Last week I held a hearing to examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. The purpose was to spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed’s problems, hopefully leading to concrete actions to rein in the Fed.
First, it is important to understand the Federal Reserve System. Some people claim it is a secret cabal of elite bankers, while others claim it is part of the federal government. In reality it is a bit of both. The Federal Reserve System is the collusion of big government and big business to profit at the expense of taxpayers. The Fed’s bailout of large banks during the financial crisis propped up poorly-run corporations that should have gone under, giving them a market-distorting advantage that no business in the United States should receive. The recent news about JP Morgan is a case in point. JP Morgan, a recipient of $25 billion in bailout money, recently announced it lost another $2 billion. If a corporation shows itself to be a bottomless money pit of “errors, sloppiness and bad judgment,” the Fed shouldn’t have expected $25 billion in free money to change that or teach anyone a lesson in fiscal discipline. But it determined that this form of deliberate capital destruction was preferable to one business suffering bankruptcy. Clearly, some changes need to be made.
Several reforms for the Fed were discussed at the hearing. One was a call for the full employment mandate to be repealed, in order to allow the Fed to focus solely on stable prices.
Another reform calls for changes to the composition of the Federal Open Market Committee. Still another proposal was for outright nationalization of the Fed or of its functions. But if what the Fed does now is bad and inflationary, allowing the Treasury to print and issue money at-will would be even worse, and could possibly lead to a Weimar-like hyperinflation.
The problems and advantages of the gold standard were discussed at the hearing. The era of the classical gold standard was undoubtedly one of the greatest eras in human history. For a period of several decades in the late 19th century, the West made enormous advances. However, the gold standard was still run by government. The temptation to suspend gold redemption reared its head again with the outbreak of World War I. Once the tie to gold was severed and fiscal restraint thrown to the wind, undoing the damage would have required great fiscal austerity. Instead, the Western world proceeded to set up a gold-exchange standard which lasted not even a decade before easy money led to the Great Depression.
While returning to the gold standard would certainly be far better than maintaining the current fiat paper system, as long as the government retains the power to go off gold we may end up repeating the same mistakes.
The only viable solution is to get government out of the money business permanently. The way to bring this about is through currency competition: allow parallel currencies to circulate without receiving any special recognition or favor from the government. Fiat paper monetary standards throughout history have always collapsed due to their inflationary nature, and our current fiat paper standard will be no different.
It is imperative that the American people be educated on the dangers of the Fed and the importance of restoring sound money. The laying of the groundwork must begin today, so that the American people will be prepared for the day when the mirage the Fed has created evaporates completely. The full hearing footage is available on my website and I would encourage every American to take a look.
2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul issued the following statement to supporters and the general public concerning the continuation of his historic bid for the GOP nomination.
The statement tees up forthcoming information the campaign will release concerning its fruitful delegate-attainment strategy still occurring at delegate-selection events such as state conventions ahead of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Below please find comments from Congressman Paul:
“As I reflect on our 2012 Presidential campaign, I am humbled by the supporters who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much. And I am so proud of what we have accomplished. We will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.
“This campaign fought hard and won electoral success that the talking heads and pundits never thought possible. But, this campaign is also about more than just the 2012 election. It has been part of a quest I began 40 years ago and that so many have joined. It is about the campaign for Liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win.
“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.
“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.
“I hope all supporters of Liberty will remain deeply involved – become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions. I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.
If Ron Paul wins the Republican primaries and becomes the GOP nominee, who should he choose as his running mate for Vice-President in the general election?
Ron Paul: Hello, this is Ron Paul. You may have already heard the results of some recent caucuses and conventions, where I took a majority of delegates to the Republican national convention. But maybe you didn’t, since the mainstream media continues to blackout any news of our success. First they stopped covering our huge crowds; anywhere from 3,000 to nearly 9,000 people were showing up at our events, exponentially more people than any other political candidate in America, and not a word from the media. You may recall that our campaign told anyone who would listen that in states like Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Minnesota and more, the results reported by the media on election night were merely the results of beauty contests: straw polls. They were not binding and had no bearing on the selection of delegates to the Tampa Convention.
I’m pleased to say that we were right, and I’m winning majorities in a bunch of places. I continue to fight this fight for delegates for as long as you are behind me. Patriots like you are helping win battles, elect the delegates and take over state parties all across the nation right now. This is vital for our current efforts and for the future of our movement to restore America and fight for liberty.
So now I’m going to ask you for your help one more time. In order to continue my fight, I’m going to need to raise at least $650,000 in the next two weeks. I know you are seeing the results of all your hard work and contributions so far. There is also no doubt the establishment is scared of our strength and our successes in electing national delegates. You can see it in the desperation of their attempts to downplay our success and some of the outrageous abuses of procedure they used to try to keep me from winning delegates. Let me assure you, our team knows how to fight back and protect liberty. So it is up to us to do everything possible to win this battle.
I’ve been so pleased with our message and the work of our grassroots supporters so far during this campaign. I think we have put together a very aggressive, very professional campaign that complements my long-standing message and advances our cause of liberty. Our message has led the pack every single step of the way. We put forward a positive aggressive message from day one. Think of all the issues that are out there simply because you helped support this campaign.
I have always said that freedom is popular, but I have never seen anything like the reception I am getting at event after event this year. Young people in college campuses, seniors in Town Halls, are all coming together for one purpose: to fight to restore their lost liberty. Our message of reigning in the Fed, ending the wars, promoting sound money, and taking back our government from the special interests, is winning the day. So now is the time to re-double our efforts.
The special interests are coming for us, they have already written our obituary, both, for our campaign and for our ideas. But our campaign is ready. The final ingredient in our strategy going forward is support from patriots like you. Unlike the establishment opponents, we can’t hit up Wall Street bankster fat cats for big checks, nor should we. So I’m depending on you for every ounce of my success. Our campaign is presenting voters with a clear choice: they can either support and return to a limited government and free market constitutional principles by voting for me, or they can support the continuation of the big government, big spending status quo by supporting my establishment opponent.
In the next six weeks, there are at least eight states holding state conventions, I intend to work hard in all 8 of these states to continue our success in electing national delegates. So, over the next two weeks, I will need to raise an additional $650,000 for these efforts.
I’m counting on your financial help to help me get my pro-freedom message out. Of course, $2,500 per person is the maximum contribution legal under federal law. Whatever you can do, will help tremendously. Everything we have worked for over the past 4 years now comes down to what we can afford to do over the next few short weeks. So please send your maximum contribution today.
Thank you for standing by my side at this critical moment.
Poll proves limited-government principles are viable vs. unfulfilled promises and big-money establishment backing
2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul would tie the sitting president 42 to 42 percent if the general election were held today, according to a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports as reported by Real Clear Politics.
“President Obama receives support from the liberal establishment including full reputational umbrella coverage from many in the media and he is aided by hundred million dollar advertising budgets. This poll tying Ron Paul with Obama is nothing short of a biting embarrassment to the president,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton.
“Ron Paul continues to match or outperform the sitting president due in part to his ‘Plan to Restore America,’ winning on principle as opposed to unfulfilled promises and overflowing campaign coffers. In short, the electability of the president should be held in question as voters shift attention from rhetoric and status quo solutions to authenticity, substance, and real change.” added Mr. Benton.
This poll marks the third time this year Paul has either tied or bested Obama in a Rasmussen matchup poll. The data are derived from the responses of 1,000 likely voters surveyed from May 6th-7th.
‘Youth for Ron Paul’ Member Total Exceeds 110,000 Lifelong Small-Government Activists
Supporters in 627 nationwide chapters commit to lasting political reform as they carry responsibility to govern their lives and bring about real change
The Ron Paul2012 Presidential campaign announced today that its ‘Youth for Ron Paul’ (YFP) program membership has surpassed the 110,000 mark.
Since the program launched in September 2011, and as of yesterday, the number of YFP members was 110,880. Members have established 627 sanctioned chapters in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
Young supporters including college-age activists and new workforce entrants established these chapters nationwide to remain politically involved expressly to challenge the status quo, bring about lasting prosperity, and work toward the full, permanent restoration of their economic and civil liberties. Ron Paul, the champion of these aims, often declares that the free-market and constitutional ideas he espouses are young ones, and that an idea whose time has come stands no chance of being stopped. The intellectual revolution youth are bringing about, then, is a manifestation of all that Dr. Paul hopes to achieve through his lifelong advocacy and pursuit of our nation’s highest office.
“Young Americans are often viewed as a solid constituency for the left and establishment Washington, who make promise after promise about a federal government that will ‘take care of them’ from cradle to the grave. Now it’s clear that more than 110,000 young Americans reject this empty rhetoric and have committed themselves to the principles of constitutionally-limited government and the restoration of their economic and civil liberties as real solutions to our nation’s challenges,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Manager John Tate.
Last week President Obama made a surprise pre-dawn trip to Afghanistan to mark the one year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden and to sign a document further extending the US presence in that country. The president said, “we’re building an enduring partnership…As you stand up, you will not stand alone.” What that means in practice is that the US will continue its efforts to prop up the government in Afghanistan for another ten years beyond the promised withdrawal date of 2014.
To those of us who believe the US should leave Afghanistan immediately, the president retorted, “We must give Afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize.” But how long will that take, when we have already fought the longest war in our nation’s history at incredible human and economic cost to the nation and no end is in sight?
There is little evidence of any sustained increase in stability in Afghanistan and, in fact, April saw the loss of 34 more American troops and an escalation of violence and upheaval. Within 90 minutes of the president’s departure, seven more people were killed in Kabul by a suicide bomber. It is clear that our presence in that country is not creating any real stability. With Osama bin Laden dead and the al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan virtually non-existent, we are reduced to nation-building in a nation where there is no real nation to build.
We should ask ourselves why Obama’s trip was a “surprise” visit rather than a normal state visit. The reason is that after ten years it is still far too dangerous to travel in or out of that country. Does that not speak much more loudly than the president’s optimistic words about the amazing progress we have made in Afghanistan?
What does our enduring commitment mean? Ask the South Koreans, where the United States has maintained an “enduring commitment” of US troops more than fifty years after hostilities ended. By some estimates the United States taxpayer is saddled with a 40 billion dollar annual price tag for our “enduring commitment” to maintaining a US military presence in Korea. Polls suggest that particularly younger Koreans are tired of the US military presence in their country and would prefer us to leave. The same is true for the residents of Okinawa, who have argued strongly and with some recent success for American troops to leave their island.
The Soviets believed the road to their goal for a universal form of government ran through Afghanistan. They were also wrong and paid an enormous price. However, after nine years and 15,000 Soviet lives lost, the communist regime in Moscow realized its mistake and withdrew from that country. The Soviet withdrawal was complete in early 1989. The Soviet Union by that time had further plunged into economic crisis, fueled in great part by its commitment to maintain a global empire of client states. Later that year, the Soviet world began crashing down, with first the collapse of Eastern European regimes and then the Soviet Union itself. That collapse produced an economic calamity for the successor states from which most have not yet fully recovered. It is not too late for the United States to learn what the Soviets discovered too late, back in 1989. Mr. President: the time to leave Afghanistan is today, not in 2024.
Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-American foreign policy. Read more...
Ronald Reagan and Ron Paul
Ronald Reagan: "Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country."
Ron Paul in the Air Force
Ron Paul is a proud Air Force veteran. He served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and then in the U.S. Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968. During his military service Ron Paul spent time on the ground in Iran, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Ethiopia and other countries.
Ron Paul has been married to his wife Carol Wells since 1957. They have five children: Ronald, Lori, Rand, Robert, and Joy. Paul's son Rand is the junior senator from the state of Kentucky.
RonPaul.com is maintained by independent grassroots supporters of Ron Paul. Neither this website nor the articles, posts, videos or photos appearing on it are paid for, approved, endorsed or reviewed by Ron Paul. For Ron Paul's official campaign website go to RonPaul2012.com
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