First Utah, now North Carolina?

Who knows how real this is or how much of it is just political posturing, but a North Carolina state representative has introduced a bill for the state to issue its own paper currency backed by gold and silver.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/17/1059132/legislator-says-the-state-needs.html

There is a huge difference between what UT and NC are considering.  UT wants to use gold and silver coins in the economy.  This is not and cannot be a scam.  Gold and silver coins are honest money.  On the other hand, NC wants people to trust that its suggested metals backed currency isn't a sham like the gold backing of the dollar was.   At first, NC would be honest about it but over time the temptation would be too great not to cheat when people's attention got diverted elsewhere.  Unless NC sets up some sort of ungame-able monitoring capability of the gold supply which contains appropriate checks and balances BY THE PEOPLE as opposed to by government employees, the system is not to be trusted over the long haul.

In either case the implications are significant.  The federal government has no (and I mean zero) power if people stop chasing after greenbacks and instead migrate to alternative currencies which the feds cannot game.  Every single bit of power wielded by the feds goes down the sewer the minute it can no longer pay/bribe/financially extort its captured cronies who rely on the US dollar for their day to day expenses.  If the military cannot be paid, will it follow federal orders?  Of course not.  If the federal law agencies are no longer getting paid will they continue to follow the instructions that pit them against the will of the people?  I think not.  Will the TSA continue x-raying the people and performing airport and train station grope-downs without federal funding?  Certainly not!  Will taxpayers even continue to send in federal income tax if the IRS is not being paid to enforce the federal tax laws?   Let's try it and find out!  The potential implications are massive.

It's one thing for citizens to display a vote of no confidence in federal authority (via protests, etc.) but it is a completely different thing for the states to be doing so with such overt displays of disrespect.  I say again, the only thing that gives the feds any power is their ability to print money from thin air which they can use to pay enforcement officers, bribe people and officials into compliance, buy votes, etc.  If that capability ever dries up the federal government is completely powerless. 

Nobody can predict the future but if states begin printing or authorizing their own currencies then the United States is in serious, serious jeopardy of a breakup.  Anyone holding US federal debt should be quite concerned about these new attempts by states to break free of federal domination.  At the same time it signals that states such as NC are probably bankrupt and have been told by the federal government to handle their own problems (only bankers get bail outs...).  If this is the case they might be left with little choice but to convince people to accept state sponsored currency so that they can extract the value from that scam instead of letting it all flow into the control of the federal government.  Again, the UT situation is completely different.  Gold and silver coins are not a scam, they are constitutionally required honest money.

At this point I think NC is just grandstanding.  They are trying to send a message to the Federal Reserve to stop trying to print everyone's retirement savings into obvlivion.  At the same time, NC is not a traditional leadership state so I doubt they will pass a law which basically makes the state a sovereign entity.  Now, if CA or NY or TX does this then it's a whole new ballgame.  These are traditional leadership states and everyone around the world would watch their moves with great interest.  This would be the most important US news in 100 years IMO because owning a sovereign currency is darned near the same thing as seceding from the union.