September 03, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story President
Ulysses S. Grant Attempt to Strengthen Dollar
President Grant made a very bold move in
March 1869 by passing an Act that was known as The Public Credit Act of 1869
where all the bondholders who had purchased the government bonds or the
greenbacks during the Civil War would be paid back in gold.
He hoped that the American Dollar would
revert back to the status prior to the printing of such notes by Secretary of
the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Colonel Edmund Dick Taylor who if you recall
was the one had suggested this idea to President Lincoln in a one-to-one
meeting on January 16, 1862 and has aptly been called the father of the
greenbacks.
President Grant in doing this was
attempting to reinstate the gold standard in the hope that this would not only
increase the international standing of the United States and its currency but
bring it at par and compatible to and with its major trading partner England.
Under the gold standard scheme of monetary
system paper notes and currency are convertible into preset, fixed quantities
of gold.
England or rather the pound sterling back
then solidly operated on the gold standard.
Unknown to most of us including his fans
Isaac Newton had spent the last three decades of his life from 1696 to 1727
serving as the Warden and then the Master of the Royal Mint.
He was indeed a scientist - unlike many who
get fame after their demise - who got high recognition and literally a Royal
treatment from his nation while he lived and long before he died.
It was about this time that the Royal Mint
had introduced new gold coinage and shillings and pound were fixed relative to
these standardized gold coins.
Standardization of currencies with gold units
is actually a very sensible monetary system and yet all the nations gradually
chose to abandon it.
Can you guess why they did so?
The answer is very simple.
We all, or at least most of us, live beyond
our means.
And much like individuals the national and
state governments too forever spend far in excess to what they earn through
means of tax revenues.
Gold Standard is like a strict father who
tells his sons to live on 70% of their salary and at the end of each month to set
aside remaining 20% for their savings accounts and the rest invest wisely in
the stock market.
But governments (also made of apes like us)
are like prodigal and undisciplined children who instead of living on the 70%
of their salaries usually have a habit of crossing at least 120% or even more
lacking fiscal discipline.
The only way to live in such reckless
manner is to get rid of the father (the gold standard) first and then to borrow
money from all possible means the mind can conjure up.
Human ingenuity and guile in the creation
of money out of thin air has left me flabbergasted when I get time to read and think
over it.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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