By Ron Paul
In a sign that the Federal Reserve is growing increasingly desperate to jump-start the economy, the Fed’s Secondary Market Credit Facility has begun purchasing individual corporate bonds. The Secondary Market Credit Facility was created by Congress as part of a coronavirus stimulus bill to purchase as much as 750 billion dollars of corporate credit. Until last week, the Secondary Market Credit Facility had limited its purchases to exchange-traded funds, which are bundled groups of stocks or bonds. The bond purchasing initiative, like all Fed initiatives, will fail to produce long-term prosperity. These purchases distort the economy by increasing the money supply and thus lowering interest rates, which are the price of money. In this case, the Fed’s purchase of individual corporate bonds enables select corporations to pursue projects for which they could not otherwise have obtained funding. This distorts signals sent by the market, making these companies seem like better investments than they actually are and thus allowing these companies to attract more private investment. This will cause these companies to experience a Fed-created bubble. Like all Fed-created bubbles, the corporate bond bubble will eventually burst, causing businesses to collapse, investors to lose their money (unless they receive a government bailout), and workers to lose their jobs. Under the law creating the lending facilities, the Fed does not have to reveal the purchases made by the new facilities. Instead of allowing the Fed to hide this information, Congress should immediately pass the Audit the Fed bill so people can know whether a company is flush with cash because private investors determined it is a sound investment or because the Fed chose to “invest” in its bonds. The Fed could, and likely will, use this bond buying program to advance political goals. The Fed could fulfill Chairman Jerome Powell’s stated desire to do something about climate change by supporting “green energy” companies. The Fed could also use its power to reward businesses that, for example, support politically correct causes, refuse to sell guns, require their employees and customers to wear masks, or promote unquestioning obedience to the warfare state. Another of the new lending facilities is charged with purchasing the bonds of cash-strapped state and local governments. This could allow the Fed to influence the policies of these governments. It is not wise to reward spendthrift politicians with a federal bailout — whether through Congress or through the Fed. With lending facilities providing to the Federal Reserve the ability to give money directly to businesses and governments, the Fed is now just one step away from implementing Ben Bernanke’s infamous suggestion that, if all else fails, the Fed can drop money from a helicopter. These interventions will not save the economy. Instead, they will make the inevitable crash more painful. The next crash can bring about the end of the fiat monetary system. The question is not if the current monetary system ends, but when. The only way Congress can avoid the Fed causing another great depression is to begin transitioning to a free-market monetary system by auditing, then ending, the Fed.
The doom and gloom "scientists" are back on television warning of a massive new spike in coronavirus cases...while admitting also to a massive "spike" in testing and a massive decrease in deaths across the country. Are they conditioning Americans to accept another lockdown and shutdown of the economy? How to explain the hysteria over rising "cases" while also admitting to falling deaths. Plus today: "contact tracing" looks to be a massive boondoggle in New York. Can Texas expect the same dismal failure of its third of a billion dollar "contact tracing" program?
The U.S. federal government and its monopolist financier, The Federal Reserve, have created an economic fantasy world. They are now both feverishly trying to keep it going. If there's only one lesson of history that a person should understand, it's that central planning and central bank counterfeiting always fails. There has never been an exception, and the United States' failed attempt will join the others in the dustbin of history.
President Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton's "tell all" book is to be released today over strong objections - and threats of prosecution - from the president. The picture Bolton paints of Trump in leaked excerpts is unflattering in the extreme - to the point of appearing almost petty. Was Bolton Trump's biggest mistake? Also in today's Liberty Report, why the CIA missed the Vault7 hack and...villain of the week! Be sure to subscribe to this channel for all the news you need to cut through mainstream media lies!
 By Chris Rossini The U.S. federal government is the biggest government to ever exist. That's not an accomplishment that any American should brag about. It's rather the sign of utter failure. "Land of the free" and "biggest government to ever exist" are mutually exclusive. It's either one or the other. America was once the "land of the free," but has descended to the "land of the biggest government." One can delineate the time-period when the wind was sown to create the whirlwind of authoritarianism that we have today. The year 1913 was key. That was the year when the income tax was created, making the earnings of Americans the property of the government first. That was big blow against freedom. Politicians would now decide how much Americans could keep of their hard-earned money. That very same year, the U.S. Congress created a banking monopoly; a central bank with a deceptive name -- The Federal Reserve. This central bank was given total control over the American money supply. One does not have to think hard to figure out why bankers would want a government-protected cartel, and why they would want the power to counterfeit dollars. After all, no one should ever be allowed to counterfeit currency. It should be strictly illegal across the board. Counterfeiting destroys the currency's purchasing power. A McDonald's cheeseburger used to cost 19 cents at one time. You can thank the Fed for destroying the value of the dollar. Counterfeiting also creates the boom & bust cycle in the economy, creating a perpetual roller-coaster consisting of massive bubbles that must be followed by excruciating economic busts. Counterfeiting keeps not only troubled banks in business, but also politically-connected companies from all across the spectrum as well. It creates a "zombie" economy. Tremendous resources are wasted keeping companies around that should have gone out of business. Counterfeiting destroys Capitalism.  But why did the U.S. Congress create this monopoly in 1913? Was it out of kindness? Did Congress decide to willy-nilly create a monopoly and spin a wheel to see which lucky industry would get it? Did the wheel land on "banking?" Of course not. Then why? Well, politicians love money, we all know that. And they need money to finance their so-called "public services." In a sane system, it's not easy for politicians to get their hands on the citizens' money. Raising taxes is always unpopular. Citizens do not want to hand over their money and politicians know that. But what if politicians could rob the citizens without the citizens knowing it? Wouldn't that be a dream come true? It would be a sort of political utopia. Well, The Fed does exactly that! If the Fed can counterfeit money, doesn't that necessarily mean they can counterfeit money to buy government bonds? Doesn't that mean that if government wants to go into debt to finance its "public services," it always has a buyer? Related --- the U.S. government is $26,000,000,000,000 in debt and is going further into debt at breakneck speed! Sure, other countries have central banks that counterfeit too, and those countries buy U.S. government debt as well. But with The Fed "printing press" always there, American politicians are virtually guaranteed to have a buyer of debt. Take a look at the latest craziness. The U.S. government has gone trillions into debt in just a few months, and The Fed was there to virtually buy it all by counterfeiting dollars.  But where does the hidden tax come in? Where is it taken out of the taxpayers pockets without physically sending them the bill? Well, if a McDonald's cheeseburger used to cost 19 cents, and today it costs $6, that's how the citizens pay! Americans go to work everyday for a wage, but when The Fed counterfeits money, it eats away at that wage. It grinds away at the value of that wage. Search for a chart of the U.S. budget. It is currently approaching $5,000,000,000,000 in spending per year! When you look at the chart, you'll see that it goes in one direction --- up. It doesn't matter which party is in charge or who the president happens to be. It doesn't matter what rhetoric politicians use to get into office, the budget goes --- up. The welfare? --- up. The militarism budget --- up. Budget deficits (you didn't think they'd only spend what they take in did you?) --- up. Endless wars...endless welfare...endless debt...And you end up with the biggest government in the history of the world. Now, in reality, none of this is endless. It must end. The great counterfeiter, the Federal Reserve, has made this all possible. The Fed is the beating heart of big government. Many Americans still believe in the idea of the "land of the free." Many realize that government is out of control. Many want their freedom and a limited government to protect that freedom. But it is impossible to have a limited government and a monopoly central bank like the Federal Reserve at the same time. The Fed is the antithesis of limited government. Limited government is possible when there is a sound monetary system. Counterfeiting should not only be illegal for everyone, but also virtually impossible to achieve. That is why gold and silver have been money for many thousands of years. That is why the U.S. Constitution specifies gold and silver as money. The Constitution wasn't amended to change that. It has just been completely ignored. Gold and silver will outlast The Fed. Sound money always outlasts central planners. Sound money, when it is once again greatly desired, will retake its place as the heart of a peaceful and prosperous civilization. 
Pundits are having a field day making fun of President Trump's recent comment that less coronavirus testing would probably result in less Covid in the country. They accuse him of doltish behavior and head-in-the-sand thinking. Do they have a point? What are the merits of Trump's assertions? Also in today's program, will the "solution" to bias in social media be worse than the problem itself?
Big pharma is thrilled today after the FDA has rescinded permission for the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19. This after two "prestigious" medical journals have recently been forced to withdraw publication of articles critical of the use of hydroxychloroquine. The trials cited by the FDA did not include the critical component zinc according to critics, and was thus doomed to fail. That leaves enormously expensive new drugs in trial and the elusive vaccine as the "only way" to end the coronahysteria. Meanwhile states are pushing the idea of a "second wave" and are eyeing another shutdown.
By Ron Paul
Just a week or so ago the mainstream media and thousands representing the “medical community” told us we must throw out the “stay-at-home” orders and go to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. The Covid-19 virus will not bother people who are protesting this injustice, they said. The virus only attacks people leaving their homes to protest the stay-at-home orders. Now, after thousands of businesses – many of them black-owned – have been reduced to rubble and innocent people in the inner cities no longer have anywhere to shop for the basic necessities of life, the mainstream media has backed off of its non-stop coverage of the protests. Suddenly last week they all simultaneously embraced a new fear story to terrify the masses: a “second wave” of coronavirus was among us. It was targeting those states that dared to “open up” their economies and begin a return to relatively normal lives. Texas, Florida, and California were singled out to scare the rest of the country into thinking that if you dare leave your homes you will catch coronavirus and die. There was a “spike” in coronavirus “cases” they claimed. Funny, just a month or so ago they were demanding that we massively increase testing, which would produce just that “spike” in coronavirus cases they are now using to scare authorities into reinstating the incredibly destructive stay-at-home orders. In the county here in Texas that includes Houston, the young judge who somehow seized the power to shut down the third largest city in the United States warns us that she may again shut down Harris County to fight this “second wave” of cases. She even threatened to again pour millions of dollars into a “field hospital” at a Houston football stadium that did not see a single patient in the “first wave” of coronavirus. It’s hard not to wonder which politically-connected companies are reaping millions in contracts for an obviously un-needed hospital. Thousands of hospital beds in Houston are vacant, while cancer patients have been refused their screenings and desperately needed treatments. As former Congressman David Stockman points out, the actual coronavirus numbers do not in any way support the media assertion that a “second wave” of infection is cresting over Texas. Stockman informs us that in Texas the “reported infected case rate of 256 per 100,000 is just 10 percent of the real ‘hot spot’ rate of 2,477 per 100,000 in the five boroughs of New York City; and its mortality rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population is just 3 percent of New York City’s 196 per 100,000 rate.” There are no “hot spots” in Texas. It’s just more media hype. It’s funny that they don’t dare mention Georgia, which has also opened its economy and has seen no “spike” at all. The same people who were demanding more testing are now screaming that we must shut the economy down again because these tests – which are notoriously unreliable – are showing more coronavirus cases. This is a disease that 99.9 percent of the people who are infected with survive! But 40 million people out of work and the thousands of lives that will end due to the shutdown are never mentioned. There is something else going on here and it is in no way related to public health.
While tens of millions of Americans have seen their jobs disappear due to the "stay-at-home" coronavirus shutdown, the military contractor industry is moving to grab tens of billions to reimburse workers put on leave during the crisis. The actual private sector may never recover, but the military-industrial complex is eager to get back to the "old normal" of massive spending on an unsustainable US global military empire.
A failed financial system of central planning by The Federal Reserve is being clung to in America. It was wrong to ignore and replace the sound monetary system created by America's Founders and codified in the U.S. Constitution. The longer that we cling to the unconstitutional Federal Reserve, the greater the financial and economic pain we must suffer as a result.
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