Ron Paul: ‘The Fed is a Reverse Robin Hood’

By Valentin Mândrăşescu

Former Senator and one of the harshest critics of Federal Reserve, Ron Paul published a scathing critique of Janet Yellen, the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Chairman. Ron Paul describes the Fed as “a reverse Robin Hood” that steals from the poor.

Writing on his personal blog, the “godfather of American libertarians”, castigated Ms. Yellen for her intention to continue the Fed’s “quantitative easing” policies, despite its failure to bring significant improvements to the economy, plagued by high levels of debt and low employment. His criticism centers on a few key issues: quantitative easing helps the big banks, hurts the broader economy and does nothing for the average American. According to Ron Paul, “ QE is such a blatant example of crony capitalism that it makes Solyndra look like a shining example of a pure free market!” Money supply manipulation and interest rate rigging create an environment in which a few well connected banks and individuals receive the newly created money “before general price increases have spread through the economy” giving them endless opportunities to increase their wealth, while the general public has to deal with higher prices and lower purchasing power of stagnant wages. The former Texas Senator, points out that the asymmetric and unfair repartition of wealth has become a tradition for the Federal Reserve. Ran Paul sees the Fed as a perpetrator of currency debasement. He argues that “since the Federal Reserve opened its doors one hundred years ago, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power —that’s right, today you need $23.70 to buy what one dollar bought in 1913!”

Sadly, Dr. Paul is a lone voice in the desert of American politics. He rightly points out that the Fed’s quantitative easing allows the government and the Congress to spend more, while enriching the banks. By doing so, the Fed aligns the interests of the government to the interests of Wall Street, hurting the interests of the general public. It is easy to criticize Ben Bernanke or Janet Yellen, but the problem is the system not the people who are running the system. Until the system that makes the Congress an accomplice of the private banks is broken, it doesn’t matter who is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. One hundred years of Federal Reserve history prove this.

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