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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,285 |
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Valued Member
175 Posts |
Edited by Ron2012Paul
08/20/2011 04:20 am
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
That's an interesting idea. Gold for the Swiss, Silver for the Mexicans. :D
I think that currencies should be a trading unit OF money, and not tied to any empire. They should simply be different measurements for whatever reasons (e.g. a better exchange rate, metric system). A franc will be a franc in Switzerland or China no matter who issued it. In fact, many currencies' names are based on weights or measurements. The pound (or libra), the peso/peseta, pieces (or bits) of eight, cent (100 in French), the gulden, mil (1000 in French), dinar....
If you want to know more about that Mexican idea, google Hugo Salinas Price. He gives reasons for an undenominated 1-ounce .999 silver round (the Libertad) to freely circulate with the Peso at a fixed daily rate that never goes down.
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
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Will my old gold Swiss francs still be good? I gave perfectly worthless FRNs for them! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Ok, I sorta read most of that, and a question persists: why would there be a federal Swiss referendum for a "privately-issued" gold frank--that simply isn't logical. More importantly--what monetary problem would this solve for the Swiss? Pegging currency to metals creates a whole new set of problems, and it's not like insolvency is looming on their horizon, where their big acct. holders are pulling out their money. I realize it's in fashion to decry "fiat currency", but the Swiss still have a solid backstop, both tangibly and in investor's minds. That carries a bit more weight than a "sensual experience" with real money"--which ironically is an abstraction. --just my 2 Rappen on the article and my brief experience in Switzerland.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4008 Posts |
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why would there be a federal Swiss referendum for a "privately-issued" gold frank--that simply isn't logical. It seems quite logical to me. This is how the Swiss people can implement a change in their laws that the Swiss politicians oppose. As the gentleman who was interviewed stated, choice is good and this would give Swiss citizens a choice of which money they prefer. As long as the state sets the physical parameters for such coinage, it really isn't necessary for them to do anything more. |
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Valued Member
 175 Posts |
I give switzerland 2 thumbs up for this. Let the people and the free market decide what the dominant currency is.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
I suspect the gist of my comment was misunderstood--not that it matters so much.  But, if you're calling a referendum to enact a federal or kantonal law, what would that matter to a privately-issued currency? It's not like Bern is going to stop issuing money either way--private currency would have no bearing on what's done on the federal level. The Swiss are about conservative as Europe gets regarding monetary policy, and nobody would like to go back to the days of competing kantonal currency--it was a nightmare. |
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Valued Member
175 Posts |
In the interview the guy said the Swiss gold franc would be an international currency so people outside of Switzerland would be able to use it.
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Doesn't matter if there's a new currency weighing 2.946 ounces of 14K gold, as long as all of it is the same and people know that it will always be the same, it can work.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4008 Posts |
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But, if you're calling a referendum to enact a federal or kantonal law, what would that matter to a privately-issued currency? I suspect that we are simply on different pages here, but... Most governments seem to think that ONLY they have the right to issue legal currency. In most places, it would be necessary to change the law to allow privately minted money to be created without being arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison for counterfeiting. We had a very fine example of that right here in the US a few months ago with a fellow named Bernard von Nothaus and his private Liberty Mint. If there is anything that the government hates, it is competition. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Which is why you shouldn't lie on your taxes.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4008 Posts |
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Which is why you shouldn't lie on your taxes. Which is why we don't ever do that. Mom and Dad taught us 55+ years ago that "honesty is the best policy" and that includes when dealing with the IRS. If we owe it, we pay it, in full and on time. It's amazing at just how easy it is to get along with the IRS on this basis.  |
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Valued Member
175 Posts |
Yea but if we are honest in paying them then the government should be honest with what they do with it.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
Yeah, the IRS was so honest with me, that it took them 4 months to get me my refund.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4008 Posts |
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Yea but if we are honest in paying them then the government should be honest with what they do with it. Yes, that would be appropriate. Will it ever happen? Maybe. If it does, it is likely to be an event that has not occurred since the days of The Founding Fathers. Quote:
Yeah, the IRS was so honest with me, that it took them 4 months to get me my refund. Mistakes happen. It is unfortunate that it took them so long to return to you that which is yours. I make no apology on their behalf for that. It should not have happened but it did. Fortunately, this is an aberration and not the normal turnaround time for tax refunds. We got a refund of about $7400 last spring and it was sent to us fairly quickly... IIRC it arrived about 4 weeks after we mailed in our tax filing. We pay estimated taxes on my wife's businesses, which vary in sales considerably, and we over-estimated the amount due. That was our mistake, though, and not the IRS's. |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,285 |
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Posted 08/20/2011 1:09 pm
