Buy-gold enthusiasts have cause to feel paranoid. By way of its consent agenda, Asheville City Council amended the city’s fees and charges manual to empower the Asheville Police Department to permit precious metal buyers. Chief Bill Hogan explained permanent buyers were concerned about people from out of town trying to enter the market.
In fact, the city should have been requiring permits in accordance with General Statute 66-165. The statute requires permits to be contingent upon clean results for criminal record background checks run on all buyers and their employees. An annual $180 fee will be assessed to pay for the paperwork this will create for the police department. Little fees will be added for annual certification of compliance.
Anybody of a connect-the-dot mentality, which tends to be highly-correlated with distrust of fiat currency, will recall that recently Kevin Innes’ Asheville Liberty Dollar operation was shut down. Reportedly, the police confiscated the alternative currency entrepreneur’s gold and silver holdings including his commemorative Ron Paul coins. Innes was arrested. The reason stated at the time was that only the federal government could mint coinage. Ron Paul supporters scoffed and asked what the Fed was. Current reports, however, say Innes is being held because he is not a U.S. citizen.
Donning my aluminum foil cap, I see a number of possibilities. The Fed could be inducing all people to use fiat and using the police to make sure private citizens can’t own precious metals. Then, Innes could be on the Interpol’s most-wanted list, but he’s so clever the police can only get him off the streets with small-beans charges. Then again, like most things in life, there is probably no deeper meaning or intrigue here.
