Pillars of Prosperity - Ludwig von Mises Institute : The Austrian

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by  Ron Paul

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Pillars of Prosperity
FREE MARKETS, HONEST MONEY, PRIVATE PROPERTY
R P
ON AUL
PREFACE BY ROBERT P. MURPHY
FOREWORD BY LLEWELLYN H. ROCKWELL, JR.
Ludwig
von Mises
Institute
AUBURN, ALABAMA
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the pub-
lisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quota-
tions in critical reviews or articles. For information write: Ludwig von
Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832;
mises.org.
Copyright 2008 © by the Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN: 978-1-933550-24-4
Contents
PREFACEBYROBERTP. MURPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
FOREWORDBYLLEWELLYNH. ROCKWELL, JR.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV
PART1—THEECONOMICSOFAFREESOCIETY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Current Political Philosophies’ Errors to Result in
Political and Economic Crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Challenge to America: A Current Assessment of
Our Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Has Capitalism Failed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
PART2—MISESANDAUSTRIANECONOMICS: A PERSONALVIEW . . . . 47
PART3—REFORMINGSOCIALSECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Senior Citizens’ Freedom to Work Act of 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Social Security Tax Relief Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Social Security Preservation Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Social Security for American Citizens Only! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
PART4—GIVINGMONEYBACKTOTHETAXPAYERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Agriculture Education Freedom Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Family Health Tax Cut Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Public Safety Tax Cut Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
End the Income Tax—Pass the Liberty Amendment . . . . . . 84
Teacher Tax Cut Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The Family Education Freedom Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The False Tax Cut Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Police Security Protection Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
v
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PART5—MONEYANDBANKING: GOLDVERSUSFIAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
To Provide for Amendment of the Bretton Woods
Agreement Act, and for Other Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Inflation—The Overriding Concern of All Americans. . . . . 100
Curtailing the Discretionary Powers of the Federal
Reserve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Print 3 Million and Take 1 Million for Yourself. . . . . . . . . . . 103
Gold Prices Soar; Dollar Declines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Government Should Stop Destroying Value of the Dollar. . 105
Increased Money Supply Cause of Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
The Recent Strength of the Dollar and Inflation . . . . . . . . . . 107
Inflation is Caused by Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Debasement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Congressional Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Gold versus Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Five Myths of the Gold Standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Audit of the Federal Reserve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
High Interest Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
At the Brink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
The Folly of Current Monetary Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Back Into the Woods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Conduct of Monetary Policy, March 5, 1997. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Federal Reserve has Monopoly over Money and
Credit in United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Conduct of Monetary Policy, July 22, 1997. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
East Asian Economic Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Conduct of Monetary Policy, February 24, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . 179
The Bubble. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
International Economic Turmoil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Revamping the Monetary System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Congress Ignores its Constitutional Responsibility
Regarding Monetary Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Warning about Foreign Policy and Monetary Policy . . . . . . 202
Contents vii
Economic Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
The Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
The U.S. Dollar and the World Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
The Foolishness of Fiat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Gold and the Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Hard Questions for Federal Reserve Chairman
Greenspan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Bring Back Honest Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Paper Money and Tyranny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Reject Taxpayer Bank Bailouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
The End of Dollar Hegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
What the Price of Gold is Telling Us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy. . . . . . . . . . . 283
Chinese Currency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Financial Services Paulson Hearing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
PART6—FREETRADE: REALVERSUSPHONY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Our Soaring Trade Deficit Cannot Be Ignored. . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Ron Paul Amendment to Cut Corporate Welfare. . . . . . . . . 295
What is Free Trade? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
The Dollar and Our Current Account Deficit. . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
International Trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
PNTR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
The Export-Import Reauthorization Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Opposing Unconstitutional “Trade
Promotion Authority”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Steel Protectionism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Export-Import Bank is Corporate Welfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Don’t Antagonize Our Trading Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
The United States Trade Rights Enforcement Act. . . . . . . . . 329
PART7—INTERNATIONALAFFAIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Dissenting Views on H.R. 7244. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Big Bankers Get Their Bailout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
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The Mexican Bailout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Reaffirming Commitment of United States to
Principles of the MarshallPlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Calling for the United States to Withdraw from the
World Trade Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
U.S. Membership in the World Trade Organization. . . . . . . 346
New China Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Ending U.S. Membership in the IMF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Wasteful Foreign Aid to Colombia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Opposing Taxpayer Funding of Multinational
Development Banks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Why Does the IMF Prohibit Gold-Backed Currency
for its Member States?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
The Myth of War Prosperity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Opposing Trade Sanctions against Syria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Reject the Millennium Challenge Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Providing for the Establishment of a Commission in
the House of Representatives to Assist Parliaments
in Emerging Democracies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Opposing Statement to Committee on Financial
Services World Bank Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Iran Sanctions Enabling Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
PART8—HOWGOVERNMENTDISTORTSTHEHOUSINGMARKET. . . . . 375
Debate on the Housing Opportunity and Responsibility
Act of 1997. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Subsidies Distort the
Housing Market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
The American Dream Downpayment Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Reforming the Government Sponsored Enterprises
(Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Mortgage Industry Has Its Roots in the Federal
Reserve’s Inflationary Monetary Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Contents ix
PART9—SPENDING, TAXES, ANDREGULATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
The Chrysler Bailout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
The Balanced Budget Amendment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Authorizing President to Award Congressional
Gold Medal to Mother Teresa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
The Davis-Bacon Repeal Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
The National Right to Work Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Authorizing President to Award Congressional
Gold Medal to Rosa Parks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
OSHA Home Office Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Minimum Wage Increase Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Awarding Gold Medal to Former President
and Mrs. Ronald Reagan in Recognition of
Service to Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
The Wage Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Truth in Employment Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Terrorism Reinsurance Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
The Collapse of Enron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Television Consumer Freedom Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
The Shrimp Importation Financing Fairness Act. . . . . . . . . . 424
Oppose the Federal Welfare State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Oppose the Spendthrift 2005 Federal Budget
Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
A Token Attempt to Reduce Government
Spending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Praising Private Space Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Government Spending—A Tax on the Middle Class . . . . . . 436
Raising the Debt Limit: A Disgrace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
The Republication Congress Wastes Billions
Overseas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444