As problems in the economy continue to fester and grow, the finger pointing in Washington will continue. Republicans will blame Democrats and Democrats will blame Republicans and the problems will remain. Consider the debate that continues to rage about gasoline prices, an issue that affects each one of us in a very detrimental fashion. Republicans blame the Obama administration for making a war on energy, holding up drilling for oil, formulating rules that make coal fired power plants nearly untenable and wasting billions of dollars on alternative energy companies that regularly go bankrupt. The Democrats counter that oil production has never been higher and the questions surrounding conflicts in the Middle East, particularly Iran, are driving up the price.
The bickering is masking the real problem, one that affects not only gasoline but all our essential commodities. As gasoline closes in on four dollars a gallon, we are reminded of four years ago when its price topped out at a little over today’s price. However, things are a little different this time around. In 2008, oil was over one hundred and fifty dollars a barrel, today it is around one hundred and five. Certainly additional production would bring that price down and have an impact on gasoline prices but there is another dynamic at work here. It is not simply the rising price of oil that is driving our gasoline prices to record highs with no real end in sight.
I would propose that the rise in gasoline prices and other commodities are primarily the result of inflation, the plummeting value of the dollar due to the massive printing by the Federal Reserve Bank. When President Obama took office, gasoline was selling for under two dollars a gallon, it has more than doubled. In 2008, gold was selling for around eight hundred dollars an ounce, it has more than doubled. In real terms gasoline hasn’t really gone up at all; in dollar terms, however, it has changed dramatically.
While it is true that we are an energy rich country and if we eliminated all the impediments to exploration and production of all forms of energy, leaving it to the free market to develop it, it would be great for the country. However, if we persist in debasing the currency energy and other essentials will continue to be less and less affordable to the average American. The value of the medium of exchange is the foundation of commerce and with it, our liberty. It is our ability to receive “value” for our labor that enables us to exercise and defend our God given rights. If the “value” we receive is continually debased we become the victims of theft for we are no longer receiving what is due us according to our contracts, voluntary contracts being the foundation for exchange. For example, if I agree to dig ditches for ten dollars an hour for a year and six months into the contract the ten dollars I am receiving is only worth eight dollars, someone has stolen twenty percent of what is due me. It is not my employer, for he is still giving me a ten dollar bill for every hour of work; it is the person debasing the value of that ten dollars through what can only be described as “legal” theft.
The founders understood this which is why the constitution only recognized gold and silver as legitimate tender for debts in Article one, section ten. Not only that, but one of the first major acts of congress in the new republic was to pass the coinage act of 1792 which established the gold content of minted coins. Because they understood the essential nature of a strong and reliable currency and the absolute disaster that would result from its debasement, the proscription for violating the law, for debasing the currency in any way, was death!
“That is any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined or minted at said mint shall be debased or made worse…or shall be of less weight or value…through the default or connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise fraudulent intent…every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offences, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall suffer death.”
I would propose to you that every treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman since 1913 is guilty of violating this law, since repealed. For decades our government has stolen the hard earned wealth of generations of Americans just as surely as a mugger on the street. They do it with fancy words like “quantitative easing” and “expansion of the money supply” and with silver tongues try to convince us that they have our best interests in mind while they plunder us for their own benefit. They have robbed us of our future, our ability to save and protect our wealth, and practically force us into risky investments that do little but benefit the crooks who established the system in the first place. Our government happily encourages this scheme so it can pay its exorbitant debts in devalued money and ensure a steady supply of cash with which to buy votes and line their own pockets. (for a more comprehensive look at this legalized counterfeiting see “Leave Me Alone” at http://www.leavemealonenow.webs.com)
Today Ben Bernake and Tim Geithner have taken this immoral game to a level seen only in banana republics whose currency ends up being worth more as toilet paper than as currency. Until now their thievery has been slowly destructive; soon it will be disastrous and result in the bankruptcy of the citizens of a bankrupt nation. It will, for many, be a matter of life and death. The founders understood this which is why the penalty for debasing and destroying the currency was death. It was the worst kind of treason, like a malignant tumor which grows unseen in the beginning, causes growing discomfort in the middle but kills the patient quickly in the end while the “physician” pockets billions of dollars for his “treatment”. This scheme kills the nation in ways an invasion never could for its perpetrators are unseen to most and often chosen by its victims It is treasonous, the players know exactly what they are doing; they are pillaging the wealth of the nation, enhancing the power of the state and destroying the vision of the founders and the liberty of the people. In a just world, in the world of our founders, they would be held accountable and suffer the ultimate price for their treachery. Don’t hold your breath, we no longer live in that world.
Michael Calpino
1st District MD Independent Congressional Candidate
U.S. Constitutional Free Press 
perhaps you could stop them shipping of our oil out of the US.
or maybe you could stop the oil companies from loading our oil on tankers,running them out to open waters,then bringing it back in as imported oil.