#AskRonPaul End The Fed, Tariff Turmoil & Global Peace in Pieces
Today is the day! We're taking your questions via X.com for another edition of @#AskRonPaul.
In this episode, Dr. Paul tackles some of the most pressing issues:
Should we finally End the Fed—and what would that mean for the economy?
Are tariffs helping or hurting Americans?
Why do ceasefires keep failing across the globe—and who benefits?
Tune in for clear answers, uncompromising liberty, and your voice at the center of it all. Drop your questions with #AskRonPaul and be part of the conversation!
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today we have Sirkhan Ash, our engineer, as our co-host.
Welcome to the program, Sirkhan.
It's great to be here, Dr. Paul.
We got you in the hot seat today.
We're going to do another episode of Astron Paul.
And without further ado, I'll get to the first question.
They're really great questions this go around, Dr. Paul.
So the first one comes from Dan Crenshaw Fangirl.
And it says, what would you say to young people who are just now trying to get into politics?
Well, sometimes when people ask me, a lot of young people will come up and ask me, what can I do to, you know, get into the Congress and follow what I have done.
And I said, don't do it, just to wake them up to what they're doing, because just getting into politics and just getting out of trying to get a seat in Congress shouldn't be the goal.
It should be very secondary.
And I think you have to have, if you, there's two ways of wanting to go to Congress.
One is for political power and influence and make you feel good that you've done something.
The other is to spread a message.
Unfortunately, there aren't that many in Washington that are spreading the right message because they vote in a rote fashion.
Everybody, you know, there's no real discussion, no real debates, and people switch their votes all the time.
So you don't want to be in the politics of it all.
But I can't be too negative of that, saying, don't do it, because it ended up, I did it.
But my motivation, and I don't think it was a bad motivation, was that I was influenced by, you know, August 15th, 1971, when I sat and listened to Nixon close the gold window.
And my thoughts ran quickly to thinking, what would the results be?
And it turned out that just in the 70s, gold, for instance, went from $35 an ounce up to over $800 an ounce.
So it was and is still, you know, a big issue on what's going on.
But I think people need to have a grasp of their philosophy because if they're going just to, well, I thought a lot of the young, or some of the, at least some of the young people that would come to me, they were looking for, you know, advice.
How do I do this?
Where do I get a campaign manager?
How do I raise money in this sort of thing?
And that should be very, very secondary.
I admired Leonard Reed, who ran the Foundation for Economic Education.
One of the things that he talked about is education and politics and all this.
But he really didn't like politics.
He was down on politics, but he was very interested in what the political realm was doing.
So his idea of how to get involved and people listen to some people is that you should be well informed.
You should have your philosophy down packed.
And if you depended on a government education schools, you're not very well off because we don't do too well with all this government school education.
So his advice was get informed.
And he says, something will come along.
Somebody will ask you to do something.
And even if they don't, there'll be opportunities.
They may be minor, they may be major.
So this is what I was looking for was sort of a mini bully pulpit because nobody was going to listen to me.
I was a so-called country doctor.
And what would I know about politics and all this?
But it turned out differently that there was a bigger reception for the message because I concentrated on a message, and I think that is so important.
So, yes, there's a lot of reason to be very frustrated when you're going to want to be involved and participate.
But his advice was be well informed, study, know what Austrian economics is all about, know what non-interventionism and foreign policy is all about, understand the Constitution and natural law.
There's a lot to learn because I keep trying to learn more every single day.
And I think that's the influence that is beneficial.
And there will be a spot, and you can't predict when would happen.
I think the first time I just put my name up because it was an opportunity to speak out on the monetary issues, the congressman resigned from the office that there was a special election, and they're different.
And that was the first election I won.
But it was just a happenstance.
There was no reason to predict that I would have gone to Congress.
And I always told my wife, she worried about me going to Congress.
I said, don't worry about it.
They're not going to elect me.
I'm against all this spending.
So it turned out pretty good that she advised me.
Well, she really ain't kidding.
He said, no, you don't do it because you're going to get elected and that's going to be a mass for us.
So, and it's, she was more correct than I was because I really truly believe, how am I going to do this?
This is going to give me a few times to go to a couple of business meetings and talk about the economy at that time.
And the 70s were really, really, you know, interesting and very dangerous.
Interest rates up to 21% and all this activity.
So much more occurred.
My motivations were different than the person that says, you know, how do I get to be a congressman?
Well, that was a surprise to me, but that mine, I ended up being a congressman, but that was not my main goal.
My main goal was looking to spread a message that I thought was very, very important.
And I try to do that continuously.
And that is why we have the Liberty Report five days a week.
Very good, Dr. Paul.
I actually want to ask a follow-up question to the first question, if you don't mind.
We love Thomas Massey here.
And I feel like a lot of people go into politics with good intentions, but they either get stuck or they change their views to kind of go along to get along.
Do you have any advice on how to stick to your principles once you get in there?
We first have to believe what you're talking about.
And you have to know what your goals are because there will be a lot of resistance.
But what I found is it's not all downhill because I always thought people should be polite and decent and at least talk to the enemy, you know, the philosophic enemies.
But there still would be a lot of people that would challenge them and look at what they're doing to Thomas Massey right now.
And a few people get annoyed by my son being involved in politics.
And he has to be on the receiving end.
And you have to sometimes hold your tongue.
Other people say that's stupid.
You got to let them have it, you know.
And but I would say that, you know, moderation is pretty good in this field.
You stick to your guns and you speak clearly.
And the other thing is, is not being too much in a flip-flop area.
People want to know what your philosophy is.
And I had so many people over the years would say, Ron, you know, I don't agree with all that you say.
I have some disagreement, but I like it because I know where you stand.
And because you can't find very often two people that are exactly alike.
And that's why you should have a political philosophy that is very flexible.
And that is the freedom position where you tolerate other people's as long as people don't create violence.
Very well said, Dr. Paul.
We'll go ahead and go to the next question here.
It says, this is from Politically Homeless.
Dr. Paul, I listen regularly and know you've addressed the idea of Elon Musk's new party before, but I wonder if your thoughts have involved.
I just can't vote Democrat or Republican again, and the Libertarian Party seems like such a mess.
Should I just stay home?
Well, you have to do what you want to do.
That's what a lot of people do.
And they say, one ad that I get annoyed with is you'll hear a broadcaster come in, I don't care how you vote, but just get out there and vote.
Well, if you're going to vote, why would you care?
Why wouldn't you care who's voting?
You're not going to go and try to get the people that hate your guts to vote.
So just voting isn't an answer.
So it's a matter of getting people to get involved.
But a new party, you know, I always say, well, we ought to have a second party.
We don't need a third party.
And I think this recent messing around with the budget, you know, how they passed one in the House, which was lousy, but not quite as bad as the Senate.
And the Senate goes in and they make it worse.
And that's supposed to be two parties.
That doesn't work that way.
So the people have to understand that.
But a new party, oh, I'm all for that.
I was in the, matter of fact, I'm still technically into the Libertarian Party.
But it's secondary.
You're not in there.
People shouldn't be in there.
How do I promote the party?
But that's what the party people want.
You're to be there.
And that's why they resent the people who vote, you know, not because of what the party is doing at that particular instant, but what you promised to do.
And when we go to Congress, we do take an oath.
And if it means anything, you ought to do it.
And that is that we're supposed to follow the Constitution and also follow, I think they should pay more attention to the platform.
I remember one time in the Reagan's years, they got a little annoyed with me because even though Reagan, I admired him and he did a good job, there were times when he would be maybe spending too much money or doing something, and I would vote against it.
Well, that is, I think, acceptable.
You have to do that, but it annoys the party.
You know, one thing that I found that I find it comical is I, you know, as many people may remember, there were occasions when I'd vote all by myself.
And that was sort of a badge of honor for me personally.
But I can remember one time there was only one vote up on the board and it wasn't mine.
And it was somebody else.
He didn't like it, but it didn't bother me too much.
It just worked out that I voted for this particular bill.
So I went over to him in a pretend way.
I was chewing him out.
I said, I don't want to have any more of this.
I have the record for this.
I don't want you doing this too much, voting by yourself or with me because you could get into trouble.
So the voting is important.
But I think that you have to, and the party is important too, but it's very biased.
That's why what Musk was doing, I think, was very good because he had the talent and the ability and he had a little bit of clout with the internet.
And he's still involved.
What comes of it all, we don't know.
But that's pretty important for people to do it.
But it's been tried.
But I'll tell you what.
I think one of the worst problems we have in Washington is bipartisanship.
And yet everybody say, we have to end this bipartisan fighting.
Well, look at the budget and look at the foreign policy.
Look at the wars and look at COVID.
Were you having a separation where Republicans were more market-oriented than the Democrats were interventionists?
No, that wasn't the case.
So I think it's important that people know and understand that.
But another party, I'd encourage it.
I remember when I first thought about politics, I called Larry McDonald.
A few people listening to this program may remember Larry McDonald.
He was a conservative Democrat constitutionalist from Atlanta.
Even though he was a Democrat, I was thinking about it.
I called him up because I had met him and I asked him, I said, you know, I'm thinking about doing this because I want to talk about this.
You know, this is my message.
And he said, I wanted some advice.
He says, he says, don't get in.
Go where you can get the biggest audience.
And I'm sure he wasn't a very good Democrat, but he was a Democrat.
But he says, where it is.
And some people do it as independents.
And I, you know, toyed with the idea.
Matter of fact, I researched that, but we could realize that it's not there.
It's not an opportunity.
So there is a monopoly there as a monopoly of government intervention.
And that's what people have to realize.
This hope is always good to have a little bit of hope.
And I've been positive as I can be with the current administration, but I'm also realistic.
You know, people say, well, you know, is this all going to work?
And they're going to have a greatly reduced spending spree during this year.
I say, I wish it'd be true, but it isn't going to be true because the philosophy of government and spending is so powerful.
Just how vicious people are if they're receiving some program that's 100% welfare.
Money stolen from one person, given to another person.
Too often they say, well, we're taking it from the rich and giving it to the poor.
Most of the time, they do it by printing money, then the tax is passed on to the poor people.
So it's a bad system.
But I think new party is fine.
Switching parties is okay, but you have to be realistic.
And I think Larry McDonald's advice was good.
Advice on Political Consistency00:02:44
Go where you can do the most good if spreading the message of liberty is what you want to do.
Very well said, Dr. Paul.
We're still waiting for a second party, as you always say.
Our third question today comes from Demonic Box, and he asks, what specific advice would you give President Trump at this moment?
Boy, that's impossible.
How can anybody give advice?
But it is interesting.
Let's assume that he's listening.
I've only talked to him once.
It was a 15-minute phone call.
And it was interesting how that occurred.
But he was very polite and listening.
And His campaign on a couple occasions when the first campaign run and even on this last one, they called to try to get me involved because you know they were very practical.
They figured even though libertarianism isn't the only philosophy out there, it's small, but it was significant.
So they were calling to try to get me to get me involved.
So, but then other times, sometimes the people he likes and he deals with, he might all of a sudden next week say terrible things because, you know, at the beginning, how long has Thomas been into Congress?
A long time.
He's been voting the same way, but all of a sudden now, his one-one vote, he's voting wrong.
He's voting for liberty, and we got to go after him and stop him.
And then he goes after him.
My advice would be be consistent, but defend it from the beliefs that you campaign on, the limited government, the balanced budget, and the things that we could agree with him on there.
I think the inconsistency is not a good idea.
And I think the other advice I would give is when he was elected the second time around, people talk about political capital.
And that worked.
I mean, everybody wanted his endorsement and all this.
Right now, we're seeing that that's not quite as strong, but he's sort of hard to follow exactly what his position is.
And my advice would be: you know, people want to have consistency.
They want to say, yes, I know where you stand.
I don't agree with it, but I know exactly what you'll do.
And you have to basically, you know, agree with what he's saying.
But I think right now people are getting, you know, like appointments and things like that.
All of a sudden, there'll be an appointment, then it'll be reversed.
Consistency In Politics00:05:28
And weapons are going to be sold.
No, we're going to cancel those vessel weapons.
Next time they'll do it.
I love it when he's canceling these weapons and saving some money, but people get confused on what's going on.
I'd rather have people looking at, if you're for less war and stop wars and prevent wars, that has to be very consistent.
That happens to be a very popular position.
And one advice that I give anybody who's interested in cutting back is the realization that you just can't cut anything.
Right now, there's been some programs that don't seem to be that bad coming from the liberals, like public radio and all.
But boy, people get furious about that.
And this is tokenism.
You know, it just think they cut the 9 billion.
They say, oh, that you're picking 9 billion is significant.
Yeah, but inside a deficit of $36 trillion, that doesn't solve the problem of anything.
And he would better fit by saying that, you know, talk about the Constitution once in a while.
Talk about natural law.
It's like nobody cares about that.
Well, a lot of people do, but there's a lot of people who cringe because that means we're not allowed to use theft, steal from one people to give it to another and say that we'll steal from the rich and give it to the poor because it's the opposite thing.
Even internationally, what it is, foreign aid is taken from poor people in this country and giving it to rich people in foreign countries and stirring up wars.
So that's the kind of stuff that I think is so powerful.
You know, when people hear this, they respond.
I think it was that message that the young people responded to me in the campaigns that I had, the national campaign.
And I was very encouraged, not because I was a fantastic speaker, because I'm not, but I was encouraged because people like to hear that.
And these were, you know, on liberal campuses too.
A lot of liberal young people would come up and they were introduced, you know, to the issues of liberty.
So I would always guide somebody, at least go in that direction.
I know it's not going to be easy to just turn a switch and all.
And I don't think people are talking enough about that.
And when they do, most people don't believe it.
Right now, credibility in government is way down.
You know, the whole thing about the investigations, the Kennedy investigation, all this.
Nobody believes the government anymore.
And I told an interviewer once, not too long ago, I said, well, that's good.
That's good.
And he said, what?
What?
That's good.
I said, well, yes, the people have to first realize that they're getting a bunch of baloney from their government.
And you have to sort it out because there are some good people and there's some good ideas and they have some good things like they take an oath of office.
How often does the reporter come up to somebody, conservative or liberal, and say, you voted for this?
How do you justify this with your oath of office or your platform?
See, I think the platform is important.
One time I was crossways with the Republican Party on this, and they wanted to censor me.
They didn't do it because they came to their senses, but they wanted to censor me.
And I said, all right, what I'll do is why don't you put up all my votes and compare it to the Republican platform and compare it to everybody else in the Congress.
But, you know, they write that platform.
Whoever heard of referring to the platform and say, well, you know, this is sort of, you know, not clear enough on a Constitution.
But what did we say in our platform that we were going to do?
I've never heard anybody use the platform.
That's a promise.
You know, this is what the party stands for.
And yet you still get the same government from both people.
So the one thing for sure that if I ever had the chance to sit down and the questions were asked, I'd do my best.
But the first thing, if I was sitting here in a serious manner and say, Mr. Trump, this is what I think you ought to do.
And I think you ought to listen because I have this many people behind us and da-da-da.
And I'm realistic.
You know, that's not the way politics works.
I think so often that Congress is irrelevant.
I think the relevant things that have hurt the Constitution has been the government involvement in education and with our First Amendment.
They've been involved in education and what's happened in the last 120 years in our universities.
Interest Rates and Inflation Crisis00:13:22
And now the universities are owned by the government.
And now they use that as an excuse to regulate speech.
Oh, so they had a demonstration.
They were supporting and explaining something about the Palestinians.
Oh, boy, they're terrible.
They're anti-Semitic.
We've got to close them down.
We'll take the money from them.
And oh, we can't.
We don't want to give up our money.
See, it's just a blackmail.
And they say, well, how can you do it?
You don't want to say any of these things.
What if they're saying something you really don't like?
I say, avoid the money from the very beginning.
Don't have them dependent on us.
And so we buy them.
And that's why transfer of money is so important.
And it's done by a bunch of thugs.
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
Shouldn't have said it.
You know, there's politicians there that do it.
And they work for the special interests, like the deep state.
And so if you recognize that, but the other thing is, when I talk seriously about what is good, I've always advised the viewers and listeners that people ought to try to enjoy themselves on this.
You know, it's a real delight when I run into somebody and they're with you.
And you didn't think they would be.
They said, well, I read this and this.
So there's a lot to enjoy, especially because most people are just followers and they're victims, the system.
They're victim of being used.
And that to me, that has to be changed by education.
Just think of all the dumb things we do in economics, you know, on monetary policy.
That's an education because how many colleges have been preaching seriously that the Federal Reserve shouldn't exist?
Not too many.
So that's the thing.
There are solutions, and there's a way of saying it in a way that can become very popular.
Very good, Dr. Paul.
This last question comes from me.
We'll call it a lightning round.
And it's between the feud and between the feud of Trump and Jay Powell right now.
What do you think getting rid of Powell and lowering interest rates for Trump will do as well as the economy?
How do you think this will impact the economy if we manage to lower interest rates?
If he got fired or was pushed out policy-wise, nothing really would change.
You know, right now, the argument is: we don't want the president doing this because that's influence and the Federal Reserve has to be independent.
And one thing I learned over the years on arguing the case for auditing of the Fed and understanding the Fed is every time they use the word independence, which sounds like a good term, why should you have the members of Congress writing in and lecturing and legislating?
Oh, interest rates should go up 2% tomorrow.
I mean, it's foolish.
And they say, well, Congress, that wouldn't make it worse.
Could be, could be worse, but it would be.
But it isn't independence that they're looking for.
Every time they say independence, people should use the word secrecy.
That's what they want because they get hysterical if they think that they would be audited for policy.
And especially when there's a major financial crisis, what they do behind the scenes is into the trillions and trillions of dollars that I just have a personal belief is never measured or counted or so extreme and so big.
So banks after banks, but the money probably drifts into the people who are the insiders.
And it's a terrible system.
And of course, the only answer to this is not firing.
Trump has a one point that I give him credit for is he wants to lower interest rates, which is mischief and wrong, and he doesn't know what to do.
But he had with Keynesian economics, he's thinking as a businessman, and he sees signs on it.
I would take it as very negative because he sees signs.
This economy isn't what every day you read all the positive stuff.
This economy is in shambles.
What does everybody financially do when there's a crisis and a financial crisis?
They lower interest rates, you know, because they want people to go back to buying and selling things.
It never works that way, but that's what they do.
They think that.
So I think Trump looks at it.
Maybe, this is just my assumption, that he said, you know, this thing is really coming apart.
Why do we always wait till everybody admits there's a recession or a depression?
Right now, I think we're in a recession, but Washington doesn't admit that.
And so Trump, in a way, is one step ahead.
I want to prevent it, which won't work.
Because the first thing is, is whether it's Trump or whether it's Powell deciding the big decision is and Trump wants to lower interest, you know, they're about 4% and he wants to lower them 3%, like down to 1%.
Well, they went years in recent history after 08 and kept interest rates zero.
And if you want to look for distortion, if money is free, they're going to do a lot of things.
But that's in the system still.
And it went into building up investments and also debt.
And it's sitting there.
And they say, well, yeah, but today the CPI wasn't all that bad.
You know, say, we're not going to worry about that now.
You guys worry too much.
But I think that that's not much of a compliment other than the fact that he is a businessman.
I think, and I have no idea whether he would take the backhanded compliment that he knows what it's bad and he wants to prevent it.
But Trump does not know on an ordinary situation, nor does Powell know what interest rates should be.
And they say, well, how do we know what to do?
How do you know how much the government is able to pay on interest?
Well, they shouldn't be borrowing money.
That's what they shouldn't do because that's the argument at the Constitutional Convention.
Jefferson said they shouldn't have the right to borrow money because then they would have, if they could borrow money, maybe they'd end up creating money.
And that's where the business cycle comes from.
So it's a thing that is difficult to understand, but they do not know it.
Well, how would you know what the interest rate should be?
The marketplace.
One thing you could might say is, wonder, is there anything now that the market determines?
I think credit card interest rates are market oriented, but that doesn't even slow people up.
People still, they just get a new card.
And I think once I suggested maybe interest rates on cards are up to this amount.
And they say, no, they're a lot higher than that.
They're not like 8% or 9%.
They could be a lot more.
And so the market does work to a degree.
And when the crisis comes, they will lower interest rates.
Like in the 08 deal, they took them down to zero.
That still is astounding, you know, what they did.
So they can't know it, and they shouldn't pretend that they know it.
And I think the real problem comes from their refusal to put a definition on the unit, on the money.
And what I marvel at is it was pretty well explained by what we're talking about now by a guy a couple of years ago.
His name was Aristotle.
And he said money, he has several things, but the three most important thing you had to know about money is you had to define the unit of account and it had to be in the area of a commodity, something you limits it.
And then the money has to have a store of value.
If you stick it in your drawer, it doesn't dissipate.
If you stick a who would think it's saving Federal Reserve notes for 20 years so you can send your kid to school, you might need three times as many Federal Reserve notes.
And Aristotle also mentioned that for money to work, it has to be a medium of exchange.
You're willing to change, do it routinely.
And those principles, matter of fact, some say that those principles were actually available to a degree, but less official and less academically proven before Aristotle, because it was natural, because there was a natural tendency to, when they found gold, gold was pretty early on, even before it was known as money, is something special.
You know, the kings had it and they would preserve it and wealthy people had it.
So there was a value attached to it.
And then later on, after gold had been around a long time, then it was made into money a good many years ago.
Very well said, Dr. Paul.
I'll follow it up.
So the government needs to borrow a lot of money.
We did a lot of spending recently with the Big Beautiful bill.
And the interest rates kind of apply to the government as well.
Do you think Trump is trying to borrow money and that's why he's lowering interest rates?
Do you think that has any correlation?
Oh, yes, I do.
I think it's a good point.
But I think he doesn't have a monopoly on that idea.
He's just a little more upfront and the people can see it.
But I think that both sides look at it that way.
That's why, because in a recession, government has to spend more money.
And of course, right now they have to pretend that they're concerned about that because if you have a deficit and the people don't want to loan the money to the government, then they have to print the money, which causes inflation to go up.
So they're spinning their wheels.
And they still think that they can keep up with it.
Oh, there's inflation and prices are going up.
What we'll do is we'll subsidize it or we'll have wage and price controls and they'll mess around with that.
They don't have any faith, confidence, or understanding about how the marketplace works and how important the issue of money is.
Because it is the issue that controls it.
Some people described it in biology.
It's like the hemoglobin in a body system.
It travels around and it has to be handled in a certain way.
But it's something that people don't realize, but it is really important.
That was what dawned on me.
I got introduced to economics in the 60s and even maybe late 50s.
But the people who predicted the breakdown of Bretton Woods when it happened, that really got my attention.
And I was prepared psychologically and academically that it could be bad or who knows, runaway inflation goes sky high.
But even now, even now, when I go and look at the price of gold and here for a year now, it's been over $3,000 an ounce.
I keep thinking, even though I knew it was coming, I understand how it happened.
It's almost like it isn't even where it's going to go, but $3,000 for one gold coin.
But it's sticking to the rules that the government can't control.
That's why when the plan to get out of the depression, when Roosevelt took over, he knew he had to inflate and he didn't want any restrictions.
This was before people even used gold that much, but he called in the gold because he didn't want, he was pretending he was following the rules that they could print money because they had all the gold.
But that doesn't work quite like that.
Well, that is all I have for you today.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in.
Please hit that like button and Dr. Paul, over to you.
Very good.
And I too want to thank our viewers today for tuning in.