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Comment by gjm11 | Hacker News Reader

> stole all of America's privately held gold

Except for the bit where he, y'know, paid for it at the then-prevailing rate. (Which was defined by law, since at that point the US dollar was still on the gold standard.)

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.... only to devalue the dollar by 50% or so as soon as it was believed there was not a lot of gold left in private hands.

While "stealing the gold" is not technically correct, eliminating 50% of the value of everyone's saving IS, and the confiscation of gold was done to eliminate the best (and popular) store of value.

Of course, it was all legal -- but when the government makes the laws, that statement is completely moot.

To be more precise, FDR increased the price at which the government would buy gold from foreign buyers. The devaluation occurs in terms of foreign currency exchange. I don't think it's quite correct to put a 1:1 correspondence to that and "eliminating 50% of the value of everyone's savings". Maybe eliminated 50% the value of everyone's savings in Francs. Domestic purchasing power would be negatively affected for foreign goods, in theory it would create income in terms of increased exports.

"he confiscation of gold was done to eliminate the best (and popular) store of value."

'Best' no, 'popular' yes and that was crippling the economy.

It was 'crippling the economy' in the same sense that Bill Gates and Warren Buffets money not being spent is "crippling the economy". And it what FDR has done to savers is just as fair as "liberating" said money from BillG and WarrenB's bank accounts would be.

"It was 'crippling the economy' in the same sense that Bill Gates and Warren Buffets money not being spent is "crippling the economy". "

Umm no. What happened was people took their money out of the bank to hoard gold which crippled the money supply and credit markets. Which is exactly what would happen if Gates et al. decided to hold their money under the mattress instead of in the bank.

That's an inaccurate analogy (or rather it make the point opposite to what I think you are trying to say).

Gate's and Buffet's "money" is stored in stock in companies, which add value to the economy - ie, their money is active and productive. That's the opposite to storing value in gold.

Aren't Bill Gates and Warren Buffett currently trying to spend as much of their money as possible on charity work, as well as lobbying to get the amount of taxes they have to pay increased?

Except they paid market rate knowing full well what would happen to the buying power of dollars relative to gold. I like how people are willing to redefine theft to support their notions of benevolent government. You guys are a riot.

If someone raped you and then paid you the then-prevailing rate for a whore, does that make it not rape?

What makes an exchange stealing is the involuntary aspect.

"If someone raped you ... does that make it not rape"

Stunning circular logic there.

"Someone" =/= "democratically elected government with clearly enumerated power".

We agreed on the Constitution and it says the government can take stuff as long as it pays you. Those are rules we agreed to.

If we all agreed on a Constitution that said the President could have relations with whoever he wanted and then people chose to stay in this country and then the President chose to have relations with them we might question whether that still qualifies as rape.

Yes, and then immediately after taking the gold he changed the standard, so if you wanted to buy your original gold back you would have to pay more money. What happened was robbery.

The only things buying gold from the US government were foreign national banks. The government never offered to sell gold to individuals after the gold clause abrogation.

He paid for it at the then-prevailing rate so that you'd be stuck holding dollars, which he would then immediately depreciate through inflationary measures.

Not that I'm a gold-bug, but, it was pretty rude.

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