Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul
Well, if it works for this guy…
I've already been thwacked a bit for elsewhere relating that a Ron Paul supporter sent me a private message at a comics board, asking how a conservative libertarian could support Rudy Giuliani over a paragon of Libertarianism such as Ron Paul. The thwacker suggested I was implying that RP minions were engaged in a net.campaign to push RP. Apparently, this sort of accusation is Just Not Done.
Oh, well. My Ron Paul non-governmental minder notes: He also mentions the trade imbalance between America and countries like India and China… but he fails to address the primary cause of our current trade imbalance: monetary policy. We have a policy of relying more upon the willingness of foreigners to accept U.S. dollars printed out of thin air for our standard of living, rather than on the productivity of individual Americans. Simply put, if we want to address the trade imbalance, we have to address public debt.
Why was our economy not demilitarized?… With the Cold War over, why did we not return to a peaceful posture?
Which may be the single worst part of the RP campaign: they are Buchanan paleocons, not libertarians at all. Points:
I've already been thwacked a bit for elsewhere relating that a Ron Paul supporter sent me a private message at a comics board, asking how a conservative libertarian could support Rudy Giuliani over a paragon of Libertarianism such as Ron Paul. The thwacker suggested I was implying that RP minions were engaged in a net.campaign to push RP. Apparently, this sort of accusation is Just Not Done.
Oh, well. My Ron Paul non-governmental minder notes: He also mentions the trade imbalance between America and countries like India and China… but he fails to address the primary cause of our current trade imbalance: monetary policy. We have a policy of relying more upon the willingness of foreigners to accept U.S. dollars printed out of thin air for our standard of living, rather than on the productivity of individual Americans. Simply put, if we want to address the trade imbalance, we have to address public debt.
Why was our economy not demilitarized?… With the Cold War over, why did we not return to a peaceful posture?
Which may be the single worst part of the RP campaign: they are Buchanan paleocons, not libertarians at all. Points:
- Federal Reserve Notes float against gold but they are indeed a gold-backed currency: nothing is being printed out of thin air.
- If any monetary policy is causing a “trade imbalance” with China, it is the CHICOM monetary policy.
- There is no “trade imbalance.” As Frédéric Bastiat noted almost 200 years ago, trade imbalances are a fiction. They are the last gasp of mercantilism The idea of a self-described Libertarian decrying a “trade imbalance” is revolting: almost as revolting as a so-called economist like Paul Krugman noting that we should not be upset that Islamofascists destroyed the Twin Towers as rebuilding would generate a lot of commerce.
- Ron Paul is a Truther.
- Our economy is not militarized, and ever since Thomas Jefferson sent frigates against the Barbary Pirates, American arms have always followed American trade.
- Our troops are redeployed. They were taken out of Central Europe and placed at the fringe of NATO, in Eastern Europe. Why are we there? As George Washington noted, looking for favors from foreign governments is a fool’s game: Interest sustained the American Revolution and will so our current foreign policy.
- “As to the oil money, it is Western companies that actually do the drilling and pass the money on to the governments… and it is the US Government that guarantees that they (the oil companies) will not lose those privileges to a popular revolution.” Pass the money on, hmm. Wow, like taxes? What a concept. It will never catch on. And exactly how the U.S. government “guarantees” no revolutions will occur is a bit confusing; do they compete with Lloyds of London in offering revolution policies?
- Reading the Skeptical Optimist is a cure for those paralyzed by fear that debt is somehow destroying America. The Chinese are buying American Treasury Bills because there is nothing in China that offers such a safe investment. We're attracting money. Sarbanes-Oxley is a greater danger to America than anything China could do.