-- Posted Tuesday, 14 February 2012 | | Disqus
Listen to the audio here: http://radio.goldseek.com/ronpaul/
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Chris Waltzek: Okay. So, glad you’re back with us at GoldSeek.com Radio for another Gold Nugget segment. Today’s special guest, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul.
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Dr. Ron Paul wants to take back power from the government and return it to its rightful owners, we the people. He joins me to discuss the domestic economy and the precious metals markets. Welcome back, Dr. Paul.
Dr. Ron Paul: Thank you, good to be with you.
Chris Waltzek: Let’s begin with your successful efforts to force an audit of the Fed’s monetary policy. It passed the house in 2010 as part of an overhaul of the financial regulations and the bill convinced Congress to audit the Fed’s credit crisis programs for conflicts of interest, plus the Fed must now identify which banks received funds. Please tell us more, sir.
Dr. Ron Paul: Well, of course, that was a bit of success. It was – we were able to bring it to the attention of the American people and to the Congress, the importance of knowing what the Fed was doing. They were churning, you know, trillions and trillions of dollars worth of credit for the benefit of their friends. Even though we got that passed in the house, I think most people know that it was taken out in the conference. The Senate didn’t want it and the President didn’t want it, wouldn’t sign the bill with it. But, nevertheless, it served a great purpose because people, all of a sudden, across the country started to realize that the Federal Reserve was very much involved in the business cycle and the collapse and the bailing out of the special interests.
And some other good things came of that. There were a few lawsuits filed and we were able to get material. I think we’ve gotten that under some pressure. They’re holding press conferences and doing these other things that at least they’re paying attention, but we still have a long way to go. We should, and in the campaigning for the Presidency, I talk a lot about a thorough audit and believe that if the American people knew exactly what they were doing, they’d probably be joining us to say, “Well, why do we even need them if that’s what they’re doing?” So, it’s an important issue and I feel good there’s so much discussion for the first time. It’s – the Fed’s 100 years old and it’s about time we paid a lot of attention to it.
Chris Waltzek: Voters are waking up to the fact that The Creature from Jekyll Island, i.e., the Fed, is the mechanism that is essentially run for the benefit of the behemoth commercial banks, including some foreign central banks as well. And this creature, as you mentioned, was born in 1913. It’s approaching its 100th birthday. Will its epitaph read, “Deceased in 2013”, Dr. Paul?
Dr. Ron Paul: No, it’s gonna be around for a while. I think they always seem to be able to patch things together longer than we ever believed. But, the one thing is, is you can’t promise that because the end stages of a currency can come rather quickly. You can slip and slide, as we have been. If you look at the value of the dollar from 1913, it’s dropped dramatically. But, even since ’71, it’s dropped about 85%, but it’s been steady and gradual; but when the panic comes, when people lose confidence, then everything breaks down and that’s so serious.
Right now, there’s a lot of people, it’s in their interest to keep the dollar going and the dollar, as long as they can keep trust in the dollar, they can keep bailing out the world. I mean, Bernanke’s prepared to bail out the banks of Europe and the Euro and the debt that’s involved with all the nations over there. But, the market is more powerful, but I still think that they’re gonna be able to fool the market and convey a bit of confidence because if they don’t, it’s such a disaster. This – I believe we face something different than the world has ever faced before because it’s so global and it’s so dollar oriented and all the currencies are fiat. There’s no restraint whatsoever and all they’re dealing with is finding out who should be stuck with the debt and they’re just shifting the debt. And that’s what this whole crisis was about in ’08 and ’09 and – within the United States, is who would hold the debt, and it looks like the taxpayer’s holding the debt; and the people who were making money when the bubbles were being formed, they’re the ones who got the bailouts, which is tragic, but the American people are waking up to what’s been going on.
Chris Waltzek: The Creature’s right hand man, Chairman Bernanke, opposed your bill, citing the need for the Fed’s ability to set lending rates. In other words, their worried, Dr. Paul, about losing their power to control the overnight lending rate. Please tell listeners why.
Dr. Ron Paul: Well, they despise freedom. They despise the marketplace. It’s because they want the control. They want to benefit from the inflation as the money is being passed out because they get to the money first, the people get it last, and they get the problem of rising prices. But, they also put themselves in a position to benefit from the lender of last resort. You know, the bank, the central bank, comes in and props up the banks. I think, philosophically, they really don’t believe that you can, you know, run the world on a commodity standard. Others do it just for power. Others do it because it’s a way of financing big government. You can finance – generally wars are always financed through inflation and the welfare state is financed through the inflation of the money supply. It is a vehicle. So, it’s a mixture of some people who do it to make money. Some people do it to get power. Some people do it because, philosophically, you know, they have been taught for so many years that gold is – it doesn’t make any sense. But, to us, who understand commodity money, paper doesn’t make any sense.
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That’s what’s going on. But, right now, we’re not in charge, but the marketplace is really in charge and what I fear is that – I worry about whether or not we’ll be in place to pick up the pieces and help design the new currency. Right now, the internationalists know that this is not going to work. They’re already talking about a new currency, but they want to put it under the IMF and The World Bank and, you know, The United Nations and let them be in charge rather than having the market be in charge under the sovereignty of a particular nation. So, there’s a big difference between the two as far as the solutions go.
Chris Waltzek: Well, speaking of waking up to the importance of gold, even one of your running mates, former U. S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich publically endorsed your legislation, saying that you are absolutely correct. Mr. Gingrich called for a gold commission. Well, he’s a few decades late compared to your efforts, but are his sentiments sincere here, sir?
Dr. Ron Paul: We don’t know what’s in their heart and mind and maybe he did have a change of heart. I certainly didn’t get much help when he could have helped me. But, regardless of what is in his – what motivates him, I do know that politics are always very important. I mean, even if he supported my position on that, if he thought it would be detrimental to say this, he wouldn’t do it, you know, even if he believed it. The fact that he is now saying it, he’s making the assumption that there are enough people in this country who are interested in sound money. So, I would say that is a reflection of the people who believe in free markets and sound money are making a lot of progress.
Chris Waltzek: You know, last week’s FOMC meeting, the Fed Chairman promised to hold rates at ZIRP, near zero, for about two years? Several Fed Governors voted for three more years.
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This is unprecedented. You know, economists claim the policy’s working. The official unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent last week. Is the Fed simply injecting this doomed economy with a dose of adrenaline or are conditions really perking up?
Dr. Ron Paul: You know, I think when he made that announcement, I think it was very negative for the dollar and very positive for gold. So, that’s hardly going to be the solution. But, you know, a lot of – and then, he, probably in the same speech, because he’s always talking about, “Well, there’s no inflation to worry about.” He thinks his – I know the prices are going up more than two percent a year. But, even if the price inflation was two percent a year, somebody’s still stealing two percent of your money.
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You know, that’s still wrong. But, I think, you know, it’s much worse. But, what they don’t want to admit from an Austrian viewpoint is there’s a horrendous amount of inflation, if you just measured it by the increase in the money supply. And it’s going up. They double and tripled it, you know, depending on which measurement you look at, in the last three years since the crisis hit. So, that’s the inflation. That’s the distortion. One symptom, one result of inflation will be rising prices and they will be uneven and wages don’t keep up with it. It’s the distraction that is created by messing around with the interest rates and the savings because it discourages savings and you allocate credit through the Federal Reserve rather than savings and the market allocating credit. So, there are so many other things. Rising price is one thing, but malinvestment is another thing. Excessive debt is another thing. And how the credit is allocated, that is done politically rather than through the marketplace. So, the inflation is the problem and that inflation, to me, is strictly defined as somebody artificially increasing money and credit out of thin air.
Chris Waltzek: Thanks, due in large part, to your efforts to audit the gold in the Federal Reserve System, the public awareness on this topic is increasing. Do you think that rumors are true, the Fed has transferred ownership of much our national gold through leasing arrangements and swaps with European Central Bank?
Dr. Ron Paul: I wouldn’t bet any money against it, but I would – I’m still – I guess I still have a little bit of hope, even though, as the years go on, I have less. I just can’t believe people can be that bad. You know, it’s sort of like thinking about World War II, when I started reading The Revisionist about could they have possibly known, you know, before it happened? Is this the way you unify a country on it? That is too much for me to believe in. So, it’s almost too much for me to say, “Oh, yeah, they’ve given all our gold away.” But, quite frankly, I wouldn’t – I can’t prove it. I don’t know it. I’d like to get the audit, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked to find out that a lot of shenanigans have been going on. So, this is the reason, not only should there be an audit of the Federal Reserve, it should definitely include the gold. So, I approach it twice. You can get to the auditing of the gold through the audit of the Fed because they hold it on their books. But, at the same time, a separate bill that I have just to audit this, audit the gold and have an outside audit, I think reasonable people shouldn’t oppose that.
Chris Waltzek: Venezuela President, Hugo Chavez, shares your sentiments on having gold returned. He, as you know, recently had all of his country’s gold brought back to their shores and, assuming that the U. S. stockpile has been leased or swapped, would you, then, direct Congress to follow in his steps?
Dr. Ron Paul: We certainly should move in that direction and that is the case. You know, when he’d be – when a person like Chavez becomes more independent, he becomes our enemy because he wants to point out that the dollar isn’t sacred. But, what about Iraq? They were trying to ease themselves away from the dollar, like the Iranians have. And so, you set yourself up as target. Now, anything we can do in that direction, you know, they did cause a lot of mischief by executive orders. The President could repeal hose executive orders. But, you still have to do what we have been doing and that is get a consensus of the people and an interest in the people ‘cause if they don’t know about it and don’t care or oppose it, you really can’t achieve it. But, once they know where the problems are, yes, you can achieve it through executive orders; you can achieve it through legislation; and you can straighten the mess out.
Chris Waltzek: Dr. Paul, we know that your time is very valuable now. I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. I know the listeners will very much appreciate it.
Dr. Ron Paul: Thanks for having me.
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http://radio.goldseek.com/ronpaul/
-- Posted Tuesday, 14 February 2012 | Digg This Article
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Transcript of Chris Waltzek’s Interview with Ron Paul
