Top 8 Ways Hard Money Would Change Your Life

I'll be honest.  What excites me the most about Ron Paul is not his stance against illegal wars.  It's not that the was the only one to stand up against the Patriot Act the first time around.  It's not just that he's never voted for a tax increase.  It's not just that he can't be bought by lobbyists, or that he understands what kind of government the founding fathers set out to create.  That's all incredible, and they're all great reasons to support him, but if I had to pick the single biggest reason why I'm a Ron Paul fan, it would be his monetary policy.  Ironically, this is probably one of the least understood – and therefore one of the least appreciated – parts of what Ron Paul is all about.  So, my goal today is to outline the top eight ways a Ron Paul Monetary Policy would affect you and me on a day-to-day basis.

8. The value of the money in your wallet and in savings would gradually go up, not down
If Ron Paul had his way, there would be no Federal Reserve.  Without the Federal Reserve printing as much money as they see fit, and in turn devaluing the money that already exists, the money you've worked hard to earn would be worth more over time, not less.

7. Prices for groceries, gas, and most other day-to-day products would go down over time, not up
The rise in prices we see every time we go shopping is mostly a result of inflation.  In a free market that's not subject to manipulation of the value of our money, technological advances and increases in efficiency cause prices to drop, not rise.  If we take the Federal Reserve out of the picture and tie our money to the value of an uninflatable commodity, prices will go down across the board.

6. Market prediction wouldn't be centered around the uncertainty of the Fed's next actions
Have you ever spent time talking to anyone who makes a living trading in the markets?  If you have, you've undoubtedly heard of a guy by the name of Ben Bernanke.  Bernanke is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.  That is, he has the final say on how much new money the Fed prints up and who they give it to.  This determines what will happen in the financial markets, and as long as a privately-owned organization like the Federal Reserve is in control of our money supply, we are their slaves.  Don't believe me?  Turn on CNBC and see what they're talking about.  Smart money says it won't take longer than five or ten minutes before they mention the man in charge.

5. We would have little reason to be in Iraq, as the US Dollar wouldn't have needed defending from Saddam
It's true that Saddam was a threat to the US, but it had nothing to do with WMD's.  He was a threat because he was the first one with the balls to sell oil in Euro's instead of US Dollars.  Since the Federal Reserve destroys the value of the US Dollar, it's important that countries want Dollars for other reasons.  The fact that oil could only be purchased US Dollars is a great reason.  That is, if you have to buy oil, and if oil can only be purchased in US Dollars, you're going to need a lot of US Dollars, regardless of how much they're worth for other things.  Long story short, in 2000, Saddam stopped accepting US Dollars for oil and began accepting only Euros.  Two months after the United States went into Iraq, they were back to accepting only Dollars.  This is explained in detail in my article, The Real Reason the U.S. Invaded Iraq.  By allowing the Fed to inflate our currency, we became dependant on other nations to play along.  If we supported Hard Money, none of this would be necessary.  At least 27,506 more Americans would be alive, and we as a nation would owe at least $2 trillion less than we do now.

4. We wouldn't be considering war with Iran
Iran, listed as the second country in Bush's Axis of Evil, announced in 2005 that it would commit an offence far greater than Saddam's switch to the Euro for oil sales.  Iran proposed to go all out by creating the world's first oil exchange that would allow the world to trade oil in Euros instead of US Dollars.  An exchange that only accepts the Euro for oil sales would mean that the entire world could begin purchasing oil from any oil-producing nation with Euros instead of Dollars. The Iranian Oil Bourse, "bourse" being French for "exchange", will surely result in another hostile takeover by the US military if it actually opens.  Instead, we could simply stop inflating our currency so that the US Dollar remains dominate because it has real value.

3. The US wouldn't be pressuring China to inflate their currency, and China wouldn't be threatening to retaliate by causing economic collapse
The only way for Americans to be able to afford goods while devaluing our currency at this rate is if other countries are willing to devalue their currency at similar rates.  If other countries aren't willing to devalue their money, prices for Americans will go way up, and suddenly we won't be able to afford the cheap Chinese goods that we rely on so much.  The more we lean on countries like China to destroy their money, the more they're going to want to retaliate.  Eventually we'll be faced with a choice between war and poverty, and it will be the government, not the citizens who will make the decision.

2. No more Inflation Tax for the poor
Inflation occurs when the Federal Reserve expands the money supply by creating more money.  Each time this happens, and lately it's been happening at a frighteningly rapid pace, the money that already exists – that is, the paper in our wallets and bank accounts – loses its value.  This is why prices increase.  Each time your money loses its value, it takes more and more of it to purchase the same goods.  These guys literally make a living stealing our wealth and giving it to others.  However, unlike Robin Hood, the recipients of this wealth tend to be people who are already wealthy, and the people who are hurt the most are arguably the poor.  That is, the people who get screwed the most are the poor who can't afford the rising prices – those on with minimum wage jobs or fixed-incomes.  A hard money policy would put a stop to this by cutting off the Fed's ability to inflate, or abolishing the Fed entirely.

1. The Fed would not be causing artificial booms, inevitably followed by a busts
Ever wonder where economic bubbles come from?  The bubbles of modern times like the Great Depression of the 1930's, Dot-com boom of the late 90's, or the boom that's coming to an end now in the real estate market occur when central banks expand the money supply and dump new money into various sectors of the economy, often in the form of cheap credit.  Banks loan the new money to consumers and entrepreneurs, including those who aren't credit worthy.  In turn, they spend it or invest it, which causes prices to rise.  As people see prices rise, they are drawn to invest, causing prices to rise further.  Meanwhile, the Fed continues to inject new money.  We've seen this lately in the form of house flipping.  Eventually, the market begins to correct itself, and whoever owns the inflated property when the correction begins to occur gets stuck holding the bag.  People all over the country are finding themselves in Adjustable Rate Mortgages they cannot afford.  Many times this results in a foreclosure, which in turn causes problems for the fractional-reserve banks, who then begin to face insolvency.  Insolvency manifests itself in the form of bank runs, and if it gets bad enough, leads to economic collapse.  There is much to be explained here, but for now suffice to say that inflation from the Fed creates booms that are inevitably followed by busts.

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2:51 am on August 29, 2007