Why did the United States abandon the gold standard?
In an article published recently by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Maria Hasenstab cites the international gold shortage during the Great Depression. “Countries around the world basically ran out of supply and were forced off the gold standard,” she writes.

(Charlotte, NC – November 20th, 2024) – The newly released 2025 Sound Money Index has identified Wyoming, South Dakota, and Alaska as the states with the most favorable policies toward constitutional sound money, while Vermont, Maine, and California take the most hostile stances.

Madison, Wisconsin – (February 4th, 2023) – A large bipartisan contingent of Wisconsin legislators seek to end Wisconsin’s controversial practice of levying sales tax on purchases of gold and silver. Senate Bill 33, primarily sponsored by Sen. Duey Strobel (R – Saukville) and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R – Appleton), and cosponsored by Rep. Shae Sortwell, enjoys wide support – and would align Wisconsin with the policies of 42 other U.S. states.

In 2022, central banks will have purchased the largest amount of gold in recent history. According to the World Gold Council, central bank purchases of gold have reached a level not seen since 1967. The world’s central banks bought 673 metric tons in one month, and in the third quarter, the figure reached 400 metric tons. This is interesting because the flow from central banks since 2020 had been eminently net sales.

(St. Paul, Minnesota, USA – January 16th, 2023) – Legislators in the Twin Cities seek to fully exempt gold and silver from Minnesota’s state sales tax.
House Rep. B. Olson and Sen. Draheim have introduced HF 106 and SF 373, respectively. These two measures would include coins to Minnesota’s current sales tax exemption, which only exempts bars and rounds.

(Charleston, West Virginia, USA – January 11th, 2023) – Another pro-sound money legislative effort has been introduced in West Virginia. Del. Chris Pritt has introduced House Bill 2333, the “Legal Tender Act.” This measure would establish gold and silver as legal tender in West Virginia, as well as create a nonrefundable tax credit for the use gold and silver in West Virginia on state taxes.

Sound money, in the form of physical gold and silver, look to be ending the year on a bullish footing. Meanwhile, things are looking positive on the sound money public policy front as well, thanks to some big wins at the state level in 2022 combined with renewed enthusiasm among our legislative allies as we head into the 2023 legislative season.

6 Outstanding Students Earn Almost $10,000 in Tuition Assistance
Eagle, Idaho (December 6, 2022) – Six outstanding students beat out almost 100 of their high-school and college peers in making the best case for sound money through an international, gold-backed scholarship competition…
…and the winners walked away with a total of $9,500 in scholarship awards for their exceptional, thought-provoking essays.

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) joined Fox Business in support of H.R. 9157, the Gold Standard Restoration Act.  “The Federal Reserve note has lost more than 30 percent of its purchasing power since 2000, and 97 percent of its purchasing power since 1913,” the Congressman from West Virginia told host Kennedy.

Early this month, Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia introduced the Gold Standard Restoration Act (H.R. 9157). If enacted into law, it would require public disclosure of the federal government’s gold holdings and eventually define the dollar as a weight of gold.

Precious metals markets continued rallying this week. Investors weighed new inflation data showing price pressures in the economy are finally slowing. Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index report came in slightly lower than expected for a change. The CPI rose 8.5% on an annualized basis in July.
Normally such a reading would be nothing to cheer about. But the fact that the inflation rate finally came down a tad after months and months of relentless increases gave Joe Biden an opportunity to gloat. In a particularly laughable moment, the President went so far as to claim that inflation has fallen to zero.
Joe Biden: Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July, 0%. Here’s what that means. While the price of some things went up last month, the price of other

With last week’s second 75 basis-point rate hike, the Federal Reserve now claims it has achieved a “neutral” monetary policy stance. That would mean, in theory, that interest rates are neither stimulating nor restraining the economy.

It’s campaign season, and that means non-stop media coverage of candidate polls, quips, gaffes, tweets, emails, controversies, lies, and scandals. It all makes for a good soap opera. Unfortunately, it’s almost all irrelevant in the big picture.
The media prefer to focus on the sideshow rather than the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the looming debt crisis.

According to the most recent polling data, the American public’s approval of Congress stands at a dismal 21 percent. Almost four times as many people disapprove of the job it’s doing. That’s par for the course in recent decades. It’s the major reason the Washington sausage grinder earns so little praise. To be fair, though, let’s review an occasion when lawmakers got something right.

Last month was the 89th anniversary of one of America’s biggest blunders on her descent from honest, sound money into weaponized political money: Executive Order 6102. Signed on April 5, 1933, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt required all persons holding more than five ounces of gold to deliver their “gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates, now owned by them to a Federal Reserve Bank, branch or agency, or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System.”

With Governor Kay Ivey’s signature on sound money legislation today, Alabama has become the second state this year to expand its sales tax exemption involving gold and silver. Alabama Senate Bill 13, championed by Sen. Tim Melson and Rep. Jamie Kiel, passed with unanimous support out of the Alabama Senate and then passed unanimously through the Alabama House before making it to the Governor’s desk.

(Richmond, Virginia – April 12, 2022) – By signing sound money legislation last night, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has ended Virginia’s discriminatory practice of assessing sales taxes on smaller purchases of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion and coins.

Sound Money Defense League Policy Director Jp Cortez joins Phil Kennedy of Kennedy Financial to discuss sound money on the state and federal level, and the harms of inflation.

Sound money is a key to a free and prosperous society. That principle was clearly reflected in the monetary system that the Constitution established when it called the federal government into existence.
Our ancestors didn’t trust government officials with power. They believed that the greatest threat to their own freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign regime but rather with their own government.

Washington, DC (May 8, 2019) – U.S. Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV) introduced legislation this week to provide for the first audit of United States gold reserves since the Eisenhower Administration.
The Gold Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 2559) – backed by the Sound Money Defense League and government accountability advocates – directs the Comptroller of the United States to conduct a “full assay, inventory, and audit of all gold reserves, including any gold in ‘deep storage,’ of the United States at the place or places where such reserves are kept.”

Washington has been quite the circus lately. Bret Kavanaugh’s appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee prompted dozens of interruptions from Democrats and numerous protests from leftists. During Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s testimony to the House Commerce Committee, journalist Laura Loomer demanded to be verified on the social media platform, and Representative Billy Long (R-MO) held an auction.

The sound money movement reemerged on the national political scene a decade ago. In 2008, the financial crisis brought in a fresh wave of U.S. gold and silver investors.
Ron Paul and the Tea Party advocated for limiting government and ending the Federal Reserve system. Sound money advocates made real inroads in recruiting Americans to their cause based on evidence that the nation is headed for bankruptcy.

Cheyenne, Wyoming (March 14, 2018) – Sound money activists rejoiced as the Wyoming Legal Tender Act became law today. The bill restores constitutional, sound money in Wyoming. Backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Campaign for Liberty, Money Metals Exchange, and in-state grassroots activists, HB 103 removes all forms of state taxation on gold and silver coins and bullion and reaffirms their status as money in Wyoming, in keeping with Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution.