(sorry for the delayed response, out of town visiting family)

Wow, I’m actually surprised you bothered to drop by my site. You do make some good points, and yeah – maybe calling Bernanke a crook based solely on his response to Ron is… how do I put this lightly? Full of holes?

That said, I would like to point out that the paper currency that was issued during that time (by private banks and the government – maybe with the exception of the Civil War) was backed by gold or silver. In other words, a paper dollar was basically a receipt for coins or bullion in a vault somewhere.

However, all of that changed in 1971 when the dollar was divorced from gold. And it’s actually in that short time frame that we’ve seen most of the crazy decline in the dollar.

The point in Section 1, Article 8 still holds – as soon as you let government create currency out of thin air, the people loose their ability to control it and force honesty out of it.

Anyhoo… thanks for stopping by. I really do like reading WiseBread.com

Before that we still had printed money, and although the government didn’t print it, banks chartered by the US government did–beginning in 1791, under the authority of a law passed by a government that included many of the same people who had written and ratified the constitution. (Admittedly, there were plenty of people who were doubtful about it even then.)

At some point I think it becomes silly to point to the text and say, “You know this thing we’ve been doing for 200 years? Despite what many people have decided many times, I think it says we can’t do it….”