WEBVTT NOTE Banking and the Fed as Enemies of Prosperity 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360 It's very nice to be here and nice to see so many friends and a nice crowd, and I understand 2 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.080 part of the program occurred yesterday, and Lou tells me there were a lot of high school 3 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.760 kids here, and that's very encouraging, because for me, reaching the next generation is important 4 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:17.760 for all of us. 5 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:21.440 But you know, one thing that we have said, many of us in this room have said it many 6 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:26.520 times, we better straighten up our act, because you know, our kids and our grandkids are going 7 00:00:26.520 --> 00:00:41.020 The consequences are hitting us, of course the bills haven't been paid for but the problem 8 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:47.200 of paying for them and the necessity of paying the bills, it's pretty clear to us. 9 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:56.400 So it is a real delight to come today and visit once again and see the success of the 10 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:04.680 and the Mises Institute, because it was what now, Lew, almost 30 years since Lew started 11 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:09.560 the Mises Institute and Lew had been working at the Congressional Office. 12 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:12.780 He does mention it once in a while, but you know, it's not the neatest thing in the world 13 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:13.780 to mention it. 14 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:19.720 You used to work for the government, but he does, and as a matter of fact, somebody else 15 00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:23.520 worked for me in the office and helped me on the Gold Commission report, and that was 16 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:53.520 The Mises Institute has been fantastic in these past 30 years. It really laid the groundwork for so much as what has happened and changed the attitude of so many people. You can't measure it. You don't know what part exactly the Mises Institute was responsible for or somebody else that got interested and studied on their own. 17 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:59.160 and you can't measure those kind of things but obviously the Institute has 18 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:04.720 had a tremendous impact you know during the presidential campaign I got a lot of 19 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:09.720 credit and continue to get some credit for you know stirring the interest and 20 00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:13.240 exciting people about the Austrian School and about freedom and the 21 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:17.920 Constitution and limited government but the truth is is you have to have a 22 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:29.420 The philosophy change, one individual can't do that. It may be that one person can ignite interest, but there has to be some groundwork done before that. 23 00:02:29.420 --> 00:02:36.420 And I think that is why the Mises Institute has been so important because it contributed so much to that. 24 00:02:36.420 --> 00:02:43.420 But that's continuing. We're winning at the grassroots level. We're winning outside of Washington. 25 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:47.260 and, of course, we're waiting for the day we're going to win in Washington and really 26 00:02:47.260 --> 00:02:57.740 change that place, but we're a lot closer to that now than we ever have been, change 27 00:02:57.740 --> 00:02:59.740 in the right direction. 28 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:07.060 We hear a lot of talk these days about members of Congress getting along together as a consequence 29 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:49.060 I have a friend of mine and we sit right in the middle of the aisle and I think we're very bipartisan because we have Democrats talking to us more than the Republicans are talking to us in the middle there. 30 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:59.060 So, but they're talking about this bipartisanship and I've come to the conclusion, yes, under certain conditions bipartisanship sounds very reasonable. 31 00:03:59.060 --> 00:04:11.140 And for the most part, I think we've had way too much bipartisanship over the years. 32 00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:16.580 What we've had is an agreement by the majority of those on the Republican side and the Democratic 33 00:04:16.580 --> 00:04:19.140 side that they endorse certain policies. 34 00:04:19.140 --> 00:04:24.700 I mean, is there really a division with Republicans and Democrats on the foreign policy? 35 00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:29.940 Does one really have a non-interventionist foreign policy and the other a militaristic 36 00:04:29.940 --> 00:04:30.940 foreign policy? 37 00:04:30.940 --> 00:04:36.780 No, both parties are very militaristic and very aggressive, and they have given us the 38 00:04:36.780 --> 00:04:40.780 conditions overseas and the problems that we face today because there's been too much 39 00:04:40.780 --> 00:04:41.780 bipartisanship. 40 00:04:41.780 --> 00:04:46.580 As a matter of fact, they have argued so often that in foreign policy, you always have to 41 00:04:46.580 --> 00:04:47.860 stand behind the president. 42 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:53.640 They've always taught us that you don't have divisions over foreign policy. 43 00:04:53.640 --> 00:04:58.040 think about domestic policy is it been really any difference are Republicans 44 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:02.160 really opposed to the welfare state you know they're complaining now they want to 45 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:08.520 repeal Obamacare but I wonder if they're going to repeal Bushcare too and that's 46 00:05:08.520 --> 00:05:11.120 what we need 47 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.720 so we have bipartisanship there and certainly there's been bipartisanship on 48 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:22.960 on just about every attack on liberties 49 00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:26.240 that you can think of from the Patriot Act on down. 50 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:28.840 Rarely are those programs passed solely 51 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:31.300 by one party versus another. 52 00:05:31.300 --> 00:05:35.760 But philosophically, we have way too much bipartisanship. 53 00:05:35.760 --> 00:05:40.760 But what I would like to see is the coming together. 54 00:05:41.280 --> 00:05:45.520 The other day I had an interview on Fogg's Napolitano, 55 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:48.640 the great Andrew Napolitano. 56 00:05:48.640 --> 00:06:18.640 But he had an individual on with me by the name of Ralph Nader, and I know that there's lots of things that we can find about the flaws of Ralph Nader, but Napolitano really ran a great interview because he brought out all the things that we could agree with on the people coming from the left, and then also pointed out how we strongly 57 00:06:18.640 --> 00:06:22.960 disagreed with who should deliver medical care. 58 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:27.400 But there's nothing wrong with talking to people 59 00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:29.720 from different spectrums of the political system, 60 00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.640 especially we who are coming from the freedom philosophy, 61 00:06:33.640 --> 00:06:37.880 because there's bits and pieces endorsed by all factions. 62 00:06:37.880 --> 00:06:41.200 So our job is to pick the best of each party 63 00:06:41.200 --> 00:06:43.000 and those individuals who might agree with us 64 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.160 on foreign policy and civil liberties 65 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:46.720 and bring them together and understand 66 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:48.560 it's one and the same thing. 67 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:58.560 and that to me is, you know, in a way a bipartisanship, it is a compromised effort, but you know what 68 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:05.160 they're talking now that what we need to do, we are in big trouble, so we need to compromise 69 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:10.560 and get along with the other side, so what was the, what are the first challenges? Well 70 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:15.280 yes, what we'll do is we'll compromise and they've been doing this for years in a bipartisan 71 00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:16.280 and Faction. 72 00:07:16.280 --> 00:07:20.320 What they do is they compromise and they raise the military spending and they raise the domestic 73 00:07:20.320 --> 00:07:23.320 spending and they call that the compromise. 74 00:07:23.320 --> 00:07:28.060 But there is a better compromise, why don't we compromise and say if we cut ten billion 75 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:32.680 dollars out of this militarism, you cut ten billion dollars out of this welfarism and 76 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:41.500 then maybe we'll get back down to a reasonable budget. 77 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:49.340 But unfortunately, we're not about to reach that point because there's been a lot of talk. 78 00:07:49.340 --> 00:07:55.460 There's a change in the elections and certainly in the House there's a change and people ask 79 00:07:55.460 --> 00:07:57.420 me all the time, what do I expect? 80 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:01.860 You know, the House is going to do better. 81 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:09.140 Not so much that their beliefs have really changed, but the politics have changed. 82 00:08:09.140 --> 00:08:16.420 And the House members now do not have to take their orders from the President. 83 00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:18.340 That was where the problem was before. 84 00:08:18.340 --> 00:08:21.340 We had the House and the Senate, and there were so many things that we could have done 85 00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:24.820 if they half believed in what they preached. 86 00:08:24.820 --> 00:08:33.100 But now, that's not the case, and Obama's a good target, so they are probably going 87 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:38.260 to do a better job in the House, but that's not going to translate into much improvement 88 00:08:38.260 --> 00:08:43.260 in the legislation, because the momentum is so great. 89 00:08:44.140 --> 00:08:48.180 I think the most important test will be here 90 00:08:48.180 --> 00:08:51.520 in the next month or so, and that will have to do 91 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:53.580 with raising the debt limit. 92 00:08:53.580 --> 00:08:58.080 And already, it's a big political thing, 93 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.640 and when they need something, like when they need 94 00:09:00.640 --> 00:09:03.920 to invade Iraq, or they need to invade somebody, 95 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:08.320 or they need medical care, they drum up all these horrors 96 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.240 and already the Secretary of the Treasury 97 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:13.560 has already come to say the end of the world is coming 98 00:09:13.560 --> 00:09:15.480 if we don't raise the debt limit. 99 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:19.040 So be prepared, we don't want the end of the world, 100 00:09:19.040 --> 00:09:21.240 we just want the end of that government 101 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:23.120 we have up in Washington. 102 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:28.120 But the scare tactics are building 103 00:09:29.400 --> 00:09:31.880 and they will scare people into it 104 00:09:31.880 --> 00:10:01.880 and just like remember when the the totally unanticipated nobody knew there was a bubble and finally there was a breakdown of the economy in 1907-08 and then that was an emergency and had to do or the whole world would end so in order to have great spirit of bipartisanship we had two candidates one Republican and one Democrat rushed back to Washington and hadn't cast neither had cast a vote for weeks 105 00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:49.880 And of course we knew that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of doing that, so it's always intimidation and fear, and it puts the pressure on the members of Congress, they capitulate, because the people get terrified too. 106 00:10:49.880 --> 00:10:57.880 But because we, it's surprising we don't have better results because we have this independent media, and they're always giving us the truth. 107 00:10:57.880 --> 00:11:03.480 You think we would figure this out a little sooner, but no, that doesn't happen. 108 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:06.840 They continue, and the people do get frightened. 109 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:11.720 They hear the government saying the end is coming, so this is what's going to happen. 110 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:17.520 The national debt will be increased, but you can say, well, there'll be a victory anyway 111 00:11:17.520 --> 00:11:22.580 because they're going to promise, after they raise the national debt, that they're going 112 00:11:22.580 --> 00:11:27.200 to cut some spending, and they're going to cut the spending. 113 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:32.840 You know, it reminds me of what happened in the 80s, and I know Ronald Reagan was a beloved 114 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:36.720 president, but if you look at the statistics, things didn't all that much improve in the 115 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:37.720 1980s. 116 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:40.720 But he had an agreement. 117 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:46.240 He says, yes, you know, we remember him cutting tax rates, which was very good. 118 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:47.240 I was all for that. 119 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:53.600 But he raised taxes three times, maybe four times, that more than made up for the tax 120 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:54.600 decreases. 121 00:11:54.600 --> 00:12:24.600 But on one occasion, he agreed to have a tax increase, and that bill was passed, it was originated in the Senate, came back to the House, was passed under the suspension of the rules, and it wasn't allowed to be amended, which sort of contradicts the Constitution, you know, they're supposed to originate in the House and then go to the Senate, but Reagan's agreement was this, for every dollar that we raise in taxes, you will cut two dollars worth of spending. You know, it just didn't happen. 122 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:39.600 The deficit just deteriorated in the 1980s and so we can expect the national debt to be increased because nobody wants to end the world. 123 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:47.600 Most of us are supportive of keeping the world going and they're going to be made fearful. 124 00:12:47.600 --> 00:13:17.600 So whether it's the fear of the foreign enemies or the fear of our neighbors because of all the scrutiny that we have to have of all our neighbors because there may be a terrorist lurking behind the bushes someplace so therefore we have to sacrifice our liberties, we have to pass the Patriot Act and secret prisons, threat of assassination, giving up the writ of habeas corpus and on and on and it's all based on fear because people 125 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:25.600 for the most part are just so intimidated and can't believe that some of these problems could be solved without government. 126 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:33.600 But the good news is that our numbers, who believe otherwise, our numbers are growing, and that's helpful. 127 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:47.960 You know, one area that was really a pleasant surprise to me, occurring from the time of 128 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:54.840 the presidential election up until now, the difference, the difference between three years 129 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:59.680 ago or five years ago or ten years ago, as Lew mentioned, I got interested in politics 130 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:09.200 after the obvious setting of the stage for the problems we have today and that was the 131 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:13.960 elimination of any restraints on the secret Federal Reserve to create as much money and 132 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:24.880 credit as it wanted secretly without any supervision of the Congress occurring on August 15, 1971. 133 00:14:24.880 --> 00:14:34.440 But we've had this come and now we are facing this great crisis, which is a financial crisis 134 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:37.480 and a dollar crisis. 135 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:42.640 But the people now are so much more interested. 136 00:14:42.640 --> 00:14:49.460 Back then, before 71, after 71, the Federal Reserve always got the credit. 137 00:14:49.460 --> 00:14:53.200 They got the credit for full employment and booming times. 138 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:58.780 And then there was an automatic or a necessary slump, the market demanding a slump or recession 139 00:14:58.780 --> 00:15:02.680 or liquidation, it would occur and the Fed would get credit for getting us out of the 140 00:15:02.680 --> 00:15:03.680 slump. 141 00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:09.560 I mean, and they've had it, and nobody questioned them, but the Fed was there to provide and 142 00:15:09.560 --> 00:15:10.560 take care of everybody. 143 00:15:10.560 --> 00:15:13.080 The Congress didn't care about understanding it. 144 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:17.960 They probably subtly knew, you know, we can spend money and we can tax a bit and we can 145 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:22.000 borrow, but somehow or another the Fed takes care of it. 146 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:28.000 and we don't want to know too much about it and they had a free ride for all this time 147 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:35.600 until you know 2008 and they haven't and now because of the educational effort at the grassroots 148 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:42.080 level because of the internet and by bringing this forward publicly the people are so much 149 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:50.840 more aware of it and the Federal Reserve is now understood much better than ever before 150 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:58.040 and I had the awakening moment which I mentioned in my book and the Fed, it occurred at the University of Michigan. 151 00:15:58.040 --> 00:16:02.240 You know, we went over to the University of Michigan after we had a debate in Detroit 152 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:07.840 and it had to do with economic policy and that was where I said the economy wasn't doing all that well 153 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:14.840 and that was a no-no because we were talking about a Republican administration and you're not supposed to do that. 154 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:19.640 So we went over and the big surprise at the University of Michigan, there was a huge crowd 155 00:16:19.640 --> 00:16:23.120 and I was late because of the debates and traffic and that sort of thing. 156 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:27.880 But they hung around and that was where they started chanting, 157 00:16:27.880 --> 00:16:30.880 end of ad, end of ad. 158 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:39.240 So the name of my book wasn't very original. 159 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:44.760 They gave me the title, but they were really disobeying the law 160 00:16:44.760 --> 00:16:47.400 because, you know, it's against the law to deface the currency. 161 00:16:47.400 --> 00:16:50.280 You can destroy its value, but don't deface the currency. 162 00:16:50.280 --> 00:16:55.240 So that was when they were destroying the currency. 163 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:59.080 They started burning Federal Reserve notes right out in public. 164 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:02.520 So no, it is different. 165 00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:06.080 And we've gotten their attention. 166 00:17:06.080 --> 00:17:12.960 Who would have ever dreamed that the Federal Reserve would have to hire PR people to go around 167 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:24.960 and lobbyists to go around and explain to congressmen how good they were and get on national TV and the chairman of the Federal Reserve defending himself on, was he on John Stewart or some program like that? 168 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:32.960 I mean, this is pretty amazing. We have them on the run. They're on the defensive, so that's keep the charge going. 169 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:47.080 And you know, I don't know if you heard, but I have been made a chairman of a subcommittee 170 00:17:47.080 --> 00:17:55.640 on monetary policy. 171 00:17:55.640 --> 00:18:00.900 Now they tell me in Washington, I'm a very patient person. 172 00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:08.820 After 30 years and being denied the committee three different times, all of a sudden, you 173 00:18:08.820 --> 00:18:11.820 know, I'm the subcommittee chairman. 174 00:18:11.820 --> 00:18:15.840 The other day we had an organization meeting and a few things came to light. 175 00:18:15.840 --> 00:18:21.340 One was that subcommittee chairman cannot demand that the chairman of the Federal Reserve 176 00:18:21.340 --> 00:18:23.700 or the Secretary of the Treasury come before the subcommittee. 177 00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:27.100 It has to go before the full committee. 178 00:18:27.100 --> 00:18:33.820 But we'll still send out some invitations and see what the consequence will be. 179 00:18:33.820 --> 00:18:37.380 But they also had a little... 180 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:41.300 We had all the Republicans, this was not the full committees, all the Republicans got together 181 00:18:41.300 --> 00:18:47.320 and we got, you know, the subcommittee chairman got to say a couple words about the committee. 182 00:18:47.320 --> 00:18:54.340 So my committee, my subcommittee is considered the smallest, most insignificant committee 183 00:18:54.340 --> 00:18:58.260 and it's always been it's very small and nobody's ever wanted to be on it and 184 00:18:58.260 --> 00:19:02.260 nobody ever paid attention in the past they would have two or three meetings a 185 00:19:02.260 --> 00:19:05.420 year and they would talk about what they're gonna do with the dollar bill it 186 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:08.500 cost too much to keep printing them and how are we gonna get the American people 187 00:19:08.500 --> 00:19:13.540 to use gold you know coinage instead of paper and what should we do with the 188 00:19:13.540 --> 00:19:18.180 penny and what do we do with this commemorative total coin and even though 189 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:23.060 that was pretty boring I always got on a subcommittee because I considered you 190 00:19:23.060 --> 00:19:26.820 You know, the monetary unit to be pretty important. 191 00:19:26.820 --> 00:19:33.180 So when they came to me down the line, last one, they said, Ron Paul is chairman of the 192 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:35.180 Monetary Policy Subcommittee. 193 00:19:35.180 --> 00:19:36.500 So I said, well, thank you. 194 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:41.500 And I looked around and I said, and I looked at our chairman and I said, is it true that 195 00:19:41.500 --> 00:19:46.300 this committee has charge of the Federal Reserve? 196 00:19:46.300 --> 00:19:50.820 And they admitted that it was and they knew exactly what was going on. 197 00:19:50.820 --> 00:19:59.340 I try to explain to them that you don't realize it, but this is the most important committee 198 00:19:59.340 --> 00:20:08.580 in the whole Congress. 199 00:20:08.580 --> 00:20:14.420 If it's the Federal Reserve that has the responsibility of dealing with the value of our currency and 200 00:20:14.420 --> 00:20:19.900 can create the business cycle, not only here but worldwide because we're the worldwide 201 00:20:19.900 --> 00:20:21.340 Reserve Currency. 202 00:20:21.340 --> 00:20:22.540 So that's pretty important. 203 00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:25.740 I said, just think about the monetary unit of the dollar. 204 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:27.300 It's worldwide use. 205 00:20:27.300 --> 00:20:29.300 All of the currency related to it. 206 00:20:29.300 --> 00:20:33.300 And every single financial transaction 207 00:20:33.300 --> 00:20:35.340 is related to the dollar. 208 00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:38.060 50% of the transaction is related. 209 00:20:38.060 --> 00:20:40.740 So everything everybody does, everything they earn, 210 00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:44.260 spend their money, and indirectly the world currencies 211 00:20:44.260 --> 00:20:45.740 is related to that. 212 00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:52.020 And I saw some people just sort of, wow, maybe that is. 213 00:20:52.020 --> 00:20:55.300 But I don't know what will happen, 214 00:20:55.300 --> 00:21:01.700 but I do know that I'm very determined to do my very best 215 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:05.660 to do the job that should have been done a long time ago. 216 00:21:05.660 --> 00:21:19.820 So as soon as we were sworn in, I sent my staff over to get a day for a hearing, you 217 00:21:19.820 --> 00:21:22.860 know, when's our first hearing, what are we going to do? 218 00:21:22.860 --> 00:21:29.180 And they said, relax a bit, we have to get organized, and it was a legitimate argument. 219 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:33.420 And matter of fact, even today, we do not have the names of the Democrats that will 220 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:36.420 will be on that committee. 221 00:21:36.420 --> 00:21:37.920 But it is a small committee. 222 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.260 There are eight Republicans and six Republicans. 223 00:21:40.260 --> 00:21:42.100 I saw, excuse me, it's the other way around. 224 00:21:42.100 --> 00:21:44.700 I think the Republicans are, yeah, they're in charge now. 225 00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:48.260 Eight Republicans and six Democrats. 226 00:21:48.260 --> 00:21:50.820 But it's going to be a different kind of committee. 227 00:21:50.820 --> 00:21:53.260 It's not going to be a committee to demagogue. 228 00:21:53.260 --> 00:21:56.300 It has nothing to do with political partisanship. 229 00:21:56.300 --> 00:22:00.460 It has to do with challenging Keynes. 230 00:22:00.460 --> 00:22:01.140 That is it. 231 00:22:01.140 --> 00:22:08.060 And we're going to challenge Keynes and his monetary system. 232 00:22:08.060 --> 00:22:15.740 One of the pieces of legislation that's been floating around by others who are anxious to 233 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.460 take advantage of the interest in the Federal Reserve, a lot of people are interested in 234 00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:25.460 the Federal Reserve now, but they have made a proposal that we remove the mandate of the 235 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:28.820 Federal Reserve to provide full employment. 236 00:22:28.820 --> 00:22:32.220 They have two mandates, stable prices and full employment. 237 00:22:32.220 --> 00:22:36.960 Well, they claim there are stable prices and they're doing an excellent job on inflation. 238 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:41.940 Even though commodity prices last year went up 24%, they think inflation has been licked, 239 00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:43.940 you know. 240 00:22:43.940 --> 00:22:49.900 But the commodity price is, of course, going up, and the unemployment rate, now they've 241 00:22:49.900 --> 00:22:53.300 been very successful on unemployment rate. 242 00:22:53.300 --> 00:22:56.020 You know, they say, well, they're relatively successful. 243 00:22:56.020 --> 00:23:05.040 They only have 9% unemployment, 9.5% unemployed, but even the Bureau of Labor Statistics will 244 00:23:05.040 --> 00:23:10.840 admit that it's actually 17 when you talk about the people who are just barely employed 245 00:23:10.840 --> 00:23:12.980 that might be working on weekends. 246 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:15.460 When you count them, it's 17%. 247 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:21.340 And then if you look to John Williams from a private number, he comes up with between 248 00:23:21.340 --> 00:23:28.140 22% and 23% unemployment when you count everybody who's given up on looking for work. 249 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:32.740 I mean it's like the depression on how many people are unemployed and that's why no matter 250 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:38.900 how much they pump up the statistics and the euphoria, no matter how much money the banks 251 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:43.460 make by getting more money from the Fed and returning it to the Treasury and all that 252 00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:48.160 gimmickry and Wall Street is enjoying it and they're making money once again. 253 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:51.520 There's still a lot of people suffering out there. 254 00:23:51.520 --> 00:23:57.080 And the one characteristic about destruction of a currency is you can't destroy a currency 255 00:23:57.080 --> 00:24:02.000 without destroying the middle class and tragically that's what we're involved in. 256 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:10.320 That is why sound money should be the issue because if we care about the welfare of our 257 00:24:10.320 --> 00:24:14.260 people, the poor people, the middle class, you have to have sound money. 258 00:24:14.260 --> 00:24:19.220 He can't do it by printing money, spending money and having the Congress do it. 259 00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:25.180 So the answer to so many of our problems is to understand the business cycle and why we 260 00:24:25.180 --> 00:24:36.460 do need a sound commodity-backed currency. 261 00:24:36.460 --> 00:24:43.820 Now the proposal is to remove the mandate for the Fed to maintain full employment. 262 00:24:43.820 --> 00:24:51.340 and that I think is just sort of fluff but it's a bill and I could care less about what 263 00:24:51.340 --> 00:24:56.160 happens to that particular bill because what if you do remove the mandate? 264 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:57.160 What difference does it make? 265 00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:01.240 How is it going to change monetary policy since they do what they want anyway? 266 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:04.220 You know, and you can barely get the information out. 267 00:25:04.220 --> 00:25:08.940 We've gotten some information out about the funds they spent during the crisis but we 268 00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:13.280 didn't get a true audit so I'll continue to work on that, to audit the Fed. 269 00:25:13.280 --> 00:25:20.720 We're going to insist on that. 270 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:26.120 But at the moment, the tentative plan is, as soon as they give me a date in February sometime, 271 00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:28.320 is to have a hearing. 272 00:25:28.320 --> 00:25:37.880 And the hearing will have to do with monetary policy and monetary policy as related to employment. 273 00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:44.560 And this means it introduces the whole notion of the business cycle. 274 00:25:44.560 --> 00:25:52.040 And instead of giving the Federal Reserve this mandate to keep unemployment low and 275 00:25:52.040 --> 00:25:58.080 getting credit when it is low, what we're going to do is show them how the Fed creates 276 00:25:58.080 --> 00:25:59.080 the unemployment. 277 00:25:59.080 --> 00:26:05.120 They're the ones who are responsible. 278 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:08.520 So the format of the committees will be different. 279 00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:13.180 Too often, you know, they're just show hearings. 280 00:26:13.180 --> 00:26:19.160 They go in and they have two or three big guns and you go through the whole committee 281 00:26:19.160 --> 00:26:22.040 and everybody gets asked their question. 282 00:26:22.040 --> 00:26:23.360 Then you go on to the next panel. 283 00:26:23.360 --> 00:26:29.960 Sometimes there are three panels and you end up with eight or nine people involved and 284 00:26:29.960 --> 00:26:32.720 I never thought they accomplished very much. 285 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.680 But my intention is to have smaller hearings. 286 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:40.880 We have the majority, so we're going to gang up on them. 287 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:44.160 We'll probably only have three people testifying at a time. 288 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:53.160 We'll have two good guys against one bad guy. 289 00:26:53.160 --> 00:27:04.040 Now what I'd like to do is get Paul Krugman there on the first go-round. 290 00:27:04.040 --> 00:27:08.340 Then I'll go and find a few good economists that comes out of the Mises Institute and we'll 291 00:27:08.340 --> 00:27:15.400 put them and stack them against Paul Krugman. 292 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:21.360 But the hearings will be as much to enlighten as to legislate because the main legislation 293 00:27:21.360 --> 00:27:51.360 And I am sure they'll give me a little bit of pressure because there will be some coinage bill that they'll want to pass and find out what percentage of zinc has to be removed because we can't afford zinc pennies anymore, that sort of thing, but it will be a serious discussion, it will be small in number, and there's not going to be strict limitation of time where you can barely get your questions in and if people are interested they're going to stay and we're going to debate this issue. 294 00:27:51.360 --> 00:28:08.360 If we do this right and we have the right people responding and I can get the right people to come with this age of the internet and with the age of communications, I think we can accomplish a whole lot by having these hearings. 295 00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:22.640 You know, Walter Jones, I mentioned, a good friend of mine, he's on the banking committee 296 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:29.040 and he asked for only one committee, subcommittee, and that was the monetary policy. 297 00:28:29.040 --> 00:28:33.180 And he got put on there and he will be the vice chairman of the committee. 298 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:37.420 And he told me, he says, Ron, he says, I want to get on your committee, he said, because, 299 00:28:37.420 --> 00:28:40.700 He says, I don't know anything about it and I want to learn something about it and he 300 00:28:40.700 --> 00:28:46.480 comes to my libertarian luncheon every week and he knows the speakers that we've had. 301 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:50.780 So he's very interested, but he wrote me a little note the other day, he said, why don't 302 00:28:50.780 --> 00:28:58.500 you have a hearing and talk about the relationship of the price of food and the price of oil 303 00:28:58.500 --> 00:29:04.020 as related to monetary policy, which is great because prices don't go up because of monetary 304 00:29:04.020 --> 00:29:09.860 Policy, prices go up, you know, according to the establishment, because the farmers 305 00:29:09.860 --> 00:29:14.340 aren't doing the right thing, or the Arabs aren't doing the right thing, or something 306 00:29:14.340 --> 00:29:15.340 else. 307 00:29:15.340 --> 00:29:21.540 You know, I struggled with this holding about inflation and definition, and when I was reading 308 00:29:21.540 --> 00:29:27.980 Human Action carefully, Mises would keep talking about inflation isn't the prices going up, 309 00:29:27.980 --> 00:29:32.120 inflation is when you increase the money supply, you know, and it pushes prices up. 310 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:36.040 And I kept saying, well, it's just semantics, forget it, why don't you just call it price 311 00:29:36.040 --> 00:29:37.560 inflation and this sort of thing. 312 00:29:37.560 --> 00:29:44.000 He said, no, it is very, very deliberate that everybody thinks about prices going up for 313 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:49.820 something other than monetary policy and separate it because they don't want to attack monetary 314 00:29:49.820 --> 00:29:50.820 policy. 315 00:29:50.820 --> 00:29:56.360 If oil prices are going up, there's some type of strategic reason, geopolitical reason for 316 00:29:56.360 --> 00:29:57.600 oil prices go up. 317 00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:01.920 In the 70s especially, it had nothing to do with the inflation of the Federal Reserve. 318 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:30.920 I told Warren, I said, this is a great idea, this is a great point to make and see how the dollar supply is related, and since he now is such an anti-war person, he tells me constantly how badly he felt. 319 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:34.760 He had gut instincts against the Iraq War. 320 00:30:34.760 --> 00:30:36.960 And he voted for the war under pressure 321 00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:38.680 from the administration. 322 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:40.480 And he's never forgiven himself from this. 323 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:44.840 I mean, he punishes himself almost too much. 324 00:30:44.840 --> 00:30:48.120 He writes a letter, hand-signed letter, 325 00:30:48.120 --> 00:30:51.520 to every family who lost a person overseas. 326 00:30:51.520 --> 00:30:56.240 Thousands of letters that he have sent. 327 00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:01.200 But he is so dedicated to this effort. 328 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:03.360 So I told him, I said, you know, also, 329 00:31:03.360 --> 00:31:05.840 the relationship of the Federal Reserve 330 00:31:05.840 --> 00:31:08.240 and when you worry about oil costs going up 331 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:11.960 and food costs go up, I said, do you realize that in history 332 00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:15.120 it's very difficult to find a war 333 00:31:15.120 --> 00:31:17.720 that was not fought with inflation? 334 00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:20.000 It's always essentially fought with inflation. 335 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:21.920 Maybe originally they could pay for the wars 336 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:24.400 by stealing enough gold from somebody else, 337 00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:28.280 But later on, they started diluting the metal and clipping the coins. 338 00:31:28.280 --> 00:31:35.120 And today, at least in the last century or so, it's all been just by printing press money. 339 00:31:35.120 --> 00:31:40.680 And that was one of the things that happened right after 1913, World War I, finance that way, 340 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:44.320 then the recession of 21 and on and on. 341 00:31:44.320 --> 00:31:52.560 So if our goal is to have more freedom, protection of civil liberties, protection of free markets, 342 00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:55.080 and also a more peaceful world. 343 00:31:55.080 --> 00:32:00.800 You cannot deal with that unless you understand the Federal Reserve because it can't be financed. 344 00:32:00.800 --> 00:32:02.380 There's always a limitation. 345 00:32:02.380 --> 00:32:10.520 As long as they can finance through the creation of credit and delay the pain and suffering 346 00:32:10.520 --> 00:32:12.920 from that, they're going to do it. 347 00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:18.160 So the real goal is of course to get people to understand why a free society is so much 348 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:30.160 is much greater and so much better than an authoritarian society and why trade and friendship is so much better than, you know, aggressiveness and intervention and militarism. 349 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:36.160 But ultimately it is connected to the monetary system. They just can't pay for it. 350 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:43.160 And we have a major undertaking and right now I happen to be in a place where I can call attention to it, 351 00:32:43.160 --> 00:33:13.160 to it, but you're in a place where you can continue to call your attention. The Mises Institute has been doing it for years and years and everyone in this room can continue to do it. So many of you already have in your support of the Mises Institute and other individuals in support of good candidates. And this has been very helpful. But the monetary issue is key, is connected to freedom. I do not believe that you can really succeed at having a free society by tinkering around with a budget, not 352 00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:20.160 not changing the attitude of what the role of government ought to be and not looking at the system of money. 353 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:28.160 The system of money we have today is corrupt, it's run in secrecy, it is evil, it's immoral, it's destructive, 354 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:34.160 and it's confiscation of wealth, as Alan Greenspan admitted many years ago. 355 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:41.160 So this is an issue, it's interconnected, and I think we're making great progress. 356 00:33:41.160 --> 00:34:04.160 One thing for sure is that this system will not continue. When I argue the case for non-intervention overseas, I look at them and say, you know, I know I'm not going to win this argument. I know that next year we will not have enough people that will vote and cut off the funding and tell the troops to come home from Korea and the Middle East and Europe and the whole place. It's not likely to happen. 357 00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:34.160 but it but it will end because the dollar will end and that is what we're facing so it is a major event that is a political event and it could occur quickly it could occur soon it could be a year or two or three but it will come and that is why I'm enthusiastic about the preparation that has occurred and the understanding of the young people on why this is so necessary and why self-reliance and 358 00:34:34.160 --> 00:34:38.160 and Belief in Taking Care of Ourselves and How the System Works. 359 00:34:38.160 --> 00:34:41.160 It is good to think theoretically why it's good to be free, 360 00:34:41.160 --> 00:34:44.160 but it's also good to realize that that is the system 361 00:34:44.160 --> 00:34:47.160 that provides the greatest amount of goods and services. 362 00:34:47.160 --> 00:34:50.160 I mean, if we care about humanity, if we're humanitarians, 363 00:34:50.160 --> 00:34:52.160 we have to believe in a free society. 364 00:34:52.160 --> 00:34:56.160 But the opposition so often wins the moral high ground. 365 00:34:56.160 --> 00:34:59.160 They say, well, we're the only ones who care about the poor people, 366 00:34:59.160 --> 00:35:01.160 so therefore we have to have a welfare state. 367 00:35:01.160 --> 00:35:03.160 And we're the only ones who care about those poor people 368 00:35:03.160 --> 00:35:07.560 People in Iraq and Iran, and we're going to give them liberty and take care of them. 369 00:35:07.560 --> 00:35:11.560 So they're always trying to grab the moral high ground, so we must grab the moral high 370 00:35:11.560 --> 00:35:14.360 ground and defend the cause of liberty. 371 00:35:14.360 --> 00:35:20.680 Our liberties and our right to our life comes from us in a way totally separate from government. 372 00:35:20.680 --> 00:35:22.040 It comes from our Creator. 373 00:35:22.040 --> 00:35:23.440 We're born with this. 374 00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:36.720 The job of any government, if you were to have government, should be strictly limited 375 00:35:36.720 --> 00:35:41.420 to that of guaranteeing and protection that your neighbor never takes your liberties that 376 00:35:41.420 --> 00:35:43.980 belong to you away from you. 377 00:35:43.980 --> 00:35:49.020 And if we had that size of government, that kind of government, that government would 378 00:35:49.020 --> 00:35:52.520 The people would be very small, the people would be very important, the country would 379 00:35:52.520 --> 00:35:53.520 be prosperous. 380 00:35:53.520 --> 00:35:58.380 Then, we would set an example for the world, people would want to emulate us and we wouldn't 381 00:35:58.380 --> 00:36:03.260 have to go around with guns and bombs and drones and threats and say live like us do 382 00:36:03.260 --> 00:36:08.380 because we're good people and we'll teach you how to be good people too. 383 00:36:08.380 --> 00:36:14.340 We live in revolutionary times, we're in the middle of this and the final conclusion 384 00:36:14.340 --> 00:36:15.340 is not there. 385 00:36:15.340 --> 00:36:20.020 I think we're gaining, I think we're winning, and I think in the next five years we'll know 386 00:36:20.020 --> 00:36:21.500 exactly what's happening. 387 00:36:21.500 --> 00:36:25.680 But it's crowds like this and groups like this that have to be energized because the 388 00:36:25.680 --> 00:36:28.820 masses of people never will automatically join. 389 00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:32.740 They have to come to the conclusion that it is in their best interest to fight for the 390 00:36:32.740 --> 00:36:37.060 cause of liberty and reject the notion that the government can take care of us from cradle 391 00:36:37.060 --> 00:36:38.060 to grave. 392 00:36:38.060 --> 00:36:38.700 Thank you very much. 393 00:37:06.620 --> 00:37:11.060 Now if I didn't talk too long, I'm allowed to take a few questions and I don't know how 394 00:37:11.060 --> 00:37:26.060 2012 395 00:37:41.060 --> 00:37:49.300 Funding in 2012 or even in 2011, except in 2011 I know that I will be involved in the 396 00:37:49.300 --> 00:37:51.020 Monetary Policy Subcommittee. 397 00:37:51.020 --> 00:38:05.100 I have not made any decisions about exactly what I'll be doing in 2012. 398 00:38:05.100 --> 00:38:06.100 Basic research. 399 00:38:06.100 --> 00:38:36.100 I don't think the government should fund basic research but the argument the argument is going to be well some of this is very good and they've accomplished a lot of good by doing it but you don't know maybe they would have accomplished more if it would have all done by the private sector when the government gets involved sometimes special interest gets involved in drug companies and different companies get to spend that money it flows to the universities it's driven by 400 00:38:36.100 --> 00:38:38.340 by Special Interest. 401 00:38:38.340 --> 00:38:40.820 There could be an argument for some basic research 402 00:38:40.820 --> 00:38:43.740 or maybe for some military protection. 403 00:38:43.740 --> 00:38:46.980 But right now, I think we have all the weapons we need 404 00:38:46.980 --> 00:38:50.700 and we don't need a whole lot bigger weapon. 405 00:38:50.700 --> 00:38:54.180 And you know, one other thing about the smaller weapons 406 00:38:54.180 --> 00:38:58.260 and the smarter weapons and all these fancy little things, 407 00:38:58.260 --> 00:38:59.620 they're dangerous because they're 408 00:38:59.620 --> 00:39:01.740 allowable to get us into a big war. 409 00:39:01.740 --> 00:39:04.820 So no, other than that, theoretically, you 410 00:39:04.820 --> 00:39:20.820 You could justify some research for absolute defensive purposes, but no, all this R&D that we subsidize, it would get done and probably much better without the government politicizing it. 411 00:39:34.820 --> 00:39:48.740 He asked about what will happen when the interest rates go up and they will go up. 412 00:39:48.740 --> 00:39:53.540 Even this last go around, they didn't lower the interest rates like they really expected 413 00:39:53.540 --> 00:39:58.740 them to and although they have a lot of power and they do regulate and they keep interest 414 00:39:58.740 --> 00:40:03.580 rates lower than it should be, which is one of the basic flaws in the system, it doesn't 415 00:40:03.580 --> 00:40:07.840 can always work that way. Sometimes when they create new money and credit, interest rates 416 00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:14.000 actually go up instead of down. No, it'll be devastating when the rates go up. That'll 417 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:19.480 be in the midst of the crisis. When you start seeing, if you see a 10-year Treasury bill 418 00:40:19.480 --> 00:40:26.480 at three something, if you see it at 5%, 1.5% jump from where it is, boy, I would think 419 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:33.440 Boy, I would think that there's going to be, it could excite the rapid exit from the dollar. 420 00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:41.440 And because it wouldn't be so much that, oh, this is great, I'm making more money from my treasury bills as much as nobody wants our treasury bills. 421 00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:55.680 So, and then there, the 1% increase in the interest rates, I don't know the number offhand, but 1% increase in the interest rates for the national debt raises the national, you know, expenditure enormously. 422 00:40:55.680 --> 00:41:05.680 And that's out of control of legislation, and when you get to that point where even the Fed can't lower the interest rates, then we're in big trouble. 423 00:41:05.680 --> 00:41:09.680 I guess then, maybe then they'll turn on the printing presses just to print the money. 424 00:41:25.680 --> 00:41:40.740 He asked about could the gold not be there in Fort Knox and should we check on that? 425 00:41:40.740 --> 00:41:47.100 I said yeah I think we should. 426 00:41:47.100 --> 00:41:51.800 The audit bill said a full audit of the Federal Reserve and since they list that as an asset 427 00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:55.060 that would have meant that we could look at the gold. 428 00:41:55.060 --> 00:42:05.060 But you could go to Fort Knox, and they might show you a lot of gold, but that wouldn't describe the swap arrangements, the agreements, and whether they've loaned the gold out, and all the things that they have done. 429 00:42:05.060 --> 00:42:18.060 And I think the gold is in four different places. I think there's some in upstate New York, West Point, I think it's in New York, and Denver, as well as in Fort Knox. So a true audit is not easy. 430 00:42:18.060 --> 00:42:20.460 I remember, and Lew will probably recall this, 431 00:42:20.460 --> 00:42:23.500 because when we had the gold commission in the early 80s, 432 00:42:23.500 --> 00:42:25.980 I forced a vote in the commission 433 00:42:25.980 --> 00:42:29.060 to go on record for auditing the gold, 434 00:42:29.060 --> 00:42:33.160 and I think the vote was 15 to one against auditing the gold. 435 00:42:33.160 --> 00:42:35.740 They'll claim there is an audit going on every year, 436 00:42:35.740 --> 00:42:37.500 they count a little bit and all. 437 00:42:37.500 --> 00:42:42.500 But no, I think that would be very important to know. 438 00:42:44.900 --> 00:42:46.780 The one thing that I have in the past 439 00:42:46.780 --> 00:43:16.780 will continue to what I press them on is, you know, gold is not money, we're not, it's not important. Of course, the richer countries and those who are getting richer, they're buying up the gold like China and the people in the East, they're buying it and the West is selling the gold. So, but, you know, I've said to them, I said, if gold is not money, why don't you just return it to the people? You know, let the people have, let everybody go on their own gold standard. 440 00:43:16.780 --> 00:43:22.360 And my idea, of course, the solution of this is just allowing competition and freedom and 441 00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:28.320 making sure that gold and silver coinage never has sales taxes or capital gains taxes and 442 00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:30.040 it's legal to transact in it. 443 00:43:30.040 --> 00:43:44.040 I think that would take care of the problem. 444 00:43:44.040 --> 00:43:46.040 Do you hear it? 445 00:43:46.040 --> 00:44:11.040 Well, I don't think that is likely to happen, but maybe the best we can do is read Greenspan's speech in his article that he wrote for Ayn Rand, which would be pretty good, too. 446 00:44:14.040 --> 00:44:19.040 Do you comment on the use of federal dollars to help strengthen the borders? 447 00:44:44.040 --> 00:44:48.640 If you had fences and everything else, they'll still come in if there's an incentive. 448 00:44:48.640 --> 00:44:54.280 So we should reject our welfare state, both domestically and for, and at the moment, anybody 449 00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:59.900 who comes in, not qualify for any handouts, free school or free education, free medical 450 00:44:59.900 --> 00:45:04.520 care. 451 00:45:04.520 --> 00:45:11.680 But ultimately, you know, they wouldn't be, the immigration problem wouldn't be nearly 452 00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:17.520 is big. If we had a healthy, thriving economy, the resentment comes because people say, hey, 453 00:45:17.520 --> 00:45:24.800 they're stealing our jobs and they have to blame somebody. So I think we have to have 454 00:45:24.800 --> 00:45:32.120 a free market economy. There are so many other things, no benefits. But there's a legitimate 455 00:45:32.120 --> 00:45:37.920 expenditure if you want to spend money on the borders. But I think the money is there. 456 00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:44.600 I think it's these other policies that are more important than just beefing up the borders. 457 00:45:44.600 --> 00:45:52.280 But the borders, I mean, living in Texas, we hear about and know about what it's like down on that border. 458 00:45:52.280 --> 00:45:54.400 And it's getting worse and worse. 459 00:45:54.400 --> 00:46:02.440 But I would say 90% of that has nothing to do with some poor Mexican wanting to survive by coming up here. 460 00:46:02.440 --> 00:46:05.960 90% of it is due to that drug war that ought to be ended. 461 00:46:05.960 --> 00:46:12.960 That's where the trouble comes from. 462 00:46:30.760 --> 00:46:33.560 I think I basically answered that question, yeah. 463 00:46:33.560 --> 00:46:47.560 You know, if you have a problem, declare war. Under war conditions, they can undermine our civil liberties, and that's what they do, no matter whether it's a war against illiteracy or a war against drugs or wars overseas. 464 00:46:47.560 --> 00:46:57.560 That's when you're supposed to compromise and give up your freedoms. So, yeah, we don't need a war on drugs. We need education. 465 00:46:57.560 --> 00:47:17.560 We need education. I do consider drugs very, very dangerous. I consider alcohol very, very dangerous. I consider prescription drugs very, very dangerous, and psychotropic drugs very dangerous, but I also assume that the responsibility falls on the individuals, the families, and the local community, and the churches. 466 00:47:27.560 --> 00:47:55.560 She's talking about, what has 20%? You won 20%? I wouldn't want to tax the American people, raise their taxes by 20%. If you have money in your pocket, and you've earned it, and your life is your own, the money you earn is your own, and you have a moral right to spend it any way you want. 467 00:47:57.560 --> 00:48:10.560 And if a poor person can't pay $100 for shoes and he can pay $10 for shoes and he can buy them from China, he should buy them from China. 468 00:48:10.560 --> 00:48:21.560 But our problems are much more complex than that, just buying goods cheap from China. 469 00:48:21.560 --> 00:48:27.320 in China, it's that we don't have a work ethic, we borrow, we're consumerists, and we have 470 00:48:27.320 --> 00:48:33.940 the benefit of the reserve currency, we get to print the money and spend it overseas, 471 00:48:33.940 --> 00:48:39.280 and that money comes back and feeds back into our economy, it's that system that has been 472 00:48:39.280 --> 00:48:42.720 so bad and encourages jobs to go overseas. 473 00:48:42.720 --> 00:48:46.740 Our export, we have a great export, it's money, dollars, and they're still taking them. 474 00:48:46.740 --> 00:48:49.820 As long as they will, believe me, the jobs are going to go overseas. 475 00:48:49.820 --> 00:48:55.820 Getting cheap products from overseas is not that bad, even if they subsidize. 476 00:48:55.820 --> 00:49:00.820 Let's say it costs them $50 to make an item and they're going to sell them to us for $25. 477 00:49:00.820 --> 00:49:04.820 Well, that's $25 you can stick in your pocket and spend it on something else. 478 00:49:04.820 --> 00:49:10.820 So an import tax is a tax on the people. Most of the time it's a tax on the poor people. 479 00:49:10.820 --> 00:49:14.820 One more question. Oh, we'll go over there. 480 00:49:19.820 --> 00:49:35.820 How did Alan Greenspan go from being too long-ranged? 481 00:49:49.820 --> 00:49:57.820 has said some things, you know, a little sympathetic to gold and the things that he once believed in. 482 00:49:57.820 --> 00:50:02.820 Anyway, it looks like Lew is calling this to a halt and I want to thank everybody for coming. 483 00:50:02.820 --> 00:50:04.820 I enjoyed it. Good luck.