WEBVTT NOTE My Years With Alan Greenspan 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Thank you very much. It's real nice to be here. It's nice to see a nice crowd like this. 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:14.000 On a nice day, we could all be out planting our gardens and raising our tomatoes and a few things like that. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 But I'm delighted to see everybody. 4 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I also would like to first introduce my wife Carol, who is sitting down here with me. 5 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:36.000 And also today two other people came and they're from my staff. There's Penny Freeman and Susan Ashbrook. 6 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Are they in the audience? There they are, right here. 7 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.000 They're probably going to hang around a little bit longer than Carol and I will because we have another engagement to get to. 8 00:00:46.000 --> 00:01:02.500 and we will be leaving shortly after I finish because we're in the middle of a hot campaign, you know, we have a primary on Tuesday and we did get an opponent in the primary as well as in the fall. 9 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:08.000 Hopefully we're going to survive it all but we nevertheless try to stay on our toes. 10 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:18.000 One of the goals that I've had over the years has been to take the philosophy of libertarianism and Austrian economics 11 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:26.000 and present it as clearly as I could and straightforward as I could to the people that I'm looking for votes and then get elected. 12 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:32.000 Not only that, to really test what we're trying to do in changing the course of the country 13 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:54.000 is to not just talk about an issue, but then when one gets to Washington, have that individual vote accordingly, regardless and which on the surface, it seems to be very unpopular and challenging because, you know, on an occasion or two, I have to vote by myself to make that point. 14 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:24.000 but the goal really is can an individual do that, stick to those principles and then get re-elected and so far we've been able to do that so the election serves two purposes, one to decide who's going to represent the district but two to decide whether or not this philosophy can be followed at the same time be endorsed by the people and this I think is a very important issue. You know not too long ago I had an invitation 15 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.660 to travel to Europe which is something which is unusual for me I don't get too 16 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:35.800 many of those invitations and Carol and I quite frankly we don't travel that 17 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:40.740 much and I'm on international relations and most individuals get on 18 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:45.220 international relations for one purpose they like to travel but I also I also 19 00:02:45.220 --> 00:02:51.540 have this personal principle that I follow that I don't take any junkets so 20 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:55.540 So, that leads to very little traveling. 21 00:02:55.540 --> 00:03:00.620 But I was invited to go to Prague this spring, and we've agreed to go. 22 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:08.420 And why that is interesting is that the University of Prague has translated human action into 23 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:10.100 Czech. 24 00:03:10.100 --> 00:03:12.140 And they're excited about this. 25 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:17.140 And when they told me about it, I got excited about it too, and found it just fascinating. 26 00:03:17.140 --> 00:03:23.860 They wanted to find somebody in the Congress that even knew or understood or cared about 27 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:26.620 such a subject, so they didn't have much choice. 28 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:34.820 They came and asked me, and I, of course, agreed to go and we will go. 29 00:03:34.820 --> 00:03:41.260 Now the reason why I find it interesting is that you all know that Mises left Europe and 30 00:03:41.260 --> 00:03:45.780 Austria under very, very dire circumstances, and he escapes the Nazis. 31 00:03:45.780 --> 00:04:15.780 He comes to America at the age of 60 and then at the age of 60 he learns English and then at the age of 60-something he writes Human Action in English and to me that just blows my mind I'm still struggling with English so this is a wonderful thing and now this book, this wonderful textbook that Lew has done so much to promote is such an important textbook on economics that 32 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:26.260 The Czech Republic is next to Austria, so I'm going to be the emissary. 33 00:04:26.260 --> 00:04:33.940 I'm going back to that part of the country to celebrate something that Mises would have 34 00:04:33.940 --> 00:04:37.640 been very proud of, and since I've never been to Austria, I think I'm going to make the 35 00:04:37.640 --> 00:04:41.020 full round trip and I'm going to go to visit Austria as well. 36 00:04:41.020 --> 00:04:45.160 So to me, that's an exciting event. 37 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:50.440 Another invitation I just received I think might interest you a little bit is last week 38 00:04:50.440 --> 00:04:56.440 a member of the Mexican Congress came to see me and flew up specifically into the Houston 39 00:04:56.440 --> 00:04:59.800 area and I met with him and he thought, well, maybe they're coming to talk about border 40 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:05.080 security or something, but no, there was something much more specific and much more interesting. 41 00:05:05.080 --> 00:05:10.600 He wanted to come and talk about their plan and their scheming to reestablish a silver 42 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:15.320 Silver Standard in Mexico, and they're very serious about it, and they have a bill that's 43 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:24.480 passed the Senate, and they have 322 co-signers in the House to reestablish silver as a legal 44 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.120 competing currency to the Mexican peso. 45 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:33.360 And he came up just to talk about it and explain it to me, because he knew I was interested 46 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:34.360 in it. 47 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:36.720 Once again, he looked around the Congress to find somebody who might be interested in 48 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:40.520 the silver standard, and he called me. 49 00:05:40.520 --> 00:05:46.840 But his real reason for coming up, which I found fascinating, is he invited me to go 50 00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:52.480 to Mexico City and go to their capitol and go to their congress and give a one-hour lecture 51 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:56.640 on monetary policy to the members of the Mexican Congress. 52 00:05:56.640 --> 00:05:59.680 And I thought, well, you know, I've never heard of that. 53 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:01.680 I said, are you sure that's what you want? 54 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:03.720 And he says, yeah, that's what we want. 55 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.680 I said, well, it wouldn't happen in the United States. 56 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.960 I barely can talk about it in the United States, about hard money and sound money. 57 00:06:11.960 --> 00:06:15.520 But what they have proposed is a competing standard. 58 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:22.720 And it's probably less than perfect, but boy compared to the continuation of fiat money 59 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:26.880 without any competition whatsoever, this to me is a bit exciting. 60 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:31.800 So I do plan to go down there and do that. 61 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:37.600 But you know, the other day, just a very brief comment about some of the things happening in politics, 62 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:44.400 the other day I was talking to somebody in our district and she was very despondent about what was happening 63 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:49.600 because some of the Republicans haven't been all that pleased with my voting record. 64 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:58.600 And they had a meeting and they brought another individual in that they were hoping would be a challenger to me in the primary. 65 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:05.080 and they they just told him they said that they really needed somebody and 66 00:07:05.080 --> 00:07:09.720 this was a Republican organization they said we really need somebody to stand up 67 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:15.000 and run against this Ron Paul we can't stand what he's doing because he won't 68 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:22.240 vote with the president and and they said besides that he is so determined and so 69 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:26.240 bullheaded he always votes for the Constitution no matter what it does to 70 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:34.940 The Republican Party! 71 00:07:34.940 --> 00:07:40.440 And one lady got up and she said, but I thought that's what we sent them to do. 72 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:47.320 But those are the kind of things that go on and we'll find out how deep that sentiment 73 00:07:47.320 --> 00:07:48.320 is. 74 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:55.080 I'm hoping it's not too deeply felt throughout the district, but it will be a test on Tuesday 75 00:07:55.080 --> 00:07:56.360 on how important that is. 76 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:02.160 And it is important to a lot of Republicans, you know, that you don't support our President. 77 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:08.080 But the other question should be, does the President support the Constitution? 78 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:12.020 That should be, you know, the better question. 79 00:08:12.020 --> 00:08:19.440 But I think that it's just great that we're able to get together here and talk a bit on 80 00:08:19.440 --> 00:08:21.040 this subject. 81 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:25.280 And Lew suggested I talk a little bit about what it's like to have been in Washington 82 00:08:25.280 --> 00:08:30.560 for a period of time when we had the great Alan Greenspan, the great objectivist Austrian 83 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.200 economist become chairman of the Federal Reserve. 84 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:37.960 Of course, he became Federal Reserve Board Chairman when I wasn't in Congress. 85 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:43.280 I had been in Congress from 76 to 84 and left and went back to medicine, and he became chairman, 86 00:08:43.280 --> 00:08:48.080 you know, in 1987, in August of 1987. 87 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:54.120 And I think within a month or so there was a major stock market crash, so he ushered 88 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:55.120 that in. 89 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.720 Of course you can't blame him for that, there's no doubt about it, it was the previous inflation 90 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.120 that set the standard and he tinkered when he shouldn't have been tinkering with interest 91 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:10.800 rates and of course the stock made a minor correction of 25% in a day or two. 92 00:09:10.800 --> 00:09:12.960 But it has been interesting. 93 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:19.880 I went back into Congress in 1997, and he has had to come before the banking committee 94 00:09:19.880 --> 00:09:23.880 twice a year to present the case for his monetary policy. 95 00:09:23.880 --> 00:09:29.000 Of course, today, in the last several years, nobody cares about monetary policy, and it's 96 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:37.080 sort of just a stage for propagandizing Keynesian economics and whatever the administration 97 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:42.280 wants, whatever their position is on taxes, he's there to promote it. 98 00:09:42.280 --> 00:09:48.780 But he has been coming in and out there and he also comes before the Joint Economic Committee 99 00:09:48.780 --> 00:09:54.740 on which I sit, so I've had quite a few encounters with him and have been able to ask him a question 100 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:56.220 or two. 101 00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:04.380 And there was one time shortly after I got back that they had a little session with Greenspan 102 00:10:04.380 --> 00:10:09.120 before the committee meeting started and we went in and we just had a chance to get our 103 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:16.920 I took a picture with the great maestro, and I knew this was coming, so I had come back 104 00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:23.160 and dug up the Objectivist newsletter, which was printed in the 1960s, I think it was 1966, 105 00:10:23.160 --> 00:10:29.320 and it was the original copy of his article in Golden Economic Freedom, Golden Freedom, 106 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:34.000 and it was in Anne Rand's newsletter. 107 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.200 So I took that with me, and so when I was getting my picture taken, I sort of flashed 108 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:45.200 I stood out there and I showed him this booklet, it was a bit faded, and I asked him, Mr. Greenspan, do you remember this? 109 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:50.200 And he said, yes, I do remember that. So I opened it up and I said, do you remember this particular article? 110 00:10:50.200 --> 00:11:00.200 He says, I do. I said, well, I'd like you to sign this for me. So he took out his pen and he said, yeah, I'd be glad to sign this. 111 00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:05.200 So he took his pen out and started signing it, and I said, do you want to write a disclaimer on this article? 112 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:18.200 And he says, then the bizarre thing happened, he says, no, he says, no, I just read that recently, and he says, I wouldn't change a word of it. 113 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:27.200 So what does that do? That raises more questions than answers, but at least he stuck to his guns on that one. 114 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:28.200 and that one. 115 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:34.360 But over the years that subject came up off and on and he always answered the questions 116 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:38.320 in the usual way by not answering the question. 117 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:43.840 But there were certain things that annoyed him more than other things because there were 118 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:49.040 times when I would challenge him about the concept of what happens with the Federal Reserve 119 00:11:49.040 --> 00:11:55.640 and why they are participants in the runaway spending in government. 120 00:11:55.640 --> 00:12:02.680 He, like most Federal Reserve chairmen, whether it was Burns or Volcker or whoever, would 121 00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:04.820 argue, oh, it's your fault. 122 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:05.820 It's the Congress. 123 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:06.820 You need to cut back. 124 00:12:06.820 --> 00:12:07.820 We don't like deficits. 125 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:10.240 You know, it's always Congress and the deficits. 126 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:13.860 So I would point out to him, I said, well, you really are a participant in this. 127 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:17.740 I said, you know, if we live within our means and we paid our bills and we didn't have 128 00:12:17.740 --> 00:12:21.560 the opportunity to print the money, don't you think Congress would have to live within 129 00:12:21.560 --> 00:12:23.360 their means and they wouldn't have this opportunity? 130 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:29.360 I would throw it back in his lap and I said, you're a participant, you're part of the problem. 131 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:35.360 That tended to annoy him. He did not like that. 132 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:42.360 But at the last session that we had, I was much, much more specific. 133 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:45.360 We don't have a lot of time. We have a total of five minutes. 134 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.360 I get letters back and they'll say, well, why didn't you answer back and why didn't you ask this? 135 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:55.480 This, and they would have all kinds of suggestions, but we're very limited, and if the five minutes 136 00:12:55.480 --> 00:13:00.720 is up, you're done, so I generally use my five minutes to try to make a point or two. 137 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:06.740 But I actually quoted from his Golden and Freedom article, and he more or less said 138 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:11.280 exactly what we all believe, that the monetary system is important, it's a confiscation 139 00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:16.680 of wealth, it destroys the middle class, I mean, it's just a great article. 140 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:22.880 He became more annoyed than usual when I was much more specific, and he said, well, those 141 00:13:22.880 --> 00:13:28.480 are views I held 45 years ago, and I don't hold those views any longer. 142 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:33.520 And so he was much more explicit than he was when we were off camera in the room and he 143 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:37.380 was signing his little article. 144 00:13:37.380 --> 00:13:41.560 So the real question is, where does he really stand? 145 00:13:41.560 --> 00:13:47.000 There have been people theorize about this and I know Alan Greenspan is really with us. 146 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:51.360 He is once a gold standard person, you're always a gold standard person, and they would 147 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.600 argue that case over and over. 148 00:13:54.600 --> 00:14:01.560 And you know, when it's finally all over, it really doesn't matter what his deeply 149 00:14:01.560 --> 00:14:03.520 held beliefs are. 150 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:08.880 There is an old saying that you never look to the Fed to what they say. 151 00:14:38.880 --> 00:14:48.880 and the type of central planning that always and inevitably fails or whether it's the central planning through manipulation of interest rates and money supply and all the things that the Federal Reserve does. 152 00:14:48.880 --> 00:15:04.880 But you don't have to worry. I mean, Greenspan's gone, so I guess all those problems that we had with Greenspan we don't have to worry about anymore because now we have Bernanke and he's going to take care of us, you know, with his new ideas. 153 00:15:04.880 --> 00:15:13.940 Bernanke has been before the committee just on one occasion so far, and the question I 154 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:19.540 used to sort of get him on the record on his visit there, which happened a couple weeks 155 00:15:19.540 --> 00:15:27.720 ago, was the idea that the Federal Reserve would no longer relay to the Congress or to 156 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:31.960 the people or to anybody who cared the money supply figures. 157 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:35.480 They have dropped as of this month. 158 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:37.800 The M3 will no longer be reported. 159 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:39.320 Now there are shortcomings in M3. 160 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.440 M3 is not a perfect number, but it's helpful. 161 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:44.200 It's the total money supply. 162 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.480 And you know, if it goes up, like this week, 163 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.560 it went up $50 billion. 164 00:15:49.560 --> 00:15:50.800 That gives us a little bit of message 165 00:15:50.800 --> 00:15:51.920 on what's happening out there. 166 00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:52.800 $50 billion? 167 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:54.920 Do you think we increased our wealth in this country 168 00:15:54.920 --> 00:15:57.120 by $50 billion? 169 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.160 So there is an indicator. 170 00:15:59.160 --> 00:16:03.840 it's an indicator that's that's worth looking at even with its shortcomings so 171 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:08.520 I asked him about that and he said oh nobody follows it anymore 172 00:16:08.520 --> 00:16:14.280 nobody cares about this and it's just so unnecessary but then he told me the real 173 00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:19.760 reason I finally got the information the real reason why they can't do this 174 00:16:19.760 --> 00:16:26.840 anymore if they cost too much money to accumulate those statistics he's saving 175 00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:42.840 I told him, I says, come on now. I said, save your money, you print all you want. I said, you have all this money, you're not even on the books, you're off the record, you're off budget, you get to print all the money, and you're telling me that this is the same money. 176 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:47.840 I mean, that is, I didn't say this, but that is about the silliest explanation I have ever heard. 177 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:55.440 I believe that the precise reason that they drop entry is because it's too 178 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.400 revealing and it tells you what they're doing to the money supply. You know, Mises 179 00:17:00.400 --> 00:17:05.920 in Human Action argues that inflation has to always be thought of as a 180 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:10.520 monetary issue and not a price issue, certainly not a government price issue. 181 00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:17.520 And in my mind, early on I used to argue in my mind with Mises, I said, no, you just 182 00:17:17.520 --> 00:17:22.920 This has got to go with it. This is just semantics. Inflation is when the prices go up. Just concede 183 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:28.240 this fact. And his argument was no, that's what they want you to do. Think about the 184 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:35.600 prices and then you tinker with prices and blame other things and then you usher in wage 185 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.320 and price controls and all the other things. But you always have to hold their feet to 186 00:17:39.320 --> 00:17:46.920 the fire and say that you have the problems of inflation because the Fed creates it. I 187 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:51.120 And I think the other important thing that Mises points out is that there's a lot more 188 00:17:51.120 --> 00:17:54.800 to look at than just the prices going up. 189 00:17:54.800 --> 00:18:01.360 Think about the malinvestment, the misdirected economy that we end up with and the deceit 190 00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:05.920 and the way it finances governments and all these problems. 191 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:10.400 So then I decided that that is what has to be done. 192 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:15.600 You don't ever want to allow them to take it away from the money issue and I think that's 193 00:18:15.600 --> 00:18:17.360 Precisely What They're Doing. 194 00:18:17.360 --> 00:18:22.400 And this is one of the reasons that we got into so much trouble 195 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:26.600 in the 30s is they kept reassuring themselves 196 00:18:26.600 --> 00:18:28.840 in the late 20s that there was no problem. 197 00:18:28.840 --> 00:18:32.000 Even though they were inflating, they said, CPI is not going up. 198 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:33.880 Everything is fine and dandy. 199 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:35.320 Productivity is up. 200 00:18:35.320 --> 00:18:38.040 But they didn't look at the problem of accumulated debt 201 00:18:38.040 --> 00:18:40.440 and the malinvestment that occurred. 202 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:43.640 And believe me, we have two problems today. 203 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:45.140 We have a lot of the malinvestment. 204 00:18:45.140 --> 00:18:53.380 We have this horrendous debt way over what we had in the thirties and the productivity 205 00:18:53.380 --> 00:18:56.340 actually is lower than it was then. 206 00:18:56.340 --> 00:19:05.620 So not in numerical terms, but we have this problem of distortion and deceit and directing 207 00:19:05.620 --> 00:19:08.420 our attention the wrong way. 208 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:14.260 So this was the reason why I happened to bring that subject up with him in order to try to 209 00:19:14.260 --> 00:19:20.300 To me, the money issue has always been very, very important. 210 00:19:20.300 --> 00:19:23.940 The money issue is important for a lot of reasons. 211 00:19:23.940 --> 00:19:29.420 I started talking about this in my very, very first race, which was in 1974, and I've continued 212 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:31.460 to talk about it ever since. 213 00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:38.220 And although the dollar still operates, it's operating with less confidence than it has 214 00:19:38.220 --> 00:19:39.220 ever. 215 00:19:39.220 --> 00:19:44.020 I believe, quite frankly, that the experiment with worldwide fiat money that started on 216 00:19:44.020 --> 00:19:51.500 August 15, 1971 is coming to an end and that we need to be prepared and that is the reason 217 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:58.100 why I am always so anxious and pleased to come to events like this because I haven't 218 00:19:58.100 --> 00:20:02.580 told you anything new, you already understood this, but I come to encourage you to study 219 00:20:02.580 --> 00:20:09.140 further and to promote these ideas and also to really compliment the Mises Institute because 220 00:20:09.140 --> 00:20:14.620 Because they are dedicated to promoting the principles of liberty, which means that you 221 00:20:14.620 --> 00:20:16.940 have to have honest money. 222 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:23.100 And I believe long term that education is the answer, not politics. 223 00:20:23.100 --> 00:20:25.580 Politicians aren't much use. 224 00:20:25.580 --> 00:20:33.060 And the changes will not come with even, it would be sure nice to have two or three or 225 00:20:33.060 --> 00:20:37.300 four or ten more close allies in Washington, believe me. 226 00:20:37.300 --> 00:20:43.520 We could do some other things, but the change in the country will come when the people's 227 00:20:43.520 --> 00:20:44.980 attitudes change. 228 00:20:44.980 --> 00:20:51.260 Now the problems that are accumulating here, I see as an opportunity, because all of a 229 00:20:51.260 --> 00:20:54.340 sudden, you know, people are going to say, hey, who are those guys that were talking 230 00:20:54.340 --> 00:20:55.660 about this all along? 231 00:20:55.660 --> 00:20:58.220 That's more or less what happened to me in the 60s. 232 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:02.980 I'd been reading and study and then starting to buy coins here and there, and I knew by 233 00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:23.900 The Austrian economist was right, I suspected it and believed they were, but I was totally 234 00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:24.900 convinced. 235 00:21:24.900 --> 00:21:29.500 That's what we have to do now, not have one or two or three or four people have their 236 00:21:29.500 --> 00:21:30.980 beliefs confirmed. 237 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:35.020 We have to have thousands of people with these views confirmed. 238 00:21:35.020 --> 00:21:38.620 Delighted to see young people here, students here and teachers here. 239 00:21:38.620 --> 00:21:43.860 This is great because this means that we can reach out to more people and that they can 240 00:21:43.860 --> 00:21:49.580 be prepared because if we do have a crisis then we have to substitute it with something. 241 00:21:49.580 --> 00:21:52.980 Now the plan they have in Mexico is they're trying to head it off and I think this is 242 00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:53.980 a good plan. 243 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:59.620 It was more or less the plan that we had at the Gold Commission and that was to have parallel 244 00:21:59.620 --> 00:22:00.620 currencies. 245 00:22:00.620 --> 00:22:05.220 Don't, even though it wouldn't be a too bad idea, don't close the Fed down tomorrow, totally 246 00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:12.020 and completely, but let's just legalize true competition, true hard money, where it does 247 00:22:12.020 --> 00:22:16.440 have a legal tender status, where it doesn't get taxed, and you don't have sales taxes 248 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:23.060 on money and capital gains taxes, and allow currencies to compete. 249 00:22:23.060 --> 00:22:28.420 That to me would be a proper way for a transition, but in the meantime, this is an educational 250 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:35.940 and we do have you know a few allies planted in the media John Stossel who's 251 00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:41.540 well known by the average person who watches only average television realize 252 00:22:41.540 --> 00:22:46.140 it you know he's out there talking our language quite frequently another friend 253 00:22:46.140 --> 00:22:52.980 that is a friend both to Lou and to myself is this Andrew judge Andrew 254 00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:58.260 Napolitano who's on Fox now if you have to watch Fox you got to be 255 00:23:28.260 --> 00:23:33.140 me talking to other members of Congress I mean I think that's just a small little 256 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:41.380 thing but in in in a way it's helpful some people say well how in the world 257 00:23:41.380 --> 00:23:45.700 can you even survive up there I said don't you all don't you get awfully 258 00:23:45.700 --> 00:23:49.780 frustrated with with always standing up for certain things voting by yourself 259 00:23:49.780 --> 00:23:54.260 and never getting your stuff back I said no I never get frustrated I just have 260 00:23:54.260 --> 00:24:02.260 have low expectations. 261 00:24:02.260 --> 00:24:06.760 So I don't hold my breath, but in the same sense, you know, we do have allies on the 262 00:24:06.760 --> 00:24:07.760 war issue. 263 00:24:07.760 --> 00:24:12.020 There are two individuals in Washington that voted against the war for the right reasons. 264 00:24:12.020 --> 00:24:17.340 They come from the old right, the old Republican position, the original Senator Robert Taft 265 00:24:17.340 --> 00:24:20.960 who talked about non-intervention, staying out of NATO and these other things and never 266 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:23.140 having a military draft. 267 00:24:23.140 --> 00:24:28.340 And they voted against the war and that's John Hosteller and Jimmy Duncan from Tennessee 268 00:24:28.340 --> 00:24:31.020 and Hostellers from Indiana. 269 00:24:31.020 --> 00:24:32.920 More liberal Democrats voted against it. 270 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:37.900 So instead of me being alone and completely by myself, I figure everybody there is a potential 271 00:24:37.900 --> 00:24:41.240 ally and one day or another they are. 272 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:45.860 So not too long ago there was a vote by a member of Congress who's a good friend and 273 00:24:45.860 --> 00:24:48.780 he's with me on civil liberties on the war issue. 274 00:24:48.780 --> 00:24:52.580 He ended up, it was an attack on Hamas. 275 00:24:52.580 --> 00:24:56.000 This was a difficult vote for me because the attack, I didn't feel like we should go 276 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:57.000 and attack Hamas. 277 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:01.660 I mean, I thought we were fighting and dying and spending all that money to promote democracy. 278 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:05.060 And now as soon as we get it, oh, we don't like it, so we've got to get rid of Hamas. 279 00:25:05.060 --> 00:25:10.580 So our attack was to deny them foreign aid, and I deny everybody foreign aid. 280 00:25:10.580 --> 00:25:20.500 But when I vote against foreign aid for another country, neighbors of the Hamas group, I get 281 00:25:20.500 --> 00:25:21.980 in a lot of trouble. 282 00:25:21.980 --> 00:25:25.300 But I still, I vote against all foreign aid, so I ended up voting against it. 283 00:25:25.300 --> 00:25:31.300 But only one individual stood up and voted, you know, not to deny the foreign aid. 284 00:25:31.300 --> 00:25:33.140 He wanted the foreign aid still to go, I'm honest. 285 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:35.300 So I saw him after, and I said, you're in trouble. 286 00:25:35.300 --> 00:25:38.940 I said, I have the record for voting by myself more than anybody else, and I said, I don't 287 00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:42.420 want you encroaching on my territory. 288 00:25:42.420 --> 00:25:43.420 So he was kidding me. 289 00:25:43.420 --> 00:25:44.420 He says, where were you? 290 00:25:44.420 --> 00:25:46.980 He said, you left me out there standing alone. 291 00:25:46.980 --> 00:25:52.100 So, but you know, another individual not too long ago sent me a note. 292 00:25:52.100 --> 00:25:56.540 I sent out a little script, and I gave it as a speech, and you may have read it on the 293 00:25:56.540 --> 00:25:57.540 internet. 294 00:25:57.540 --> 00:25:58.540 I think Lew had it on his website. 295 00:25:58.540 --> 00:26:00.540 It had to do with real reform. 296 00:26:00.540 --> 00:26:03.140 You know, how are we going to take care of the Abramov reform? 297 00:26:03.140 --> 00:26:06.760 Well, we're going to regulate you, put more restrictions on your right to petition and 298 00:26:06.760 --> 00:26:07.760 lobby Congress. 299 00:26:07.760 --> 00:26:08.760 Sure. 300 00:26:08.760 --> 00:26:09.760 That's going to solve the problem. 301 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:12.860 Do you think there are enough laws in the books now to take care of corrupt congressmen? 302 00:26:12.860 --> 00:26:15.100 Yes, called theft and fraud. 303 00:26:15.100 --> 00:26:19.140 We also have elections, you know, a lot of ways you can handle these problems, but no, 304 00:26:19.140 --> 00:26:23.580 they're going to tinker with these rules and regulation. 305 00:26:23.580 --> 00:26:27.940 So I sent it on, I said, the real reform means A, B, C. One is to look into the money issue 306 00:26:27.940 --> 00:26:32.740 and look into the war policy issues, not allowing the president to go to war without declaration, 307 00:26:32.740 --> 00:26:34.700 you know, the whole list of things. 308 00:26:34.700 --> 00:26:39.380 And it was an academic exercise, but I sent it to every member of Congress, and four of 309 00:26:39.380 --> 00:26:40.380 them read it. 310 00:26:40.380 --> 00:26:46.480 Well, the one individual sent me a little note back, which is very interesting and very 311 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:52.360 surprising that anybody would read it, but I was pleased and flattered, but he sent me 312 00:26:52.360 --> 00:26:56.480 a little note back and I thought I'd just read this to you and then we're going to pause 313 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:01.340 and I'm going to get some questions because time is running out and I'm gabbing too much. 314 00:27:01.340 --> 00:27:07.680 But here it says, Ron, he says, many thanks for searching for a new direction, speech. 315 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:16.840 I intend to steal liberally from it, while ignoring, of course, those parts which inconvenience 316 00:27:16.840 --> 00:27:25.120 my immediate political goals. 317 00:27:25.120 --> 00:27:32.520 He says, I'm not proud of this aspect naturally, but I'm working on paring down my own philosophical 318 00:27:32.520 --> 00:27:36.560 shortfalls, paring his shortfalls down. 319 00:27:36.560 --> 00:27:40.560 He says, you are a dangerous person, an honest man. 320 00:27:40.560 --> 00:27:42.040 And he signed it. 321 00:27:42.040 --> 00:27:43.520 I thought that was pretty nice. 322 00:27:43.520 --> 00:27:52.200 But anyway, I'd like to go ahead and conclude and tell you, 323 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:53.640 I really want to thank everybody. 324 00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:55.400 Thank you, Lou, for inviting me. 325 00:27:55.400 --> 00:27:58.320 And thank you all, because there are so many supporters here. 326 00:27:58.320 --> 00:28:03.240 And I think we're going to be successful this year 327 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:06.000 and make sure that this philosophy has 328 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:13.000 a stamp of approval by the people of the 14th district. Thank you very much.