Ron Paul to Chair Monetary Policy Subcommittee

The Federal Reserve-hating Rep. Ron Paul got the gig as chair of the domestic monetary policy subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee. His jurisdiction? "Jurisdiction: Domestic monetary policy, currency, precious metals, valuation of the dollar, economic stabilization, defense production, commodity prices, financial aid to commerce and industry."

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

Excellent.

[Punchbowl Turd]

"Excellent"? Why? How will this subcommittee chairmanship change anything for the better in the libertarian snarkosphere?

[Pro Libertate]

Beats not being chair.

[Mr. FIFY]

In an ideal world, the chairmanship would include "being able to legally jam an ice pick into Paul Krugman's forehead".

Snarky enough for you, Turd?

[pmains]

That is allowed. Under the commerce clause.

[Mr. FIFY]

I'd fork over pay-per-view rates to see that!

[Special Sauce]

Yes. And if that doesn't work I'm sure the General Welfare Clause will allow it.

[Mr. FIFY]

It would definitely help the general welfare to see an ice pick stuck in Krugman's forehead... even if he survived the attack.

[Restoras]

Especially if he survived the attack.

[Seer]

Or the Necessary and Proper Clause.

[John Conyers]

You mean the Good and Welfare Clause of the Constitution.

[Graham Wellington]

Sure, an ice pick as the instrument is dubious, but a lobotomy certainly isn't the worst explanation for his... cognition.

[deified]

This isn't being reported much, but from now on Ron Paul will be entering the House floor shirtless, wearing boxing trunks and an elaborately embroidered silk robe, and will be accompanied by theme music.

[Mr Whipple]

Bloomberg is covering it here and here (sort of).

[joshua corning]

You are right...The more libertarians get into positions of power the worse it will be for libertarians.

Just ask Brian Dorothy how bad Rand Paul's election win will be for us.

Horrible horrible horrible....

In other news:

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

They are self-proclaimed libertarians.

A libertarian is a powerless under-bug (a dog would be entirely too strong, powerful, and capable).

This Ron and Rand Paul stuff is rocking the damned boat.

[cynical]

I hope he pushes his free money concept harder there. We don't have a state religion, we don't have a state language, why have a state currency?

[0x90]

You think the fed could compete in an open market? What good would it do for congress to borrow money, when nobody uses their brand? No, the state would sooner disband the entire armed services than relinquish its monopoly on money.

[Brandybuck]

Most Ron Paul supporters don't want a free market in money. They want a gold standard: government mandated 100% reserves in gold.

Here's an idea? How about freedom? Let there be free competition between currencies and banks! If the First National Bank of Rothbard, which charges steep fees for warehousing your gold, can't compete against Hayek Community Bank, which pays you interest on your deposits, then tough shit Rothbard!

[cynical]

But Paul himself has stated his support for a free money market over a gold standard. I'm pretty sure his supporters would follow his lead, since gold would be a legitimate currency under a free system. Plus, I predict that FREE MONEY FOR EVERYONE will poll well with Democrats.

[chrono]

This could get interesting...

[jacob]

SWEEET!

[Jaybird]

I'm surprised they weren't able to game him out of that (again).

[Ben Bernake]

Piss.

[Mike M.]

That's exactly what it looked like you were doing on "60 Minutes" the other night.

[P Brooks]

Stand by for a PR blitzkrieg from the Timmay and Bennay Show. With many special guest appearances from Barney.

[Atanarjuat]

"Financial aid to commerce and industry" is not a core function of government.

[Pauly Krugnuts]

Excuse me, have you met my Nobel Prize?

[Billy Shakespeare]

Excuse me, have you met my Nobel Prize?

I found a picture of your Prize on the Internet last night, and I thought it looked ... small.

[Kevin]

Given that it's a subcommittee, I'm sure they figure they've got a pretty good leash on him, as anything he proposes would have to pass the full committee to have a chance.

[kinnath]

Televised hearings will be Paul's primary weapon I'm sure.

[John Thacker]

And the subpoena, don't forget. Though I think that the Chair and implicitly the Speaker would have to sign on to subpoenas.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Absolutely, his chief weapon will be televised hearings... televised hearings and blimps.... His two weapons are televised hearings and blimps... and ruthless classical liberalism.... His *three* weapons are televised hearings, blimps and ruthless classical liberalism...and an almost fanatical devotion to Hayek.... His *four*...no... *Amongst* his weaponry are such elements as televised hearings and blimps.... I'll come in again.

[Beezard]

That actually made me laugh out loud, but I'm way too hip to type "LOL!".

[Bronwyn]

I think I love you.

[VikingMoose]

well played

[Max]

The televised heraings should be about the racist newsletters Ron Paul wrote!

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I must say, that was totally unexpected. 😛

[West Coaster]

Keeping w/ the M. Python direction of this sub-thread:

Nobody expects...

[Old Mexican]

Re: Max,

Max, H&R's pet yorkie.

Here Max! Here, boy! Go fetch! That's a good boy! Yeah!

Noooooo, no, no, bad Max! Don't do your banalities on the carpet! Bad Max! Bad!

[AA]

Shove his nose in it!

[Bronwyn]

*Hands OM a rolled-up newspaper*

[.]

Have him "altered."

[deified]

So the real question becomes clear: Does Ron Paul have the skill, tenacity, subtlety, acuity, presence-of-mind, and sheer Machiavellian instinct to get his Cavalcade of Awesome bumped from C-SPAN3 to C-SPAN2?

The drama is almost unbearable.

[Mike Laursen]

He doesn't have to. The Left will obsess over and blog incessantly over everything he does. They've really never caught on to the tactic of ignoring their idealogical enemies. Instead they give them massive amounts of free publicity in their attempts to discredit them.

[Restoras]

This will be awesomely entertaining.

[RyanXXX]

This is something he's probably been shooting for his whole life. Good on him.

[heller]

Moment of truth for Ron Paul. Let's sit back and watch.

[ChrisH]

Was that a... pig that just flew by my window?

[Mr Whipple]

Yeah, and Satan just got hit in the face with a snowball.

[Spartacus]

I think Bernanke just pooped a little bit.

[The Other Kevin]

Good for him, and for us. Even if the only real power he has is to bring things out into the daylight, or to demonstrate how much is NOT in the daylight, we're still much better off.

[?]

This means it's time to set off the inflation bomb, "under Ron Paul."

Prepare your anus.

[Mike Laursen]

Shit. You're probably onto something there.

[creech]

Ron, any openings for a gold auditor for Ft. Knox? Sounds more interesting than counting cans of soup in the Campell warehouse.

[Warty]

This should be fun.

[switch]

Rons first question to Bernanke: Where is the gold?

[R C Dean]

Probably more like:

When was the last time you had an independent audit of the physical gold held by the Fed? Would you care to produce a copy of the audit report?

[Tulpa]

I don't think any US-based auditor could credibly be considered "independent" of the US govt. The day he or she discovers missing gold, they're going to be caught with kiddie porn on their laptop or get drunk and fall off a balcony.

[Joe M]

"Where's the money, Bernanski???"

[heller]

LOL

[Colin]

I just hope it's all televised. Live.

They could put it on Comedy Central.

[Colin]

How drunk will Bernanke get tonight?

[Special Sauce]

John Bonham drunk, if he knows what's good for him.

[Restoras]

Oh man, that's just downright mean.

[Hugh Akston]

I doubt this will change much in the way of policy. But at least TIME magazine will have someone to blame when the shit hits the fan.

[Old Mexican]

Finally, la revolucion has delivered us justice!

[shrike]

Bernanke is serving a 14-year term on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors along with others who regularly vote with him.

At the very worst Ron Paul will be a pest. The Fed has independent power precisely for this very reason - to insulate them from crooked or insane Congressmen.

[Mr Whipple]

Really? I thought they had independent power so JP Morgan could corner the copper market, and to provide cover for all of their silver shorts.

[shrike]

I really am just a bitter cunt of a man, when you get down to it.

[Restoras]

No no, that was when JP Morgan was the Federal Reserve.

[Mr Whipple]

The JP Morgue has always been the Federal Reserve. It's funny, because it was JP Morgan, the man, who tried to bail out Knickerbocker when they tried to corner the copper market. Now, JP Morgue, the bank, is trying to do it. Maybe somebody uncovered some old documents in the basement of JPM from 1907, and figured out where Barney went wrong.

[Joe M]

This is just another step in building momentum to get rid of the Fed. He obviously can't do it directly with this chairmanship, but he can frame the narrative a lot better than before. The Bernank will not sleep tonight.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

And to insulate them from any accountability....musn't forget that point.

[Mr Whipple]

Bye Bye, Mel Watt, you crooked bastard. Time to retire to that nice $1.5 million "adviser" position at BoA.

[Chony to the Max]

I hope he doesn't meet with an accident between now and when he starts his position.

[The Crackshot Crackpot]

Hell yeah! I can't believe the Republican leadership actually went through with this. Time for RP to put his dick on Ben Bernanke's shoulder and say (in a meek and submissive sort of way): "Hey Ben...?"

[Mr Whipple]

Don't believe it. They only did it as insurance. When the giant Ponzi comes crashing down, and we're using all of those new, fucked up $100 bills for toilet paper, they will have somebody to scapegoat.

Sorry, didn't mean to piss on the parade.

[Tony]

Ron Paul is a simple-minded ideologue.

[Mr. FIFY]

I dig the irony of your statement, Tony, considering the source of the post.

[Mr. FIFY]

But seriously, Tony, "simple-minded ideologue" can be applied to just about any random politician. In some cases, it's much too kind.

In this case, though, it doesn't.

[Chuck Schumer]

I resent being called that!

[Tony]

But have you heard Ron Paul talk? He sounds like you guys. It's absurd.

[Mr Whipple]

Compared to what? Dick Fuld's testimony on Lehamn's failure? You just love Dick Fuld, and Jamie Dimon, and Lloyd Blankfein, don't you. You dream of them shoving wads of cash up your ass, don't you? Cash that was created out of thin air, of course.

[JoshINHB]

A coloncashscopy?

[Mr. FIFY]

"But have you heard Ron Paul talk? He sounds like you guys. It's absurd."

And you claim to not be an elitist...

[Tony]

When have I ever claimed such a thing?

You know who I want running things? Elite people, not idiots from bumfuck Alaska who think their down-home moose killing worldview is sufficient to run a country.

[Mr. FIFY]

I don't want Palin in charge any more than you do, Tony.

I, however, don't look down my nose at non-elites.

I no more want liberal elitists running MY fucking life than I want conservative elitists running MY fucking life. And that's why I am superior to you.

No, that's not elitism on my part; I just don't trust those who view me and 300 million plus other fellow Americans as brain-damaged children.

[Mr. FIFY]

As to your "when have I ever claimed such a thing" statement, I give you this:

But have you heard Ron Paul talk? He sounds like you guys. It's absurd.

And, since most of us are not "elite people", by inference you are dumping us into the "idiots from bumfuck".

So... bugger off, elitist-licker.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Tony,

You prefer complex-minded ideologues, don't you?

[Mr. FIFY]

I think he'd prefer a liberal dictatorship, helmed by naught but the creamiest of the elite, looking down their noses over their glasses and making "tsk tsk" finger-wagging gestures at We The Great Unwashed Citizenry.

[Joe M]

*ahem*

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

[Tulpa]

Do hearings that are aired on C-SPAN 74 at 3am on Sunday morning, never picked up by mainstream media or even PBS and FoxNews, count as "televised"?

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

That depends a whole lotta-lot on what the rating is.

[Tulpa]

Right, they ought to put it up against Dancing With the Stars and see what happens.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

No no. I was thinking more along the lines of, for the video you have Debbie Does Dallas, while for the audio you have the voices from Ron Paul's conferences and hearings.

Nobody wants to look at a bunch of old men in suits. But there are people who might stay up until 3:00 AM to watch Debbie Does Dallas.

So Ron's conferences are XXX. What's anybody going to do about it?

[Lost_In_Translation]

Seriously though, who knows what kind of drama could occur in a subcommittee run by the one congressman that has voted consistantly against any handouts. He has so much enormous procedural powers now, I'll bet there will be fistfights. CSPAN Primetime for sure.

[nekoxgirl]

Hell yeah! Maybe that Republican majority in the House will do some good after all.

[Corduroy]

I would love to have commentary on this from the CEOs of BofA, Citigroup, AIG, JPM, GS, etc...

May they all rot in hell.

[Circle Jerk Prize]

Yay! Time for you all to pass me around again!

[johnl]

I wonder if this represents assistance or a leash for Paul.
"""
Top lawmaker Darrell Issa plans to use his new powers as government watchdog to crack open the U.S. central bank, which many Republicans view as a secretive body with too much power.

As Republicans get set to take control of the House of Representatives in January, Issa is casting a wide net as he prepares for his influential role as chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

"Are they transparent enough to the public? Are they transparent enough to the Congress?" Issa, a Republican, said in an interview on Tuesday. "The more people who have the ability to see, not just what the Fed does, but what the Fed thinks, the better."
"""

[Ted]

Most of what I hear from Ron Paul on monetary policy is usually incoherent or just empirically wrong, but anyway what is his power going to be? Ask a bunch of question and subpoena crap - he'll have no real influence over monetary policy decisions since the system is designed to assure he doesn't. He's not going to even be able to put a lot of restrains on the Fed's discount window, let alone the relevant features of monetary policy.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Ted,

Most of what I hear from Ron Paul on monetary policy is usually incoherent or just empirically wrong[.]

You mean you don't find coherence with the concept of "print money = inflation", or that the Constitution clearly stating only gold and silver are to be legal tender? And you don't see empirical evidence of the Fed's manipulations leading to booms and busts?

Have you been living under a rock, lately?

[Brandybuck]

The constitution says that *states* can only issue gold or silver as currency. But the federal government can issue cigarette butts if they so choose. Go read the constitution again.

[P Brooks]

The Fed has independent power precisely for this very reason - to insulate them from crooked or insane Congressmen.

That Shriek, he so funny.

[James]

The worst possible nightmare for all the Zionist bankers and big business men in NY and Chicago.

[Mr. FIFY]

Aw, you had to go and ruin a perfectly good thread with Zionist conspiracy bullshit. Thanks, James.

[l0b0t]

Nonsense, the Zionists only care about land in the Levant. Great Cthulhu has been using them as a front to fight the Office of Naval Intelligence and their Rosicrucian masters for decades. Or perhaps that's just what Xenu wants you to believe.

[White Supremacist Moron]

Them Zi-o-nists et our baybay! Me an' Sis, we cain't have no more kids cuz them nig'ras made us ste-rile!

[Blood Sword]

I thought the Fed was independent of the federal government, so even if Ron Paul has a lot of bark, won't he be sitting in a toothless position?

[johnl]

Even MLB isn't independent of the federal government.

[Brandybuck]

Congress created the Fed. Duh.

[Blood Sword]

Just because you are created by something does not mean you are answerable to it. What kind of power will Ron Paul now have over the Fed? I thought the Fed was run by bankers, with the only political appointment coming directly from the president. Despite being so condescending, Brandy, your answer was not very helpful. Yours was funny, johnl.