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BerkShares

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Re: BerkShares

#51

Post by rothbardrand »

okreallywtf wrote: post #46

This is interesting, thought I am having a hard time determining what make this different enough from Liberty Dollars [1] which made a splash in NC years ago. Liberty Dollars were supposed to be worth the metals they were constructed of, so they were not pegged to any currency but their intended use was much the same (finding local businesses that would accept them). It seems odd that the purveyors of liberty dollars…

It was exagerrated-- the "crime" of liberty dollars is that one of the distributors in NC was the ex-husband of an FBI agents sister, who was bitter about the situation and the FBI Agent decided he could make a terrorism case out of it and in the process steal a great deal of money via Asset Forfeiture-- which they did, including tens of thousands of Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Copper pieces (literally presidential campaign propaganda stolen by the FBI, in violation of the First Amendment and making all involved at the FBI felons under USC 18-242) not to mention something like $6M in Gold, Silver and Platinum pieces.

Then they railroaded the Liberty Dollar defendants with fraudulent (in my opinion) jury instructions telling them that a silver piece 10 times the size of a dime that also has a picture of the statue of liberty's torch was "identical" to US Currency under the law... despite Liberty Dollar having letters from the Secret Service, federal reserve, etc, expressing the legal opinion that they were legal and the like.

It's just a joke.

This case is the one that proved to me that not only is government corrupt, and will steal money, but that it doesn't even follow its own laws, and a large portion of the population will cheer on this corruption (the issue when it got posted to HN was met with a lot of liberals cheering it on because liberals are in favor of the inflationist fiat monetary regime and think that "kooks making money out of silver" should somehow be prosecuted.)

Re: BerkShares

#52

Post by tanderson92 »

rothbardrand wrote: post #51
okreallywtf wrote: post #46

This is interesting, thought I am having a hard time determining what make this different enough from Liberty Dollars [1] which made a splash in NC years ago. Liberty Dollars were supposed to be worth the metals they were constructed of, so they were not pegged to any currency but their intended use was much the same (finding local businesses that would accept them). It seems odd that the purveyors of liberty dollars…

It was exagerrated-- the "crime" of liberty dollars is that one of the distributors in NC was the ex-husband of an FBI agents sister, who was bitter about the situation and the FBI Agent decided he could make a terrorism case out of it and in the process steal a great deal of money via Asset Forfeiture-- which they did, including tens of thousands of Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Copper pieces (literally presidentia…

Fascinating! Thanks for the post, this is why I come to HN. Can you share some more sources from sources you consider reliable and not biased against Liberty dollars, so that I can read more?

Re: BerkShares

#53

Post by ww520 »

So the issuing banks print a BerkShare, sells it for $.95US to the public, and got to keep the $.95US. Hmm, anything that I missed that would dampen my enthusiasm to be an issuing bank?

Re: BerkShares

#54

Post by fny »

ww520 wrote: post #53

So the issuing banks print a BerkShare, sells it for $.95US to the public, and got to keep the $.95US. Hmm, anything that I missed that would dampen my enthusiasm to be an issuing bank?

Nah, you're required to exchange one for $0.95 later.

Taking printing and other administrative costs into account, you definitely lose as the bank.

Re: BerkShares

#55

Post by s17n »

ww520 wrote: post #53

So the issuing banks print a BerkShare, sells it for $.95US to the public, and got to keep the $.95US. Hmm, anything that I missed that would dampen my enthusiasm to be an issuing bank?

They are pegged against the dollar, meaning that the bank agrees to buy it back for what they paid for it. So basically, the issuer is taking out a zero interest loan from the users of the currency. Not a bad deal considering that the bank doesn't have to do any of the work involved in their typical source of zero-interest money (checking accounts).

Re: BerkShares

#56

Post by outsidetheparty »

Greetings from Berkshire County! BerkShares don't actually exist, as far as I can tell. I occasionally run across news stories about them, but I've never seen one and have never met anyone who's ever seen one (and I've asked around, because it's weird seeing news stories about things in your hometown that as far as you can tell don't actually exist.)

Re: BerkShares

#57

Post by dj-wonk »

rothbardrand wrote: post #51
okreallywtf wrote: post #46

This is interesting, thought I am having a hard time determining what make this different enough from Liberty Dollars [1] which made a splash in NC years ago. Liberty Dollars were supposed to be worth the metals they were constructed of, so they were not pegged to any currency but their intended use was much the same (finding local businesses that would accept them). It seems odd that the purveyors of liberty dollars…

It was exagerrated-- the "crime" of liberty dollars is that one of the distributors in NC was the ex-husband of an FBI agents sister, who was bitter about the situation and the FBI Agent decided he could make a terrorism case out of it and in the process steal a great deal of money via Asset Forfeiture-- which they did, including tens of thousands of Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Copper pieces (literally presidentia…

Re: "This case is the one that proved to me..." I wonder if you are overgeneralizing here.

Sure, there are cases of corruption involving the government. Did you intend to say something broader? Proving systemic or structural corruption is another thing.

The question we should be asking, in my opinion, is not "Are all governments corrupt?" but rather "To what degree are particular people and particular institutions acting in corrupt ways."

Fighting corruption is hard. We win some and we lose some. Our goal should be to win more often.

Re: BerkShares

#58

Post by united893 »

ww520 wrote: post #53

So the issuing banks print a BerkShare, sells it for $.95US to the public, and got to keep the $.95US. Hmm, anything that I missed that would dampen my enthusiasm to be an issuing bank?

How is that different from what you did as a founder? Say you create a company and issue 100M shares of worthless stock. Then after some time you end up selling 1M shares at $10/each. You get to keep $10MM that you created out of thin air?

Truth is, by creating the company, you created value. And the bank, by providing liquidity and reducing transactional friction does the same.

Re: BerkShares

#59

Post by gertef »

rothbardrand wrote: post #51
okreallywtf wrote: post #46

This is interesting, thought I am having a hard time determining what make this different enough from Liberty Dollars [1] which made a splash in NC years ago. Liberty Dollars were supposed to be worth the metals they were constructed of, so they were not pegged to any currency but their intended use was much the same (finding local businesses that would accept them). It seems odd that the purveyors of liberty dollars…

It was exagerrated-- the "crime" of liberty dollars is that one of the distributors in NC was the ex-husband of an FBI agents sister, who was bitter about the situation and the FBI Agent decided he could make a terrorism case out of it and in the process steal a great deal of money via Asset Forfeiture-- which they did, including tens of thousands of Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Copper pieces (literally presidentia…

> met with a lot of liberals cheering it on because liberals are in favor of the inflationist fiat monetary regime and think that "kooks making money out of silver" should somehow be prosecuted

citation? The only match I find is this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4696727 which has 1 person making an offhand remark that the government should "crackdown" in this case.

> rothbardrand

Thank you for not hiding your biases.

Re: BerkShares

#60

Post by gertef »

deanCommie wrote: post #47
valuearb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers always make objectively ideal decisions. What you think the best good for them to buy is not necessarily what they think, and they are the ones who are right.

That's the argument I'm making. Consumers know best.

Then why do class action lawsuits exist?
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