Ron Paul's book "End the Fed"

I’m considering getting it, but honestly, I have some serious reservations about the book. Fair warning here: I’ve NOT read the book. However, I’ve spent months reading mises.org and getting quite familiar with their ideas so I think I probably know more than people who aren’t Ron Paul followers do about what Ron Paul believes.

You see, I agree with the premise that ultimately, we don’t need the Fed to regulate our economy. After all, from 1776 through 1913, this nation did NOT have the Federal Reserve. The Fed was around when the Great Depression happened, so there is no basis by which you can claim that the Fed calms or normalizes the economic cycles. However, I’m not sure that the Fed makes the cycles worse. I see the point to the argument, but I believe that Fed or no, people will ALWAYS find ways to bid things out of proportion. Take the Tulipomania was done without the Fed (but I guess there could have been a replica of the Fed involved?). The Fed also didn’t stop the economic Panic of 1873, which lasted 4 years.

But those are not the reservations I have. My whole reservation lies in why this book even became popular in the first place. I think if anything, liberals probably should read the book, and TRY their hardest to try to get an understanding of how conservatives are feeling at this time and age. But do keep in mind that not all conservatives agree 100% with Ron Paul. Ironically, I think that the conservatives are probably the LAST people who should be reading this book.

Why am I saying this? I really wish I had a simple answer to explain my reasoning, but, unfortunately some thoughts do not translate to words very well. I’ll try. What I’m seeing:

1. In conservatives, the book is probaby prone to firing up their hatred or opposition to the current administration. I don’t care what your reasoning is, the God placed leaders over you. You are supposed to honor, and submit to those who are placed over you in authority even if you disagree with their ideas. Yes, if the government ask you to do something that violates God’s law, then of course you obey God in those situations. However, in cases where there is no violation of God’s laws, we are called to submit to authority. The fact that this book, or even worse — Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” has became so popular indicates that lot of conservatives have no intention of following this inconvenient principle that is written in the bible! I don’t know about you, but if you are Christian out there, are you willing to put the bible above politics?

2. As for those liberals who align themselves with Obama, here is what I’m seeing, and why I think it *might* (in a qualified way) be beneficial is because, like it or not, lot of conservatives are reading it. If you want to respect your fellow countrymen, and try to bridge gap between people, I think it pays to learn a bit about how they are thinking. I’d also bet that you would find lot of similarities in their rhetoric as what was seen coming from liberals in the anti-Bush days. It’s all the same basic story “my idea is the only way, nothing else will work!” If you don’t like some of their rhetoric, think back to how you were portraying Bush. I saw way too many “Bush sucks” among friends on facebook. That doesn’t help us move forward one bit since, apparently, nobody was willing to set aside some of their ideas in order to figure out real solutions that works.

There was also lots of intellectual dishonesty going on in which lot of people tend to dismiss all evidences to the contrary of their views, while accepting those that support their views. Here is one big example: lot of people voted for Obama with the thought that on January 20, 2009, everything will change! All of sudden, everything will be better. Get real people, that is intellectually dishonest, but it is all too typical of today’s world. I don’t mean to pick on liberals here — almost everyone is making this same mistake. You see it in businesses — there is a tendency to underestimate how long a project would take, leading to missed deadlines (sometimes by months or years). A crisis brought about by overconfidence or being overly optimistic of your own ideas and overly pessimistic, or even disdainful of other’s ideas.