Ron Paul's message
 

After it was clear that Ron Paul had no chance of getting the Republican nomination the point of view of many of Paul's supporters seemed to become that his message had gotten out. That, and not winning, was the point.

One of Paul's most ardent and infamous proposals is to abolish the Fed.
Yet every day it seems the Federal Reserve is gaining in power. The backing of JP Morgan's buyout of Bear as an example. Paulson is proposing that the Federal Reserve gain the legal authority to look at the financial status of any institution that could affect market stability.

"The Treasury will recommend that the Fed share authority over banks, securities firms and insurers in monitoring corporate disclosures, writing rules and stepping in to prevent economic crisis, according to the draft, which was distributed to officials last week and obtained by Bloomberg News.

The plan also suggests a distinction be made between the Fed's ``normal'' lender-of-last resort discount window to help banks meet short-term funding needs and ``market stability'' lending to help stave off funding shortages and panics. In that function, loans could be extended to federally chartered insurers and financial institutions. "


Why, if Paul's message was having an effect, is the Federal Reserve becoming more powerful then it has ever been?

Paul had an effect on voters, but voters have little effect on a powerful private institution like the Federal Reserve Bank.

Exactly. Its like saying obama has done nothing because people think he is "anti-war" yet we are still in Iraq.

Is he running as an independent this year? Any idea who is?

Its sad that it is necessary to explain this to people.


democratic candidate Mike Gravel is running.

So some small percentage of the population heard libertarian/Austrian economics ideas for the first time. What good is that when - as you point out - it will have little actual effect?

So Paul's candidacy was not about winning, not about affecting real change, but was about educating people on Austrian economic principles and libertarian political philosophy?

It was about a blimp, and a common cause: nihilistic greed.

Making people think about how large the government has gotten and how meaningless the constitution is becoming is much of what Ron Paul's message was about.

If you want to blame the Fed on anyone, blame those currently in power. Ron Paul's just 1 congressman from Texas who was trying to motivate the apathetic and uneducated.

Are you still scared of Ron Paul?

Did you see the Telegraph piece on the Fed looking at how some scandinavian countries handled their crisis sucessfully?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...1/cnfed131.xml

Kinda makes his message all the more poignant, doesn't it

Scared of what? Why would I be afraid of Ron Paul? I started a thread on Britney Spears and she doesn't scare me either.

But so many people believe that the Fed is a Government entity - they don't realize that the Fed is a Private Corporation, which changes the rules entirely. Now the government is going to give them - a private corporation - more power over the banking systems...

As long as we're using Diebold voting machines, voters have little effect on anything.

So Ron Paul's supporters come largely from those who were apathetic and uneducated? Or are you only referring to those Ron Paul supporters yet to come?

Gravel is running for the Libertarian nomination, has not won it yet. And that would be a third party not an indie run.

What is Nader running under? Is he doing an indie run?

Yup. Indie this time.