By Mike Cronin

To recap the first three major strains of dysfunction in our government: Keeping the institution of slavery while proclaiming all men are created equal introduced the strain of accommodating hypocrisy in our national psyche right from the birth of the nation. Trying to maintain that contradiction led to the Civil War, which ended the chattel slavery of blacks…but the income tax, given its first trial run during the Civil War and made permanent in 1913, made all of us tax slaves to the government and thieves to our fellows.

The fourth major branch of dysfunction is currency debasement. Currency debasement is the act of reducing the value of money by increasing its supply. This can only be done with fiat currency, and usually by central, or national, banks, such as the US Federal Reserve.

So what is fiat currency, and why is currency debasement a dysfunction?

Fiat currency is money that has nothing backing it. US dollars used to be backed by gold. For a long time in this country, you could exchange a given amount of dollars for a given amount of gold, and the prices of goods and service remained relatively the same. A man from 1800 would not have been shocked by the prices in 1900. This is what the original meaning of the term “gold standard.” Our money was as good as gold.  Then, in 1913, the Federal Reserve was established, and it began manipulating the economy. In 1973, President Nixon dissolved the gold standard altogether, our money became mere paper, and the only thing backing it became faith.

Once a currency becomes fiat, it is relatively easy for the central bank to manipulate the value of the money. Central banks ostensibly manipulate the currency to control inflation by “stimulating” the economy or changing interest rates, but the reality is that injecting additional money into the economy is the source of inflation. There are two aspects to inflation. When the newsies report inflation, they are usually talking about price inflation. When the Fed injects money into the economy (i.e. by stimulus, AKA quantitative easing), it is inflating the money supply. That is monetary inflation. Monetary inflation dilutes the value of the money already in existence, so merchants have to raise prices in order to receive the same value for their products. Monetary inflation is meant to control price inflation by “stimulating” consumption, but it actually causes price inflation because it makes our money worth less than it was before!

This leads to all kinds of trouble. First, just like income taxation, it concentrates power that should belong to the people into a few select hands, namely the operators of the central bank. (In the case of the US, it’s the board of the Federal Reserve). Second, when a powerful group like the Fed lowers the value of your money, it is, just like income taxation, using the force of government to take value from you. Third, if the central bank goes too far with its machinations, it will create hyperinflation. This is when the money loses value so fast that prices may rise weekly, daily, or even hourly.  The money literally becomes more valuable as fuel for the fireplace or as wallpaper than as currency. If it is still accepted, it will take a literal wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a loaf of bread.  Can this happen in the US? Consider: