The Great Gold Robbery

There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while
The walls come tumbling down
When they do, we'll be right behind you
--Tears for Fears

Interesting review of the relationship between the banks runs of the early 1930s and FDR's ban on gold. One insight is that the bank runs in late 1932 were people seeking to front run the US going off the gold standard--something that FDR had publicly hinted in the months leading up to his inauguration.

In 1933 a NYC lawyer with unsurrendered gold holdings challenged the confiscation order. A Federal judge upheld the order, saying that the government was justified in compelling individuals to surrender their gold, and declared 'the right of the government to take private property of any kind when it is deemed necessary by the appropriate authority for the public good.'

A shot across the bow of Liberty, to say the least...

position in gold