To the Editor:
Imagine you own one share of ABC corporation, which is currently trading at $100 per share. The company has declared a two-for-one stock split.

Hearing the news, you get all excited, because now you will have two shares, twice as many as before!  But — are you any better off having two shares at $50 each than having one share at $100? Of course you are no better off, as both investments are worth the same $100.

When a company declares a two-for-one stock split, the company in essence is printing corporate money, by issuing one more share for each existing share. This immediately causes the price of the shares to drop in half.

As investors, we get the newly issued shares and are no better off. Why are we no better off? It is because  no value or output was created for the new shares.

In essence, this transaction is the same as you and I taking a $100 bill to the bank and exchanging it for two $50 bills.

When a government prints money to fund operations and legislative proposals, for which it doesn’t have cash on hand, the value of the currency drops in direct proportion to the amount of money printed. If they print 10 percent more currency, the value of the dollar will drop by 10 percent.

However, unlike when corporations issue more stock or corporate currency, the owners of the United States dollars aren’t the beneficiary of the newly printed cash like the stockholders were. This governmental printing of U.S. dollars in essence is an invisible tax to the individual citizen.

This phenomenon is called inflation. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman explained, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” [Friedman, “Inflation Causes and Consequences,” Asia Publishing House, 1963]

Does anyone benefit from inflation? It certainly isn’t you and me, because, as the supply of money increases, the cost of products increases proportionately. At first glance, it appears no one benefits, but that is incorrect.

This is because, as prices rise, sales tax collected increases as everything costs more. As wages increase due to inflation, income taxes increase. If you are reading between the lines, you will see the only entity that benefits from inflation is Big Government, the culprit of the problem.

Is there anything you and I can do to stop out-of-control federal government spending? It is called a convention of states.

What’s a convention of states anyway?

Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives states the power to call a convention of states to propose amendments. It takes 34 states to call the convention and 38 to ratify any amendments that are proposed. Our convention would only allow the states to discuss amendments that “limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and place term limits on federal officials.”

Why do we need to call a convention of states?

Simple: To bring power back to the states and the people, where it belongs. Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. shouldn’t be allowed to make sweeping decisions that impact millions of Americans. But right now, they do.

Therefore, it all boils down to one question: Who do you think should decide what’s best for you and your family? You, or the feds? We’d vote for the American people every single time.

New York State’s convention of states resolutions have been introduced in both the Assembly and Senate. 

They are Assembly Resolution C00504 sponsored by Assemblyman Brian Miller and Senate Resolution J01646 sponsored by Senator Joseph Griffo.

To date, 18 states have passed the convention of states resolution. Will you help make New York State be the next state? Use this link — https://conventionofstates.com/sign_the_petition — to sign the convention of states petition and contact your legislators and urge them to pass the resolution.

Nellie Goutos

Altamont