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Robert Martin's Precious Mettle
 Gold's Perpetual Luster
Robert Martin
e-mail: subman@gte.net
December 15, 2003
Gold. The noble
metal. It feels smooth, almost slippery to the touch. In its
natural state it glints in sunlight, catching the prospector's
eye. In the hand, it is weighty and reassuring. It has a timeless
quality. They say 95% of the gold ever mined is still with us.
The ancient mines of Ophir, the gold of the Inca, Yamashita's
treasure trove, the nuggets at Sutter's Mill, its all out there,
co-mingled a thousand times over like some ancient bloodline.
I find it oddly
reassuring that a bar of gold - whether stacked neatly
in Fort Knox, stored 80 feet beneath Manhattan's Federal Reserve,
or stashed in the Swiss vaults of Via Mat - is the very
same gold that adorned Egyptian Pharaohs and Russian Czarinas.
Gold is a literal and metaphorical lifeline linking the family
of man down through the ages. It unites societies and by its
weight and fineness defines the human experience.
But just forget
all that!
Instead, let
me tell you why gold is truly special.
Gold does not
tarnish.
That's it.
Now before
you jump all over me for omitting gold's other worthy properties,
for the record here they are:
Gold is appropriately
scarce. As Goldilock's might put it, "There's not too much
and not to little, it's just right." (Now we know
why she got her name).
Gold is infinitely divisible; the smallest part retains the integrity
of the whole.
Gold is fungible; one unit of pure gold can substitute for any
other.
Gold is of little use as an industrial commodity, so it is rarely
consumed or destroyed.
These attributes
all contribute to gold's evolution into money. But it recently
occurred to me that gold's true nobility lies not in its utilitarian
attributes but in its blunt refusal to tarnish. Stainless steel
stains. Aluminum oxidizes. Copper turns to verdigris. Buick's
rust. But gold simply shines, no matter what. I call it the 'perpetual
luster.'
This is no
small feat. As a nautical man, I have an appreciation for the
corrosive nature of Nature. Those of you who own boats know what
I'm saying. Things fall apart, paint dulls, metal corrodes, plastic
cracks, varnish vanishes, fiberglass fades. But gold shines;
it simply will not tarnish.
The word tarnish
comes to us from the ancient Germanic word meaning 'dull.' Dull
is also the word that comes to mind when reading the official
statements of Alan Greenspan. I find it curious how the leaden
rhetoric of our Federal Reserve boss obscures the truth like
a patina of verdigris on a silver spoon. His soothing words are
always so carefully chosen for their dullness, as if they represent
some sacred incantation with which to bolster the dollar. Well,
perhaps they do. As Sir Alan drapes himself in oblique, nearly
opaque, phrases, he projects a shaman-like mystique. The transformation
is now complete: Our egotistical economist extraordinaire
now selflessly volunteers to serve his nation and the world as
human collateral in sole support of the US dollar. Thank you,
Dr Frankenspan.
It has not
always been this way. Long before Sir Alan joined Darth Vader
on the Dark Side, he was a Jedi knight fighting for the people.
Back then, before he was the mouthpiece of the Fabianists, before
he was bought and paid for by JP Morgan, before he joined the
Council on Foreign Gyrations, he had a reputation for crisp,
clear prose that pushed back the fog of Keynesian dogma. In his
brilliant 1966 essay, titled "Gold and Economic Freedom,"
he gave warning of dangers ahead, and taught us of gold's paramount
importance:
In the absence
of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from
confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.This
is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against
gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation
of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process.
It stands as a protector of property rights.
But even the
best of men can falter, the finest reputation tarnish. Just ask
Martha Stewart, Dick Grasso, or Jack Welch. In the 37 years since
Sir Alan wrote those words, the man who exposed the shabby secret
of the welfare statists now mires himself in double-speak. He
has become that which he detested, a caricature of economic compassion,
a welfare statist gone mad. He guides the Fed with an avuncular
dishonesty that is staggering. He presides over a system dedicated
to the inflationary confiscation of wealth, foreign and
domestic, on a scale never before witnessed in human history.
And he consorts with cohorts who hastily manipulate gold in a
desperate attempt to debase it. I suspect he has had to remove
all the mirrors from his house.
Bur Sir Alan's
reputation is not the only thing to tarnish. Headlines reveal
how institutions can also tarnish, institutions we once considered
'good as gold.' First came the tarnishing of the US Public Corporation
at the hands of the Enrons, Worldcoms and Tycos. Next to tarnish
was the New York Stock Exchange, followed swiftly by Fanny Mae,
Freddie Mac, and most recently the mutual fund industry. One
by one, the proud symbols of American free enterprise are corroding
before our eyes.
But the blight
of tarnish goes much deeper. It has penetrated to the very heart
of our collective identity: our Constitution. Americans profess
profound pride in their Constitution. They believe it to be the
shining embodiment of self-rule, the defender of individual rights,
the definer of social justice. And so it is. But while we pay
lip-service to it's sanctity, daily we abrogate its teachings.
The Constitution
doesn't beat around the bush, it flat out mandates that gold
and silver coin be the only money used by the states. It expressly
forbids fiat currencies, which it calls "bills of credit."
As it says in Article I, Sections 8 and 10:
"Congress
shall have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof
and fix the standard of weights and measures. No state shallcoin
money; emit bills of credit; [or] make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender in payment of debts."
That's pretty
straightforward, I'd say.
But alas, while
the founding fathers were adamant in their distrust of fiat currency,
they made one big boo-boo. They gave Congress the power "To
borrow money." And it was these three little words by which
the banking establishment has circumvented the Constitution since
1913. For in that year, the Federal Reserve, a private
bank, was invented to create "money" which Congress
could "borrow" and thereby unleash the beast of fiat
inflation, burgeoning spending, and chronic national debt. In
the words of G.E. Griffin, "It was federal debt that allowed
the political and monetary scientists to violate the intent of
the founding fathers, and it was this same federal debt that
prompted Jefferson to exclaim:
I wish it were
possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. taking
from the federal government their power of borrowing."
So our Constitution
says we are to use only gold and silver as money and to disavow
fiat currency. Are these mere details? Am I nit-picking? No,
they are founding principles. Their abrogation is worthy of our
outrage. Where in the Constitution does it authorize a private
bank to be granted the sole right to create federal money by
creating debt? How is it that a president can declare gold an
illegal substance no citizen may own? How come we aren't allowed
to know exactly how much gold 'We, the People' have in Fort Knox?
In the words of famed constitutional scholar, Joan Rivers, "What
am I, chopped livuh?"
These are profound
violations of our Constitution that would have been abhorrent
to our founding fathers. They are signposts on the path to perdition.
You don't have to be a Libertarian to sense betrayal. At risk
is the Great American Experiment.
So it came
as little surprise that, as I sat down to finish writing this
article, I read the following right here on 321gold:
Gold-Dealers Conscripted to Spy on
You?
by Alex Wallenwein
Just forget
about buying and owning gold and other precious metals in privacy,
as you have been able to do until now.
A new intelligence
spending bill (HB 2417) has reportedly just passed Congress and
is awaiting the President's signature by this coming Saturday,
December 13, 2003. Tucked inside that bill is a provision that
allows the FBI to serve so-called "national security letters"
on a broader range of "financial institutions." [which]
includes brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, investment bankers, operators of credit-card
systems, insurance companies, dealers in precious metals,
stones, or jewels. in order to obtain financial records without
any prior court order. [Emphasis added]
The ironies
are troubling. The same gold that was mandated to be money by
the Constitution no longer has any link to our currency. In its
place is an endless stream of paper and electronic 'chits' tied
to nothing. Much of the gold that backed our currency 50 years
ago has been lent, leased, or sold through bullion banks to arbitrageurs
for fast profits. What little national gold remains is held by
our government in secret. Our president can choose to confiscate
whatever remaining gold we private citizens own. And now anyone
who purchases gold can be investigated without warrant. Does
anyone see a pattern here?
Now, if I had
written the above words to describe some banana republic, you
would all smile smugly and shake your heads. But this is OUR
banana republic we are talking about. And it defies not only
our Constitution, it defies reason.
We are witness
to the tarnishing of our core American institutions. In turn,
these institutions are the canaries in the cage signaling the
suffocation of our inherent rights. Anyone who tells me that
fascism cannot appear where democracy once ruled needs to ponder
this question: If our president can, by executive order, make
possession of gold by private US citizens a federal crime punishable
by imprisonment and fines, whatever happened to "Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness?" How is it that the government
has become our boss? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
And so it is
that gold's refusal to tarnish becomes a shining beacon of hope.
For, while everything else we believe in can become tarnished
through neglect, gold's perpetual luster cannot.
Ignored? Perhaps.
Manipulated?
Undoubtedly.
Disparaged?
Absolutely.
Lied about?
Constantly.
But tarnished?
Never.
Gold IS our
personal and collective salvation. It waits patiently
for us to realize this. Thanks to its perpetual luster, it shines
with the light of truth. And truth, like gold, is in damned short
supply.
Buy it, hold
it, hide it, support it, trust it.
And invest
in the people who mine it.
The young Alan Greenspan would
approve.
Robert Martin
e-mail: subman@gte.net
December 14, 2003
Disclaimer:
The
author's objective in writing this article is to make potential
investors aware of the possible rewards of investing in this(ese)
security(ies). Investors are recommended to obtain the advice
of a qualified investment advisor before entering into any transactions.
______________
321gold Inc
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