When I graduated high school, in 1969, a $20 bill had about as much value as a $100 bill today. Inflation has taken a toll. In 1969, $500 and $1,000 bills were still in reasonably common circulation. They had been issued up until 1945. With the turn toward ever increasing government snooping and tracking of financial transactions, the bills were taken out of circulation with an executive order by President Richard Nixon.
It is long past due to bring the $500 bill back into common use. The European Union issues 500 Euro bills. Cash is useful for preserving privacy and transportation of value to those who wish to avoid the electronic trail that follows digital transactions everywhere. All it took to remove the bills from circulation was a simple executive order.
That is all it would take to bring them back.
But more should be done. The insane tracking of every one's financial transactions should be scaled back. The forfeiture laws that allow legal theft of property need to be revised or repealed. Stealing cash amounts under $50,000 does nothing to hinder the drug trade or terrorists. But it harms a lot of innocent people who want to pay cash for a car, who do not trust the banks, or who consider Cypress when thinking about contingencies.
The reforms could look like this. Raise the reporting amount for banks to $50,000 from the effective $5,000 that it is today. Raise the amount to be declared when travelling overseas to $50,000. If repeal of the forfeiture laws proves too high a goal, reform them to make forfeiture of anything of less value than $50,000 a crime.
It doesn't matter if a President Trump or a President Cruz accomplishes this much needed reform. It will be a highly visible signal to the people that the government no longer views them as a threat, and a refreshing return of some small measure of liberty.
Of course, a new run of $500 bills would be needed at some point. May I suggest that they have the picture of President Ronald Reagan on them?
The issue of $500 bills is a small but powerfully symbolic action that appears to be within a President's executive power.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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5 comments:
Just one more illegal executive order in a very long line of illegal executive orders. the constitution gives the congress the sole authority over our money. these illegal executive orders go back a very long way.
The government redesigned our paper money to prevent counterfeiting. I was talking to an FBI agent that told me a week after they made the change better looking counterfeit bills were showing up.
Canada currently mints its Maple Leaf Gold coins to I believe 99.999 purity, so pure that they can laser engrave images on them, then packages them to protect the very soft metal. Currently the spot price of gold is around $1,260 an ounce.
So what if the US minted high purity, laser engraved gold coins whose face value was worth more than the value of the metal? Say an ounce gold coin for $10,000, and a half ounce for $5,000.
From there, rhodium takes over for lower denominations, then platinum, then palladium, then silver. All highest purity. All worth far more than their value as metal.
One good reason would be they would not stay in this country for very long.
We need to apply the same rules from banking and finance to university research grants, trial lawyers, and union funds. Professulas, trial lawyers and union organizers are Obama's core constituencies. Islamosympathic gutterswabbing clothing and pierced privates spread disease. Passive aggressive labor unions grab our guns, cars (congestion pricing), balls (SONDA), wallets, and homes. Professulas molest more youth than clergy do, while their posh pensions graze on stumbent loan interest from vacuous degrees in basket weaving commie nutty organizing. Apply Sarbanes Oxley to non-profits! Repeal the sixteenth amendment before any VAT. All the homeless are drugged out hippies. Waste all stumbent subprimes, so professulas need to sell their affectation glutton art and work instead of diverting tuition and Y2K scams to soviet freezeniks! Grynch soviet wealth fund abetting aghadhimmic peakies now that oil plummets! Parasites complain about salaries but pig out with benefits. Global warming is a grant grubbing extortion racket. Urban sprawl annoys terrorists. Hazards and pollution stem mostly from mandates. Aqua volte! This land wasn't built by bullocraps.
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