"Rich Men North of Richmond" Exposes The Empire of Lies
For many decades, the American people have been bombarded with propaganda. Yet, out of nowhere, with a guitar and microphone, Oliver Anthony exposed the Empire of Lies. Millions of Americans found out that they are not alone in their economic struggles. But even more importantly, "Rich Men North of Richmond" correctly identified the culprits. Our economic problems don't come foreign sources; but from those at home, who seek "total control."
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today is Chris Rossini, our co-host.
Chris, good to see you this morning.
Happy Friday, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
This is our day because we don't come in tomorrow.
We'll take a whole day off, except we're going to keep up with the news because there's always some news out there that we have to know about.
Well, okay, I'm going to open up with a little brief statement about gold and then talk about an opportunity for our viewers to get some materials from Birch Gold that they might find interesting if they're interested in investing in gold.
But I want to start with a little couple news bits regarding the economy and gold.
They've had a meeting in Durban, I think it was in South Africa.
And it was a meeting with the people, BRICS, BRITS, and they have five countries that got together, Russia, China, India, South Africa, and another, one more.
And they're trying to compete with the dollar because they're sick and tired of our foreign policy and our economic policy.
Us thrown our weight around because we print the money and we dump it on them and that sort of thing.
But it's been building and it's still building.
So this is why BRICS exists.
But they've concluded that meeting and they said that they're going to add six new countries to this.
So that's a big deal.
It doesn't mean that tomorrow all of a sudden the dollar is gone because I don't think it's going to go that fast, but it's significant.
I think it has historic significance that they're letting us know more than just the organization that has not moved themselves to a truly alternative currency.
But it's in the wind and it will come eventually, not because they're going to be smart and have a perfect solution, but we're going to continue to undermine our dollar standard and our privilege we have usurped from the world, and that is managing the reserve currency of the world.
So that is not going to last.
This is a significant history and how long term I think is all very bullish for gold, bad for the dollar.
And we will see because this will not go away.
It'll continue even if nothing is seen in the next week or two that dramatic things are happening.
It's there, mainly because the destiny of the dollar, I think, is in place, but the speed of that destiny is unknown.
But there was another meeting going on these last couple days.
All the money managers were having fun up at John Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and they must have had a good time.
But they said we still had a problem.
This morning it was finished, and Powell had his speech, and he was going to soothe the markets, and they always soothe the market.
You know, people don't care about economics and prices and how the economy is doing.
They care about speeches and words and phrases and what is the policy of the Fed and what is the policy of the pretending what the Fed is.
But anyway, Powell did make an announcement.
Too much inflation out there.
He didn't say this last years when interest rates were below zero.
But now it's too much inflation.
We're going to keep pounding away.
And the way they solve inflation is to destroy the economy because they think prices go up in a healthy economy, but prices go up when the monetary growth is too much and the money is being devalued.
But traditionally, under Caysian economics and interventionism, that when they print too much money and the reflection of that too much money pushes prices up, the only tool they have is, well, we have to ruin the economy, decrease production, and then the prices will come down.
Well, I tell you what, if people are hurting and you decrease production, maybe the prices are still going to go up because they're trying to correct something that they did for many, many years, especially in the last 10 years or so.
So they made that announcement that he says, nope, we're going to keep pounding away.
We'll raise those interest rates that we have to, but eventually the market will dictate policy.
If the Fed won't raise interest rates, and like right now, we have pressure from the market to raise interest rates.
So that will last.
But regardless of what's happening in South Africa or Wyoming, it's all harmful to the dollar, and it's all on the long term give stimulus to gold.
And that's the reason I do work with and partner with Birch Gold Group, because that's their business, and they're involved in investments and different things.
But right now, they're offering something that doesn't cost anything if you want to get some more information because it's available and then they'll help make decisions.
But this can be attained if you text Ron, 989898.
They'll send you this material and then you can make decisions, see if it's helpful in making decisions long term.
Now, I had a great enlightenment on August 15th, 1971, when the gold window was closed and we deserted the gold standard for good.
That's when I made a philosophic and an economic and investment decision that it's not going to be good for the dollar and gold will go up.
Well, you know, somebody might not have been around in 1971 and didn't get in when gold was barely above $35 an ounce.
Well, it's something that it's still percentage-wise is going to go up because they're not going to stop.
If you say, Ron, you're wrong because we have Republicans coming into office, they have the House, and they're going to cut back the stimulus.
And the stimulus obviously is monetizing debt.
That's a big one.
Spend, spend, spend the buy vote.
Then when the people get a little bit annoyed, then we have to mismanage it even more.
But if you think there's going to be spending and debt coming from our federal government long term, the value in ratio to the dollar of gold will, the value of the gold will go up.
It's hard.
You don't know when.
It doesn't happen all in one day.
And we're not going to stop it all in one day.
Matter of fact, it's always exponential.
And unless they come to their senses, there's going to be a day when everybody will recognize, my goodness, this is serious stuff.
It's political stuff.
It's economic and social.
So anyway, if you're interested in getting some of this material from Birch Gold Group, you text Ron, 98989A, and they'll send you the material.
There will be no charges for it.
A Song of Empire00:13:05
Chris, what I would like to talk to some more about today is probably one of the most famous songs in the history of the country.
And I even listened to the song, and it was an enlightenment to me.
Well, first, it was a philosophic message, and that's what caught everybody's attention.
But it was also the type of music that, you know, I don't listen to that.
It was sort of different.
But what was great was there was a message in the music, and this is what has excited people.
And it's been, it's, you know, two days of no advertisement, not dealing with any promoters or anything is skyrocket to the top of the list.
And there has to be something significant about that.
You know, Chris, what I'd like to do is boil it down to what?
What is the big thing here?
Why is it so popular?
And my answer is: the people are starved for truth.
And there was some truth-telling in this song, and the people loved it.
Chris.
That's right, Dr. Paul.
And as you've said over the years, we do live in an empire of lies.
You know, part of being an American is being constantly bombarded with propaganda.
And Oliver Anthony just cut through it like lightning.
You know, he exposed the empire of lies.
And in just the first few words, when I first heard it, I knew it was going to be good.
I mean, you could feel the song, you know.
And as you mentioned, it shows what people in America really think, you know, beyond all the lies and the propaganda.
And millions and millions and millions have listened to it, I'm sure, many times, more than once.
I listened to it more than once.
And it shows, you know, it's very encouraging that people are aware, that they're not alone.
You know, they're not alone in their economic struggles.
And in something that is very rare in music, it identifies the correct source of the problem.
It's the rich men north of Richmond.
That's Washington.
You know, and the dollar.
You know, we talk about the dollar on this show all the time.
He's not talking, you know, Oliver Anthony is not singing about Russia and China and North Korea and all the foreign countries that we're supposed to be constantly paying attention to.
He's talking about the rich men north of Richmond.
They're the ones that want total control.
And millions of Americans get it.
That's so encouraging as an American, you know, because we always hear, oh, people are sheep, people are sheep.
Well, not everyone's a sheep.
There are a very substantial part of our nation knows that something is wrong.
And Oliver Anthony pinpointed it with genius clarity.
And this is very encouraging.
Well, it is.
And a lot of people are paying attention to it.
And that's what's so great about it.
And it's also an explanation of why I personally work hard at it some days to be optimistic that things change, that people are basically good if they're given the opportunity.
But they're basically led by evil people who are always trying to bribe and badger and ruin and control people.
And unfortunately, they're in positions of control in the scenario.
So that is what's so great about this.
The people are waking up, and they will and they can.
And I also believe strongly that there's always a remnant of people in a society and a culture and even a country or empire.
If it's being diminished and destroyed, there is always a remnant of people that will maintain this.
I believe that in a spiritual sense, but I also believe that in a political sense because, you know, there were some people in the 1940s, 30s, and 40s that were very much aware of all the problems that we have today, led by Austrian economics.
And it was just wonderful what was happening.
But there was only a handful of people and a handful of professors who were denied, believe me, they were canceled from speaking in the universities which had already been taken over by Keynesian economics.
In spite of all that, you find out that deep down in the hearts of most Americans will be awakened with a song like we've been talking about.
I think that is just wonderful that that happens that way.
And it's just the willingness to hear this truth.
And, you know, it reminds me of something Ronald Reagan told me.
I was attending the Gold Commission report, and that would have been 1981.
And there was an opportunity for me to fly with Reagan in the helicopter out to Andrews Air Force base.
And I did that, and it was a one-on-one conversation.
And he knew I was coming from the Gold Commission.
And he had always been known to be sympathetic to gold.
But he knew I was sympathetic.
So he told me, he says, you know, he says, there's never been a country, never been a great country that went off its gold standard that remained great.
Now, that was pretty prophetic because right now, that's exactly what we talked about in the introduction, is the loss of a statement of a great country that drifted away from it.
There were no restraints on them by no restraints on printing and deceiving people about money and all the distortions that it causes, how it develops and creates the welfare warfare state.
So I always always remember that as being very prophetic.
And that Gold Commission didn't accomplish very much, but one thing happened.
We started at least mining, which is a proper government function, mining gold and silver coins, which is supposed to be the only legal tender that we use.
So step by step, in 1976, we also canceled out about 43 years of illegally owning gold.
If you bought gold, it was illegal.
And that was changed.
So those things are happening, giving people more of a chance.
Now, they'd like to cancel everybody who is going to tell the truth about the empire, but I tell you what, when it breaks loose, it's like a fire.
They can't stop it.
And that is exactly what happened when this song came out.
My goodness, this is great.
And people said, I've been thinking about that for a long time.
So there's reason to be delighted by this, but there will be a lot of challenges to this because we have a lot of problems to deal with.
But even in that short song and just alluding to certain things, he had touched on many, many of our problems that we will eventually have to deal with.
That's right, Dr. Paul.
And I don't know what his view of rich people in general are, but he does identify the rich north of Richmond as a problem.
But I would like to state, you know, our position on rich, you know, the problem is not being rich.
Plenty of people are legitimately serve their customers and become rich, and that is very noble.
But the rich men north of Richmond, this is the heart of cronyism, of corporatism, the corporation and state, where corporations use laws, licensing, subsidies, bailouts.
This is not getting rich at the service of others.
This is getting rich at the expense of others.
And there is a very big difference.
You know, the person that made, or the people that made, you know, the chair I'm sitting in or the dinner, the takeout dinner that I have, you know, they're not looking for control.
You know, that's, and the men north of Richmond are, you know, and we see it.
They want to know what you think and what you do.
The person that made my dinner doesn't care about that.
They just want to do a good job so that hopefully I return to them.
You know, so there's a very big distinction.
You don't want to go all Marxist, that the rich in general are the problem.
But the problem we have in this country is these gigantic corporations in bed with the government working together and using that to manipulate us with an agenda.
They want you afraid of the weather, of viruses, of other countries.
It's always fear, and that's what they capitalize on at our expense.
We gain nothing from it.
And that is the problem that we have.
And that is what's draining the wealth of our nation.
Yes.
You know, one thing that I worry about to a degree, as crystal clear as this song is in telling what the problems are and what the people are really thinking.
But the next step is crucial too, because when the people do realize all this, oh, they say, there will be what is going to happen to the people who are determined to use government.
They say, yes, we agree with this, and we're going to do something about it.
We need better regulators.
The Fed's not good.
We need a better Federal Reserve Board chairman.
We need better politicians, better regulations, and there will be another substitute for this.
And if it's another government option, Chris, you already made this point: the difference between earning the money and getting it as a transfer.
Because when people end up getting stuff and money and contracts and all the things that they can get at the expense of somebody else, if it's an American citizen that has to sacrifice because the government takes it from him and enriches somebody else, that's plunder.
That's a moral issue.
And if they don't deal with this as this evolve, you're going to see another proposal because it's already out there.
It's Marxism, a cultural Marxism that's approaching this a little bit different than when Marx had his first chance at this.
So that is a big thing.
They'll vary it a little bit and saying that we will be more pragmatic and we'll have better leaders, just better managements.
That's all that we need is a better managed system.
Instead of boiling it down, no, we don't need a complication of how to solve this.
We need liberty and we need to challenge all authoritarianism.
Fantastic, Dr. Paul.
I will finish up with my closing thoughts.
We mention on this show often: ideas are more powerful than armies.
We did not make that up.
That is a very old saying.
And this song that Oliver Anthony put out is a manifestation of that.
It's ideas.
It's the expression of ideas.
And look how powerful it is.
The government propaganda cannot compete with what he did.
And that's not to say that the game is over and this is all that was needed.
No.
It's an accumulation of things.
And he took his swing and he hit a home run.
And that's why we always have to remain hopeful, too, because those who seek total control, first off, they're not going to get it.
They may have a checklist.
Oh, we got the media.
We got Hollywood.
We got the major sports.
We have the big corporations.
We have the schools.
You can have all of that.
We'll spot you.
Because the truth, it comes out of nowhere.
It comes from an Oliver Anthony.
They didn't have Oliver Anthony.
They had everything else.
They didn't have him.
And that's how the truth prevails.
It's unanticipated.
It comes out of nowhere.
No matter what you think of him, Trump was not supposed to be elected.
No matter what you think of him, Elon Musk was not supposed to buy Twitter.
Assange, Snowden, James O'Keefe, all of these things.
They're like meteors, you know, hitting the empire over and over.
And not just one, it takes all of these hits.
And eventually, someday, the empire cracks.
Nobody knows when that is.
You just do your best to speak the truth, take your swing each day, and remain optimistic that the truth will prevail.
Very good.
You know, Oliver Anthony is a unique individual, and what we witness is very unique.
But you know, one person that would applaud it and not be totally surprised would have been Mises, because Mises wrote in Human Action that there are people who are destined to think theoretically and write, you know, very academic books and argue the cases for that circle of people.
Mises's Palatable Ideas00:02:52
But he also recognized that was a smaller group.
But it's one of these ideas, Chris, that you were alluding to, ideas that have consequences.
There are people that are very precise in defining those ideas.
But Mises added on in Human Action that, but there's another group of people that take those ideas and their job and their response is sort of natural.
They're not into this academic explanation, but they're into this whole idea that making ideas palatable.
And if you want to think about it, you think about how many ideas did Oliver make that became palatable for the American people.
He sensed what they were looking for.
He used their language and he made it palatable for people.
So this is the reason I always talk about the government we have is only there because it is tolerated by the people.
So you don't have the revolutions per se with the academicians, you know, even the good ones that are right about Austrian economics, as much as the people who accept it and then get the large majority of people to accept these ideas.
But that's also negative because people who get control of the ideas of this, they can do this and the propaganda machine runs it and all.
But this would really be a delight.
I want to mention one other thing that I have in my office here in the studio is I have a picture of the Capitol and I think it looks like it's still under construction.
But the important thing wasn't the Capitol being built, but all around the Capitol was swampland.
There was nothing.
There were cows grazing there.
And I was like, that's the kind of capital we need.
We need to talk about the swamp.
But what we have to do is preserve certain parts of that natural swamp and get rid of the people who make it so ugly and mean and nasty and creating all these problems that we have under the guise of we are the saviors of the world and we are the only ones that are compassionate and the rest of them all ought to be punished by the Department of Justice and put in jail and charged with crimes that never even existed.
Oh, yes, it can come.
And once again, Chris, I think it's just been great that we've had this sort of a bright moment for seeing this because instead of this being a flighting moment that's gone and you never hear it again, because he's not going to use the conventional wisdom on how you sell records.
He's already indicated that.
A Bright Moment00:01:22
But it is an enlightenment for people to say that you can reach people and then you don't have to be discouraged.
Say, what can one person do?
Well, what did Oliver do?
And he didn't even know he could do it.
So that's why defending and understanding what truth is all about is so important and that we have to ignore and dispel with the people who say, that give up and say, well, how do you know that's true?
How do you know that's right?
Truth is unknown or unknowable.
And they're the dialists.
And they run things because they don't believe that the Constitution is worth a nickel because they just don't believe it could happen.
But it's always a challenge because good and evil has been around for a long time.
And it is going to exist for a long time yet to come.
But there will be ups and downs.
But, you know, people talk about who stole the Western civilization.
Well, it's on the rocks.
It's in big trouble.
And we're in a moral financial bankruptcy.
But believe me, there's a lot of energy out there.
And that's why we had a good week this week because a lot of that energy was released.
This is hope and pray that people will use that energy to promote peace and prosperity.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.