If there’s one thing that governments at all levels and central banks do quite well it’s turn a bad situation into an even worse one. Whether it’s social issues, the economy or monetary policy, both entities, which have already done a terrible job in the first place, transform it into a calamity, despite all good intentions they may have.
Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
This week, there have been two focuses coming out of the Federal Reserve: the tapering off of quantitative easing and the end of Chairman Ben Bernanke’s reign of terror. It is expected that he will not seek reappointment for a third term when his second attempt expires on Jan. 31, 2014.
For quite some time now, it has been widely believed that Vice Chair Janet Yellen will succeed Mr. Helicopter himself and continue the inflationist and near-zero interest rate policies that Bernanke has advocated for years. Although economists have concurred that she will be tapped, many are not enthusiastic about how well she will do.
The libertarian, capitalist and Austrian Economics community has been rather vocal about how they feel regarding Bernanke, the Fed and even Alan Greenspan for that matter. In the end, it’s all about ending the Federal Reserve System, or at least slowly transitioning it into a system that promotes sound money, competing currencies and allowing the free market to run itself.
Since there isn’t a libertarian or anti-Fed candidate in sight that could be chosen to helm the Fed, here are five libertarian dream candidates that could improve things, make the libertarian base happy and make the corporatists, Washington establishment and Keynesians very, very unhappy.
1. Ron Paul
During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul inspired millions of Americans to embrace freedom, liberty and volunteerism. Throughout the debates, his speeches and media appearances, he taught viewers about the dangers of the Fed and what they have been doing has been detrimental to the United States dollar, the economy and capitalism in general.
If there is one person in the U.S. today that could change things drastically at the Fed it would be Dr. Paul, who is also the bestselling author of “End the Fed,” which explains how the system could over time abolish the central bank.
What other person in politics has turned millions of Americans into monetary policy enthusiasts over a course of a few months?
Odds of becoming Fed Chair: zero
2. Tom Woods
In this writer’s humble opinion, author Tom Woods has been one of the best libertarian academics out there today. His books are enlightening, his videos are friendly and informative and he has been active in the libertarian community for years. Woods has also been an outspoken critic of the Fed and has explained his positions countless times in a calm, detailed manner, whether it’s through his vlogs, writings or interviews.
Odds of becoming Fed Chair: zero
3. Lew Rockwell
Lew Rockwell has also been very important to the libertarian community over the past number of decades. A promoter of Austrian Economics and founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Rockwell has worked one-on-one with Dr. Paul for several years and has written various columns and essays about the Fed’s damages to the economy.
His website, LewRockwell.com, features an array of articles highlighting the derelictions of the central banking system.
In an interview with Russia Today last year, Rockwell explained how the Fed facilitates war, damage, destruction and empires with its monetary policy as well as hurting the middle class in the country.
Odds of becoming Fed Chair: zero
4. Peter Schiff
Peter Schiff became famous starting at around 2005 and 2006 when he began making predictions about the collapse of the U.S. economy, even when his fellow financial colleagues and media pundits laughed at him. This video is one of the best evidences to show the establishment’s ignorance of economic affairs and the problems of the Fed.
The reason why Schiff was able to predict the outcome of the housing bubble was because he knew the failures of the Fed. At this time, he is predicting a burst in one of the largest bubbles in history: the bond bubble.
Years later, Schiff is one of the most respected minds in the libertarian community because he still remains correct to this date and his criticisms of the Fed are right. Although the media likes to suggest the economy is improving and the Fed has helped out a lot, Schiff understands what will inevitably happen: collapse of the dollar.
“Otherwise, the Fed would prefer to keep quiet about the flood of inflation it is creating. If it were to speak the name of this growing threat, it might be called on to stop it,” wrote Schiff in a column last year. “But Chairman Bernanke knows that any policy designed to restrain inflation will also derail the phony recovery that the Fed has labored so hard to engineer. The higher rates needed to bring inflation under control, and knock down the price of oil for instance, would trigger a greater financial crisis than the one seen in 2008.”
Odds of becoming Fed Chair: zero
5. Robert Murphy
Similar to Tom Woods, Robert Murphy has been instrumental in the academics world and has promoted the ideas of Austrian Economics in a simple but effective (sometimes even hilarious) manner. His articles consist of numerous examples of how the Fed is at fault for nearly everything that has gone wrong since its inception.
More importantly, his work into the years of Greenspan has been crucial to understanding how the once proponent of sound money, capitalism and the concepts of Objectivism became one of the destroyers of the dollar, the U.S. economy and even perhaps the middle class.
“Despite claims to the contrary, it appears that Alan Greenspan’s ultralow interest rates — which went hand in hand with monetary growth rates comparable to those of the 1970s — were at the very least a large contributing factor to the housing boom,” stated Murphy in a 2008 article, at the height of the economic collapse. “I feel confident in claiming that the housing boom would not have occurred if money and banking had been left in the hands of the private sector, as opposed to the state-organized cartel that we currently ‘enjoy.’”
Odds of becoming Fed Chair: zero
Or perhaps the U.S. should do what Libertarian Senate candidate John Jay Myers recommended in an interview with ECN during election season, appoint “a man with a large can of gasoline and a match.”
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