Ron Paul on the Bailout
Ron Paul schools the rest of the House on the Bailout bill
September 29, 2008 C-SPAN
via CSpan Junkie
Monday, September 29, 2008 | 01:15 PM | Permalink
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Comments
You are a fan of Ron Paul? Didn't know that. Ron Paul who wants to abolish the Fed and go back to the gold standard. Ron Paul, who said that the civil war was an unjust war of agression by the north against the south?
Posted by: PureGuesswork | Sep 29, 2008 3:28:33 PM
Ron Paul is right about the Civil War. There's this bizarre notion that the Civil War was about abolishing slavery, which was a late-in-the game tactic by a mad man who preferred countless American deaths over a southern secession. Lincoln.
Posted by: Clay Shentrup | Sep 29, 2008 3:39:48 PM
...and who said civil war wasn't the only way to eliminate slavery.
But, let's please not elaborate on all of Ron Paul's view in this thread. There's more than enough economic issues to discuss.
Posted by: wunsacon | Sep 29, 2008 3:42:02 PM
Well the Fed has destroyed the value of the dollar in an ever increasing rush. Does that suit you? The Swiss Franc which traded five-to-the-dollar in the 1970s is now poised to be a 1 to 1 exchange. The era of 'good as gold' dollars was the longest period of price stability in our history.
Of course the "masters of the universe" were not able to pay them selves $100 millin plus paydays, so I suppose the Fed was a big improvement IF you are well connected. Paulson made a $750 million fortune based on Greenspan's cheap money factory.
Posted by: RW | Sep 29, 2008 3:50:59 PM
While i may not agree with Ron Paul on every issue, I sure as hell agree with everything he stated in this clip.
Posted by: karen | Sep 29, 2008 3:59:36 PM
Quote: "...and who said civil war wasn't the only way to eliminate slavery."
Which is true as well (Just look at the British Empire).
Ron Paul for president!
Posted by: IK | Sep 29, 2008 4:14:54 PM
Ron hit the nail on the head. The bailout is a quick mix recipe for hyperinflation which WILL lead to further devaluation of our dollar, and increase the cost of living for EVERYONE.
Posted by: MiningOilGasGuru | Sep 29, 2008 4:23:18 PM
We just printed another $630b to inject into the system, over and above what the bail-out package would have done. How much more blood can be squeezed out of a greenback?
But I think we should argue over slavery. Can't do anything about it, either, but damn, it's almost as much fun as watching the Hank and Ben show get booed off the stage.
Posted by: Donkei | Sep 29, 2008 4:27:13 PM
Hard to agree that the problem was over-regulation.
Agree that "corporatism" is a considerable problem, but I haven't heard Ron Paul in the past talking about breaking up/otherwise restricting the activities of these firms.
I suspect someone will straighten me out if he has been talking about this -- he doesn't get a lot of "air time" in the MSM, I know......
Posted by: Whammer | Sep 29, 2008 4:30:09 PM
Slave trade was the number 1 economic sector of the south, like oil to the middle east. State's rights was the rally call, but the trade was many people's lively hood.
Posted by: jp | Sep 29, 2008 4:39:34 PM
BR, how would you have voted on the bailout package? Yes or no?
Posted by: Todd | Sep 29, 2008 4:40:32 PM
Ron Paul and the Austrians definitely saw this one coming. The bubbles blown by too much risk and debt always pop, and the central bank just encourages it over bigger and longer cycles.
All you can really do is educate people, and Dr. Paul has certainly educated me. I'm holding a large portion in bullion and will wait for a return for sanity in the stock market, when management has some humility and dividends are king. (I.E when Joe 6 pack is out and it's serious investors only)
Posted by: Spud | Sep 29, 2008 4:48:12 PM
Wonderful day for Dr. Paul...and it's Mises' birthday to boot.
Posted by: chris | Sep 29, 2008 4:55:51 PM
>> Quote: "...and who said civil war wasn't the only way to eliminate slavery."
>> Which is true as well (Just look at the British Empire).
...to be clear, I was saying that in Ron Paul's defense and not as a "pile on".
Posted by: wunsacon | Sep 29, 2008 5:02:41 PM
How is "Joe Six Pack" ever going to get out of the market? His company has eliminated pensions and replaced it with 401ks. If he's lucky they match 3% of his salary. In the past pensions were funded at well over 10%. Anyone looking at a 401K with a few hundred K in is KNOWS it's not enough to be retired on. Investment is nearly mandated for everyone who is not a public employee at this point.
In a better system these people who not be asked to go swim in the ocean, many can't do a whole lap in a swimming pool, but there you are. It's sink or swim for everyone now.
Posted by: RW | Sep 29, 2008 5:12:26 PM
I respect Ron Paul and his right to his beliefs, but he and other anarcho-capitalists have no empirical basis for their beliefs. Even this speech is totally counterfactual, with the idea that this crisis wouldn't have happened if we had truly free markets. He has no proof for this theorem because it is a hypothetical in the first place. It cannot be tested. There will never be a sustained anarcho-capitalist economy just as there will never be a sustained anarcho-communist or anarcho-syndicalist economy. These are pure delusional utopian fantasies that will never occur as long as human beings are associated with the system. We will never agree on anything to the degree that would be necessary for any of these anarchists visions to occur (i.e., too many people will want another system and forcing those dissenters into anarchy is not anarchy). I really wish we would stop talking about how much better it would be in an unattainable utopia and start talking about what we can actually do to improve things based on the constraints we face.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 29, 2008 5:34:05 PM
Wow, Ron is SO wrong. He STILL thinks the free markets can solve every problem, even as the derivatives the free market created in the interest of short-term greed pull us into the next Depression.
If we've learned anything from the last 8 years, it's that the free markets need adult supervision.
Thank God Ron Paul is but a ridiculous footnote and not relevant.
Posted by: RN | Sep 29, 2008 5:39:03 PM
To the person who said they are waiting for Joe Six Pack to get out of the market: 75% of trading is done by institutional investors.
Posted by: Kris | Sep 29, 2008 5:42:36 PM
Utopia:
something people dream of and are afraid to believe in.
Posted by: Yves-w | Sep 29, 2008 5:47:12 PM
Hey, northern fellows, better listen to Ron Paul. I am writing from one of these south-of-the-border banana republics, and, let me tell you, if more easy money and more fiscal recklessness were the path to prosperity, I wouldn't be living in a third-world country, Argentina would be an economic powerhouse and Zimbabwe would be paradise. Lucky for you, yanks, that people like Ron Paul can illuminate you with Austrian School of Economics precepts. Happy Birthday, Mises!!!
Posted by: juan | Sep 29, 2008 6:00:34 PM
"I really wish we would stop talking about how much better it would be in an unattainable utopia and start talking about what we can actually do to improve things based on the constraints we face."
Let's send a clear signal on Nov 4th to both Democrats and Republicans by voting for any other party candidate on the ticket and undecided elsewhere. We need more diversified options for candidates. I like Paul.
Posted by: Pat G. | Sep 29, 2008 6:41:00 PM
Since someone brought up the Civil War I have long had a question about that time that no has answered:
When I was in the military, I was taught you never blame the enemy for your lost. It is always your failiure to win. How could the South blame the North for politics that were unfavorable for the southern states? Why didn't they say, "Our inability to convince the Northern populous of the value of our ideas is our fault. If we were smarter or ideas were better we would dominate federal politics"
Posted by: BobC | Sep 29, 2008 6:52:08 PM
"I respect Ron Paul and his right to his beliefs, but he and other anarcho-capitalists have no empirical basis for their beliefs. Even this speech is totally counterfactual, with the idea that this crisis wouldn't have happened if we had truly free markets. He has no proof for this theorem because it is a hypothetical in the first place. It cannot be tested. There will never be a sustained anarcho-capitalist economy just as there will never be a sustained anarcho-communist or anarcho-syndicalist economy. These are pure delusional utopian fantasies that will never occur as long as human beings are associated with the system. We will never agree on anything to the degree that would be necessary for any of these anarchists visions to occur (i.e., too many people will want another system and forcing those dissenters into anarchy is not anarchy). I really wish we would stop talking about how much better it would be in an unattainable utopia and start talking about what we can actually do to improve things based on the constraints we face."
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 29, 2008 5:34:05 PM
Anon,
You state: "I respect Ron Paul, and his right to his beliefs"
Anonymous Sir, if you had any Respect for yourself, let alone Ron Paul, you would not have proceeded on your fallacious discursiveness.
He, as is, readily, seen, calls repeatedly for Oversight, by the Legislature, into the affairs Promulgated by the Executive Branch, and, that Private Corporation, the 'Federal Reserve'. How that equates, Him, with anarcho-capitalism, as you say it does, needs to be explained. The rest of your spiel is, but, self-flagellating rhetoric, in search of a Straw-Man.
You are, simply, an over-educated individual that, obviously, has learned little.
Posted by: Mark E Hoffer | Sep 29, 2008 6:57:44 PM
Reading Juan's post I'm more convinced that Argentina is in troubles due to the lack of love and democratic commitment with people like Juan.
¡ Oye Juan, tipos rastreros como tú no los queremos en estos lados, representas la típica escoria burguesa de Buenos Aires !
Deberías aprender de los Chilenos que sin dudas son los que están dando las lecciones.
Posted by: Fernando | Sep 29, 2008 7:04:55 PM
I think the essence of Ron Paul's philosophy is that government cannot be trusted because people in power will always seek to bend it to serve their interests. Given that some government is necessary, then it should be hobbled.
Thus the Gold Standard is merely a mechanism to hobble the government's ability to spend money it doesn't have. If a better mechanism presented itself then I'm sure he'd be all for it.
I don't think he's ever said anything about constraining private power, i.e., how someone who lives in the company town might protect their rights and this is clearly the great weakness of his philosophy. But I don't think it's a fatal weakness. He's mentioned that polluters should be constrained by tort law. Presumably, any number of predatory acts by large businesses, like activities in restraint of trade would fall into the same category.
But his real argument would be that government is being bent to the will of large corporations and the protections that we enjoy are actually either marginal or illusory. He would point to the war in Iraq as an example of the military-industrial-oil complex spilling American and Iraqi blood and looting the American treasury in the service of it's own goals at the expense of the people. (4k americans, 90k iraqis and $2T is nothing to sneeze at)
Of course Ron Paul often sounds like an absolutist and life in this country is probably far to complex to be handled completely by the free market. But I think the central thrust of his message is correct and he's shown enough pragmatism in how he would approach social security that I would jump at the chance of having him as president.
Posted by: dr q | Sep 29, 2008 7:30:39 PM
