November 5th, 7 AM, Ron Paul already at $1.1 million
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on November 5th, 2007
In the post previous to this one I mentioned the Ron Paul money bomb.
I checked at about 11:55 PM, east cost American time, at Ron Paul’s campaign site. Total contributions then we’re about $2,700,00 for this quarter. As I write this they are over $3,800,000. That would suggest that in about 7 hours, he has raised over a million dollars.
I will also note that shortly after it turned 12:00 AM on the east coast of America, just after 2:00 PM in Japan, I donated $100 to Ron Paul’s campaign. This is the first donation I have ever given to a presidential candidate ever. I look at it this way, at the very minimum he is educating young people about economics, and that is worth contributing to. Look at the top candidates in either party. Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton … do these people actually care about the constitution? Do they care about people? Do they care about economics and policy?
I look at today as a chance to make a statement. I hope a really loud one.
Now if you think this has nothing to do with Japan. Guess again. I’m not just talking about the kind of antics you get from Ozawa and Fukuda, but the fact that monetary policy in Japan is, as it is in America, centrally planned. Is it really even conceivable that a bureaucrat, a sort of technocrat, should be able to set interest rates better than the market would? Just read the article I’ve linked.
Governor Fukui says, “But we need to pay greater attention to the risk of prolonged easy policy, even as downside risks grow.” How in the world is he suppose to know what the best rate would be? And even if he knew it, who in the world would have the courage to raise the rate for the good of the economy knowing it would incur everyone’s wrath?
It’s late (for me) and I’m rambling. Good luck Ron Paul!
November 6th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I agree with just about everything you have here except for one line:
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.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
It’s pretty awesome that he raised so much money, but I really wish his supporters had chosen some other day. Using Guy Fawkes Day/ V for Vendetta stuff will probably make it easier for the media to label this donation drive as a bunch of nuts and weirdos.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
The Associated Press says “more than $4.2 million”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyQLduiFMFTNmeUdgpf5cMvLi6awD8SNV5Q02
November 6th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
-> Googling “ロン・ポール” will only get you 19,900 hits in Japanese compared to the 8.3 million hits “Ron Paul” gets you in English.
-> 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?
November 6th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
James,
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!
November 6th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Garrett,
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?
November 12th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I look at it this way, at the very minimum he is educating young people about economics, and that is worth contributing to. Look at the top candidates in either party. Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton … do these people actually care about the constitution? Do they care about people? Do they care about economics and policy?
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.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I don’t fully embrace libertarianism, but as one can see with hindsight, all central bank judgement fails at some crucial point(think: subprime crisis). So I’m for the gold standard and 100% reserve banking, namely sound money, and the price of money, i.e. interest rates, should be decided by the markets, not by some bureacracy.
von Mises and De Soto have lucid arguments to support “sound money”.