The Final Showdown: Paul vs Bernanke

When Ron Paul announced his retirement from Congress last year, it brought a big smile to Ben Bernanke's face.  But even when Dr. Paul is long gone from Congress, his legacy will remain.  And that legacy is a movement that is not only awakened to the ideas of liberty, but that has collectively set its sights on exposing and ending The Federal Reserve System.  On the path to understanding liberty, it is inevitable that one will begin to wrap their heads around the folly of and destructiveness caused by central banking.  The Federal Reserve is the largest and most powerful central bank in the history of the world.Earlier today, Dr. Ron Paul had what will likely be the very last meeting on the House Financial Services Committee where he will be face-to-face with the current Federal Reserve Chairman - and grocery store patron - "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke.In Part 1, after some gracious words regarding his chairmanship of the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee from Barney Frank and others, Dr. Paul gives a quick summation of why he first ran for Congress in order to spread the ideas of sound money and the fallacy of a fiat currency system. In Part 2, Paul counters Bernanke's statement that the Fed is being "transparent" by discussing all the areas the GAO was not allowed to look into during the 2011 partial audit that revealed $16 trillion in secret bailouts, largely to foreign banks.  Paul gives Bernanke a lecture about how "it's the destruction of the currency that destroys the middle class".  Bernanke agrees that Congress has ultimate power to look into monetary policy if it so wishes, but of course advises against this as being "unwise" economic policy.  As usual, Bernanke continues to claim that all of the Fed's actions have been "necessary" to save the economy. In the final part, Congressman Walter Jones, one of the few Congressman to openly endorse Ron Paul in his 2012 Presidential Run, cedes his time so that Paul can further question Bernanke.  Dr. Paul goes on to question Bernanke's long held belief that the Federal Reserve needs to prevent "deflation" and that the Great Depression was the result of not enough inflation of the monetary supply.  Bernanke agrees with the premise, as Dr. Paul says that under his philosophy, he's done a great job by tripling the monetary base. He goes on to chastise the problem of using the government's CPI as a measure of inflation, when in reality the increase in the monetary base itself is the inflation.Dr. Paul has left behind not only a philosophical legacy by awakening millions of people to the ideas of liberty, but a political legacy as well both in the reshaping of the Republican Party, and in his efforts to audit the Federal Reserve.  His current "Audit The Fed" bill now has 271 co-sponsors in the House, has passed committee and will come up for a full vote later this month.  Unlike last year's audit, this bill would call for an audit of all of the Federal Reserve's holdings and actions, not limited merely to the TARP program.  Audit The Fed will face a much tougher time in the Senate and would likely never be signed by President Obama, but the massive political support for it will be hard for politicians to ignore for long.  Recent polls show that 75% of Americans support a full audit of the Federal Reserve.Four years ago, the privately owned and government mandated central bank wasn't even a topic of conversation.  Ron Paul has changed all of that, and it is only a matter of time before the disastrous effects of central banking become apparent to all.Ben Bernanke will likely never face the kind of in depth challenges to his philosophy in a public forum like this ever again. But the questions have already been asked, and they live forever.  Keep smiling for now Ben.  Dr. Paul's retirement may be imminent, but I expect that Bernanke's - and The Federal Reserve's - won't be far behind.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!