PoliticalAction.com Blog

Texas Straight Talk
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

The remarkable confluence of recent events has brought unprecedented but very welcome attention to both U.S. monetary policy and the global political economy in general. First, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke recently announced that the Fed would embark upon another round of monetary easing by purchasing $600 billion worth of U.S. treasury debt. This amounts to admission that markets have run out of patience with our profligacy and therefore our own central bank literally must serve as the buyer of last resort for treasury debt.

Second, World Bank President Robert Zoellick openly suggested that gold could play a helpful role in the global monetary system by serving as reference against more volatile fiat currencies. This is almost heresy coming from a neoconservative globalist like Mr. Zoellick. It hints at an obvious but unspoken truth that is anathema to politicians and central bankers alike, namely, that gold could be viewed as money.

Finally, Mr. Obama attended the G20 summit in South Korea last week and found a very chilly reception for his vision of American economic policy. Mr. Obama argued for continued worldwide stimulus via continued debasing of the U.S. dollar to bolster American exports. Several powerful European and Asian finance ministers however rejected this approach out of hand as nothing short of a currency war. They are committed to austerity measures at home and don’t want to let the U.S. simply monetize its past sins at their expense.

All these events culminated in a tremendous amount of political and media scrutiny aimed at the Fed. Ordinary Americans are demanding answers and accountability and they are putting heat on their political representatives in Washington to end the cozy independence from congressional oversight the Fed has enjoyed for so long.

In the 35 years I have been studying, speaking and writing about monetary policy I have never before seen Congress or the financial press pay much attention to the Fed. Monetary policy has always been considered boring on Capitol Hill, something left to remote policy wonks far away from the den of presidential or congressional politics. Congress always has been eager to leave Fed governors well alone with no oversight or accountability as long as they played along and papered over the growing budget deficits.

But it’s amazing what a global economic meltdown will do to the political and media landscape. In just two short years the Fed has become the hot topic and a lightning rod for criticism. While it is gratifying to see so many formerly uninterested politicians, economists, talk show hosts and pundits suddenly rally to attack the Fed, one can only wonder whether they truly understand that central banking is inherently incompatible with our Constitution and a free market economy.

In other words, it’s not enough to show outrage at the latest Fed action or argue about the relative merits of Mr. Bernanke compared to his predecessors. To reclaim our dollar and our economy Americans must oppose central banking per se. Fiat currencies cannot be reformed or managed. They are fundamentally subject to ruinous debasement courtesy of the political and ruling class. History shows that this is true in all nations, at all times.

Ron Paul on CNBC’s Squwak Box Part 1 – Feb 22

Run, Ron, Run!

Part 1

Part 2

HeeHee!

January 25, 2010

Dear Pennsylvania Subscriber,

After a full year of rope-a-done and refusing to have his Federal Reserve audited, Ben Bernanke is on the ropes and could be knocked out for re-nomination.

Campaign for Liberty activists are in the lead insisting “No Audit, No Bernanke.” Please immediately call Senator Bob Casey and Senator Arlen Specter at the numbers below and tell them (again, if you’ve already called) “No Audit, No Bernanke.”

Here’s what’s going on:

Campaign for Liberty launced a nationwide fight against a bailout for Bernanke last week. Now we are following it up with phones, email and banner ads targeting over a dozen swing-vote senators.

The Senate is boiling over with outrage about the Fed’s abuse of the TARP program, bailouts, and money supply, as well as its refusal to submit to a full and complete audit.

Now is the time to deal the knockout blow!

Please call your senators at the numbers below and join in the fight:

Senator Bob Casey: 202-224-6324
Senator Arlen Specter: 202-224-4254

Tell them that Ben Bernanke must not be confirmed without an up or down roll call vote for Audit the Fed on the Senate floor.

This fight is really coming to a head, and the decision could will likely come in the next few days. Please call now.

In liberty,

John Tate

P.S. Thanks to the efforts of patriots like you, Ben Bernanke’s days of secrecy at the Federal Reserve may be numbered!

That’s because his confirmation is being held up until the Senate votes on Audit the Fed. Please call your senators at the numbers above and tell them plain and simple: “No Audit, No Bernanke.”

Jim Rogers is well spoken and right on again….”Ben Bernanke has
never been right on anything” Whew!

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column

Rep. Ron Paul (R) – Texas Congressional District 14

Legalize Competing Currencies

Much has been made recently about the supposed economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as “jobless” to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street. But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the administration would like to get on with other agendae.

They have even set up a commission to investigate the crisis as if it were all in the past.

The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs, the Fed is still inflating, and more regulations are in the works that will prevent jobs and productivity from coming back. We are on this trajectory for the long haul. The claim has been made many times that this administration has only had a year to clean up the mess of the last administration. I wish they would at least get started! Instead of reversing course, they are maintaining Bush’s policies full speed ahead. They are even keeping the Bush-appointee in charge of the Federal Reserve! They are not even making token efforts at change in economic policy. And for all the talk of transparency, we hear that some powerful senators will do all they can to block a simple audit of the powerful and secretive Federal Reserve.

We have been on a disastrous course for a long time. The money supply has doubled in the last year, our debt is unsustainable, the value of the dollar is going to continue its drop, and those Americans who understand where we are headed feel helpless and held hostage by foolish policy makers in Washington. When the bills finally come due and the dollar stops working we are in for some real social, economic and political chaos. That is, unless we take some major steps now to allow for a peaceful transition in the future. These steps are laid out in my legislation to legalize competing currencies.

First of all, no one should be compelled by law to operate in Federal Reserve notes if they prefer an alternative. We should repeal legal tender laws and allow Americans to conduct transactions in constitutional money. Only gold and silver can constitutionally be legal tender, not paper money. Instead, it is illegal to conduct business using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes. Simply legalizing the Constitution should be a no-brainer to anyone who took an oath of office. Consequently, private mints should be allowed to mint gold and silver coins. They would be subject to fraud and counterfeit laws, of course, and people would be free to use their coins or stay with Federal Reserve notes, as they see fit. Finally, we should abolish taxes on gold and silver, which puts precious metals at a competitive disadvantage to paper money.

The Federal Reserve is a government-sanctioned banking cartel that has held far too much power for far too long and is in the end stages of running the dollar into the ground, and our economy along with it. The very least Congress can do, if they are not willing to abolish the Fed, and perhaps not even conduct a serious audit of it, is to allow citizens the freedom to defend themselves from being completely wiped out by their monopoly power.

Amidst the voter anger at Wall Street and Washington, D.C., ABC News has learned that the Senate Democratic leadership isn’t sure there are enough votes to re-confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke’s term expires on Jan. 31.

The White House did not respond to many requests for comment.

“The American people are disgusted with the greed and recklessness of Wall Street,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview with The Associated Press last month. “People are asking, ‘Why didn’t the Fed intervene at the appropriate time to stop the casino-type activities of large financial companies?'”

Sanders, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., have all put holds on Bernanke’s nomination, requiring 60 votes to proceed to a vote.

More….

Fox Business, Jan. 14th, 2010 – On Thursday, Texas District 14 Congressman Ron Paul appeared on Fox Business to discuss runaway spending and printing, the Freddie and Fannie Mac mess, the Geithner-AIG affair, and Federal Reserve transparency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNkNEWc6kJQ

Saying the Federal Reserve is the only institution in the world he knows of that isn’t audited, famed investor and author Jim Rogers said in an interview, “It’s incomprehensible to me these people are saying they have no reason to be audited — they must have done something wrong, must have something to hide.”

This was in response to a question of whether Rogers supported the bill by Ron Paul to audit the Federal Reserve.

Rogers strongly states that we not only need to audit the Fed, but like Ron Paul, we need to completely abolish it as well. Reasons for that, according to Rogers, are: “The Fed is printing huge amounts of money, which we’ll have to pay for sometime. The Fed is borrowing gigantic amounts of money on their balance sheet…the numbers are so staggering that this is going to have ramifications before too much longer.”

This practice of course has been the systemic problem of having a Federal Reserve in the first place, as it has been employing these practices since its inception, albeit on a smaller level than the extraordinary measures they’ve taken recently.

In an amazing statement most of us can only hope fervently for, Rogers says that he believes the Federal Reserve won’t need to be abolished by anyone, as it’s “going to abolish itself” sometime in the next several years. He particularly points out the horrendous performances of current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke as well as his predecessor Alan Greenspan, who in reality set up the circumstances which Bernanke responded to so poorly.

As Rogers states in the interview, he has found no credible reason for the Federal Reserve not to be fully audited, and suggests the idea of an independent Fed being interfered with by Congress concerning monetary policies, especially interest rates, is for the most part nonsense and irrelevant to the action if it does happen.

Again, there is probably much the Federal Reserve is hiding to resist the audit so much. If not, you would think they would embrace it gladly to allow its great decisions and monetary genius be seen by us all. That’s of course not the case, and is not going to happen unless it’s forced upon them by the government, which looks increasingly like it will be.

When pressed on whether the shutting down of the Federal Reserve would be devastating to the economy, Rogers stated: “Yes it would be complicated and painful for a while. But I’d rather find out they’re bankrupt today than to find out in five or 10 years — when they’ve had another 10 years of this madness where they’re printing even more money [and] taking out even more debts in our name.”

Rogers also reminds us that there have been several other central banks in the history of the United States, and when they were shut down we kept on going successfully without them. There’s no reason to suspect it would be any different without the Federal Reserve as well.