EAST PALESTINE, OHIO—THE GREEN CURTAIN IS PULLED BACK

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, in the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, (1939, Frank Baum) pulled back the green curtain in the Emerald City  to expose— not a wizard — but a cranky old man working a series of metal levers and buttons with flashing lights.  When exposed, as a fraud,  the wizard attempts another  ploy.. calling out to them:  ”Pay no attention to that man behind the green curtain”.  Good advice for us all. 

For us, the terrible economic, ecological, and public health disaster of East Palestine, Ohio has “pulled back the green curtain” for us  all.  It has clearly revealed, not a wizard of democracy and fairness in our own “Emerald City” ,but  a cranky old man ineffectively working a series of levers, and flashing lights to create an illusion of being in charge, and working to serve our nation’s needs.

 The East Palestine disaster has revealed in all clarity the deceit and corruption of the present administration, which claims economic and legislative wizardry, but our very eyes and pocketbooks tell a different story, for as we watched it turned world peace into a world at war, a world threatened with nuclear exchanges, it changed our flourishing economy into recession, soaring prices for food and fuel, surging crime waves, and open our borders to uncontrolled mobs who threaten our health and welfare…..Everything it touches turns into excrement.  The old man “Oz” of Emerald City claims he supports the well-being of all Americans, the poor, the working classes, and all those who face adversity.   But in reality these denizens of Emerald City  are self-serving liars and frauds. 

Behind the curtain, our Oz— Joe Biden— pulls levers as he hoarsely whispers  into a megaphone. His amplified voice blares loudly from behind the curtain :, “ This is the real deal—our  southern border is closed”———“there is no inflation”—-“ those Black-Lives-Matter-riots were only peaceful demonstrations”— —“East Palestine water is safe to drink”— “that train derailment was caused by Trump—and it is not a disaster”.

The East Palestine disaster exposed the truth—that the Biden Administration is unconcerned about the wellfare  of all Americans, abandoning  “democracy”, fairness, or even the basic security needs of the nation as a whole. The Democrats over the last few years have morphed from a once truly national party..into one dominated by a tiny radical-left fringe.

Democrats have cobbled together a constituency of fringe minorities, incorporating socialist elements of the far left, radical feminists, pro-abortion fanatics, climate-disaster zealots, social malcontents, undocumented immigrants, and radical racial, ethnic and dysfunctional sexual and gender groups.  To remain in power,  they have  turned from advocating for the needs of the nation as a whole, to focus on empowering and fulfilling the agenda of a coalition of several tiny diverse and radical minority groups.  Thus, by attempting to govern by satisfying the perceived needs of a mere scant minority of the population, they fail miserably as a national political party.  

Why have they so horribly mismanaged the nations affairs?   Because they are making no attempt to manage the wellfare of the entire nation…they exist to advance the welfare and interests of only a tiny minority of our wide and broad nation.

Seen this way,  the chaos and disaster of millions of illegal immigrants surging  across both our southern and Canadian borders is explicable, as is the 40 year high inflation spiral, soaring fuel prices, the wide-spread incompetence of an administration which prefers and selects for “diversity” over competence, or the epidemic of crime, violence, and racial animosity which has so exemplified these two years of the Biden Administration.

This most recent denouement came on February 3, 2023 as the result of an awful tragedy.  As they passed through the small town of East Palestine, Ohio, 38 tank cars of  the Norfolk Southern Railway company carrying toxic chemicals derailed and spilled a mix of volatile, flammable chemicals in the town’s  center.  The gooey liquid spill posed a disposal problem and limited the rail traffic along the tracks.   The company, faced with a costly and lengthy cleanup, which would have entailed scraping up of contaminated soil and disposing it responsibly, instead decided on a quick and dirty solution. They dug a hole in the ground into which the dangerous  material  drained (which likely seeped into the subsoil) and when full, they burned the toxic chemicals .  Thus converting  the smaller volume of liquid waste into a toxic, towering,  black cloud that rose into the atmosphere and spread over the town, county and state dispersing the noxious chemical  combustion products and dangerous particulates far and wide.  Subsequent clean-up in the burn area of the resulting dry ash and combustion products  from the earlier “controlled burn” wafted even more toxic materials in the form of fine air borne particulates into the surrounding air from which it probably settled causing more contamination.  

This “solution” is very reminiscent of the now infamous military burn pits of Iraq. That sad experience has revealed the terrible long term health consequences of these military disposal efforts by burning wastes. The US Veteran Administration is still paying Iraq veterans for their exposure to burn toxins  and to diseases resulting from exposure .

The Biden Administration, completely ignored the East Palestine disaster for weeks, only eventually going there after former President Trump arrived with sympathy, and pallets of bottled drinking water .  

These folks are white, working class Americans.  They do not belong to Biden’s  radical fringe constituency.  For that reason they have been abandoned, and left on their own to suffer the consequences of living in the land of Biden. 

But for the folks of East Palestine and the rest of the nation—the great majority of Americans — the green curtain has been drawn back to expose the inner working of “Emerald City” where if you are white, working class, tax paying citizens, you get no help, no attention, no funds, and no respect from the Democrats in DC.  

To underscore the depth of the radical-fringe left’s disdain for decent working class Americans, the parted  green curtain also exposed a hate-filled Joy Behar.  Behar a political commentator on TVs “View”revealed on national TV what leftists really think. For Behar, the suffering Ohio residents who can no longer sell their homes, or safely live there, breath the air, or drink  the local water, “got what they deserved” because they “probably voted for Trump”. 

We should all remember well this Wizard of Oz  “green curtain” event in Ohio, when next we all have the opportunity  to pull back a voting machine lever once again.  It can not come too soon. 

 

BIDEN IN KYIV-TRYING TO START WWIII

 President Biden, had a week of unprecedented scandal and disaster, in which he “Don Quixote-like” took part in shooting down a kid’s toy balloon and several weather balloons with F22s using  $400,000 rocketry. This idiotic bravado took place only after first ignoring a Chinese spy balloon—, then lying about it, then permitting the actual and real intelligence  threat to float across the nation  —giving the CCP full access to our nation’s secrets.  This  balloon was shot down only after leaving  our shores.  Biden ordered its downing at sea rather than over land. His purpose: by collecting the debris at sea, only the FBI would have access to evidence. Now, the real nature, spying potential, and perhaps national embarrassment, of the “spy balloon” will never be known.

Biden showed up in Kyiv this week to bolster his poll numbers which were crashing like the rocket-penetrated  “spy balloon”. But to do so he had to  give away another $500 million tranche of US citizen’s cash.  We are now in the hole there for more than $100 billion.  His appearance in Kyiv will not help his poll numbers. Stumbling about with his mask-like face and stiff gait he does not look “strong” or like a “world leader”.  The image of his frailty and weakness is reinforced by his stumbling as he climbs back into Air Force One.  These are definitely not images his handlers had hoped for.  Those at home are not pleased either, they can not forget he left our shores in turmoil and disaster.  

He sneaked into Kyiv bearing gifts, while he completely  ignored the social, economic and ecological disasters at home. He left behind a nation suffering a raging forty-year high inflation-rate spiral, an ecological disaster in East Palestine Ohio, and an 800% surge of  illegals trudging through the snow over our northern Canadian border.   We are being invaded now in all directions, with all our borders under attack.  The Mexican border has been overrun by a two year long swarm of millions of illegals. The massive crowds of undocumented have become a commonplace occurrences that the Bidenworld has worked diligently  to hide. They regularly sweep these illegals under the rug (and some into 84 former swanky hotels in Manhattan ).  These domestic  disasters and scandals are studiously ignored by Joe and the his “progressive” media co-conspirators propagandists who hide his incompetence, corruption, faux pas  and exaggerate his supposed abilities. 

Biden has lavished a hundred  billion dollars (of borrowed US money) in Ukraine,  to widen, intensify and prolong a vicious deadly war in Central Europe. His acts of escalation threaten a wider war…perhaps WWIII.  Biden has no mandate from Congress for war.  He has no end plan for this war, or even faint idea of an exit strategy.  Appearances suggest he has largely given decision making over war and peace decisions there  to a corrupt former TV comedian and Ukrainian leader who clearly has his own self aggrandizing agenda.  

The conflict is largely the end-result of Biden’s own post-Afghanistan withdrawal weakness, his failed foreign policy and his total rejection of any diplomatic solutions. Biden marches around in Central Kyiv,  arm in arm with Zelenskyy as fake sirens blare,  while giving the proverbial finger to the desperate needs of our own citizens. 

 Shame on you Joe, you were never the top of your class, or sharpest knife in the drawer, but at least your incompetence, nepotism, and corruption was somewhat limited as “Senator from Delaware”,  but as “President”, you have become a threat not only to the peace and security of  the USA but to the entire  world at large.  In short, you are a national and international disgrace. 

POLICE REFORM—QUALIFIED IMMUNITY or VIGILANTISM ?

 As American citizens we face a grave problem. Crime is rampant, guns are commonplace, violence threatens us all.  We desperately need a strong, well trained, confident and physically capable police force to enforce laws. Remember these are the laws we citizens and our representatives debate and then  pass into legislation.  We make the laws and then send police officers out onto the streets and byways to enforce these laws. We can not task these men and women with this difficult job, then, when opposition and violence erupts —as they attempt to follow our dictates,—we remove our support and charge the police— with criminality.  

Qualified immunity (legal principle that grants officials of government qualified immunity from criminal or civil suit while in the performance of their duty) is an essential component of any police reform program. Without this there is no hope for effective policing.  Police officers are not automatons.  They react to circumstances as the rest of us do.  They are tasked with dealing with the most difficult and violent situations in society. 

When community support is weakened or withdrawn police respond. Faced with the potential loss of their job, their income and the real threat of criminal charges, and perhaps jail….they react logically.  Yes, they will daily burnish their badge, but when conflict looms, they will, perhaps with regrets, turn away.   Potential violence and conflicts, are avoided,  particularly in circumstances where these representatives of the law are most needed—in the black and brown communities —where too often crime is rampant .  Functional policing disappears when qualified immunity for officers is weakened or removed. Law abiding citizens are left bereft of protection and must fend for themselves. Vigilantism, chaos and violence result. 

Our police must be well trained, both legally and physically.  A police officer should be well versed in the law, have the physical confidence to enforce the law, subdue a perpetrator or felon, and ability to de-escalate confrontations. But at the most basic the job requires an officer to be physically capable of subduing and arresting those who are breaking the law.  They must enforce the laws. Yes, police officers, must be trained in those physical skills that, at minimum, permit the officer to restrain and subdue and arrest a violent perpetrator who is danger to him or herself or the community at large.  The officer should be able to make an arrested  without having to resort to deadly force.  Yes, size and physical strength are a factor. 

Let us not ignore that the primary responsibility of state and municipal authorities is to insure the safety of its law abiding citizens so they can carry on their lives and businesses in safety.

The alternative is chaos, rising crime, vigilantism, an armed citizenry and decline of our cities. 

USA MEDIA CENSORSHIP—-LIKE EAST GERMANY?

 The former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and I are contemporaries, though we never met and both lived in very different worlds. I was raised in Brooklyn, New York while she lived in Communist East, Germany, behind the great concrete Berlin Wall dividing her nation at the time.  What we did have in common was German heritage, and as youngsters we both liked to read newspapers and were interested in politics and current events.  In  Brooklyn, New York, in the 1960s I lived in the world’s most freethinking               free nation.  I was able to read the (formerly great) “Gray Lady” of Times Square, NY (NYT), as well as the NY Daily News, the NY Post and even the Brooklyn Eagle. These news papers did have their Opinion and Editorial sections, but by and large the news they printed existed to inform rather than “conform” and control reader’s thinking.  On the other side of the Atlantic, Angela resided in a very different controlled and censored world.  For her, she had only heavily censored  propaganda sheets ( viz. Russian Pravda, and Neue  Deutschland which functioned to control, and mold her thoughts, rather than inform.  Ms Merkel famously described how in her youth, aware what she was reading was propaganda, had to learn to “read between the lines” to get at the truth about what was actually happening in Germany and the wider world.

In Angela’s East Germany, the communist government applied an informal form of censorship, practiced through a powerful apparatus controlled by the dominant political party.  The goal was to ensure that all forms of art, culture, literature and public communication, “news” and public discourse was controlled so as to support one cause, or political point of view. Rumors, half truths or actual lies might be used to promote a cause or influence public opinion.    Content was controlled so as to forbid any reports harmful to the GDR. Negative portrayals  of GDR were censored  as well. Censorship was never admitted as such and remained as “unofficial”. But all artists and authors knew that GDR censors would review  their work.  If they stayed from acceptable materials their manuscripts would simply never  be published.  In effect to insure publication ( and remuneration) of their work they simply self censored and complied.  To avoid being rejected  or punished for straying from “acceptable” work authors conformed and in this way unofficial censorship functioned and controlled information. Aware of this,  authors, artists, musicians journalists and creators,  simply worked to fit their production  into the accepted guidelines.    Journalists were seen as functionaries of the the state and the communist party.  Accepted journalists belonged to a journalist’s collective . The institutionalized informal manner  of censorship made official censorship unnecessary.  Does this sound familiar? 

Over the last five or more decades Angela’s world and mine seems to have changed places.  The USA, formerly the land of free speech, of our cherished First Amendment, has silently and in a sinister way morphed into Angela’s old censored world of now defunct East Germany.  Our journalists of the left have in large part become  agents of the establishment state.  Our mainstream media (NYT) have morphed into the likes of Neues Deutschland and Pravda-like propaganda sheets.  Our TV programs, entertainment, movies, and especially so-called  “news casts” exist (with few exceptions) to propagandize, to alter and straight-jacket our thought, rather than functioning to inform voting citizens.  

There are no official censors in the the USA, but like former East Germany, authors and performers fearful of becoming outcasts— self-censor to protect their positions and incomes. The “establishment” media, newspapers and TV programs, exist to mold  the thinking of their readers, listeners, or subscribers to their own particular political and social dogma, such as: the nation’s history, political issues, foreign policy,  economics, and social issues like gender, race, or religion.  And they will stoop to deceit, lies, half truths and even obfuscation of science to control informationn and influence public opinion.   

No longer do they respect  the concept of democracy…that the majority rules. That  “all the people” even the unwashed masses have rights.  To these folks…the elites, the government officials, the over educated, the few, believe that they can—must— decide what is “good” for the nation. Others simply are to be ignored.   

The left respects only those views that they themselves hold.  Like the communists of the now defunct East German government —they think their view is the only valid truth and will use the  consequentialist’s Machiavelli philosophy of the“ends justify the means” to undermine our nation’s values and freedoms to reach their immoral goals.  

Now like Angela, who spent her youth behind the Berlin Wall, we face that same problem and have to learn to read “between the lines” to understand the harsh reality of a censored world. 

BIDEN’S “ACCOMPLISHMENTS” —FIRST TO SINGLEHANDEDLY CAUSE INFLATION SPIRAL

PRESIDENT JOE’S “ACCOMPLISHMENTS”.  

The oldest President to ever serve in the White House.

The only President to facilitate foreign spying by allowing a Chinese spy balloon to penetrate our borders and wander across the entire nation taking pictures and listening to secret government conversations. 

But perhaps the above was to be expected, since he was also the first President to preside over and persist in maintenance of an open southern border with Mexico, through which millions of illegals have passed.  So why not open skies?

And most egregiously he was the FIRST EVER TO SINGLEHANDEDLY CAUSE AN ECONOMIC DISASTER —-raising inflation since elected by almost 14%— HIS OWN INFLATIONARY SPIRAL!! 

Bidenflation of 2021-2023

Since 1929 every inflationary spiral was caused by the scarcity, or the high price of petroleum products.  These hurtful economic hardships of the past were all caused by external events, mostly beyond the control of the government.   That is until President Biden purposely and intentionally put executive orders into effect which caused shortages of fuel oil, gasoline and natural gas which sparked an inflationary spiral

Inflation was always a terrible threat to economic security. Over the last near century, inflation was largely under control —except for times of energy scarcity. 

1929–In cheap energy and boom times of 1929 inflation was recorded at only 0.6%

1930–During the 1930s inflation remained low during the Great Depression

1940–Then in 1941-1942 inflation hit a peak of 9-10%, during the war years when fuel was rationed, when large portions of oil production were consumed by the war effort. Other factors, i.e.  shortages of consumer goods, etc. exacerbated these fuel shortage effects.

1950–Inflation returned again during the Korean War (1950-1951 at 6%) for reasons similar to those of 1941. 

1970–Then again in 1970, inflation spiked to 6% due to the Vietnam War ( high oil prices).The  massive deficit spending of the  Johnson “Great Society” also contributed. 

1973–By 1973-4 the Arab Oil Embargo drove inflation to 12%. The oil embargo was instituted by oil-producing Arab states as  retaliation for US support and resupply of the Israeli forces during the Yom Kippur War.   Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting  Countries (OPEC) cut sales to the US and several of its allies. This was a time when the US was importing 82% of its oil from the Middle East.  With the majority of ME oil unavailable,  prices flared to nearly 400% of what they were before the embargo. The “oil shock” caused long lines to at gas stations,  gasoline was rationed, lights were turned off at Times Square, big gas guzzler American cars remained unsold, and inflation and unemployment spiraled out of control. 

1978–But the highest inflation ever ( almost 15% ) occurred between 1978-1979 as a result of the Iranian Revolution. In 1978 the US puppet government of Shah Pahlavi was overturned by the Iranian Revolution.  Iranian oil production declined by 5 million barrels per day, or 7% of world production at that time. At a time of high worl wide demand for oil the 7% cut in production was enough to spark an inflationary spiral that was not tamed until 1982.  To control inflation the US Fed had to raise the lending rate to an unprecedented 19%.  Inflation was beat down to about 4% but the resulting economic decline caused the Great Recession of the early 1980s. 

1980–After the mid/1980s inflation caused by oil shortages remained  under control for the next 41 years. 

2021–That is until Biden was elected.  In 2021 President Joe Biden, apparently unconcerned and  blithely unaware of a near century of economic history, imposed a series of executive orders curtailing the fossil fuel industry and caused oil shortages.  Inflation immediately spiked to about 8%. The next year, 2022 to 9% (about what it was during WWII) and falling to 6.5% in early 2023 , equal to the level experienced during Vietnam War).  But those are year over year changes. His actual impact on inflation should be measured from when he was elected to the present.     Since Biden was elected to the present time —-inflation has increased almost 13.7%.  

For the first time in history, a president singlehandedly manufactured his own inflationary spiral by unwise executive orders which in effect cut  the supply of oil and other fossil fuels in an insane attempt to satisfy the climate zealots, and extremists in the socialist left wing of his party.  To fight climate change we need, more than ever, a stable, low cost energy source…

Then not to simply happy to confine high fuel prices to the USA, Biden’s extremist handlers decided to cut the delivery of cheap, clean, natural gas to Europe too!  Recent investigations indicate the Biden Administration was behind the blowing up of the Nordstream I and II  Pipelines  insuring that Europe will have high fuel prices, and high  inflation too. 

INFLATION, BIDEN DID IT!

The scarcity of fossil fuel particularly oil and gas has fueled every period of inflation since WWII, but no one, except Joe Biden, has ever purposely encouraged its scarcity,  and in that way generated a forty year spike in inflation. 

Adam Smith, in 1774 published a two volume study  entitled “On the Nature and  Causes of the Wealth of Nations”. Among many other economic insights, Smith proposed three basic laws of economics: the “Law of Self Interest”, the “Law of Competition”, and the“Law of Supply and Demand”.  

It is that last law…of “supply and demand” which relates to inflation.  “Inflation” refers to the persistent rise in prices of goods and services. The term “inflation” refers to the price of goods which rise and are: “inflated”.  The prices of products “blow up or inflate” while the value of your money shrinks.  Inflation means each  dollar in your purse can buy less and less. Dollars you put away in your bank account shrink by 6% each year. 

When the supply of money (coins, scrip) and the goods and services that money can buy are in balance, the value of money remains stable.  That has been the situation or the last 40 years. But Joe upset that balance. Supply and demand control the value of money.  Large amounts of money in circulation (like Joe’s multi-trillion dollar sending sprees) reduces the value of YOUR dollars. Biden dumping trillions into the economy reduces the purchasing power of the dollars you have with such difficulty earned or saved. He spends you loose! 

Have you noticed those egg prices lately?  Six ($6) bucks for a dozen eggs! That’s 50 cents per egg.  In the last administration not long ago you could buy eggs for less than 10 cents per egg. What about bread? Coffee? Gasoline at the pump?  All are much higher in price than they were two years go. 

Joe Biden did it!!  Everything Joe touches seems to turn to excrement. Beginning with Afghanistan, the open border disaster, inflation,recession, high interest  rates, violent crime, turn-style “justice”, expanding and prolonging a horrible war in Ukraine, and and the most recent scandal—-letting the Chinese spy balloon fly over our nation’s military defenses—-all proclaim this old man’s incompetence out loud.  But it is inflation that hurts the poor and middle class and small businesses more than his other scandalous acts.

His incredibly unwise decision to undermine the fossil  industry sparked a massive inflationary  spiral.  To curry favor with the Democrat left wing climate zealots (extremists) Biden’s first act as President was to cancel all new oil leases on federal lands. He called for phasing out natural gas in power plants by 2035. He canceled the permit for the Keystone pipeline. He signed other similar anti-energy executive orders.    

Producing adequate amounts of fossil fuels requires long term  investment. If investors are informed by government  that their product will be “outlawed” by government in a few years…who will invest in drilling new wells, purchase new fracking equipment, build new oil refineries— which take decades to develop?  No one!   

Today and into the future fossil fuels will remain essential to a modern nation’s economy and its military posture.  Today, fossil  fuels COMPRISE 98% OF OUR ENERGY USE.  Fossil fuels heat our homes, power our electric grid, fuel our trucks, trains, planes  and automobiles, run our manufacturing industries, and our businesses.  It is a universally essential product.   It is insane thinking that we can eliminate its use in ten years. Even electric vehicles run on fossil fuel. Almost 90% of the electricity that all electric automobiles run on is generated by fossil fuels. 

The scarcity of fossil fuel particularly oil and gas has fueled every period of inflation since WWII, but no one, except Joe Biden, has ever purposely encouraged its scarcity,  and in that way generated a forty year spike in inflation. 

President Joe Biden’s attack on fossil fuel caused a massive spike in fuel prices.  Since the price of fuel is tied to everything else—- all prices rose.  But not content with destroying our four decade long monetary stability, Joe went ahead to compounded his disastrous act by instituting a foreign policy to sanction Russian oil making oil and gas even more costly and only spreading  inflation to Europe and the rest of the world.  Then like a drunken sailor on shore leave he formulated  and then passed several monster “trillion dollar spending bills” on borrowed money which dumped more cash into an over heated economy and acted like volatile fuel dumped into a trash bin fire. Even his insane “open border policy” which continues to illegally admit millions of undocumented into the nation has made inflation worse. The hordes of braceros and laborers from South America  can not be employed (legally).   The million’s who entered and are now living here can not increase our productivity, but do  increase demand for all goods and services.  This alone increases INFLATION, and makes living more expensive for us all.

Inflation reduces real wages, lowers living standards, and destroys investment of business opportunities.

MONEY, WHAT IS IT?

 MONEY WHAT  IS IT? 

It is hard to believe, but money did not always exist.  In ancient times, early societies, bartered for goods or services. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia (5000BC) the earliest known civilization, bartered for products they needed.  Even as late as our own colonial era, at a time in our history when printed or coined money was scarce or absent, locals often resorted to trading deer pelts, live stock, agricultural produce, labor, etc., for services, manufactured goods, or agricultural products.   Bartering was cumbersome and difficult. It took time to find someone who had something you wanted, and you had what they wanted.  Barter often resulted in an unsatisfactory exchange and unhappy trades.  These difficulties slowed economic growth and development.

In very early times, to remedy this uncertainty and encourage exchanges, readily useful or valuable materials such as lumps of bronze, copper or iron were often used to facilitate exchange. The Sumerians even used barley (an edible grain) as well as silver.   These materials, especially metals (bronze, copper and iron) were in high demand since they could be used for a wide range of purposes, they had intrinsic value.  Iron bars (and other metals) could be readily altered by heat in a forge into useful tools or essential weapons. It is well known that the ancient Spartans used heavy bars of iron (ingots) as units of exchange. Later in history,  Julius Caesar  reported ( Commentarii de Bello Gallico ) that early Britons of 58 BC also used bar-iron as “money”.

This usefulness of metal as a valuable medium in exchanges somehow took hold. Eventually, perhaps for practical purposes, smaller more easily transported units of base metals were eventually circulated as “coins” in economic exchange. The ancient Chinese, as early as @1000BC minted small flat circular pieces in base metals such as brass or copper.  Later, by about 650 BC, the Hellenes  also minted coins of standard weight.  The Lydians (citizens of an ancient Hellenic city located in what is now modern Turkey) were first to mint coins in gold and silver.  Gold and silver were heavy, lustrous, chemically inert, malleable, easily melted and altered, and thus  useful and desirable substances which could be used to make decorations, jewelry, and other artifacts.  (This author has a silver belt buckle made by a Native American (Navajo) in Arizona from US silver dollar coins which were in common use in the 1950s and 60s in southwest USA. ). Gold and silver had intrinsic value becaue they could be used this way.  Coins of these soft metals were stamped with an image of a king or god to guarantee the coin’s quality, purity, authenticity and value.  The advantage of standard metal coins as a medium of exchange, over bars of iron or copper was that instead of estimating the crude weight of an ingot of metal, or weighing amounts of agricultural products, one could accurately count out coins for a rapid and more equitable exchange.  

A natural improvement related to the use of coinage was that their value could be varied by minting different weights or sizes.  In some cases, since soft gold and silver were easily cut, users might even divide the coin on their own.  In  colonial America, Spanish gold doubloons were often cut in half or quartered to adapt to exchange needs.  

Naturally, in each economy where coins were used, the “exchange value” of coinage was set by free market practices.  The prices of agricultural products, manufactured  goods, live stock, labor, etc. that were exchanged with coins would be established through the agency of a free market and the law of supply and demand. The advantages of using “money” or coinage over barter was so great that in very early times almost all nations eventually began minting coins.  

Money is an invention that reduces the cost of economic exchanges. Without money all exchanges of goods are dependent upon barter or trade in goods.   Money solves the problem of barter because money is something that—for multiple reasons— everyone wants. So “money” can facilitate exchanges. 

Money is defined as an “asset that functions as a generally accepted medium of exchange”.  It can take on many appearances in different cultures, settings and times.  At various times and places in the past   “money” in local use may have been a barrel of barley grains, a rusty bar of iron, a stiff dry deer pelt, a slim gold arm bracelet, a bead made of the blue inner part of a marine clam shell, gold dust, a lump of silver stamped into a  flat circle,  a .22 caliber cartridge, a rectangle of green-stained paper with symbols and images, or even a brass bitcoin token with no known use value at all.  

How can all of these diverse materials have served as “money”? At each time or place these different items were widely accepted as useful or valuable and thus could have served as an intermediate in the process of exchange.  

In early colonial, New Amsterdam, (after 1664 known as New York), Dutch colonists used Native American wampum as money.  Wampum was widely admired by local Native Americans.  Native Americans  would accept it for goods and services. Thus colonists could enlist their services by offering wampum, or purchase food or skins from Native Americans for wampum. Its value to natives, gave it value, thus it served as an economic transfer to colonists and for a time it  became a medium of local exchange— or “money”.

Government involvement in minting coins provided a useful service to the economy of a community, state or nation. It encouraged and facilitated monetary exchanges, increased business activity, and helped to improve trade and the availability of essential products.

What about paper money?

Coins of gold and silver were common currency almost world wide.  It is claimed that the Chinese were the first to use paper money or “bills” because it as onerous  for long distance traders to carry large amounts  of coin.  In general, coinage was scarce in colonial America.  The British government  prohibited the colonies from printing currency.  Immigrants brought their savings as coinage with them to the colonies.  But in time money tended to return to the mother country.  Since all manufactured goods were, by law, imported only from Britain, these coins  returned to their source  overseas as colonists purchased supplies, manufactured goods from the mother country. 

In the early 1700s the scarcity of British coins in the American colonies and specifically in the colony of Pennsylvania was intensified by an economic downturn in England,  and a concomitant reduction in colonial export trade. Reduced trade with England caused the money (coins) supply to dry up. With coins unavailable for exchange, debts could not be paid to banks, fines and taxes could not be collected by government, farmers could not sell their produce , and imported products remained on the shelves.  This  lack of money for exchange slowed business activity, reduced demand for consumable goods, hampered trade, and slowed investment. The formerly vibrant economy  of colonial Pennsylvania, where flax and grain was grown in abundance, minerals mined, and forest products harvested to be sold abroad, collapsed.  

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) had a solution.  As the owner of a newspaper and pamphlet-printing establishment, as well as being the Clerk of the General Assembly (and later, a member of Colonial Assembly from Philadelphia)  Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Assembly pass legislation to permit the printing of paper money to help improve the economy.  He lobbied the state representatives and won a contract to print paper bills.  Between 1731 and 1764 Franklin and his partner David Hall printed almost  800,000 (British style) pounds of Pennsylvania scrip.  

An August 1739 paper 15 shilling Pennsylvania note read on the face : “This ….bill shall pass current for fifteen shillings in the province of Pennsylvania.”  Counterfeit bills were of course a threat to this economic solution. Again, Franklin had a solution. To discourage counterfeiters, the reverse of the bill included the warning: “To counterfeit is death”, while along side of the warning was printed with the image of the trifoliate leaf of a poison Ivy plant (Toxicodendron radicans). Another leaf image, said to be that of the herb, sage (Salvia officinalis) was printed overlapping a part of the first leaf image. These images of natural leaves devised by Franklin showing the fine leaf structures were made from actual leaf-casts, and were thus very difficult or impossible to duplicate or counterfeit.  

In another method to dissuade counterfeiters , Franklin purposely printed his bills with the name of the word  “Pennsylvania” misspelled. He reasoned  that a potential counterfeiter would examine his bill, see the incorrect  spelling and assume the bill was counterfeit!   Franklin expected that the counterfeiter would “correct” the  misspelling on his fake bill. Government officials of Pennsylvania  were thus alerted to look for any bills with the state name spelled correctly!  These were the counterfeit bills!  In later years, Franklin even developed a special high-linen-content paper for printing bills which made duplication difficult.  

By law, Pennsylvania citizens could use paper bills to pay any state government debts they may have incurred such as: taxes, mortgage payments and fines. This gave the paper bills a certain assured value to all Pennsylvania residents, since these costs were common to all citizens. 

After the issuance of paper money in 1731 Franklin claimed that he observed increased internal trade, higher rates of employment, new construction, and an increase in the number of inhabitants of in the state.  

Governments also used coinage to establish the sovereignty of a state or nation. During the Roman Empire as soon as an upstart Roman general  was hailed as a new pCaesar! by his troops…his first act was to rush to the mint where coins with his image were minted and dispersed.