Ron Paul participated in a House Committee of Foreign Affairs hearing on the U.S. policy in Afghanistan yesterday. To say he was a bit passionate and animated about his views is an understatement.
“It’s time to end the whole mess!”
When watching it one gets the impression he’s made these same arguments a few too many times. Judging from his demeanor he may be getting sick of replaying the same arguments and not have anyone really listen to him. Well, a few of us are listening, and agreeing.
While all the talk at present is about economic corners turned and markets charging ahead, no one is paying much notice to an American economy deteriorating before our eyes. These myopic commentators seem to be simply moving past the now almost-universally held conclusion that before the crash of 2008, our economy was on an unsustainable course. If these imbalances had been corrected, then perhaps I too would be joining in the euphoria. But evidence abounds that we have not veered at all from that dangerous path.
Last week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that consumer spending as a percentage of U.S. GDP has risen to 71%, a post-World War II record. This level is notably higher than other wealthy industrialized countries, and vastly higher than the levels sustained by China and other emerging economies. At the same time, our industrial output is contracting, our trade deficit is expanding once again (after contracting earlier in the year), and our savings rate is plummeting (after an early year surge).
The data confirms that government stimuli are worsening the structural imbalances underlying our economy. The recent ‘rebound’ in GDP is not resulting from increased economic output, but merely from the fact that we are borrowing more than ever. That is precisely how we got ourselves into this mess. An economy cannot grow indefinitely by borrowing more than it produces. Not only is such a course untenable, but the added debt ensures a deeper recession when the bills come due.
This soon-to-be-called depression will not end until the pendulum of consumer spending habits swings violently in the other direction. This will be a jarring change, but it is the splash of cold water that we need to return our economy to viability. I believe that consumer spending as a share of GDP will need to temporarily contract to roughly 50% of GDP, before eventually moving toward its historic mean of 65%. Such a move would indicate a restoration of our personal savings, a decline in borrowing and trade deficits, and an increased industrial output. That would be a real recovery.
In the meantime, the higher the spending percentage climbs, the more painful the ultimate decline becomes.
It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve sent Congress a letter on a given issue, or even if you sent one yesterday — every new fact we give you is a new opportunity to tell Congress what you want. Seize the opportunity!
By now you’ve seen Ron Paul’s response to Lindsay Graham’s flippant response at a town hall meeting when Graham blurted out that he wouldn’t let Ron Paul “hijack the Republican Party”. Graham also said the GOP will not be “the party of angry white guys”.
He said he was going to “grow the party” yet he finished his comments with “if you don’t like it you can leave!” Yeah, that seems like a good way to grow the party Lindsey.
Paul is going about his business defending the Constitution and bringing the GOP to young American patriots through the Campaign For Liberty. Paul educates with his books like his most recent “End the Fed” and last year’s “The Revolution: A Manifesto“. Meanwhile neo-conservatives and strangers to logic like Graham attempt to grow the party by shouting down those that would support them if they had any principles at all.
It is this lack of integrity and principle on display right now. Graham is the worst of the lot. Integrity, honesty, and principle are the ideological fuel to grow the Republican Party. That is the fuel of Ron Paul. Utilizing the Lindsey Graham infested fuel has already been attempted and failed.
Last time I checked John McCain wasn’t the President of the U.S. Although he could certainly be described as an angry white guy. Hmmm… maybe that’s who Graham was talking about after all.
Look out, here comes the FBI. Not since the days of J. Edgar Hoover has a U.S. President use the FBI for “unsparingly un-American” practices, says Nat Hentoff, in a WordNetDaily op-ed.
As described by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an ever-watchful guardian of the Constitution, these Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations authorize the FBI – without going to a court – “to open investigative ‘assessments’ of any American without any factual predicate or suspicion. Such ‘assessments’ allow the use of intrusive techniques to surreptitiously collect information on people suspected of no wrongdoing and no connection with any foreign entity. These inquiries may include the collection of information from online sources and commercial databases.”
FBI agents, moreover, as I have previously reported, can infiltrate lawful civic and political groups, along with religious places of worship, and may take into account, in their threat “assessments,” race, ethnicity and religion. The press has largely been uninterested in this suspension of the Bill of Rights – but we know a lot about David Letterman.
President Obama has expressed no objections to these radical revisions of the Constitution, a founding document he used to educate students about at the University of Chicago. His attorney general, Eric Holder, said calmly during his Senate confirmation hearing: “The guidelines are necessary because the FBI is changing its mission … from a pure investigating agency to one that deals with national security.”
It was the same Eric Holder who said, while George W. Bush was president: “I never thought that I would see the day when a president would act in direct defiance of federal law by authorizing warrantless NSA (National Security Agency) surveillance of American citizens.”
I keep waiting for President Obama to live up to any of his campaign promises. Are we sure Bush isn’t still in office?
Summary: As Congressman, I will drive for a rapid, immediate and orderly withdrawal from Iraq. Under no circumstances will I approve spending to extend this unconstitutional, preemptive war of aggression.
Besides the creating new dollars to debase the currency and spending taxpayer funds to fund war during adverse economic times, my justification for the position is the following:
First and foremost, without a declaration of war, the Iraq War is an unconstitutional and illegal war as it conflicts with the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. In dereliction of their duty and oaths of office, the House voted down by unanimous vote a motion in committee to follow the Constitution and declare war in H.R.J. 114, the bill that authorized Bush II to invade with attack in March 2003. (1) (2)
by John Browne – Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital
Earlier this year, I predicted that the 2009 rally in U.S. stocks could bring the Dow Jones Index as high as 10,000. It looks like that level has been achieved. If, at this point, the index reverses course, I would have made a fairly good prediction.
However, it is important to get beyond the charts and look at the fundamentals. The furious six-month rally in the stock market has certainly not been mirrored by the economy as a whole. Instead, the country remains in recession, with unemployment continuing to rise and corporate earnings continuing to decline. This has pushed up trading multiples to the point that where value is now a distant memory. How could the stock markets have recovered so strongly in the face of economic recession?
First, this rally is mostly about the financial sector. The U.S. government decided that, no matter what the cost to the citizen, the major banks had to be saved. Bank losses were transferred to public books and unprecedented funds were showered on the banks to keep them solvent. Bank borrowing costs were reduced to near zero and, for the first time, interest was paid on reserves held at the Fed. Many of these banks were designated as ‘too big to fail,’ so they became a nearly risk-free bet.
The result: bank profits skyrocketed. Just today, JP Morgan reported that profits surged sevenfold from the second to the third quarter of this year! In fact, over the past six months, stock performance of financial sector firms was 66% better than the S&P 500 as a whole.
Second, the rally is mostly inevitable bounce. In the third quarter of 2008, in the face of collapsing stock and commodity markets, investors piled into cash instruments such as Treasuries. However, once the crisis appeared to pass, the same investors fled these zero-return ‘investments’ back into corporate debt, and then equities. Such massive fund flows have provided the tide upon which the current rally is based.
Your constant pressure can make a difference, as evidenced by this email we just received from DC Downsizer Nick Hasulak . . .
“I’ve used the Educate the Powerful system to send probably over 30 messages to Senator Boxer regarding HR 1207/S604 (the Audit the Fed bill). As recently as August 27th, her response was basically “I’ll keep your opinions in mind”. Finally today, October 8th, I received an email stating that she had signed on as a co-sponsor to S604! It’s extremely gratifying to win this victory even if it is small! Knowing her past record, I know this change is due to nothing but constant pressure from the People. DownsizeDC works!”
The Audit the Fed bill currently has . . .
30 co-sponsors in the Senate (up by 3 since our last report)
301 co-sponsors in the House (up by 11 since our last report)
The Audit the Fed bill already has a substantial majority in the House. Can we achieve the same thing in the Senate? Here’s the letter I sent to my elected representatives to try and make this happen . . .
“Thank you to Representative Giffords and Senator McCain for co-sponsoring the Audit the Fed bill. I hope Senator Kyl will see fit to join them soon.”
Dr. Elinor Ostrum, 76, based her work around the idea that there are human interactions beyond the statistics of market prices surrounding the “commons” such as fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins are managed as common property. Although this idea itself is not new – Ludvig von Mises covered this in gory detail inHuman Action from 1949, Jared Diamond provided both historical and modern examples in his 2005 book Collapse, and Walter Block and Hans Hermann-Hoppe of the Mises Institute have reviewed many aspects of the commons already – it IS probably new to the Nobel committee. However, the details of her work itself are very novel.
As nominations were submitted before February 1, 2009, much of the world was shocked to find out that freshman President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. To his credit, Obama proclaimed he was “surprised and deeply humbled” and did not feel he deserved “to be in the company” of past Peace Prize winners. I must say that, politically-speaking, the former junior senator from Illinois is to be admired in many respects. To prevent and distract the press from analyzing his worthiness for the Peace Prices, the very next day he announcedthat he would (eventually) end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the military – a crafty move that appeals to his base and Americans who champion and respect civil liberties and individual rights, which includes myself.
Per NobelPeacePrize.org, in 1895 Alfred Nobel signed his will to use most of his fortune to fund the Nobel Prizes. The Peace Prize was dedicated to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Has the President done the “most or best work for fraternity between nations”? I would say not. Four days after becoming President, he ordered the bombing of a village in Pakistan, which is yet another nation the United States has not declared war on.
Has the President worked for “the abolition or reduction of standing armies”? Certainly not that of the United States. In fact, per his website, he was elected on the promise that he would expand America’s standing army by about 100,000 troops.
Liberty Maven
by Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of 
” and last year’s “
“. Meanwhile neo-conservatives and strangers to logic like Graham attempt to grow the party by shouting down those that would support them if they had any principles at all.
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