Ron Paul, Anti Fed Reserve movement, "isolationist" "fringe" and maybe anti - Semitic

[Anti Federalist]

From the LA Slimes.



Bernanke bashers

Once on the fringe, critics of the Federal Reserve such as Ron Paul are suddenly mainstream

By Jacob Heilbrunn

November 19, 2010

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,1357975.story

If he didn't know it already, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is learning that no good deed goes unpunished. Bernanke's measured move to bolster the American economy by purchasing an additional $600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds — an attempt to pump liquidity into the economy — is triggering a backlash from the right.

The central bank's decisions have always come in for their share of ideological bickering, but with President Obama defending Bernanke and with the GOP testing voters' appetite for insurrection, right-leaning economists are making common cause with politicians to use the bond purchase to undermine Democrats as well as the Fed. It's an opportunistic move, one that plays into a broader radical agenda of injecting politics into monetary policy in order to tarnish the Fed's reputation.

An early salvo was a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation," it read. The sponsoring organization was e21, and the signers included the American Enterprise Institute's Kevin A. Hasett and Peter J. Wallison; the Manhattan Institute's Nicole Gelinas; Weekly Standard editor William Kristol; Michael Boskin, a former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers; and Amity Shlaes, who wrote a book castigating President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal for worsening the Depression.

On the surface, the content of the letter reads modestly enough as a policy disagreement, but according to a news story about e21, also in the Journal, the group and some members of the GOP want to encourage the new House majority to be "outspoken and unified" on "a sound money policy." Just as the Kristol-led Project for the New American Century once helped lay out the blueprint for the George W. Bush administration's crusading foreign policy, so Kristol's new organization is supposed to lay the groundwork for conservatives of all stripes to return to the economic principles of the Founding Fathers. E21's website is filled with denunciations of Bernanke's monetary policy. It testifies to the rightward march of mainstream conservatives in embracing stances they used to shun.

Among the most prominent Bernanke critics the mainstream is essentially embracing is the libertarian and isolationist Rep. Ron Paul (R- Texas). His views used to be on the fringe, but Paul, now a "tea party" hero, will become chairman of a House monetary committee in January. In books, articles and appearances on Fox News, Paul calls for the outright abolition of the Fed, and from his new perch, he will have oversight of the central bank.

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 in response to the financial panics of the early 20th century. It issues currency and sets interest rates for banks, balancing the risk of recession and inflation with every decision. It is independent of government, which is why presidents have gnashed their teeth over its policies as they faced reelection. At the same time, the perception that it is an impartial authority devoted solely to guiding the economy is essential to its credibility.

But from the beginning, the Fed attracted a devoted cult of bashers who, like Paul, see it as working against American self-reliance and the free market, and destroying economic growth as it leads to the rise of socialism and, eventually, to tyranny a la Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

This is, in fact, the central argument of the once obscure Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom," a book written during World War II as a warning to the Western democracies about the economic underpinnings of Nazism. Glenn Beck, touting Hayek on television, has turned the book into an unlikely bestseller. Paul's office in Congress, which I have visited, is festooned with quotes from Hayekian economists. Paul's book, "End the Fed," calls for a strictly private banking system. If the "big government" Fed is abolished, he suggests, all our economic woes will be miraculously cured.

Most conservatives have had no patience for such views. Neoconservative godfather Irving Kristol declared in 2003 in the Weekly Standard that he felt "impatient with the Hayekian notion that we are on 'the road to serfdom.' Neocons do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable."

But those fears are front and center today, and they play into the most extreme Fed bashing, which depicts the central bank as an instrument of a despotic elite that controls world events for its own ends. George Sylvester Viereck (who was imprisoned by FDR as a Nazi sympathizer in 1941) and Eustace Mullins (an associate of Sen. Joseph McCarthy) charged that President Woodrow Wilson and his aide "Colonel" House conspired with Jewish financiers to establish the central bank in 1913. The Rev. Pat Robertson, in "The New World Order," returned to such theories, decrying the Jewish Rothschilds and their role in creating "one-world government" under the sway of a "financial oligarchy." Today, Paul echoes such thinking in his call to end the Fed's "secretive cartel."

The Federal Reserve's utility as a public relations target for the far right, and its real targeting by a small group of activists, could impede the central bank's ability to fulfill its crucial work of balancing interest rates, unemployment and inflation. Paul has pledged to use his chairmanship in the House as a "mini bully pulpit" to grill Bernanke. In less fraught times, his credo wouldn't command much popularity, but it appears as though the GOP is preparing itself to undergo a Pauline conversion.

Jacob Heilbrunn, a senior editor at the National Interest, is the author of "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons."

[Patrick Henry]

Here it comes.

[sofia]

LA Times is owned by a Zionist real estate mogul.....I think his name is Zell....He also owns Chicago Tribune

[Agorism]

I don't think it mentions anything about anti - Semitic.

[Anti Federalist]

‘Bernanke Bashers’ Are Promoting Anti-Semitism?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewr...tml#more-70548

Posted by Lew Rockwell on November 21, 2010 11:01 AM
So writes Jacob Heilbrunn in the LA Times, which warns:

Once on the fringe, critics of the Federal Reserve such as Ron Paul are suddenly mainstream.

Darn right! Read the whole Keynesian and smeary op-ed. I’ll make a few comments about my favorite parts.

If he didn’t know it already, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is learning that no good deed goes unpunished. Bernanke’s measured move to bolster the American economy by purchasing an additional $600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds — an attempt to pump liquidity into the economy — is triggering a backlash from the right.

Can you imagine it? There are non-Keynesians in the land, who think that there is something wrong with massive money printing for the benefit of the big banks, Wall Street, and the State? You must be an ignoramus to fear price inflation and possible price hyperinflation.


[Criticizing the central bank] is an opportunistic move, one that plays into a broader radical agenda of injecting politics into monetary policy in order to tarnish the Fed’s reputation.

What, politics involved in the State’s central bank? Like the rest of the government, all the Fed cares about is politics (and the banks). As Arthur Burns, Fed chairman under Nixon, once said: “If the Fed doesn’t do what the president wants, it would lose its independence.” NB: most people who want to “politicize” the Fed are inflationists; the Austrians want no inflation, of course. Indeed, we want deflation.

Just as the Kristol-led Project for the New American Century once helped lay out the blueprint for the George W. Bush administration’s crusading foreign policy, so Kristol’s new organization is supposed to lay the groundwork for conservatives of all stripes to return to the economic principles of the Founding Fathers.

Good point. Kristol is attempting to take over the anti-Fed movement, castrate it, and turn it to his own neocon purposes. Thus his creature Palin’s recent comments. By the way, if Kristol can criticize the Fed, how can it be anti-Semitic for Ron Paul to do the same?

Among the most prominent Bernanke critics the mainstream is essentially embracing is the libertarian and isolationist Rep. Ron Paul (R- Texas). His views used to be on the fringe, but Paul, now a “tea party” hero, will become chairman of a House monetary committee in January. In books, articles and appearances on Fox News, Paul calls for the outright abolition of the Fed, and from his new perch, he will have oversight of the central bank.

Make that simply “the most prominent Bernanke critic.”

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 in response to the financial panics of the early 20th century. It issues currency and sets interest rates for banks, balancing the risk of recession and inflation with every decision.

And the good fairies wrote the Fed legislation at at a secret meeting at J.P Morgan’s private club on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

At the same time, the perception that it is an impartial authority devoted solely to guiding the economy is essential to its credibility.

That’s right. The hard work of the Austrians, beginning with Mises in 1912 and continuing with Hayek, Hazlitt, Rothbard, and other great economists, and Ron Paul and the Mises Institute, is paying off. People are understanding for the first time that far from being just a boring name on their depreciating fiat money, the Fed is ripping them off, and funding the welfare-warfare state, to the benefit of the sorts of people who met at Jekyll Island. If the perception of the Fed as impartial is essential, does this mean that the Fed must actually be impartial, or is it enough that people falsely believe that it is?

But from the beginning, the Fed attracted a devoted cult of bashers who, like Paul, see it as working against American self-reliance and the free market, and destroying economic growth as it leads to the rise of socialism and, eventually, to tyranny a la Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Right.

Paul’s office in Congress, which I have visited, is festooned with quotes from Hayekian economists [he means Mises, Rothbard, and Hazlitt, none of them Hayekians]. Paul’s book, “End the Fed,” calls for a strictly private banking system. If the “big government” Fed is abolished, he suggests, all our economic woes will be miraculously cured.

Nope. We’d need to curb spending too, especially the empire, but ending the Fed would be the greatest advance in human liberty and general prosperity in a very long time.

Most conservatives have had no patience for such views. Neoconservative godfather Irving Kristol declared in 2003 in the Weekly Standard that he felt “impatient with the Hayekian notion that we are on ‘the road to serfdom.’ Neocons do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable.”

Absolutely right. But now here comes the smear.

But those fears are front and center today, and they play into the most extreme Fed bashing, which depicts the central bank as an instrument of a despotic elite that controls world events for its own ends. [Partially right, of course.] George Sylvester Viereck (who was imprisoned by FDR as a Nazi sympathizer in 1941) and Eustace Mullins (an associate of Sen. Joseph McCarthy) charged that President Woodrow Wilson and his aide “Colonel” House conspired with Jewish financiers to establish the central bank in 1913. The Rev. Pat Robertson, in “The New World Order,” returned to such theories, decrying the Jewish Rothschilds and their role in creating “one-world government” under the sway of a “financial oligarchy.” Today, Paul echoes such thinking in his call to end the Fed’s “secretive cartel.

Of course, it is a secretive cartel of big banks, and thus Ron Paul’s desire to audit it. But Austrian criticism of the Fed isn’t primarily that private bankers control the system. Rather, it is that the Fed’s expansion of bank credit causes the business cycle. But Heilbrunn’s central charge against Ron is an outright lie. Mullins, a money-crank who denounced the Jewish Mises and Rothbard, and praised Mussolini’s fascism, has nothing to do with Ron Paul. Mullins, not an associate of McCarthy, was an advocate of giant government. Why not mention Hitler too? Except that he was a dedicated central banker. Pat Robertson, a police statist and imperialist, is an opponent of Ron Paul’s. And national socialist George Sylvester Viereck? Come on. This is “guilt” by made-up association. And, by the way, the two most prominent banking families involved in the founding of the Fed were the Morgans and the Rockefellers.

The Federal Reserve’s utility as a public relations target for the far right, and its real targeting by a small group of activists, could impede the central bank’s ability to fulfill its crucial work of balancing interest rates, unemployment and inflation. Paul has pledged to use his chairmanship in the House as a “mini bully pulpit” to grill Bernanke. In less fraught times, his credo wouldn’t command much popularity, but it appears as though the GOP is preparing itself to undergo a Pauline conversion.

That’s right. And thanks to Jeff Fogel, who notes:

This incredibly ignorant attack on Ron Paul did get one thing right. As the writer quipped, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’. Indeed.

[Anti Federalist]

I don't think it mentions anything about anti - Semitic.

But those fears are front and center today, and they play into the most extreme Fed bashing, which depicts the central bank as an instrument of a despotic elite that controls world events for its own ends. George Sylvester Viereck (who was imprisoned by FDR as a Nazi sympathizer in 1941) and Eustace Mullins (an associate of Sen. Joseph McCarthy) charged that President Woodrow Wilson and his aide "Colonel" House conspired with Jewish financiers to establish the central bank in 1913. The Rev. Pat Robertson, in "The New World Order," returned to such theories, decrying the Jewish Rothschilds and their role in creating "one-world government" under the sway of a "financial oligarchy." Today, Paul echoes such thinking in his call to end the Fed's "secretive cartel."

Guilt by non association.

The author danced around it, but he made his point.

[sofia]

Are anti-Mafia crusaders "anti-Italian"???

FYI...every chairman of the FED for the past 40 years has been jewish....as was the founding father of the Fed...Paul Warburg

[FrankRep]

HuffPo Nobody Jacob Heilbrunn: Fed Opponents anti-Semites; Obama Great


Tom Woods
November 21st, 2010


Lew Rockwell just smacked down Jacob Heilbrunn’s exquisitely conventional analysis of the Fed — why, it balances inflation, interest rates, and employment for us! — in which Heilbrunn also argues that opponents of the Fed are animated by sinister motives, including (what else?) anti-Semitism. That would be news to Murray Rothbard, arguably the greatest Fed opponent of the twentieth century. In fact, the whole thing is so anti-intellectual as to be almost unworthy of a response. No actual evaluation of anti-Fed arguments — apparently there is no downside to fiddling with market interest rates — and opponents of the Fed are all lumped together in the interest of the stupidest and most ignorant case of guilt by association I have ever seen.

This is no real surprise; the usual establishment response to independent thought is to smear anyone who dissents from the official line. Citizen, why would you criticize, rather than bow down before, your wise overlords? You must be deranged.

But if I may quote a little something from our dear overlord, here’s the love letter to Obama he wrote last year: “Whether or not the [health care] bill contains a Medicare expansion, Obama is exactly right to say that it represents the biggest potential Democratic accomplishment since the establishment of Social Security. Little Joe Lieberman can pout and strut all he wants, but ultimately he’ll be a mere footnote in the history of the bill.

“The blunt fact is that Obama has been president for one measly year. Compared to the blunders that other presidents have committed early on, Obama is looking good. If the economy improves, he will look even better. So ignore the tedious and hypertrophied Obama bashers. And never forget that he is as as good and intelligent and decent a president as America will ever have. He still has a chance to become one of the greatest. Eight years from now, after Obama has successfully served two terms, that judgment may well look like a commonplace.”

Obama is “good and intelligent and decent.” But if you wonder about the Federal Reserve, and base your opinions of it on something other than its own press releases, you must be destroyed.


SOURCE:
http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/huffpo-...s-obama-great/

[LisaNY]

what is this guy the al sharpton of judiasm?

[HOLLYWOOD]

You know the Central Banksters weren't going to lie down and let the common folk expose the Fraud and Racketeering... did yah?

Very Powerful, Very coordinated attacks will be coming from every angle they possibly can conjure-up.

Look for MSM media to strike... finance groups, wealth groups, military industrial complex, political groups, religious groups, welfare groups, of course the prostitutes on Capital Hill, and anything related towards AIPAC/ISRAEL... they want to continue their gravy train of annual billions from America.

They will pull every dirty, filthy, nasty, trick to maintain the power and control.

[StilesBC]

Statists are getting desperate. They see libertarianism rising and replacing neoconservatism. It can't be ignored anymore (which was the first response), so they are resorting to trying to paint libertarianism as 1) far right wing 2) theocratic 3) anti-semitic 4) conspiracy theory or 5) the same as neocons (particularly useful to ward off any potential "left" converts).

The good thing is that misinformation is only temporarily effective. Truth eventually wins out.

You can only paint someone as a racist for so long. If their actions run counter to those claims, the accusation will eventually be seen as the slander that it is. It takes time for this process to work out, but it is complete when the slanderer is rightfully ignored and denied their soapbox - shunned as classless idiots.

[cindy25]

Bernanke is Jewish, as were most Fed chairmen, so they consider any attack on Bernakne to be anti-semitic

If Wyden was not Jewish he would be accused of it also, for going against Hollywood. and the blacks are the same way. any attack on Rangel is racist

[Anti Federalist]

How it ended up...

[Snowball]

It's not a theory when it's a fact, that the Fed was lobbied by Jews and is owned by Jews.

Anyway, what I find most ODD about the article is the mention of Viereck. He's rarely brought up. The author doesn't elaborate as to why he threw that name into the mix. There were much more recognizable figures he could have mentioned.

The most historically important and least understood role Viereck played was as the conduit between Nicola Tesla and the Nazi government.
I'll leave that one to your imagination, as I will the entire UFO coverup.

[unknown]

In for more info on this Viereck.