Language English Media type Print ISBN 978-0-446-54919-6 Originally published 16 September 2009 Publisher Grand Central Publishing Genres Politics, Economics | Publication date September 16, 2009 Pages 224 pp. OCLC 318878539 Country United States of America | |
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Preceded by The Revolution: A Manifesto Similar Ron Paul books, Federal Reserve System books, Economics books | ||
End the fed ron paul
End the Fed is a 2009 book by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. The book debuted at number six on the New York Times Best Seller list and advocates the abolition of the United States Federal Reserve System.
Contents
Summary
Paul argues that "in the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve."
In End the Fed, Ron Paul draws on American history, economics, and anecdotes from his own political life to argue that the Fed is both corrupt and unconstitutional. He states that the Federal Reserve System is inflating currency today at nearly a Weimar or Zimbabwe level, which Paul asserts is a practice that threatens to put the United States into an inflationary depression where the US dollar, which is the reserve currency of the world, would suffer severe devaluation.
A major theme throughout the work also revolves around the idea of inflation as a hidden tax making warfare much easier to wage. Because people will reject the notion of increasing direct taxes, inflation is then used to help service the overwhelming debts incurred through warfare. In turn the purchasing power of the masses is diminished, yet most people are unaware. Under Ron Paul's theory, this diminution has the biggest impact on low income individuals since it is a regressive tax. Paul argues that the CPI presently does not include food and energy, yet these are the items on which the majority of poor peoples' income is spent.
He further maintains that most people are not aware that the Fed—created (he asserts) by the Morgans and Rockefellers at a private club off the coast of Georgia—is actually working against their own personal interests. Instead of protecting the people, Paul contends that the Fed now serves as a cartel where "the name of the game is bailout"—or otherwise known as privatized profits but socialized losses.
Paul also draws on what he argues are historical links between the creation of central banks and war, explaining how inflation and devaluations have been used as war financing tools in the past by many governments from monarchies to democracies.
Critical reception
Charles Scaliger of The New American called the book a "must read." After an interview with Ron Paul about the book, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show called it "thought provoking" and "clearly from the heart".
James Pressley, writing for Bloomberg, took a critical view of the book's content, saying Paul was "right, yet draws the wrong conclusions".