Editor’s note: Today, the Fed left rates unchanged, but two officials voted to raise them because inflation is still running hot. Meanwhile, Argentina just moved one step closer to taking the printing press away from its politicians for good. Below is the first installment of a four-part series from Weiss Ratings’ Dallas Brown on what that means for you, and why America could benefit from following its lead.
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| By Dallas Brown |
Argentina. The country the whole world points to as a warning. The place where money goes to die.
That country voted to take the printing press away from its own politicians.
On Aug. 26, Argentina’s lower house voted 144-to-102 to reform the charter for its central bank, the bank that creates the country’s money. On Sept. 24, its Senate approved the reform by a strong majority, 46-to-22.
Here’s what the bill does, in plain English.
No more “temporary” cash advances from the central bank to the government.
No loans to the national government, the provinces, or the cities.
No buying the government’s brand-new bonds to pay its bills.
And the bank gets one job. Just one. Protect the value of the money.
The fight isn’t over.
The Senate changed the bill’s rules for appointing and removing central bank leaders, giving the Senate sole authority over those decisions and requiring an absolute majority of its full membership. That change passed 66-to-2.
The bill also removes the economy minister from the bank’s board meetings. The changes sent the bill back to the lower house, which can accept the Senate’s version or try to restore its own.
But restoring the original version would require a two-thirds majority — a difficult hurdle given the original 144-to-102 vote. So on Oct. 28, the lower house’s finance and budget committees signed off on the Senate’s version instead. A final vote is expected Nov. 12.
Argentina tried a reform like this in 2019. It never became law.
It may stall again, or get watered down.
Even so, a country that has wrecked its own money for generations stood up and said: enough.
That is courage. And it is a huge step.
I Wish We Had the Guts
When I read about that vote, I didn’t think about Argentina. I thought about us.
Imagine if Washington couldn’t print its way out of its own mistakes. Every dollar spent would have to be a dollar collected. Or, at least, honestly borrowed — out in the open, with a name attached.
Politicians would have to set priorities. Cut waste. Make hard choices. Say “no” to spending the way every family in America has to balance the family budget at the kitchen table, every day.
They’d have to say no. Right now, they don’t have to. When they overspend, they don’t pay for it.
You do. Your parents do. Your children will.
The Second Tax
You already pay the first tax. You see it on your paycheck, your property bill, your receipts.
The second tax is invisible. Nobody votes on it. But you still get the bill.
It’s called inflation.
When the government spends more than it has and creates new money to cover the gap, every dollar in your pocket buys a little less.
Your savings shrink. Your retirement shrinks. Your grocery money shrinks.
Nobody took a dollar out of your account. They just made every dollar in it worth less.
Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman called inflation “the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.” A tax citizens never get to vote on.
Even John Maynard Keynes, the economist big-spending politicians love to quote, warned in 1919:
“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” In a way, “not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
Secretly. Unobserved. Not one in a million.
That should make every American’s blood boil.
This isn’t one political party’s fault. Both parties have had their hands on the printing press for decades.
But that can change. And it starts with you.
That’s why we’ve launched the Dollar Independence Committee. Our mission is simple: Own our money. Owe no one our freedom.
Click here to sign the Declaration of Dollar Independence.
It takes less than a minute. And the more names we gather, the louder our voice gets in Washington.
This is just the beginning. Over the next three issues, I’ll show you why our founders fought a war over this very issue, how deep Washington has dug us into debt, and what you can do to protect your savings while we push for change.
Stay tuned.
Dallas Brown
