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"The Destiny of Mankind Hinges upon Gold"

September 30, 2011

HSP.jpgOnce fiat money is in place, all becomes illusion and gambling and people give up trying to make sense of life. Pretty soon they take illusions to be realities.


By Hugo Salinas Price

Hugo Salinas Price, 75, is a successful, retired businessman who lives in Mexico. He has been a follower of the Austrian School of Economics since his youth. He has written three books in Spanish on how and why silver should be instituted as money in Mexico, in parallel with paper money, and numerous related articles in English and Spanish, posted at his website. His organization, the Mexican Civic Association Pro Silver, is actively lobbying the Mexican Congress to approve legislation, which will institute the pure silver "Libertad" ounce as money.



I must have read fifty accounts, in the FT and others of that ilk, about what went wrong with the Euro. I have yet to read one that comes out with the plain, unvarnished truth. The whole bloody Establishment of bankers, politicians, economists and journalist whores sings the same song: "The euro came to grief because there was no fiscal union". Therefore, the solution to be inferred is that fiscal union would remedy the case of the European Union's imminent collapse.

Let's face it: the euro is a fiat currency and fiat always ends up in disaster.

Our civilization is in evident decline. If it weren't, we would find several eminent economists of the stature of Jacques Rueff in the halls of power; he was the French economist who wisely counseled General Charles de Gaulle to remove France's gold from the cellars of the NY Fed and transfer it to France.

Jacques Rueff was a man capable of understanding the fundamentals of how the world works. His vision was clear, and his intellectual scope was capable of taking in the details of local commerce as well its international workings. Men and women of his capacity are still around today, but they are not welcome in the higher reaches of politics.

Rueff wrote a little book in 1963, "L'Age de L'Inflation"  ("The Age of Inflation") made up of some articles he had written. He wrote an "Introduction" to his book, and the very first words are these:

"LE SORT DE L'HOMME SE JOUE SUR LA MONNAIE"

A loose translation:

"THE DESTINY OF MANKIND HINGES UPON GOLD"

Europe is a great mess today because those in power made the wrong choice when deciding what currency the European Union should use. They chose a fiat currency instead of the Gold Standard and currency redeemable in gold at sight. That is the Original Sin of the euro.

Rueff was also active when the European Union was being forged. His book's fifth essay ends with these prophetic words:

"L' EUROPE SE FERA SUR LA MONNAIE, OU NE SE FERA PAS"

Translated loosely:

"EUROPE WILL BE BUILT UPON GOLD, OR IT WILL NOT BE BUILT"

Indeed, United Europe is falling apart. By the time you read this, it may already have collapsed. But it is falling apart not because of a lack of "Fiscal Union". It is collapsing because of the absence of the fundamental means for free international collaboration, based on the realities of each nation of Europe: there is no gold standard at work.

Somewhere in his books, Ludwig von Mises states that the end of the Austrian Empire came when the gold coin stopped circulating. It was this stable and trustworthy money that had held together an Empire made up of several nations with very different cultures. When the gold coin disappeared, the unifying factor was gone as well.

FIAT CURRENCY = WELFARE STATE PONZI SCHEME

Gold is the money for societies made up of men and women who wish to live in the real world.

This is part of the trouble in our declining civilization: men and women in these times wish to live in illusions, and the politicians, the bankers and their economist lapdogs have been providing those illusions for many decades now.

Those illusions were enabled by the "Welfare State": Comfort and security from cradle to grave, with no requirement of hard work to merit them. On the other hand, it would also be reasonable to say that men and women today live in illusions, because they were forced to do so by the fiat money they had to use. Once fiat money is in place, all becomes illusion and gambling and people give up trying to make sense of life. Pretty soon they take illusions to be realities.

Wolfgang Münchau in the FT of September 26 writes in the editorial page: "I have never seen Europe's politicians as scared as I saw them in Washington last week".

Europe's politicians have good reason to be scared stiff; if the euro cracks up and the European Monetary Union collapses, then the viability of the Welfare State is in question. Without the perpetual deficits that the Welfare State entails, how will it be possible to maintain the populations of Europe in their illusion of perpetual untrammeled bliss?

If the peoples of Europe are to wake up one morning to find themselves once again in the real world, where survival means hard work and personal privations, the political upheaval will be gigantic. This is why the politicians are scared.

 If the continued existence of the Welfare State is in question, then so is the Democratic State, because Democracy - or what passes for it - can only be simulated where the voting population is constantly appeased with ever greater hand-outs from the Welfare State, the Siamese twin of Democracy.

If the euro cracks up and the European Monetary Union goes the way of all fiat we can expect a political convulsion of the first order in Europe as the ingrained illusions vanish. Perhaps that would not be a bad thing. Bill Bonner has written, with his usual wry humor, "Give Collapse a Chance".

CONCLUSION

The world is not coming to an end just because illusions have vanished. The world will adjust, individuals will adjust, the behavior of multitudes will adjust. Those intellectual and moral midgets, who think that the world ends if their particular plans for the world are scrapped, will go to the dustbin of history - at least for a while. That would be a healthy relief.

Central Banks were invented with the express purpose of eliminating volatility in the business of banking. That was a mistake, because today, instead of relatively small bankruptcies of imprudent banks we have the menace of wholesale collapse of banking systems. Unfortunately, no one on the global political scene seems to have grasped this insight.

So we continue to watch the evolution of this European crisis - by implication also a world crisis - with great interest. If a convulsion besets Europe, authoritarian régimes are not out of the question. Authoritarian régimes, despite the bad name given to them by the so-called partisans of "Democracy", are not necessarily bad. After all, the family is an authoritarian organization, and it functions well - when it is allowed to function. Every private business concern is an authoritarian organization. An authoritarian régime oriented to order, property rights, the rule of law and sound money is actually more stable and viable than an authoritarian régime that wishes to install a socialist society. Incidentally, the Founding Fathers of the US did seriously consider establishing a Monarchy...

The present crisis will offer possibilities that can be either good or bad. Let us remember that the Chinese symbol for "crisis" means "Danger/Opportunity"

----
Makow comment: I'd like Price's response to these criticisms: 1. There isn't enough precious metals to make them the medium of exchange. Doing so would result in a huge deflation and depression. 2. Governments are broke. How are they going to buy the metal for currency? The only problem with fiat currency as a medium of exchange, is that it is private, not public.   




More by Price :   Why Silver Should be Currency

Mexican Central Bank Rejects Price Plan
http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=14320






Scruples - the game of moral dillemas

Comments for ""The Destiny of Mankind Hinges upon Gold""

Carl said (October 2, 2011):

"Authoritarian régimes, despite the bad name given to them by the so-called partisans of "Democracy", are not necessarily bad."

This is comedy: "Leninist theory holds that Communist states must always be authoritarian when on the path to "socialism", because of the "special repressive force" needed to attain their goals."

That worked out well didn't it? Just ask the Christian leaders in Russia. The problem is its almost always "bad." Maybe we can get Maitreya to run it, or Henry Kissinger?

"That's exactly what Rothschild's gold did to the American colonies bringing on the war for independence from Rothschild's already impoverished England."

Tony gets it, and this is a problem that has already been solved by some of the Presidents (Lincoln) and recently by many such as Bill Still. Gold won't work because its owned by a small group who will oppress everyone. The root of the problem is FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING. Watch "The Money Changers" if you don't already intuitively know that the banks need to be lawfully controlled and a debt/usury free currency printed.

Then we can deal with real problem of how everyone who tries to implement this gets murdered. Enjoy, you will get more out of this than Price.
Wouldn't it be nice if people would watch a little less NFL and occupy Wall Street or perhaps the FED?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936


RM said (October 2, 2011):

I certainly do not buy into the comments that under a system of honest money this would cause a depression. History has shown us that it has been the opposite that is true! You see that is why Fiat creates illusion (Lies), then wouldn't substance therefore create honesty and truth built on a foundation of 'rock'? How would honesty cause depression? The other critical point to the system of money is that the Law rests upon the money system which is being used. If the money system is an illusion then everything also becomes illusion.

I understand our Almighty Creator gave us Gold and Silver for a very good reason as precious metals and scattered this throughout the earth, this gives us both form and substance together. We need to understand that the money changers of today also understood why it had to be removed. Now you have no substance and only form, i.e looks like law, sounds like law but it is not. The law as it stands is nothing but a counterfeit or real Law, just like the Fiat Currency system is of real Money.


Derek said (October 1, 2011):

f a bright young college kid can "get it", so surely can the rest of us:

Oh Canada! Our Bought and Sold Out Land [Full Length]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiHC-sRD_t4

More Time for Leisure: In Praise of the National Dividend

http://www.abeldanger.net/2011/09/more-time-for-leisure-national-dividend.html


Robert said (October 1, 2011):

Golly, I guess if there was no gold mankind wouldn't have a destiny!

Isn't anyone curious about what interest the Rockefellers had in financing Ludwig von Mises and the distracting bilge
promulgated by the "Austrian" School? (Look up the biographies of the principal players if you want to know how
"Austrian" it was.)

In a modern economy money, nearly all of which is bank "credit" ("debt" to ordinary folk), is basically bookkeeping, involving reckoning and liquidating costs. If the accountancy was scientific rather than political--i.e., sane rather than crooked-- then it wouldn't be generating ever-growing and unrepayable accumulations of debt.


Brian said (October 1, 2011):

" The only problem with fiat currency as a medium of exchange is that it is PRIVATE, not PUBLIC." (capitalizations mine)

This hits the nail right on the head, Henry, and in keeping with what you know to be my take on this subject I will add, "insofar as it goes". The key of course in all of this is that "public" in this context infers a reality where those who produce the material wealth which a fiat currency would represent thereby controlling the issuance of what would therefore be a debt-free currency!

I guess then my question to you would be "Might a reality of debt-free currency be seen as "training wheels" for a hoodwinked humanity which would precede money becoming obsolete altogether? Would we THEN be on the precipice of a spiritual awakening or has too much water passed under the bridge for a smooth transition to it occurring?"


Oliver said (October 1, 2011):

We don´t have enough precious metals to use as currency? We can start with gold and silver as long as they are priced at current values. When many countries would be on a metal currency and demand / value would rise exponentially, we could use lesser metals (copper, iron, ...) in the mix. Today we are using a supply of metal coins and paper bills worldwide. So we could use a mix of metal coins and certificates in a metal currency as well. F.e. a certificate for a share of 10 mg in a gold bar in a repository.
 
Governments couldn´t buy that much precious metals? By all means, they shoudn´t! It would miss the whole point of a metal currency. A metal currency will not be lent into circulation! It will be a straight barter system. A milligram silver certificate, a 50 g copper coin or 150 g of iron will get you a meal. Where ever these values will freely float. It would be valued by weight, not by intermediary nomination (Dollar, Euro, …). We would own what we hold in our hand. The medium of exchange would be an asset, not another one´s debt.  Money would again be something that everyone can understand. There would be no more hidden liens attached.
 
If whoever (government, elitists, ...) would buy up the metal supply and lend it into circulation, you would have a fiat system again. Just that it would be printed on golden bills. No improvement at all. Everyone again would be more or less invisibly "indebted" to the issuer of the coins. That has happened in the past (Rome f.e.) and it was the main reason for failure of metal currencies. Btw I read that´s what they are up to. Gold coins with stamps and chips on it to legalize it as money and lend it into circulation. That would nullify the benefit of a PM currency.
 
Counter question about public issuance of fiat currency. Fiat currency leads to enforcement of economic growth and in consequence leads to problems like environmental issues, rising stress levels (loss of quality of life), debt-servitude, etc. Further it has allways ended in the loss of assets (even liberties) for households and individuals. Would it be really much of a solution if the people wouldn´t loose their homes to private elitists but to "the state"?


Steven said (October 1, 2011):

A reply to Tony's comment below.

Henry, don't forget the other problem of ANY KIND OF MONEY. If it is loaned into circulation at usury it is a dysfunctional medium of exchange but an effective conveyor belt of all wealth into the hands of whomever owns the money. Makes no difference what it is composed of. That's exactly what Rothschild's gold did to the American colonies bringing on the war for independence from Rothschild's already impoverished England.

Tony this was only possible because banks were allowed to exist.

Shut down the banks, ban fractional reserve lending, paper and electronic currencies and keep the government mint open and many of the financial predators like Rothschild will have a harder time trying to hijack the world and enslaving the people.

As for the people they can pay and be paid in coin or bullion. Also coin and bullion doesn't burn and doesn't depend on electricity for its existance.


Moe said (October 1, 2011):

Regarding Price comments on fiat currency and precious metals, one could profitably peruse the theories found on FOFOA, http://fofoa.blogspot.com/ Introduced there is the concept of 'Freegold', where gold is permitted to float in value against script currencies but gold itself is used a medium of saving or storage only. The medium(s) of exchange would be script.


Dick said (October 1, 2011):

Adding to your criticisms/questions, a precious metals-based
currency makes new credit impossible. While this is presented as a good thing (ie no bank bailouts), what about infrastructure and job creation? No "fiat money" means no transcontinental railroad, land grant universities, highway system, space program, internet, and any number of other vital components of modern civilization.

I'd agree that national or regional currencies backed by metals
might be a good way for areas like Mexico and Argentina to loosen the yoke of imperialism without disengaging totally from
international trade (though ask Sadaam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi how that worked out). Or that gold or silver might be useful components in settling trade deficits. But because they're mere tokens, they hold no more "reality" than paper money, unless you actually expect people to pay their mortgage and health insurance bills in gold coins.


Kirk said (October 1, 2011):

When speaking of illusions, no one is more fantastical than the "Austrian School" of economics. This article is typical: The problem is bad money. If only we had gold-backed currency we would be better off. If only politicians were honest things would be better. If only people worked hard and provided for themselves instead of stealing from others the world would be a better place. If only governments served people instead of oppressing them.

All their fantasies boil down to the same thing: The world would be a wonderful place if only the world were a wonderful place. They can offer nothing but impotent carping. It is a sort of fake religion in which the results of Christianity are desired but the power to achieve them is not present.

I have a calling and ability to change the world only to the extent that I am able to change me. Changing others always and inevitably must rely on force.


Daniel said (October 1, 2011):

This man has some serious flaws in his logic, but as Tony said, it can all be traced to the Austrian School.

In the current world, an inflexible precious metal based currency will totally collapse all functions of money, and play right into the hands of those who control the same gold and the silver. Gold based money is for fools.

Fiat currency (currency with no intrinsic value) will do the work perfectly, in fact, that is what it is supposed to be. But fiat currency must derive it’s value from the law, not from what speculators and others make it to be in a socalled free and open marked, i.e. essentially commodity money. A free marked under those terms is a ruse.

Briefly, it all depends on WHO issue the currency and under WHAT terms it is issued, i.e the intrinsic nature of money. Central bank (private monopoly) money, created as a debt at usury, is fast and inevitably reducing the vast, vast majority of the population to their status as cattle, where the economic masters in the finest darwinian natural selection style believe they at their whim have every right to cull any deemed surplus and undesired population.

The big question is... what to do about it? In any case, do not be ignorant and deluded, realize what is at stake here, and secondly do not buy into their ruses and temptations. As a Christian, stay true to the One who knows and holds the future, despite the wannabe gods who think they run things. They are patently fools and will soon enough be slaughtering one another as well.


DR said (October 1, 2011):

My favorite line is this one: “Authoritarian regimes, despite the bad name given to them by the so-called partisans of "Democracy", are not necessarily bad.” All I have to say about this is, don’t try to sell crazy here Mr., we are all stocked up!!

Everything is adjusted and geared to the pre-collapse economy. So if we hold every person and every nation accountable for the debt that they incurred while we enjoyed the world wide ponzi scheme then we will continue to limp around in the circles of a never ending always looming economic collapse.

Debt forgiveness would solve the situation immediately. But do we forgive everyone’s debt by a third or a half or two thirds? However it is done the goal should be to make it manageable. Once debt forgiveness has been done then austerity in lending could be put in place to keep people living within their means. Stabilize the price of oil at the new normal and take away oil speculation in the investment markets.

There would be some big losers in debt forgiveness though, one of them would be China. The effect could also be world war. Bottom line though I think that the powers that be like the new economy and the new normal. They work very hard to maintain it!


V said (October 1, 2011):

In some respects Hugo is right and in many respects wrong.

I believe that there is nothing wrong with fiat money if it is properly put in use and without usury. If the US Treasury printed 'Treasury Notes' without usury instead of private, usury attached 'Federal Reserve Notes' the USA would have very little debt.

The big problem is that most of the worlds fiat money is in the hands of oligarchy families (Anglo-American-Jewish) who control The Fed, IMF, World Bank and most central banks around the world. They create fiat money out of thin air (debt) and charge usury (interest) on it. With this they use to enslave us. They have a private, monopoly on this.

Woudn't it be great if the Bank of Canada created usury free notes that paid for the countries infrastructure, hospitals, schools. Taxes would be low and our debt would also be low. Why does the government borrow from private banks ? The Bank of Canada issues the countries fiat money but the big 5 Bay Street banks create 95% of the countries fiat money through loans with usury added. Something is very wrong here.

Gold and silver make great backing of a countries currency but having a gold standard is not completely necessary as long as the fiat money is printed in sufficient quantity by the countries treasury and usury free. Bring the money back to the people for the people. Gold and silver should also be made legal tender.

The way things are going know we are paying for our own enslavement by a group of satanic psychopaths who are at the helm of the wheel.


Tony said (October 1, 2011):

Henry, don't forget the other problem of ANY KIND OF MONEY. If it is loaned into circulation at usury it is a dysfunctional medium of exchange but an effective conveyor belt of all wealth into the hands of whomever owns the money. Makes no difference what it is composed of. That's exactly what Rothschild's gold did to the American colonies bringing on the war for independence from Rothschild's already impoverished England.

Not to mention that precious metal money cannot be removed from simply being inefficient barter. As soon as the commodity value passes the fiat value it is melted and sold as the commodity. It sucks as money. The writer of the article probably owns silver mines. His intro as a "follower of the Austrian (mislabeled) School of Economics" says it all. He is deluded or stupid or a crook. Maybe a combination of the three.


Henry Makow received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 1982. He welcomes your comments at