If you're like the rest of us, you've experienced some of the negative effects of the recent economic downturn. You might have seen your retirement fund depreciate or your business lose customers. But have you really stopped to think about what could have caused this kind of economic collapse in the first place?
U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) has thought about it. Congressman Ron Paul and the Economic collapse have become frequent topics of conversation across political blogs and news channels that are trying to make sense of this mess. Ron Paul says the answer is simple: the United States has too much government.
Rather than buying out banks to prop them up (as part of an economic "bailout"), Paul advocates that we should instead let the bad banks fail. Paul is also an avid defender of the gold standard of currency, in which our money is backed by physical gold and can be exchanged for it. Also a strong critic of the Federal Reserve, Ron Paul's hope is that the United States can stop trying so hard to regulate and "fix" our problems, and instead simply get out of the way and let American innovation and hard work fix our problems.
Coupled with the economic collapse is the soaring deficit and debt that the U.S. federal government is facing every year. If you're an advocate of small government, you hate to see how large our deficits have become, as well as bills coming out of Congress that frequently have 12 or even 13-digit price tags.
If that's how you feel, Congressman Ron Paul is with you.
If this is news to you, then the financial education system has failed you.
Have you heard of the Federal reserve? Did you know that it's essentially a private operation loosely regulated by the Federal government? Do you know that the U.S. has been off of the gold standard since the early 1970's, and that our money is essentially only worth anything because the U.S. government says so?
If so, you have a lot to learn about how our government and our economy sometimes go together like oil and water. Most of the time, they don't mix.
