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Description
In the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve. Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country's economy could... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Memorable Quotes
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“p. 1 What is the Fed and what does it do? To answer these questions, you can read books, study pamphlets issued by the Fed, or attend economics lectures at your local college...You will be told how the Fed serves to stabilize the business cycle, control inflation, maintain a solvent banking system, regulate the financial system, and more. Certainly, the Fed's spokesmen claim that they do all this and do it well. I disagree on each point. After all is said and done, the Fed has one power that is unique to it alone: it enables the creation of money out of thin air....Given that money is one half of every commercial transaction and that whole civilizations literally rise and fall based on the quality of their money, we are talking about an awesome power...It is the power to weave illusions that appear real as long as they last. As President Barak Obama said of the economic boom that went bust: "I think it's important to understand that some of that wealth was illusory in the first place.”
Ron Paul -
“p. 5 ...money, its quality and future, is surely the issue of our times.”
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“p. 6 Indeed, opposition to a money monopoly has roots all the way back to the fourteenth century in the work of the earliest economists who thought about the dangers of inflation....Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek, ...wrote of central banking: "I doubt whether it has ever done any good except to the rulers and their favorites," and he concluded that "money is certainly too dnagerous an instrument to leave to the fortuitous expediency of politicians."”
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“p. 7 If you solve the money monopoly problem by ending the Fed, you solve many other problems, too. Essentially you take away from the government the capacity to use financial trickery to expand without limit. It is the first step to restoring constitutional government. Without the Fed, the federal government would have to live within its means. It would still be too big and too intrusive, just like all state governments are today, but the outrageous empire at home and abroad would have to come to an end.”
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“p. 8 Ending the Fed is the one sure way to restore sanity to economic and political life in this country. It doesn't mean that our political disagreements and fights in Congress will go away. Ending the Fed is not a magic pill to usher in Utopia. But it does mean that our disagreements and discussions will occur within the context of reality, not in the illusory world created by the unlimited printing of money.”
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“p. 11 The Federal Reserve System must be challenged. Ultimately, it needs to be eliminated. The government cannot and should not be trusted with a monopoly on money. No single institution in society should have power this immense. In fact, I believe that freedom itself is at stake in this struggle.”
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“p. 23 The essence of the Federal Reserve Act was largely unchanged from when it was first hatched years earlier. With a vote by Congress, the Government would confer legal legitimacy on a cartel of the largest bankers and permit them to inflate the money supply at will, providing for themselves and the financial system liquidity in times of need, while insulating themselves against the consequences of bad loans and over extension of credit....It was a form of financial socialism that benefited the rich and the powerful.”
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“p. 117 Of course, not every supporter of the Fed is somehow a participant in a conspiracy to control the world. Everyone who wants to control the world, however, whether for the benefits of gaining wealth or power, must have control of the monetary system. It's been that way throughout history. The greater the degree of freedom the people enjoy, the sounder has been the money. Tyranny always goes hand in hand with government's wrecking of the money system. The problem is not only a lust for power; ironically, benevolence and humanitarianism drive many to seek power over others. They believe for humanitarian reasons that the strong and wise have an obligation to subject the weak and ignorant to the whims of government control. As they gain more influence and power, they become more convinced that they are saviors of mankind, and if any resistance or obstacles appear that limit their power, they believe that brute force must be used to impose their "goodwill" on the stubborn few.”
First Sentence
Everybody thinks about money and almost everybody want more. We use money without thinking much about its nature and function. Few of us ask where it comes from, who controls it, why it has value, or why it loses value from time to time.
Table of Contents
1. Why You Should Care
2. The Origin and Nature of the Fed
3. My Intellectual Influences
4. Central Banks and War
5. The Gold Commission
6. Conversations with Greensapn
7. Conversations with Bernanke
8. Congress's Interest in Monetary Policy
9. The Current Mess
10. Why End the Fed?
11. The Philosophical Case
12. The Constitutional Case
13. The Economic Case
14. The Libertarian Case
15. The Way Out
Suggested Reading
Authors & Contributors
- Ron Paul (Author)
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