If they do care, they’re trying hard not to show it. I agree with you on Dr Paul - wherever one stands on him as a candidate, he is talking about real issues. He brings up the fact that policy is not discussed openly enough in America and that this has gotten us into real trouble. He’s going to speak his opinions and not worry about the lobby groups. It’s good to see him making things more exiting. I don’t agree with everything on his platform, but the attempts to keep him out of debates or to sideswipe him have been pathetic and show how intellectually bankrupt most of his party is right now.

The American Federal Reserve was formed in 1913. Can we blame two world wars, a depression, numerous recessions, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the welfare state, stagflation in the 70s, massive budget deficit spending, Iraq, and the on coming sub-prime debacle, and near continuous inflation since 1913 all on the Federal Reserve?

Uh … probably not. At least not all of that. But then again …

This is an issue I really am trying to look into and read up on. I’m reading The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan right now. What’s amazing is how often Greenspan acted on his own intuition. What if his intuition had been off?

There is a youtube video floating around now, where Alan Greenspan is asked about the necessity of the Federal Reserve. He gives an answer so coached in hedges you can’t at first understand what he’s saying. However, he finally gives in and say, “I happen to think America did quite well from 1870 to 1913 on a gold standard.”

(For the record, there was still a gold standard after 1913, but only a partial one. The Federal Reserve could adjust its own reserve requirements as far as gold after 1913.)

Anyway, there’s plenty of room here for future discussion … Why aren’t competing currencies by private agencies allowed in most countries? Are they scared of the competition?

You raise a good point. But one thing that impresses me, is you know the so called top tier candidates are falling all over themselves trying to think up schemes to raise cash. Ron Paul didn’t do anything. The whole thing started totally independent of the campaign. It was just a spontaneous idea that caught fire. That’s truly amazing.

Congratulations Ron Paul!

-> Doing a news search for ロン・ポール on both Yahoo and Google gets you NOTHING. The guys raises $5 million in a day and gets no media coverage here in Japan.

Something fishy?

Is it really even conceivable that a bureaucrat, a sort of technocrat, should be able to set interest rates better than the market would?

I consider myself largely a Libertarian. Since I was 18, I have voted twice for Libertarian presidential candidates and once for a major party candidate. I volunteered for the Libertarians as a student, but I’d have to say that the past thirty years are evidence that the answer to your rhetorical question is a rather solid “Yes.” Stability being the goal, central banks throughout the developed world have done an admirable job. Not perfect, but better than what came before.