Ron Paul Takes on Bernanke One Last Time

The Ron Paul era in Congress is coming to a close. He is retiring after 24 years (12 terms) in Congress. Ron has been like a John the Baptist—a voice in the wilderness—sounding out truths that no one else would champion. For decades, he often cast the lone dissenting vote against popular but unconstitutional programs that few others wanted to challenge.

I don’t think we’ll ever see another Congressman get elected of his stature. His type is so hard to find, it is why I have always been against term limits. Liberals love term limits because it’s vastly more easy to replace liberals in Congress—they are a dime a dozen. But statesmen like Ron Paul are not only hard to find but hard to get elected, not having the corrupting form of charisma that is so attractive to unthinking voters. The only way to really reign in government is to have a restrictive constitution that prohibits bad lawmaking no matter who gets elected.

So, in honor of Ron Paul, I’ll give some coverage to his last showdown with FED chairman Ben Bernanke. The dailycaller.com said “In a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul ripped into the Federal Reserve System, calling the central bank a ‘fallacy’ and a ‘flawed system, and therefore we shouldn’t expect good results.’”

What Paul believes is that any fiat money system, whereby money is created out of thin air, is a flawed system, and leads to inevitable financial collapse—and that it is a flaw to believe men can successfully manage the money supply without creating these excesses and engaging in the corruption that follows.

CNN Money had the establishment view of the hearings [my comments in brackets] to counter their errors of analysis: “In what is likely to be the last showdown between Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman once again fought back against the Congressman’s calls to audit the Federal Reserve. Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas and author of ‘End the Fed’, has been trying for years to pass a law that would give Congress the ability to examine the central bank’s decision-making process. Now, he’s closer than ever before, after his colleagues voted last month to finally take up his bill on the House floor. The vote is expected to happen next week.

“[Here comes the disinformation:] It’s important though not to confuse the aim of the bill with a financial audit. The Federal Reserve’s finances are already audited every year by an independent accounting firm. (Last year it was Deloitte and Touche [an insider, big-three accounting firm that is a shill for government]). The central bank also publishes its balance sheet every Thursday online [which tells nothing about internal operations].

“Instead, what Paul is aiming for is a full investigation of the way the Fed determines monetary policy [not true at all. Paul is after a full accounting of the secret transfer of funds to other insider banks here and abroad]. Those deliberations currently take place behind closed doors. Minutes are released with a three-week lag, and full transcripts are published only five years after the fact [when it’s too late to do anything about them].

“Bernanke, speaking at a hearing about the economy and monetary policy Wednesday, said he prefers to keep it that way to protect the Fed’s independence…” This is the age-old excuse the FED has always hid behind in order to maintain its secret operations. Independence from political influence is only an issue with fiat money—which should never be allowed. Not even Congress should have the power to create money without direct redeem ability, so why should the FED? Congress would only be concerned with enforcement of the law against fraud (the issuance of any bill of credit without full redeem ability in the product or funds backing that bill).

“Having Congressional investigators in the room could “create a political influence” and have a “chilling effect,” the Chairman said [Indeed, as it should. But the real collusion happens in other secret meetings—not the open market committee]. Bernanke said he could envision a ‘nightmare scenario’ where Congress would disagree with a Fed decision on interest rates and try to get other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, to review it.

“Current law also protects the Federal Reserve from audits that reveal transactions with foreign central banks and governments, the reserves of its member banks and discussions among its employees about these issues [And that is what Paul is targeting]. Reforming or even abolishing the Fed has been one of Paul’s top priorities.”

Even though I’m against even Congress having power to print money, having it do so in open public meetings would be better than allowing a private group of banks to control this power and operate in secret.

In the remainder of the hearing Wednesday, Bernanke countered those who claim the economy isn’t improving, though he was cautious about claiming success. In fact, he most vigorously defended the FED’s ability to “manage inflation” and keep it at its targeted 2%. Of course that two percent is a lie, but it confirms my view that the FED intends to keep doing their balancing act for the long term and not allow a precipitous collapse that all the free market pundits say has to happen soon. It doesn’t (even though it would were it not for the FED’s inflationary powers) have to happen, and won’t (in my opinion until war comes).

Last, MJ Lee from Politico reports that while Ron Paul’s Audit The Fed move is well timed and extremely popular, the old guard in the Senate will make sure it doesn’t happen. “For retiring Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a House vote on his Audit the Fed bill next week will be a bittersweet tribute to the Republican’s decades-long fight to limit the size and power of the Federal Reserve.

“The outspoken conservative Republican and tea party darling has for years blamed the central bank for many of the country’s fundamental economic problems. After being approved in June by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Paul’s legislation is set to land on the House floor next week. And while Paul expects the measure to die in the Senate, despite having more than 270 co-sponsors [in the House], he said he is optimistic it will not be the death of his signature cause.”