WEBVTT NOTE Prepare for the Worst 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 The founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, still serves as chairman and CEO, Mr. Lew Rockwell. 2 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000 How do you introduce Ron Paul? I could obviously take the rest of this meeting, telling you about his qualifications. 3 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:55.000 qualifications. I'll just mention a couple of things. When the Mises Institute was founded, this man who, from the time he was a medical student, was reading Austrian economics and his, because long ago, even though his professional qualifications are in medicine, is a real Austrian economist, was a big help to the founding of the Institute financially, helped get us on the road. And one of our members here was just reminding me of our first conference in 1983 in Washington DC on the gold standard. 4 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:00.200 that a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors came to debate Ron. 5 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:04.800 Fed was, I think, a less arrogant institution maybe in those days. Ron beat him, by the way. 6 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:10.200 Charles Partee, you won't be surprised to find out. Ron has been beating the Federal Reserve ever since. 7 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:14.200 The fact that Ben Bernanke is having so much trouble today in Washington 8 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:17.200 due to Ron Paul and all the work he's done. 9 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:33.240 So building on the work of Mises and Rothbard and Hayek and all our other great heroes, 10 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:38.480 we have our current hero, who in his presidential campaign took the Austrian School to a big 11 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:44.720 step up, so that today, there's no question that all over this country, as Tom Woods mentioned, 12 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:50.880 young people, old people, everybody's interested in the ideas of the Austrian School, and we 13 00:01:50.880 --> 00:02:00.880 We have a lot to say, a lot of thank yous to say to our next speaker for this wonderful thing that's happening, for the trouble Bernanke is in, Dr. Ron Paul. 14 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:29.880 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Like I often say, I don't get that applause in Washington D.C.'s. 15 00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:36.140 So it's good to be at home, it's good to be in Texas, and it's good to be back in America. 16 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:41.980 So it's very nice to be here and among friends, but I do notice, Lew, I think there are more 17 00:02:41.980 --> 00:02:44.600 people here than before. 18 00:02:44.600 --> 00:02:55.040 It seems like there's some growth in our movement, and thank you very much for coming. 19 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:58.680 There was a time when we would have meetings, and maybe there'd be six or eight or ten or 20 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:02.680 Well, we're talking about what we ought to do with the future. 21 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:10.180 And now it is a delight to see the growth and the enthusiasm, and to me it's very encouraging. 22 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:15.580 I get a lot of credit for encouraging other people and getting them involved, but the 23 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:21.040 truth is, is especially when I go to the universities, I get a lot of encouragement because I find 24 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:23.920 and the young people are responding so favorably. 25 00:03:23.920 --> 00:03:32.280 But this is, there is definite signs that significant change is occurring and I do truly 26 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:37.200 believe there is a revolution going on in this country. 27 00:03:37.200 --> 00:03:50.160 And I say that in the good sense of the word, a revolution, a true revolution is philosophic. 28 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:56.720 It's a change of ideas and it's pervasive, it's not a republican revolution or a democratic 29 00:03:56.720 --> 00:04:03.200 revolution and I often think about, you know, how the revolution occurred in the 30s, at 30 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:07.760 least a continuation of when I actually started a little earlier, but a significant revolutionary 31 00:04:07.760 --> 00:04:14.040 change in attitude and then it was sort of, the climax came when it was announced, it 32 00:04:14.040 --> 00:04:19.240 was official when we had President Nixon say, we're all Keynesians now. 33 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.640 So there may be a day that we'll get up and we'll have somebody in Washington say we're 34 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:27.600 all Austrians now. 35 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:36.120 You know, it has been a lot of fun and a lot of enjoyment, especially for me in the last 36 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:39.440 two years, and also very hectic at times. 37 00:04:39.440 --> 00:04:43.880 But things definitely changed after the presidential campaign, dramatically. 38 00:04:43.880 --> 00:04:46.040 There was a big change in my personal life. 39 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:53.080 There was a big change in attitudes and respect for what we all have been saying for so long. 40 00:04:53.080 --> 00:04:57.880 But actually there's a change in walking through airports. 41 00:04:57.880 --> 00:05:02.880 And that sometimes is quite enjoyable. 42 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:04.440 I meet a lot of people. 43 00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:05.960 But it is fascinating. 44 00:05:05.960 --> 00:05:13.020 Why I'm so fascinated is by the individuals who come up and are excited about getting 45 00:05:13.020 --> 00:05:25.020 I can tell you, the people who come and talk to me and want more information and all, they're very diverse. 46 00:05:25.020 --> 00:05:29.020 Believe me, they do not look like the typical Republican. 47 00:05:29.020 --> 00:05:38.020 And I think this is great. 48 00:05:38.020 --> 00:05:41.020 Those interested come from all walks of life. 49 00:05:41.020 --> 00:05:42.020 Life. 50 00:05:42.020 --> 00:05:46.500 There is no doubt that they don't come from the business class or the banking class, although 51 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:54.780 we'll have them, but they'll come from the working class in all areas of the society. 52 00:05:54.780 --> 00:06:00.140 But because freedom is so popular and brings people together, which has been my argument, 53 00:06:00.140 --> 00:06:05.780 we follow the Constitution, defend liberty, then all of a sudden we melt away so many 54 00:06:05.780 --> 00:06:07.820 of our differences. 55 00:06:07.820 --> 00:06:15.580 But it also invites a bit of a problem because individuals who do come, sometimes I am dumbfounded 56 00:06:15.580 --> 00:06:22.660 and all of a sudden new friends and they seem to be even more than I expected. 57 00:06:22.660 --> 00:06:32.260 For instance, it's sometimes hard for me to totally understand why the TSA employees 58 00:06:32.260 --> 00:06:40.060 would be excited about talking to me but it does happen so I just wrote it off 59 00:06:40.060 --> 00:06:43.380 for a while yeah they know I'm a congressman and they just think that they 60 00:06:43.380 --> 00:06:49.140 have to you know be real friendly but I swear some of them are very very sincere 61 00:06:49.140 --> 00:06:55.740 and just the other day this individual was reading all of my stuff and calling 62 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:59.980 in the weekly report on the telephone and listening to it so he's been very 63 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:08.980 So this idea that we can take people and stereotype them and say, well, they're in this category and they're not open to our ideas. 64 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:17.980 I'm marveled at it to think that really, with the ideas of liberty and limited government, we can approach anybody and everybody. 65 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:25.980 And to me, I think that's just fantastic. 66 00:07:25.980 --> 00:07:32.980 You know, for a long time, we were a very small minority. We still are a minority and we have to recognize that. 67 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:38.980 We still have a long way to go. But several years ago, before we were getting any attention at all, 68 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:43.980 I was talking to a member of Congress, going to the Black Caucus, 69 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:50.980 and there was some moaning and groaning about, you know, taking care of people who were in the minority. 70 00:07:50.980 --> 00:08:08.980 And I told him, I looked at this congresswoman, and I said, look, you have no idea what it's like to be in the minority. You ought to try being a libertarian in the U.S. Congress. 71 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:16.980 But that is changing right now, and fortunately I think all to our benefit. 72 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:24.940 but we certainly have a lot of problems yet to deal with this past week we had 73 00:08:24.940 --> 00:08:31.300 a perfect example of where we really stand especially on the foreign policy 74 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:35.660 foreign policy might be the hardest not to crack as far as getting people to 75 00:08:35.660 --> 00:08:41.060 come to a better understanding I thought maybe after the election you know up in 76 00:08:41.060 --> 00:08:45.780 Massachusetts that people might say hey maybe maybe they do really want some 77 00:08:45.780 --> 00:08:50.180 changes here maybe we ought to look at things more carefully and we had a vote 78 00:08:50.180 --> 00:08:54.500 this week some of you might have read about it had to do with Haiti and I 79 00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:58.420 thought well maybe they'll look at this maybe they'll read the bill maybe they'll 80 00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:02.780 pay some attention and maybe there'll be more than one vote maybe there'll be 81 00:09:02.780 --> 00:09:09.500 three votes or four the vote the bill simply said we express our condolences 82 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:13.100 as our sympathies for the people who have suffered in Haiti that is what the 83 00:09:13.100 --> 00:09:20.500 That is what the title said and that's what nobody looks at any of that stuff until they get to the floor and that's what the little sentence is on the desk. 84 00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:25.700 What are you voting on? Oh, to express our sympathies for the people hating. 85 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:41.900 But if you read the bill, you find out that it was an endless commitment of militarism and occupation and no limitation on funds to stay there as far as anybody's concerned forever. 86 00:09:41.900 --> 00:09:50.660 So the vote was going on, and it was about 430 to 3, and I thought, well, see, tripled our vote. 87 00:09:50.660 --> 00:10:02.360 But I was wrong. It didn't work. People started looking at it, and probably people running over and saying, 88 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:11.400 do you know what you're doing? So then it was 430 to 2. Then all of a sudden, you know, you can change your vote at the last minute. 89 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:21.400 Then it turned out 432 to 1, and I was sitting with close friends who understand a little 90 00:10:21.400 --> 00:10:26.160 bit about this, but they also understand from their viewpoint this is too risky for them 91 00:10:26.160 --> 00:10:29.400 to deal with, you know, standing on principle on this. 92 00:10:29.400 --> 00:10:32.880 They said, and they looked over and they said, Braun, it looks like you're all by yourself 93 00:10:32.880 --> 00:10:33.880 again. 94 00:10:33.880 --> 00:10:39.680 And I said, well, I said, let's just soon have that, because my message is that there's, 95 00:10:39.680 --> 00:10:55.640 You know, it's me against the state, so it's a terrible way to get symbolism, but in a 96 00:10:55.640 --> 00:11:00.260 way that's the way we all are when you think about the numbers. 97 00:11:00.260 --> 00:11:05.400 But the difference is, is we're dealing with ideas, and we don't have to deal with 51% 98 00:11:05.400 --> 00:11:06.660 of the population. 99 00:11:06.660 --> 00:11:12.360 Most people are followers, Congress eventually will follow when we become the dominant philosophy 100 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:18.220 of the country and everybody is desperately looking for some answers for the crisis and 101 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:24.980 the problems that have been created by the illusion of Keynesian and socialist economics. 102 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:27.820 And they're looking more carefully all the time. 103 00:11:27.820 --> 00:11:35.340 The other delight about coming into politics from our viewpoint is that, you know, typically 104 00:11:35.340 --> 00:12:05.340 if you're a conventional conservative Republican, you know, you get a lot of interviews on Fox News Network, you know, but if you come at it from a free market viewpoint and an Austrian viewpoint, all of a sudden, you know, occasionally on some of the liberal stations, they'll be good civil libertarians and they'll understand foreign policy and instead of, since the campaign was over, instead of being excluded from Fox, I was excluded, of course, during the campaign and gave 105 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:14.340 But now I think it's been over 50 times since I've been interviewed on Fox on economic issues since the campaign. 106 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:28.340 But the more liberal stations, some of them wouldn't dare want to talk to me because their agenda is Democratic Party politics, 107 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:34.340 and they're not for liberty, they're just for Democratic Party politics and big government. 108 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:35.340 Government. 109 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:41.300 But even on those stations, you will have a few on there that are very honest people. 110 00:12:41.300 --> 00:12:46.500 Now the one individual that I never had heard of, and that shows my shortcomings, before 111 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:51.180 the campaign I had heard of but had never watched the program, and that was John Stewart. 112 00:12:51.180 --> 00:12:56.820 But that guy is pretty fascinating, I've come to respect him, and I see he's most likely 113 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:59.940 comes from the left, but he's an honest person. 114 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:09.340 But when the left really messes up, he loves to go and get them, and therefore it is not 115 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:15.620 unusual to see somebody like a John Stewart befriend us, all of us through me, by, I don't 116 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:19.420 know, I've been on a show, I know at least twice, maybe three times, so those kind of 117 00:13:19.420 --> 00:13:28.980 shows we get onto, they're considered liberal shows, but the delightful message here is 118 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:36.700 is that we do approach all spectrums and that means this can be a true movement, a true 119 00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:43.380 revolutionary change and we should be very optimistic about what we see so far. 120 00:13:43.380 --> 00:13:52.740 The question of the Tea Parties come up, I believe it was during the campaign, the presidential 121 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:58.820 campaign that somebody during a campaign it wasn't always our astute central 122 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:03.120 organization occurred I mean we were we ran a campaign because there was an 123 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:08.180 excitement out there and there was a lot of spontaneity to it and there was a lot 124 00:14:08.180 --> 00:14:13.460 of spontaneous fundraising efforts in the use of the Tea Party in modern days I 125 00:14:13.460 --> 00:14:20.100 believe really started at that particular time the the subsequently 126 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:26.140 though, since then there's been a lot of tea party movements, a lot of tea parties 127 00:14:26.140 --> 00:14:32.220 and now it's pretty hard to identify exactly who they are and what they are 128 00:14:32.220 --> 00:14:40.300 and exactly what's what's going on but it it is a I think it's a good sign 129 00:14:40.300 --> 00:14:45.260 because they're anti-Washington and they're anti-republican establishment and 130 00:14:45.260 --> 00:14:48.260 and anti-democrat establishment, and I believe that's good. 131 00:14:48.260 --> 00:15:04.260 But those of us who deal only in academic education and also in trying to change ideas, 132 00:15:04.260 --> 00:15:08.260 that's a little bit different than dealing with Tea Party movements. 133 00:15:08.260 --> 00:15:14.260 But those who are more involved in politics, I think they're rather significant. 134 00:15:14.260 --> 00:15:24.760 But all I've got to say about it is that you just can't reject them all or endorse them all because they are very diverse. 135 00:15:24.760 --> 00:15:36.260 And I believe what has happened was there are a lot of people who spontaneously came together not fully aware of exactly what they believed in. 136 00:15:36.260 --> 00:15:42.260 They had the energy and the disapproval of what was happening and they came together. 137 00:15:42.260 --> 00:15:47.520 But then all of a sudden, when the conventional politician realized, hey, there's a few people 138 00:15:47.520 --> 00:15:52.780 disgruntled out there, hey, that must be a new movement, I'd better get into that movement 139 00:15:52.780 --> 00:15:56.700 and get in front of the line so I can be a leader of that movement. 140 00:15:56.700 --> 00:16:00.780 And that's essentially what has happened there, jumping in and claiming. 141 00:16:00.780 --> 00:16:10.380 And there's pretty strong evidence that many of the Tea Party meetings are infiltrated 142 00:16:10.380 --> 00:16:18.940 by the neoconservative element and not an anti-war sound money group of people. 143 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:27.060 But nevertheless, our job really is spreading ideas and those ideas being so pervasive that 144 00:16:27.060 --> 00:16:33.200 they will influence not only the parties but the Tea Party people as well. 145 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:39.100 But it is certainly encouraging that there is this much excitement. 146 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:46.320 You know, the other day I was talking over in Atlanta, and I had just been reading and 147 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:52.900 doing some research on a subject dealing with intelligence gathering, you know, that thing 148 00:16:52.900 --> 00:16:57.740 that the CIA does every once in a while. 149 00:16:57.740 --> 00:17:05.980 And I made the statement, which I don't back away from, but it came out after me expressing 150 00:17:05.980 --> 00:17:19.780 I'm concerned about, you know, the secret government and how much control they have, and I had just read recently that, you know, when the Soviet system collapsed, guess who really got in charge? The KGB. 151 00:17:19.780 --> 00:17:30.780 The KGB took over, ran things, and right now, 70% of anybody that has an important position in Russia today were KGB members. 152 00:17:30.780 --> 00:17:35.340 And my thoughts were that, you know, we ought to be cautious. 153 00:17:35.340 --> 00:17:42.460 I mean, I know we've complained about it, and the CIA is something that I've been criticizing for so many years. 154 00:17:42.460 --> 00:17:51.180 Quite frankly, I believe that if you have a truly constitutional republic, you would not even have a CIA. 155 00:17:51.180 --> 00:18:07.180 Then the opposition will immediately say, oh, you don't care. You don't care about protecting America and all those arguments. 156 00:18:07.180 --> 00:18:11.180 But then again, the other side of that argument is how much more money do you want? 157 00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:19.180 You claim that you have, well, we know you have $75 billion for the 16 agencies, and you don't do all that good a job. 158 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:25.680 And you want more money and more personnel to do things that we don't even know what you're doing, 159 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:30.380 and yet the CIA is funded not only directly, but indirectly. 160 00:18:30.380 --> 00:18:33.880 They run their own businesses every once in a while, they get into drug business. 161 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:37.980 And they're a government unto themselves. 162 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:41.680 Chalmers-Johnson said it was a private army for the president. 163 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.480 That is, until they turn on the president, and then who knows what happens. 164 00:18:45.480 --> 00:19:09.080 But it is. It's done in secrecy, and they're pervasive. They're into elections around the world, they're into assassinations, they're into interrogations and tortures, as well as being involved in just about everything around the world, and nobody really knows much about it. 165 00:19:09.080 --> 00:19:23.360 And that, that to me is the big complaint. You know, you wouldn't have to spend a heck of a lot of money if it just had a few people who were responsible for gathering off information of individuals or groups that might want to attack us. 166 00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:33.960 And maybe what they ought to do is maybe just listen to the person who wants to tell them, well, my son's a bit crazy and he's liable to come over here and do something to the tear gas. 167 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:44.840 But that would have probably cost about a $10 for a phone call, you know? 168 00:19:44.840 --> 00:19:46.960 That's not likely to happen. 169 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:50.600 They're going to want more and more money. 170 00:19:50.600 --> 00:19:56.200 But you know, we've talked a lot about the Federal Reserve system, and I think we could 171 00:19:56.200 --> 00:20:01.480 deal with the Federal Reserve system the same way I suggested we deal with the CIA. 172 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:10.080 We really don't need the Federal Reserve at all. 173 00:20:10.080 --> 00:20:12.240 The big question is what's going to happen to the audit bill? 174 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:17.160 It's in the House bill of regulation, the bill I voted against because it's an atrocious 175 00:20:17.160 --> 00:20:21.680 bill, but still the system works that way, so I had the chance to stick it on there. 176 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:22.680 I did. 177 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:27.400 It's not doing so well in the Senate side, and there's a lot of effort over there to 178 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:29.080 make sure it's not in there. 179 00:20:29.080 --> 00:20:36.880 But this very week, this whole Bernanke issue is related to the audit, audit the bill and 180 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:42.080 the energy so many of you put into it to get the attention of the American people and the 181 00:20:42.080 --> 00:20:49.000 congressmen right now to get 317 members of congress to sponsor this bill doesn't mean 182 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.580 that it does mean that the American people have sent a message there and I think it's 183 00:20:53.580 --> 00:20:55.320 very positive. 184 00:20:55.320 --> 00:21:04.740 But they're likely to water down, but the fact that Bernanke may not make it through 185 00:21:04.740 --> 00:21:12.280 means that this is closely tied to the audit bill because there have been holds put on 186 00:21:12.280 --> 00:21:18.120 the confirmation process and they have to have 60 votes in order to get that out unless 187 00:21:18.120 --> 00:21:23.320 they have an up and down vote on auditing the Fed. 188 00:21:23.320 --> 00:21:29.400 So the issues are closely tied. I generally over the years have not chosen to go after 189 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:34.240 the individuals even though sometimes it's much better to do that because you get a lot 190 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:42.080 more attention because I think it's the philosophy of money and the banking system. It's not 191 00:21:42.080 --> 00:21:46.320 Bernanke who created our crisis. It's the Bernanke-like people that have been around 192 00:21:46.320 --> 00:21:55.520 for way too long, especially since 1971. That is the real problem. So I generally don't. 193 00:21:55.520 --> 00:22:00.760 But this week, really, it is a big issue. You know, if Bernanke goes down, that means 194 00:22:00.760 --> 00:22:08.020 that they have a real setback for their desire to cover up and not allow to have transparency. 195 00:22:08.020 --> 00:22:12.920 But there are some over there that are adamly outspoken against what we're trying to do 196 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:17.720 to do and get some openness with the Federal Reserve. 197 00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:23.120 I sense from the discussions I've had and the hearings that we've had that the most 198 00:22:23.120 --> 00:22:30.200 important thing to the Fed to conceal is, of course, two things. 199 00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:36.800 One, international activities and second, how they bail out their buddies through the 200 00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:37.800 discount window. 201 00:22:37.800 --> 00:22:42.880 Those are the two things that they get hysterical over and that means, oh, you want to turn 202 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:45.560 and the power of the money system over to the Congress 203 00:22:45.560 --> 00:22:48.840 so that we will let the people know what's going on. 204 00:22:48.840 --> 00:22:52.320 And what if a bank is weak and the people get to know that? 205 00:22:52.320 --> 00:22:54.240 Well, isn't that what you're supposed to know? 206 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:57.160 Why should the Federal Reserve cover up the information? 207 00:22:57.160 --> 00:22:58.520 You know, in this day and age, you know, 208 00:22:58.520 --> 00:23:02.800 you take a company like Enron, if they fudge the books 209 00:23:02.800 --> 00:23:06.920 and lie to the people, and they go to prison for fraud. 210 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:09.320 But here they're saying that if the Federal Reserve comes in 211 00:23:09.320 --> 00:23:11.640 and finds out that the bank is very, very weak, 212 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:18.720 Their job is to keep it secret. It makes no sense whatsoever. They do not like that information 213 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:23.800 getting out about their friends and who they bail out. But the other thing is the international 214 00:23:23.800 --> 00:23:30.420 stuff. They have the exclusion on what the GAO can order is that we're not allowed to 215 00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:35.860 look at any international agreements with governments. Other central banks are international 216 00:23:35.860 --> 00:23:39.500 of Financial Organizations, IMF and World Bank. 217 00:23:39.500 --> 00:23:43.620 And here we have a central bank that can do all these things 218 00:23:43.620 --> 00:23:45.980 and they never have to ask the Congress for anything. 219 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:47.460 They don't have to say, hey, you know, 220 00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:50.580 we want to send a billion dollars over to country A 221 00:23:50.580 --> 00:23:52.300 and we want to make an agreement, guaranteed loans 222 00:23:52.300 --> 00:23:54.460 and all these kind of things. 223 00:23:54.460 --> 00:23:55.500 No, they don't have to. 224 00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:57.860 They just have to click a computer 225 00:23:57.860 --> 00:24:00.380 and they can get themselves involved 226 00:24:00.380 --> 00:24:03.260 in all these dealings. 227 00:24:03.260 --> 00:24:11.460 So in many ways, my suspicion is, if we ever got to look at the books, that they're probably very much involved in foreign policy. 228 00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:22.160 If our CIA is going over and being involved in elections and assassinations and, you know, just running the world in a secret manner, 229 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:30.660 and they only get $75 billion a year in the open and they might need $100 or $200 or $300 and they have unlimited credit, 230 00:24:30.660 --> 00:24:35.620 To me it's unimaginable what kind of deals they might make. 231 00:24:35.620 --> 00:24:44.100 So is it conceivable that the CIA and the Federal Reserve may get along quite well together? 232 00:24:44.100 --> 00:24:46.660 And it's a possibility. 233 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:49.980 But the whole thing is, is we're not even allowed to know. 234 00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:52.700 The Congress is just there, they're oblivious to it all. 235 00:24:52.700 --> 00:25:00.020 The Conservatives say, well you can't dare restrain the CIA in any manner whatsoever. 236 00:25:00.020 --> 00:25:08.020 and then also nobody wants, the banking industry and all wants to protect, you know, the central bank. 237 00:25:08.020 --> 00:25:15.820 Now, my guess is what will happen is that we will not go through the system, get the Senate to pass something, 238 00:25:15.820 --> 00:25:21.020 the President signs an audit, next year you're going to have an audit and you're going to know what's going to happen to Fed. 239 00:25:21.020 --> 00:25:25.020 I don't think so. It'll be sort of like McCain-Feingold. 240 00:25:25.020 --> 00:25:55.020 you finally get a favorable ruling and allow a little bit more freedom on how to spend money and being involved in in politics but immediately next week they're going to have a bill up again that will reinstate some of those same restrictions and it'll be in effect by November and it'll be back to the courts again and take two three or four years to you know overcome it so it that'll probably happen on the on the audit even if you get something through 241 00:25:55.020 --> 00:26:08.020 The two cases going on right now, one by Bloomberg and one by Fox, one case has been ruled favorably for the Freedom of Information Act, 242 00:26:08.020 --> 00:26:14.020 the other not, but they're on appeal, but it's going on and on, and I think they're very beneficial. 243 00:26:14.020 --> 00:26:22.020 But even if you get something through and signed, even if it's good, it's going to immediately go to the courts. 244 00:26:22.020 --> 00:26:35.020 In this age, in this time, from my viewpoint, is that's a long time, because we're working with a financial system where the foundation has been shattered. 245 00:26:35.020 --> 00:26:39.020 There really is no foundation to our monetary system and our financial system. 246 00:26:39.020 --> 00:26:46.020 We've had the financial crisis hit, and we have seen this a lot of liquidation and transfer of debt. 247 00:26:46.020 --> 00:26:50.020 Of course, the debt was transferred from the big guys to the little guys. 248 00:26:50.020 --> 00:26:56.620 is, it goes from, yes, there was no deflation because debt was transferred, and we, the 249 00:26:56.620 --> 00:27:03.640 taxpayer, end up buying this debt, and they're back at it again, and feeling good about it. 250 00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:11.100 But the foundation is not stable. The financial system, I do not believe the worldwide financial 251 00:27:11.100 --> 00:27:15.980 system can be rebuilt on a dollar reserve standard. I think they got away with it for 252 00:27:15.980 --> 00:27:19.800 a lot longer than they ever dreamed, which means that they just had a bigger bubble than 253 00:27:19.800 --> 00:27:28.360 ever before, from 71 up until now, until 2008. So I don't think that's going to be rebuilt, 254 00:27:28.360 --> 00:27:33.040 but the dollar is still being accepted around the world. People still, you know, the stock 255 00:27:33.040 --> 00:27:39.460 market goes down and the dollar goes up in value. I think that's all temporary. The one 256 00:27:39.460 --> 00:27:44.600 thing I think that we're facing is not only the dollar bubble, but the bond bubble. Why 257 00:27:44.600 --> 00:27:52.160 Why in the world would bonds ever serve anybody's interest if you could buy a ten-year bond 258 00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:56.920 and make a couple percent interest and think that you're going to have something of value 259 00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:59.400 at the end of ten years or twenty years? 260 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:02.480 Nobody invests in bonds to protect their assets. 261 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:10.080 So it's all just gambling and trickery that's going on and then if nobody will buy them 262 00:28:10.080 --> 00:28:14.160 out there, the Fed buys them or the Fed's, you know, wheeling and dealing with other 263 00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:21.160 and other central banks, and they prop up these markets, so right now I think it's in everybody's interest to prop up the dollar. 264 00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:26.160 But eventually, I think the dollar is going to go down and down sharply. 265 00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:35.160 Since 1971, the dollar against the basket of currencies, the Federal Reserve basket of currencies, is down about 32%. 266 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:43.160 That's serious and significant, but it doesn't tell you a whole lot because other currencies are the same thing. 267 00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:49.160 is the same thing. I mean, why would anybody think, well, okay, the dollar's in trouble, let's all buy euros. 268 00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:57.160 You know, that wouldn't save us. But even in spite of that, our dollar, which is supposed to be the king 269 00:28:57.160 --> 00:29:03.160 of all the currencies, is still down a third from the other currencies in these last several decades. 270 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:11.160 But the CPI is down 82% and against gold it's down 97%. So the dollar is very, very weak. 271 00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:17.520 but it's been you know I've had people before the banking committee and from 272 00:29:17.520 --> 00:29:22.840 from either the Federal Reserve or Treasury and talking about you know the 273 00:29:22.840 --> 00:29:27.680 dollar going down and what significance and their response usually is it's okay 274 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:35.520 to go down as long as it's orderly so I say oh okay if you steal from people in 275 00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:40.160 in an orderly fashion, then it's okay. 276 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:48.600 But their attitude, of course, is that as long as you don't have the crashing dollar, 277 00:29:48.600 --> 00:29:52.100 but I don't believe they can prevent the crash in the dollar. 278 00:29:52.100 --> 00:29:55.520 But I don't believe the dollar is going to crash all by itself. 279 00:29:55.520 --> 00:29:57.000 I think they're so interlinked. 280 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:02.800 I don't know of any time in our history, the history of the world, where it's been so global 281 00:30:02.800 --> 00:30:09.680 in Nature, where all the currencies are linked together, all the currencies are fiat, and 282 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.840 that the dollar, of course, is key to this. 283 00:30:12.840 --> 00:30:18.120 So some event will come along that will shatter the confidence in the United States. 284 00:30:18.120 --> 00:30:24.800 It may be that Osama bin Laden is going to win on what his plans were. 285 00:30:24.800 --> 00:30:27.880 You know, his plans were rather precise. 286 00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:36.760 He said his goal was to stir up so much trouble that we would go into the Middle East, of 287 00:30:36.760 --> 00:30:39.920 course we've been there a long time and he didn't want us, you know, having anything 288 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:45.120 to say with Saudi Arabia or any place else, but in order to bring this to a head, he says 289 00:30:45.120 --> 00:30:51.720 I want to entice the American people over here to get them bogged down in a war. 290 00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:59.200 and the bogging down will be something that will drain the support from the American people. 291 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:04.380 I think he's doing a fairly good job, but it's going to get a lot worse, but he also 292 00:31:04.380 --> 00:31:11.640 wanted to drain us financially and lo and behold, I think we have a few financial problems. 293 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:13.560 So we're doing his bidding there. 294 00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:18.480 The other thing he wanted us to do was get so involved and get so careless with how we 295 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:24.120 We were dealing with our foreign policy that there would be more victims which would create 296 00:31:24.120 --> 00:31:26.920 more recruits for him. 297 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:36.080 So I believe very sincerely that since 9-11 that probably the number of Muslims around 298 00:31:36.080 --> 00:31:42.600 the world that hate us and despise us, those numbers have probably grown. 299 00:31:42.600 --> 00:31:46.880 This claim, well, they don't belong to the Taliban or they don't belong to Al-Qaeda, 300 00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.280 and I think those numbers don't mean very much. 301 00:31:49.280 --> 00:31:56.680 I just believe that there's a lot of people in this world responding logically to our 302 00:31:56.680 --> 00:32:04.460 foreign policy and that there's many more enemies out there than ever before. 303 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:13.100 So this means though that nothing in that manner will be corrected overseas unless we 304 00:32:13.100 --> 00:32:21.040 we have a change in our foreign policy but you know the significant changes I don't expect 305 00:32:21.040 --> 00:32:26.660 them to come with next year's election a lot of times I hear the statement this coming 306 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:33.660 election is the most important election in the history of the country and therefore we 307 00:32:33.660 --> 00:32:39.220 have to win this and we have to put we have to put in this individual and because it's 308 00:32:39.220 --> 00:32:46.180 so important. Now they're all significant and all, but I just don't think it's going 309 00:32:46.180 --> 00:32:52.820 to be that way. I think what's going to happen is that since we were not going to get 10, 310 00:32:52.820 --> 00:33:00.500 20, 30 or 40 more constitutionals in the Congress, I think we're going to see a crisis. And when 311 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:06.260 the crisis hits and the dollar crisis hits, then there'll be a time when the market, the 312 00:33:06.260 --> 00:33:10.780 The free market will demand that we do something differently. 313 00:33:10.780 --> 00:33:15.780 If people don't trust the money, what power does the federal government have? 314 00:33:15.780 --> 00:33:17.540 They've been totally neutralized. 315 00:33:17.540 --> 00:33:21.740 The only thing left for them is the creation of new money out of thin air. 316 00:33:21.740 --> 00:33:23.180 They can't tax us anymore. 317 00:33:23.180 --> 00:33:25.980 I mean, every day there's less people working. 318 00:33:25.980 --> 00:33:31.340 For 10 years now, the middle class has been losing wealth. 319 00:33:31.340 --> 00:33:34.340 We lose wealth, we lose good jobs. 320 00:33:34.340 --> 00:33:38.820 The standard living is going down. The good jobs aren't going to come back. So they can't 321 00:33:38.820 --> 00:33:43.820 tax us in the true sense of the word. There's not enough wealth left to do it. It'll just 322 00:33:43.820 --> 00:33:48.460 make the crisis that much worse. Eventually they'll quit loaning money to us, but then 323 00:33:48.460 --> 00:33:53.100 the telltale sign will be when they can't print the money at will. And then the more 324 00:33:53.100 --> 00:34:02.100 they print, the more the people become disenchanted. So right now the checks will keep coming. 325 00:34:02.100 --> 00:34:07.640 They will print the checks for as long as necessary. Social Security will keep getting 326 00:34:07.640 --> 00:34:12.820 their checks. But what they cannot control, because it's beyond all governments, is to 327 00:34:12.820 --> 00:34:19.120 maintain value in a currency. The markets ultimately determine that. And even today, 328 00:34:19.120 --> 00:34:27.340 the value in the dollar depends a lot on the force that they use, the legalized cartel, 329 00:34:27.340 --> 00:34:31.540 the emphasis that we in this country is using the currency. They have legal tender laws. 330 00:34:31.540 --> 00:34:36.140 And if you start trying to circulate silver dollars as currency, you can go to jail and 331 00:34:36.140 --> 00:34:38.420 have your silver stolen from you. 332 00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:47.380 So this is, you know, we're at a point where something will have to give. 333 00:34:47.380 --> 00:34:53.980 And I think what will happen then is that when it stops functioning, there will be like 334 00:34:53.980 --> 00:34:56.380 de facto nullification. 335 00:34:56.380 --> 00:34:57.860 I don't think we'll ever have legal nullification. 336 00:34:57.860 --> 00:34:59.220 This is not going to go to the courts. 337 00:34:59.220 --> 00:35:01.240 Oh yeah, that sounded like a good idea. 338 00:35:01.240 --> 00:35:04.240 We think the original intent was that states could nullify laws. 339 00:35:04.240 --> 00:35:07.880 Well, what the states will do and what the individuals are going to do, they're just 340 00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:20.040 going to ignore the federal government. 341 00:35:20.040 --> 00:35:27.620 And that, of course, will bring on, you know, more problems, but then again, the society 342 00:35:27.620 --> 00:35:29.260 will have to be rebuilt. 343 00:35:29.260 --> 00:35:39.260 And that is where I think we come in on how it should be rebuilt, how pervasive our ideas are, how important it is to have sound money. 344 00:35:39.260 --> 00:35:51.260 I did make a token step a couple weeks ago and talked about it last week, just to make the point of how we would rebuild, you know, when the time comes where we could have another currency. 345 00:35:51.260 --> 00:35:59.080 and my suggestion has been to allow competition in currencies and I made the 346 00:35:59.080 --> 00:36:04.020 point that you know even in the post office we have a little bit of 347 00:36:04.020 --> 00:36:07.580 competition because you don't have to use the post office to mail a package 348 00:36:07.580 --> 00:36:14.220 you have UPS and FedEx and and it hasn't been the end of the world and the post 349 00:36:14.220 --> 00:36:18.740 office is still there I don't know how long they would last if we legalize the 350 00:36:18.740 --> 00:36:25.420 and the delivery of first-class mail, which wouldn't be a bad idea, but we allow competition. 351 00:36:25.420 --> 00:36:30.700 We're always being challenged, but we still have the legal right to educate our children 352 00:36:30.700 --> 00:36:36.180 in private school and homeschooling, and that's good to people who can do it, afford it or 353 00:36:36.180 --> 00:36:37.180 manage it. 354 00:36:37.180 --> 00:36:42.220 That's excellent, but it also sends a message to the public school system that especially 355 00:36:42.220 --> 00:36:46.460 I really get the greatest delight when I see homeschoolers winning some of these geography 356 00:36:46.460 --> 00:36:51.820 B's and spelling B's and find out, you mean they actually got educated at home? How did 357 00:36:51.820 --> 00:36:57.500 that happen? But there's competition there. It'd be great if we could do something in 358 00:36:57.500 --> 00:37:02.740 medicine to preserve competition in medicine. You know, they talk so much on all this reform 359 00:37:02.740 --> 00:37:07.300 about the public choice. How many times have you ever heard anybody on TV get up and say, 360 00:37:07.300 --> 00:37:12.020 what's the matter with the private choice? Why don't we guarantee a private choice in 361 00:37:12.020 --> 00:37:16.340 medicine, which would be the medical savings account? Every penny you put in the account, 362 00:37:16.340 --> 00:37:23.340 So the one thing that we should always strive for is to have enough option to get out of a government system, but I think it's becoming tougher all the time. 363 00:37:46.340 --> 00:37:54.340 and I'm afraid if and when they do something more with medicine there won't be any chance at all for you to opt out of the system. 364 00:37:54.340 --> 00:37:59.340 But in money, money's a little bit different, it's more esoteric and people don't understand it as well, 365 00:37:59.340 --> 00:38:06.340 but the bill that I've introduced does three things in order to allow individuals to use gold and silver. 366 00:38:06.340 --> 00:38:10.340 The first thing is it should be appealing to a few people if you say, 367 00:38:10.340 --> 00:38:14.160 People, if you say, well, you know, the Constitution has never been amended, and what does the 368 00:38:14.160 --> 00:38:18.900 Constitution say? Only gold and silver can be used as legal tender. That wouldn't be 369 00:38:18.900 --> 00:38:22.500 too bad. Just legalize the Constitution. But that's... 370 00:38:22.500 --> 00:38:33.500 But that's a... You guys are radical. That's a radical idea. That's a radical idea for 371 00:38:33.500 --> 00:38:38.380 Washington to do that. To do that, though, you have to repeal the legal tender laws. 372 00:38:38.380 --> 00:38:43.100 That's where they get their monopoly control. You can't use anything other than Federal 373 00:38:43.100 --> 00:38:49.980 Reserve notes as legal tender. And the other thing you would do is allow private mints. 374 00:38:49.980 --> 00:38:56.820 If you have a gold coin or silver coin, you ought to be allowed to use it. They say, oh, 375 00:38:56.820 --> 00:39:01.340 the private mints might defraud you. They might not have a full ounce of gold or a full 376 00:39:01.340 --> 00:39:06.860 ounce of silver. I said, well, the fraud laws would take care of that. It's just too bad. 377 00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:17.660 We can't apply those fraud laws to the Federal Reserve system. 378 00:39:17.660 --> 00:39:20.620 And the other issue is you shouldn't tax money. 379 00:39:20.620 --> 00:39:26.220 You know, if you want to, if you want to deal in silver, silver dollars and you go and trade 380 00:39:26.220 --> 00:39:30.060 in some of your Federal Reserve notes for silver dollars and you just go into a shop, 381 00:39:30.060 --> 00:39:34.300 they're going to, they're going to say you have to pay a sales tax, oh, 7% sales charge 382 00:39:34.300 --> 00:39:35.300 on that. 383 00:39:35.300 --> 00:39:43.300 You take your silver and you spend your silver. Oh, the silver went from $18 to $20. You have to pay capital gains tax on that. 384 00:39:43.300 --> 00:39:50.300 You know, it can't work. So you have to get all taxes off money and all taxes off silver and gold. 385 00:39:50.300 --> 00:40:02.300 So, why should they be so intimidated? We're not forcing it. We're not blowing up the buildings. We're not closing it down. 386 00:40:02.300 --> 00:40:08.900 and we're just saying allow competition. Of course, they know the reason is the competition 387 00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:15.820 might embarrass the opposition and the price of gold embarrasses the opposition as well. 388 00:40:15.820 --> 00:40:22.260 They don't like to see and governments are notoriously anxious always to keep the dollar 389 00:40:22.260 --> 00:40:29.420 price or the currency price of gold down because that's a vote against the currency and I told 390 00:40:29.420 --> 00:40:59.420 Let's tell a story in the Fed, and Lew knows about this story, is one day in the midst of the dollar crisis and gold soaring up to $700, $800, we had a private meeting with Volker, and that's one thing I have given Volker credit for, he at least would talk to you in a reasonably sensible way, but he had a private breakfast over there for us just to talk, but Lew and I got there and there was a staff person there and we were just chatting, 391 00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:11.420 and nothing special. And Volcker came in, and the amazing thing is Volcker, you know, he wasn't being not cordial, but he went immediately to the staff person. 392 00:41:11.420 --> 00:41:20.420 He says, what's the price of gold? So they know about it, and just think how long they artificially held gold at $35 an ounce. 393 00:41:20.420 --> 00:41:23.200 People always talk about, well, what are they doing these days? 394 00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:31.640 Well, you know, with our Federal Reserve's ability to make all kinds of deals with other 395 00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:39.040 central banks and financial organizations and foreign governments, they have the facility 396 00:41:39.040 --> 00:41:41.620 to do whatever they want in the marketplace. 397 00:41:41.620 --> 00:41:45.900 They, you know, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, they've actually been 398 00:41:45.900 --> 00:41:48.940 given authority to get involved in markets. 399 00:41:48.940 --> 00:41:51.820 So do I have proof that they get involved in reading the gold price? 400 00:41:51.820 --> 00:41:55.980 No, I don't, but I suspect it's in their interest to do it. 401 00:41:55.980 --> 00:42:01.800 My guess is that they usually come in and maybe get involved, not when gold prices are 402 00:42:01.800 --> 00:42:06.340 getting too high, but when there is a more or less natural correction. 403 00:42:06.340 --> 00:42:09.780 You know, let's say markets do that, they go up and then they go down. 404 00:42:09.780 --> 00:42:13.620 That they'll do this and then they'll come in and maybe try to punish people. 405 00:42:13.620 --> 00:42:17.580 But that might be too conspiratorial for a group like this. 406 00:42:17.580 --> 00:42:26.580 We wouldn't buy in any of that, but I think that a little competition shouldn't hurt them 407 00:42:26.580 --> 00:42:30.300 but they're not likely to give that to us. 408 00:42:30.300 --> 00:42:36.020 But in the meantime, if we establish what real money is, then in the midst of a crisis 409 00:42:36.020 --> 00:42:40.460 we ought to be able to come up with an alternative. 410 00:42:40.460 --> 00:42:46.180 The issue of liberty itself is, of course, what I have been involved in. 411 00:42:46.180 --> 00:42:51.980 I frequently said that, you know, the financial system motivated me in the 1970s to run, and 412 00:42:51.980 --> 00:42:56.620 I've been interested in a lot of policy changes, but really the true interest I have, and I'm 413 00:42:56.620 --> 00:43:01.260 sure it's also yours, and that is the preservation of liberty. 414 00:43:01.260 --> 00:43:09.980 That to me is what it's all about. 415 00:43:09.980 --> 00:43:15.620 If we were permitted, if we were in charge and permitted to keep the government's hands 416 00:43:15.620 --> 00:43:20.100 off the needed correction, there would have been some painful moments. 417 00:43:20.100 --> 00:43:26.020 As a matter of fact, some of those big companies, AIG and Goldman Sachs, could have been very 418 00:43:26.020 --> 00:43:27.020 painful for them. 419 00:43:27.020 --> 00:43:29.220 They might have gone bankrupt, who knows? 420 00:43:29.220 --> 00:43:33.700 But just keep our hands off and let it happen. 421 00:43:33.700 --> 00:43:39.960 But if you have really some significant changes made, a lot of liquidation of debt and a lot 422 00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:50.960 and a lot of scary things happening after a year or so, if we had our freedom, if we had the marketplace and property rights and contract rights and sound money and strictly limited government, 423 00:43:50.960 --> 00:44:02.960 I am so convinced of that philosophy that within a year or two, we would all be back on our feet again, even if those of us who have tried real hard to protect ourselves and our families, 424 00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:09.960 If all of it gets wiped off the table, but you're allowed to go back to work, and allowed to keep what you earn, 425 00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:15.960 I'll tell you what, I think economic growth would come back so fast, and we wouldn't have to worry about it. 426 00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:20.960 What has happened in Washington, they've lost confidence and an understanding about freedom and liberty. 427 00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:29.960 That's secondary to everything that they do, and the argument, of course, is that we have to give up our civil liberties. 428 00:44:29.960 --> 00:44:43.960 We need all this interrogation. We need this torture. We need all this because what good is it if you're not safe, how can you be free? You can't enjoy your freedom unless you're safe. 429 00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:53.960 But of course, we know that once you start sacrificing your liberty for the so-called safety that government is supposed to provide, you end up, of course, with neither. 430 00:44:53.960 --> 00:45:01.720 with Neither. And I think the point is well made when it is said that when President Bush 431 00:45:01.720 --> 00:45:06.960 or Olin Bauman comes out and he says, my main job is to make you safe. Well, is the main 432 00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:10.560 job of a policeman to make you safe in your home? Well, can you imagine how many policemen 433 00:45:10.560 --> 00:45:14.800 would be to make you safe in your home? I thought we were safe with the Second Amendment 434 00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:16.800 is the way we were supposed to meet ourselves. 435 00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:31.800 But too often we've made these sacrifices and the people are willing to go along with it. 436 00:45:31.800 --> 00:45:37.800 If there's a major crisis overseas with another major bombing or a lot of Americans being killed, 437 00:45:37.800 --> 00:45:43.800 there will be a much greater eagerness to even sacrifice more of our liberties. 438 00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:54.800 The issue is liberty, and the two issues that I have picked to concentrate on in relationship to protection of liberty has been the monetary system because it is so key in everything that we do. 439 00:45:54.800 --> 00:46:02.800 It was interesting when I first read that, why is money so important? Well, it's one half of every transaction you have. 440 00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:10.800 So therefore, the issue of money and the value of your money and what they do is involved in every single thing that we do. 441 00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:40.800 And the other interest I've had is in foreign policy, and I have to admit that probably in the early 70s, although I did have some personal experiences about what it was like for our government to be involved, remembering World War II, remembering Korea War, some of my teachers going off and being killed, and then Vietnam and being in the military for five years in the middle of the 1960s, and thinking about it, but it wasn't the top interest 442 00:46:40.800 --> 00:47:10.800 issue on my mind but as time has gone on it is interconnected with the monetary system as well as the issue of liberty and of course you can't talk about the money issue and the issue of liberty or the foreign policy without considering the foreign policy because the more we're engaged overseas the bigger mess we get ourselves into and I have a little note paper that I 443 00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:20.240 at home and the one quote on there is, war is the health of the state. And I believe that so 444 00:47:20.240 --> 00:47:27.360 sincerely that our civil liberties are undermined. One time during the presidential's debate, Tim 445 00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:35.120 Russert came in and he made the initial announcement, well this debate is going to be on domestic 446 00:47:35.120 --> 00:47:41.680 Economic Issues because last time you guys talked about foreign policy and I 447 00:47:41.680 --> 00:47:48.080 even you know when I had my first chance I made a I hope a polite objection to 448 00:47:48.080 --> 00:47:55.760 this by saying that you can't separate the two how how can you believe that 449 00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:00.320 your foreign policy doesn't have a lot to do with your domestic economic policy 450 00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:04.040 because it runs up debt and all the problems that you have so it's all 451 00:48:04.040 --> 00:48:09.320 All intertwined but it should be narrowed down mostly significantly to the issue of liberty. 452 00:48:09.320 --> 00:48:13.560 I think our country was the greatest and we had the greatest amount of wealth and abundance 453 00:48:13.560 --> 00:48:16.760 of any other country because we were the freest nation. 454 00:48:16.760 --> 00:48:22.960 But that freedom is on the ropes and I think a growing number of American people are agreeing 455 00:48:22.960 --> 00:48:28.720 with us because they see what's happening and we have a great opportunity. 456 00:48:28.720 --> 00:48:34.080 I see a grand coalition building. They will not ever be in agreement on all our views, 457 00:48:34.080 --> 00:48:41.480 but if we respectfully present our case for civil liberties and the anti-war position, 458 00:48:41.480 --> 00:48:47.440 I really am convinced that we will soften the market for them accepting our economic 459 00:48:47.440 --> 00:48:53.320 views, because their economic views are non-viable. It's not so much that they will think, oh 460 00:48:53.320 --> 00:48:59.100 Yeah, this is really important and that's what we must do and we accept their argument 461 00:48:59.100 --> 00:49:02.440 that the greatest prosperity and the greatest amount of wealth and the best way to take 462 00:49:02.440 --> 00:49:05.640 care of the poor and the middle class is through free markets. 463 00:49:05.640 --> 00:49:10.640 But it's the failure of their system that will make them think differently. 464 00:49:10.640 --> 00:49:17.600 So we have this tremendous opportunity to bring this coalition together and be available 465 00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:19.840 to help rebuild. 466 00:49:19.840 --> 00:49:26.360 And this is what I think is happening, and as I mentioned about the Tea Party, not reflected 467 00:49:26.360 --> 00:49:30.960 in that, but we have to obviously influence them. 468 00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:42.560 I am under the belief that 100 years ago or so, for some reason, our intellectual community 469 00:49:42.560 --> 00:49:48.520 got divided on the ideas of liberty, and I don't think the founders were divided. 470 00:49:48.520 --> 00:49:53.760 I think they understood that if you had personal liberty, it meant freedom of speech and your 471 00:49:53.760 --> 00:49:58.320 civil liberties, and that you aren't going to have an income tax, and that the government 472 00:49:58.320 --> 00:50:00.440 was supposed to run everything. 473 00:50:00.440 --> 00:50:07.120 But all of a sudden, in the beginning of the 20th century, it became more understood that 474 00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:08.800 freedom is divided in half. 475 00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:14.120 You have economic freedom over here, and you have personal liberties over here, and everybody 476 00:50:14.120 --> 00:50:17.560 is supposed to join in and make the world safe for democracy. 477 00:50:17.560 --> 00:50:24.960 And that's where we've been stuck. And we've got to put it back together again. I think 478 00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:29.840 there should be a rallying cry for financial reasons and moral reasons and constitutional 479 00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:35.040 reasons for us to change the foreign policy. And we will know that we're making progress 480 00:50:35.040 --> 00:50:40.040 then on that when we see the troops coming home from all over the world. 481 00:50:47.560 --> 00:50:52.060 And on personal liberties, we get a lot of good lip service from the conservatives. 482 00:50:52.060 --> 00:50:57.160 Yes, we want individual liberty, we're for this, except when it comes to what you put 483 00:50:57.160 --> 00:51:01.960 in your mouth and what you smoke and what else you do and what you say and what political 484 00:51:01.960 --> 00:51:04.440 correctness is and all these things. 485 00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:10.020 And maybe we can get them to come around and knowing what real liberty is all about. 486 00:51:10.020 --> 00:51:13.300 And put personal liberty in context of the property. 487 00:51:13.300 --> 00:51:20.020 If you only had one thing to protect, you don't need ten amendments. Wouldn't property 488 00:51:20.020 --> 00:51:25.020 protect it? If nobody could take your property, including the government, and you have property, 489 00:51:25.020 --> 00:51:29.580 it would protect your First Amendment rights because it's your personal property. It's 490 00:51:29.580 --> 00:51:35.060 your house, your home, your church, your newspaper. That's private property. So if you could just 491 00:51:35.060 --> 00:51:39.300 get the conservatives to come over and say, oh, this is a property right for you to defend 492 00:51:39.300 --> 00:51:43.260 and Individual Liberty, but it has to be put back together. 493 00:51:43.260 --> 00:51:49.480 And it has to be started with the idea of where our rights come from and what is important. 494 00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:53.620 One thing that annoys me to no end, that I hear constantly in Washington and you hear 495 00:51:53.620 --> 00:51:56.100 it all the time, is hyphenated Americans. 496 00:51:56.100 --> 00:51:59.900 I mean, why do we have to be hyphenated? 497 00:51:59.900 --> 00:52:04.020 And when we make progress, there will not be hyphenated Americans. 498 00:52:04.020 --> 00:52:20.460 There will be individuals, Americans, deserving equal rights for everyone. 499 00:52:20.460 --> 00:52:24.820 Freedom actually is a rather new idea, if you look at all of history, thousands and 500 00:52:24.820 --> 00:52:32.540 thousands of years, and yet we're about to give up on this grand experiment. 501 00:52:32.540 --> 00:52:38.100 The grand experiment has lasted for a couple hundred years and is about to fade. 502 00:52:38.100 --> 00:52:42.140 So this is a time that has come upon us to make our stand. 503 00:52:42.140 --> 00:52:46.220 The Mises Institute has made their stand for a good many decades and they've had a great 504 00:52:46.220 --> 00:52:48.860 deal of influence and I was impressed. 505 00:52:48.860 --> 00:52:54.820 Lou, when we were at the University of Michigan, they started talking about Austrian economics 506 00:52:54.820 --> 00:52:57.220 and all these things, so it is pervasive. 507 00:52:57.220 --> 00:53:02.420 The Mises Institution and other libertarian think tanks and free market groups deserve 508 00:53:02.420 --> 00:53:07.220 A lot of credit for the change and the mood of this country, so I congratulate you. 509 00:53:07.220 --> 00:53:13.700 I thank you for coming today and I will be around for a little bit fighting for the cause 510 00:53:13.700 --> 00:53:14.700 of liberty. 511 00:53:14.700 --> 00:53:15.700 Thank you very much.