Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Proverbs and Micah, which extol “just weights and measures.” But Peter Crabb, an economics and finance professor at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, said the Bible doesn’t necessarily support one type of economics over another. “Here we talk about that a lot, as a Christian school,” he said, especially from the angle of income inequality, which Austrian economics would allow in unlimited amounts. “Does Jesus support income inequality? Some references say, yes, there are rich and poor. Others say, no. It’s not a question that He answered for us definitively,” Crabb said. “I do think there is scriptural basis for a more laissez faire economy, but I don’t think scripture wants us to answer that question either.” Founding Austrian economists are also silent on the subject of the ecclesiastics of sound money, but the school of thought rejects nearly every social program as “socialistic” and calls the New Deal alternately a fascist or communist regime. But among LvMI’s most controversial claims is the belief that the Civil War wasn’t to end slavery, and Abraham Lincoln was an imperialist demagogue who prosecuted the war simply to expand federal authority over the Southern states. As Paul said during a 2008 appearance on Meet the Press, Lincoln provoked the war to “subvert the original purpose of the Republic.” From that point of view, the Civil War was a brutal violation of states’ rights and the beginning of the descent into statist ruin. Remember, Austrian proponents chide, that the first real fiat money, called “greenbacks,” was backed by nothing but the “full faith and credit” of the government and printed in 1862 to fuel the Northern war effort. Naturally, that telling of history doesn’t sit well with a lot of people, not least of which is the Southern Poverty Law Center, a private group run by civil rights activist Morris Dees. The SPLC views the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s intellectual pedigree—shared by Paul, other Libertarians and proponents of Austrianism—with no small amount of skepticism. The organization even goes so far as to list several prominent faculty members of the institute as “neo-confederates.” That includes author Thomas diLorenzo, whose books, highly critical of Lincoln, have been quoted approvingly by Paul. The LvMI is adamant that it doesn’t support racism or the institution of slavery. Still, it isn’t coy about its belief that the Confederacy had every right to secede in protection of its states’ rights, and doesn’t hide its connections with pro-Confederacy groups like the Southern nationalist organization League of the South, which the institute lists on its website as a member of the “Roll of Honor.” The League of the South, labeled as a “hate group” by the SPLC in 2000, is also a strong advocate for sound money and Austrian economics. SPLC spokesman Mark Potok said sound-money principles aren’t necessarily “neo-confederate” ideas, but those sound monetism and radical ideals—embroiled as they are with issues of states’ rights and biblical sanction—come from a page taken “directly from the radical right.” “Throughout the patriot movement, throughout the militia movement, people believe that the only lawful money is gold and silver,” he told BW. “This whole thing is based on the utterly fantastic notion that there
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is no real money by virtue of the Constitution and God himself other than gold or silver. “Most so-called patriots will talk for instance about the Federal Reserve and the fact that it’s benefiting a tiny elite,” Potok added. “What most of them won’t go on to tell you is that ‘the elite’ is a cabal of rich Jews ... It’s essentially an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.” The anti-Semitic nature of “End the Fedism” isn’t quite that cut and dried, though. While most white nationalist and anti-Semitic groups agree with the suggestion that the Federal Reserve system was founded by—and maintained for—the benefit of rich Jewish bankers, by and large they reject gold or silver bugs as pawns in a Jewish plot to capture and destroy the capitalist economy. An article titled “Nationalist Economics,” posted on the websites Midwest Free Press and White News Now, criticizes the sound money idea as unsustainable in the long-term, but much of the language has a familiar ring, complete with the “banking elite,” Congressional corruption and the fear of creeping socialism. “Many Americans, including Libertarians and some paleoconservatives, advocate that we return to a gold-backed currency ...” wrote the unnamed author. “The only time I would advocate a gold standard is during a transition period in a country like the current USA, where we are dominated by a banking elite and we need to take the power to spend away from our corrupt Congress. This would shift more control of the nation’s money to the people, and hopefully help us break our current descent into communism.” For Tea Partiers, constitutionalists and proponents of Austrian economics—unlike radical white nationalist groups—the rhetoric comes down to the Tenth Amendment’s directive that “No state shall … coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” Tea Party and libertarian organizations like the LvMI understandably reject claims that sound monetism is rooted in anti-Semitism— Austrian school founders Mises and Hayek, after all, were Jewish—and in Boise, local Tea Partiers eschew racial or ethnic arguments in favor of the Founding Fathers. “The logic is the very same as originally established in the days of our Founders. Today, with the advent of the Federal Reserve, our practice of letting government and politicians manipulate the value of money by inflating it and deflating, has created the financial ruin we face,” according to a statement from Tea Party Boise in response to questions e-mailed by BW. Requests for attribution, or a phone or in-person interview, went unanswered. “We want to return to those roots,” the statement continued. “Therefore sound money policy is critical to doing just that. The Founders were against the notion of a ‘central government banking system,’ which is exactly what we have in the Federal Reserve. They knew how corrupting that would be in terms of sound fiscal policy. They were right and history proves it.” To borrow again from Lewis Carroll: “Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again. “No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “what’s the answer?” “I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter. WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M