Believe it or not, the Euro, the poster child of Keynesian
“managed” currencies, is “suddenly” taking criticism for being “the world’s worst currency.” Why?
Because “investors” (i.e.,
currency speculators) are having a hard time making enough money fast enough
when the European Central Bank refuses to take their wants and needs into
consideration.
We have a different opinion as to why the Euro might be the
worst currency in the world. It is the
only reserve currency on the face of the earth that started out where all the
others have gone: total government debt backing. Every other reserve currency started out as
asset-backed, whether being itself a stamped bit of gold or silver, convertible
into gold or silver, or backed with specific hard assets, whether or not
redeemable or convertible into gold or silver.
So, what’s the problem?
Rule number one for both commercial and central banking is that the
reserve currency must — not “should,” must
— be asset-backed. A reserve currency
has to stand for something that has real value.
This is because the reserve currency gives people confidence that all
the other forms of money that can be converted into the reserve currency have
value, too, or people wouldn’t want to trade something with value, for
something without value.
A reserve currency that is backed with the present value of
existing and future marketable goods and services has actual assets behind
it. A reserve currency that is backed
with government debt has only the government’s ability to collect taxes out of
production that might not even be taking place behind it.
It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to figure out which one is
preferable — or sane. So what have we
been doing this past week to try and restore some sanity to the world? Well, for starters:
• The review of Freedom Under God by Tacy Beck on the “Catholic Mom” website seems to be garnering
a little attention. You might want to visit the site, read the
review, and post your own comment. You
might also want to stop by Amazon and Barnes and Noble and purchase a copy or
two for yourself — and post a review there, too.
• Again, the big news is that a short time ago we released Freedom Under God for printing. CESJ
is now taking bulk/wholesale orders (please, no individual sales). The per unit price for ten or more copies is
$16.00 (20% discount). Shipping is
extra. Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org”
stating how many copies you want and the street address (no P. O. Boxes) where
you want them delivered. We will get
back to you with the total cost, how to pay, and estimated delivery time. All payments must be made in advance, and
orders are placed only after payment clears.
• CESJ offers a 10%
commission on the retail cover price on bulk sales of publications. If you broker a deal with, for example, a
school or civic organization that buys a publication in bulk (i.e., ten copies or more of a single
title), you receive a commission once a transaction has been completed to the
satisfaction of the customer. Thus, if
you get your club or school to purchase, say, ten cases of Freedom Under God (280 copies) or any other CESJ or UVM publication,
the organization would pay CESJ $3,920.00 (280 copies x $20 per copy, less a
30% discount), plus shipping (the commission is calculated on the retail cost
only, not the shipping). You would receive $560.00. Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org” for copies of flyers of CESJ and
UVM publications. (CESJ project
participants and UVM shareholders are not
eligible for commissions.)
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 63 different countries and 51 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The
most popular postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “Aristotle
on Private Property,” “The Fulton Sheen ‘Guy’,” “Apocalypse Now?” and “The Purpose
of Production.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we
know about. If you have an
accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at
mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next
“issue.” If you have a short (250-400
word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog —
do not send them to us to post for you.
All comments are moderated anyway, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#
