In an apt metaphor for Republican helplessness in the face of the Democratic Party coup that put Kamala on top of the ticket without a single vote, House Republicans finally released their report today finding that Biden committed impeachable offenses. And no one cares. Because Biden's been disappeared, replaced by a Kamala Harris bathed by the media to appear as newly-fallen snow. Will it work? Finally...Zelensky did Nordstream? That's what the WSJ claims.
By Ron Paul
Former President and current Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump recently renewed his criticisms of the Federal Reserve. He suggested that, if he returns to the White House next year, he will push Congress to pass legislation giving the president at least a say in the Fed’s decisions regarding interest rates. President Trump thinks that because he “made a lot of money” in business he has “a better instinct” as to what interest rates should be than do the members of the Federal Reserve Board. President Trump may have better instincts regarding how markets operate than Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Powell’s colleagues, but that does not make President Trump any more capable of knowing the “correct” interest rates than the Fed board. Interest rates are the price of money. Like all prices, the “correct” interest rate is set by the interaction of free people acting in a free market, not by a central planner. Interest rates, like all prices, send signals to market actors regarding market conditions. When bureaucrats or politicians manipulate the money supply in order to change the interest rates, they distort those signals. These distortions are the reason the American economy has been plagued by a boom-and-bust business cycle. Politicians favor an “easy money” policy because it creates an (illusionary) economic boom. The Fed-created boom helps the politicians remain in office. A reason politicians favor low interest rates is they facilitate government spending and debt, thus enabling politicians to aid powerful special interests via government spending. The desire to monetize the federal debt is one reason, if not the main reason, why the central bank keeps interest rates low. The policy of perpetually low interest rates favored by politicians will hasten the inevitable collapse of the fiat money system. Donald Trump is far from the first US president to try to “influence” monetary policy. Presidents of both parties have used varying degrees of pressure to get the Fed to adopt a monetary policy favorable to the presidents’ agendas. President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Fed Chairman William Martin to increase the money supply or resign. Martin eventually gave in and increased the money supply. President Richard Nixon and Fed Chairman Arthur Burns were recorded joking about the Fed’s independence. Lloyd Bentsen, President Bill Clinton’s first Treasury secretary, described a gentleman’s agreement with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan where the Fed would shape monetary policy to support Clinton’s economic program. An extreme example of a president trying to influence monetary policy is when Lyndon Johnson shoved the Fed chairman against a wall because the Fed raised interest rates, hindering Johnson’s ability to spend on the Vietnam War and the “Great Society.” Since Congress created the Fed in 1913, the US dollar has lost over 97 percent of its purchasing power. This proves Donald Trump is right about the need for drastic changes in monetary policy. However, he is wrong to think that he, or any politician, bureaucrat, or businessperson, is capable of knowing the “correct” interest rate. Instead of giving politicians greater ability to influence the Federal Reserve, the next president should work with Congress to pass legislation legalizing competing currencies, forbidding the Fed from purchasing federal debt, and auditing and ending the Federal Reserve.
Politicians very rarely blame their own policies for the suffering that they create. They usually double-and-triple-down on their bad policies. When that doesn’t work, they create an entirely new policy to combat the bad effects of the older one. Government “price controls” have a never-ending failure rate throughout economic history. They create shortages! But when politicians are faced with the choice of either blaming themselves, or creating shortages…they usually opt to create shortages.
As Kamala Harris rolls out her economic program of price controls, today, August 15th, serves as a reminder as to just why inflation and prices are REALLY out of hand! Also today...A military parade on OUR biggest base in Afghanistan with OUR equipment?
Are we to believe that the recent Ukrainian incursion into pre-1914 Russia completely caught NATO countries by surprise? That they happened to take advantage of weak points in Russian defenses without NATO intel support? NATO weapons - including German tanks - are killing Russians inside Russia. Red line? Also today, the "green" movement is killing beautiful beaches as the fake EV market collapses...
Jonathan Turley will be back at this year's Ron Paul Institute Conference in Dulles, VA on August 31st!
Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberty-platform-tickets-913244618237
By Ron Paul
As the UK descends into tyranny, where just re-Tweeting something the government doesn’t like can land a person a multi-year jail sentence, Americans are wondering, “can it happen here?” After all, we have the guarantees of the First Amendment. But while we shake our heads at UK authorities jailing people for their social media posts this past week, we should not kid ourselves. The answer is that silencing dissent can happen here and it is happening here. Here are just three recent examples of how the “deep state” or the permanent government is conspiring to restrict political dialogue in the United States. First is the revelation that former US Representative and former US presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has been placed under the bizarrely named “Quiet Skies” program. As reported by journalist Matt Taibbi based on revelations by TSA whistleblowers, this July Gabbard was flagged as a terror threat, and every time she travels her boarding pass is marked so that she is pulled aside for extensive screening. According to the whistleblowers, “Gabbard is unaware she has two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshals on every flight she boards.” As Gabbard herself revealed recently on the Laura Ingraham show, “A few weeks ago, I had the audacity to tell the truth: that Kamala Harris would essentially be a mouthpiece and puppet of the Military Industrial Complex and National Security State. The next day, July 23, they retaliated. Sadly this is what we can expect from the ‘Harris Administration.’” Next we have the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. It seems every day brings a new revelation that calls into question whether the massive failure to protect the Republican presidential candidate was just an “honest mistake.” We know from 1963 what can happen to presidents who cross the “deep state” and we know from Trump’s four years in office how “former” deep state officials can conspire to undermine the presidency with lies like “Russiagate.” Finally we have the case of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Up until the Trump assassination attempt, the Biden/Harris Administration refused to provide the independent presidential candidate with Secret Service protection. RFK, Jr. has consistently and effectively criticized not only the current administration but the “deep state” itself while out on the campaign trail. Even though there were credible threats against him on the campaign trail the Biden/Harris administration refused to budge for months. Why? Did they want to silence him? The US government learned an important – and dangerous – lesson from Covid: all you have to do to crush political dissent is to use the weight of the government to force the “private” sector to do the censoring for you. It is only a half-step away from forbidding us from expressing our thoughts on a virus to sending us to prison for expressing other thoughts the government does not like. And maybe worse. There will be a reaction in the UK to the brutality of the Starmer regime. We can only hope for their – and our – sake that the reaction will be a newfound determination by the people that no government should have the authority to shut them up or jail them for their political views. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, “free speech, if you can keep it.”
President Biden took a restful weekend sleeping on the beach while his Defense Secretary announced a massive mobilization of military assets in anticipation of a major Iran-Israel war. Who is in charge? Who is giving orders? Why is Congress out of the picture?
Former President Trump had a few scathing words for The Federal Reserve, suggesting that The President should at least have a say in setting interest rates. While it’s understandable that the president would desire such a thing, it’s absolutely not a solution to our corrupt and unconstitutional monetary system. It would certainly make our economic problems much worse, depending on who the president happens to be. The problem that we face is not a matter of who does the price fixing, but that anyone does it at all. No one should fix prices or counterfeit money! That’s the argument that former President Trump should be making against The Fed.
Democratic Party VP nominee Tim Walz is being sold to American voters as "'the coach" - an everyday guy who wears camo hats and flannel. Republicans are attacking him as embellishing his military record. Who is the real Tim Walz? Also today: re-Tweet in the UK...go to jail! Finally, Scott Ritter has powerful enemies...and they are coming at him.
Get your tickets to the RPI summer conference: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberty-platform-tickets-913244618237 |
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