Saturday, October 12, 2013

Rand Paul Says "Reform" the Fed

Here we go again, some more Rand Paul dilution from hardcore libertarian positions. He is not in favor of ending the Fed, just reforming its "structural flaws", according to his TIME magazine op-ed. Though there is a bit of back and forth jam about the Fed policy, there is enough confusion that Ben Bernanke might vote for him in the 2016 presidential election. Although he mentions money printing as a problem, Rand slyly puts the focus just on one form of it, quantitative easing. He seems to be more against "exorbitant" money printing than against the Fed playing any role with regard to money. There is no mention of gold.

Rand writes in TIME magazine:
It is also important to focus on the fact that the Federal Reserve is structurally flawed.  The institution needs to be reformed to prevent Yellen, or any other future nominee, from using the enormous power of the Fed to aid and abet the allies of big government.[...]

The Fed’s favored practice of “quantitative easing” has been questionable at best. One need not be an economist or mathematician to wonder whether printing money out of thin air is a sound way to help the economy. Still, as The Washington Post’s Neil Irwin notes, “Yellen has been not merely an engineer of the Fed’s policies of ‘quantitative easing’ and ‘forward guidance,’ but a consistent voice within the central bank to go further.”[...]

A Federal Reserve completely dedicated to exorbitant printing and spending is a serious problem, and the fact that such policies don’t change from one chairman to the next indicates that it is a systemic one.

10 comments:

  1. Reform it into the turd it is, and then flush it.

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  2. Hey Bob, when are you going to write a post about Ron Paul "diluting" hardcore libertarianism by endorsing a candidate who wants a government enforced ban on consensual sexual activities among individuals?

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  3. Go Rand Go !
    Reform then Fed and then move on to reforming the public school system.
    You Da Man !

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  4. Man, this moron keeps becoming more and more establishment. "Reform". LOL! Yeah right. That's like saying we need to "reform" the mafia instead of getting rid of it. Come on Rand, give us a break!

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    1. Name one establishment person that would write an op-ed like this. Just one. Not two. One. I only want to hear one. The fact of the matter is Ron Paul diluted his message all of the time when he was trying to libertarianism to the public. What Rand Paul wrote is something that Ron Paul could have easily written. But thankfully Ron Paul is sticking to his guns and endorsing Rothbardian Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia.

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    2. He never said Rand is establishment, but that he is becoming more and more establishment, and this is proven by the shift toward the status quo that Rand makes on a number of issues.

      Your points about Ron Paul is just Tu Quoque reasoning and does not invalidate anything what has, and is, being said about Rand Paul.

      And Ron Paul endorses Ken Cuccinelli? Big mistake.

      Now why don't you try adding Ron Paul's 'libertarian' mistakes up to all of Rand's. My guess is you cannot find enough mistakes in his lifetime to add up to the ones Rand made in just the last 4 years alone.
      Your moral equivalency is not impressing anyone here. Everyone can see from your arguments you are not a libertarian.

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  5. Rand has his numbers wrong and he's using words he does not understand. The Fed did not purchase 800 billion in Treasuries this year.

    Quote: "Just this year, they have added over $800 billion in government debt to their balance sheets".

    The correct number is 423.983 billion.


    U.S. Treasury securities held by the Federal Reserve: All Maturities
    2012-10-03 1652944
    2013-10-02 2076927

    The fed reduced holding of short term treasuries by 1.5 billion and increased holdings of long term treasuries by 425.4 billion.

    This is not "monetizing the debt." Monetizing the debt means buying a bond and holding it to maturity. There is no reason to believe the Fed is going to hold these long term bonds to maturity.

    So far as auditing the Fed, the Dodd/Frank bill required an audit of the bailout. When the audit was published, it was misread by Ron Paul and associates who did not understand overnight lending (money borrowed and paid back the next day). They merely added up the money borrowed without realizing it was paid back the next day and claimed there was a 15 trillion dollar bail out.

    This is why there is "secrecy" regarding monetary policy. People are too stupid to understand it.


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  6. Ron Paul said reform the Fed dozens of times on TV interviews. Ron, like Rand, understands there are not yet enough votes to end the Fed. In fact, in the US senate, they don;t even have enough votes to audit the Fed. The EPJ and other media needs to do a better job of educating the public.

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    1. Ron settled for "reform" when everyone knows he'd rather end it.

      Now go count the number of times Rand said "end the FED" and put it opposite the number of times Ron said it.

      We know what Ron really wants. Rand to my knowledge has never said his preference is with ENDING the Fed.

      Next time, if you make these kinds of statements, at least provide sources to back up your claim. Your moral equivalency is annoying, and proves your preference is with keeping the status quo alive as much as possible while posing as a lover of liberty.

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