Honest Money

Honest Money, written Gary North, is the hardest book I’ve had to read and write a summary report on.

It starts out ok saying the money is a social phenomenon. That is only in existence because people recognize there are certain good and services they can provide and certain ones they in return need. Or simply put, you have things to provide and certain things you have to buy. This is what makes money come into a full circle.

The government can and does influence money in many ways, although I do not agree with his total insistence and belief only in gold. North shows us the “blueprints” of economic principles and banking. He does know how to present his ideas in ways that will grasp the attention of readers and make those ideas easy to understand. North has such topics in the 1st part of his book as the value of money and its origins, and the maintenance of honest money as contrasted with the debauching of currency through monetary inflation. He is careful to correctly define inflation as simply an increase in the supply of money, which in the ends produces a general rise in price levels. It is a common practice today for government officials, Federal Reserve , bankers, economists, writers, and all leading financial publications to “figure out their own excuses for economic cause and effect by incorrectly defining inflation as a general rise in the price level. But once the general public accepts this excuse of a definition, they have great difficulty in analyzing what the basic cause of rising prices really is. Changing the meaning of words confuses people, making them easier to manipulate and to control. Other topics covered deal with the evils of state-monopolized banking and fractional-reserve banking as contrasted with the broadly bestowed benefits to mankind of a truly biblical monetary system.

North says that the process of monetary inflation is not just a superficial economic problem, but a deep moral problem which affects every segment of society:

In short, if there is any tampering with the monetary unit, and the government allows such fraud to continue, the whole economy is threatened with a progressive debasement . . .. Thus, a debased currency is like a giant engine of economic corruption.

On page 124 North presents easily-understood principles of biblical monetary theory:

1. Standard weights and measures, with penalties imposed by the civil government against those who tamper with the scales.

2. A prohibition on all forms of multiple indebtedness by banks, meaning fractional-reserve banking.

3. Competitive entry into the silversmith, goldsmith, or any other smith business.

4. No one is to be compelled by law to accept any form of money. This means no legal tender laws (compulsory acceptance).

In short, the Bible declares freedom under God's moral law. It declares freedom without fraud . People may do pretty much