Glenn Beck's CNN interview with Liberty Dollar founder

8:55p ET Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Last night's interview of Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus by Glenn Beck on CNN has been posted at YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvHhqr8OeFc

It's not quite four minutes long.

CNN has provided a tentative transcript of the interview and it is appended.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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Glenn Beck Program
CNN
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0711/20/gb.01.html

BECK: Well, some people would tell you that the U.S. dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Well, have you seen the Jay-Z video where he is flashing euros in his latest rap video? You've got to ask yourself, if Jay-Z is doing that, how bad is this going to get?

Well, have no fear. The Liberty Dollar is here, in denominations of one, five, and 10 dollars. The Liberty Dollar already has $20 million in paper currency printed and is ready to replace the dollar or not.

Bernard Von Nothaus is a monetary architect and driving force behind the Liberty Dollar and, apparently, in big trouble with the feds, because they say you were trying to collapse the U.S. dollar, which is pretty much the charge that you have made against the feds. Is it not?

VON NOTHAUS: It's something like that, Glenn.

BECK: Yes. Now, how do you -- why do you believe that the federal government is trying to collapse the dollar?

VON NOTHAUS: Well, I don't really think they're trying to collapse the dollar, but I think that we have a very strong history since 1913 of the collapse of the dollar, because if you look at the charts that the government puts out, since 1913 to 2001, the U.S. dollar has lost 96 percent of its purchasing power.

BECK: Yes. Now, as I -- as I understand this, you`ve been making the Liberty Dollar. And it's a barter system, if I understand it right. Where you can buy it and, if you can convince people to take the gold or the silver at the face value, they'll barter for it. What is the problem of the federal government with you doing this?

VON NOTHAUS: That's what we got -- that's what we're asking the federal government. I mean, the U.S. Mint posted this warning a year and a half ago, saying that what we were doing was illegal. And we said, "No, it isn't illegal." You know? And then they didn't take any action after that, Glenn.

And so what's a poor boy to do? But I sued the government because I want them to tell me what am I doing illegal?

BECK: OK. Let me play devil's advocate with you. Because you know, there are a lot of people in the crazy tree here on the government is going to collapse and, you know, whatever. And from time to time, you know, I get into the shade of that crazy tree myself.

But the -- the government is -- is saying that you are trying to compete with our own currency, that you are trying to fool people into thinking that this is U.S. currency. And quite honestly, if I looked at that -- can we show that again? If I looked at that with the Statue of Liberty, and it says "Liberty" and "USA" on the bottom and then "trust in God," not "in God we trust," it does look like a -- a U.S.-minted coin.

VON NOTHAUS: I beg to differ with you, Glenn. Similitude is what you're alluding to there. And it is not in violation of any of the similitude statutes at all.

BECK: I believe...

VON NOTHAUS: And...

BECK: I believe there's a jail sentence if you are trying to print your own currency.

VON NOTHAUS: No, sir. We've been printing our own currency for ten years. And I don`t believe there's a jail sentence here at all. Because we're not trying to fool people into thinking this is U.S. currency at all. We have built our whole marketing campaign on the simple fact that it is not government currency.

BECK: OK. Real quick, because I've only got about 10 seconds for you to answer this. I just want to make this clear. You printed Ron Paul's face on the back of one of these coins. He says he wasn't involved in that at all. Did you ask permission? Was he involved in that?

VON NOTHAUS: No, sir. We did not ask his permission at all because, according to the Federal Election Commission rules, to make it an independent contribution, we could not have his support.

BECK: OK.

VON NOTHAUS: So it was a surprise.

BECK: What a surprise it is. Your face is on a coin.

Bernard, thank you very much. ...

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