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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Forth Interest Group raises dues
Message-ID: <2456.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 4 Mar 91 13:20:08 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.
Lines: 72

Category 8,  Topic 2
Message 4         Sat Mar 02, 1991
ATFURMAN [Alan F.]           at 23:34 PST
 
> ...FIG dues will be going up this year.

Going up?  By what measure?  All that FIG has announced is that more Federal
Reserve Notes will have to be given to it for a year's membership.

A Federal Reserve Note is a piece of paper capable of discharging its holder
from a contractual obligation of one Federal Reserve Note. Under the law,
Federal Reserve Notes are "collateralized" mainly by United States Treasury
securities.  A Treasury security is a future promise to give its holder a
specified number of Federal Reserve Notes, each one of which is collateralized
by a promise to pay Federal Reserve Notes, each one of which...

Now when the politicians' call for "civilized interest rates" (translation:
print more Federal Reserve Notes) is answered, business activity is stimulated
in the short run...and "in the long run", as John Maynard Keynes himself said,
"we are all dead".  Sellers find that newly "prosperous" buyers are willing to
contract for a higher number of Federal Reserve Notes.  People find that they
can buy less with the Federal Reserve Notes that they had saved for frivolous
purposes (like retirement) and complain to Big Brother.  Big Brother and His
toadies in the media and socialized educational system immediately identify
the cause of the problem: greedy capitalists, greedy consumers, greedy
capitalists, greedy labor unions, and greedy capitalists.  Price controls and
subsidies are enacted to Protect the Little Guy against the Ravages of
Inflation.  (Once upon a time, a hunter lost his way in the woods and began to
starve.  So he cut off his dog's tail and roasted it on the campfire.  After
he had eaten the meat, he gave the bones to the dog to chew on...and the dog
licked his hand in gratitude.)

The monetary unit of the United States was, until 1933, a quantity of gold
(approximately 1.5g) known as the Dollar.  That year, the Federal Reserve Note
(which had been around since the creation of the Federal Reserve System in
1913) was made legal tender.  The Roosevelt administration could then print
them at whim to dole out to the "aristocracy of pull".  Legal tender laws
could not be readily enforced upon foreigners, however, so Big Brother had to
stand ready to redeem Federal Reserve Notes to the tune of about 0.9g gold
each.  Accordingly, He confiscated all bullion held by Americans (Gold Reserve
Act of 1934).

By the 1960's, so many Federal Reserve Notes had been created and traded to
credulous foreigners that even the confiscated gold could not cover them. 
President Charles de Gaulle of France decided it was time to get out of
Federal Reserve Notes while the getting was good.  By 1968 there were
311,000,000 troy ounces of gold at Fort Knox (down from 701,000,000 in 1949). 
The American public reacted with all the realism of Saddam Hussein being told
how many tanks he lost last Wednesday: it was all de Gaulle's fault!  He was
trying to Ruin Our Economy!  That year, redeemability of Federal Reserve
Notes, denied Americans since 1933, was revoked for foreigners, and has stayed
that way for over 22 years.  The last constraint on money creation--the last
remaining difference between the Federal Reserve Note and the Deutsche
Reichsmark of 1922, was removed.

(Don't Look Now dep't: Last election, I voted for a party that has the
abolition of legal tender laws on its platform.  If you didn't, I hope you
enjoy the system described above because YOU VOTED IN FAVOR OF IT whether you
know it or not.)

The "currency" of the USA is no longer tied to any commodity or any limitation
on its issue beyond the moral fiber and economic acumen of our political
elite.  It is therefore questionable whether it makes sense to talk of an
"increase" in an amount denominated in it.

Practical suggestion: _The Economic Time Bomb_ by Harry Browne, $4.95 in
paperback.  Get it, read it, follow it...or regret it.  Seriously.
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