poker chips for which there was no backing -- in other words, counterfeiting -- what would be the problem? Well, first of all, the bank could just start buying up property or even loan the poker chips at interest. This is called the debasement of the currency and carries the death penalty in America as it does in many nations around the world, and understandably so, because debasing a country's currency can subjugate a nation. And that is what has happened in the US (as well as most of Europe and the rest of the world, for that matter). Honest money means an honest medium of exchange -- precious metals served well because of their intrinsic and market value and non-perishable qualities (jeez, Reston, "minerals mined from the earth have no inherent value"? Um, are you completely nuts?). But when the issuers of the currency act criminally, the trust is broken and the value of the currency returns to whatever it is backed by -- and if that is nothing, then it is nothing. The US Treasury, which is managed by the Executive branch, is constitutionally commanded to provide an honest medium of exchange (i.e. currency) by the above mentioned clause in the Constitution. What we have now is interest-bearing promises-to-pay (IOUs) as our currency, not represented by our wealth, but by our debts -- the 'wealthier' we become, the more we owe to the central bank. And in times like these, when money is scarce, people stop borrowing and may even pay off debts, and the result is that when someone pays a debt, the 'poker chip' is taken out of circulation -- and if everyone pays off their debts, ALL the poker chips are taken out of circulation and there is no money supply -- so in the 'debt-as-money' system, we absolutely must 'borrow' more in order to get those chips back in circulation. With an honest money system, however, we would never run out of currency, and it would always be growing in proportion to the nation's productivity, and everyone would be benefiting. That's the difference, Reston.

This country is being conquered financially. December 23, 1913 was the beginning of the end of our Constitutional Republic.