Leviticus 19:36

You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

In order to ensure we had “honest scales and just weights”, historically the dollar was tied to a commodity. A commodity with intrinsic value such as gold or oil has been used historically. For the United States, our standard was gold. A paper currency was developed because it weighed less and could be carried around more easily, but at anytime you could go to a bank and trade in your dollar for a corresponding amount of the standardized weight of gold. This system, referred to as “the gold standard,” accomplished several goals.

One, because our paper money was tied to a commodity, we couldn’t keep printing a bunch more, unless we also accumulated the same amount of gold somewhere in our reserves. This forced politicians to budget because they couldn’t just print money out of thin air without having a corresponding amount of gold. It restricted the amount of money that could be printed and therefore restricted the amount of money that could be spent.

Woodrow Wilson came along and said, “I would like to have a lot more money printed so I can spend more money. Unfortunately, I’m tied to this gold standard which I don’t like. We need to get rid of this thing. But don’t worry;” he said to the world, “Our dollar is so valuable we promise that even though it’s not tied to a commodity in the same way, you can trust us. We won’t print too much; we won’t devalue the currency.” But, that is exactly what they did! This pivotal decision moved us from a commodity-backed system to a fiat system. A fiat system is a “we promise to make good economic decisions as a nation” system.

When the government prints extra dollars, each individual dollar loses some of its value. Think of a dollar like a block of wood measuring 4” X 4” X 8” inches long. Now, in your mind, glue a picture of a dollar bill onto the wood. What we now have is a dollar that has weight. Our dollar weighs as much as an eight-inch piece of wood.

Now, let’s head over to the Federal Reserve. When the Federal Reserve says, “We’re going to start printing more dollars,” it pushes the value of the current dollars through the spinning blade of a saw. When they increase the money supply, imagine them pushing our dollar block of wood through a table saw. They are cutting it in half. There are now two dollars instead of one, but each one of them is now half as thick. Each dollar now has half as much weight. And what is accomplished? We now have more money because the quantity of dollars is higher. The bad news is that each of the new dollars is only half as thick. The new dollars have only half the weight. The minute you print a dollar, the old dollar is worth less.

            The new dollars do not weigh as much as the standardized pound. So the only way to get the same amount of weight out of your money is to place two of them on the scale. It now takes two dollars to balance out the same scales of what was one dollar before.

            The weight of each individual dollar represents its buying power. Each of these dollars has had their buying- power split down the middle. Another way to say this is to say that you now have two less-valuable dollars. What are the consequences of this? On the positive side for the seller, prices go up. On the negative side for the buyer, the house costs more. Your house price went up when you sell; however the house you want to buy went up too. Your stocks are rising, but your gas price went up as well.

Everything begins to cost more. Why? It’s not because the intrinsic value or worth of things like your house or healthcare went up, it’s because your dollars are worth less. It now takes more of your less-valuable dollars to make the same purchases you used to make.

Since 1913, the U.S dollar has lost 85-97% of its value.  Don’t believe me, they’ve set up an online website for you to check for yourself here. This hurts the entire economy, but especially hurts the poor. The irony is that the excessive printing is done to provide beneficial programs to help the poor and needy. The unintended consequences are ironic. The more you print and spend; the more you’ll need to print and spend. As the printing press saw blade spins, the prices for supplies go up. The more prices go up, the more money you need to print. The cycle continues. This is a way of stealing from the public, without the public ever seeing how it was done. Just as John Keynes conceded, the government is able to steal the citizens’ prosperity right under their noses.

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. ~ John Keynes

For more information, check out session 4 of Godonomics, “What Would God Say to Alan Greenspan?” or watch the first session right here.