Statements by Ron Paul: is he a quack?

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He and dennis kucinich would destroy america in the service of ideas.

I would like to see these stupid wars and us policing the world end. Like this insanity in Libya. I was interested in Ron Paul in 2008, but I will also be listening to Gary Johnson for 2012.

What I was hoping to do was to examine and evaluate Mr. Paul's individual points.

Let's start with

I don't know quite what he is saying. "There is nothing wrong without setting a goal of 5, 10, or 15 percent."

Which, I guess, suggests that he sees something wrong with setting a goal of 5-15 percent.

What do y'all think? Is there something wrong with setting a goal of 5-15 percent?

He might be right here--setting a goal that high would probably lead to inflation.

Well, there's that, and there's the question of exactly where this supposed free market economy is.

Okay, next point.

70 years ago would be 1941--the start of US participation in World War II.

Did a "Keynesian bubble" start "winding up" during that year?

And, how is he going to "unwind" it?

Some insights, or even spam, from Mr. Paul's supporters would be most welcome.

No, he has read the works of economists such as Mises and Hayek.

He only sounds like a 'quack' if you have never studied or simply don't understand Austrian economics.

If you've ever debated a supporter of Keynesian economics you know the point they will bring up the most is how government spending during WW2 "ended the depression". Yes, this is basically when the Keynesian craze began.

If you want a standard Austrian refutation, here's one (in a pleasant rap format):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc&t=3m6s

it is funny to see the economics world as a struggle between Keynesian and Austrian school.
I think there may be a couple of elephants in the room that might have a take on things.

But, that is what happened. Do the so-called "Austrians" want to go back to the great times of the Great Depression?

Recent Government spending, by Bush and Obama, seems to have kept us from repeating the depression.

When the depression was going full swing, Hoover cut spending, raised taxes and import duties, tried diligently to balance the budget, and things just got more higgledy-piggledy.

Funny this thread pops up when I take a leave of absence. I no longer have access to the internet for the time being so I can't really participate in much of a discussion.

But Panda if you want a good basic book to read about Austrian economics, read F.A. Hayek's The Road To Serfdom. You can find it at pretty much any book store and its only a little over 200 pages iirc.

I don't understand why you so called "progressives" or whatever term they're using days are so spiteful of Dr. Paul but I suspect it's fear. If you're really for ending these wars and America's imperial foreign policy, you'd support Ron Paul. If support ending the evil drug war that imprisons something like 500,000 non violent offenders(the highest incarceration rate in the world), you'd support Ron Paul. If you're concerned about our eroding civil liberties, well I think you catch my drift. You guys are probably the same folks that whine about Ralph Nader giving Bush the presidency as if Gore/Lieberman would of been any better.

What scares the corporatists that control both parties is that they can't pull the whole right/left bull**** on Paul since he can outflank them on all sides. Even Bill Maher, probably the biggest Obama cheerleader of the last 4 years, begrudgingly respects Ron Paul.

You guys need to do yourselves a favor and open your minds beyond just letter behind the names.

I'll be back sometime soon, hopefully by the end of June.

Is this is about how we shouldn't have social security and medicare? Because serfdom is not the same thing as social security and medicare.


No. I'm just trying to figure out what he's about. At a superficial level, he does seem smarter than the average Republican. I'm trying to delve a bit deeper.


The Iraq War was dumb, but invading Afghanistan seems to have been justifiable.


Well, I'm not especially in favor of people using illegal drugs, either.


I'm concerned about eroding medicare and social security.


Infinitely better.


The "Conservatives" like to throw around a lot of derogatory terms.


Well, good for him.


That's what we're trying to do. I was hoping that someone familiar with his views could help articulate them and defend them, so that we can have a decent debate.

one can not have a decent debate with another who is so closed-minded.

Whatever anyone thinks of him he's not going to win. He's saying the same Ron Paul things in the same Ron Paul way. We already saw that movie, he lost. If he's not trying to grow his share of voters, we're watching the same movie.

I'm not trying to debate whether he will win--only whether he is a quack.



I gather that Mr. Paul has no formal training in economics, and that he has read a few books that most Libertarians read. I confess that I haven't read the books, but the fact that he is spouting economics jargon, based on a couple of books written for Libertarians, would tend to suggest that he is a quack.

Well we could ask if any Republican running for president is a quack. All of these politicians have been a disaster.

Or is Obama a quack for starting yet another war?


But seriously maybe "Unwinding a Keynsian Bubble" is one way of saying we keep pushing off Recessions with government stimulus spending, or borrowing. We are still trying to do that now but we still see struggling markets such as housing and commercial property. Ron Paul considers this a forming "Bubble" that will burst and result in a devalued hyperinflated dollar. Then the world markets will abandon the dollar as the World Reserve currency and our status could sink even more.

So rather then feeding this Bubble by spending and borrowing Paul wants to Unwind it and reverse the trend. The downside is I do think this will require diving into a hard Recession, not stalling on it as we have been. The economy is trying to do that now and we keep stopping it.

However letting this correction happen might take roughly a year. More or less. Stopping these stupid wars and letting money and troops come home might help it take less time.

Or put more simply the way America is resisting the Recession is like a consumer on hard times paying all their bills with credit cards, including their credit card bill. Except with government they spend and we pay. The Keynsian Bubble is borrowing or printing money till the world rejects our Dollars.

Part of the idea of Keynesian economics is that governments run surpluses (collect more revenue than they spend) in good times, so that they will be able to spend during bad times. Republicans other than Mr. Paul think that the government should run deficits like crazy, no matter what. At least President Clinton was able temporarily to reverse the dangerous trends that Republicans want.


Without the massive government spending of World War II, we would probably still be in the Great Depression. It seems that he is just pining for the good old days of the Great Depression.


We'll be in a depression pretty quickly all right.


Specifically because of Republican profligacy.