Day 4, The Deep Read (11) , p. 307-- AtD 296-325 (11) June 11-25.

[Mark Kohut]

p. 306 Silver Act...repealed for nothing?
  
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the US government to buy millions of ounces of silver bullion every month. This Act was repealed in 1893 when people, mostly investors, sold silver to get notes redeemable in gold so that the government's gold reserves were in danger of depletion. Silver Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act
   
  p. 307 
'''what'll there be then to crucify mankind on a cross of?'''
Near-quotation from William Jennings Bryan's [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/ "Cross of Gold" speech,] arguably the most famous American political speech ever, of the last sentence, "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
   
  "pretty soon it's the whole world, you see?"
  "Big chunk of our damn U. S. economy resting squarely onto it, how abou that?"
   
  Pynchon and money power. Why is gold valuable and used to back up national currencies?
  Some economists point to this ....shared-illusion?.....as the backbone of economic value in the world.....what if the world economy had developed differently?   (Talk about the arbitrariness on the Mason/Dixon line and what it artificially divided....)
   
  What would an a (non-violent) anarchist economist say about The Gold Standard?   
   
  That 'value' could all be doubled with Icelandic Spar..........metaphor for what in AtD?
  Today's major essay question.
   
  
 

       
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