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Dec. 22, 2023 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
32:20
The Fed's Fake Victory

Inflation is "down," so we'll be popping open the good champagne this New Year’s Eve, right? Then why does it seem like we should be popping open soda cans instead? Why do our own senses (and bills) tell us a different story from the government's "narratives"? Can we ever expect the truth from a government that spends money that it doesn't have, that the Federal Reserve has to counterfeit into existence?

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Soft Landing Anticipation 00:04:00
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today is co-host Chris Rossini.
Chris, welcome to the program.
Great to be with you, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
You know, Fridays are usually reserved for a couple things.
We get to mention a very close supporter and friend and that's the people at Birch Gold.
So we'll talk about them a little bit.
But we usually talk about economics more likely on Friday.
And that means we looked at some of the things going on.
And there were some exciting things happening.
If you're interested in gold, which we are, and we'd like to get everybody interested in gold and understand gold and why it is so important.
And that, of course, is one of the reasons why I partner with Birch Gold.
But the markets, see, it was declared, I don't know who the declarer is, but it was declared that the Fed pivot is on.
They're not going to raise interest rates and everybody's going to enjoy it.
It's going to be perfect.
The economy is just wonderful.
And the markets loved it.
And stocks have been going up because they've anticipated this.
But the interesting thing happened with this declaration that interest rates would go down.
It would make investing in the dollar less attractive.
So they've been a little bit behind in investing in gold because those things take time to sort it out.
So there was, I guess, a decision made by somebody out there who really likes gold, and they did.
It's up significantly today.
And that means it's up significantly right now.
It can change, but it's pretty amazing.
But you know, this announcement today came and it was fortified mainly by the fact that the inflation statistics were so good.
The CME, the Consumer Price Index, it showed that it went up one, you know, it went up only one-tenth of one percent.
And that's not very much, but the markets loved it because it's always been, I mean, it went down that much.
Then the markets always worry about it going up.
So with this signal, people say, well, it's a soft landing.
And I think, well, how can you have a soft landing?
And it says, I've been in the Air Force and I have flown a few airplanes and was a pilot in private aircraft.
But, you know, but they keep talking about this soft landing.
And I know what they're implying.
You know, that's a three-pointer.
You land as nice and smooth on the runway.
But I get to thinking that we have so much chaos.
What happens if a plane has trouble and they're out over the ocean?
I say, we have to land, we have to land, but we're 500 miles from the coast.
Well, he says, we can have a soft landing.
So they go in and they land.
But that soft landing didn't do so well.
So I am anticipating the soft landing of this economy is not going to be much better because they're going to discover that soft landing isn't going to indicate it's smooth sailing from then on because I think when it comes,
the economy is going to sink and there has to be changes made because all the silly stuff that we've done now for decades, but we really have done it a lot since COVID came out and QE came out and all this.
So there's a lot of debt and it hasn't been handled yet.
hasn't been worked through the economy.
So there's a lot of inflationary results from this.
And this to me, I think, is not going to be a smooth landing at all.
Inflationary Results and Market Strategies 00:03:16
They may be deceived into it and think they can pull it off and the markets like it.
But you know, then again, some people in the markets, they say, well, yeah, he's probably right.
I'm probably right about that to a degree.
But today is the day we make money.
And some do.
They live not only by week by week or month by month.
Some of them just go by minute by minute.
And that's why, you know, it's rather risky.
But that's also the reason, Chris, that I have worked hard in trying to understand the monetary system of all history.
And it turns out that gold has been the most consistent currency ever devised by humankind.
And it's been around 6,000 years and people know about it.
And now more Americans are personally owning gold than they ever have.
You know, when Roosevelt inherited the depression in the early 1930s, the first thing he did was, of course, steal the gold from the people.
And it was an event that didn't cause civil strife and civil war.
There weren't that many people that really owned gold.
I think it's different right now.
I think there's a lot of people who have invested in gold.
And there are a few problems.
How do you deal with taxes?
How do you hold it?
How do you make it secure?
How do you understand the issue?
This is one of the reasons why we partner with Birch Gold.
It's because that's their business and they're professionals at it.
Because we are allowed to own gold in our retirement funds, the IRA accounts.
And a long time ago, when I was first in medicine, I had an investment account, not an IRA account, but I had an investment account that I had gold in it.
But it got a little more complex.
You can't just go to the coin shop and buy your coins and take it, and that's all it is.
That's the way it should be.
And it was sort of like that when we first was involved with it.
But now there are ways you have to do it precisely.
And that's why I think people should get as much advice and understanding of how the markets work, how you purchase it, what do you do if you sell it, how you transfer stocks into gold.
And that's what Birch Gold does.
So if any of you have not yet called Birch Gold, I'm suggesting it's a good idea to do it because things happen quickly, just like today.
Gold at one time this morning, I thought it was over in the future market was up over $30.
And I think those big changes are going to continue to occur and even get much larger before it's all over.
So if you want to get some more information from Birch Gold to find out the best way to study and understand and invest in gold and how to do it, if you look at the number below on the page that you're looking at and text that number, you text Ron 989898 and that will direct you toward Birch Gold.
Labor's High Stakes Problem 00:15:23
And they'll send the information and they don't charge you for the information.
They want to get you to pay attention.
I like the idea because I think the more people who own gold, the safer we'll all be.
It's sort of like if you live in a country where nobody has a gun and nobody's allowed to own gold, legalizing it, it doesn't matter.
The government has too many.
Right now, the gold is owned by a lot of people, and it could be getting a little tricky on exactly what you should do.
Some people have to make personal decisions.
But I think the best thing, though, is my suggestion is to get some more information and find out how you might be able to transfer your stocks and put it into the metal itself and take care of that and making sure that your uncle isn't watching you and telling you what to do.
So, once again, if you want more information that they do not charge for, get in touch with Birch Gold.
And that is Ron 98-9898.
Very good.
And Chris, we're going to talk up a little bit now.
I want to know, I'm pretty sure I know your position, and you're not going to say, Ron, you're wrong.
This is wonderful.
And inflation has been solved.
The problem has been solved.
And because we have cleaned up this mess, the budget will be balanced very soon.
We'll bring our troops home and a welfare state will be brought under control.
Now, where do you stand on this vital issue?
That's quite a Christmas list there, Dr. Paul.
Hopefully, Santa is listening to you.
But unfortunately, I don't see that happening.
And inflation, you know, I treat all government statistics like COVID statistics.
You know, it's all COVID statistics.
So when they tell me about inflation, it's not even worth paying attention because all you have to do is look at your bills.
And when I look at my bills, I see rising prices, especially for food.
It's insane what we're paying for food in my house.
But even beyond my own bills, I just look out and I see people openly stealing at retail stores, which is quite an amazing thing to see in America.
And, you know, I worked at several retail stores when I was younger, and it was called shrinkage.
There was always a percentage that you lose to shoplifters.
And they taught us, you know, what to look out for because shoplifters had to be crafty.
They had to use their brains to figure out how to get to lift this stuff out of your place.
Today, you don't need anything.
You just walk right in with a bag, fill it up, and leave.
So people only do that when they are desperate.
And they're desperate because prices, especially like I said, for food, are high.
So they will do things that they don't normally do.
And I'm also noticing in retail stores locked plastic thing, plastic containers with locked socks, locked tide pods.
So they're locking regular things away that should never be locked away because people are stealing like crazy.
That is telling you that despite what the media and the government and Bidenomics says, that inflation is bad.
And, you know, we only have that because we have a monetary system that is failing.
And they're printing money out of desperation to hold their system together.
And it has now trickled down to the street and it's getting real bad.
And we're going to have to change at some point.
And hopefully we change towards sound money.
Very good.
You know, the Fed manipulates and pretends they know how to manage monetary policy.
And it's exactly opposite of what sound money would be like because the market dictates what the interest rates would be, the saving rates, and all these things.
But when you manage the whole economy, and they are the central economic planners, the Federal Reserve, and they want to say they're independent, and that's why they don't want anybody to have an audit of it.
Want to be independent because they have to take care of the welfare state because if they're spending money, you know, the Fed has to accommodate.
And also, for the same reason, they have to accommodate those in the military-industrial complex.
Oh, that's for national security, which is a bunch of baloney because it doesn't help it.
It undermines our national security when we get ourselves involved in wars around the world and have troops in 150 countries and all this.
So, that's a fallacy.
But the main daily tool that they use, and what just happened recently on this announcement that the Fed is pivoting, which means they're going to keep interest rates low and get them lower.
And that's why everybody's euphoric, and therefore, interest rates being down, the people who are in the daily trading said, Oh, well, you know, if interest rates are going down, you know, I'm going to get out of saving the money.
And for this day, at least, it looks like they decided they bought to buy the gold.
But if it's a day where they recognize maybe in a month or so, interest rates are really going up, you know, they'll be back.
And the gold prices are inevitably going to keep going up because of the function of our government, which is to spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow.
And there's not enough people who want to loan the money, so the Fed has to print the money.
And that's where the problem is.
But the Fed is obsessed with their expertise in managing the economy.
And the magic number for the Fed now for many years, at least a decade, they've emphasized it, is if we could just get it where we destroy the value of the dollar at 2% a year.
Boy, that would be wonderful.
That means they're going to steal 2%.
What if we put your money in the bank and say, okay, yeah, you can use my money, but the bank tells you, yes, but it's going to be worth the less 2% if you keep it in the bank.
Well, they did this, and thinking 2% was a wonderful solution.
So one time, you know, not too long ago, the market was dictating what the Fed was doing.
They took it, because the Fed was hysterical, they took interest rates down below zero, which was crazy and historic.
So they worked hard.
We've got to calm the markets down because they think things are being distorted with negative interest rates.
So they kept pestering.
We've got to get this inflation up to 2%, 2%.
And my prediction then was it'll get to 2%, then it's going to get a lot higher.
And that's exactly what happened.
You know, the 2% went up, it depends on what you were looking at.
Mortgage rates are up and all kinds of borrowing rates up, savings rates are up, which helps some people.
So they're happy now, and that was what was in part of this announcement today: that they said that inflation is approaching the inflation target.
It's just a little bit more than 2%, but they're doing really well, and the markets bought into that.
And they had their Christmas spirit, and they liked it.
And so things changed.
Gold went up for that group.
And this is just so fictitious that this 2% is a magic number, which they can't hit it.
You know, next month, it's quite possible that they'll give up on this.
They'll admit there's a recession building and already in its early stages.
And they say, oh, it's really getting.
We overstepped our bounds.
We went too fast.
We said we're not going to raise interest rates.
And, you know, next month they might say, we, well, we sort of miscalculated.
There is a little old recession out there.
So we're going to have to have another shift in our policy, and we're going to raise it.
And you could have a shift and a change to that overnight.
But ultimately, though, I think when people worry about this crazy stuff, I worked in the political system, and the odds of us getting the right people in the right places to have a significant role in cutting spending and controlling the Fed from printing the money.
It's zero.
So they're going to continue to do it.
And the Fed is going to continue to print the money.
And the inflation, the increase in the prices and the distortions of this interest rate thing will continue.
And it's going to get worse.
But for right now, today, the targets is approaching.
And it's just about ready to make the final announcement.
We have conquered inflation.
As you would guess, Chris, I don't believe that.
No way.
And yeah, you're right.
And the government has proven that they are full throttle until they destroy everything.
But if that's the way it's going to be, then so be it.
Then what has to happen is when that happens, there has to be enough people that want to do the right thing once they destroy the currency, whenever that happens to be.
And it doesn't have to be a majority of people, not even close.
Most people follow.
So you don't need the majority.
You just need enough people that understand.
And the more influential they are, the better to understand sound money and have influential people say, this is the way we have to go now.
They destroyed everything.
Now we have to go this way.
And sound money means what we have in the Constitution.
What we have today is unconstitutional.
They don't have the right to counterfeit, but they just ignore the Constitution and do it.
So that's what we need is money that cannot be counterfeited.
And that's why we talk about gold on this show, because it cannot be counterfeited.
That's why governments for hundreds of years tried to eliminate gold out of the consciousness of people because they can't counterfeit it.
And let's say you have that sound money again.
The biggest plus that it would do is with war, because war is what is bringing our country down.
It has totally bled us dry.
Our military-industrial complex empire, they take money so easily, just say the words national security, and that's it.
And that would change because the politicians would have to ask us for money to fight wars.
They would have to say, you know, we want to fight this war, and we would have to agree to it.
Today, they don't care what we think.
They tell us the next war that they're going to fight.
So, and they wouldn't be able to promise all this free stuff because they can't counterfeit the money.
And we would only go to war when we actually feel like we have to defend ourselves, which is so rare that we wouldn't have to worry about war in the sense that we do today, where it's just bleeding us dry.
And none of this would create a paradise here because there would still be theft, there would still be crimes, there would still be sin.
There's no system that we can make.
The only thing we can do is better or worse, better or worse.
Sound money is much, much better than this disaster that we're living through now that we're waiting to finally get rid of it.
So that's the way we want to go.
How things play out is still a mystery.
Very good.
You know, in all the activity today in the markets, they were talking about all the good things happening.
They've conquered, practically, the problem of prices going up.
Inflation is under control, that's better.
And the markets loved it.
But they never mentioned one thing in all the articles.
I didn't mention anything.
But you better be a little cautious because the spending is still there.
They're running up trillions of dollars of debt every year.
And the deficit is now over $33 trillion.
And it's skyrocketing.
And they hide a lot of the deficits.
And, you know, there's a lot of activity that goes on and devaluing the dollar that's quite secret that when the crisis occurs, you know, when we have the financial crisis, the Fed is allowed, they're not permitted really to, but they get away with doing a lot of bailouts to the tune of trillions of dollars.
But I never saw any mention today about really talking about the debt and deficit, which is ultimately what they have to do.
But there's a lot of blame that goes around.
A lot of people talk about, well, who's at fault?
Well, profits.
Business people were making too much profits.
And that's what the problem is.
Some other people say, no, it's labor unions.
They build up wages too.
The wages go up.
The prices have to go up because the cost of labor is pushing prices up.
And that's not true either.
There's pressure on wages after the inflationary factor comes from the devaluation of the currency.
But labor unions and labor are just trying to struggle and compensate for the rising prices.
And rising prices in the marketplace, the market dictates that.
That's one place where, even under today's circumstances, the market still works.
When they start pushing these, the prices are going too high, people back off, and there might be even some subtle decreases because the people don't want to or they can't pay that much for it.
But right now, they're looking to what to blame right now.
And I think the whole thing is we have to get around to blaming the right thing.
And that, of course, is the Federal Reserve, the monetary system, and that labor unions don't do it.
But I want to just mention one thing that would encourage why somebody would be convinced that it's labor's fault.
So it says government wage growth hit record high in spite of they have control, the inflation is under control.
They claim price inflation.
But here's an article.
It says government wage growth hits record high as the Fed's favorite inflation indicator tumbled.
The inflation indicator, that means, you know, the measurement of government, oh, the prices are going down, but wage growth, you know, hitting records high.
And it turns out, guess where the worst price inflation is right now, which are not so, well, it is price inflation, it's labor inflation and it's protection of federal workers.
Causes of Runaway Inflation 00:08:09
Headlines.
CPI also slowed more than expected, plus for two per year.
But the wages for workers, though, went up 5% year over year.
Well, that's higher than everything they're predicting.
That's all behind us.
We're approaching 2%.
But private wages are up 5%, but they're suffering the consequence.
And that's denial that the inflation has been anywhere conquered.
Like we're on the verge of victory.
And then if you look at government wages, it's up at a rate of 9%.
So the government people get a little extra protection.
They are going to get that.
Of course, long term, you know, the government wages does, it does participate because it's usually involved in war preparation and welfarism and all the spending.
If we didn't have that, we wouldn't have the deficits that we have.
But anyway, I thought it was interesting that the wages for the government, it looks like they're getting their protection.
And I can't even say, well, that's why we have inflation.
No, even that is a political consequence.
They did a better job in getting bailed out and they're continuing to get bailed out because they know what we're trying to tell people.
There's a lot of inflation here, and we better deal with the budget one of these days.
Excellent, Dr. Paul.
I will finish up with my closing statement probably for the year.
So I want to thank our viewers.
Wish them Merry Christmas in the next few days.
Have a great time with your families, your friends.
And thank you very much for watching us this year.
Since we began this show, I think it was 2015.
We have been growing every year, ever since.
And that is our goal.
It's not to be Joe Rogan, but to always have consistent growth, more people, more influential people, and the tide of liberty can begin.
So thank you very much for watching us.
I'll close by saying the Federal Reserve is just one aspect of this great centralization that has been happening for centuries.
We talk about 1913.
That's when the Fed was created.
That's when the centralization went into hyperdrive.
But it was occurring for hundreds of years even before that.
And it looks like they are getting to the point where they have bitten off more than they can chew, like the Roman Empire.
When the Roman Empire was through, there was a great decentralization.
And that, I believe, is in the future somewhere, a great decentralization.
And one of the great tools that we have at our disposal is the one we're using right now called the Internet.
And while the people in power want to use the Internet against us, we can use it against them, you know, to speak, to put different ideas because they're centralized.
They're one narrative.
When you look around, there's just one story that they want you to believe.
They want to bombard your senses with one angle.
But with the internet, there's endless angles.
Okay?
So this is all to the good.
And decentralization will happen the more the people say no.
Use the word no.
We don't believe you.
We know what you're doing to us.
We've been through this many times before.
You're lying.
I don't want to play along.
And the more people, COVID was a big one.
There's a lot of no's after that COVID because that was a big failure.
And so this is all for the good.
And it just takes time for all this to work out.
And we just hope that it's peaceful and that we move to sound money, to liberty, peacefully instead of chaotically.
Very, very good, Chris.
You know, I want to close with talking a little bit about why people who understand Austrian economics make predictions.
And for the most part, they're pretty good.
The Austrian concepts were even known before the big depression.
And there were people saying, you know, there will be a correction.
And the theory of all this is that if you have artificial interest rates, since interest rates are very vital in a free market, they give the information on what we should do and anticipate.
And that's the job of the entrepreneur and the savers on what to do.
So this was available to people.
And what it does with the artificial interest rates, it causes people to do things they otherwise wouldn't do.
It's called malinvestment.
And it causes people to run up things and miscalculate and have bigger deficits.
So it's because really that atmosphere causes debt to be run up because you can sort of borrow into the future and destroy the money.
You don't feel the pain for maybe years down the road.
Like we're feeling the pain of what happened four and five years ago and QE and all this.
So it takes a while.
So that's why it's so tempting.
And they do that.
But so the debt is huge.
We know that.
And most people realize that.
They don't seem to think, well, if we just took care of that, we would be all help because on the short run, they wouldn't be helped.
You know, there's a penalty you have to pay.
So the belief, though, in Austrian economics is that debt, when it becomes excessive, you don't know the day that the market decides it's excessive, we can't handle it anymore.
But when it becomes excessive, then the market recognizes it, there's a liquidation.
The debt is liquidated through the destruction of the value of the money, and that will also liquidate bad investments.
So let's say that an entity thought we needed, you know, really there was an actual economic need for 50 houses, but interest rates were low and they built 100 houses.
Well, if somebody else looks in there, well, that's too much, and there's going to be a correction.
Well, what we're involved in, and this is why we can be absolutely certain that there's going to be a recession.
This whole idea of, no, it's going to be so soft, you're not even going to know it.
No, this airplane's out over the ocean.
It may be soft for a minute, and then they're sinking.
And when this crash comes, the people will know it, and it's a consequence.
And the reason why this is so important is what are you going to do after this happens?
Are you going to restore sound money and a different type of government?
You know, in 1921, we had a bad depression.
And the GPA, the grocery product went down like 15%.
But back then, it was handled by hands-off.
And it was bad for one year.
All the debt was liquidated.
They went back to it.
Of course, they went back to inflating again.
But I think it's locked in place.
You can't prevent now.
You can deal with it and you can limit it and you can try to help people to understand.
Don't make the bubble bigger.
But you can't liquidate what is all the bad investment and all the debt without some type of an adjustment.
And the liquidation, a business has to either go bankrupt and quit paying their bills and they liquidate.
Governments don't do that.
So people don't have to worry about getting their Social Security check and the money coming in and the food stamps and all.
It'll all happen.
But they cannot control the inevitable rising prices for that.
So the liquidation comes by paying off debt with bad money, the counterfeit money.
Spreading the Message of Liberty 00:01:16
And that is what we're witnessing.
That is why this wonderful news today, I wish it was all true and it's ushering in an age of sound economic policies and more prosperities, less war.
I would think that would be wonderful.
But we have to be realistic and realize what is happening.
But, you know, in spite of it all, I think the Merry Christmas that I have is not that difficult to understand.
It's not that difficult.
Most people know, think of it in terms of the individual.
The individual knows they can't borrow a million dollars every month and live beyond their means.
Eventually, the banker calls the debt due.
That's what happens in a nation.
The debt is called in, and it's done by the money losing value, and that's what's going to happen.
So, I think that knowing that and knowing what to do, if we did it, that would be a Merry Christmas.
And we feel very often during the year that we do reach some people, and that's why we're so delighted to present our case to our viewers and our supporters, because that is what it counts.
Spreading the message is very key.
So, I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and spread the message of liberty.
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