Last week, United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced his intentions to replace Alexander Hamilton’s face on the $10 bill with a woman. This is in response to the initiative to kick out Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and substitute him with a prominent female. Hamilton was a big government founder so it isn’t too big of a deal.
But don’t tell that to one man: Ben Bernanke.
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The former Federal Reserve Chairman wrote a blog post explaining his dissatisfaction with Lew’s decision to get rid of Hamilton. Instead, Bernanke feels the Treasury should change the makeup of the $20 bill and replace Jackson with somebody else, considering that Jefferson didn’t like central banks.
Here is what Helicopter Ben wrote:
“As many have pointed out, a better solution is available: Replace Andrew Jackson, a man of many unattractive qualities and a poor president, on the twenty dollar bill. Given his views on central banking, Jackson would probably be fine with having his image dropped from a Federal Reserve note.”
This is wrong on many levels because Jackson is a reminder to us all of how dangerous central banks are. He abolished the central bank of his day and warned about the inherent evils of central banks. Let’s take a look at the eloquent words that Jackson espoused on central banks:
“Their power would be great whenever they might choose to exert it; but if this monopoly were regularly renewed every fifteen or twenty years, on terms proposed by themselves, they might seldom in peace put forth their strength to influence elections or control the affairs of the nation.”
No wonder why Bernanke wants Jackson eviscerated from our everyday consciousness!
The Real Discussion: Abolish Fiat Currency
The libertarian community is having a fun time with this because it’s an asinine issue and Bernanke wants to replace a man who despised central banks. However, the real discussion here is that we should abolish fiat money altogether.
As one economic pundit suggests to put Bernanke and Paul Krugman on U.S. fiat currency – a reader sent to Robert Wenzel a picture of Rudy Giuliani in drag to put on the $10 billion – the real idea should be ending fiat currency, unbacked money that has lost most of its value since the Fed’s inception.
The U.S. dollar will eventually crash and the current system of print, print, print will come crumbling down anyway. Since we have the general public’s attention now on the fate of the $10 billion, this is an opportune time to propose backing the U.S. dollar with gold again.
So as we debate the merits of dumping Hamilton, let’s have an exchange on dumping the current structure of the dollar. Let’s bring back sound money with precious metals. While we’re at it let’s embrace free markets, let’s reduce the size of the government and let capitalism breathe again.
Now this is the actual discussion we should be having. Not whether we should rid ourselves of Hamilton, the man who once said: “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.”
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Final Thoughts
When Bernanke opines that the Treasury has to defend the “illustrious honor” of Lew’s predecessor then you know it’s a bunch of hooey. Considering all of the disastrous policies and evils Bernanke instituted in his time at the helm of the Fed, Bernanke’s the last person who should label anyone as “illustrious” because it ruins all of their credibility.
“the real discussion here is that we should abolish fiat money altogether. … Let’s bring back sound money with precious metals.”
Right on. Fiat money is a price-control scheme as impossible as all the rest, no one decides what anyone else transacts for. People decide what money is worth, not how much there is. Recent principle US government administrator for deciding how much there is Bernanke now has a book out, The Courage to Act, a man who can’t tell anyone what he thinks money is worth because he can’t tell anyone what he thinks money is. Fiat money is the opposite extreme from courage, from answering to non-fiat money, from deciding what you think money is worth, what you think it is, from committing oneself to earning money, from refusing to have anything to do with dollars no one has earned. Bernanke’s fellow money-supply theorist Milton Friedman co-authored a book, Free to Choose, as if the non-existent option of changing the amount of money might gain stature for being associated with free choice, as if the book title could change the definition of fiat money, as if free choice ever does anything but condemn fiat money and its theorists, currency speculators all. Fiat-money supporters try in vain to graft their currency speculation onto the gold standard, onto anything, discuss the gold supply, any/all uncertainties they can conjure, no standard of value and on the wrong subject to the bitter end. Standards of measurement are for everyone and for ending uncertainty, money can’t be conjured into uncertainty, everyone understands money and gold, the gold standard serves everyone. Fiat money diminishes relentlessly in the Information Age.
“While we’re at it let’s embrace free markets, let’s reduce the size of the government and let capitalism breathe again.”
Certain to result from ending fiat money. Government then has no choice but serving the people, serving everyone, serving commerce, shrinking wholesale.