Counterfeiting: Only Permissable For Some…
January 10th, 2011I recently decided to pick up Case Against the Fed, by Murray Rothbard for a second go around. One theme he tackles in his short and sweet book is the act of counterfeiting. You don’t hear much on the issue in mainstream headlines, however it is happening all around us. Counterfeiting is considered one of the most punishable of crimes, even though the privileges of counterfeiting are granted to one particular agency…the Federal Reserve.
An article I came across in my pursuit of counterfeit encounters was called, “Secret Service Reports Surge in Counterfeiting”. Contrary to my initial though this article wasn’t about the Fed’s quantitative easing…it was about the $132 million the Secret Service has pulled in through 2010. Which is hardly comparable to the trillions of dollars the Fed has legally printed, counterfeited, in the last year.
Take a look at some smaller scale instances of counterfeiting that seem to be happening in the news. Take a look at what their illegitimate practices have done to their towns and communities. After that, compare the amount of money counterfeited in the stories with the Fed’s:
–This couple hurt local business (which is dead wrong in my book).
–This Indiana man wrote blank checks that amounted to $60,000 in losses. His actions are clearly inexcusable.
–I found this particular story entertaining. A man was charged with using a $50 counterfeit bill at his local Hardee’s. He clearly NEEDED a cheeseburger!
It’s still so hard looking from the outside in to be more infuriated at these cases than at the Fed. Micro-economically they have hurt small businesses in towns, yet in the big picture the Federal Reserve will do worse.
A lot of these news reports of individual counterfeiters seem to have a common theme which is their use of the fake bills are localized and many are not conspiring to make larger scaled purchases. Not at all am I condoning their actions, because well, it is in fact illegal to create fake money. Maybe one day the Secret Service will catch those sneaky printing press operators and shut down the inflation operation at the Federal Reserve Bank.
