When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree
[there has never been] a single instance
of their having been fairly and completely paid
The liberation of the public revenue...
has always been brought about by bankruptcy
though frequently by a pretended payment [through inflation]
Adam Smith
Moral philosopher and Father of Modern Economics
Did Spanish money become worth less
after the Emperor borrowed against 100 years of future tax revenue
to pay for war against England?
Nations are not ruined by one act of violence
but quite often, gradually, and almost imperceptibly
by the depreciation of their currency through excessive quantity
Nicolas Copernicus
Discovered Earth was not the center of the Universe
Why did the Continental Congress issue paper money
backed by anticipated tax revenues
to pay for war against theocratic England?
All the…confusion and distress in America arise
not from the defects in the Constitution...
not from want of honor or virtue
so much as from downright ignorance
of the nature of coin, credit and circulation
John Quincy Adams
Why did the Legal Tender Act of 1862 authorize paper money
not exchangeable for gold or silver
to finance the Civil War without raising taxes?
No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin
a Tender in Payment of Debts
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1
The Constitution of the United States
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