Ron Paul Q&A: Audit the Fed, Then End It

By Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal

For three decades, Rep. Ron Paul has waged a lonely battle in Congress
to abolish the Federal Reserve. But he has more foot soldiers across the
nation today, particularly after the financial crisis, who are leading
the drive for wider congressional audits of the central bank. (See
today’s Journal story for more on their movement.)

In his new book — “ End the Fed” — released today, Rep. Paul walks
through his critique of the central bank and lays out a strategy
(briefly) for eliminating it. We sat down with the congressman to hear
his views on a money system backed by gold, the Fed’s challenge of
withdrawing its stimulus and his legislation to audit the central bank.
Excerpts of the interview:

What would a world without the Fed look like?

You’d go back to the day that if you wanted to borrow money to build a
house, somebody would’ve had to save some money. You wouldn’t have zero
savings and all the credit in the world. That’s just a total distortion
of capitalism. Capital comes from savings. The part you don’t use for
everyday living which you have left over, you reinvest and you save or
you loan it out. We were living with something absolutely bizarre that
had nothing to do with capitalism. We had no savings whatsoever yet
there was all the credit in the world.

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