Thomas Woods Quotes
The power to regulate the value of money does not involve a power to dilute the value of money by inflation, an absurd and self-serving rendering.
Woods, Thomas E., Jr. Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. Regnery Publishing, 2010.
The assumption was that money would always be backed by gold or silver. In effect, raising or allaying the money was to change the amount of gold or silver that a particular denomination of money would be able to be exchanged for. This is one of the interesting proofs that these processes did nothing economically—for if they could, no one would want the money. This has always been a weakness or a strength—depending on one’s political point of view—of a gold standard.
This is the first major history of banks written in the United States.
At the time the United States was on the Gold Standard and all our money was backed by gold. Root and others were afraid that a Federal Reserve Bank, a proposal that was being debated in Congress, would cause a large amount of paper money to be printed which other nations would obtain through trade and then exchange that for American gold—a process which would deplete the American gold supply. A few years before, William Jennings Bryan had argued that the Gold Standard did not allow America sufficient ability to increase the money supply to serve the growing population and economy. See {640992}.
His “Real Plan” had stopped the Brazilian hyperinflation when he was Finance Minister.
The exact phrase has not been found in Gresham's writings but the idea appeared in a 1558 letter to Queen Elizabeth I. The expression has come to be known as Gresham's Law.
Conservatives are surprised to learn that their great economic nemesis was one of the early economists who saw the danger of paper money and government control over the minting of money which is one of their core concerns.
Perry was an extremist politician who commonly exaggerated things to the delight of his supporters and the chagrin of his opponents.
At the time, there was no United States currency. Private banks in some of the states issued their own money. A dollar from Georgia might only be worth 75 cents in New York.
Most people owned a little land as most of America were still farmers. They had small amounts of money at different times but spent it for necessities. A relatively few people (mostly in the East) had money—gold and paper currency backed by gold. If the price of property was high, only rich could afford to buy it. The home mortgage system did not then exist, so there was no way that the average land owner could get enough money to buy land to expand farms or buy for children unless the price was low. Today, most land owners want the price of land to be high. The financial system in use at the time makes the difference.
Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. is an American author, historian, and libertarian who is currently a senior fellow at the Mises Institute. Woods is a New York Times Best-Selling author and has published twelve books. He has written extensively on subjects including the history of the United States, Catholicism, contemporary politics, and economics. Although not an economist himself, Woods is a proponent of the Austrian School of economics. He hosts a daily podcast, The Tom Woods Show, and he formerly co-hosted the now defunct Contra Krugman.
