Elon Musk offered to include Ron Paul in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a presidential advisory commission headed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
DOGE is tasked with finding waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and making recommendations for how to eliminate it.
Although he has always railed against excessive government spending, Ron Paul may be most remembered for his efforts to do away with the Federal Reserve. “End the Fed” was a signature issue in his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.
“End the Fed” went viral on X shortly after Musk publicized his interest in working with Ron Paul. Eliminating the central bank just might be the single greatest blow reformers could strike in the effort to restore limited government.
For starters, the Fed facilitates the unrestrained growth in government.
Multi-trillion-dollar federal deficits are only possible year after year when the central bank can beam infinite quantities of Federal Reserve Note dollars into existence.
Prior to lifting the final constraint imposed by the nation’s gold standard in 1971, total federal expenditures totaled just over $195 billion, and government spending as a percentage of the nation’s overall GDP was 18.8%.
Federal expenditures this year are estimated at roughly $829 billion in 1971-adjusted dollars. The size of government, as measured by real spending, has more than quadrupled. The federal government now represents more than 24% of GDP.
Prior to the creation of the Fed in 1913, federal spending was less than 4% of GDP.
Meanwhile, the national debt has continued on an exponential curve higher and currently sits at just over $36 trillion.
The Fed is also an important tool wielded by elites to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and middle class. The Fed and its fiat dollar have been a nightmare for the bottom 90% of Americans.
This group has lost about $2.5 trillion per year to elites in the top 10% of wealth over the past 5 decades, according to the Rand Corporation.
Fed-sponsored bank bailouts are just one of the ways this wealth transfer occurs.
Take the 2008 bailouts, for example. The Fed used freshly printed dollars to purchase failing mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets at 100 cents on the dollar from struggling banks. In all, The Fed’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) represented a gift of $700 billion to the nation’s largest banks and their shareholders.
The nation’s central bank is a black box when it comes to its finances. For more than 100 years, the Fed has resisted all attempts to audit its books and be accountable for its actual spending. Fed officials simply talk about how important it is for the central bank to maintain “independence.”
The Fed has also been a complete and utter failure at the mission for which it was created and sold to the public. The dual mandate imposed on the Fed at its creation included preserving the value of the U.S. dollar and fostering full employment.
The Federal Reserve’s version of the dollar has given up more than 97% of its purchasing power since 1913. What’s more, Fed officials have the gall to insist it’s a good thing for average Americans if dollars buy less every year. They openly promote a “target” inflation rate of about 2%.
Price inflation has made it nearly impossible for many households to get by on a single income. Much of that gap has been filled instead by welfare and other government assistance programs.
Since its creation, the Federal Reserve has taken on a third mandate. It is the chief regulator for U.S. banks.
The nation’s largest private banks are the real owners of the Federal Reserve, though most Americans assume, given its name, that the central bank is owned by the federal government. Its role as primary regulator is also not widely known outside of Washington, DC and Wall Street.
It will, therefore, be a surprise to many to learn the Fed is in charge of enforcing the rules governing the very banks that own it.
No large bank has ever lost its license to operate, regardless of the crimes committed. These include money laundering for drug and sex traffickers, rigging markets, and more. A visit to WallStreetonParade.com is worthwhile for anyone interested in looking at the rap sheets.
Ending the Fed would be a blessing for rank-and-file Americans. Here’s hoping the movement can make a comeback.
This article was originally published on Money Metals Exchange.
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