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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Ron Paul speaks; is someone listening?
Noting Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul's Friday appearance on CNN, Salon writes that he:
"push[ed] the same apocalyptic message he served up during the Republican primaries, with one difference. His prediction of doom makes a heck of a lot more sense now than it did then."
Salon is a left-leaning webmagazine, not the sort of place which normally pumps up politicians who talk about free markets and limited Constitutional government. After affording Ron Paul the same sort of indifferent hearing one gives to the ramblings of an eccentric uncle throughout his bid for the Republican nomination for president, some among the media, recalling that Paul kept repeating something about an impending financial crisis, are giving him a second, much more attentive, audience.
The Politico's David Marks interviewed the libertarian Congressman on the financial crisis, the bailout, and what ought to be done:
Q: Did leaders, both in Congress and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, encourage excessive lending and borrowing by lowering financial standards for obtaining mortgages many people couldn’t afford?
A: Greenspan, presidents of both parties and members of Congress bear some of the blame. He was there pumping money like crazy when it wasn’t backed by anything. The ideology has been around a long time, and he was responsible for pushing it along. This contradicted his basic free-market beliefs. He himself has warned about stealing value. But he still orchestrated this effort. He became chairman in 1987, and we saw the stock market crash almost immediately. He was steering the economy through money policy during that time. But the system’s been around a long time, and he was working within the system.
I date the current bubble to 1971, when Bretton Woods ended. [Bretton Woods refers to the post-World War II system that allowed governments to sell their gold to the U.S. Treasury at $35 an ounce.] This credit crunch should be seen as a system built on a flawed monetary theory. You can’t sit there and create new money to everything that’s offered. If that’s the case, we’d all be rich.
Q: Should the federal government be taking any action?
A: There’s a lot the government could be doing to explain to people what’s happening. … You can do a lot of things instead of regulation. When Enron failed, we passed Sarbanes-Oxley, which was counterproductive.
We need less regulation, other than of the Federal Reserve. They shouldn’t be allowed to fix interest rates. We should encourage people, if anything, to save money rather than spend money.
Today, capital only comes from a printing press. Lower taxes, less regulation, change the rules of the Federal Reserve. We also need to change our foreign policy. What we’re facing today is an admission that we can’t afford to run a lavishly expensive empire. We need to bring all our troops home.
This idea that foreign policy is not connected directly to economic policy is total foolishness. This is what always bankrupts empires. It did it to the Soviets. Osama bin Laden knew it, and he sucked us in.
This is a wonderful time to come to our senses and have a restoration.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Ron Paul has been speaking about the instability of the U.S. Federal Reserve monetary system for decades and explained the factors which led to the creation of the overblown housing market in this speech to Congress in 2003.
The Austrian economists, among them Ron Paul, were right in predicting this mess, just as they predicted the Great Depression and the more recent dot-com bubble–might enough people have the sense to listen to their prescriptions for recovery this time?
Posted by Kalim Kassam on October 22, 2008 | Permalink
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The Politico's David Marks interviewed the libertarian Congressman on the financial crisis, the bailout, and what ought to be done:
Posted by Kalim Kassam on October 22, 2008
Funny ain't it that the "libertarian" Paul runs as a Republican and not as a Libertarian.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-10-22 6:26:44 PM
It's not at all surprising, The Stig. Jeff Flake runs as a Republican too. So did both Barry Goldwaters (Jr. and Sr.). They're all libertarians.
I don't see why you think this is at all instructive or even interesting.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-10-22 6:28:50 PM
Jeff Flake runs as a Republican too.
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 22-Oct-08 6:28:50 PM
Flake, great name for a libertarian.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-10-22 6:35:59 PM
McBama, great name for a fascist.
Posted by: stevo | 2008-10-22 7:19:58 PM
The Stig - Great name for a Nazi. :)
Posted by: JC | 2008-10-22 7:22:41 PM
The deeper you get into the rabbit hole the crazier it gets.
When you can create money out of thin air you can buy governments.
The complexity of corruption is vast.
To assume benevolence is foolish.
Wish more people would have debated Ron Paul rather than dismissed him.
Debate is the distillation of reality.
The Worst Is Yet To Come.
Posted by: PainfullyAware | 2008-10-22 7:27:41 PM
The Stig - Great name for a Nazi. :)
Posted by: JC | 22-Oct-08 7:22:41 PM
How's the Alberta Hospital Edmonton treating you?
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-10-22 7:38:04 PM
The profound and overwhelming rejection of llibertarian candidates by Canadians should be good enough reason to stop farting these stupid pro-libertarian articles that are stinking up this site.
Epsi
Posted by: epsilon | 2008-10-22 7:56:46 PM
Libertarians are the only moral group out of the whole political spectrum. And the more libertarian that a Republican or Democrat leans, the less authoritarian they are.
Sure, there are some crackpots in the libertarian tent. That's proof that the tent really is big. But there are just as many spot-on realists, and vastly more civilized people than the power-hungry Democrats and Republicans.
The two-party system maintains its stranglehold by pitting Americans against each other. The result? The powerful stay powerful, and the weak stay weak.
Like their Canadian siblings, Americans really hate freedom. They had their chance with Ron Paul, but instead chose the status quo of ever-increasing government power, ever-expanding foreign empires, and never ending erosion of personal liberty.
Hitler didn't cause WW2. The German voters who elected him did. American voters are just as reckless.
Posted by: Sturdi | 2008-10-23 7:12:01 AM
Hitler didn't cause WW2. The German voters who elected him did. American voters are just as reckless.
Posted by: Sturdi | 23-Oct-08 7:12:01 AM
Excellent point. And how did he win the election? fear for the economy, and promising change.
Posted by: Well thought | 2008-10-23 7:45:06 AM
Hitler didn't cause WW2. The German voters who elected him did. American voters are just as reckless.
Posted by: Sturdi | 23-Oct-08 7:12:01 AM
Excellent point. And how did he win the election? fear for the economy, and promising change.
No, he told them that they needed to fear terrorists and Jews and promised world domination racial and values based purity.
Posted by: aburdick | 2008-10-23 8:04:27 AM
Sturdi said: "Hitler didn't cause WW2. The German voters who elected him did. American voters are just as reckless."
Hitler was never elected to anything. He lost the Presidential election to Paul von Hindenburg, and not long afterward, was appointed Chancellor by von Hindenburg. Unelected power doomed the German people... much like the unelected Federal Reserve Chair and Fed Board or Governors.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Posted by: Eric | 2008-10-23 8:33:26 AM
I have been calling myself a Ron Paul Canadian for quite some time now. His message of stopping all American military foreign activity would be a major global social/economic stabilizer. It will also secure Canada from American expansionism. Plans for the possible annexation of Canada have been on the public record since 2002.
More disturbing, is the 2008 signed agreements between Canadian & US Generals for orderly movement & command of cross border troop activity. This document has not been made public, & has not been debated by Parliament or Congress.
Posted by: Terry Conspiracy | 2008-10-23 11:05:34 AM
Technically speaking, George W.Bush was not elected to office either. Proof once again, that one bad thing leads to another.
Posted by: Terry Conspiracy | 2008-10-23 11:11:50 AM
This document has not been made public, & has not been debated by Parliament or Congress.
Posted by: Terry Conspiracy | 23-Oct-08 11:05:34 AM
Maybe you can get it made public. While you're at it you might also get the Americans to release the documents they have of the captured ET's they have at Nevada Test and Training Range, details of Hitler's secret bunker in the Antarctic and how they faked the moon landings.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-10-23 11:28:40 AM
Stig,
I don't have any particular knowledge about the details of the plan, nor have I looked into whether the document is public, but it does exist outside the realm of conspiracy theory.
The US Northcom site mentions it: http://www.northcom.mil/News/2008/021408.html
As did the Canadian Press at the time:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=403d90d6-7a61-41ac-8cef-902a1d14879d
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-10-23 1:07:51 PM
Hitler was elected to the office like Tony Blair or Stephen Harper was elected to PM. The Nazi Party was the dominate party of 34%, therefore entitled to a favorable appointment.
Posted by: CTC | 2008-10-24 7:52:33 AM
Ron Paul Canadians are many. Most mistake their disdain for "the system" as a political opposition to who whoever is in power, and just opt to elect "the other guy." This usually results in them voting for socialists of whatever different brand is available. But sit them down in front of either of these two documentaries and they will immediately be libertarians.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
Posted by: Patrick Henry | 2008-10-26 1:27:44 AM
Actually we're all libertarians until we're about 5. It takes 12 years of state funded "education" to beat it out of us and turn us into compliant sheep.
On the bright side, most teen agers I talk to are aware of this and have morals that didn't come from Teachers.
Go Ron Paul...Go Moral Law.
Posted by: JC | 2008-10-26 8:54:44 AM
Kalim, he's just a troll. The only thing more fallacious then his hubris ladden ego, is his use of straw-man arguments and asinine assertions about non-issue semantics. Let the Neo-Con gnash his teeth...
Posted by: DJ | 2008-10-27 2:42:25 PM
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