Anyway, I got a history lesson tonight that blew my mind. Took me quite a while to verify this with many sources, but all accounts point to the unthinkable.
In 1933, during the great depression, our government decided it was in the "public interest" to confiscate all of the privately-held gold of US citizens in exchange for paper dollars. Immediately after paying out $20.65 per ounce of gold to the people, the government arbitrarily changed the value of gold to $35 /oz. This resulted in the immediate asset devaluation of 40% to the people - and a 40% profit to the government.
Oh, forgot to mention that this came after FDR shut down the banks and forbade them from honoring their commitments to their depositors. FDR ordered that the banks cease redeeming dollars for gold because of this "national emergency". So, it goes like this:
Banks: you can't give out any more gold to the people you owe it to.
People: give us all your gold - or else.
Slight pause . . . . .
Oh, sorry, gold is worth a lot more now, too bad you don't have any. And those paper dollars we forced you to trade your gold for? They're worth a lot less. Now run along now and spend your paper.
Talk about a raw deal. I turn in my gold for your dollars, and you turn around and arbitrarily set the value of those dollars to 60% of what they were worth when we made the trade -- overnight!
An interesting aside - Gold is currently trading around $1,400 USD per ounce. In 1933, it was bought by the government from the people at $20.65 per ounce. That is a simple annualized rate of return in excess of 84% over the past 80 years, or a cumulative ROI of more than 6,500%. Too bad home values didn't go up 84% per year for the past 80 years, eh? Coincidence?
I could not believe that the US government would so damage its citizens in one fell swoop. The truth is that it did happen, exactly as described, by executive order 6102. Issued by Franklin D Roosevelt, this illegal, unprecedented violation of the personal property rights of the citizens illustrates the grim reality that our government will stop at nothing to preserve itself in an "emergency". Subsequent executive orders modified the confiscation provisions, however they retained the general premises that owning gold was not permitted, and acquiring gold was something only the Federal Reserve was authorized to do.
It remained illegal for private citizens to own gold in any significant quantity until 1974. Yes, 40 years later. You would think that gold is a drug in this country the way it is so actively controlled and guarded by the economic powers that be.
We are on a perilous path. Our dollars are worth nothing physical or tangible. The value of the dollar is actively manipulated by a small handful of academics in a board room (Federal Reserve). The debt is staggering. Soon will come the day when the US is not able to meet its financial obligations to the countries around the world who are lending us trillions of dollars to fund our excess. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you can't spend more than you make every year and never have to face the music.
When (not if) the dollar faces total collapse due to our inability to fund the debt and entitlements our government has promised, there will be little of real value other than gold. Just don't let the government find out you have it. If they want it, they obviously are willing to take it from you.
People need to wake up in this country. We need to teach our kids the real lessons of history, how governments throughout history have mistreated the public, mishandled the economy and driven the people into unimaginable debt. Stop pretending that it can't happen again.
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