Currency competition

Ron Paul has a sign in his office that reads, "Don't steal - the government hates competition." Government is a monopolist, and one of the ways we've suffered from this monopoly is through its coercive control of money. Government dictates that money will be paper bank notes with no redeeming value and to give us a false assurance turns the production of paper money over to a central bank. The central bank, known as the Fed, falsely claims to be independent of political pressure and to be guided in its "policy" only by what is good for the economy. In return for this grant of privilege, the central bank sees to it that government remains flush with money to cover whatever project D.C. demagogues dream up - foreign war, health care, bailouts for their cronies. It does this by creating money out of nothing, much like a child would do playing make-believe. But when grown-ups do it, it's called counterfeiting. And counterfeiting is a form of theft.

Government counterfeiting usually works for awhile because of legal tender laws supporting government money. If someone offers it in payment of a debt, we cannot legally refuse it.

The monetary system we have now is built on the ignorance of the people and the deception of bankers and politicians who are aided and abetted by court intellectuals. It is a clever way for the government and bankers to steal, because most people don't understand - and don't care to understand - how it works. People are so used to playing monopoly under the auspices of the state they don't realize they could stop being suckers if the laws were different.

We could chose a sound money -- one that is not inflatable at the whim of twelve bureaucrats sitting around a table in a closed meeting. We could save this sound money and actually see it gain in value over the years. Without a handful of bureaucrats manipulating the supply of money, we could eliminate the trade cycle of boom and bust. We could control government spending because the Fed would no longer be able to print what government wants to cover its deficits. We would therefore have more control over our lives. We could have the beginnings of a free society.

Ron Paul understands all this (and much more). That's why he issued a statement introducing the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2009.