Will Bridges

I’ve spent a couple days trying to learn more about the monetary system under the Federal Reserve in the United States. What I have learned has been very eye opening. Mind you, I learned much of this stuff about 5 years ago when I became very interested in American history and the lessons I seemed to be missing. Now I know tons on the subject and it’s very disturbing. I’m also learning how to protect my money and it’s value.

Let me start by a small history lesson. All money used to be made of silver, gold, or other precious metals. A person would have to go a metal smith and get the metal pressed in to coins or they would have the precious metal stored for them by the metal smith. When the metal was stored by the smith the person storing the metal would receive a redeemable receipt. From that receipt the person could go and get the precious metal back from the smith in whole or in part at any time. This kept the person from carrying the heavy precious metals around. This was good but inconvenient when you were trying to buy something and you had to go back to the metal smith exchange the receipt for an amount of precious metal, then run back to the person you are trying to buy from and give them some precious metals. Then the person you bought from has to the metal smith to store the precious metals they got from you. The metal smiths (soon to be the first bankers) had a great idea. They could give you paper (or non-valuable materials of some sort) notes which were traded and redeemable for stored metals. People could go about trading the notes with each other and not have to run back and forth to the metal smith. Awesome! This worked great for a while. Then, the metal smiths said something similar ‘hey, I have 1000 gold coins and people only ever come to claim 100 gold coins at a time with these notes. I bet I could loan money.’ So, then the metal smiths started loaning these notes which were redeemable for gold and charging interest based on them. This worked great. The metal smiths were making money hand over fist. The people they were charging interest had to pay them back in gold so it only increased the power to print more money. They got greedy and made more notes than they had available in gold. Thus the founding of Fractional Reserve Banking. That’s where the Federal Reserve comes from. Banks were born from metal smiths.

When paper notes are not backed by precious metals they only have the value the people give them. They are also subject to inflation. We had no inflation when we had all of our money backed by a gold standard. A note is an instrument of debt and not real money. If you want further information on this look up the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 (which was passed on Christmas vacation in congress when most people were home with families). Look at the real cause of the depression. Find out about who owns the federal reserve (it’s private banks, not the government). I will protect my money’s value and back it by gold and silver, not the value of a rich man’s word. Gold and silver have intrinsic value. Nobody will give you your liberty. You must claim it. So, be watchful and be informed.