Ron Paul Abuses Ben Bernanke, Again Part 3

Pilfered from Liberty Maven:




In case you are wondering what that school of political thought is that Dr. Paul is referencing, i'll give you a hint: the first letter is "f" and it rhymes with mascism

The path our country is moving down is more along the lines of the Jonah Goldberg historical definition of fascism than the pejorative that the left usually hurls at people who they disagree with.

National Security and the Falling Dollar

UPDATE: Dr. Ron Paul responds to the WSJ:

"I was delighted to read in Judy Shelton's op-ed, "Security and the Falling Dollar" (Feb. 15), that at long last the security implications of the dollar's collapse have made their way into the mainstream media. The dollar's strength (or lack thereof) has been of paramount concern to me, and the subject of many of my statements over the past several years. Decades of manipulation by the Federal Reserve have benefited the government and certain politically-connected firms, while gradually destroying the purchasing power of middle-class Americans. Despite numerous warnings in the past, it is only now at a point of acute crisis that Washington insiders are beginning to awaken to the reality of the end of dollar hegemony.

"While I desire reform of our current monetary system, my own proposals have not been as all-encompassing as Ms. Shelton's suggestion to return to a Bretton Woods-style system. Her recommendation, though, that gold backing should make up a component of a future monetary system, is one that we would all do well to heed. My own legislative proposals focus around eliminating the taxes and laws that dissuade individuals and institutions from using gold as currency or as a backing for currency. By allowing market processes to determine the issuance of currency, we can allow individuals to decide for themselves what currency they wish to use. This would lead to a gradual reintroduction of sound money and avoid the market shocks that occur when monetary decisions are mandated by government fiat."

Since today ended up with the DOW down 300, the price of gold reaching another record high, and other indicators pointing to an economy sputtering into a recession (at one time we used to call it a depression) it's good to see that the MSM is finally catching on to the threat that a falling dollar represents to our national security.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Quote:

Every year, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is briefed by the chief of U.S. intelligence on potential threats to the nation. The list is sobering, but usually predictable and typically includes global terrorism, nuclear proliferation and regional conflicts. But this year, there was a surprising potential foe: the falling dollar. In his report to Congress last week, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell went beyond the conventional world of spycraft. Mr. McConnell specifically acknowledged "concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China, and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to achieve political ends." He noted, in particular, the impact a weak dollar can have on national security: "As the dollar has weakened this year, some oil producers -- such as Syria, Iran, and Libya -- have asked to be paid in currencies other than the dollar while others -- such as Kuwait -- are delinking their currency pegs to the dollar."

This is something that the douchebags in DC haven't been talking about even though the subprime mortgage crisis has been one of the biggest red flags for the past 9 months on the economic and financial health of our country.

Also, don't people see the link that our trillion dollar foreign policy and the 65 trillion dollar future liabilities in Medicare and social security has to our economic and fiscal problems? Our "War on Terror" and our empire around the world has bankrupted us in the short term, and the enormity of our welfare state ensures that the pain is going to last in the long term as well.

The funny thing is that the only options that McCain, Clinton, and Obama offer is more of the same. Obama, to his credit, at least says he wants to get out of Iraq sooner rather than later, but we should also be out of Korea and Europe and Japan as well. But Obama, like the other two, are big government guys.

I have the answer to what ails us: Secession! Who's with me?

Worst Financial Crisis Since 1931 part 2

William Grigg over at Pro Libertate provides a great perspective on who the real criminals are when it comes to the government versus the private sector:

Klaus Zumwinkel, former CEO of Deutsche Post -- the German postal service and parent of the DHL parcel delivery company -- lost his job last week. He may soon go to prison. His "crime" was to protect his legitimately earned wealth from the omnivorous socialist bureaucracy that afflicts Germany. He did so by opening a foundation in neighboring Lichtenstein, where his earnings were protected by the banking secrecy laws of that tiny (pop. circa 35,000) but heroic principality.

During his tenure as head of Deutsche Post, concedes the New York Times, Zumwinkel "helped transform [the postal service] ... from a stodgy state bureaucracy into a publicly listed logistics and freight-delivery powerhouse...."

Despite operating within a thoroughly socialized business environment, Zumwinkel -- through the tenacious application of his considerable gifts -- added a great deal more wealth to his society than what he earned. Yet he is now being traduced by the German State as an enemy of society for the supposed crime of tax evasion. Even if he avoids prison, he won't get his severance.

Stefan Ortseifen is another German executive who is stepping down from a lofty post in Germany's corporate world. As head of the IKB, a Dusseldorf-based German bank, Ortseifen has presided over a lengthy series of government-subsidized catastrophes. In contrast with the huge net contribution to German wealth made by Zumwinkel, Ortseifen's ineptitude and mismanagement have destroyed billions of dollars' worth of capital, and his failing bank has devoured billions more in direct government subsidies.

With the serene confidence conferred by the knowledge that the taxpayers would absorb any losses, IKB invested huge sums in the sub-prime mortgage market here in the United States. As he did so, Ortseifen consciously defrauded investors, depositors, and the German public by assuring them that "uncertainties in the American mortgage market" would have "practically no effect" on the health of IKB's investments.

And so it goes. The whole article is here

Interview with Bob Murphy: An explanation of the FED, Monetary Policy, and Inflation

A great interview by Scott Horton of Bob Murphy author of the book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism

Find out why we don't really have a "free market" money system. Also, an explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis. An overview of the Federal Reserve System (and how it steals the wealth of the poor and the middle class, yet doesn't affect the young, rich, and ridiculously handsome people like me). Plus why stagflation is a very real possibility for the future of our country (which should be placed squarely at the feet of W and a complicit Congress).

Pilfered from Lew Rockwell

This is Rich

From Yahoo:

"We have an obligation to prevent fraud and abusive lending," the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, said earlier this year. "At the same time, we must tread carefully so as not to suppress responsible lending or eliminate refinancing opportunities for subprime borrowers."

The chairman's comments indicate a greater hypocrisy because it is the Fed's continuous suppression of interest rates and liquidity injections that allowed the "subprime mortage" market to be created in the first place. Just in the past year, there have been 3 cuts in the federal funds rate, (the latest happening just this week) and with each cut, there is growing anxiety that the country is heading towards recession. If there were ever a case to made about fraud and abusive lending practices, examining our central bank would should be the first stop.

That we don't question, or just accept the necessity of a Fed shows how economically illiterate most of us are. There were 2 previous central banks The First Bank of the United States (1791-1811) and The Second Bank of the United States (1816-1836). After that, this country operated without one until 1913. In that time frame, from 1800 to 1913, consumer prices remained stable with no inflation. From Grandfathers Inflation Report:


Even up until before World War II a dollar was still worth around the same amount as it had been for the previous 140+ years.

Not that there weren't problems with the monetary system back then, there were. Liquidity and inelasticity in currency were the primary criticisms. If there wasn't enough money in the system for lending for example, growth could be stifled. After a series of financial panics around the turn of the century, calls for reform to the monetary system began to gain traction. But, like what happens most of the time, the government "solution" ends up being worse than the problem it is trying to solve.

Like every other government program, the results of any particular legislation or program is always inversely proportional to the grandiose goal or vision that the program is supposed to achieve. For example, the Patriot Act was supposed to give the government the tools necessary to fight terrorism abroad and domestically and make our country safer, that those tools are primarily being used to spy on the very citizens it is supposed to protect without warrants or due process is a good example.

That's the way it is with the Federal Reserve Bank. It's stated mission is to provide stability to the money system and to help foster economic growth. A glance at the above chart shows that instability in the currency is only accelerating (especially after all ties of the dollar to gold were completely severed back in the 70's) and we as a country have come to accept inflation as a part of life. Will there be a time in this country like in pre-WWII Germany where people would get paid in the morning and the rate of inflation was so great that people would lose half of the value of their money before the end of the day? It's very possible. Social Security and Medicaid are huge unfunded liabilities that only loom closer with each passing day.

It fills me with dread that no one, save Ron Paul, is even talking about this as a campaign issue. That our economic well-being is a national security issue greater than ANY terrorist threat (even a nuclear one) must be recognized. Just like a plane in flight, our economy is going to come back to earth one way or another.

Alan Greenspan on the Daily Show

For the longest time, I just didn't think that Jon Stewart was very funny. I still don't but what he has done is become court jester and he does get to ask questions that no one gets to ask. This is a really good but all too brief interview with ex-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan whose book "The Age of Turbulence" has just been released.