Prince of Paper Ascends the Throne

Among the most insightful articles I read in 2006 were several authored by Morgan Reynolds, Ph.D., former U.S. Chief Economist, Department of Labor 2001-2, economist and Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University. He issued Prince of Paper Ascends the Throne sometime in early 2006 as an open letter to the public -- most of whom, I'm sure, don't even know it exists.

What should the public be paying attention to? Reynolds tells us:

Name the three most important issues in politics: War in Iraq? Abortion? Domestic spying? None of the above. Nothing is more important than money, money, money - its quality and who controls it. We all know it in our gut - money means our livelihoods, our retirements, the life-blood of commerce plus an obese government feasting on newly printed moolah daily.

Ben Bernanke became chairman of the Fed on February 1, 2006, succeeding Alan Greenspan. Bernanke got the post, Reynolds explains, because:

Bernanke's resume is unmarred by real-world experience, so he is perfect for the job. He will be a disaster because he is wrong about virtually everything. He claims devotion to "long-run price stability" and "continuity" with the policies of the Greenspan Fed. He cannot be both. Greenspan's inflationary policies have boosted the government's consumer price index by 67%. That is the opposite of "long-run price stability." Consumer prices have risen every year for a half-century. I detect a pattern here, it's called a rip-off of the consumer's purchasing power.

Moreover, Bernanke's inflationist credentials

will make Greenspan look like a tight-money man. Bernanke's paper trail tells us because he fears falling money prices as the biggest risk of all, so he stands ready with "an invention called the printing press" to combat this evil. He promises faster inflation in response to the next financial crisis, supplying the "liquidity" the system needs. "Helicopter Ben" has even promised to drop money from the air, but he won't drop any on you or me. Insiders get it first.

Mr. Ph.D. does not understand why a bust happens. That makes him extra dangerous. Every bust is caused by the preceding boom and its excesses. The bust is curative. And what caused the credit boom? The Fed! Its artificial pumping of money and credit through the banking system induces boom-bust cycles. When Bernanke fights the market by injecting new credit in the next crisis he will sustain unsound debt, weak debtors and lousy companies, prolonging depression.

Reynolds continues:

Sound money is the fount of prosperity yet the Fed was created to supply an "elastic currency" for the nation and coordinate expansion of cheap bank credit on behalf of Wall Street and bankers. The Fed was designed to flee from sound money. It is an inflationary menace to everyone and we are on the verge of a dollar crack up.

How can we escape the devastation of Fed money management? Reynolds suggests some ways:

First, shift investments toward hard assets like silver, gold, oil, timber.

Second, shift from the prince's paper toward hard money in your transactions. Hard money has meant silver and gold since the dawn of civilization.

We want good money and we want it now, before the greenback tanks. The easiest way to use gold and silver today is to rely on the competitive marketplace to supply it, like the Liberty Dollar, because it's .999 fine silver, it is readily available, and functions 1:1 with Bernanke's paper dollars.

But don't we have to use the Fed's fiat money? No!

There is no legal barrier to using a new currency like the Liberty Dollar, in specie, real paper or electronic digits that are 100% redeemable in silver and gold.

America wants a bottom-up, inflation-proof, market-driven money, not a top-down, debt-based money controlled by the power elite. Let the competitive market in money roar. With each individual choosing what currency to use, the superior money will triumph.