Texas Congressman Ron Paul appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box earlier today to discuss the financial crisis and his ongoing effort to audit the Federal Reserve.
Paul, speaking publicly for the first time since the Senate passed a watered down version of his HR1207 amendment to fully audit the Fed, said that those who had essentially voted for more Fed power would see repercussions.
“The Federal Reserve is a big issue and those individuals who voted against auditing the Fed, there will be a political price to pay for that, just as much as those who voted for the bailout.” The Congressman said.
“Right now, those that vote to enhance the Fed will get punished politically, because the people are waking up and they realise the Fed is the culprit.” Paul, a member of the Joint Economic Committee, added.
Although Paul’s amendment to fully audit the Fed every year is now likely to be stripped from the final financial reform bill, the Congressman remains positive.
“I’m surprised we have done this well. My main goal was to call attention to the American people of the importance of the Federal Reserve. In economic terms we’ve achieved a whole lot. Win or lose, the people are not going to forget about the Federal Reserve. So in some ways, it’ll prove my point.” Paul stressed.
“Lets say they strip my amendment out and they put in a watered down version, and you don’t really have an audit of the Fed, it will just prove to the American people that this show is being run by the Federal Reserve, they have unbelievable powers. We’ve had this crisis, they are to blame for so much of it and we’re going to give them more power! Not only are we not going to have them audited in a true sense of the word, they’re going to end up with more power, more regulations, more control over the consumers, and it won’t go well with the American people. They’ll realise then how powerful the institution is, and those who benefit by the creation of money and credit – you can’t have a military industrial complex without the Fed, you can’t run these wars, you can’t have a welfare state without the Fed.” The Congressman explained.
Paul also warned that Americans should expect a situation akin to that of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, should the U.S. continue the course the country is on.
“…the dollar is still trusted, and people still buy treasury bills, but all of that will come to an end, because the type of problem that Greece is following will eventually hit the United States because everything has too much debt.” Paul commented.
“You can’t correct the problems of debt with creating more debt and expect the Fed to endlessly create money and credit. That is not the answer, even though it makes people feel better, and will sort of delay some of the problems that we have, but we’re in for a lot more trouble as far as I can see.” The Congressman added.
“The Federal Reserve behind the scenes has the power to create money out of thin air, I mean it’s absolutely bizarre. Never in the history of the world has any one single bank been given the power to create the reserve currency of the world like we have had since 1971. So yes, they can bailout their friends and let the people they don’t like fail, and create a trillion dollars or more out of thin air in order to prop up some companies at the expense of others, it’s not viable, it makes no sense.” Paul urged.
“When the history of this time is written, people will say ‘how in the world did they believe that a few people in a secret room can decide what interest rates should be, how much the money supply should be, who should fail, what bad assets, what worthless assets the tax payers have to buy?’ it’s absolutely bizarre, yet the American people right now I think are waking up to it.”
“This whole experiment over the last 35 years or so is a failure and that’s what we’re involved in right now.” The Congressman concluded.
