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AmSpecBlog
End the Fed!
At last night's 25th anniversary Competitive Enterprise Institute dinner, BB&T chairman and former CEO John Allison gave a rollicking keynote address attacking the bailout, the "misregulation" of the financial industry, and the spirit of "altruism" that he said dominates our politics. But more surprisingly, he also suggested that the Federal Reserve should be replaced with the gold standard and a more privatized banking system.
Afterward, I asked a staffer for Congressman Ron Paul if Allison had been a Paul donor in 2008. "He should have been!" he replied. During that campaign, I was mystified by Paul's insistence on talking about the Federal Reserve and monetary policy. Although I broadly agreed with his Austrian analysis, it seemed to me that his time would have been better spent emphasizing fiscal policy: the fact that he'd never voted for a tax increase or an unbalanced budget, his opposition to most major spending programs, his support for all of the Reagan and Bush tax cuts.
Yet on the campaign trail, I repeatedly saw kids with pink hair and nose rings shouting, "End the Fed!" Paul himself seemed surprised by the reaction, noting that at one campaign appearance college students started burning Federal Reserve notes (that's quite a few 25-cent drafts they were sacrificing in the process). The financial crisis has increased the salience of the monetary issue in some quarters. Paul's bill to audit the Fed now has more than 218 cosponsors -- 222 at last count -- including members of the House Republican leadership, the head of the Republican Study Committee, and the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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Bert| 6.12.09 @ 10:08AM
Allision is BB&T's former, not current, CEO. While CEO, he famously sent copies of "Atlas Shrugged" to new executives when they came on board.
Tim| 6.12.09 @ 1:20PM
Please, correct me if I am wrong. I claim no expertise here: wasn't one of the problems with the gold standard the potential for large gold producers (Russia) to cause chaos with our economy?
L. Ross| 6.12.09 @ 1:32PM
Tim:
I don't believe that was the problem. I believe the problem was that there wasn't enough gold to finance the expansion of the economy (i.e. print money) during the Vietnam War. The gold standard lapsed in 1968. Since then, we have relied on the full "faith and trust of the United States Government".
We are doomed.
Sean| 6.12.09 @ 2:48PM
The problem with the gold standard is that it isn't very conducive to socialism and big spending governments. A fiat currency is much better for those types of governments until the ponzi scheme runs out. Wit a fiat currency you can always print more and more money. Better yet with the computer age the Fed can just go in and add a zero when member banks get low on cash reserves.
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On the Italian site of ZENIT there is a note about a new book, in Italian, concerned with liturgy by Fr. Mauro Gagliardi dal titolo “Liturgia fonte di vita. Prospettive teologiche” (Fede & Cultura) – "Liturgy – source of life: theological perspectives/outlooks. Fr. Gagliardi is a priest new books releases of the Archdiocese of Salerno, ordained in 1999. He is a consultor for the Office of Pontifical Ceremonies.