There was a very good reason Nixon shut the gold window...because we were hemorraging hard assets while most (or essentially all) of the rest of the world had already abandoned Bretton-Woods and gone to "soft" money and floating rate currencies. And that was before the age when billions of dollars could be transferred in a flash by simply pushing a button at your desk.
We'd essentially have a 19th century fiscal policy trying to cope with a 21st century world. Short of complete financial isolation, I haven't heard any remotely plausable scenarios where anything like that could work today.
Today's arrangement isn't working out so good, unless you are a protected species.
The Kahre case was simple tax evasion. He didn't offer to calculate his taxes on the cost basis of the gold. He was trying to use the face value of the coins to claim a lower tax liability for he and his workers, but he wasn't using the same basis to pay his workers as he used for tax purposes.
Ron Paul makes an interesting suggestion that competing currencies could coexist. I think so too, and the more honest currency would win. Of course, tax law would need to be re-vamped completely. The politicians will never allow their gravy train to end willingly, so it's a long, long shot.
Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally
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We'd essentially have a 19th century fiscal policy trying to cope with a 21st century world. Short of complete financial isolation, I haven't heard any remotely plausable scenarios where anything like that could work today.
Today's arrangement isn't working out so good, unless you are a protected species.
The Kahre case was simple tax evasion. He didn't offer to calculate his taxes on the cost basis of the gold. He was trying to use the face value of the coins to claim a lower tax liability for he and his workers, but he wasn't using the same basis to pay his workers as he used for tax purposes.
Ron Paul makes an interesting suggestion that competing currencies could coexist. I think so too, and the more honest currency would win. Of course, tax law would need to be re-vamped completely. The politicians will never allow their gravy train to end willingly, so it's a long, long shot.
I knew it would happen.