The U.S. national debt has reached nearly $40 trillion, and the interest alone now rivals the entire military budget. Constitutional scholar William Watkins argues the dollar today is backed by little more than the coercive power of the government, and that the drift from the founders’ hard-money design is why the debt keeps compounding.
Kitco’s Jeremy Szafron talks with William J. Watkins, Jr. of the Independent Institute about how the spending guardrails came off (from the founders’ “few and defined” powers to the New Deal-era Butler decision), why he calls the 1933 gold call-in unconstitutional, how Civil War greenbacks began the shift to fiat, what the arc from $35 gold in 1971 to $4,100 today says about the dollar, why he believes sound money was meant to make war expensive, and where the risk sits as foreign investors hold nearly a quarter of the debt.
This interview was recorded on July 22, 2026
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Debt Hits $40 Trillion
0:36 Meet the Constitutional Scholar
1:31 Enumerated Powers Explained
2:38 Founders’ Promises and Limits
3:45 Who Was Meant to Stop Congress
6:07 New Deal Spending Power Shift
7:33 Hard Money in the Constitution
9:06 The Gold Call-In, and the Law
10:39 Greenbacks and Wartime Fiat
12:34 1971 The Dollar Cut Loose
15:46 Foreign Holders and Crisis Risk
18:42 Hard Money as a Check on War
20:02 Who Pays the Bill
21:55 Markets Push Back on Borrowing
23:21 Back to the Constitution
25:43 Hope and Grassroots Pushback
27:08 Final Take and Your Move
#gold #dollar #nationaldebt #soundmoney #Kitco
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42 Comments
Watkins' view: the dollar today rests on the government's power to compel, not on anything you can weigh, and nearly a quarter of the $40T debt is held abroad. He says the fix is going back to the Constitution's limits.
So, does the debt get fixed with a vote, or does the bond market fix it first?
GENTS APPRECIATE YOUR VIEWS BUT why not say the reality you speak OF THE “CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC” IS OVER! TO TALK AS IF WE LIVE BY IT IS A SHAM AND INSULTING TO AN AVERAGE IQ ! FYI FROM 1913 THE US BECAME A FASCIST GOV;T.!
The money is borrowed from their cohort hedge funds,Banksters ect ,which make a premium on the interest payments. Then the borrowed money is pilfered through the Military Industrial and many other laundering organizations ,which also funds the political candidates that vote for the spending bills.
Around and around we go.
Where it stops ?
Why have these taxes and the inflation through government spending money Vietnam money that they do not have any backing for.
Are you referring to Donald Trump as a force ?
Put a corrupt clown in the Whitehouse and you get a circus
The clown has lose America any credibility that it had !!!!
How holds the DEBT?
The one whom BELIEVES he holds he holds the DEBT. ie Our National debt is a toxic psychological condition. 😢
So weird that americans follow something written hundreds of years ago, show why they are so out of touch with the rest of humanity
Perhaps you shoud research the continental dollar and previous iterations of money, used in the colonies.
12:33 I think the ones missing the full picture here are the constitutionalists who have disobeyed Jesus whenever they swore their Oaths to the Constitution and all the voters who were ignorant for someone who would disobey God's Authority. James 5:12 do not swear an oath. Matthew 5:34 Jesus said swear by nothing at all.
We're going to have scales on our phones to be able to weigh out the metal money soon
Like a person needs to be their own Banker they need to also be their own investor, advisor, farmer, real estate agent…
Just imagine the system is so corrupt that you can pay your taxes in electronic gold if you could but you can't because nobody has that and so although with the passage of the Constitutional money act in Missouri you cannot pay your taxes with gold and silver yet.
Very good interview
Excellent guest. This episode must decimated since most people don’t even know how banks work or about fractional reserve banking or how money is created. They didn’t teach us anything about the relationship between gold and silver and”money “ in law school. Sadly, our government doesn’t even follow their own rules of law at hand me or international or the constitution . Warm miss awesome.
Talk about shooting yourselves in your foot.😂 America is done. Republicans have destroyed the country.
Watkins probably backed Jefferson Davis for president. I bought silver in 1980. I might make some money off it this year or next. But my earned & invested dollars have paid off handsomely. Along the way I got an economics degree and know that this is a very incomplete view of the pros & cons of monetary theory. Keep your physical gold at 5% of diversified investments. I agree though that the U.S. will likely borrow & inflate its way into a depression somewhere around 2030. The debt has been accelerated into stratosphere by the current administration.
円が危ないよね。で日銀は担保として米国債しか持ってないから。その円をトランプはイラン攻撃でついでに攻撃してる😂😂😂もうジャパンアズナンバーワンの時代じゃないんだよ。呆けちゃったのかな、トランプおじいちゃんは。
日本人は一人あたり10万円位米国債を買って、毎年数兆円のクーポンをもらってデジタル赤字を埋めたらよいんだよね。
In half the dollar will be cut in value.
3880 last low i think new low 3723 new low silver 47 per ounce
Thanks Jeremy for a great interview in which we go back to the bedrock of our financial system, to reflect on how far our government has strayed from that. When you ask Mr Watkins how they can do that, he alludes to their coercive power, and that is where we stand. If push comes to shove, our own military will not hesitate, in this day and age, to start slaughtering us to bring us into line. The lack of respect for our persons and rights is galling.
Great guest! Hope to see him again. How could paper money have been approved by the SCOTUS if the constitution says ONLY gold and silver? Were the justices illiterate?
Until private money is removed from elections, and elections are funding from a general tax fund. You will not get Congress to do the right thing. You were loyal to those who pay for your campaign the vote is secondary.
We're not stuck in dire straits, worse, we're stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. Which, is, well, pretty dire.
FUN FACT: A $100 banknote weighs exactly 1 gram.
Mr Watkins exudes credibility.
The US Government can, as Jim Morrison once said, suck a fart out of my ass. That's where my gold is. 😉
Best to not rely on force as the line between crime and law enforcement can be a fine one.
Russian news is no better than us news. same slopfest
Hate to say it but you vote yourself into socialism and you shoot yourself out.
Ever war is a bankers war.
The reason the debt keeps compounding is the fact the electorate doesn't care. Will the electorate ever care and hold those responsible to account? Only when it is far too late. It is the story of human nature, which goes back quite a while…
highly recommend you read The Silent Dominion. D. Cross made a book that should be mandatory reading for every adult.
i thought i understood politics until i decided to read the book The Silent Dominion. humbled me instantly.
i thought i understood politics until i decided to read the book The Silent Do minion. humbled me instantly.
Notice how the media always gives us something stupid to arg ue about right when inflation hits and our bills go up? That's not an accident. I just finished the book The Silent Dominion and it breaks down the exact psychology they use to control the masses. You have to read this if you want to stop getting played.
highly recommend you read The Silent Dominion. D. Cross made a book that should be mandatory reading for every adult.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ The Silent Dominion. It's a book that literally exposes the entire system.
The Dollar is Epstein-backed. BUY BITCOIN
Borrow 1 trillion from Elon
Duh!!! Sadam, gaddafi, Assad, mullahs, 7 countries in 5 years, Wesley Clark.
As time progresses, world economy is bound to expand and, as it expands, more dollar has to be supplied to the world as it is main world trade currency. If the amount of dollar does not expand as the world economy expands, it will cause deflation. So, it is totally appropriate to expand the amount of dollar in cadence with expansion of world economy, which will go on indefinitely. That said, with limited amount of gold available on earth, there is no way to back the dollars with gold because amount of gold simply will not expand with the amount of dollar. If dollar were to be backed by gold, gold price will rise endlessly to the point where no one can afford even a single ounce of gold. This is why dollar cannot practically be backed by gold and no other currency can be either.
People who keep talking about dollar being fiat currency and dedollarization, etc do not understand this and foolishly expect demise of the dollar, which will not happen until US loses its status as the strongest world power. The most stable and reliable currency that can be relied on right now is US dollar. In no way, Chines Yuan can be relied on as the world currency as large population in China want to overthrow CCP if they can. Under this circumstances, no country would want to use Yuan as their reserve currency and same goes for all other currencies including Euro as EU can fall apart at any time member countries who are governed independently want to cancel the memberships.
And Trump wants 1.5 trillion$ for Iran war !
The Constitution does not specify anywhere that a State cannot orderly secede from the US.
❤
Great interview. 💪🏻