Recently Oregon has proposed the idea of having it's own currency to pay wages to it's workers. Hoping to boost the Oregon economy and help keep the value of the Oregon State Dollar (OSD) from depreciating.
However this has been tried before... The Continental Currency offered during and after the Revolutionary War caused great problems and eventually more debt. The British were able to counterfeit these bills on a massive level as there was less regulation over them as the US Dollar. Ultimately this depreciated the Continental Currency even more, leaving the currency at fractions of the value it once had.
Add all this to the fact that the US Constitution states:
"Section. 10.No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."
Is this OSD going to be of gold or silver coin? How will the state manage to mint these coins and not send us straight into debt? How can the state see this as a way to positively handle financial issues? This currency idea raises far more questions than we are given answers.
