Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

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I agree with the sentiment of both of you and WestPac. I think you guys are talking past each other. The 12 points that you have listed (and many more can be added) are great accomplishments. Yet, none of them was contingent upon fiat money. WestPac's criticism was against fiat money, not America, per se. Fiat money is quite unAmerican; in fact, the Constitution quite clearly left out the fourth institution called central bank, the likes of which were being established in Europe prior to the Revolutionary War. Founding Fathers, like Jefferson and Madison, were quite vehement in their objection to central banking.

Rome brought great liberty, freedom and prosperity to people of the known world (all around the Mediteranean). Yet, it was the devaluation of its currency (a very barbaric form of taxation) that eventually brought the Republic-Empire to its knees. Free Roman citizens sold themselves to be part of large estates in order to avoid being taxed and/or using/posessing the rapidly devaluing currency. Roman currency, the silver Dinar had its silver content cut from nearly 99% to less than 2% over 200 years after the early Julian-Claudian Emperpors; that's when all hell started to break loose. The US dollar had practically no devaluation in the first 140 years of the Republic. The last 70 years since circa 1933 however have witnessed a 95% devaluation in gold terms ($21/oz to $420/oz). Read Greenspan's own essay on gold and economic freedom.