Ron Paul vs. Ben Bernanke -- 2/29/12

you know alright that's this time mr. Paul was recognized your thorn in the threat flesh it for three minutes Thank You mr. chairman and welcome Chairman Bernanke you know I guess over the last 30 or 40 years I have criticized the Fed on occasion but the Congress deserves some criticism too the Federal Reserve is a creature of the Congress and if we don't know what their what the Fed is doing we have the authority and we certainly have the authority to pursue a lot more oversight which I would like to see so although the Fed is on the receiving end and I think rightfully so when you look at the record I mean the feds been around for 99 years almost a few years before you took it over in 99 percent 98 percent of the dollar value is gone from the 1913 dollar so that's not really a very good record and I think what we're witnessing today is the end stages of a grand experiment a philosophic experiment on total fiat money yes they've been debasing currencies for hundreds if not thousands of years and they always end badly they always return to market-based money which is commodity money gold and silver but this experiment is something different than we've ever had before and it started in 1971 where we were actually given an opportunity in many ways to be the issuer of the fiat currency and we had way too many benefits from that then people realized but it's gone on for 40 years and people keep arguing from the other side of this argument that it's working it's doing well and yet from my viewpoint in the viewpoint of the free market economists always doing is building a bigger and bigger bubble and the free market economists were the ones who predicted the Nasdaq bubble the housing bubble but we never hear from the Keynesian liberal economists and the central bankers and saying watch out there's there's a bubble out there there's that too much credit too many problems there there's a housing bubble we have to deal with it usually we get reassurance from the Fed on that but I believe it's there's a logical reason for this because the Federal Reserve is given a responsibility to protect the value of the dollar that's what stable prices are all about we don't even have a definition of a dollar you know we asked about the definition of a dollar and oh it's whatever it's by well every single day advise it less than the next day and to me it's sort of like building an economy and have an economic planning like a builder had a yardstick that changed its value every single day I mean just think of the kind of a building we have this is why we have this imbalance in our economic system but it was a system designed to pyramid debt we have a debt based system the more debt we have and the more debt the Federal Reserve buys the more currency they can print and they monetize this debt and no wonder we're in a debt crisis it's worldwide I think it's something we've never experienced before and I think the conclusion will be a vindication either for sound money or if you win the argument and say yes we are great managers we know how to do it we want the credit for the good times and we want to credit for getting us out of those good times I mean I think within a few years we're going to know of course I'm betting that the market is smarter commodity money is smarter we're not nobody's smart enough to have central economic planning so I'm anxiously waiting for this day for the conclusion because reforms have to come they're already talking about when you see Robert and Zoey talking about monetary for reforms and talking about gold our time has come for serious discussion on monetary reform thank you mr. chairman dr. Paul Thank You mr. chairman mr. Bernanke if you don't mind would you tell me whether or not you do your own shopping at the grocery store yes they do okay so you're aware of the prices but you know this argument that the price is going up about two percent nobody believes it you know in the old CPI says prices going up at nine percent so they believe this if people fixed incomes they're really hurting the middle class is really hurting because their inflation rate is very much higher than the government tries to tell them and that's why they lose trust in government but you know this whole idea about prices and debasement of currency if I if you loan me a hundred dollars in two years from now I gave you 90 you'd be pretty upset but we paying back that money back that's worth 10 or 15 or 20 for 20% less and and nobody seems to be able to do anything about about it's very upsetting but it's theft if I don't give you your full hundred dollars back if you've been loaned me a hundred dollars somebody I'm stealing ten dollars from you so somebody's stealing wealth and this is very upsetting but you know last in January at one of your press conferences you said that you sort of poked a little bit of fun at people to don play the 2% inflation rate but if you say it's 2 and I say it's 9 it's compromise for the sake of argument that's 5% that you said that if it doesn't hurt you unless you're one of those people who stick their money in the mattress but but where are you going to put it are you gonna put it in a CD and not make any money at all so this this doesn't this doesn't make any sense it doesn't encourage the savings and it just discourages people but I do want to make a point about prices because prices go up that to me is not the inflation is one of the bad consequences of the inflation which comes from the increase in the money supply and that's one of the bad effects but you know you took over the Fed in in 2006 I have a silver ounce here and this this ounce of silver back in 2006 would buy over 4 gallons of gasoline today today it'll buy almost 11 gallons of gasoline that's preservation of value and that's what that's what the market has always said should be money money comes into effect in a natural way not in a an edict not by Fiat by governments declaring it is it is money but why why is it that we can't consider you know the two of us an option you love paper money I think money should be honest constitutional still on the books gold and silver legal tender why don't we use it but why don't we allow currencies to run parallel they do around the world my one of my options I you know much as I would like to do something with the Fed I say the fans going to self-destruct eventually anyway when the money but when the money's gone but why why wouldn't we legalize competing currencies why can't couldn't people save put put this in a mattress and get four or five times much of the value in a few years so the record of what you've done in the last six years is destroy the value of real money a paper money at the same time real money is preserved but a competing currency we have already have a silver eagle it's legal tender for a dollar and some people say well it's legal tender it's a dollar it's on the books and they use it they get into big trouble the government comes and closes them down then you can get arrested for that but what would be wrong with talking about parallel currency and competing currencies this is something that Hayek talked about something that I think would be a compromise and that we could work along those two views first of all good to see you again just one word on the inflation of course those numbers are constructed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics not by the Fed they're independently constructed and I think they're done in a very serious and thoughtful way on alternative currencies nobody prevents you from holding silver or gold if you want to it's perfectly legal to do that and you're also happy to it's also perfectly fine to hold other currencies euros or yen or whatever else move so in that respect you can do that and and I'd be happy to talk to you about it mr. chairman that's not money I mean when you pay taxes to buy a coin or you have capital gains tax when it's not if you have to settle a lawsuit it's always settled in depreciating Federal Reserve notes it's never settled in the real contract so that's nothing near money when it's illegal to use it but to do it you'd have to repeal the legal tender laws you would have to legalize this you'd have to get over this sales taxes you'd have to get rid of the capital gains taxes people even in Mexico they're talking about this they're trying to have competing currencies they've been wiped out too many times with inflation that way by the middle class they're allowing people to start save in a silver currency so I hope we move along in that direction because there shouldn't be any you know overwhelming changes all of a sudden that there could be a transition people could vote on it maybe they'll give up on the Federal Reserve Note and vote for real money I'd be very happy to talk to you about it thank you very much thank you

Channel: CongressmanRonPaul

Views: 64,907

Rating: 4.9615102 out of 5

Keywords: fed, ron, paul, monetary, policy, competing, currencies, silver, inflation, CPI

Id: G7K9YASQ3do

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 29 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/come2gether]

"This whole idea"...

[u/imkaneforever]

I love Paul's speaking, he sounds more like a teacher than a politician.

[u/wolfehr]

To me it's sort of like building an economy and having economic planning like a builder had a yardstick that changed it's value every single day. I mean, just think of the kind of building we would have.

Loved this analogy. Very easy to grasp even if you don't understand economics.

[u/neologasm]

Can anyone provide some information as to what Ron Paul is referring to when he talks about the inevitable collapse of paper money? He talks as though it's self evident, but I didn't hear (or understand) the part where he explains why that is. Just genuinely curious.

Edit: Thanks.

[u/[deleted]]

Interesting comments he made about the Silver Eagle. People have been using them to pay debts and because it has a face value of $1 and the silver value is about $30 they can save money on taxes.

Here is a video of someone explaining the process, at the time of it's recording, silver was about $20 and ounce.

The two values, $1 face and $30 silver works this way. Someone can pay you $30 an hour and at 40 hours a week you would make $1200. You get taxed on that $1200. But if you get paid in Silver Eagles with a face value of $1 then you are paid $40 and you only pay tax on the $40. Once you cash in your Eagles you now have $1200, but you only paid taxes on $40.

It's completely legal but the government doesn't like you hacking the system. I think the real reason is because it would end the fed if the idea caught on.

Of course they like it when it goes the other way, having to pay taxes on a dollar with a face value of $1 and and intrinsic value of worthless paper.

[u/smexp]

Saw this after MJ 23 vs. MJ 29 and was disappointed.

[u/[deleted]]

I wish he were somehow 40 years old :/. Sad to think we won't have him fighting the good fight in these hearings.

[u/[deleted]]

My active research while this was going on. Ron Paul mentioned the price of silver per oz in 2006 compared to today vs the price of gas.

I don't think his numbers are 100% accurate, but his overall point is correct, 1oz of silver will buy more gas today. Just not as much as he said.

Using this I tracked silver in 06 and 11-12, and found that in 06 it peaked around 14.50 USD, and lows was in the 7 USD range.

According to this the price of gas, on average, in 2006 was $2.48 per gallon.

Here is the price of gas nationally at this time. I can confirm my location is pretty much correct. ~$3.50 USD per gal.

I don't have time to math this out, as I must leave for work. I might work the details of this out later if someone doesn't for me.

Please note, I am not trying to say Ron Paul was mathematically wrong, I agree with most of what that man says, I am just trying to get a more accurate picture.

[u/come2gether]

why dont people who are concerned with inflation of the dollar simply buy silver and invest in gold?