Ron Paul on the Bailout Proposal
Ron Paul interviewed on Fox Business:
Ron Paul lectures Ben Bernanke:
Message from Ron Paul to the Nation:
Dear Friends,
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.
The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress’ throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! “This is welfare for the rich,” he said. “This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters.”
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we’re being told it’s unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences – predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics – are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
• Financial institutions are “designated as financial agents of the Government.” This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there’s this: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this “sadly necessary.” Sad, yes. Necessary? Don’t make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind – another example of the big choice we’re supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they’re not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we’ll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
In liberty,
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I like this theme you are using… what is it?
hi I think this hole ball out stuff is very very very bad the dollar is going to become pen less if this is keep up in the Constantino they say that if the people do not have control over the the government then there children with awake on a Sheree with nothing on there back and be in debt to others will on there land with that there for fathers fought and die for…. we need to go back and read that if we do not we will end up like that tex in the Constantino….
I have disagree with Ron Paul on his war strategy and his drug possalse but besides that i think hes a great man hope we will run again in 2012 seeing as I think the ppl will be feed up of obama seeing as he will fudge us up really good and will maybe ready to lisson to what you have to say and elect you in to the white hose
What is the status of Executive Order 11110 signed by JFK?
What is the status of H.R. 2755: Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act?
I have feared for my country for a long time. Those in power (and those behind the scenes who control them ) have been working to destroy her for quite some time. This sellout could be the final fatal blow. God help us.
Hope you don’t mind my injection of a few comments from some patriots.
* “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people. It is an instrument for the people to restrain the government .. lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” (Patrick Henry)
* “An act of the congress of the United States which assumes powers not delegated by the Constitution is not law, but is althgether void and of no force.” (Thomas Jefferson)
* “Liberty will not long survive the extinction of morals.” (Samuel Adams)
“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.” (Thomas Jefferson)
How much of this is Wall Street’s blame and how much of it is Congress’ fault in creating a playing field that encouraged poor lending practices in the private sector to effect a utopianistic social policy. If one claims that Congress is implicit in the affair, than why only denounce the merchants, who after all did what merchants do – try to make as much money as the law will allow. What,if any, responsibility should Congress bear in this; and what, if any, should the Executive Branch bear by signing the legislation and then later via lack of regulatory attention? Not to excuse them in any way, but I would like to know more about the ’cause-effect’ here beyond just the greed of the merchant. One may be right that Secretary Paulson is effectively cleaning up his own mess, but might that not also be what Congress is also doing?
e bott
Bail out once, bail out twice, don’t be so concise.
In other words if they do this, how long before they have to do it again. You can only go into so much debt before the bottom falls out. They say there are safe guards in place to keep the stocks from going into a depression. They said the same thing about the Titanic. Ron Paul should be president, for he is the only one who knows what to do, and understands the situation better than anyone else. God bless Ron Paul and God bless the USA. Lets hope and pray they will do the right thing, and keeps us from going under.
Hey W.S.P. – well, goody for you being debt-free. We appreciate your smugness with the smarta** topping, but not all of us choose to buy and live in a 1960’s motorhome or 72′ Ford Pickup with a nifty, dented aluminum topper. OR maybe mommy & daddy’s house which THEY paid for. Debt-free but still a turd!
This is like putting arsonists in charge of investigating the fire they themselves started. To let them be involved in any way is a sure sign of damaged brain cells or a well thought scheme for secret profiting. If the deal passes, watch how fast the $700B disappears without any accountability. What’s more, is how can there be an FBI investigation of the culprits while at the same time giving these same culprits large sums of money to play with and to line their pockets. Oh, but I guess the investigation has to be carried forth since under law the bad guys are innocent until proven guilty! I guess this line of thought justifies the bad guys getting the bailout, because they aren’t really guilty of anything until proven otherwise.
Don’t you just love this stuff???
Wow, great point you made, Andrew & ‘David in the Republic of Texas’.
(I know it can be seen as impolitic today to ‘quote the Bible in Public’, so to those who object, I ask your pardon…..but this is SO applicable to today)
It’s so refreshing to hear men make the connection as you both did. May I add to your discussion ?
I was explaining from the Scriptures to my family just today, using this particular passage, to illustrate how a nation goes astray with massive greed & corruption.
What was surprising was that the nation was seen as corrupt in it’s spiritual relationship with God, then politcal & economic judgement followed. (the whole chapter needs be read in sequence to see the progression).
From Isaiah 1:22-26:
“Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebellious, and the companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, not does the cause of the widow come before them…..Therfore, the Lord says, the LORD of Hosts, the Mighty one of Israel, “Ah, I will rid myself of My adversaries, and take vengance on mine enemies. I will turn my hand against you, and thoroughly take away your dross, and take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges as at the first and your counsellors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of Righteousness, the faithful city.”
So we see, massive corruption leads to being saddled with ‘rebellious corrupt princes’ (think US Congressman & business ‘leaders’) and because “everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards”, justice, the kind that relieves suffering on the part of the weaker parts of society & our families(”fatherless & widows”), is totally ignored because it doesn’t offer ‘bribes & rewards.’
Note, God’s promise to purify the city, the nation, even from this evil. I don’t know about you, but I take hope from this: because the forces arrayed against us are seemingly invincible. I saw how they quashed Dr. Paul’s candidacy. But God will vindicate.
America has a ‘testimony’ as a Christian nation. I think we Christians have, as a general rule, departed from the ‘ways of the LORD’, and this has beset the entire land with woes. Be honest, our ‘testimony’ is tarnished. There is a connection between our Private Rightsousness & Public Morality.
Please note in Isaiah 1: 10-20, it was actually the profoundly religious citizens that had become corrupt, and led to the downfall of the entire nation. Judgement must begin in the house of God, don’t the Scriptures elsewhere declare ?
Our faith may not remain Private – it always comes out. Do we trust in God or Ceasar ? Are we more concerned with our 401 K & investments, or with God’s reputation for Holiness & Righteousness, and his claim that we must honor Him with all that we have & are ?
Please read the entire chapter of Isaiah 1, in context, and keep in mind that all these things that happened to them, as the New Testament cites: “…were written unto us (the modern church) for examples….”
God help America before it’s too late.
Justin Alan
After reading Andrew’s post above, where he says “Capitalism not informed by Christianity and God’s morality shortly devolves into overt social oppression, as we’re seeing – no morality, no freedom..” all I can say is you are right on.
Ron Paul is a devoted Christian, if you google ‘Ron Paul statement of faith’, you’ll get the press release that explains it. Because he preaches by ‘actions more than words’ his quiet faith oftentimes goes overlooked, but it forms his ethical outlook and morality regarding the individual, family & state & how they relate.
Ironically, though his political candidacy has fizzled, he is more sought after than ever as a spokesman – precisely because he can be trusted to ‘tell the truth’, about the immorality now flooding Washington DC & NYC regarding this criminal bailout proposal.
Andrew, here are a couple of sources that are great for championing free market capitalism, that make the connection, unapoligetically, to it’s Biblical root:
http://www.Chalcedon.edu Great articles ! The Blog is one of my favorites – the author, Chris Ortiz, is a huge Ron Paul supporter – free market thinker & top rate theologian.
http://www.LewRockwell.com You’ve probably already heard of this one. High praise for this group of Austrian economists who tend to be Catholic and do make the connection between Biblical faith & politics & economics.
http://www.Baldwin08.com – Chuck Baldwin was endorsed by Ron Paul, in preference to the Libertarian party man, Bob Barr…find out why…..
Yours For Liberty, David in the Republic of Texas
Nationalization Means Dictatorship
David L Lamon
Be warned!! What we are witnessing in America is a gigantic wholesale move to expedite the socialization of America. Even if they are successful into frightening us into accepting the bailouts as a way to save our retirements and savings it is only a prelude to total dictatorship. First they complain for years Americans aren’t saving enough and when we do they can’t stand that either because it is seen as a threat to their dominance over us. It is historic fact that to control one’s life it is necessary to get control of his/her pocketbook and wella it’s in the bag. Please understand the constitution does not give these people the power to do what they are doing with these bailouts at taxpayer expense. To understand the fear tactic they are using against “we the people” consider this; one of the first goals of tyranny is to create fear in the population, fear so paralyzing that the public will accept any measure to allay it. Make the threat onerous enough and the people will relinquish everything. The government is always presenting us with a crisis, whether it is the economy, health care, terrorism, crime, environmental or whatever they dream up. We the people are left with two choices, be consumed with the crisis or let the government solve the threat of the day by limiting, constraining, or removing freedoms.
Whether you realize it or not our economy is very fragile. The one-worlders or globalist by design know that to gain control of America, they have to eliminate the middle-class to have a rich and a poor by moving manufacturing jobs out of America. Forget the fact people running for office always appear to be behind the middle-class during the election cycle and soon after are forgotten and lie in waiting to be used again the next election. These people as individuals or alone running for election have no say about the middle-class. The reader must understand the only way to make change is for the individual to marshal the forces of “we the people” to rebel against the powers that be. We the people as a united people can make change but it does take an untied effort and that starts with throwing the incumbents out and putting God fearing people in that will do what is right. Back to the economy, if you are still having a problem with these statements just look around you. In today’s economy, one either gets a high-tech job (which is currently sucking buttermilk) or a low-paying service job. Maybe this explains why we are working at the 1978 pay level. As we now know the high-tech sector of the economy is taking it on the chin and being outsourced to foreigners at the middle-class’s expense. . Remember instead of a strong manufacturing based economy, which made up 75% of the GDP in 1955 and has dwindled to 14% today, we are left with a stock market economy, which is also part of the overall design to bring America to its knees. Remember to control a person it is necessary to control his/her pocketbook and what better way than the stock market. One certainly can’t make money with a regular savings account or even a money market account nor in real estate so what are we left with but stocks to gamble on. One reason I believe we have entered into the final phase of their plan is because they are allowing the stock market to go down to the point that Americans are getting out of stocks and put their money into CD’s, Money Market or Savings accounts. By doing so it eliminates a lot of hassle for these (moneychangers as Jesus referred to them) to locate that money making it easier for them to secure it through a national emergency, which is I believe the next step cloaked as a National Security Crisis. Bill Clinton took this a giant leap forward by creating an order (Presidential Directive #25) that says in a national emergency the U.N. would have the authority to come in and take over. This directive is still on the books. Several reports say over 100 banks will soon bankrupt in America alone. The FDIC reports its funds are dwindling so there might not be enough in there to cover all these FDIC guarantees on the above mentioned. I am talking about seizing the assets of Americans. To safeguard against hording or hiding money for quick access a system will be employed to guarantee Americans won’t be able to use it without a specific form of I.D, which in effect makes their effort to protect themselves from an insolvent federal government fruitless and that includes gold. Two areas for you to watch during elections are areas that are virtually untouched at election time. Those two areas are the State Department, Treasury and the Federal Reserve, all of which are working hand-in-hand to bring America to its knees. These two are under the control organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tri-lateral Commission, which are dedicated to bringing about a one-world government and very little change takes place when a new president comes into office. Members of the state department, treasury, chamber of commerce and most all other departments are members of the Council on Foreign Relations and Tri-lateral Commission especially the higher ups. I might as well add many of the senators and house representatives are also members. The Council on Foreign Relations and Tri-lateral Commission are busy establishing a one world government by putting into place unelected bureaucrats to create regulations all with the force of law to get around the constitution. Funding for this task comes from Multi-national Corporations, and Foundations such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford. Sounds conspiratorial, huh! Well all ye doubting Thomas’s just pay attention and notice your once sound retirement accounts that are now bound to the stock market keep dwindling. There are so many unanswered questions for political reasons about this bailout and the fact is we will never hear them brought up because it would be political suicide. For instance, why is it illegal invaders into our country are getting home loans guaranteed by U.S. taxpayers? Why it is Wachovia and Bank of America were allowed to pursue these illegal aliens for home loans. Is it a coincidence or a targeted effort to get these loans to illegal invaders in sanctuary states and cities without proof of citizenship, which make up 1/3 of these failed loans? A spokeswoman for the U.S. General Accounting Office told reporter Michelle Malkin five years ago: “Considering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens, I don’t think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions.” It makes absolutely no sense to me to allow these elected officials to remain in office because they are a huge part of the problem we are facing today. In 1995 senator Shelby of Alabama then chairman of the committee that has oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac introduced legislation that would stop the runaway greed the two tax payer guaranteed institutions were engaged in but Democrat senators Dodd and Schuman and every other Democrat in the senate stopped this effort and yes with the help of some Republicans. It should be noted that Dodd and Obama are the top two senators that benefitted monetarily from these two institutions. Had they not stopped this effort we wouldn’t be dealing with this problem now.
Ah yes, where does the media fit into this scenario? You gotta admit they pulled the wool over our eyes for eight years with the most dominant headline being the war of terror and terror threats while they were backhandedly robbing us. I can just see those smart elicks in those think tanks laughing their heads off at we the people and bragging to one another how easily they deceived us. Let me explain or better yet others explain in an excerpt from my paper “Liberals Over America” how the media has been playing a critical role in this deception.
Media
Richard Salant—Former president of CBS News__Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.
John Swinton—Former Chief of Staff New York Press Club__There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. You wouldn’t dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand, that it would never appear in print. The business of journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly this toasting of an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. Winston Churchill said, “The worst crime is not to tell the truth to the public. The crime endures, flourishes, and overwhelms.
Bernard Goldberg—Commentator on CBS 48 Hours television program__We in the press like to say we’re honest brokers of information, and it’s just not true. The press does have an agenda.
Paul Watson—Co-founder of Greenpeace__It doesn’t matter what is true; it only matters what people believe is true….You are what the media define you to be.
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee—Former Executive Editor Washington Post__To hell with the news. I’m no longer interested in news. I’m interested in causes. We don’t print the truth. We don’t pretend to print the truth. For example: Walter Cronkite long time CBS anchor spends his days now trying to force Americans into giving up our sovereignty. World Federalist Association member and spokesman Walter Cronkite says; democracy, civilization itself, is at stake,” unless the “basic structure of our global community” is changed in the next few years. Cronkite’s appeal for world government came only five days before the release of the Charter for Global Democracy which embodies the version of world government preferred by the United Nations Association.
Both the UNA and the WFA have been promoting world government for years. Cronkite’s group, the WFA, prefers a “federalist” system which would create a weighted system of voting in the U.N. General Assembly without “we the people” having a say to create a legislative body roughly akin to the American Congress. Once again I repeat unelected bureaucrats running our lives for us. The UNA prefers a “consensus” process that takes into account recommendations offered by civil society (non-government organizations accredited by the U.N.).
Both organizations want to elevate the U.N. to world government status and empower the U.N. to enforce all international law. In fact, in 1986, the WFA filed suit against the United States over U.S. foreign policy, arguing that Article VI of the U.S. Constitution made the U.N. Charter as well as other U.N. treaties, the “supreme law of the land.” The courts ruled against the WFA in 1989.
One of those the press takes their marching orders from
David Rockefeller—Founder and honorary chairman, Council of the Americas. Chairman , Council on Foreign Relations. Founder and Honorary Chairman, Trilateral Commission__We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nation will accept the New World Order. He also said, “Some even believe we (Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” You could easily throw in the Bilderbergers into this mix.
U. S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson put it simply: “It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” This justice’s comment is a far cry from what we hear from these “liberal lawmaking judges” today. “We the People are the rightful master of both congress and the courts, “said Abraham Lincoln, “not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” A government that is anxious to give alms to as many people as possible is even more anxious to commandeer their earnings. Witness, through Federal, State, and local taxes, a man/woman pays 40% or better of their income in taxes. One might ask, “Why have we become a nation of such horrific lawlessness?”
Don’t bother to go to a book taught in colleges for the answer cause it ain’t there. These professors or communist sympathizers have been too busy rewriting our history books to suit themselves and putting the blame for everything on “we the people”. Remember these are the brain cooked hippies LSD, cocaine, and dope smokers among other things of the sixties and seventies running these universities and/or other higher institutes of learning. The sad part is they are tenured. One of the main reasons we find ourselves in this predicament is when the state becomes the violator of liberty and property rather than its guarantor; it debases respect for all law. People in society develop an increasing disrespect and disregard for what the law demands. See immigration laws. They view the law as the agent for immorality in the form of legalized plunder for the benefit of some at the expense of others, and this same disrespect and disregard sooner or later starts to creep into dealings between individuals (trickle-down theory). Society verges on the brink of lawlessness. Stop and think, when individuals began to ask government to do things for them, rather than merely to secure rights and property, they began asking government to violate others rights and property for their benefit. An example would be the leftist liberals demand that no one in America has a right to own property. As Voltaire noted, “It is dangerous to be right when your government is wrong.” Another of our great founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson) imparted a bit of wisdom to us when he said, “When the government fears the people, there is liberty, but when the people fear the government there is tyranny. Former Texas Congressman Henry Gonzales (deceased) said the plans are here whereby the government can evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps in the name of stopping terrorism. The question is what do they consider a threat or terrorism? The U.S. Senate has revealed the existence of a “Master Search Warrant” and “Master Arrest Warrant,” the latter of which (authorized by the Attorney General) directs the FBI to: Arrest persons whom I deem dangerous to the public peace and safety. Again I asked, “What is a threat?” According to the above it is whatever any of the power brokers through the Attorney General deems a threat to be. Remember, it was Janet Reno who said, “The religious right is the greatest threat.” Someone please explain to me what happened to the Bill of Rights in the derivation of these onerous laws and directives. Who stole Articles 4, 5, and 6?
If we the people trade in our God-given rights, which we inherited from our inspired Founding Fathers and their sacrifices, for a set of state-given rights, dispensed by the government in accord with governmental convenience, then we the people will have but ourselves to blame, and the American dream will inexorably become an unimaginable nightmare. In his book ‘None Dare Call It Treason’, John Stormer said, “The battle will be lost, not when freedom of speech is finally taken away, but when Americans become so ‘adjusted’ or ‘conditioned’ to getting along with the group’ that when they finally see the threat, they say, ‘I can’t afford to be controversial.”
The question is will we the people allow them to scare us into submission about this all of a sudden bankrupt America by threatening us with, “If we don’t pass law this week our nation and the people’s retirement will be lost.” Remember, it is fear they are attempting to instill in us now so we will relinquish our freedoms to them. Besides, we are going to lose with this bailout anyway so the only thing we have left is our freedom so do we heed the words or warning of our founding father Ben Franklin “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety (security) deserve neither liberty nor safety (security).” If a nation values anything more than its freedom, it will lose it says William Somerset Maughm. Furthermore, if its comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
We the people by inaction permit powerful politicians and institutions in and out of government to define the government’s reach into our lives, to decide policy which will accrue for the politicians’ own advantage, and to impose ever-increasing limitations on our freedom. We the people will have proven Dante’s wisdom correct: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of moral crisis do nothing.”
Great post! free book supporting this view at http://www.oss.net/PIG, see especially the annotated bibliography with active links to my full reviews of books on breach of trust and on capitalism run amok.
It’s pretty obviously our moral implosion which ultimately has caused all this. Capitalism not informed by Christianity and God’s Morality shortly devolves into overt social oppression, as we’re seeing. No morality, no freedom. It’s 3rd grade obvious. We either come to our senses and return to God or we’re out of luck.
I wish you were running for President. I have been reading much about this topic (economics), and it is time we elected someone who understands Austrian Economics and allows Von Mises and his group to determine and set economic policy in this country. Keep on doing all you do, Ron. Thanks, and God bless you.
Wise up People! This entire banking fiasco was orchestrated to usher in the New Econominc Order. Then, cram it down our throats before we have a chance to figure out what hit us. Quigly outlined this Trillateral scheme way back in 1966. Ron is absolutely right! If the Fed’s bagmen, Paulsen/Bernanki, get their way, it’s the end of America and our Constitutional Republic. Just like the Patriot Act, these criminals create a crises, then ‘presto’ offer a solution to assurage our fears. Order outa chaos! This is crunch time. Either take a stand, stop it, or embrace surdom! Our foreign enimies are salivating!
Thank you, once again Mr. Paul for being one of the few with the moral character, and integrity to tell the truth. The Message that you send is needed now, more than ever. More and more people are waking up, and seeing the true colors behind the red and the blue… which will hopefully strike in them a chord to vote third party. When i think about our current situation i am somehow reminded about how when a forest grows beyond it’s means, excess dry wood and foliage create an environment that is more susceptible to forest fires. At the moment we are slowly drying, or possibly burning down… it is crucial now more than ever we somehow organize a campaign to plant seeds(possibly literally as well as metaphorically) and create true liberty for our children.
In the past year i have seen a drastic change in the political idealogy of many of those close to me. Many of them effected and inspired by your words alone. I honestly think, that you are the man that most every American wants in the presidency, they just don’t know it. Obviously the fear campaigns and stagnate policies and ideas are creating a cloud of uncertainty, and everyone is trying to paint themselves as a hero. You are the only true hero in the spotlight, besides the millions of Americans who are standing up now, and will continue to stand up, with you.
the strength and knowledge is present to turn this country around, they just need a great leader, to help them in the right direction… and organization is of the upmost importance.
Are you sure you won’t run on the ballot? I personally know of over 30 people who say they would now vote for you, after the primaries(liberty brews slow and sweet)… with odds like that, surely a third party, a constitutional party can pull forward and chase the fatcats out of Washington… they just need a leader.
Someone who was on top of this problem before it was a “Problem”
A man who knows that the only “change” that is needed, is to listen to the constitution for a change.
A close friend of mine recently made the statement after hearing one of your speeches, for the first time. “i would take a bullet for that guy.”
You have the true spirit of American principles and as long as your fighting you have my support, and that of those around me… your numbers are growing and now is the time to strike.
bless you, and are you sure you can get on the ballot, come on, i want to see the look on McCain’s face, when all the numbers come out. I know it might be a long shot, but i had to try
bless you in your fight, my friend.
The politicians once again create a problem and then tell us that we must pay for the fix and only they can fix it. Now not only do they want us to pay for their greed, they want it all and they want it right now !!! No time to waste debating where this totally unconstitutional action will lead us. Just “give us your money ” !!!! What’s the difference between the home invader who sticks a gun in your face and demands your $ and the thugs in DC ??!!
Dr. Paul, as usual is right on the mark. If only there were more freedom loving people in the fedgov, we could actually be the land of the free again. God help us
A wise man once observed that “the end result of the effort to exempt people of the effects of their folly, is to fill the world with fools.”
This impulse to bail out the imprudent wall street insiders, at the expense of the average taxpayer, is just such an effort to insulate fools from their folly.
We, average citizens & our children, will certainly bear the effects of this bailout, by the dilution of our existing dollars, via inflation and resultant loss of value those ‘bailout dollars’ inevitably cause.
This is an outrage – and MUST not be tolerated. The regieme that is the ‘two party’ system – is now being exposed for the fraud it is. What we really, truly have is rule by one party – a band of thieves posing as the ‘Almighty State’, with the Republicrats and Demopublicans playing good cop / bad cop, to our loss.
While many are hypnotized by the marginal differences between the two parties, (far more about style than substance), it is the fatal premises that BOTH parties agree on that threaten us & our future:
1) Their power & influence are on the rise
2) Our Liberty & our God given rights are negotiable.
3) Your & your families wealth is up for grabs via their control over the engine of creation (& thus destruction) of wealth: the Unaccountable Federal Reserve.
Ron Paul, thank you, dear sir for being so truthful. Heaven & future generations will count you amongst the ‘Founding Fathers’ of our era.
I understand you have just endorsed Dr. Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party for President.
I’ve read his position & platform and am ready to support his candidacy – knowing the likelihood of his winning is small (absent a miracle)- but seeing these ‘Bi-Partisan’ thieves in Washington DC has me seeing red.
It is way past time to send a message to them, regarding the fraud of the two party system:
“NONE OF THE ABOVE.”
Why do we keep voting for those who plan to rob us in broad daylight ?
See the video messages & read his postions, see if this isn’t what you know to be true & wish to hear from our leaders:
Chuck Baldwins site: http://www.Baldwin08.com
or http://www.ConstitutionParty.com
For Liberty,
David in the Republic of Texas
“I’d like to suggest that we organize a national mortgage payment boycott to force the banks into the toilet – or Congress back into session for a “proper” remedy to this situation.”
Hey Mike, sounds like a great idea! One little problem for me
however, I made the mistake of being 100% debt free, no
mortgage – boy am I a fool. Wish I could fight back like this.
I hope & pray folks wake up & do something!
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” -Winston Churchill
So Congress seems hell bent on passing the Paulson plan.
I’d like to suggest that we organize a national mortgage payment boycott to force the banks into the toilet – or Congress back into session for a “proper” remedy to this situation.
Its time for the people to take control.
Ron, thanks for your attempt to expose this for what it is, further proof our elected officials are not “driving the bus”. Those of us who cherish freedom and the Constitution know all too well that for quite some time, things have not been right in DC. We know that he who controls the money calls the shots, in a marriage and in a country. We know that those families who own the private banks we call the Federal Reserve are really the people in charge of telling us what we are to think and what we are to do as a nation. Now they want us to save them and to burden the taxpayers for their losses which they knew were coming. They also knew they’d be able to pull this “scam” off without too much opposition. Sorry, this makes no sense, it’s unprecedented, and it’s treasonous. It is also going to pass. All we can do is sit back and continue to press forward and use this as a prime example of how we’ve been hoodwinked by the powers that be and to warn of further deteriorating freedoms as time passes on.
Let me say that I have been a big supporter of this president and administration on most things, including the war in Iraq, even as it stands, even though there were no WMDs.
But this bailout package is complete nonsense, to have former Goldman chairman have authority over $700 billion that will (in one way or another) save his former company!!! He is a smart guy, and I don’t believe he is consciously attempting a fraud, but I think subconsciosly his brain is looking only at the positives of the plan because his real loyalty is with his former pals at Goldman (been there since 1974), not with this temp job and the gray mass of taxpayers, which is expendable.
Bush shows no understanding of even the mechanics of the proposed plan, leave alone why this specific plan is better compared to alternatives (mine would be: give the ca. $3000 per taxpayer under the plan back to people in rebates, I don’t know about other fellow citizens, but my $3000 rebate for sure won’t go to buy CDOs, sorry, why do I have to waste my money on others’ mistakes? That would in the short run stimulate the economy, maybe not save some of the failed financials, so let them fail already.) So what is Bush’s or Cheney’s voice of support worth in this case? As much as a parrot’s, I would say.
Ron Paul, this temp worker treasury secretary can’t be trusted with our $700 billion!!! I know you know it, but please try to convince others – Democrats, Republicans, whatever, try to build a consensus opposition, not just be one voice of opposition, there are many who are undecided now, try to really block this!!!
I entirely agree with Congressman Ron Paul. I had sent the following letter to my U.S. Representative, Illnois Senators, House Spreaker, and Majority and Minority Leaders in Congress:
“I am dismayed and appalled at the colossal shakedown being attempted by looters in the financial industry. These unscrupulous individuals and institutions are holding a knife to the taxpayers throat and terrorizing us into a bailout for the results of their insatiable greed and rapacity. Congress should never be stampeded into opening our national wallet to these soulless people who are desperately trying to create a climate of fear and panic so that we would supinely hand over our hard earned money, or what is left of it, to them.
I listened to the President’s address this evening. After listening, I’m even more convinced that you should not mindlessly support the $700 billion bailout package that the Administration wants. Congress should take the time, however long is needed, to carefully deliberate all options and act wisely and prudently. It is folly to blindly follow the advice of Administration mandarins who allowed this mess to emerge in the first place. Our economy will still be here after they are gone. Do not let them panic you.”
Fil Munas
Hello Ron.
Thank you so much for blogging and sending out the blast email. I read it clearly and immediately contacted my congressmen and told them to not vote for this plan or “I will not vote for you”.
Here was the email:
“Please, please do not vote for the Bailout Proposal. My wife and I just found out we are going to have our first baby. Please don’t put this bailout burden on my children. Don’t use my family’s tax dollars to bail out wall street.
If you vote for this plan, I will not vote for you.
Let the market decide how much these illiquid assets are worth. Price fixing, just like in the Great Depression, took the country a decade to recover.
Remember what happened when our Congress panicked and voted for a war in Iraq?”
Ron, thank you for fighting for my freedom!
Paulson’s scam,
Paulson was president of Goldman Sachs,
Goldman made hundred of millions selling bad mortgages and shorting them at the same time creating the toxic mortgage paper.
Now he is Sec of the Treasury and he wants to borrow 700 billion from taxpayers to clean it up.
The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs
By BEN STEIN
FOR decades now, as a writer, economist and scold, I have been receiving letters from thoughtful readers. Many of them have warned me about the dangers of a secret government running the world, organized by the Trilateral Commission, or the Ford Foundation, or the Big Oil companies or, of course, world Jewry.
I always scoff at these letters. The world is far too complex a place to be run by any one group. But the closest I have recently seen to such a world-running body would have to be a certain large investment bank, whose alums are routinely Treasury secretaries, high advisers to presidents, and occasionally a governor or United States senator.
This all started percolating in my fevered brain last week when a frequent correspondent, a gent in Florida who is sure economic disaster lies ahead (and he may be right, but he’s not), forwarded a newsletter from a highly placed economist at Goldman Sachs named Jan Hatzius.
That worthy scholar recently wrote a detailed paper about how he thought the subprime mess would get worse and worse. It would get so bad, he hypothesized, that it would affect aggregate lending extremely adversely and slow down growth.
Dr. Hatzius, who has a Ph.D. in economics from “Oggsford,” as they put it in “The Great Gatsby,” used a combination of theory, data, guesswork, extrapolation and what he recalls as history to reach the point that when highly leveraged institutions like banks lost money on subprime, they would cut back on lending to keep their capital ratios sound — and this would slow the economy.
This would occur, he said, if the value of the assets that banks hold plunges so steeply that they have to consume their own capital to patch up losses. With those funds used to plug holes, banks’ reserves drop further. To keep reserves in accordance with regulatory requirements, banks then have to rein in lending. What all of this means — or so the argument goes — is that losses in subprime and elsewhere that are taken at banks ultimately boomerang back, in a highly multiplied and negative way, onto our economy.
As the narrator in the rock legend “Spill the Wine” says, “This really blew my mind.”
So I started an e-mail correspondence with Dr. Hatzius, pointing out what I believed were a few flaws in his paper. Among them were his hypothesis that home prices would fall an average of 15 percent nationwide (an event that has never happened since the Depression, although we surely could be headed in that direction), and that this would lead to a drastic increase in defaults and losses by lenders.
This, as I see it, is a conclusion that is an estimation based upon a guess. I found especially puzzling the omission of the highly likely truth that the Fed would step in to replenish financial institutions’ liquidity if necessary. In a crisis like that outlined by the good Dr. Hatzius, the Fed — any postwar Fed except perhaps that of a fool — would pump cash into the system to keep lending on track.
I mentioned this via e-mail to Dr. Hatzius. He generously agreed that there was some slight merit to my arguments and that he was merely pointing out tendencies and possibilities (if I understand him correctly).
BUT forecasting is tricky, and I have a hard time believing that financial events to come will be qualitatively different from those that have already happened.
I do want to emphasize Dr. Hatzius’s gentlemanliness and intelligence. But I also want to emphasize that, as I see it, his document was mostly about selling fear. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs categorically denies this point and says that the firm’s economic research is held to the highest levels of objectivity and that its economists’ views are completely independent.
As I interpret it, Dr. Hatzius was saying that the financial system would possibly not be able to adjust to a level of financial losses that are large on an absolute scale but small compared with aggregate credit or the gross domestic product. He is also postulating that lenders would have to retrench so deeply that lending would stall and growth would falter — an event that, again, has not happened on any scale in the postwar world, except when planned by the central bank.
In other words, with the greatest possible respect to Dr. Hatzius, his paper is not really what I would call a serious overview of the situation. It is more a call to be afraid and cautious based on general principles that he embraces and not on the lessons of history. (In this respect, he is much like many economic journalists and commentators who sell newsprint by selling fear. The common cause of journalists and Wall Streeters in this regard is a subject I will address in the future.)
Now, let me make a few small points here and then get to my own big point.
Goldman Sachs is a huge name in terms of moneymaking and prestige. I totally understand the respect it receives for its financial dexterity. The firm is a superstar in that regard, and I, a small stockholder, am grateful. But it has never been clear to me exactly why its people are considered rocket scientists in any other area than making money.
Dr. Hatzius’s paper is a prime example of my puzzlement. It shows extreme intelligence but basically misses the point: yes, there are possible macro dangers, but you have to go all the way around Robin Hood’s barn to get to them, and you have to use what I think are extremely far-fetched hypotheticals to get to a scary situation. (This is not to diminish the real risks in today’s economy, I’m just not as gloomy about them as Dr. Hatzius.)
Why, then, is his document circulating? Perhaps as a token of Dr. Hatzius’s genuine intelligence, which is fine. But to me, his paper seemed like a selling document in the real Wall Street sense of selling — namely, selling short. (Dr. Hatzius notes that he has long been bearish on housing, since faraway 2006, but I respectfully note that that is a lot different from predicting a credit catastrophe. The spokesman for Goldman also noted the company’s bearishness on housing since 2006. He also noted that in the recent past, Goldman Sachs has moved to a considerably larger short posture and that the firm is net short.)
More thoughts came to me as I read a recent piece in Fortune by my colleague Allan Sloan, a veteran financial writer. Mr. Sloan traces the life and death throes of a Goldman Sachs-arranged collateralized mortgage obligation. He shows how truly toxic waste was sold to overly eager investors who now have major charge-offs, and he also points out that some parts of the C.M.O. were indeed safe and were either current or had been paid off.
But what leaps out at me from this story is that Goldman Sachs was injecting dangerous financial products into the world’s commercial bloodstream for years.
My pal, colleague and alter ego, the financial manager Phil DeMuth, culled data from a financial Web site, ABAlert.com (for “asset-backed alert”), that Goldman Sachs was one of the top 10 sellers of C.M.O.’s for the last two and a half years. From the evidence I see, Goldman was doing this for years. It might have sold very roughly $100 billion of the stuff in that period, according to ABAlert. Goldman was doing it on a scale of billions even when Henry M. Paulson Jr., the current Treasury secretary, led the firm.
The Goldman spokesman would not comment on this except to note that other firms sold C.M.O.’s too.
The point to bear in mind, as Mr. Sloan brilliantly makes clear, is that as Goldman was peddling C.M.O.’s, it was also shorting the junk on a titanic scale through index sales — showing, at least to me, how horrible a product it believed it was selling.
The Goldman Sachs spokesman said that the company routinely shorts the securities it underwrites and said that this is disclosed. He noted candidly that Goldman is much more short in this sector than usual.
Here is my humble hypothesis, even after talking to Goldman: Is it possible that Dr. Hatzius’s paper was a device to help along the goal of success at bearish trades in this sector and in the market generally? His firm says his paper, like all of its economists’ work, was not written to support any larger short-trading strategy. But economists, like accountants, are artists. They have a tendency to paint what their patrons, who pay them, want to see.
From what I have observed over the years, Goldman has a fascinating culture. It is sort of like what I imagine the culture of the K.G.B. to be. You always put the firm first. The long-ago scandal of the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, which raised hundreds of millions just before the crash of 1929 to create a mutual fund, then used the fund’s money to prop up stocks it owned and underwrote, was a particularly sad example. The fund, of course, went bust.
Now, obviously, Goldman Sachs does many fine deals and has many smart, capable people working for it. But it’s not the Vatican. It exists to make money for the partners and (much farther down the line) the stockholders. The people there are not statesmen. They are salesmen.
To my old eyes, the recent unhappiness about mortgages and Goldman’s connection with them are not examples of sterling conduct. It is bad enough to have been selling this stuff. It is far worse when the sellers were, in effect, simultaneously shorting the stuff they were selling, or making similar bets.
Doesn’t this bear some slight resemblance to Merrill selling tech stocks during the bubble while its analyst Henry Blodget was reportedly telling his friends what garbage they were? How different would it be from selling short the junky stock that your firm is underwriting? And if a top economist at Goldman Sachs was saying housing was in trouble, why did Goldman continue to underwrite junk mortgage issues into the market?
HERE is a query, as we used to say in law school: Should Henry M. Paulson Jr., who formerly ran a firm that engaged in this kind of conduct, be serving as Treasury secretary? Should there not be some inquiry into what the invisible government of Goldman (and the rest of Wall Street) did to create this disaster, which has caught up with some Wall Street firms but not the nimble Goldman?
When the Depression got under way, the government created the Temporary National Economic Committee to study just what had happened on the Street to get the tragedy going. Maybe it’s time for an investigation of just what Wall Street and Goldman did to make money as they pumped this mortgage mess into the economic system, and sometimes were seemingly on both sides of the deal.
Or is Goldman Sachs like “Love Story”? Does working there mean never having to say you’re sorry?
Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail: ebiz@nytimes.com.