Young Americans for Liberty – Ole Miss Chapter

Rep. Mel Watt, of North Carolina stripped H.R. 1207 of its most important provisions.

In a not-too-surprising move, House leaders have stripped House Bill 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, of all its most meaningful legislation.  Rep. Mel Watt, of North Carolina was tasked with “preparing the legislation for formal consideration.”  In his new, stripped version of the bill, there is no longer an audit of the Federal Reserve’s dealings with foreign central banks, no audit of their deliberations about monetary policy decisions, and no audit of Federal Open Market Committee and its communications with members, banks, and staff.

Congressman Ron Paul said that when the bill comes to the floor, he will introduce an amendment that would attempt to restore the bill to its former, unaltered state.  As my congressman, Travis Childers, sits on the Financial Services Committee, I will be giving his office a call to let him know how disastrous this is to any attempt at transparency and truth with regard to the Federal Reserve, and urge him to support the original language and intent of H.R. 1207.

UPDATE: Congressman Paul Responds to these breaking events:

The Ole Miss Young Americans for Liberty are thrilled to host Dr James Lark speaking on campus this Friday, October 16.  Come on out to Bishop 209 at 5:30 PM to hear some stimulating and thought-provoking ideas.

Dr Lark serves as adjunct professor in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering and visiting lecturer in the Department of Applies Mathematics at the University of Virginia.  He is also a director of the Financial Engineering Research Group at UVA.   Dr Lark has been a foot soldier in the battle for individual liberty, limited government, and constitutionalism since his college years, having been active in the Libertarian Party, Advocates for Self-Government, International Society for Individual Liberty, and the Institute for Health Freedom.

Dr Lark’s speech is entitled “Warning: Governmentally-Mandated Safety Measures May Be Hazardous to Your Health.”  He will argue that while well-intentioned, government safety measures generally fail to protect consumers and actually increase danger.

Come out this Friday and spend an evening with a great free-market speaker.

This begs the question: Why are people still listening to this moron?

So it is official: Peter Schiff is running for US Senate. We don’t get too many minds like Schiff with a good chance at winning a Senate seat very often. I encourage everybody to throw their support his way. Good luck Peter!

Inspired by a poster on LewRockwell.com, I’m now putting Federal Reserve Notes to good use.  If that’s not a viral strategy, I don’t know what is!  Legal tender laws are hazardous to a free society, because they force people to accept fiat money in lieu of something that actually holds value.  I recently picked up the book, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, by Richard J. Maybury.  This book is written from the perspective of an uncle, an Austrian economist, to a nephew that had questions about inflation.  An excellent read, it breaks down all of the Keynesian fallacies and takes us back to basics–what money really is, and why fiat money is counterfeit.  I highly recommend Penny Candy to anyone that wants to get a basic education from the ground up on how money and economics really work.

Amazon is now selling Ron Paul’s brand new book, End the Fed. We encourage everybody to pick up a copy for themselves. How amazing would it be, during hard economic times and in the middle of an intense debate to give the Federal Reserve its very first full-scale audit, a book entitled End the Fed would surge to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

On top of sending a message to the world that the American people will no longer tolerate being robbed of their savings by rich bankers, you will get to read what promises to be a very informative and well written book. Let’s send a message!

We all remember the scary dooms-day rhetoric flowing from the mouths of the MSM commentators when the credit crisis finally reared its ugly head. The banks in trouble were too big to fail, and without government aid our economy would turn to dust, take the rest of the world with it, and usher in the return of Christ.

Now, according to a Washingtonpost.com article, the banks bailed out have gotten even bigger. Due to all the government aided mergers, JP Morgan Chase, Banks of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are now issuing one of every two mortgages, and two of every three credit cards.

Regulators are somehow alarmed that these institution are actually growing larger and more interconnected than ever. Even more alarming, thanks to near-government granted monopoly, these large institutions have actually raised their rates while smaller institutions in America have been lowering theirs:

In the last quarter, the top four banks raised fees related to deposits by an average of 8 percent, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Striving to stay competitive, smaller banks lowered their fees by an average of 12 percent.

So while over 70 smaller banks have been allowed to go bankrupt, and even more projected, the government is  still playing favorites with the Wall Street giants. Its hard to tell somebody no when they are stuffing your pockets with campaign contributions.

President Obama nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. This wasn’t an unexpected reappointment. As much as I love to gloat when Dr. Paul challenges him in Congress, I have to admit, he performed well in his role. Now, granted, his role is one that shouldn’t even exist, and I abhor it completely. He did, however, meet the expectations of the Keynesian world.

Had Bernanke not been appointed, we probably would’ve seen the rise of a Timmy Geithner, or similar would-be autocrat. I take a step back, and reassure myself that this is a battle of ideas, and not of personalities. Ben Bernanke is merely a cog in a larger machine, convinced of his own righteousness and the Fed’s ability to manage our money supply through perpetual debasement. Alan Greenspan, however, was once a proponent of a gold standard, and routinely called for the dismantling of the Fed. If any Fed chairman is to be demonized, be it one that let slip the ideas of sound money when the machine came calling. Bernanke is a true believer.

Happy reappointment, Mr. Bernanke—I hope you enjoy early retirement when your machine grinds to a halt.

How many times have we heard the mantra that the free market is incapable of regulating itself?  This claim has been exposed as false many times, yet we still have people whipping up arguments that have been used for centuries to limit economic freedom and steal the power from the citizen and place it in the hands of the government. 

What is most troubling is that history is always invoked as being on the side of the government. As if without Big Brother stepping in to save us from ourselves, the population would be in such a state of economic chaos we would certainly be unable to progress as a society. Of course, anybody willing to actually sift through the history will find that the main culprit in almost any economic, and especially social, catastrophe is the government itself. The same is true for the current economic downturn.

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