As Trump and DOGE reign in the independence of certain executive agencies, some are questioning how far they'll go to implement their preferred monetary policy.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

On February 18, 2025 President Trump issued an executive order titled, "Ensuring Accountability for all Agencies," in which he says,

…previous administrations have allowed so-called "independent regulatory agencies" to operate with minimal Presidential supervision. These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people.

This is a good idea. As Americans, ruled by an elite in Washington, we would really like to know who's doing what to whom, why, and for how long they've been doing it. Most importantly, where they're getting the money to do it. Money—however thieving means the bureaucrats can get it—is their god, without which they wouldn't exist.

The problems are enormous for such an undertaking, the biggest one being the issue of trust. Who are you going to believe? Even if the appointees in Trump's administration are trustworthy individuals, by virtue of their appointments they've been coaxed into a corrupt social apparatus. It is corrupt because it is funded entirely on stolen wealth, with the theft not merely getting a pass but hailed far and wide as the bedrock of civilization.

Arguments over taxation almost always center on rates and who should pay, never on taxes as such. But what are they exactly? Taxes are "a sum of money demanded by a government . . ." (infoplease.com). At least they're honest; taxes are demands. But then we find this: Taxes are "a contribution for the support of a government . . ." (ahdictionary.com). A contribution. As the former Third Reich minister of propaganda once remarked, "A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth."

The bigger lie is the one not told—the inflation tax—because it is still largely a mystery to the public.

As it stands, by an implicit moral code of Western Civilization found in the Bible and in the works of Aquinas, Locke, Adam Smith, Paine, Rothbard, and many others, government, by its nature, is and always has been inimical to human well-being.