New types of money are popping up across Mid-Michigan and supporters say, it's not counterfeit, but rather a competing currency.
Right now, you can buy a meal or visit a chiropractor without using actual U.S. legal tender.
They sound like real money and look like real money. But you can't take them to the bank because they're not made at a government mint. They're made at private mints.
"I sell three or four every single day and then I get one or two back a week," said Dave Gillie, owner of Gillies Coney Island Restaurant in Genesee Township.
Gillie also accepts silver, gold, copper and other precious metals to pay for food.
He says, if he wanted to, he could accept marbles.
"Do people have to accept dollars or money? No, they don't," Gillie said. "They can accept anything they want or they can refuse to accept anything."
He's absolutely right.
The U.S. Treasury Department says the Coinage Act of 1965 says "private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash, unless there is a state law which says otherwise."
That allows gas stations to say they don't accept 50- or $100 bills after a certain time of day in hopes of not getting robbed.
A chiropractic office in Lapeer County's Deerfield Township allows creativity when it comes to payment.
"This establishment accepts any form of silver, gold, chicken, apple pie, if someone works it out with me," said Jeff Kotchounian of Deerfield Chiropractic. "I've taken many things."
Jeff Kotchounian says he's used this Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver to get $25 worth of gas from a local station.
While the government and banks don't accept them, many others do.
So why is there interest in these competing currencies?
Is it just novelty or is there something deeper?
Showing posts with label gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gold. Show all posts
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
The price of gold is surging; why?
If you believe government reported data, gold should be dropping like a rock.
Let's examine Government reported data:
1) According to the consumer price index (CPI), inflation is under control at 2.3%. What's not disclosed in these data, are that the CPI no longer includes the price of food and energy which is better known as the ‘cost of living.’
2) Housing and real estate data are now showing a recovery. Realty Track just reported the first annual decrease in foreclosures in more than five years.
What's not reported by Realty Track is foreclosure filings are rising, but actual foreclosures are not. Today distressed homeowners have options and plenty of time. Some distressed homeowners stay in their home for up to 2 years without making a single mortgage payment. They can attempt to modify their loan and/or short sell their property, both options take months.
3) Decreased government spending. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner recently reported promising news. Government bailouts for banks, automakers and other industries will cost tax payers $87 Billion Dollars, that's far less than expected.
What Tim Geithner forgot to state is the $87 Billion Dollars is only the direct and public injections of capital into those failing institutions. The real cost to the American tax payer is almost four times greater.
The fact is, the Federal Reserve is now issuing/creating Treasury Bonds (T-Bonds), out of the air at an alarming rate. They're in desperate need of capital to keep up with interest payments to our creditors, and for all the bailouts.
Let's examine Government reported data:
1) According to the consumer price index (CPI), inflation is under control at 2.3%. What's not disclosed in these data, are that the CPI no longer includes the price of food and energy which is better known as the ‘cost of living.’
2) Housing and real estate data are now showing a recovery. Realty Track just reported the first annual decrease in foreclosures in more than five years.
What's not reported by Realty Track is foreclosure filings are rising, but actual foreclosures are not. Today distressed homeowners have options and plenty of time. Some distressed homeowners stay in their home for up to 2 years without making a single mortgage payment. They can attempt to modify their loan and/or short sell their property, both options take months.
3) Decreased government spending. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner recently reported promising news. Government bailouts for banks, automakers and other industries will cost tax payers $87 Billion Dollars, that's far less than expected.
What Tim Geithner forgot to state is the $87 Billion Dollars is only the direct and public injections of capital into those failing institutions. The real cost to the American tax payer is almost four times greater.
The fact is, the Federal Reserve is now issuing/creating Treasury Bonds (T-Bonds), out of the air at an alarming rate. They're in desperate need of capital to keep up with interest payments to our creditors, and for all the bailouts.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
No money for children's tuition no problem for some bureaucrats, who pay with their governent credit cards
An investigation that found thousands of dollars in unauthorized purchases of clothing, gold coins, flat-screen televisions, gym memberships and college tuition payments by employees of the Federal Protective Services using government purchase cards has resulted in no disciplinary action.
Twenty-one FPS employees took advantage of an 18-month transition period during which the security agency was moved from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security "to loot GSA resources by purchasing unauthorized goods," according to the GSA's office of inspector general.
Investigative documents obtained by The Washington Times through a Freedom of Information Act request said the California-based FPS employees used the government cards to buy, among other things, $17,000 in suits at Macy's and the Men's Wearhouse, $15,000 in gold and silver coins, $60,000 in tuition payments and professional memberships, and $8,000 in gym memberships in 2003 and 2004.
The FPS employees, who are responsible for securing federal buildings, also used expense vouchers to get reimbursements for more than $9,000 in clothing, including an $800 tuxedo.
Investigators said employees with the security force bought the questionable items but concealed them by not entering them into the government computer system known as "Pegasys," which processes and reconciles financial transactions.
The purchases were the subject of an investigation by the inspector general's office that spanned five years. In September, investigators closed the case and noted that of the 21 employees involved in making the inappropriate purchases, three resigned and four retired. Five employees faced a possible reprimand and no action had been taken against nine others.
Twenty-one FPS employees took advantage of an 18-month transition period during which the security agency was moved from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security "to loot GSA resources by purchasing unauthorized goods," according to the GSA's office of inspector general.
Investigative documents obtained by The Washington Times through a Freedom of Information Act request said the California-based FPS employees used the government cards to buy, among other things, $17,000 in suits at Macy's and the Men's Wearhouse, $15,000 in gold and silver coins, $60,000 in tuition payments and professional memberships, and $8,000 in gym memberships in 2003 and 2004.
The FPS employees, who are responsible for securing federal buildings, also used expense vouchers to get reimbursements for more than $9,000 in clothing, including an $800 tuxedo.
Investigators said employees with the security force bought the questionable items but concealed them by not entering them into the government computer system known as "Pegasys," which processes and reconciles financial transactions.
The purchases were the subject of an investigation by the inspector general's office that spanned five years. In September, investigators closed the case and noted that of the 21 employees involved in making the inappropriate purchases, three resigned and four retired. Five employees faced a possible reprimand and no action had been taken against nine others.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
While you're at Harrod's anyway, why don't you pick up a pound of gold?
A remarkable piece of news came out of London last week. Harrods, one of Europe’s best-known department stores, has begun selling gold bullion.
This unprecedented move by the famous retailer reflects the rapidly growing appetite for investment-grade gold, which has been enjoying a bull run even as the world is bogged down in a global recession. Used as a hedge against currency weakness, especially the dollar, gold has been trading at record highs. Many analysts think this is no temporary spike, but a long-term surge that will continue as the word monetary system is pulled down by the mismanaged and collapsing dollar. (To be sure, there are those who question whether gold is a sound investment, even in inflationary times.)
Swiss-based financial newsletter Daily Bell puts it bluntly:
“We are in a bull market cycle for money metals because fiat money is all but dead, including most importantly the American dollar.”
Simone Wapler, the editor of MoneyWeek agrees:
“Gold is being re-monetized. All the world’s paper monies are losing value – and credibility. There’s a race to the bottom as they try to devalue their currencies.”
Until quite recently, money was backed by gold. That changed after World War II, when Western powers set up a monetary system with the dollar at its center. The dollar was partially backed by the metal until 1971 when President Richard Nixon took it off the gold standard altogether. At that point, the dollar became pure paper money.
But there was a major problem with the change. Politicians will always print more money than they should. How else to pay for the promises that got them elected? This excessive printing is known as currency debasement and it ultimately leads to inflation.
This unprecedented move by the famous retailer reflects the rapidly growing appetite for investment-grade gold, which has been enjoying a bull run even as the world is bogged down in a global recession. Used as a hedge against currency weakness, especially the dollar, gold has been trading at record highs. Many analysts think this is no temporary spike, but a long-term surge that will continue as the word monetary system is pulled down by the mismanaged and collapsing dollar. (To be sure, there are those who question whether gold is a sound investment, even in inflationary times.)
Swiss-based financial newsletter Daily Bell puts it bluntly:
“We are in a bull market cycle for money metals because fiat money is all but dead, including most importantly the American dollar.”
Simone Wapler, the editor of MoneyWeek agrees:
“Gold is being re-monetized. All the world’s paper monies are losing value – and credibility. There’s a race to the bottom as they try to devalue their currencies.”
Until quite recently, money was backed by gold. That changed after World War II, when Western powers set up a monetary system with the dollar at its center. The dollar was partially backed by the metal until 1971 when President Richard Nixon took it off the gold standard altogether. At that point, the dollar became pure paper money.
But there was a major problem with the change. Politicians will always print more money than they should. How else to pay for the promises that got them elected? This excessive printing is known as currency debasement and it ultimately leads to inflation.
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