Tidbit

So, the Onion had a funny video about the Treasury requiring all Americans to turn in their dollar bills by Friday at noon.

But in checking out the Glass Steagel act in Wikipedia, they mentioned this FDR action...

Executive Order 6102 is an Executive Order signed on April 5, 1933 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates."

The Order required most people to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all but a small amount gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve. Under the Trading With the Enemy Actof October 6, 1917, as amended on March 9, 1933, violation of Executive Order 6102 was punishable by fine up to $10,000 ($166,640 if adjusted for inflation as of 2008) or up to ten years in prison, or both. Because of this forced immediate sale of gold to the Federal Reserve at the government set price of $20.67 per troy ounce, this Executive Order is often referred to as the Gold Confiscation of 1933.

So that Onion video is not without some precedent. And we should all feel better that President Obama has not had to confiscate everyone's gold yet. Seriously, spending huge amounts of money, creating a vast array of financial bailout funds, etc., all seem scary, but imagine trying to confiscate everyone's gold! (Well, forcing them to sell it.)