American taxpayers are sending over $100 million per year to a bloated international bureaucracy that has morphed into a “cartel enforcer” for welfare-state politicians seeking to prevent tax competition, according to a new study.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now predicts that the size of China’s economy will surpass America’s by 2016, far earlier than most mainstream economists have been forecasting. Some analysts ridiculed the Fund’s prediction, but others warned that it could happen even sooner.

Constitutionalist Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, is planning to hold hearings about the Federal Reserve’s bailouts of foreign-owned banks during the economic crisis.

After the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of lower-court rulings, the Federal Reserve must release information within five days about its “emergency” bailouts of large banks and financial institutions undertaken in 2008 under the guise of saving the financial system.

The Utah House of Representatives voted on March 4 to make gold and silver coins issued by the federal government into legal tender within state borders, prompting praise from sound-money advocates across the nation. The legislation will now be taken up by the state Senate.

The Federal Reserve announced that it would use a new accounting trick to conceal potential losses on its massive investment portfolio, transferring its liabilities to the U.S. Treasury instead. The new methodology would essentially prevent the central bank’s bankruptcy — on paper, at least — right as the debate on its solvency heats up. But the move is already raising eyebrows among analysts, who say it could severely impact the credibility of both the Fed and the U.S. government.

In light of the U.S. dollar’s continual loss of purchasing power and the historical stability of precious metals as a store of value, a new bill set to be considered in the Utah legislature would require the state government to accept taxes and pay its obligations in gold or silver upon demand.   

In a stark illustration of the economic fears still plaguing America, a resolution was introduced in the Virginia legislature on January 12 that would create a subcommittee to officially consider the adoption of an alternative currency in case of a total breakdown of the U.S. dollar and the Federal Reserve System.

The Federal Reserve has been a nightmare for the American people. It inflates the money supply, thereby devaluing already-existing money and placing a massive hidden tax on the people via rising prices. It also uses its monopoly power to cause interest rates to go up or down, usurping the rightful place of the market and causing massive malinvestment and generally an improper and unproductive allocation of resources.

If all the advocates of a world fiat currency (a currency not backed by a precious commodity like gold) were to scream at once, workers in world capitals, business centers, colleges, and news media may be deafened. And if global financial elites have their way, America will move quickly toward accepting a planetary fiat currency issued by a world central bank.