 By Chris Rossini Central bankers like to live in the shadows. When light is beamed in their direction, they run like it's a prison break. The mainstream media then steps in to deflect attention away from The Fed. With the latest market break, the target was China. Americans were instructed to look to the Chinese as the source of America's financial panic. Ron Paul, on the other hand, correctly pinned the blame on the real source: The Federal Reserve. But Americans aren't supposed to even think about The Federal Reserve. It's just supposed to be there, like oxygen. You don't sit and think about the oxygen that you breathe, and you're likewise not supposed to think about the puppet-master moneychangers at The Fed. However, much to central banker dismay, more and more people are thinking about The Fed. Individuals around the world are picking up a copy of End The Fed, and are experiencing quite the awakening by reading its contents. Meanwhile, the average American may still be in the dark as to what The Federal Reserve actually does, but more and more are getting a feeling that it's not good. Naturally, central bankers want none of this. They'd much prefer to lurk in the shadows. Former Fed Vice Chairman, Alan Blinder, says: “There shouldn’t be this intense interest in a quarter-point increase, and there shouldn’t be this intense interest in whether it comes in September or December. But the Fed remains the center of the financial universe. People stare at it like they stare at the North Star.” The Fed definitely wants to be the center of the universe, but it doesn't want everyone staring at it.
Right now, everyone is not. However, when the time comes that everyone does, The Fed may finally be forced to hang-up that "Sorry, We're Closed" sign.  By Ron Paul
Following Monday’s historic stock market downturn, many politicians and so-called economic experts rushed to the microphones to explain why the market crashed and to propose "solutions” to our economic woes. Not surprisingly, most of those commenting not only failed to give the right answers, they failed to ask the right questions. Many blamed the crash on China’s recent currency devaluation. It is true that the crash was caused by a flawed monetary policy. However, the fault lies not with China’s central bank but with the US Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies distort the economy, creating bubbles, which in turn create a booming stock market and the illusion of widespread prosperity. Inevitably, the bubble bursts, the market crashes, and the economy sinks into a recession. An increasing number of politicians have acknowledged the flaws in our monetary system. Unfortunately, some members of Congress think the solution is to force the Fed to follow a “rules-based” monetary policy. Forcing the Fed to “follow a rule” does not change the fact that giving a secretive central bank the power to set interest rates is a recipe for economic chaos. Interest rates are the price of money, and, like all prices, they should be set by the market, not by a central bank and certainly not by Congress. Instead of trying to “fix” the Federal Reserve, Congress should start restoring a free-market monetary system. The first step is to pass the Audit the Fed legislation so the people can finally learn the full truth about the Fed. Congress should also pass legislation ensuring individuals can use alternative currencies free of government harassment. When bubbles burst and recessions hit, Congress and the Federal Reserve should refrain from trying to “stimulate” the economy via increased spending, corporate bailouts, and inflation. The only way the economy will ever fully recover is if Congress and the Fed allow the recession to run its course. Of course, Congress and the Fed are unlikely to “just stand there” if the economy further deteriorates. There have already been reports that the Fed will use last week’s crash as an excuse to once again delay raising interest rates. Increased spending and money creation may temporally boost the economy, but eventually they will lead to a collapse in the dollar’s value and an economic crisis more severe than the Great Depression. Ironically, considering how popular China-bashing has become, China’s large purchase of US Treasury notes has helped the US postpone the day of reckoning. The main reason countries like China are eager to help finance our debt is the dollar’s world reserve currency status. However, there are signs that concerns over the US government’s fiscal irresponsibility and resentment of our foreign policy will cause another currency (or currencies) to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency. If this occurs, the US will face a major dollar crisis. Congress will not adopt sensible economic policies until the people demand it. Unfortunately, while an ever-increasing number of Americans are embracing Austrian economics, too many Americans still believe they must sacrifice their liberties in order to obtain economic and personal security. This is why many are embracing a charismatic crony capitalist who is peddling a snake oil composed of protectionism, nationalism, and authoritarianism. Eventually the United States will have to abandon the warfare state, the welfare state, and the fiat money system that fuels leviathan’s growth. Hopefully the change will happen because the ideas of liberty have triumphed, not because a major economic crisis leaves the government with no other choice.  By Ron Paul
The worst part of the chaos of US foreign policy is that it is a threat to us, to our financial well-being, and to our liberty. We’ve talked so often about the various groups that are fighting over in Syria and the Middle East. But the one thing that unifies all these groups is their anti-Americanism. There is a tremendous incentive for these people to resent our presence there. They’ll fight some other day over who will gain control, but right now they’re unified by anti-Americanism. Unfortunately, that is not good for us. Someday, we should wake up and realize that the Founders were right: the less that we’re involved, the less entangling alliances that we’re engaged in, the more we depend on free markets and freedom and willingness to trade with people, the better off we’ll be. We don’t need an Empire to thrive. As a matter of fact, Empires always fail. I think what we’re witnessing today is the opening bell to the failure of our Empire and the failure of the dollar. There's some pretty good evidence right now: China is selling Treasures. They actually told our government that they were selling because they don’t want to cause chaos. They want to keep selling at a gradual level. But that might become contagious. Other countries might decide to sell Treasuries as well. And no matter what The Fed does, interest rates will go up. That day will come. We don’t know when, but ought to be prepared, and we ought to think about how to rebuild and concentrate once again on free markets, property rights, sound money and individual liberty. That’s what we need. That’s what would solve our problems. Thank you, and be sure to tune into Monday's Liberty Report!  By RPLR Staff Paul Craig Roberts makes note of how America's interventionist foreign policy has contributed to Europe's refugee crisis: Look, for example, at the hordes of refugees from America’s invasions and bombings of seven countries who are currently overrunning Europe. The huge inflows of peoples from America’s massive slaughter of populations in seven countries, enabled by the Europeans themselves, is causing political consternation in Europe and the revival of far-right political parties. Today, for example, neo-nazis shouted down German Chancellor Merkel, who tried to make a speech asking for compassion for refugees. Read Roberts' full article here.
 By Ron Paul
Our responsibility, and certainly it was mine when I was in office, is dealing with US foreign policy, and trying to point out the inconsistencies. Unfortunately, in this day and age, we live with inconsistencies, we live with abuse of our laws, we go to war in an unconstitutional fashion, and then we punish the people who tell the truth. You get whistleblowers, but they end up in prison. What a tragedy. Truth really is treason in an empire of lies. The wars are started based on lies, they’re perpetuated based on lies, and journalists who tell the truth have to be punished. This is not brand new. Lincoln did it. Woodrow Wilson did it. But it’s worse now than ever because we’re in perpetual war. They told us the global war on terrorism is going to last for a long time. They’re conditioning us psychologically to give up our civil liberties. We’ve already seen this expressed in the presidential campaign. Chris Christie was arguing the case that we need the NSA to spy on us because it makes us safe and secure. That’s bad news for us. We have to, someday, get back to a restricted and limited government and make sure that the elected government goes to war only in dire circumstances and only when war is declared. But this idea that now we have a Bush Doctrine that says you don’t even need a declaration, that you have to have pre-emptive war, that you can go in and stop a war from coming, is very dangerous. Unfortunately, too many Americans are apathetic. If you want prosperity in this country, get rid of the wars. The wars drain us. The cost of the wars (that have been a total failure) in Iraq and Afghanistan has reached $5 trillion, and it keeps rising. And here we are looking for a war with Russia, with a major US General arguing the case that we should just start killing Russians. We need to wake up and decide that what we want is liberty, peace, and to just bring our troops home. The sooner the better.  By RPLR Staff Judge Andrew Napolitano asks a series of thought provoking questions about the former U.S. Secretary of State: What if, while she [Hillary] was secretary of state, she ran two secret wars, one in Libya and one in Syria? What if there already were wars in each of those countries, so she used those wars as covers for her own? Read Judge Napolitano's full analysis here.
 By Norm Singleton The Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute of Canada, and the Liberales Institute of Switzerland recently put out a ranking of the world's freest countries. Of course, the United States was number one, right? After all we are constantly told by our rulers (oops I mean elected officials) that we are the freest country in the word. In fact, we have so much freedom that the rest of the world hates us for it. Well no, according to the report, Hong Kong is the freest place in the world. So the US must be the world's second freest nation, right? No, that would be Switzerland. Third? Nope, that would be Finland. Fourth? Nope. Denmark is number four. Fifth? No, that would be New Zealand. OK, then the United States must have come in the top ten, right? No, not only did the US not come in the top ten, it ranked lower than the home of socialized medicine Canada, which came in at number 6. So where did the United States rank? 20th! The Daily Caller provides an explanation of why the US ranks so low on the list of freest countries: Co-author of the report Ian Vasquez told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the steady growth of government and increased regulations of business and labor contribute to the U.S. low rating. The above article was originally published at The Campaign For Liberty.
 By Ron Paul
Someday we’re going to have to learn it, and it might come with our bankruptcy, but our foreign policy is not designed for the American people. It is not designed for peace in the world. It’s not designed by common sense. It’s designed by internationalists, who depend on international finance and control and power. They depend on financing coming through the Federal Reserve system and through an arrogant president and Congress that just says, “spend the money and things will work out alright.” The basic flaw is that the American people have allowed the government to get involved with entangling alliances. You don't need troops in 150 countries. You don't need to be arming everybody in the world, and you don't have to change the Administration to "rebuild the world" and "rebuild our military". At the same time, our military is bigger than all the other militaries practically around the whole world. What we need is a dose of good, honest truth about what's going on. We should mind our own business. We should just come home, and stay out of entangling alliances. We should offer friendship to countries that want friendship and get our house in order. Maybe then the world would like to emulate us, rather than us fighting with them, and pretending that we can force ourselves on them. The opportunity is there for us. Hopefully, we Americans will stand up for the cause of Liberty and solve some of these problems. By RPLR Staff Ron Paul joins The Hard Line to analyze the recent roller coaster ride in the markets and look at the big picture that has caused the recent uncertainty. |
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