How often have you thought of currency competition? I hadn't hardly at all until I got here and am learning about it little by little. I find it interesting because it goes against so much of our current cultural thinking: that government declares what is money, owns the money (owns the pieces of paper) and says we must us it for cash transactions.
Here's the conclusion to this sub-committee testimony by Lawrence White, a George Mason professor.
"Competition in general creates incentives
to provide a high quality product by taking business away from
low-quality producers. Competition in currency is a practical idea that
offers sizable benefits to the public when the quality of the incumbent
currency becomes doubtful. In particular, US citizens would benefit
from freedom of choice among monetary alternatives though the removal of
current legal restrictions and obstacles against currencies that could
compete with Federal Reserve Notes and US Treasury coins. HR 1098 would
give currency competition a chance"
It was for the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011 introduced by none other than Ron Paul.
Full text of the testimony is here.
There is almost zero chance the House will vote on it, but still it's cool to see these ideas getting tossed around down there.
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