Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

[don]

1234

[pianodoctor]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I'm not so sure Bernanke is the one who looks bad in that video.

[Spartacus]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I'm not so sure Bernanke is the one who looks bad in that video.

partly disagree; RP had a "gotcha" moment with "why do central banks hold it" ...

partly agree; the gold bugs need to find new ways to stop preaching to the choir and draw in the majority.

At $1500 IMHO the majority is nowhere near buying in to the "Gold is money" message.

[sunskyfan]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I watched all of the testimony. Only an Economics Academic could be boasting that an entity that can print money at will and hold bad assets that no one can legally force to be reconciled ever manage to generate $128 billion last year for the Fed Government. What an accomplishment.

[raja]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I agree with Bernanke . . . gold is an asset.

Of course, it depends on how you define "money".
Personally, I think sheep are money, since I exchanged some for farm labor last month.
Or . . . maybe sheep are an asset.
Now I'm really confused . . . not.

I know one thing . . . Ron Paul is not an "asset"
I would classify him as a "jerk". He enjoys it too much when he thinks he's right.

A Google search turned up:
monˇeynoun /ˈmənē/ 
moneys, plural

1. A current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively
   • - I counted the money before putting it in my wallet
   • - he borrowed money to modernize the store
   
   
2. Sums of money
   • - a statement of all moneys paid into and out of the account
   
   
3. The assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something; wealth
   • - the college is very short of money
   
   
4. Financial gain
   • - the main aim of a commercial organization is to make money
   
   
5. Payment for work; wages
   • - she accepted the job at the public school since the money was better
   
   
6. A wealthy person or group
   • - her aunt had married money
   
   
   
   

[LorenS]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

Bernanke is a figurehead. It's not like "winning" an argument with him matters much. I think maybe Ron Paul has let his presidential aspirations get the best of him.

I think the gold as money theme is counterproductive. In the current scenario the govt can crap out all the money they want but we're free to "invest" that crap wherever we see fit. If we get another "gold standard" it's a likely bet that our freedom will NOT increase. In fact, under a gold standard it's very likely that only special people will have access to gold and the rest of us will only be allowed to use the government provided gold "notes".

In a "gold standard" scenario the government can still crap out all the currency they want, they just claim it's got some "value" in gold or some "backing" in gold.

Where Ron Paul needs to keep the focus is how the setting of interest rates causes distortions in the economy, and how the FED buying up garbage mortgages keeps house prices too high for the average American to be able to afford one.

The gold standard is a lost cause. Going after crony capitalism, corruption and corporate welfare is a good PR grab and would get the support of many mainstream Americans. If we had an honest government and a reasonably honest financial services industry it wouldn't matter what we use for money. If we keep the same clowns in charge, putting gold in circulation won't help one bit.

There's no such thing as honest money. Gold can't fix what ails us.

[jpetr48]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

gold and silver have been a medium of exchange for thousands of years

On whether gold and silver are now regarded as money for paper dollars - go to ebay home page.
They now have a bullion center.

[Raz]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I agree with Bernanke . . . gold is an asset.

Of course, it depends on how you define "money".
Personally, I think sheep are money, since I exchanged some for farm labor last month.
Or . . . maybe sheep are an asset.
Now I'm really confused . . . not.

I know one thing . . . Ron Paul is not an "asset"
I would classify him as a "jerk". He enjoys it too much when he thinks he's right.

Whatever Ron Paul may be, a jerk he is not.

I don't think he enjoys talking to a condescending, mendacious, arrogant-ass neocriminal like Bernanke.

Bernanke: now there's a jerk if there ever was one. A lying jerk.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

Personally, I think sheep are money, since I exchanged some for farm labor last month.

The sheep were currency - not money.

The sheeple too will be fleeced though.

[don]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

Jesse weighs in:

When one uses gold or silver to conduct a transaction, typically one converts the bullion into the local currency first and THEN makes the exchange. If gold and silver were money, there would be no conversion and no profit or loss realized on that conversion. Money is a denominator, a way of keeping score in a transfer of wealth, the oft heard 'medium of exchange.'

So I think some of my fellow metals people are jumping overboard on this one. When they say gold and silver are money, what they are really saying is that they have been and should be money again. If they were really money now as they were under the metals standards, the discussion would be moot.

And as usual some of the blogs are going the Daily News route with their headlines, posturing for clicks. I thought Ron Paul could have asked much more penetrating questions of Ben. This is just a distraction. There are serious problems at hand.

The US is not prepared for a gold standard now any more than it is ready for austerity. Think of an accident victim in a hospital that needs to change their ways, but not by entering an Iron Man competition on release. The economy is out of balance, and fraud and excess still pervades the financial system. Austerity is a prescription for a heart attack. And stimulus is just a cosmetic, although in the right form it could help to get the patient back on its feet through infrastructure investment of the right sorts.

Gold and silver are not money, in the sense of currency or legal tender, at this time almost anywhere in the world. This is the purview of governments to declare. However, as a store of value, as a superior asset class, it is clear that they are among the best.

Gold and silver have been money, in various places and times throughout recorded human history. But they are not so now. They may yet be so again. And so the central banks still maintain their gold, although note that few of them hold silver. It is a traditional remnant at this time. Most do not exchange their gold in settlement of debts.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot...charts_13.html

[ltullos]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

Sadly, Ron Paul is little more that a mere cartoon even though he stands on Jeffersonian principles that have become radical ideas in 2011 America. Show me a politician who is able to use his knowledge and skills to persuade and cause another to change their mind as opposed to grandstanding, and I'll be a lot more impressed.

[Serge_Tomiko]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I'm not so sure Bernanke is the one who looks bad in that video.

Very true.

Every time I have pointed out to a Libertarian that every civilization to have ever existed for the past 6,000 years was also organized around significant government spending, usually for truly pointless monuments of various types, they immediately stop using tradition as an argument.

Libertarians like to dabble in tradition, but they are not truly of the right and ditch it whenever it doesn't suit their needs. They are just dogmatic liberals who have taken the French Revolution to one of its more quirky conclusions.

I also found the diamond quote funny. Diamonds of course have always been more suspect, and now they can be manufactured.

[Serge_Tomiko]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I agree with Bernanke . . . gold is an asset.

Of course, it depends on how you define "money".
Personally, I think sheep are money, since I exchanged some for farm labor last month.
Or . . . maybe sheep are an asset.
Now I'm really confused . . . not.

I know one thing . . . Ron Paul is not an "asset"
I would classify him as a "jerk". He enjoys it too much when he thinks he's right.

A Google search turned up:
monˇeynoun /ˈmənē/ 
moneys, plural

1. A current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively
   • - I counted the money before putting it in my wallet
   • - he borrowed money to modernize the store
   
   
2. Sums of money
   • - a statement of all moneys paid into and out of the account
   
   
3. The assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something; wealth
   • - the college is very short of money
   
   
4. Financial gain
   • - the main aim of a commercial organization is to make money
   
   
5. Payment for work; wages
   • - she accepted the job at the public school since the money was better
   
   
6. A wealthy person or group
   • - her aunt had married money
   
   
   
   

Money is whatever the people in power say it is. The function of money is to organize complex societies, it is not a theoretical concept devoid from human behavior. But, liberals aren't interested in human organization really. They are either libertarians who think people are supremely rational and will organize without an elite, something that has never happened to a significant degree, or they are modern liberals on the left who believe massive propaganda efforts and vast bureaucracies will guide the sheeple to the promised land of diversity, equality, and tolerance. They ignore the tendency for excessive bureaucracy to become ineffective and capriciously inhumane.

[Chris Coles]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

or they are modern liberals on the left who believe massive propaganda efforts and vast bureaucracies will guide the sheeple to the promised land of diversity, equality, and tolerance. They ignore the tendency for excessive bureaucracy to become ineffective and capriciously inhumane.

Change "tendency" for "certainty" and I am in complete agreement.

[Fox]

Re: Ron Paul Sticks It to the Bernanke

I personally love Ron Paul's ideas, but I always walk away disappointed from his "grillings" with Bernanke.

He makes a very poor interrogator. Ask short clear questions and let the defendant do all the talking and dig their own hole.
"How much in assets did you take onto your balance sheet?"
"How much money did you transfer out to institutions in exchange for these assets?"
"What was the market value when you exchanged these assets?"
"What are these institutions doing with the money you exchanged for these assets?"
"How are you going to remove these assets from your Balance sheet?"
"What will become of any short fall in value from these assets?"

What are the odds that Bernanke can look good answering those questions? And that's a very short list. Imagine what questions you would like to ask once you have the answers to those above.

All these episodes between Ron Paul and Bernanke are lost opportunities to get real information out into the public.