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Much has been made recently about the supposed
economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles
are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as
"jobless" to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street.
But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the
administration would like to get on with other agendae.
They have even set up a commission to investigate
the crisis as if it were all in the past.
The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs,
the Fed is still inflating, and more regulations are in the works that will
prevent jobs and productivity from coming back. We are on this trajectory for
the long haul. The claim has been made many times that this administration
has only had a year to clean up the mess of the last administration. I wish
they would at least get started! Instead of reversing course, they are
maintaining Bush's policies full speed ahead. They are even keeping the
Bush-appointee in charge of the Federal Reserve! They are not even making
token efforts at change in economic policy. And for all the talk of
transparency, we hear that some powerful senators will do all they can to
block a simple audit of the powerful and secretive Federal Reserve.
We have been on a disastrous course for a long time.
The money supply has doubled in the last year, our debt is unsustainable, the
value of the dollar is going to continue its drop, and those Americans who
understand where we are headed feel helpless and held hostage by foolish
policy makers in Washington. When the bills finally come due and the dollar
stops working we are in for some real social, economic and political chaos.
That is, unless we take some major steps now to allow for a peaceful
transition in the future. These steps are laid out in my legislation to
legalize competing currencies.
First of all, no one should be compelled by law to
operate in Federal Reserve notes if they prefer an alternative. We should
repeal legal tender laws and allow Americans to conduct transactions in
constitutional money. Only gold and silver can constitutionally be legal
tender, not paper money. Instead, it is illegal to conduct business using
gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes. Simply legalizing the
Constitution should be a no-brainer to anyone who took an oath of office.
Consequently, private mints should be allowed to mint gold and silver coins.
They would be subject to fraud and counterfeit laws, of course, and people
would be free to use their coins or stay with Federal Reserve notes, as they
see fit. Finally, we should abolish taxes on gold and silver, which puts
precious metals at a competitive disadvantage to paper money.
The Federal Reserve is a government-sanctioned
banking cartel that has held far too much power for far too long and is in
the end stages of running the dollar into the ground, and our economy along
with it. The very least Congress can do, if they are not willing to abolish
the Fed, and perhaps not even conduct a serious audit of it, is to allow
citizens the freedom to defend themselves from being completely wiped out by
their monopoly power.
Ron Paul
www.house.gov/paul
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national
reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is
the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government,
low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on
commodity-backed currency. For more information click on the Project Freedom website.
Published with the authorization of Dr. Paul.
Copyright Dr. Ron Paul
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