II. Trade and the Economy
Inflation and Depression
We recognize that government control over money and banking is
the primary cause of inflation and depression. Individuals engaged
in voluntary exchange should be free to use as money any mutually
agreeable commodity or item, such as gold coins denominated by units
of weight. We therefore call for the repeal of all legal tender laws
and of all compulsory governmental units of account. We support the
right to private ownership of and contracts for gold. We favor the
elimination of all government fiat money and all government minted
coins. All restrictions upon the private minting of coins should be
abolished so that minting will be open to the competition of the
free market.
We favor free-market banking. We call for the abolition of the
Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the
National Banking System, and all similar national and state
interventions affecting banking and credit. Our opposition
encompasses all controls on the rate of interest. We also call for
the abolition of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the Resolution
Trust Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the
National Credit Union Central Liquidity Facility, and all similar
national and state interventions affecting savings and loan
associations, credit unions, and other depository institutions.
There should be unrestricted competition among banks and depository
institutions of all types.
To complete the separation of bank and State, we favor the
Jacksonian independent treasury system, in which all government
funds are held by the government itself and not deposited in any
private banks. The only further necessary check upon monetary
inflation is the consistent application of the general protection
against fraud to the minting and banking industries.
Pending its abolition, the Federal Reserve System, in order to
halt inflation, must immediately cease its expansion of the quantity
of money. As interim measures, we further support:
- the lifting of all restrictions on branch banking;
- the repeal of all state usury laws;
- the removal of all remaining restrictions on the interest paid
for deposits;
- the elimination of laws setting margin requirements on
purchases and sales of securities;
- the revocation of all other selective credit controls;
the abolition of Federal Reserve control over the reserves of
non-member banks and other depository institutions; and
- the lifting of the prohibition of domestic deposits
denominated in foreign currencies.
