Ron Paul is the Only Candidate Who Can Avert a Depression

Establishment candidates show economic ineptitude in face of crisis

January 24, 2008

In the face of this week's market meltdown—which has been called the worst financial crisis since WWII—the current crop of U.S. presidential candidates are preaching a hodgepodge of trite economic boosterism and disastrous governmental intervention. Unsurprisingly, the elephant in the room is Ron Paul, the political leper of anointed establishment politics, who just happens to have a massive, growing, devoted following capable of breaking fundraising records in support of him, and who has real plans to avert the global depression which is almost certainly on the way.

Romney has praised the Federal Reserve's panic cut in the federal funds rate by 75 basis points. The cut, however, has earned round condemnation from most delegates to the World Economic Forum, who fear the move is prolonging the inevitable correction of an over-inflated marketplace.

Obama believes the severe economic woes—the symptom of hundreds of trillions of dollars of under-regulated high-risk financial instruments known as derivatives, a fiat currency, and the staggering debt and deficit the federal government is creating in foreign adventurism—can be solved by "saying to banks that they have to invest in their communities."

McCain has been shamelessly trumpeting the old political hogwash that despite the crashing market, spiraling currency and signs of crisis in some of the largest institutional lenders in the country, "the fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong."

All agree that Bush's harebrained scheme to increase inflation by printing money and handing it out in rebate cheques—a scheme with questionable short-term benefits and no long-term benefits—is a great idea.

All, that is, except for Paul. Paul has spoken and written at length about the inflation tax, the hidden tax of rising prices that results from wasteful government spending. Indeed, he has written and spoken at great length for a number of years about the U.S.' unsound fiscal policies, and has even received an award from the prestigious Ludwig Von Mises Institute, which promotes studies in the Austrian School of Economics.

No other candidate has a grasp of the roots of the current crisis. Ron Paul stands alone as the only candidate willing to abolish the Federal Reserve and bring the power to coin money back within the power of Congress where it constitutionally belongs. The point is a central one. The former Fed chairman "Bubbles" Greenspan presided over the dot-com bubble, then averted the necessary correction of the marketplace from the bursting of that bubble by lowering interest rates to 1%, thus creating the housing bubble. So far, "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke has lived up to his moniker by releasing metaphorical bales of money from his Fed helicopter onto Wall Street in the form of an emergency rate cut. No wonder the majority of delegates at the World Economic Forum voted to accept the notion that central banks have lost their focus and control of the economic world. And no wonder that Dr. Paul wants to eliminate the severely malfunctioning Federal Reserve which wields such inordinate control over the U.S. economy.

Paul also wants to restore the U.S. to sound money. Ever since the U.S. de-pegged the greenback from the Gold Standard in the 1970s, administrations have been able to print as much money as they like to fund whatever project they feel like, all backed by the good will of foreign holders of U.S. Treasury Bonds. In an age where the U.S. dollar is almost certain to lose its status as the world reserve currency, this experiment with fiat currency, along with all others before it, is bound to fail in a disastrous hyperinflationary spiral. By advocating sound money backed by tangible assets, Dr. Paul would simultaneously eliminate government overspending and restore faith in the dollar.

Finally, Paul also proposes saving hundreds of billions of dollars a year by recalling the U.S. military from its operations in foreign countries which pose no security threat to the United States. By proposing such a radical rethink in foreign policy, a Paul administration would simultaneously eliminate the deficit, produce a surplus, reduce American dependence on the good will of foreign holders of U.S. Treasury Bonds and restore the reputation once enjoyed by America as a benevolent force on the world stage.

Simply put, no other candidate for president is advocating a mixture of policies like eliminating the Federal Reserve, restoring sound money and ending the mounting debt involved with policing the world. For a good introduction to how Paul would change the economic policy of the U.S. to help avert a global depression, try this video: