Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Joe Kennedy Was a Hardcore Gold Bug

Huh, who knew?

The patriarch of the Kennedy family sure understood crony capitalism and the revolving door that could profitably be used for personal gain (He was the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission), but it turns out that Kennedy was also a gold bug.

Forbes columnist John Tammy writes:
Though never terribly fascinated by the Kennedy family political dynasty, stories about Joseph P. Kennedy (JPK) always interested me from an economic angle. It’s said that Kennedy properly told his son Jack (JFK) that “wars are bad for business”, and then the late Jude Wanniski used to write that JFK’s unyielding support for the gold standard (“the foundation stone of the world’s payments system”) was a function of his father having drummed it into his head from early childhood.
Tammy also hints at even more of an anti-Empire streak in old Joe:
Considering the elevation of democracy, there Kennedy revealed perhaps a libertarian streak. He believed that the U.S. should stop “minding other people’s business” and cease trying to “establish liberal democracy” around the world. Kennedy would have felt right at home with libertarians, American style liberals and some conservatives who similarly felt that the pains taken since 2001 to democratize the Middle East were foolish. As for foreign aid, he correctly observed in a way that would cheer many on the right that “the ALLY YOU HAVE TO BUY WILL NOT STAY BOUGHT.”

10 comments:

  1. If the Greenbacks were not good enough as money, then what about the Colonial Scrips? Or the Tally sticks, which can be used to pay for taxes during medieval England?

    According the Bill Still, gold is the ultimate centralization of money power, but does not serve the public interest, only those who owns it. Bill Still advocates the decentralization of money power from the few to the many, so that free capital market may truly exist.

    As Bill Still always say, it's not a question of quality, but a question of who controls the quantity, of money.

    What is money? Sure it's being fungible, as a unit of exchange, a store of value, etc. But Bill Still simplify it further by saying that whatever that can be ACCEPTED TO PAY TAX is as good as money.

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    1. People still believe that "tally sticks" mythical bullshit?

      Anon, read this sites criticisms of Bill Steal...I mean Still and the dangers of "public money" and how it will empower politicians and impoverish the masses.

      Delete
    2. Still has identified the problem, but not the solution.

      The problem is the gold exchange standard. The solution is Freegold.

      Freegold lets gold (and silver, if you wish) trade free of any encumbrance in the form of taxation, derivatives, or fractional reserve lending (no fractional reserve gold lending, no capital gains tax, no sales tax, no futures or ETF's - cash only market).

      This would allow gold to trade FREELY, to compete in the marketplace with all other forms of money.

      Government-determined money will always be manipulated to serve government. Free Market-determined money will only serve the Free Market.

      Delete
  2. "Huh, who knew?"

    Well, it would make sense, he was a pre-29 crash bear.

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  3. JPK somehow acquired a rep as "Anti-semite." Anyone know what he did/said to earn it?

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    Replies
    1. He was accused of anti-semitism and being a Nazi apologist because of his opposition to U.S. entry into World War II. This fell in line with his general opposition to U.S. interventionism and democracy-building worldwide. He also was an opponent of World War I participation.

      Delete
    2. yes...he was in favor of gold as money and was against starting wars all over the planet.

      Don't you know that is more than enough to earn the anti-semite smear from the interventionist central bankster crowd?

      Delete
  4. Stanley Kubrick was also a very big gold bug, keeping much of the fortune he amassed in gold in Switzerland.

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  5. Not that big of a leap to believe in gold when you grow up in a family that skirts the law by bootlegging and running speakeasies during Prohibition.

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  6. Bootlegging and running speakeasies during Prohibition should be considered heroic.

    ReplyDelete