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In what increasingly looks like the politicization of justice, last week saw the International Criminal Court (not recognized by the US) indict Russian president Vladimir Putin for allegedly sending children out of the Ukraine war zone and this week former President Donald Trump says he may be arrested and charged with a "crime" that looks very shaky. Also today: US says "no ceasefire" for Ukraine. And finally...about that drone.
By Ron Paul
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 was the second largest bank failure in US history. Just two days following SVB’s collapse, Signature Bank joined the record books as the third largest bank failure in US history. First Republic Bank also seemed on the edge of collapse until Bank of America, Citigroup, and other big banks agreed to jointly fund a bailout for it. Major Swiss bank Credit Suisse was also teetering on the brink when it received a 54 billion dollars line of credit from the Swiss UBS Group last week. Now, UBS is in the process of buying Credit Suisse. Politicians, regulators, and financial “experts” all rushed to assure us these problems were all caused by factors unique to the individual banks and were not a sign of a systemic weakness in the banking system. The bank failures and near failures caused nervous banks to borrow a combined 164.8 billion dollars in one week from the Federal Reserve’s discount window and the Bank Term Funding Program, a new program created by the Fed to make loans to troubled banks. The Fed created this program even though supposedly there is no systemic problem in the banking industry. While SVB didn’t receive a bailout, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed the full amount of all deposits even though Congress set a standard FDIC guarantee on deposits of up to 250,000 dollars. By covering all SVB deposits, the FDIC has created an expectation among depositors at major financial institutions (as well as the institutions themselves) that the government will cover 100 percent of deposits. This will cause both depositors and banks to make investment decisions they typically would not make, thus guaranteeing larger bank failures followed by more bailouts for wealthy depositors. Some have blamed the current bank failures, along with other signs that the economy is on the verge of a major downturn, on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases. It is true the Fed bears responsibility. However, the rate increases are not the problem. The problem is the “easy money” and low or zero interest rate policies the Fed pushed since the 2008 market meltdown, which was caused by the bursting of the Fed-created housing bubble. Federal Reserve manipulation of the money supply distorts interest rates, which are the price of money. This distorts the signals sent to market actors regarding the true value of investing in particular industries. The result is malinvestments in those industries creating a bubble. The bubble will inevitably burst. The economic downturn that follows the bursting of a bubble is necessary to cleanse the economy of the malinvestments. The correction will not last long and the economy will emerge stronger if Congress, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve refrain from “stimulating” the economy with federal spending and artificially low interest rates. Government interference, however, can create yet another bubble, setting the stage for another crash. The new wave of bank failures is an indication that the US economy is either in or on the verge of another serious Fed-caused recession. With nations seeking to end the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, the end of America’s disastrous experiment with fiat money, and with it the welfare-warfare state, could be on the horizon. The collapse can be accompanied by civil unrest and greater restrictions on liberty. However, the spreading authoritarianism can also spur a growth in the movement for individual liberty, a free market, and limited government that could make the dark night of authoritarianism a prelude to a new dawn of liberty.
Americans are "taught" that government regulations (beyond the punishment of force or fraud) are necessary. Yet, the more government "rules" there are (and there are more than can even be enforced) the more the citizens find out that the regulations are largely an illusion. Whether it's "vaccines" or banking, or any other major debacle; it's time to put an end to the tool that Big Corporations use to create extraordinary advantages for themselves. It's time that Big Corporations have no choice but to compete in a free market. Unlike politicians and bureaucrats, the free market can't be bribed, bought or lobbied. Big Corporations hate the free market, and they're very pleased that the average American is "taught" to hate it too.
Welcome to another edition of #AskRonPaul, where Dr. Paul tackles questions from...you! Today Dr. Paul discusses what event in history he would change, what to expect with bank collapses, and the easiest way to end the Ukraine war.
Florida Governor and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis shocked the GOP establishment with a statement rebuking further involvement in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Suddenly a neocon paper like the Washington Post are panicking about a new "isolationist" GOP. Also today, what about that US drone brought down near Russia? Finally: another Covid-related scandal.
President Biden's attempt to reassure Americans that the US banking sector is doing just fine had the opposite effect: banking stocks plunged after he spoke. Will his bailout-that-isn't-a-bailout shore up the economy or are we heading for 2008 on steroids? Also today, another antiwar rally to hit DC this weekend. Finally: House Republicans take aim at domestic spying of Homeland Security Department.
With successful brokering by China, Saudi Arabia and Iran have set aside years of enmity and proxy war to restore relations. Suddenly the United States seems irrelevant in the Middle East. Also today: Cracks developing in US/Ukraine alliance. Finally: Medical schools go "woke" - what it means for your health.
By Ron Paul
I often joke that I survived Washington because I had low expectations, but last week’s hearing of the House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee would have tested the lowest of my low expectations. The purpose of the subcommittee is to look into the politicization of US government agencies and its effect on our civil liberties. But last week’s inaugural hearing of the committee was not at all a good look for the Democrats, who brought nothing but insults for the witnesses. Things got off on the wrong foot very quickly, as Democrat committee Members seemed less interested in what witnesses Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger had to say than in attacking the messengers. Ranking Committee Member Stacey E. Plaskett, a Democrat from the Virgin Islands, began by calling Taibbi a “so-called journalist” who poses a “direct threat” to people who disagree with the work he has done on the “Twitter Files.” Taibbi, who to the likely dismay of the Democrats on the subcommittee is hardly a right-wing Republican, corrected Plaskett’s smear, pointing out to her that, "I'm not a so-called journalist. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I've written 10 books including four New York Times bestsellers." In addition, Taibbi pointed out that most of his journalism career was spent at Rolling Stone Magazine, which is hardly a conservative political outlet. The Democrat decision to make this hearing a partisan political issue and attack the journalists who brought us the truth about secret US government censorship-by-proxy of Americans who hold views unacceptable to government elites is extremely unfortunate. The Democrat decision to attack honest liberals like Taibbi for bringing us the truth is baffling. Taibbi and Shellenberger and the other journalists involved in exposing government malfeasance in the Twitter Files have done a great service to all Americans concerned about the collusion between government and corporations to silence speech that the government does not like. Matt Taibbi posted his statement to the subcommittee as another episode in the “Twitter Files” series and it may have been the most disturbing release to date. In this release Taibbi documented what he calls the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” This is the collusion not only between government and big tech to censor “wrong” views, but also those parts of the so-called “non-governmental” sector that are directly funded by government. This “NGO” sector, it turns out, has been a key tool in the US government’s efforts to censor Americans who fail to toe the US government line on everything from Covid to Ukraine. The “non-government” organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, the Alliance for Securing Democracy and dozens more pose as simply good citizens concerned about disinformation while in fact they are mostly or completely funded by the US government to do the US government’s bidding. Taibbi calls this the “absolute fusion of state, corporate, and civil society organizations,” but there is another word for it: fascism. And that is where we are headed in the United States unless all of us – conservatives, libertarians, liberals, and progressives - wake up and fight for the restoration of the First Amendment.
Government likes to spend money that it doesn't have. The Fed accommodates government by creating new dollars out-of-thin-air, which is as unconstitutional as it gets. When government spends this counterfeited money, it creates massive economic distortions. Unviable businesses are started. Houses and buildings are built that shouldn't be built. Risky debts are piled up. The temporary cure to this government spending & Fed counterfeiting disease is recession. The permanent cure is to End The Fed.
On Tuesday the New York Times published an incendiary story - based on anonymous Biden Administration officials - that the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines was carried out not by the US military, as Seymore Hersh has discovered, but rather by Ukrainian forces not associated with President Zelensky. Why put out such a transparently bogus counter-narrative? Many reasons. Also today: more revelations about Fauci's malfeasance come out in House Covid hearings. Finally - what does yesterday's Syria vote mean?
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