by Ron Paul

This past week there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the continuing war in Afghanistan. Lasting twice as long as World War II and with no end in sight, the war in Afghanistan has been one of the longest conflicts in which our country has ever been involved. The situation has only gotten worse with recent escalations.

The current debate is focused entirely on the question of troop levels. How many more troops should be sent over in order to pursue the war? The administration has already approved an additional 21,000 American service men and women to be deployed by November, which will increase our troop levels to 68,000. Will another 40,000 do the job? Or should we eventually build up the levels to 100,000 in addition to that? Why not 500,000 – just to be “safe”? And how will public support be brought back around to supporting this war again when 58 percent are now against it? Continue reading →

by Ron Paul

What if tomorrow morning you woke up to headlines that yet another Chinese drone bombing on US soil killed several dozen ranchers in a rural community while they were sleeping? That a drone aircraft had come across the Canadian border in the middle of the night and carried out the latest of many attacks?

What if it was claimed that many of the victims harbored anti-Chinese sentiments, but most of the dead were innocent women and children? And what if the Chinese administration, in an effort to improve its public image in the US, had approved an aid package to send funds to help with American roads and schools and promote Chinese values here? Continue reading →

Some fantastic commentary on the economy, foreign policy, empire, and more. Watch it:

This February, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 to audit the FED. When I first reported on it in March, privately I was quite ecstatic that there were 11 co-sponsors, and three were Democrats. Why? Continue reading →

The People’s Republic of China announced a rise in its official holdings from 600 metric tons to 1,054 tons, making the country the world’s #5 holder of gold reserves.  The 600 metric ton level had remained constant since 2003. While a rise of 454 tons sounds like a lot, at $900 USD per troy ounce, this is “only” $13 billion.

The United States has reported the largest reserves – over 8,100 tons, but GATA (the Gold Anti-Trust Committee) reports these holdings may not exist as they are strangely reported as “Deep Storage Gold.”  Continue reading →

The best way to fight violent drug cartels would be to pull the rug out from under their profits by bringing these transactions out into the sunlight.  People who, unwisely, buy drugs would hardly opt for the back alley criminal dealer as a source, if a coffeehouse-style dispensary was an option.   FULL ARTICLE

We ought to be spending our time and effort doing something more worthwhile, like figuring out how the Federal Reserve is handling the trillions of dollars they are creating and pumping into the economy, and how that is affecting the purchasing power of dollars in your pocket. FULL ARTICLE

Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian.  Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles.  Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.” FULL ARTICLE

Ron Paul [R-TX] on February 26, 2009 introduced HR 1207, a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. For those who are not aware, the Federal Reserve is America’s quasi-private central bank and is currently not audited in any form or fashion that could be construed as meaningful or effective.

In the short 446-word bill found here, Representative Paul outlays the plan to enable the Comptroller General of the GAO (Government Accountability Office) to audit the Federal Reserve system before the end of 2010.  Per the Federal Reserve, “Monetary policy is exempt from audit by the Government Accountability Office.” - (page 15/146)  This audit should also include an audit of the Federal Reserve’s gold holdings. Continue reading →

The Fed is now pledging to reveal to the public more about its economic predictions, and calls this greater transparency.  This is little more than window-dressing, at best, utterly useless at worst.  Many analysts, especially those familiar with the Austrian school of economics, saw the current economic crisis coming years ago when the Federal Reserve was still telling the American people their policies were as good as gold.   FULL ARTICLE