Elastic Currency
Posted: January 17th, 2008, 12:38 pm
Elastic Currency
Thursday, January 17th 2008 — Christopher Hansen
Federal Reserve Act, Dispersed throughout 12 USC; ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251 (December 23, 1913)
“To provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.”
After contacting the Congressional Research Service with your request, they have directed me to a report that explains the definition of a dollar from the 1856 edition of the Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, to the 1986 edition of Black’s Law, Second Pocket Edition, and explained that the definition of a dollar is actually quite fluid. Mary Mason, Special Assistant for Senator John Ensign
**[A]ctually quite fluid. Is that like** “elastic”?
“Federal Reserve notes are not dollars.” Russell L . Munk,Assistant General Counsel, Department of the Treasury
No statute defines - or ever has defined - the “one dollar” Federal Reserve Note “FRN” as the “dollar,” or even as a species of “dollar .” Moreover, the United States Code provides that FRNs “shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States .. . or at any Federal Reserve bank.” Thus, FRNs are not themselves
“lawful money” - otherwise, they would not be “redeemable in lawful money.” And if FRNs are not even “lawful money,” it is inconceivable that they are somehow “dollars,” the very units in which all “United States money is expressed.” Assemblyman Bob Beers, Nevada
Congressional Research Service:
American Jurisprudence, Volume 36, A§ 8
[T]he term “dollar” means money, since it is the unit of money in this country, and in the absence of qualifying words, it cannot mean promissory notes or bonds or other evidences of debt. The term also refers to specific coins of the value of one dollar . (27 Ohio Jur pp . 125, 126, A§ 3), (United States v. Van Auken, 96 US 366, 24 L ed 852)
Black’s Law, Second Pocket Edition (1996)
Federal reserve note. The paper currency in circulation in the United States. The notes are issued by the Federal Reserve Banks, are effectively non-interest-bearing promissory notes payable to bearer on demand, and are issued in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000.
Title 18 A§ 8 . - Obligation or other security of the United States defined The term “obligation or other security of the United States” includes all bonds, certificates of indebtedness, national bank currency, Federal Reserve notes, Federal Reserve bank notes, coupons, United States notes, Treasury notes, gold certificates, silver certificates, fractional notes, certificates of deposit, bills, checks, or drafts for money, drawn by or upon authorized officers of the United States, stamps and other representatives of value, of whatever denomination, issued under any Act of Congress, and canceled United States stamps.
“Money is a unit of measure used as a medium of exchange that can be recognized and honored at a consistent value in a society. Senator Bennett of Utah
Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention give us some revelations on what the Founders thought of paper money.
Mr. Elseworth, thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By withholding the power from the new Government more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost any thing else. Paper money can in no case be necessary. Give the Government credit, and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good.
Mr. Butler, remarked that paper was a legal tender in no Country in Europe. He was urgent for disarming the Government of such a power.
Mr. Read, thought the words,(allowing the Federal Government to emit bills of credit (paper money) if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelations.
The words emit bills of credit were removed from the proposed wording of the Constitution in a vote of 9 States voting to remove the words and 2 against. In other words the power to print paper money was NOT GRANTED to Congress.
So how many “dollars” in income did you have last year?
Thursday, January 17th 2008 — Christopher Hansen
Federal Reserve Act, Dispersed throughout 12 USC; ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251 (December 23, 1913)
“To provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.”
After contacting the Congressional Research Service with your request, they have directed me to a report that explains the definition of a dollar from the 1856 edition of the Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, to the 1986 edition of Black’s Law, Second Pocket Edition, and explained that the definition of a dollar is actually quite fluid. Mary Mason, Special Assistant for Senator John Ensign
**[A]ctually quite fluid. Is that like** “elastic”?
“Federal Reserve notes are not dollars.” Russell L . Munk,Assistant General Counsel, Department of the Treasury
No statute defines - or ever has defined - the “one dollar” Federal Reserve Note “FRN” as the “dollar,” or even as a species of “dollar .” Moreover, the United States Code provides that FRNs “shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States .. . or at any Federal Reserve bank.” Thus, FRNs are not themselves
“lawful money” - otherwise, they would not be “redeemable in lawful money.” And if FRNs are not even “lawful money,” it is inconceivable that they are somehow “dollars,” the very units in which all “United States money is expressed.” Assemblyman Bob Beers, Nevada
Congressional Research Service:
American Jurisprudence, Volume 36, A§ 8
[T]he term “dollar” means money, since it is the unit of money in this country, and in the absence of qualifying words, it cannot mean promissory notes or bonds or other evidences of debt. The term also refers to specific coins of the value of one dollar . (27 Ohio Jur pp . 125, 126, A§ 3), (United States v. Van Auken, 96 US 366, 24 L ed 852)
Black’s Law, Second Pocket Edition (1996)
Federal reserve note. The paper currency in circulation in the United States. The notes are issued by the Federal Reserve Banks, are effectively non-interest-bearing promissory notes payable to bearer on demand, and are issued in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000.
Title 18 A§ 8 . - Obligation or other security of the United States defined The term “obligation or other security of the United States” includes all bonds, certificates of indebtedness, national bank currency, Federal Reserve notes, Federal Reserve bank notes, coupons, United States notes, Treasury notes, gold certificates, silver certificates, fractional notes, certificates of deposit, bills, checks, or drafts for money, drawn by or upon authorized officers of the United States, stamps and other representatives of value, of whatever denomination, issued under any Act of Congress, and canceled United States stamps.
“Money is a unit of measure used as a medium of exchange that can be recognized and honored at a consistent value in a society. Senator Bennett of Utah
Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention give us some revelations on what the Founders thought of paper money.
Mr. Elseworth, thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By withholding the power from the new Government more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost any thing else. Paper money can in no case be necessary. Give the Government credit, and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good.
Mr. Butler, remarked that paper was a legal tender in no Country in Europe. He was urgent for disarming the Government of such a power.
Mr. Read, thought the words,(allowing the Federal Government to emit bills of credit (paper money) if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelations.
The words emit bills of credit were removed from the proposed wording of the Constitution in a vote of 9 States voting to remove the words and 2 against. In other words the power to print paper money was NOT GRANTED to Congress.
So how many “dollars” in income did you have last year?