James U. Blanchard III

Who was he: The opportunity that Americans currently have to invest in gold after it was outlawed and confiscated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 is directly attributable to Jim Blanchard and his National Committee To Legalize Gold. He was the publisher of "The Gold Newsletter" and was president of Blanchard & Company, one of the largest precious metals companies in the United States.

In addition, he is also very well known for his New Orleans Investment Conferences, the Blanchard Group of mutual funds and his lifelong dedication to personal liberty, sound money and free markets. James U. Blanchard III accomplished a great deal during his business and professional life despite tremendous personal tragedy. His real legacy will always be the right of Americans to own gold and his commitment to restoring limited government and promoting freedom to tens of thousands of Americans at his conferences.

Background: James U. Blanchard III was born on November 10, 1943. At age 17 a serious car accident almost killed him and he was confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. After the accident, he discovered Ayn Rand and her philosophy, and later named his son Anthem after one of her novels. His fascination with Rand continued for many years and she made her last major public appearance at his New Orleans Investment Conference in the early 1980s.

In 1971 Blanchard established the National Committee to Legalize Gold (NCLG) and started publishing "The Gold Newsletter" to promote the legalization of gold ownership. There was never anything passive or low key about Blanchard and he buzzed Nixon's 1973 presidential inauguration. He also held press conferences holding an illegal gold bar, daring the Treasury and Feds to arrest and take him to jail.

In 1974, Blanchard held his first investment conference, at which three times the number of people expected showed up to support gold legalization. President Ford legalized gold in 1975 and the conference name was changed to The National Committee For Monetary Reform (NCMR), the largest freedom conference of its time in the world. Speakers have included many of the board members of the Foundation for the Advancement of Free-Market Thinking and hundreds of freedom and hard-money advocates as well as political leaders ranging from Gerald Ford, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, Barry Goldwater, John Templeton, Louis Rukeyser, Jack Kemp, Colin Powell, J. Peter Grace and Lady Margaret Thatcher.

Jim Blanchard also co-founded the Industry for Tangible Assets and served on the board of the Cato Institute. In addition, Blanchard received the Ludwig von Mises Award from the Mises Institute and was Man of the Year from the World Gold Association.

Jim Blanchard died on March 20, 1999 at the age of 55. Jim left a wife and three children and a legacy to the freedom movement of what one person can accomplish against great odds when they dedicate their life to a goal and ideal. Today, millions of Americans now own gold because of James U. Blanchard III. Our hope is others will pick up the legacy and determination of Jim Blanchard and push for a return to currency competition instead of fiat currency and end the control and domination of the Western world by the Anglosphere power elite and their central banking cartels.