06 Feb 2009

TIME Announces President’s New Policy to Confiscate Gold

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Oh my apologies! It’s a TIME article from 1933, not today. Obama will wait at least 6 months, easy, before he pulls something like this (HT2 Tim Swanson):

On March 9 Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act which empowered the President to call all gold into the Treasury, with heavy penalties for those who disobeyed his orders. At that time $1,400,000,000 in gold was in circulation, most of it hoarded. In the next 30 days more than one-third of this was turned in to the Treasury.

On April 5 President Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring holders of gold to turn it into the Treasury in exchange for paper currency under penalty of ten years imprisonment and $10,000 fine. Department of Justice agents began visiting known hoarders who, to date, have surrendered $38,901,009 in gold. During the same period unknown hoarders have given up more than $300,000,000. Attorney General Cummings issued threat of prosecution against recalcitrants who still held $560,201,000.

On Aug. 28 President Roosevelt issued another order requiring every possessor of gold to register his holdings with the Treasury before Sept. 18. Those who failed to do so were also to be punished by ten years imprisonment, $10,000 fine.

Somebody should really write a book on this stuff…

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