I can’t imagine living in America during the 1930s. It was during the Great Depression, FDR was being an economic totalitarian, fascists were taking over Europe, Communists were taking over the rest of the world, and liberty was all but becoming extinct — even in America.
In 1933, America’s most power-hungry president — that would be FDR — announced without consulting Congress that he was going to confiscate all privately owned gold. In order to stave off a rebellion and a civil war, FDR offered to pay $20 per troy ounce of gold that was turned over to the United States federal government. But this wasn’t a free trade, of course — if you didn’t give up your gold, you’d go to jail.
Hollywood might have painted Al Pacino as one of the biggest gangsters of the day, but he paled in comparison to the biggest gangster in 20th Century America — American president FDR himself.
But the stories not finished — it gets even better. Once he confiscated the gold, FDR then turned around and sold it for $35 per ounce, meaning they made $15 per ounce of gold that they literally stole from the American people. Stealing money legally is a great way to get easy profits. So, the question still stands: can the government still confiscate the gold again? I’ve already talked a little about this a few days ago in the pre-1993 gold coins article, and I’ll probably be writing more about it in the future. But the short answer is, “Yes, but they probably won’t.”
Nothing has changed in our laws which bans the president from confiscating property any time he wants to do so. Since the courts upheld the executive decision to do so by FDR — who didn’t even bother to ask congress — then it can be assumed that the same system is in place and the president can start confiscating whatever he wants.
That said, I don’t want to be an alarmist.
Scary? Yes. ¿Legal ? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter to the corrupt courts we currently have in this country. I really don’t think an y us president is going to try to confiscate or ban the private ownership of gold or gold coins. I just don’t think he has the political capital to do so. Remember, back when FDR did that, he was loved by most of the people. If anu US president tried that, I honestly think a lot of people would die, and whole lot more would go to jail — we’d have insurrections and anyone in office would get fired when the next election comes around. So, is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not a chance, thank God.