a group called the gold anti-trust action committee requested clarification from the US treasury department about the government’s power to seize gold and silver during wartime and states of emergency under the trading with the enemy act. according to treasury, virtually ANYTHING can be seized without due process:
While the Trading With the Enemy Act authorizes the government to interfere with the ownership of gold and silver particularly, it also applies to all forms of currency and all securities. So the Treasury official stressed in his letter to GATA that the act could be applied not just to shares of gold and silver mining companies but to the shares of all companies in which there is a foreign ownership interest.
Further, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the government’s interference must have some connection to the declared enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign ownership. Anything that can be construed as a financial instrument, no matter how innocently it has been used, is subject to seizure under the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
wikipedia has a list of things that can get all your shit taken away. but remember, according to treasury’s latest reading of the law, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the government’s interference must have some connection to the declared enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign ownership. how’s that for protection under the constitution!
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