This quote and discussion has nothing to do with the US Government. It is about paper money. Nations everywhere use paper money. It is not an invention of the U S, its government or its' people and has nothing to do with whether or not the US Government has a will go bankrupt!

Consistency and stubborness is easy if you tell the truth!

Gold has one of the least intrinsic values among metals. I will take iron and steel for its intrinsic value anytime. My silly girlfriend just like the jerks here would probably prefer the soft silly gold. So this only proves that the intrinsic value of a medium of exchange has nothing to do with its ability to be a medium of exchange. It is the goodwill of the transactors. If you ever seen Roman, Greek or other ancient coins, they are not much to look at but served there purpose well, so does paper.

I told you it would raise the rabble. I assume now of you guys have ever been inside a bank vault. Instead of giving the borrower the checking account balance they could have walked into the vault and given them currency. Obviously Jim K and Archer know nothing about accounting or finance. Your net worth if you have any includes legal debts owed to you. Legal debts owed to you are an asset. Legal debts you owe to someone else are a liability. The bank has an asset when you take a loan out and you have a debt or liability. You guys really are about useless!

The value of paper my dear Mike is in its transactional capabilities among people of goodwill.

True but when a dollar is consumed by fire a new one is issued to take its place. The quote is false because the dollar never left its intrinsic value. It is always just a piece of paper. The value of it comes not from its intrinsic value but from its' imputed value, from its' "legal tender(ness)" its acceptability and its' ability to effect the transfer of goods and services among people. (Some really rotten quotes today, editor.)

Only thing worse is DEFLATION! Thumbs down for shallowness and misleading nature of it and it will obviously arouse the rabble unnecessarily.

Dah! or is is it duh! Why does liberty-tree print such doggerel? Of course it is absolutely true but if you don;t want the checking account balance just take the currency or the car or whatever! Absolutely true but thumbs down for thinking the dumbest quote ever.

Welcome back Chitty. I believe you have posted here before. We need some reasonable posts on this site.

One must define ones terms. Inflation is generally used to refer to "the general price level' the cost of the "basket of goods". We have recent sharp rises in food costs along with oil costs, that is the inflation that economists talk about, There may be a point the other way also, during the California Gold Rush every time someone found another mine or filed another claim the price of an egg would jump up another dollar or two. A good argument for those who think the price of anything is static in relation to gold. With the knowledge and analytical abilities of those who call me comrade I feel sad that the socialists might acutal take over. You guys really do have to do better.

Bryan if you own or have ever owned Government Bonds that is a debt owed to you. You really don't know anything about Government Debt do you. Have you never heard of the "rush to safety" when folks sell their stocks and buy US Bonds. Your 1% rise in auto sales best in 7 months was what I was referring to.

Inflation good deflation bad. With deflation folk will sit around waiting for prices to drop tomorrow. Mild inflation is normal and gives people an incentive to live today rather then hiding out waiting for prices to drop further. Never do prices stay exactly the same in a free society. Anon, Bryan, Mike, Jim and others, get a grip and a sense of humour or levity. Get some presence of mind, this liberty-tree site is a very narrow group of folk, if all you do is communicate with others on this site in this way no wonder you are looney. Last night economic news was good. Remember the doom and gloom after 911 and the then the boom years later. The USA and its government as always will get through this. The sas thing is I don't think you guys want it to.

Prices in a free economy and society are seldom static. Human nature says that the vaule of something goes up as soon as one posesses it, thus few sell their homes for what they paid for them, especially in the high turn over metro areas. One thing worse than inflation is deflation, when you buy something and the next day it is worth less than you paid for. With anticipated price deflation normal folks will wait to buy sometime in the future and thus the longer they wait the more the economy goes south. With anticipated price inflation folks buy regularly or stock pile to beat tommorrows price. Rampant run away inflation must be avoided but normal inflation is a must for a healthy economy.

Mike your remarks sound like they could have been written in any period of history, I think of the fall of Athens or the French Revoulution. Nothing is new under the sun. You panic guys are always available for a laugh. Last year it was panic at $140 a barrel oil, so now Diesel is down to $2.00. We should still look for alternatives but lets get off the panic kick. Inflation if you have not heard is a relatively good thing. Deflation is worse. Any economist will tell you that a 2-4% rate of price inflation is normal and healthy. Last night it was reported that retail sales were up in January and Car Sales were the best in almost a year. (This is for Archer: Archer when the government spends money it does not run the printing presses to do it. If they could do that then why is it said that the government is in debt for $10 trillion. Read this over and over again until you get it, the government has borrowed the mony thus it is in debt, if it could print or counterfeit it then would not be in debt. You have been called a genius, but can you not understand this simple fact.)

Anon it is great to have such passion as yours on this site. Thanks for saying I am consistent. I think you err however in several of your perceptions. First of all man has not been particularly honorable in the past more so than today. If you read your history you will find that their were highway men, theives and beggars forever and ever. I believe the biggest error you and guys like Archer make is that contrary to the popular poem, you guys think that "a man can be an island unto himself". The biggest single part of this "stimulus" is the part that lets middle class America keep more of its own money, in other words a tax cut. It is often said that US Bonds are as strong as the US Government. This is true because the US Government is as strong as Its People. We are a rich nation of rich people. In the last 8 years the government fought wars supposedly for us the people but did not have the courage to ask us to pay for them. It is time we fess up to the dereliction and pay for these things, and pay off the debt. If every family in America would kick in a grand the problem would be settled.

Archer, Archer, Archer. The government does not print money to pay its bills, if it did the government would not be in 10 trillion dollars of debt. The money from the stimulus will be paid for by selling bonds to those who can afford them. If the stimulus works and incomes rise then more funds will flow back into the treasury. The wealthy bond holders will get a stimulous interest dividend just as they got an Iraq and Afganistan War Dividend. Until the tax revenues are corrected we will always have this bond problem. Again Archer just for you, a substantial amount of this stimulus bill is a tax reduction for middle class people. We get to keep more of our money. Are you against that also?

I wish he could be a little bit more specific; Phraseology like this just gets people fired up and emotional without really giving any real information. Now lobbyists hold in their hands the destiny of the people.

So what? Paper money must be a wonderful thing. I can think of no country in the world that it is not used. Washington may have been correct for his time. With ever increasing technologies counterfeiting has been substantially eliminated.

It is an amazing, wonderful, wacky world and web site. One day Archer asks "where in the constitution" or "where did Jefferson say that the govt should be allowed to borrow" and a day or two later he is proclaimed to be a genius.

The people, Ben, have stated via their Constitution that States may not "create money." Corporations are granted existence by the States. A corporation cannot create money if a state cannot create money. I am not talking about Natural Law and Rights. I am talking about the laws and concepts that run and govern the USA. And as some say if you don't like it leave it!

Who is "money power" I have never heard him speak, who is he or it or whatever it is, able to denouce, if he has no voice. As far as the Stimulus Bill, I would have to assume the likes of Mike and Jim would be all for it. After all 35% of it or $280 billion of dollars is simply a tax cut for middle class America. For one reason or another I always thought you guys would be for tax cuts. This is just a rabble rousing innocuous quote, and yes the rabble has aroused and given it 5 stars. It is thumbs down for me.

Chase was a bit of a jerk. Read Gore Vidal's "Lincoln" to get a picture of him. But oh then Vidal was a bit of a jerk also. Oh well. It seems to me that legal tender makes the world go round. Just as laws and insurance and make us feel safe to do business with each other, so does the concept of "legal tender".

This quote is like an inside joke for economists only. I know no one on this site that understands economics let alone an inside joke! Anyone who sees the light and realizes that they are a sheep and wishes to shed their Greenbacks feel free to ship them to me.

States grant the right of incorporation to individuals and generally the individulas will state their purpose of incorporation. A state allowing an corporation to "emit bills of credit" or "create money" would appeat to be afoul of the Constitution. Again if a state cannot issue money then certainly it cannot authorized a corporation to do so. Ipso facto!

Germany was a dictatorship not a consensus of opinion. The recognition that the 51% side might have something after all to its position is the heart and sole of democracy, be careful you may just some day be on the 51% side of an argument.