Just In Time: An Important New Book for a World in a State of Flux | Economic Policy Journal

Even the casual observer of news must realize that the world is shifting at its core, that the future may very well be much different than the world we live in today.

The uprising in Tunisia and Egypt are just two examples of people desiring to be free of oppressive governments. In places like Tunisia and Egypt, the oppression is obvious. In other cases, such as the United States, the government moves may be a bit more slick, but the edge to the banksters and other power elite is becoming more obvious. In the U.S. this has spawned the Tea Party and others suspicious of ever-expanding government.

My chief complaint with these anti-regime movements has been that there seems to be no clear understanding of what the current regimes should be replaced with. The average man seems to have little understanding of the importance of free markets and its importance in creating a prosperous society.

In his new book, Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. addresses my complaint. Aimed primarily at a United States audience, the book brilliantly weaves facts with theories to explain why the United States is in the financial mess it is in today and the way out of the financial mess.

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Remembering the great gold heist of '33

by Thomas E. Woods

It's been 75 years since the federal government, on the spurious grounds of fighting the Great Depression, ordered the confiscation of all monetary gold from Americans, permitting trivial amounts for ornamental or industrial use. This happens to be one of the episodes Kevin Gutzman and I describe in detail in our new book, Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush. From the point of view of the typical American classroom, on the other hand, the incident may as well not have occurred.

A key piece of legislation in this story is the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which Congress passed on March 9 without having read it and after only the most trivial debate. House Minority Leader Bertrand H. Snell (R-NY) generously conceded that it was "entirely out of the ordinary" to pass legislation that "is not even in print at the time it is offered." He urged his colleagues to pass it all the same: "The house is burning down, and the President of the United States says this is the way to put out the fire. [Applause.] And to me at this time there is only one answer to this question, and that is to give the President what he demands and says is necessary to meet the situation."

Among other things, the act retroactively approved the president's closing of private banks throughout the country for several days the previous week, an act for which he had not bothered to provide a legal justification. It gave the secretary of the Treasury the power to require all individuals and corporations to hand over all their gold coin, gold bullion, or gold certificates if in his judgment "such action is necessary to protect the currency system of the United States."

For more on this commentary, go to The Ludwig von Mises Institute