Homeland Stupidity

Federal Reserve Blows More Bubbles

Ron Paul — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:39:43 +0000

Last week at its regular policy-setting meeting, the Federal Reserve announced it would double down on the policies that have failed to produce anything but a stagnant economy. It was a disappointing, but not surprising, move.

The Fed affirmed that it is prepared to increase its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities if things don’t start looking up. But actually the Fed has already been buying more than the announced $85 billion per month. Between February and March, the Fed’s securities holdings increased $95 billion. From March to April, they increased $100 billion. In all, the Fed has pumped more than a half trillion dollars into the economy since announcing its latest round of “quantitative easing” (QE3) in September 2012.

Although many were up in arms when the Fed said it would buy $600 billion in government debt outright for the previous round, QE2, all seems quiet about the magnitude of QE3 because it doesn’t come with huge up-front total price tag. But by year’s end the Fed’s balance sheet could hit $4 trillion.

With no recovery in sight, where’s all this money going? It is creating bubbles. Bubbles in the housing sector, the stock market, and government debt. The national debt is fast approaching $17 trillion, with the Fed monetizing most of the newly issued debt. The stock market has been hitting record highs for the past two months as investors seek to capitalize on the Fed’s easy money. After all, as long as the Fed keeps the spigot open, nominal profits are there for the taking. But this is a house of cards. Eventually, just like in 2008-2009, the market will discipline the bad actions of the Fed and seek to find the real normal.

In the meantime, real families are suffering. While Wall Street and the government take advantage of access to the Fed’s new “free” money, the Fed claims there is no inflation. But who hasn’t paid higher prices at the grocery store, the gas pump, for tuition, for insurance? It’s bad enough that household incomes have stagnated, but real purchasing power has declined so much that one in seven Americans, 47.3 million people, are on food stamps. Five million are collecting unemployment insurance with 21.5 million afflicted by unemployment according to the government’s own figures. That’s 13.9 percent — close to double the 7.5 percent unemployment number reported last week.

We are certainly not in a recovery. We don’t see the long unemployment and soup kitchen lines like in the Great Depression, but that’s just because the lines are electronic now.

It is not surprising the Fed has decided to hand the American people more of the same failed policies. But it is disappointing. We know what the real solution is: allow the marketplace to work. Allow entrepreneurs the chance to create instead of stifling innovation with arbitrary regulations. Allow interest rates to rise to equal the risks in the economy. Allow bad debts to be liquidated so we can build on a firm foundation. Stop printing money to benefit the government and big banks. Restore sound money to the economy and the American people. Sound money is the bedrock for prosperity and the best check on big government and crony capitalism.

Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

How Long Will the Dollar Remain the World’s Reserve Currency?

Ron Paul — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:43:22 +0000

We frequently hear the financial press refer to the U.S. dollar as the “world’s reserve currency,” implying that our dollar will always retain its value in an ever shifting world economy. But this is a dangerous and mistaken assumption.

Since August 15, 1971, when President Nixon closed the gold window and refused to pay out any of our remaining 280 million ounces of gold, the U.S. dollar has operated as a pure fiat currency. This means the dollar became an article of faith in the continued stability and might of the U.S. government.

In essence, we declared our insolvency in 1971. Everyone recognized some other monetary system had to be devised in order to bring stability to the markets.

Amazingly, a new system was devised which allowed the U.S. to operate the printing presses for the world reserve currency with no restraints placed on it — not even a pretense of gold convertibility! Realizing the world was embarking on something new and mind-boggling, elite money managers, with especially strong support from U.S. authorities, struck an agreement with OPEC in the 1970s to price oil in U.S. dollars exclusively for all worldwide transactions. This gave the dollar a special place among world currencies and in essence backed the dollar with oil.

In return, the U.S. promised to protect the various oil-rich kingdoms in the Persian Gulf against threat of invasion or domestic coup. This arrangement helped ignite radical Islamic movements among those who resented our influence in the region. The arrangement also gave the dollar artificial strength, with tremendous financial benefits for the United States. It allowed us to export our monetary inflation by buying oil and other goods at a great discount as the dollar flourished.

In 2003, however, Iran began pricing its oil exports in Euro for Asian and European buyers. The Iranian government also opened an oil bourse in 2008 on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf for the express purpose of trading oil in Euro and other currencies. In 2009 Iran completely ceased any oil transactions in U.S. dollars. These actions by the second largest OPEC oil producer pose a direct threat to the continued status of our dollar as the world’s reserve currency, a threat which partially explains our ongoing hostility toward Tehran.

While the erosion of our petrodollar agreement with OPEC certainly threatens the dollar’s status in the Middle East, an even larger threat resides in the Far East. Our greatest benefactors for the last twenty years — Asian central banks — have lost their appetite for holding U.S. dollars. China, Japan, and Asia in general have been happy to hold U.S. debt instruments in recent decades, but they will not prop up our spending habits forever. Foreign central banks understand that American leaders do not have the discipline to maintain a stable currency.

If we act now to replace the fiat system with a stable dollar backed by precious metals or commodities, the dollar can regain its status as the safest store of value among all government currencies. If not, the rest of the world will abandon the dollar as the global reserve currency.

Both Congress and American consumers will then find borrowing a dramatically more expensive proposition. Remember, our entire consumption economy is based on the willingness of foreigners to hold U.S. debt. We face a reordering of the entire world economy if the federal government cannot print, borrow, and spend money at a rate that satisfies its endless appetite for deficit spending.

Legalize Competing Currencies

Ron Paul — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:26:08 +0000

I recently held a hearing in my congressional subcommittee on the subject of competing currencies. This is an issue of enormous importance, but unfortunately few Americans understand how the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department impose a strict monopoly on money in America.

This monopoly is maintained using federal counterfeiting laws, which is a bit rich. If any organization is guilty of counterfeiting dollars, it is our own Treasury. But those who dare to challenge federal legal tender laws by circulating competing currencies — at least physical currencies — risk going to prison.

Like all government created monopolies, the federal monopoly on money results in substandard product in the form of our ever-depreciating dollars.

Yet governments have always sought to monopolize the issuance of money, either directly or through the creation of central banks. The expanding role of the Federal Reserve in the 20th century enabled our federal government to grow wildly larger than would have been possible otherwise. Our Fed, like all central banks, encourages deficits by effectively monetizing Treasury debt. But the price we pay is the terrible and ongoing debasement of our money.

Allowing individuals and business to use alternate currencies, especially currencies backed by gold and silver, would expose the whole rotten system because the marketplace would prefer such alternate currencies unless and until the Fed suddenly imposed radical discipline on its dollar inflation.

Sadly, Americans are far less free than many others around the world when it comes to protecting themselves against the rapidly depreciating US dollar. Mexican workers can set up accounts denominated in ounces of silver and take tax-free delivery of that silver whenever they want. In Singapore and other Asian countries, individuals can set up bank accounts denominated in gold and silver. Debit cards can be linked to gold and silver accounts so that customers can use gold and silver to make point of sale transactions, a service which is only available to non-Americans.

The obvious solution is to legalize monetary freedom and allow the circulation of parallel and competing currencies. There is no reason why Americans should not be able to transact, save, and invest using the currency of their choosing. They should be free to use gold, silver, or other currencies with no legal restrictions or punitive taxation standing in the way. Restoring the monetary system envisioned by the Constitution is the only way to ensure the economic security of the American people.

After all, if our monetary system is fundamentally sound — and the Federal Reserve indeed stabilizes the dollar as its apologists claim — then why fear competition? Why do we accept that centralized, monopoly control over our money is compatible with a supposedly free-market economy? In a free market, the government’s fiat dollar should compete with alternate currencies for the benefit of American consumers, savers, and investors.

As Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises explained, sound money is an instrument that protects our civil liberties against despotic government. Our current monetary system is indeed despotic, and the surest way to correct things simply is to legalize competing currencies.

Audit the Fed Moves Forward!

Ron Paul — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:44:04 +0000

Last week the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed my legislation calling for a full and effective audit of the Federal Reserve. Well over 300 of my Congressional colleagues supported the bill, each casting a landmark vote that marks the culmination of decades of work. We have taken a big step toward bringing transparency to the most destructive financial institution in the world.

But in many ways our work is only beginning. Despite the Senate Majority Leader’s past support for similar legislation, no vote has been scheduled on my bill this year in the Senate. And only 29 Senators have cosponsored Senator Rand Paul’s version of my bill in the other body. If your Senator is not listed at the link above, please contact them and ask for their support. We need to push Senate leadership to hold a vote this year.

Understand that last week’s historic vote never would have taken place without the efforts of millions of Americans like you, ordinary citizens concerned about liberty and the integrity of our currency. Political elites respond to political pressure, pure and simple. They follow rather than lead. If all 100 Senators feel enough grassroots pressure, they will respond and force Senate leadership to hold what will be a very popular vote.

In fact, “Audit the Fed” is so popular that 75% of all Americans support it according to this Rasmussen poll. We are making progress.

Of course Fed apologists — including Mr. Bernanke — frequently insist that the Fed already is audited. But this is true only in the sense that it produces annual financial statements. It provides the public with its balance sheet as a fait accompli: we see only the net results of its financial transactions from the previous fiscal year in broad categories, and only after the fact.

We’re also told that the Dodd-Frank bill passed in 2010 mandates an audit. But it provides for only a limited audit of certain Fed credit facilities surrounding the crisis period of 2008. It is backward looking, which frankly is of limited benefit.

The Fed also claims it wants to be “independent” from Congress so that politics don’t interfere with monetary policy. This is absurd for two reasons.

First, the Fed already is inherently and unavoidably political. It made a political decision when it chose not to rescue Lehman Brothers in 2008, just as it made a political decision to provide liquidity for AIG in the same time period. These are just two obvious examples. Also Fed member banks and the Treasury Department are full of former — and future — Goldman Sachs officials. Are we really to believe that the interests of Goldman Sachs have absolutely no effect on Fed decisions? Clearly it’s naïve to think the Fed somehow is above political or financial influence.

Second, it’s important to remember that Congress created the Fed by statute. Congress therefore has the full, inherent authority to regulate the Fed in any way — up to and including abolishing it altogether.

My bill provides for an ongoing, thorough audit of what the Fed really does in secret, which is make decisions about the money supply, interest rates, and bailouts of favored banks, financial firms, and companies. In other words, I want the Government Accountability Office to examine the Fed’s actual monetary policy operations and make them public.

It is precisely this information that must be made public because it so profoundly affects everyone who holds, saves, or uses US dollars.

Inflation is a Monetary Phenomenon

Ron Paul — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:20:46 +0000

Later this month Congress will have an unprecedented opportunity to force the Federal Reserve to provide meaningful transparency to lawmakers and taxpayers. HR 459, my bill known as “Audit the Fed,” is scheduled for a vote before the full Congress in July. More than 270 of my colleagues cosponsored the bill, and it has the support of congressional leadership. But its passage in the House of Representatives is only the beginning of the battle, as many Senators and the President still don’t see the critical need to have a national discussion about monetary policy.

The American public now senses that the Fed’s actions, especially since 2008, are enormously inflationary and will cause great harm to the American economy in the long run. They are beginning to understand what so many economists still don’t understand, which is that inflation is a monetary phenomenon, and rising prices are merely a symptom of that phenomenon. Prices eventually rise when the supply of US dollars (paper or electronic) grows faster than the available goods and services being chased by those dollars.

This fundamental truth has been thoroughly explained by Milton Friedman and many others, so today’s Keynesian economists have no excuse for their claims that “inflation is under control.” Ordinary Americans don’t need a PhD simply to look at the Fed’s balance sheet and understand the staggering amount of money creation that has occurred in recent years. They know it will have harmful consequences for all of us eventually.

I’ve spoken at length about inflation, and how Fed money creation is effectively a tax. Every dollar created out of thin air dilutes the value of the dollars in your pocket and your savings in the bank. But the truth is that we are only beginning to see the results of the Fed’s dramatic increase in the money supply. As former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan himself explained last week to Larry Kudlow, most of the dollar deposits created by the Fed via successive rounds of “quantitative easing” remain on the balance sheet of Fed member banks. Because of very rational economic fears, banks are not lending, businesses are not expanding, and individuals are shedding debt. So, the trillions of dollars created by the Fed since 2008 remained largely undeployed. When those dollars eventually make their way into the world economy, prices across all sectors of the economy are likely to rise dramatically.

The true evil of inflation is that newly created money benefits politically favored financial interests, especially banks, on the front end. Over time, however, the net result of monetary inflation is always the devaluation of savings and purchasing power. This devaluation discourages saving, which is the key to capital accumulation and investment in a healthy economy. Inflation also tends to hurt seniors and those living on fixed incomes the most.

For decades the Fed has operated without any meaningful oversight whatsoever, resulting in the loss of savings, loss of purchasing power, and loss of quality of life for all Americans. It causes individuals and businesses to make bad decisions, misallocating their capital because market signals have been distorted. It causes financial ruin by engineering the inevitable boom and bust cycles that so many erroneously blame on capitalism. And it does all this in secrecy, to the benefit of the financial and political classes. It is time to Audit the Fed, as a first step toward ending its unchecked power over our money and economic fortunes.

Fractional Reserve Banking, Government, and Moral Hazard

Ron Paul — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:24:13 +0000

Last week my subcommittee held a hearing on fractional reserve banking and the moral hazard created by government (taxpayer) insured deposits. Fractional reserve banking is the practice by which banks accept deposits but only keep a fraction of those deposits on hand at any time. In practice, nearly 100% of deposits are loaned out, yet depositors believe that they can withdraw the full amount of their deposit at any time. Loaned funds are then redeposited and reloaned up to the limit of the bank’s reserve requirements, compounding the effect.

As Murray Rothbard put it, “Fractional reserve banks … create money out of thin air. Essentially they do it in the same way as counterfeiters. Counterfeiters, too, create money out of thin air by printing something masquerading as money or as a warehouse receipt for money. In this way, they fraudulently extract resources from the public, from the people who have genuinely earned their money. In the same way, fractional reserve banks counterfeit warehouse receipts for money, which then circulate as equivalent to money among the public. There is one exception to the equivalence: The law fails to treat the receipts as counterfeit.” *

While mainstream economists extol this “money multiplier” as a nearly miraculous process that results in a robust economy, low reserve requirements actually enable banks to create trillions of dollars of credit out of thin air, a process that distorts the structure of production and gives rise to the business cycle. Once the boom phase of the business cycle has run its course and the bust commences, some people will naturally look to hold cash. So they withdraw money from their bank accounts in order to hold physical currency. But bank deposits consist of a huge amount of credit pyramided on top of a small of amount of original cash deposits. Each dollar of cash that is withdrawn unwinds the multiplier, resulting in a contraction in credit. And if depositors en masse attempt to withdraw more funds than are available in reserves, the entire of house of cards comes crashing down. This is the very real threat facing some European banks today.

Since the amount of deposits always exceeds the amount of reserves, it is obvious that fractional reserve banks cannot possibly pay all of their depositors on demand as they promise — thus making these banks functionally insolvent. While the likelihood of all depositors pulling their money out at once is relatively rare, bank runs periodically do occur. The only reason banks are able to survive such occurrences is because of the government subsidy known as deposit insurance, which was intended to backstop the stability of the banking system and prevent bank runs. While deposit insurance arguably has succeeded in reducing the number and severity of bank runs, deposit insurance is still an explicit bailout guarantee. It thereby creates a moral hazard by encouraging bank deposits into fundamentally unsound financial institutions and contributes to instability in the financial system.

The solution to the problem of financial instability is to establish a truly free-market banking system. Banks should no longer have a government backstop of any sort in the event of failure. Banks, like every other business, should have to face the spectre of market regulation. Those banks which engage in sound business practices, keep adequate reserves on hand, and gain the confidence of their customers will survive, while others fall by the wayside.

Banking, like any other financial activity, is not without risk — and the government should not continue its vain and futile pursuit of trying to eliminate risk. Get government out of the way and allow the market to function. This will result in a more stable system that meets the needs of consumers, borrowers, and investors.

* Murray N. Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking, 2nd ed. (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008), p. 98.

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Independence Day: 100 Resources for Liberty

Michael Hampton — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:00:46 +0000

We in the United States are about to receive a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reclaim our birthright, the liberty which the state has been whittling away day-by-day from the moment the Constitution was written. I am not talking about the presidential election. I’m referring to the impending collapse and dissolution of the United States.

There is no longer any question that the U.S. will collapse; it passed the point of no return some time ago. The question now is what to do about it.

History has shown us that all collapsing governments are eventually replaced with something else. Often the replacement is an even worse government. As people who know that only with true liberty can humanity reach its full potential, it is up to us to ensure that what comes next is a society where individual liberty is respected. (If you don’t yet know this, see “Start Here” below.)

To that end, this year as we watch the United States and other governments around the world blow up like tonight’s fireworks, I present you with 100 resources you can use to advance the cause of freedom both here in the U.S. and around the world. Dark times are ahead, but the light of liberty continues to offer hope for civilization. Help shine that light.

(Note: Listing here does not necessarily imply complete endorsement of every position the listed resource may advocate.)

Start Here

A Beginner’s Guide to Liberty (PDF)

Liberty needs defending. Political leaders have clearly failed to grasp the benefits of allowing us to live our lives as we choose. By releasing our talents and creativity, liberty brings unprecedented wealth, and promises a bright future built on new ideas. It also gives us protection from the abuses that have come too often from over-powerful states.

The Philosophy of Liberty

This simple yet attractive and intelligent introduction to libertarian ideas is an international hit. Tell your non-libertarian friends about it!

World’s Smallest Political Quiz

The World’s Smallest Political Quiz is a fast, fun, and accurate assessment of a person’s overall political views. The Quiz is composed of two parts: a new political map that is far more accurate than the old “Left-Right” line, and ten questions on specific political issues to help a Quiz taker find his place on that new political map.

Activism

Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund

The Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund works to restore freedom and support liberty by acting as a bridge between liberty activists and supporters. We support those activists who disobey bad laws, but only if such acts are done in a peaceful way. We do not support violence of any kind.

Cop Block: We highlight the double standard that some grant to those with badges by pointing to and supporting those harmed. By documenting police actions whether they are illegal, immoral or just a waste of time and resources then putting direct pressure on the individuals responsible (ideally while recording and then later sharing), we can work together to bring about transparency and have a real impact.
Democratic Freedom Caucus: The Democratic Freedom Caucus (DFC) is a progressive, pro-freedom caucus in the Democratic Party. The purpose of the DFC is to promote individual liberty, constitutional democracy, and social responsibility.
Fr33 Aid: Fr33 Aid was created to help liberty activists organize projects that educate people about the value of mutual aid and lessen the burdens of government. Our main activity involves providing voluntary medical and educational services at liberty-related events.
Free Keene: Many of us at Free Keene once thought that the system we know of as government was the solution to certain problems. We realized we were wrong when we discovered the inescapable, ugly truth. Government is force. It is the violent monopoly.
Free State Project: The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire to exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property.
Freedom Activist Network Index: A directory of people, events, organizations, and news media of interest to liberty activists.
Fully Informed Jury Association: The FIJA mission is to educate Americans regarding their full powers as jurors, including their ability to rely on personal conscience, to judge the merit of the law and its application, and to nullify bad law, when necessary for justice, by finding for the defendant.
International Society for Individual Liberty: The International Society for Individual Liberty is an association of individuals and organizations dedicated to building a free and peaceful world, respect for individual rights and liberties, and an open and competitive economic system based on voluntary exchange and free trade.
Libertarian Meetup Groups: Meet Libertarians near you! Come to a local Libertarian Meetup to share your opinions on today’s political climate and issues and learn how you can contribute to America’s political future. Everyone interested in Libertarianism is welcome.
Liberty on the Rocks: Liberty on the Rocks is a non-profit libertarian organization that empowers and assists liberty enthusiasts in becoming better connected, informed, and involved. Through local chapters and events, citizens and activists throughout the country can increase the size of their networks, enhance their understanding of economics and the philosophy of freedom, widen their knowledge of local and national educational outlets, and increase their opportunities for involvement.
New Hampshire Courtroom Legal Opposition Group: The New Hampshire Courtroom Legal Opposition Group (NH-CLOG) is an organization set up by New Hampshire liberty activists in order to aid other activists in their legal defense against the State to the fullest extent possible. We educate activists on the ins and outs of the court system and related byzantia, how to represent someone in court without being an actual attorney-at-law (lawyer), provide easy access to copies of form blanks for activists to use, and sometimes blog about interesting or important cases we’ve fought or helped someone else fight.
New Hampshire Liberty Alliance: The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance is a non-partisan coalition working to increase individual freedom in New Hampshire by monitoring bills in the legislative sessions and encouraging private charity, a civil society, and citizen involvement.
Republican Liberty Caucus: Rather than sit back while our liberty is whittled away, we’re working to shift the Republican Party and American politics back to adherence to the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution. We advocate the principles of individual rights, limited government, and free enterprise.
Shire Society: Isn’t a society supposed to be a voluntary association of individuals? If so, then what the government people insist is a society, is in fact, not. It’s only a society if one gives consent. Did you consent to be part of the coercive government’s society? Even if you did consent, whether you were fully informed or not as to the implications of your decision, shouldn’t you be able to peacefully withdraw your consent?
Students For Liberty: Students For Liberty is an organization that supports liberty. SFL does not dictate the foundations upon which individuals justify their belief in liberty. Rather, Students For Liberty embraces the diversity of justifications for liberty and encourages debate and discourse on the differing philosophies that underlie liberty. What Students For Liberty endorses are the principles that comprise liberty.
Young Americans for Liberty: Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) is the largest, most active, and fastest-growing pro-liberty organization on America’s college campuses. With more than 300 chapters and 26,000 student activists nationwide, YAL seeks to recruit, train, educate, and mobilize students on the ideals of liberty and the Constitution.

Books

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey: The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible tells the story of a boy who becomes shipwrecked on an unfamiliar island after being swept out to sea in a storm. Having previously lived in a relatively free society, in this new strange land he experiences culture shock as he learns learns of bewildering laws and traditions of the islands inhabitants. The story highlights the absurdities of the laws, the controls imposed on people’s lives, and the economic drawbacks of these laws. The laws highlighted are recognizable as common to many countries throughout the world.
Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice: Contemporary history has shown that limited government is untenable, as it is inherently unstable and prone to corruption, being dependent on the interest-group politics of the state’s current leadership. Anarchy and the Law presents the most important essays explaining, debating, and examining historical examples of stateless orders.
The Art of Being Free: Politics versus Everyman and Woman: This is a book on the current state of freedom, by one of the great thinkers and essayists of our time: Wendy McElroy. But it is unlike any you have ever read. It deals with the current crisis in a way that no one else does. It has deep and fascinating research on all the main issues we face: the loss of security in the name of security, the state’s role in strangling economic opportunity, the petty central-planning that has regimented every aspect of life, the loss of basic civil liberties.
Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy: If economics makes absolutely no sense to you, like many people, this is the book for you. Clear and concise with compelling examples, once you finish reading it, talking heads like Paul Krugman and Ben Bernanke will never be able to fool you.
The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State: In the minds of many, the provision of justice and security has long been linked to the state. The book argues not only that the state is unnecessary for the establishment and enforcement of law, but also that non-state institutions would fight crime, resolve disputes, and render justice more effectively than the state, based on their stronger incentives.
Healing Our World: In an Age of Aggression: Through its win-win approach, Healing Our World illustrates how the rules of social interaction which we learned as children hold the secret to universal harmony and abundance. Lauded as “the most important book of the decade.”
Human Action: Human Action is the most important book on political economy you will ever own. It was (and remains) the most comprehensive, systematic, forthright, and powerful defense of the economics of liberty ever written. This is the Scholars Edition: accept no substitute. You will treasure this volume. The Scholars Edition is the original, unaltered treatise (originally published in 1949) that shaped a generation of Austrians and made possible the intellectual movement that is leading the global charge for free markets.
Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom: Dr. Ron Paul writes that to believe in liberty is not to believe in any particular social and economic outcome. It is to trust in the spontaneous order that emerges when the state does not intervene in human volition and human cooperation. It permits people to work out their problems for themselves, build lives for themselves, take risks and accept responsibility for the results, and make their own decisions. It is the seed of America.
The Market for Liberty: If you’re like most people, your government high school history classes probably taught you that slavery was abolished years ago. Government people wouldn’t lie to you, would they?
No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority: “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain — that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” — Lysander Spooner
One Nation Under Surveillance: Privacy From the Watchful Eye: You — no matter how innocent you think you are — need to protect yourself now, before the state comes calling. Three times the size and 12 years in the making, this is the long-awaited sequel to and replacement of the popular 1997 Bulletproof Privacy by Boston T. Party. (Read our review.)
The Online Library of Liberty: The Library is where electronic versions of classic books about individual liberty are stored. These texts go back some 4,000 years and cover the disciplines of economics, history, law, literature, philosophy, political theory, religion, war and peace. They are in a variety of formats — facsimile PDFs so scholars can view the original text, HTML for ease of searching and attractive layout, and text-based PDF EBooks for personal use.
Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis: In the groundbreaking book Priceless, renowned healthcare economist John Goodman reveals how patients, healthcare providers, employers, and employees are all trapped in a dysfunctional, bureaucratic, healthcare system fraught with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. Unless changed, these incentives will only worsen the problems in the coming months and years.
The Road to Serfdom: Originally published in 1944 — when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program — The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production. For F. A. Hayek, the collectivist idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse: America is on the brink of financial collapse. Decades of political overpromising and underfunding have created a wave of debt that could swamp our already feeble economy. And the politicians’ favorite tricks—raising taxes, borrowing from foreign governments, and printing more money—will only make it worse. Only one thing might save us: Roll back the government.
Standing Up to Experts and Authorities: How to Avoid Being Intimidated, Manipulated, and Abused: Dr. Sharon Presley offers a how-to toolkit that provides specific techniques to help people stand up to and deal effectively with experts in a wide range of contexts. This book looks at specific settings in which authorities or experts can bamboozle people, including institutions, the workplace, media, and services.
To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice: In contrast to government’s predominant role in criminal justice today, for many centuries crime control was almost entirely private and community-based. Government police forces, prosecutors, courts, and prisons are all recent historical developments-results of a political and bureaucratic social experiment which, Bruce Benson argues, neither protects the innocent nor dispenses justice.
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling: John Taylor Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, he argues, is to render the common population manageable. To that end, young people must be conditioned to rely upon experts, to remain divided from natural alliances, and to accept disconnections from their own lived experiences. They must at all costs be discouraged from developing self-reliance and independence.
ZeroGov: Limited Government, Unicorns and Other Mythological Creatures: Here is the dirty little secret. There is no such thing as limited government. Nowhere in recorded human history has a government been born or deliberately erected that did not expand over time. Expand in a fashion that always does at the expense of human liberty and freedom and to the advantage of the political elements and their inevitable clients. We are ultimately left to our own devices to make the world as we wish it be. I envision a world without limits and without slavery. A world where a human volition is never stymied by the cowed and collaborationist spirit that haunts the soul and being of most humans on Earth.

Events

FreedomFest: FreedomFest is an annual festival where free minds meet to celebrate “great books, great ideas, and great thinkers” in an open-minded society. It is independent, non-partisan, and not affiliated with any organization or think tank. FreedomFest invites the “best and the brightest” from around the world to talk, strategize, socialize, and celebrate liberty. FreedomFest is open to all and is purely egalitarian, where speakers, attendees, and exhibitors are treated as equals.
Libertopia: It is a unique experience…a 3 day celebration of our individuality and diversity packed with renowned speakers, workshops, panels, parties, banquets, music, film, art, literature, commerce, exhibitors, themed camps, performers, social networking and much more!
New Hampshire Liberty Forum: Liberty Forum is New Hampshire’s premier liberty-oriented conference. It has developed a reputation for drawing together people of diverse backgrounds from across the Northeast and beyond for the purpose of discussing strategies to reduce government interference in our lives and build a better society through business, the arts, volunteer work, etc. It is also an opportunity to introduce attendees to New Hampshire and give them a taste of the many benefits of socializing, networking, and organizing with a large group of like-minded people.
Porcupine Freedom Festival: Celebrate liberty and learn about the Free State Project at the Porcupine Freedom Festival (aka PorcFest). This amazing week of education, speakers, forums, family events, music, live entertainment and camaraderie is held in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Organizations

Advocates for Self-Government: The Advocates for Self-Government works to bring about a free society by empowering those who love liberty to become highly successful at taking the ideas of individual freedom and responsibility, free markets, and peace to the world.
American Civil Liberties Union: The ACLU is our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
Campaign for Liberty: Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of education, issue advocacy, and grassroots mobilization.
Cato Institute: The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues. (En Español)
Competitive Enterprise Institute: The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty. Our mission is to promote both freedom and fairness by making good policy good politics. We make the uncompromising case for economic freedom because we believe it is essential for entrepreneurship, innovation, and prosperity to flourish.
Downsize DC: We believe the federal government has grown too centralized, too intrusive, and too expensive. We believe in constitutional limits, smaller government, civil liberties, federalism, and low taxes. We want to end laws and programs that don’t work, cause harm, and violate the Constitution. We want to restore the full force of the 9th and 10th amendments, which reserve most social functions to the people and the states.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today.
Foundation for Economic Education: FEE’s mission is to offer the most consistent case for the “first principles” of freedom: the sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the rule of law, the free market, and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion.
The Independent Institute: The Independent Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, scholarly research and educational organization that sponsors in-depth studies of critical social and economic issues. The mission of the Independent Institute is to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity.
Institute for Human Studies: The Institute for Humane Studies advances a freer society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented, productive students, scholars, and other intellectuals who share an interest in liberty. Each year IHS awards over $750,000 in scholarships to students from universities around the world. IHS also sponsors the attendance of hundreds of students at its summer seminars and provides various forms of career assistance.
Institute for Justice: As our nation’s only libertarian public interest law firm, we engage in cutting-edge litigation and advocacy both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion on behalf of individuals whose most basic rights are denied by the government — like the right to earn an honest living, private property rights, and the right to free speech, especially in the areas of commercial and Internet speech. As Wired magazine said, the Institute for Justice “helps individuals subject to wacky government regulations.”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: LEAP is made up of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who are speaking out about the failures of our existing drug policies. Those policies have failed, and continue to fail, to effectively address the problems of drug abuse, especially the problems of juvenile drug use, the problems of addiction, and the problems of crime caused by the existence of a criminal black market in drugs.
Ludwig von Mises Institute: It is the mission of the Mises Institute to place human choice at the center of economic theory, to encourage a revival of critical historical research, and to advance the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention as economically and socially destructive.
The Prometheus Institute: The Prometheus Institute is the first public policy organization dedicated to utilizing the power of mobile technology to empower the citizenry with the tools and knowledge to advocate for policy change. Through mobile applications, social networking innovation, and creative branding, the Institute is constantly pursuing the cutting edge in public policy advocacy.

Print Media

Freedom Communications

Freedom Communications, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., is a national privately-owned information and entertainment company of print publications and interactive businesses. The company’s portfolio includes information and entertainment websites, mobile applications, daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and other specialty publications.

Reason Magazine: Reason is the monthly print magazine of “free minds and free markets.” It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. Reason provides a refreshing alternative to right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity.

Radio and Podcasts

Free Talk Live

Three hour nightly call-in radio show with no set topic and no callers turned away. Airs on 100+ AM/FM radio stations and SiriusXM satellite radio as well as online.

Freedomain Radio

Topics range from politics to philosophy to science to economics to relationships to atheism – and how to achieve real freedom in your life today.

Liberty Conspiracy

Because freedom is no longer in vogue. We believe in the power of the Invisible Hand, the parable of the Broken Window, and more… Our goal is to spread Liberty and Freedom ideas widely around the world.

Liberty Radio Network

LRN.FM is your source for the best liberty-oriented audio content on the internet, 24/7. You’ll hear live shows as well as the latest episodes of podcasts from around the world.

No State Project

When it comes right down to it, unless you’re just being a jerk who doesn’t want to admit the obvious, we’re all anarchists. Because what it comes down to is each us personally does not want to be forced to pay for services. We each want the freedom to choose, we don’t want to be slaves or thrown into a cage for no other reason than we didn’t want to pay someone’s salary.

School Sucks

When taken literally, “school sucks” is perhaps the most accurate and astute synopsis of the system I’ve ever heard. Here’s why…

The Scott Horton Show

Formerly known as Antiwar Radio, Scott Horton’s independent show is available on the Liberty Radio Network.

Television

Stossel: Stossel is a weekly program highlighting current consumer issues with a libertarian viewpoint. The Dallas Morning News named John Stossel the “the most consistently thought-provoking TV reporter of our time” and the Orlando Sentinel said he “has the gift for entertaining while saying something profound.”

Web Sites and Blogs

Centre for Civil Society (India): We believe in the individuality and dignity of all persons, and their right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. We trust their judgement when they cast their vote in a ballot box and when they spend their money in a marketplace. We are driven by the dream of a free society, where political, social, and economic freedom reigns. We are soldiers for a Second Freedom Movement.
European Students for Liberty: ESFL supports pro-liberty student groups by helping to provide resources, advizing students on effective leadership strategies, and connecting students from across Europe with both like-minded peers and important leaders and organizations in the pro-liberty movement. ESFL’s activities help students generate the skills, momentum, and connections necessary to effectively advance the pro-liberty movement within Europe and abroad.
The Israeli Freedom Movement (Hebrew): The aim of the Freedom Movement is to promote personal and economic freedom in Israel.
Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies: The Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS) is an independent, nonprofit economic policy think tank whose mission is to promote social progress in Israel through economic freedom and individual liberty.
Libertarian Alliance (UK): The Libertarian Alliance is the largest and most active libertarian organisation outside North America. We are not against any transient set of politicians, or their policies, or their parties. We are against the State itself – the State and all the other structures of oppression that it creates or enables. When we talk about freedom, we don’t set or imply limits.
Libertarian Party of Canada: The mission of the Libertarian Party of Canada is to reduce the responsibilities and expense of government. This, so that we may each manage our lives to mutually fulfill our needs by the free and voluntary exchange of our efforts and property for the value that best realizes our happiness.
Libertarian South Africa: South African Libertarian Society
Libertarianism @ Japan: リバタリアンは平和と物質的豊かさを備えた世界を欲している。また、それを勝ち取るための唯一の方法は、自己統治によるものであり、他者による統治ではないと考える。
Libertarianz: Libertarianz is the first and only political party in New Zealand committed to the concept of a free society with a free market economy. We are committed to shrinking the power and influence of government in every area of our lives. We will put paid to bloated government bureaucracy and its authoritarian inclinations.
Liberty Australia: Frustrated by the lack of substance in the mainstream media and so-called “free market” think tanks, we have created a framework capable of undercutting the mainstream, getting the right information out there and harnessing grassroots activism. Our goal is a free and prosperous Australia.
Liberty League (UK): The Liberty League exists for students and professionals committed to the defence of freedom. The Liberty League acts as an organisation and a network for societies across the intellectual and political spectrum, helping to inform, recruit and develop supporters of Liberty.
Partido de Libertad (Spain): Para nosotros la libertad de la persona es el valor supremo, y pensamos que el orden espontáneo de la sociedad y de la economía es superior a cualquier forma de organización y planificación estatal. Creemos en una sociedad de hombres y mujeres soberanos de sus vidas y conscientes de su unicidad, de sus derechos, de sus responsabilidades y de la extraordinaria importancia de su propia libertad.
Le Québécois Libre: Le QL défend la philosophie libertarienne et libérale classique, c’est-à-dire la liberté individuelle, l’économie de marché et la coopération volontaire comme fondement des relations sociales. Il s’oppose à l’interventionnisme étatique et aux mouvements collectivistes, de gauche comme de droite, qui visent à enrégimenter les individus.
The UK Libertarian: This is one of the most basic fallacies I hear and it’s usually one of the first things somebody says before they’ve got a bit deeper and realised that yes, we have actually thought about these things, and we’re not just heartless bastards who want a cold dog-eat-dog world where the poor are eaten by cannibals and the rich sell us all into slavery blah blah blah.

Audit the Fed Headed for the House Floor!

Ron Paul — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:56:07 +0000

Last week supporters of Federal Reserve transparency had a major victory when the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform passed my Audit the Fed bill, HR 459 unanimously with all major audit provisions intact. This clears the way for a House floor vote expected sometime in late July, and with a whopping 263 cosponsors, the chances of it passing have never looked better! This is an unprecedented opportunity for transparency into how the currency of the United States is handled, and mishandled by the Federal Reserve. It is more important than ever that my colleagues in the House and Senate understand what this legislation does and why it is so important.

The Federal Reserve is an enormously destructive and unaccountable force in both the U.S. economy and the greater global economy. Federal Reserve policies affect average Americans far more than fiscal, spending, and tax policies legislated by Congress; indeed the Fed “spends” more than Congress when it creates trillions of new dollars on its balance sheet to bail out favored financial institutions.

For several decades the Fed has relentlessly increased the supply of U.S. dollars (both real and electronic) and kept interest rates artificially low. These monetary policies punish thrift, erode the value of savings, and harm older Americans living on fixed incomes and the poor. The Fed’s expansion of the money supply, combined with artificially low interest rates, creates destructive cycles of malinvestment. This results in housing, stock market, and employment booms and busts that destroy lives.

While the Fed was created by Congress, current law prohibits Congress from fully auditing the Fed’s monetary policy — the Fed actions that impact Americans the most. The Fed’s financial statements are audited annually, but the Fed’s monetary policy operations are exempt from audit. Congress’ investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), currently is prohibited by law from examining discount window and open market operations; agreements with foreign governments and central banks; and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directives. It is precisely this information that should be made public.

The audit mandated in the Dodd-Frank Act focused solely on emergency credit programs, and only on procedural issues rather than focusing on the substantive details of the lending transactions. Most of the data on its other activities, such as open market operations and discount window lending, have only been published as a result of lawsuits — not because of Congressional action. Dodd-Frank requires this information to be disclosed going forward, but with a two year time lag and with GAO restricted to auditing only the procedural components of any programs. H.R. 459 grants GAO and Congress access without special exemptions and ensures that ALL of the Fed’s lending actions will be subject to oversight.

Also, given the Fed’s establishment of dollar swap agreements with foreign central banks (which lent up to $600 billion at a time in 2008), and the increasing economic uncertainty surrounding Spain, Greece and the European Union, the Fed’s continued financial assistance to Europe should not be exempt from public accountability and Congressional oversight. H.R. 459 brings transparency to the Fed’s agreements with the European Central Bank and other foreign entities.

H.R. 459 does not limit the focus of the audit, making a full audit finally possible. An entity that controls the value and purchasing power of the dollar should not be permitted to operate in the dark without oversight by Congress and accountability to the people. The Fed needs transparency and H.R. 459 would provide it. We now have this opportunity to ensure solid passage of HR 459 on the House floor, then the Senate floor and have it promptly signed into law.

Health Insurance at Gunpoint is OK; Now Eat Your Broccoli Or Else

Michael Hampton — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:55:56 +0000

In a somewhat surprising 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court upheld the contentious ObamaCare law, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. The ramifications of the decision, though, go far beyond health care.

In the ruling, the court treated the penalty for failing to purchase health insurance as a tax, a move that libertarians immediately criticized as rewriting the law. The mandate was structured as a Commerce Clause power, which the court rejected as unconstitutional. It then decided to save the law by declaring the penalty a tax, something Congress never would have passed.

The result is favorable to them, though. Now Congress can require anybody to do just about anything — including eat their broccoli — and “tax” those who don’t want to, and be virtually guaranteed a seal of approval from the courts.

As I said, the ramifications go far beyond health care. Already the usual suspects are talking about how they will repeal ObamaCare if they get elected. And who knows, they might try it. But they will be bought off by the same special interests — the insurance companies themselves — who bought off the politicians who voted for ObamaCare in the first place. What, you didn’t know the insurance companies wanted this?

If Mitt Romney and a crowd of Republicans get elected this November, repeal will never pass Congress. The insurance companies will stop it dead. If Obama gets reelected, repeal may pass, but not with enough votes to override the obvious veto.

Which brings us to the long-term effects, not only of this ruling but the general direction of the Supreme Court and the rest of the United States government, and the wall it is about to hit.

Given the way democratic-republican politics works, the best you can possibly hope for with respect to ObamaCare is minor changes, and not enough of those to have any serious impact.

If Obama is reelected this November, a U.S. State is likely to attempt to secede as early as 2013. Should Romney be elected, that secession will be delayed, but only for as long as it takes for people to realize that he will change absolutely nothing and that the country will continue its descent into madness.

I say attempt to secede because it’s not at all clear how the U.S. will react. What is clear is that the U.S. can ill afford yet another war, and especially not one on its own shores. Military action would divide the country like it hasn’t been in almost two centuries, giving legitimacy to the secession and prompting more states to leave the union. Yet if the U.S. doesn’t react, (refusing to acknowledge a secession grants it no legitimacy, as Key West learned when it seceded) many more states will be emboldened and secede peacefully.

Obviously, the health care law is not the only issue; it is just the last straw for many people. The growing awareness of how the U.S. through the Federal Reserve has caused the economic collapse and orchestrated a false recovery yet again and sure knowledge of the U.S. government’s only possible next move to “save” the economy — open war with someone, anyone — will virtually force several states to leave. The only questions are which state will be first, and when.

It could also be that the economy collapses completely before any state can secede, though I believe that collapse is still a few years off. Any way it happens, the U.S. as we know it today is dead. May it rest in peace.

The ideas underlying the United States were good ones. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable rights certainly sounds good, and it certainly is true as far as it goes. One of the fatal flaws in the Declaration of Independence, though, was that the unalienable right to own and dispose of property was never enumerated. Perhaps it is because that right is the first that governments must violate in order to exist in their usual coercive form, and actually enumerating it would emasculate any government that did so. Whatever follows the United States, should it fail to do this, will simply be more of the same.

(The other fatal flaw in the Declaration of Independence was the omission of the word “unanimous” before “consent of the governed.” Whatever follows must also adopt this.)

We are living in interesting times, as the ancient Chinese curse says. Now eat your broccoli… if you can afford it.

The CBO Sees the Economic Cliff Ahead

Ron Paul — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 21:56:45 +0000

Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its annual long-term budget outlook report, and the 2012 numbers are not promising. In fact, the CBO estimates that federal debt will rise to 70% of GDP by the end of the year — the highest percentage since World War II. The report also paints a stark picture of entitlement spending, as retiring Baby Boomers will cause government spending on health care, Social Security, and Medicare to explode as a percentage of GDP in coming years.

While the mainstream media correctly characterized the CBO report as highly pessimistic, they also ignored longstanding errors of methodology in CBO estimates. And those errors tend to support arguments for higher taxes and government spending, when in fact America needs exactly the opposite.

As Paul Roderick Gregory explained in a recent Forbes column, CBO has always applied wrongheaded assumptions inherent in Keynesian economics when forecasting future deficits — no matter how many times both history and economic theory have proven such assumptions incorrect. In particular, CBO seems wedded to two enduring Keynesian myths: First, that higher taxes necessarily increase federal revenue and have no negative effect on the economy; and second, that lower government spending hurts the economy. Neither is true, of course.

CBO also fails to factor in unexpected wars and expensive foreign entanglements, and we should not assign too much validity to predictive models based on peace. Judging from the actions and rhetoric coming from both parties in Washington, new military entanglements in Syria and Iran may well spike military spending in coming years.

Despite these sobering budget realities, the CBO report suggests that a solution is possible with merely a few minor adjustments in the way Congress handles economic issues. But what we need are not minor adjustments, but rather a fundamental shift in our philosophy of government. If we could come to our senses about the proper role of government in America, and what level of government interference is appropriate in a free economy, we would quickly find that there is no reason for government to spend so much, borrow so much, and tax so much.

If we simply allowed markets to work free of governmental or Federal Reserve interference, bad debt would be liquidated relatively quickly and malinvestment would be curtailed. Scaled-back regulations would encourage businesses to expand. Lower taxes would jump start investment and spur job creation.

This is not rocket science, it is Economics 101. All it would take is for government to get out of the way. There would be some short term pain, of course, but only by allowing the bubble to burst and bad debt to liquidate can we ever hope to begin building a real economy again.

The CBO report was alarming to most simply because they know neither party will take the steps necessary to avoid eventual fiscal calamity. Instead, despite their rhetoric, both parties want to maintain the fantasy that “deficits don’t matter.” But the CBO report, combined with what is happening in Greece and the European Union, should finally make the undeniable case that economic realities apply even to industrialized first world economies. We must take concrete steps today to avoid having America become the next Greece.