(Newser)
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South Carolina may soon have its own currency, if one state senator has his way. Republican Lee Bright introduced legislation that would back the creation of such a currency, because, “If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup,” he tells the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. His resolution calls for a study on the subject, and argues that a state currency could protect South Carolina if the strained Fed breaks down. Talking Points Memo notes that South Carolinians have asserted independence from the federal government in other ways over the last two years.
The legislation asserts that creating its own currency (which could consist of “gold or silver, or both”) is a right afforded to the states by the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings, and claims that “many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System's currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future.” But the director of the state Senate Democratic Caucus says the bill is just “a waste of time; it's a waste of resources. I mean who's paying for this study? Will they be paid in actual dollars or gold doubloons?”
