The Inside Story of How Florida Made Gold, Silver Legal Tender
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You know, it's interesting, you know, someone I remember watching in 2012 when Ron Paul would get like, what, seven or 11% in the primary or Florida. And you'd be like, man, we are so far away from the electorate waking up. And then now 2025, you know, the thing that like the top,

governor contenders are like going to be fighting over who's going to be more pro gold is, is pretty interesting. You know, it's like, it's all Ron Paul now, but, but on the other hand, it kind of, it's kind of concerning because it's like, it kind of, it kind of, it kind of signals the, the danger that we're at, you know, that, that people are at the point where they're, they're forced to confront the truth means dangers on the horizon potentially.

Hot neighbors choice. I'm here with the executive director for Citizens for Sound Money, Daniel Diaz. How you doing?

Good. How are you doing, David? Great. It's great to have you on. Now, you're here in Florida with us, and we're excited to learn about some of the successes that you guys have had. Sound money has been a topic near and dear to my heart for some time since I learned about the topic around the high school years with Ron Paul and other folks in the world of understanding hard money and how it works. And I think that's probably...

Probably a similar background you have, right?

Yeah, it's similar. I mean, I started my career actually in the fiat economy. I was an insurance agent and stockbroker, learned about how the world ran on fiat. And then I came into the sound money, hard money movement after COVID and got into Bitcoin and started crypto mining. And from the crypto side of things, I learned about gold and silver and

And that's how I got connected with Citus Money. And what really changed my worldview on money versus currency was Hidden Secrets of Money by Mike Maloney. That 10-episode series, I recommend every...

everybody watch it. In fact, I have a side bully on business. And one of my requirements to work for me is you have to watch all 10 episodes because that will give you a full grasp and understanding of a sound money economy and exactly what fiat is and how the federal reserve and the central banks are stealing the wealth of the people. And with the combination of my financial background and insurance and, and, uh, wall street, uh,

plus my background in blockchain technology as a consultant and crypto miner. And combining that, I think it was a perfect setup because if I would have started with hard money, I would have been skeptical of everything else. So I started with fiat, then I went into crypto, and then I went to hard money, and it just made everything just click and make sense. So yeah, now I'm a hard money advocate, sound money. I wouldn't call myself a sound money economist, an amateur economist.

that has a pretty good grasp of how everything works together. So you're still in the crypto world, but you do hard money too. Is that how you do it? Yeah. I mean, primarily I used to be a Bitcoin maxi. And then when the Ukrainian war broke out and Bitcoin responded to everything else and it went down, I started questioning whether Bitcoin was...

digital gold, gold performed exactly as it should have, right? It dropped like everything else in the beginning and then it started going up during the Ukraine war. Same with silver, but Bitcoin and crypto didn't. So I would call myself a soft Bitcoin maxi of all the cryptocurrencies. I think Bitcoin is the best for store value and growing your wealth. But gold and silver is where you put your economic energy to preserve your wealth.

So let's get into that. So why would gold and silver be – and then we'll get into the legislative stuff. Why would gold and silver be the place to preserve your wealth? Well, one, gold and silver, the people chose, right? It wasn't like the government created it. It was just through commerce and trying to figure out what would be the best medium of exchange for exchanging cows and chickens and everything. Right.

um, golden silver, uh, electrum at first, because they didn't know how to separate the two, uh, was difficult to get out of the earth, right? It was difficult to mine. Uh, it was scarce. And that is, uh, uh, what we as people thousands of years ago decided to use as a medium exchange unit account and store value. And those are the three characteristics of money. Um,

And most economists would agree there's three primary characteristics. The first is a medium of exchange. Anything can be a medium of exchange. I mean, like a bottle of water, clips, paper clips or cigarettes in prison, right? Cigarettes in prison. Anything can be a medium of exchange.

That's not special. The next is a unit account, right? I think it's 20 cigarettes to pack. I don't know. 100 pennies to a dollar, half Bitcoin. Most things can be a unit account. What differentiates money from currency is store value.

Fiat currency is created inherently to steal purchasing power and to accumulate wealth to those in government and those who control the banks and are wealthy. Money, on the other hand, is a store of value. You can't print gold and silver into oblivion like you can currency.

And when you look at what's happened with every fiat currency, and there's been over 6,000 fiat currencies throughout human history, they've all reverted to its true value of zero. Every fiat currency, with no exception, has gone down to zero. And gold, back during the first century, you could buy a toga with an ounce of gold. Back in 1910,

You could buy a top hat, tuxedo, pocket watch, shoes, shirts, chocolates, and flowers for your date for an ounce of gold. Today, with an ounce of gold, I can buy a top hat, tuxedo, shirt, pocket watch, shoes, flowers, and chocolates for my date. Because gold and silver maintains its purchasing power throughout millennia. It's the best store of value for preserving gold.

your purchasing power. Everything else that isn't gold and silver, if it's an investment, it's supposed to grow your wealth, your economic energy. And that's what I really differentiate when we're working for a wage. We're exerting our economic energy. And anything we do, whether we're, let's say you're a religious person, you're a monk or a nun, we're

Where you put your economic energy is where you store your wealth. So they're storing their wealth in heaven. People in commerce are storing their wealth in physical money. Philosophers are storing their wealth in ideas and promulgating, you know, their ideologies. So wherever you put your economic energy is where your wealth is. And for most people, we exert our wage, we go to work. And where do you want to preserve your economic energy?

Do you want to put it in something that was created to inherently steal your wealth through inflation, which is fiat currency? Or do you want to put it in hard money that preserves your economic energy throughout millennia and that you can pass it down after you pass on? Right. So I think it's very clear that gold and silver are.

is probably, it is the best form of money for wealth preservation and everything else, real estate, crypto, stocks, options. Those are all opportunities to be a force multiplier of your economic energy and grow it.

Now, a lot of people have always thought over the years about whether the dollar is going to have, you know, we've had a lot of inflation, but whether it will eventually spiral out in a deflationary crisis or an inflationary crisis. How do you see all those doom scenarios?

I gave a talk. I was on a panel with Jeff Deist, Joe Venezuela, and forget the other gene, I think his name is. And we talked about that.

Well, I don't think the dollar is going to instantly collapse. I mean, it is with you look at every single global reserve currency. Back then it was gold and silver coins and everything. But even regardless, at some point they start debasing that currency and the empire rise and fall. Really, it's tied to a lot of things political. But one of the root causes for rise and falls of nations is the debasing of currency.

And it takes time, takes decades for a superpower, the economic superpower of the world to lose its financial prominence. And I don't think it's going to be any different. I think it's going to be faster with fiat versus gold and silver coins as the global currency. You know, like Spain was the blooms and the blooms.

the the spanish mill dollar it was like the global currency for decades over 100 years it was well trusted then the british pound and now the dollar um and it was all backed by gold back then now it's this is the first time in human history that the entire world's been on a fiat standard we're in an experiment and i think we see it failing so what i think is going to happen if if

So if we are going back to a semi gold standard or at least backing the future currency, which I think is going to be a digital pool, like a stable coin pooled with real world assets. If we back the future currency, whatever, with real world assets, I see the dollar phasing out unless they back it. Right. Let's say they reevaluate gold and do a partial backing.

um i think it's going to be deflationary because now we're going to be paying we're strengthening the dollar back into real assets um i mean right now we're we're going through some i i hope we're going to go through an off somewhat austerity uh period of time with the tariffs and everything i mean you can't you can't uh

Well, I mean, it really depends, man. I've had a crystal ball, which I could tell you. This is what I think. I think that just like Malay and I think Trump and and Elon Musk took a page out of Malay's handbook and Malay balanced the budget for the first time in 120 years for Argentina.

It strengthened the Argentinian peso. It strengthened the economy. And you have to have a deflationary event to strengthen the economy. And the problem with strengthening, with the currencies getting stronger and having deflationary event is,

is that it affects unemployment, the amount of currency being destroyed. So what is deflation? Deflation is paying off the debt. What is debt? Well, the dollar. So if you pay off any of the treasuries, the treasuries,

you're basically annihilating currency. So that's what inflation is. We're, we're contracting the currency supply since there's less currency in circulation, the free market takes time to adjust on prices. So if there's less currency, people don't have it. They don't go shopping. So it affects people, business owners, bottom line. So they have to lay off a,

people until the free market adjusts with the contraction of the currency supply. It's the same thing with inflation. We printed, what, $9 trillion during COVID, and it took, it's taken four or five years to see that inflation get absorbed by the free market. So that's why deflation, even though we're strengthening the U.S. dollar or strengthening the currency through deflationary periods, it takes time for the markets to adjust.

So I think we're going to get to that point, especially if Trump is serious about re-evaluating gold and increasing the assets on the Treasury's books to decrease the GDP ratio. Yeah, I was always under the impression that a modest amount of deflation over a large period of time is a good thing for the average person.

Joe, right? That's how you increase the purchasing power. That's how you have a savings account. Instead of having to gamble your life savings in the stock market, you can just save money. And then when you retire, wow, you can actually buy more with it. So that's the whole point, right? Yeah, and it's –

What you said is important. A long period of time. Decrease in debt. But what I've seen in the last 50 years is when there is a deflationary period, it's typically the Federal Reserve increasing rates really fast, contracting the monetary supply, and it's in a short period of time. That short, sharp deflation can be dangerous. It's what causes unemployment. If you destroy the debt,

which is destroying currency supply over a large period of time and let the markets...

Catch up to that, that's fine. But when you have a sharp decline in the currency supply, the markets still take time to catch up. The markets are very efficient, but there is a lag time, right? It's not instantaneous. So, yeah, long-term deflation is good. Short-term, which is what we have seen over the last 50-plus years since we've had fiat currencies, the global...

monetary system, we haven't really seen that much. Like Malay, I mean, what Malay did was in one year, he balanced the budget. He fired a bunch of government employees. He contracted the current supply by annihilating debt. It obviously doesn't seem to be the will, the political will for that right now in D.C. There's too much corruption. No, we're too happy. There's not enough crisis. Right, exactly. Exactly.

That's the problem. But let's talk about what, you know, you guys were pushing this legislative bill that looks like it's passed here. I first heard about it from Ron DeSantis talking about it, the signing of it. So tell us about this gold and silver legal tender bill that you guys did.

Yeah, we started pushing the gold and silver bill, HB 999, back in August of 2023. We met with Senator Rodriguez. She was the first senator.

Senator or rep government official to accept it and chose to sponsor it. And later we teamed up with Representative Bankston, who was already working with Economic War Room. And we, you know, we started pushing it. Last year, we spent most of the time educating legislators. We we

We had a lunch – sorry, a legislative dinner with Economic War Room, Kevin Freeman, and we educated around 32, 35 legislators in the House and the Senate. Then the rest of the session, we were pushing and educating – I mean –

95% of our job, 90% of our job as lobbyists, especially when it comes to sound money, is educating. When we sit with a legislator, we have to explain what the problem is. You know, here's the solution and here's the legislation to solve this problem. So the first year was education. We spent, we met with almost every legislator, over 100.

But the problem with the first year was the Speaker of the House, Speaker Renner, was 100% on board. He was even willing to skip committees to get it through. However, the Senate president, President Pasadena, who is now just a senator, she got an extra two years because she got elected on the census year. She refused to give us a hearing. So the first year we kept bumping our heads, bumping our heads, trying to get something and with no success.

So now that the first year we educated most of the legislature, the second year was all about policy. So we came back. We decreased one of the biggest... What's funny is the first year, one of the biggest complaints was it was too big of a bill. It was like an omnibus bill. It did everything. Then we came back and we filed a three-page bill just making gold and silver legal tender and electronic transfer of gold and silver legal tender. Very simple. But then...

As we worked with the Senate staff, it became a 36 page bill. It was almost the same. I mean, with obvious nuances and differences and approach, but it became about the same size, actually twice as big as the bill we submitted last year.

So, um, this year, it was a lot different. We had leadership thanks to economic war room and Christian family coalition and ourselves all working together. We got leadership on board, they were pushing this this was a priority for them.

Not only did we submit HB 999 and SB 132, the HB 999 that passed is actually SB 132. We replaced the original version that we filed earlier in the year with SB 132 as the Senate staff and the government. The government took it over because, you know, we had Economic War Room, us,

And we were we had different language. So the government took it upon themselves with some Senate staffers and they drafted the language. So HB 99 is really SB 132 that Senator Rodriguez was pushing and it got replaced in appropriations. The last committee in the House.

And, you know, it was fantastic. We got 95% of everything that we wanted. We got, we said our legal counsel, Larry Hilton from the United Precious Metal Association. He's also the legal counsel for Goldback Inc.,

He and his law firm looked over Florida statute and he identified that there's multiple paths to making electronic transfer of gold and silver legal tender. And one of that was the current regulatory framework in Florida that they have for transferring dollars.

the same regulations that cash advance stores and any other money services business. It was the money services business regulation. And all we had to do was modify the current statutes and we immediately have a system. We don't have to create it from scratch.

We have the system to allow start transferring gold and silver. And then we also, same thing with custodians, banks and credit unions are under custodian licenses of holding cash reserves for the state. And we just modified that for gold and silver. So it was a genius, you know, play. And that's kind of the way that the bill reads right now. And then on the physical side, we were pushing for making all gold and silver bullion legal tender. The staffers were a little, you know,

hesitant on making all bullion legal tender because they had concerns with foreign coin low like 35% silver nickels or you know so they we went back and forth for a while on that and basically what they wanted to do was have high purity

So they decided to go with 995, which is the minimum for gold for the LBMA and Comix bars because the 400-ounce bars are not always exactly 999 fine fluctuations. And then with silver, 999 is the standard. So that was the original language. So the third to last draft, after our last negotiations with all the stakeholders, Economic War Room, Us, Christian Family Coalition, the state, the Office of Financial Regulations, they came back with the bill that became –

HB 999, the third to last iteration. And we realized, and this is a thing I want to bring up, we realized that they added something out of left field. It wasn't discussed with any stakeholders. They added this one line that when I read it, I'm like, that kind of nullifies the entire purpose of the bill. I talked to Larry Hilton, our attorney, and he's like, yeah, call them and find out what's going on. So I talked to the staffers and their intent was

was that they didn't want, say, Joe Schmoe with a smelter in the back melting just scrap silver and then stamping legal tender in Florida. Like that was their intent. They didn't want like low purity or somebody trying to pass off U.S. minted coin because that could also come off as they thought as a constitutional question on whether the states could mint if it's saying that Florida legal tender, right? So they were trying to... That was their intent. It was...

good intent, but the unintended consequences was the verbiage basically said no person or governmental entity can make anything or make any gold or silver products. And for it to be legal tender, it can only have the weight and purity stamped on it. No designs, nothing. Well, that blocks out everything. Even the Comix bars, they have a mint mark. So we sent an email to

to the staff and they came back with new language. But that new language is what we currently have. They added mint marks. So right now, 90-95% of physical bullion is not considered legal tender in the state of Florida because under the law, it can only have a mint mark, no designs. It can't look like any government coinage.

The weight and purity. And by the time that draft came out, we had zero time. We had 24 hours or maybe 48 hours to get it filed for the Senate committee and the House. So we just went ahead. They replaced it in the Senate. And we just didn't have time. It was the second to last week of session. We basically had a week and a half to ram this through the House and the Senate. So we just didn't have time to modify it. And that's just the only...

And the whole bill... Florida is the model for electronic transfer and setting up electronic systems. It's using the money services business licenses that most states have. And custodian licenses. But the physical side, we just didn't have the time to fix it. So now that the law doesn't really take effect until July 1st. And as DeSantis mentioned...

in his press conference with Representative Doug Bankson that they want to try to do it by April 15th. We have time between now and then to try to change that provision of the bill to make all or most Boolean legal tender. But other than that,

And I want to clarify, that doesn't affect the $500 exemption. The $500 exemption, regardless if it's legal tender or not, if it's legal tender and it fits the definition of the current law, it's exempt from the sales tax. So you still have that $500 exemption. However, because we didn't know what was going to happen with HB 999, this is what we learned from last year working in different states, we planted a repealer of the sales tax for all Boolean, gold, silver, and platinum.

The leadership saw that as a top priority. The original bill numbers were SB 134 and at HB 6019, they took those two bills out of the normal process and they added it to the budget. So that provision of eliminating sales tax on gold, silver, and platinum was our strategy just in case we couldn't get it through that we get something through.

So it's currently in the budget. There was a battle between the governor, the speaker of the House and the Senate about the budget. They weren't seeing eye to eye. So they're meeting tomorrow. And for the next two weeks, they're going to hammer out the budget. And once it passes, as long as it's not taken out, which I doubt it's going to be taken out. We've been we got a text message from Senator Albritton, the Senate president, that he was going to make sure that stayed in there. July 1st, effective this year, there'll

There'll be no longer any sales tax on gold, silver, platinum because of our strategy. It's just some money to plant that legislation just in case. And nobody really paid attention to it. Everybody was focused on HB 999 and SB 132. We kind of just kind of snuck it in there. Leadership saw it as a top priority and stuck it in the budget, which is great. They didn't have to go through the committee processes. And boom, I think I went to one committee.

I think it had to go to the one committee in the house and the Senate so they could skip the process to me, put into the budget. So, so people, so for people who are kind of new to gold and silver or casual observers of this space, what are the implications of that bill of that, of that sales, if that goes through with,

with the bill. I mean, so the rationale why we in the sound money movement want to get rid of sales tax on gold and silver is do you pay a sales tax every single time you pull out cash out of bank or you're getting changed for a dollar? No, because it's currency, it's money.

Well, gold and silver has traditionally been money. It was never taxed until the whole fiat economy. And then they changed the category of gold and silver from money, which was federal legal tender. In fact, it was constitutionally the only thing that could be money. We can get into that in a minute. But

And then they decreased it to a commodity, like an investment. So gold and silver went from money for thousands of years to now being a commodity or investment. And now they tax it, not just on sales tax in Florida. Florida is one of the only states that were left in

I think there's five states. And once this is done, there's only four states that have sales tax on on gold and silver. And unfortunately, I think Maryland and another state repealed their exemption. So it might be back up to six or seven. So by getting rid of sales tax, we're treating it as money.

And make and people have asked, why do we got to make gold and silver legal tender? Well, the reason one, one, it's it's getting rid of sales tax makes it treated as money. It gets rid of the friction of using in daily transactions. Right. If you want to buy gold and silver and use in daily transactions, not having a sales tax and buying it, one decreases the friction of using it.

and daily transactions. And two, right now in most states, gold and silver is categorized as personal property and it's considered a barter transaction. So if you and me, David, decide to provide a service or you provide a service for me or whatever, and I've decided to pay you in gold and silver, that's a barter transaction. I have to pay taxes based on whatever my state categorizes personal property as and

And I also don't get the full legal protections. If I paid you cash for doing a podcast for me or something, right, and you don't fulfill it, you're in breach of contract and I can have legal recourse. In a barter transaction, it's a lot more difficult.

And Florida has some of the worst barter laws in the country. And I did a barter deal and the guy stole personal property from me that was grand theft. And because it was a barter transaction instead of a financial transaction, I couldn't prosecute. I couldn't do anything. All I could do was take it to civil court and that's it. Even though it was grand theft and he stole close to $9,000 worth of equipment from me.

And that's the problem with leaving gold and silver, which is money as a barter transaction and not elevating it to the legal tender status. So that's why the whole sound money movement is pushing one. There's the financial reasons, right? It preserves your economic energy. One economic system, which is gold and silver preserves your wealth. The other economic system, a system Fiat steals your wealth. So we're trying to create a parallel economic system. And as of today,

We have 11 states or 22% of the country that have made gold and silver legal tender. I always had this theory that once 25 to 50% of the country makes gold and silver legal tender, that's going to be enough pressure and enough awareness, especially if you get Florida. Now we got Florida and Texas.

combined, we are the largest country. If Florida and Texas became a country, we would have the third largest GDP right behind China and the U.S. So Florida and Texas are massive. And then add the other nine states combined, that doubles. I'm sorry. Florida and Texas makes us the fourth. If you add all 11 states, we become the third largest. So the 11 states right now that make gold and silver legal tender, if we were a country,

We'd be the third largest country in the world with GDP. And I think that's going to happen. I've heard rumors that Donald Trump, if Florida made it happen, that he was going to consider pushing to get rid of capital gains tax and elevating gold and silver back to money. So there's a lot of capital. As long as capital gains tax remain, it's not quite money yet still. Right. Right. Because what is capital? It's still a hindering hindrance. Yeah.

Exactly. And what capital gains is, it's gold and silver isn't going up. Gold and silver is a rock. It's a metal. It just sits there. It produces nothing. It just sits there. Why is it going up? Well, it's because the dollar is losing value. And as you print more currency, the direct correlation as the more debt, well, the dollar loses value, the more gold goes up.

And more so gold and silver. Gold keeps up with inflation better than silver. Silver is considered an industrial metal for the most part, and it's kind of suppressed. So it doesn't keep up as well, but it definitely does preserve your purchasing power. Just not as much as gold. Yeah, I think there's going to be... What would be... You know, you talked about the...

the immorality of the federal reserve system and all that, what in the fiat system, well, what would, you know, if they see, you know, what would be in those, if those powers are so powerful, why would they ever let gold have a shot at becoming its own parallel currency?

money system because it would be potentially the death knell of their whole power grip over the world. And how would they, would they be able to like choke it out of, you know, they got the swift transaction system, the bank of international settlements, that this whole little spider web that they control everybody in their little financialization scheme.

So how would they allow that to just happen? Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead. They didn't just allow it to happen. Last year, the banking lobby was working against us underhandedly. This year, they didn't really work against us in Florida, but they were an airy committee. They were off in the corner. It was like the shadow that they were always paying attention. And they did come in. Their only concern in Florida was they didn't want banks to be forced to take gold and silver. The bill is optional. It's not a compulsory bill.

Bill, states don't have to take gold and silver. Individual businesses don't have to take gold and silver like they do at Federal Reserve notes. In every state, it's voluntary to accept gold and silver. It's really the only way we could have done it because the state was pushing too hard on do we have to buy an assay or hire an assay or anything. When you go at the macro level, take a look at what's happening. What are all the bankers doing? What are all the central banks doing? They're buying up tons of gold and silver.

If you look at the macroeconomics of the world, we're moving to the digitization of real world assets, digitizing gold, silver, real estate, any other asset that you can digitize, which would block technology can. That is where we're moving. And if you look at the BRICS nations, they already posited creating a new currency backed by all the other currencies.

So I'm just connecting dots that when you're looking at how much gold and silver is being imported into all the central banks, there's a move happening. They've elevated gold from a tier two to tier one asset. And with Basel 3, July 1st, it's going to be considered a liquid asset like fiat currency. So if you just look macro view and see what's happening, the bankers really aren't

They fought it in Texas. They fought it in Louisiana hard. They kind of fought it here last year in Florida. I mean, the bankers are always involved with our legislation. Just how hard are they fighting depends on how the bill's written. But there isn't a lot of resistance because they see the writing on the wall, too. We're hard money advocates. We see this. I mean, they control the entire monetary system. They see it. Right? So...

It isn't that they... They're not going to be destroyed anytime soon. I mean, they have control of the money. He who has the money makes the rules. So...

Ending the Fed? I mean, we can do that. We can just give the Treasury back the authority to print the currency and everything. I think we need to get rid of the Fed, in my opinion, and the Fed, like Ron Paul's really pushed. But...

there's going to be, there's going to have to be a transition. You can't just destroy fiat. There's going to have to be some type of revaluation of gold back in it with real world assets. And I think there's going to, I mean, it's not a CBDC, but I mean, we're moving to that direction. Heck right now. Uh, I think it's only like 2% of the entire currency supply is physical. Uh,

It's almost all digital. It's just numbers on a screen. And most of it's bank credit. I think we have something like $200 trillion in bank credit when you factor in fractional...

Reserve banking, fractional reserve banking. When you factor in fractional reserve banking, when you deposit dollars, they don't even need to have a reserve. They can just lend that out. And then that money that's lent out, they do deposit in the bank account. They lend that out. I mean, it's a multiple, right? So we have 30...

six, almost $37 trillion in U S debt. Then you lend that out 10 times. That's where you get the $200 trillion in, in bank credit. That doesn't even include credit cards, which is its own version of bank credit. So there's a lot of credit out there that's circulating in liquid and it's all debt based. So, um, the bankers aren't too worried that they still have a monopoly on the system, but what we're doing is,

They don't really see this parallel economy we're building as a threat yet.

I think that as we... If they saw the capital gains tax be repealed, they'd probably see the threat then, right? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, because if they're going to be using digitized gold and silver back in whatever currency, let's say they're going to contract. I mean, heck, in Texas, they even mentioned in the hearings that right now, why do we need to create a new gold and silver currency or a new depository or whatever? Banks can just accept gold and silver. So they're even talking about...

talking about accepting digital gold and silver right now in texas the banking association so i don't really think it's a major threat they just see it as a way to to um offer more products so they think differently than yeah i think everybody realizes that the you know the era of the of you know the way in which the bretton woods system has you know that's coming to an end and people are going to have to transition to something else america is no longer going to be the

you know, the one unique superpower that runs the whole world. And there's going to be a transition period. And that means there's a transition period. You want to establish your banking and your business with hard money as much as possible so that that landing is not too volatile for you. I think that's what it's all about, right? A hundred percent. Yeah. And the reason the value for the state of Florida, right, is so that if there is that dollar crisis that they can, they can keep their,

needs taken care of with real value. 100%. So next year, other than fixing... They're going to try to take our gold with your bill now. No, we

You pay your taxes in gold. You're taking all your gold. We don't want your dollars. That's what it's going to come to, right? Yeah, yeah, right. It makes sense, right? Because the state can do that. The state can claim whatever they want to take as legal tender. I mean, they still have to take Federal Reserve notes. But if they want to specifically take gold and silver and prefer that, they can. Yeah.

So it's interesting that the way this is all playing out. Next year, not only are we going to try to fix the physical gold and silver bullion issue, we're also going to be pushing a strategic gold and silver reserve. Wyoming has already done it. New Hampshire did it. New Hampshire, the Bitcoin and gold and silver. So we would want to have the state put, you know, I hear everybody at least 1%. I'd like to see minimum 10%, preferably 40%.

Because if the state can put up to 40% of their reserve funds into gold and silver, that will stabilize any inflationary events. I mean, there's an economic theory that if you back any currency with 40%, gold stabilizes it.

I mean, you can still print it into oblivion, but it'll lessen the impact, right? Because it will just, as you print currency, the gold reserve, the 40% gold will increase too, right? If it's free floating. The problem with the Bretton Woods system and the problem with the gold standard was the government controlled the price of gold at $20 an ounce to $35 an ounce. And as they're printing currency, it,

the inflation is eroding the purchasing power of that gold back commodity. If we redo that and we reevaluate gold and silver and peg it 40%, and we just let the free markets determine the price of gold as they print more currency, the gold just keeps going up. It keeps reevaluating and sucking up that, that, that, that new currency, that new inflation. Right. So it,

A gold standard could work, as I'm thinking about it. I've never actually said this out loud. A gold standard could work, but the government can't peg the price. It has to let the free markets determine the price and just constantly evaluate it based on spot price. But that would rein in a lot of their spending power too, eventually, wouldn't it? It would. It would. They're not going to like that.

Yeah, Golden Story restrains... You got to get that idea over to some of these next contenders for governor in Florida, right? Oh, don't worry. You know, you got Casey DeSantis, who is...

DeSantis' wife, she's going to be running. You've also got Byron Donalds, who's a huge financial guy. In fact, in a recent political speech, he said that he wants to make Florida the financial capital world. We've got some great people running. I wonder if he'd like your 40% idea, huh? I don't know. I think he would. I think he would. Those shadowy bankers would probably come visit him, though. Yeah, yeah. They're always lingering in the background, the bankers. I tell you, I tell you,

You know, it's interesting. You know, someone I remember watching in 2012 when Ron Paul would get like, what, 7% or 11% in the primary or Florida, and you'd be like, man, we are so far away from the electorate waking up. And then now 2025, you know, the thing that like the top,

governor contenders are like going to be fighting over who's going to be more pro gold is, is pretty interesting. You know, it's like, it's all Ron Paul now, but, but on the other hand, it kind of, it's kind of concerning because it's like, it kind of, it kind of, it kind of signals the, the danger that we're at, you know, that, that people were at the point where they're, they're forced to confront the truth means dangers on the horizon potentially. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, DeSantis talked about it at the press conference, you know, and I think that's why we're having so much success. Look, from 1971, when we got off the gold standard till 2011, we had no real successes other than, you know, we were able to mint federal gold and silver in 1985 and really started in 86.

But until then, we had no successes. From 2011 to 2018, seven years, there wasn't another single state until Wyoming, I believe it was. And then from 2018 to today in 2025, we now have 11 states. It is picking up speed. People are realizing. I think after...

After the 2008 collapse, I think that's why Utah did it, right? There was a huge inflationary. It scared the bejesus out of everybody. We're looking down at the abyss of a financial global collapse. And then as things have gotten worse, especially COVID, it really exponentially increased. COVID was so ridiculous, yeah.

I mean, you had $9 trillion in currency that was printed. And then the inflation. I mean, it's insane. It's like real inflation. If you follow shadow stats with John Williams, he

It's really closer to 10.5% a year over year in inflation versus the 2%, 3% the federal government's reporting. But it's just exponentially increased. And with BRICS and with everything that's going on around the world, the Federal Reserve being the lender last resort buying most of our debt now. Nobody really wants our Treasury notes anymore.

People are waking up. We woke up. I mean, I woke up in 2020 with crypto and Ron Paul and the whole Ron Paul revolutions woke up in the 2000s when Ron Paul was really talking about it from Congress and then running for president.

Now it's in front of everybody. 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. So with this bill, people would not be able to just refuse. They can't just say, I want only gold and silver for my business. They can't do that, right? They have to accept Federal Reserve notes, right? Well, there is a law in Florida that you can't deny legal tender, Federal Reserve notes, right? So you can't deny Federal Reserve. The whole no cash movement, it's against the law of most states. The know what?

So in Florida, they pass a law or they were trying to pass a law saying that you can't can't turn down cash U.S. dollars.

There are some businesses like in California, when I went out there, they wouldn't take cash. They would only take debit card. So I don't know if it passed in Florida a couple of years ago, but that was a major problem. A lot of like businesses are not accepting cash for whatever reasons. You can't do that. That's against the law. I think that's why then it passed because you can't, you can't deny federal reserve notes for, for, because it's legal, it's legal tender for the payment of private and public debts. And it's the currency of the country.

So, but with gold and silver, you'd have to take dollars, but you can also offer gold. And what I recommend is,

is if they're paying with gold, it's like some businesses, restaurants, give a discount if you pay with cash for savings from the credit card transaction fees. Same thing. To incentivize the use of gold and silver, have business owners give a discount. 2%, 3%, 5% discount, whatever it is. Gold and silver is going to keep up with inflation. I know that's what the businesses that are around me that accept gold and silver, they do give discounts on some goods and services.

Tell us where people can keep up with your work. I appreciate your time. Yeah, you can follow us on X. We post frequently our updates on X, so at X.

The number four sound money at four sound money. And I haven't been keeping up with the blog because I've been busy lobbying, but you can go to our website. I write a blog and we have some contributors from time to time. You go to www.citizens, the number four sound money.org. Citizens, the number four sound money.org. And you can follow us.

And we got our contact information on there. If you're interested in bringing some money legislation to your state or your country, feel free to send us an email or give us a call. I appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on David. Yeah. Congratulations for the victory. Hopefully we can get that finalized here soon. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully, hopefully by April 15th of next year versus July 1st. All right. Sounds good. Take care.

Thank you.

I took the toll.