The Creation of the Second Great Depression
By Ron Paul
25/09/08 "Lew
Rockwell" -- - Whenever a Great Bipartisan
Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone
that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken
for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that
disaster is about to strike.
The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress’
throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright
sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our
leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect.
It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of
ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two
weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than
China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is
socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the
banks, the Wall Streeters."
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we’re
being told it’s unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly
foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to
believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with
the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble
and its predictable consequences – predictable, that is, to
those who understand sound, Austrian economics – are being let
off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning
itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
* The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700
billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means
$700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
* Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of
the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
* Then there’s this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the
authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency
discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any
administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up
whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with
it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this
"sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don’t make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against
the American people. The two major party candidates for
president themselves initially indicated their strong support
for bailouts of this kind – another example of the big choice
we’re supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now,
with a backlash brewing, they’re not quite sure what their views
are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the
end of the political atrocities we’ll witness in connection with
the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as
tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout
at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid
to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you
will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we
care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that
our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we
care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to
subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government?
Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it
means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in
politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people
we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.Click on
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