Norfed encouraged people to keep doing “the drop,” referring to its advice to drop the coin into merchants’ hands so they can feel its weight.
That could land the dropper in prison, Bailey warns, for up to five years.

the problem with articles like this is that the authority (Bailey) is never asked the obvious question: When did barter become illegal? The crux of the issue, representing the coins as legal tender vs. simply offering them in trade is never addressed.

and get real… the SPLC? I realize Ms. Williamson probably has a lot on her plate, but surely it is better to write nothing at all than to turn out uninformative tripe like this.

David St. Hubbins:

NORFED is most definately NOT advocating trying to pass their Liberty Dollars off as legal tender. I, myself, have NEVER attempted to use a Liberty Dollar or warehouse receipt, at any other than a declared Liberty Merchant and I always declare right off the top that I am tendering in Liberty Dollars.

The government has NO grounds whatsoever to go after NORFED. If an individual attempts to pass a Liberty Dollar off as legal tender, than prosecute that individual for fraud and leave it at that. Businesses and individuals have an absolute right to use ANYTHING they mutually agree on as a medium of exchange and government be damned. If I want to pay for my purchases in gold, silver, platinum, copper, tobacco, or whatever and the merchant is agreeable, than to hell with what the government thinks.

“a far-right anti-government group” –from the WaPo article

Ruh-roh! There are few things on this planet worse than being far-right or anti-government. In fact, the only thing that comes to mind is being far-right AND anti-government.

It’s too bad the spokesperson for Norfed had to backtrack on being “anti-government” so that WaPo couldn’t make him sound any crazier than they already did. Unfortunately, admitting to being a libertarian (even a nominally “pro-government” one) is just as criminal.

This is the type of crap that passes off as “unbiased” news journalism.

“Nothin’ but the facts and the statist line, please, sir!”

If I want my car fixed, for example, and a buddy of mine will do it for the reimbursment of parts (or I just buy the parts) plus a case of beer, is it illegal to pay him in beer? Would (insert your favorite brand of beer here) then be considered illegal tender? Or would the government step in and demand a can (or 6) from the case as taxes?

Yes, the government would want taxes – not in beer, but in US dollars based on the assumed (by them) “free market value” of the beer. (It’s possible that their problem with the ALD is that “the free market value” of a $20 Liberty round is under $12)

They wouldn’t start spouting about the brewery being illegal, though.

” (even supposing that the Norfed is producing money, which it is not)”

Is it not? Isn’t that the point of sound money? That money is a commodity that arises from the market itself? Surely by that measure NORFED is producing a far sounder money than the Fed.

“Any opinions on the real basis for the crackdown?”

“”The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. ”

“The first step is to penetrate the clouds of deceit and distortion and learn the truth about the world, then to organize and act to change it. That’s never been impossible and never been easy.”

“You don’t have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system – a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as “Commissars” – for that is what their essential function is – to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies”.

–Noam Chomsky

I like Brian Caplan’s take on Chomsky. Chomsky seems to believe humans have to be brainwashed to do exactly the type of thing evolution would give us a propensity to do.

David St. Hubbins

” Why should someone be allowed to pass off non-US currency as US Currency? Isn’t that fraud? This has nothing to do with whether or not we should have fiat money”.

But if the US currency (and all other currencies as well), by itself is based on fraud, the answer might be that you are wrong.

I quote from the book; America’s Great Depression, written by Murray Rothbard, headline; Preventing Depressions, page 32;

“But a 100 percent gold reserve requirement would not be just another administrative control by government; it would be part and parcel of the general libertarian legal prohibition against fraud. Everyone except absolute pacifists concedes that violence against person and property should be outlawed, and that agencies, operating under this general law, should defend person and property against attack. Libertarians, advocates of laissez-faire, believe that “governments” should confine themselves to being defense agencies only. Fraud is equivalent to theft, for fraud is committed when one part of an exchange contract is deliberately not fulfilled after the other’s property has been taken. Banks that issue receipts to non-existent gold are really committing fraud, because it is then impossible for all property owners (of claims to gold) to claim their rightful property. Therefore, prohibition of such practices would not be an act of government intervention in the free market; it would be part of the general legal defense of property against attack which a free market requires”.

http://mises.org/rothbard/agd/chapter1.asp#preventing_depressions

I quote from the book; What Has Government Done to Our Money? Written by Murray Rothbard, headline; Going Off the Gold Standard, page 89;

“Finally, governments went “off gold” officially and completely, in a thunder of abuse against foreigners and “unpatriotic gold hoarders.” Government paper now becomes the fiat standard money. Sometimes, Treasury rather than Central Bank paper has been the fiat money, especially before the development of a central banking system. The American Continentals, the Greenbacks, and Confederate notes of the Civil War period, the French assignats, were all fiat currencies issued by the Treasuries. But whether Treasury or Central Bank, the effect of fiat issue is the same: the monetary standard is now at the mercy of the government, and bank deposits are redeemable simply in government paper”.

http://mises.org/money/3s10.asp

Björn Lundahl
Göteborg, Sweden

“I like Brian Caplan’s take on Chomsky. Chomsky seems to believe humans have to be brainwashed to do exactly the type of thing evolution would give us a propensity to do.”

Of course Madison Avenue exploits people’s natural tendency to want enjoyment, companionship, status, and security … the same type of thing evolutin would give us a propensity to do. I suspect that Chomsky’s beef is with advertisers misleading consumers into believing that their products will provide ends such as these when they will not.

Libertarians would not agree with Chomsky except in cases of fraud. However, the point is that governments do the exact same thing. They mislead their citizens into believing that their policies and programs will give citizens what they naturally want – prosperity, security, and community – when in fact they tend to promote the very opposite conditions. However, unlike the attempts to mislead in the marketplace, should a citizen see through his government’s deceptions, he cannot simply opt out by refraining from purchasing the “service” being marketed.

The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 provides that the courts will not enforce contracts in which payment is stipulated in gold (and perhaps silver as well). This hijacking of the justice system by the government makes a good argument for private COURTS as well as private money production.

I like Jeffrey’s observation that, in common with all other barter exchanges, exchange in this “non-money” may be more difficult for the government to tax (just like the beer). I would say that THIS is the more-urgent of the government’s many nefarious interests in this development.