Exposing the Truth About the Fed : Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 1/10/11

Exposing the Truth About the Fed : Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 1/10/11



http://paul.house.gov
http://CampaignForLiberty.com

Last week, the 112th Congress was sworn in. I am pleased that I will be chairing the Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee which has oversight of the Federal Reserve. Obviously, this position will facilitate my efforts to ensure the Fed provides the American people with more information about what they have been doing with and to our money.

Not surprisingly, since my chairmanship was announced, apologists for the Fed have been recycling the old canard about how increased transparency threatens the Fed's so-called political independence. By 'independence' they are referring to the Fed's ability to greatly impact the economy with virtually no meaningful oversight. We only recently learned that the bankers at the Fed were able to use the latest financial crisis to bail out Wall Street cronies and foreign central banks with billions of dollars that were created and wasted instead of appropriated and voted on by representatives of the people. The Fed and its supporters in the Congress vehemently fought even this small bit of transparency and without this one-time provision in the Financial Reform Act forcing disclosure we would still not have this information.

Indeed, we are in the dark on so much of what the Fed has done. This is extremely dangerous for our country, yet this power and secrecy is defended as some kind of public good, which is patently ridiculous. Our government is based on a system of checks and balances. With no check on the Fed, it is no surprise it has thrown the economy wildly off-balance. The solution is not to reinflate the bubbles the Fed created or to continue to devalue the currency or to throw billions at failing banks and corporations. The solution is to return sanity and freedom to monetary policy. Forcing the entire country to use a medium of exchange that is subject to the whims of elite bankers and their cronies on Wall Street is not sanity. Hoping that an unchecked all-powerful behemoth banking cartel will solve any economic problem is not sanity.

The problems the Fed was originally created to solve now look miniscule compared to the problems it has created. If political independence erodes the purchasing power of the currency
by 98%, destabilizes the economy with radical booms and busts, all while increasing unemployment and tipping us ever closer to hyperinflation, perhaps it is time to try a little transparency and accountability instead. Better still, we should try goving the people true economic freedom.

Make no mistake, the Fed is not truly independent of political pressure. Its chair is appointed by the president and it is a creature of Congress. Congress has a duty, albeit a neglected one, to exercise oversight of the Fed. However, even if it was politicially independent, it is not independent of the influence of Wall Street. One only has to look at the revolving door between the Fed and the big banks to know that. Disclosure of TARP funds confirm this. It is nothing short of cruel and criminal for Congress to stand idly by while the life savings of Americans are inflated away to nothing. It is high time Congress insists on getting complete information on what the Fed has been doing and for whom.

My hope is that exposing the truth will demonstrate the insanity of the status quo and more people will call for sensible changes, such as legalizing competing currencies.

Ron Paul: I will Try to Stop the Fed Secret Bailouts

Ron Paul expresses his disapproval of the Federal Reserve's potential indirect bailout of states and other bankrupt entities through the purchase of municipal bonds.
Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, a return to sound monetary policies, and a sensible foreign policy that puts America first.

Ron Paul Government Federal Reserve as Identity Thieves 5/17/2010

5/17/2010 Ron Paul explains the past, present, and future economic crises and the root of their causes.

Ron Paul on The Federal Reserve

Ron Paul (Congress R-TX)

(opening statement at Federal Reserve
hearing - July 21, 2009)

"The Federal  Reserve in collaboration with the giant banks has created the greatest
financial crisis the world has ever seen. The foolish notion that unlimited amounts
of money and credit created out of thin air can provide sustainable economic growth
has delivered this crisis to us. Instead of economic growth and stable prices, [The Federal Reserve] has given us a system of government and finance that now threatens the world financial and political institutions. Pursuing the same policy of excessive pending, debt expansion and monetary inflation can only compound the problems that prevent the required corrections. Doubling the money supply didn’t work, quadrupling it won’t work either. Buying up the bad debt of privileged institutions and dumping worthless assets on the American people is morally wrong and economically futile. " Ron Paul

Message from Ron Paul

Message from Ron Paul (10/18/07)


The other day, my old sparring partner in so many Congressional committee hearings, Alan Greenspan, was on the Fox Business Channel. After Alan promoted his new book, the reporter asked if we really needed a central bank. Greenspan looked stunned, and then said that was a good question; he actually talked about fiat money vs. a gold standard. Now, the ex-Fed chairman is not about to endorse our sound monetary policy, but you know our Revolution is working when such a question is asked in the mainstream media, and this powerful man gives such an answer.
You and I are reopening a whole host of questions that the establishment thought it had closed off forever: on war, on taxes and spending, on inflation and gold, and on the rule of law and our Constitution.
A few years ago, I asked a famous conservative columnist a question. What did he think about the prospects for a restored Robert Taft wing of the Republican party? He thought I was joking. As you know, I was not.
After all the aggressive wars, the assaults on our privacy and civil liberties, the oppressive taxation, and the crazed spending and deficits, I believe that many Republican voters are ready to return to our roots. And the big boys feel it too. It is no coincidence that the Republican National Committee invited me to a fundraising dinner involving only "top-tier candidates."
Some of the opposition claims that I am not a "real Republican," whereas I am the only one in the race. And our campaign is registering new Republican voters by the boatload. None of my opponents is doing anything approaching that.
Of course, they pooh-pooh our success. "He's just registering Democrats and Independents and people who have never voted before." Well, yes. It's called growth. We are laying the groundwork for the primaries.
All over America, our support is wide and deep and growing, and young people are joining like never before. After the Dearborn debate, I went to the University of Michigan for a rally. 2,000 students turned out, something that has happened to no other candidate this year.
The crowd cheered all our ideas, but especially our opposition to the Federal Reserve, and our support for real money of gold and silver, as the Constitution mandates, instead of prosperity-wrecking fiat money. American politics hasn't seen anything like this in many decades. It is truly revolutionary.
But time is getting short. We must do massive radio and TV advertising, open many small offices (three in just South Carolina the other day), staff them, pay all the bills, and turn out our vote with massive organizational and phone-bank efforts.
As you know, the blackout is ending; our campaign is starting to get mainstream media attention, thanks to growing donations and volunteers. And contributions are the key to more attention, and to our being able to do the actual work of victory. Good news: our recent green-eyeshade analysis of all the candidates' net finances, which got so much press attention, shows our campaign as one of only three in the top-tier.
But we must keep moving up, and the Iowa caucuses are now on January 3rd. The New Hampshire primary may be in early December!
As always, everything depends on you. Please, make the most generous donation you can https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/ as soon as you can. I need your help so badly.
The other day, an 8-year-old boy handed me a small white envelope. It contained the $4.00 he had saved from his allowance, as a donation to our campaign. I can't tell you how seriously I take my responsibility to work hard, and spend frugally and effectively, to be worthy of his support, and yours.
Please help me keep working, even harder and more effectively, for all we believe in. Without you, I'd have to pack it in. Donate now https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/ . We have more than an election to win. We have a country to save.

Sincerely,

Ron Paul

Gold and Economic Freedom

What is Ron Paul talking about when he refers to "sound money"? Read the following essay by Alan Greenspan. The former head of the FED wrote this in 1967 BEFORE he came to power...

Gold and Economic Freedom
by Alan Greenspan
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/greenspan.html

"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense - perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire - that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.
In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society.
Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.
The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible..."

Read the whole essay here: http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/greenspan.html