In a landslide vote Texas lawmakers approved (by a margin of 140 to 4 in the Texas House and 27 to 4 in the state Senate) a bill to establish a gold depository bank. The bill was signed into law in mid-June by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
In this interview Texas State Representative Giovanni Capriglione, author of the bill explains how this new law came into being and what it does.
The full interview can be heard here.
This is a surprising turn of events that is reminiscent of the private NCBA (National Commodity and Barter Association), a gold depository that was harassed and finally put out of business by government thirty years ago.
This bank, if it ever comes into being under the aegis of the Texas state government, will not so easily be quashed by the feds, After all, you “don’t mess with Texas.” It could lead to a payment system that is independent of the Federal Reserve and provide depositors with some protection against the continuing inflation of the US dollar.
But the gold market is very much manipulated and controlled by the big holders, the various central banks and national governments around the world. It would be better to hold an assortment of basic commodities on deposit to better assure that depositors’ purchasing power will be maintained. Better yet, state governments should support the creation of credit clearing exchanges that enable buyers and sellers to trade with one another without using money at all but simply offset each trader’s payments for purchases against their receipts from sales. In that case, the commodity assortment need only be used to define a unit for denominating members’ account balances. This and other innovative approaches to exchange are all explained .in my books, especially The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, and in my various interviews and presentations on this website.
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Beyond Money 