In Washington, D.C., the saga of the Federal debt ceiling, resulting from ever growing budget deficits, continues. Unfortunately, the story that fiscal policy alone is not enough to solve this problem remains largely untold.
On March 16, 2006, freshman Senator Obama pointed out, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.” And, as Democratic Senate leader Reid said just a short while before Obama spoke that same day, “President Thomas Jefferson said: I place economy among the first and most important government virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”
On the fiscal policy front, a number of serious proposals have been made to address the budget and debt problems, such as Dr. Ron Paul’s Plan to Restore America and Dr. Rand Paul’s bill S.162 introduced in 2011. (There are a number of other proposals, e.g., the Paul/DeMint/Lee budget, the Tea Party Debt Commission budget, the Cato Institute budget, and the proposals published by the Heritage Foundation mentioned in my earlier article.) Also see Congressman Broun’s bill H.R. 2409 from 2011 to lower the debt ceiling.
But that of course leaves out the monetary policy. Previously, I have pointed out that we cannot honestly address the debt problem unless we follow the 3 part solution offered by Warren T. Brookes in the 1986 Heritage Foundation symposium on cutting the budget:
returning to the gold standard (as Bill Clinton has pointed out, going off the gold standard has had a number of deleterious effects),
allowing for competing currencies, and
abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Congressman Paul Broun has introduced legislative proposals in the House that would address these issues by following most of the solutions proposed by Brookes.
An additional measure would be the passage of a modified version of Dr. Paul’s bill from 2011, H.R. 2768 -- the Debt Crisis Resolution Act, which would “cancel public debt held by the Federal Reserve System and ... lower the public debt limit by an equal amount.” I would modify the original bill to make sure that the second part of its stated purpose is carried out. My addition to the original bill would be a new section:
SEC. 3. LOWERING OF THE PUBLIC DEBT LIMIT
(a) Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection; and inserting in lieu thereof an amount equal to the difference between the stricken out dollar limitation, and the amount equal to the amount of obligations described in Section 2(a) of this Act.
(b) The amendment made by Section 3(a) of this Act shall take effect immediately upon the execution of Section 2 of this Act.
While many “deficit hawks” focus on “entitlements,” the untold story continues to be monetary policy, including the potential $1 trillion per year interest payment debt bomb.
We will soon see who the true “deficit hawks” are.
George Gilder, whose new book publishes today, is one of the original pillars of Supply Side economics. As stated by Discovery Institute, which he co-founded, “Mr. Gilder pioneered the formulation of supply-side economics when he served as Chairman of the Lehrman Institute’s Economic Roundtable, as Program Director for the Manhattan Institute….”
He was the living writer most quoted by President Reagan. And he is back with his most brilliant work yet — one of potentially explosive importance if taken to heart by our political and policy thought leaders. It is a radical guide, with surprising insights on almost every page, to the creation of a new era of vibrant prosperity.
As reviewer Paul Brodsky, a professional investor in New York City, perceptively notes,
"Lewis Lehrman is one of a very small group of contemporary gold advocates able to successfully bridge the gap separating practical conservative intellectualism from fleeting, half-baked idealism. His CV lists great success across many fields including education (degrees and teaching fellowships from Yale and Harvard); industry (past president of Rite Aid); politics (narrow loser to Mario Cuomo in the 1982 New York governor’s race); finance, (past Morgan Stanley managing director); private sector entrepreneur (founder, L. E. Lehrman & Company); public sector advocate (founder, Lehrman Institute); historian (author, Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point); and recognized philanthropist (awarded the National Humanities Medal by George W. Bush in an Oval Office ceremony). ... Only someone erudite and elegant in demeanor could hope to pull it off . In an irreconcilably over-leveraged world where irritated bond vigilantes question economic sustainability and angry Tea Partiers protest the immorality of it all, Lehrman’s views are considered and his convictions carry weight. He brings gravitas to his cause, and he does so from within as a member of the club."
Before the Fed: JP Morgan Summons the Bank Presidents
"Finally, on the night of Sunday, November 2, Morgan summoned the presidents of the major New York banks to his new library, at the corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, an Italian Renaissance-style palace he had built next door to his house to showcase his collection of rare books, manuscripts, and other artwork. Its marble floors, frescoed ceilings, walls lined with tapestries and triple-tiered bookcases of Circasian walnut, crammed full of rare Bibles and illuminated medieval manuscripts, made it an incongruous setting for a meeting of the banking establishment. Once the moneymen had gathered, Morgan had the great ornamental bronze doors to the library locked and refused to let anyone leave until all had collectively agreed to commit a further $25 million to the rescue fund."
— Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance (Penguin Books, 2009, p. 54)
Lately we have been engulfed by headlines reporting financial turmoil on every continent, in almost every nation, large and small. The commissars of central planning who so marred the history of the 20th century have been replaced by central banks in the 21st. In Cyprus, the new leadership now dares to confiscate citizens’ wealth with a one-time tax of up to 60 percent on bank deposits above 100,000 euros. Self-interested prime ministers blame continental monetary policies for instigating the currency wars that they themselves surreptitiously carry on.
Constitution.org provides an extensive and thoughtful Memorandum of Law by Larry Becraft, Esq., of Huntsville, Alabama, on Article I, Section 10, clause 1 of the US Constitution.
Sir William Blackstone courtesy of Wikipedia
One of many interesting matters the Memorandum treats is Blackstone's Commentaries, a book that was a fixture in the...
The value of the yuan has been slowly rising. The value of the Japanese yen has been sharply falling. Abenomics is attempting to reflate the Japanese economic – slowly, slowly. “Japan is back!” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tells the Japanese.
Coming back isn’t easy. The Financial Times’ Jonathan Soble has noted...
Sean Fieler, James Grant, Steve Hanke, John D. Mueller, Lawrence Parks, Judy Shelton, Lawrence H. White
Senior European Advisor Paul Fabra
Advisors Jeffrey Bell, Ralph J. Benko, Andresen Blom, Frank Cannon, Rich Danker, Brian Domitrovic, Charles Kadlec, Christopher K. Potter, John Tamny and Frank Trotta
In Memoriam Professor Jacques Rueff (1896-1978)
Now Available on Amazon and from The Lehrman Institute