An interesting development from 2015, which should have made bigger news headlines.
Utah House Passes Bill Recognizing Gold, Silver as Legal TenderDecember 23, 2015
Utah took its first step Friday toward bringing back the gold standard when the state House passed a bill that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency.
The House voted 47-26 in favor of the legislation that would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax and calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state.
The legislation now heads to the state Senate, where a vote is expected next week.
Under the bill, the coins would not replace the current paper currency but would be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.
If the bill passes, Utah would become the first of 13 states that have proposed similar measures. The others states are Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.
Backers of Utah's bill say they want to send a message to the rest of the country.
"People sense that in the era of quantitative easing and zero interest rates, something has gone haywire with our monetary policy," said Jeffrey Bell, policy director for the Washington-based American Principles in Action, which helped shape the bill.
"If one state recognizes gold as a valid currency, I think it would embolden people not just in other states but in Washington," he said.
The U.S. used the gold standard from 1873 until 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlawed the private ownership of gold amid the Great Depression. President Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard altogether when he announced in 1971 that the U.S. would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value.
Critics of the gold standard say it limits countries' control over its monetary policy and leaves them vulnerable to financial shocks, such as the Great Depression. But supporters argue that the current financial system's dependence on the Federal Reserve exposes the value of U.S. money to the risk of runaway inflation.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/utah-house-passes-bill-recognizing-gold-silver-as-legal-tender ....
Gold and silver being accepted as legal tender is a great idea! Exempting gold and silver from capital gains taxation also makes a ton of sense given current conditions.
This was written and published back in 2015. At the time, I did not see zero interest rates as a concern. I thought they were intended to provide credit and liquidity to small businesses, which historically are responsible for 50% of new job growth in the united states.
Backers of Utah's bill say they want to send a message to the rest of the country.
"People sense that in the era of quantitative easing and zero interest rates, something has gone haywire with our monetary policy," said Jeffrey Bell, policy director for the Washington-based American Principles in Action, which helped shape the bill.
Now perhaps it is easier to recognize zero interest rates having a flipside negative of fueling the expansion of reckless financial enterprise built upon an unreliable foundation of the expectation of future economic growth. Reckless investment fueled by zero interest rates, could be responsible for most of the major bubbles which have arisen in recent times.
Would fans of crypto support laws to establish precious metals as forms of legal tender? What does everyone think?
