Texas isn’t the Only State Going for Gold

Utah is following in the footsteps of Tennessee and Texas by moving to establish gold repositories and encourage the use of gold and silver as legal tender. Utah House Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan) introduced House Bill 224 on January 30, 2017.The passage of this bill would authorize the public treasurer to invest public funds in gold/silver and would start the process of establishing commercial gold/silver repositories in the state of Utah.

Rep Ivory stated this about the new legislation, “We have the freedom and are secured in the blessing to accumulate property; to pursue happiness as we determine it, and to represent that property in reliable money and not on a moving sidewalk that is going the opposite direction.”

In May of 2015, the Texas Legislature passed a similar measure (House Bill 483) to establish a state bullion depository. The legislature also voted to repatriate its $1B in gold reserves that is currently housed at the Federal Reserve in New York. The Texas Comptrollers Office has already begun receiving bids on the construction of the depository.

As the federal debt grows to preposterous levels, more states may challenge the modern fractional reserve system. This system has supporters on both sides of the aisle and allows the United States to print money indefinitely without physical capital. Unfortunately, it will be our children that will reap the consequences of our shortsighted policies.

Ivory opens with a story from St. George, Utah. A woman tried to pay for a cart of groceries at Walmart with Double Eagle gold coins, was told the store only took “real money,” and traded the coins at a bank for their face value, a small fraction of what they were worth. Ivory uses the story to argue that people have lost sight of money as a fixed, reliable standard that represents their property and their liberty.

He tells the audience he has already filed the bill, which builds on the Utah Legal Tender Act so the state can “recognize, authorize and invest in real money.” It also calls for studying the income tax implications and for developing a way to transact in money that holds its purchasing power.

Ivory then walks through the tools he says the states already hold, among them state legislation, litigation, refusing to yield, and an Article V convention. He argues Utah should stand as the state that protects the purchasing power of its people’s property.