Category Archives: Ron Paul

By Mark Thornton

Paul Krugman attacked Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, and "honest money" and also took a shot at Austrian economists on his blog recently. He called honest money a "Ron Paul dog whistle" and then went on to query Austrian economists on their position on money-market mutual funds (MMMF). He doesn't expect a serious answer.

How do the Austrians propose dealing with money market funds? I mean, it has always been a peculiarity of that school of thought that it praises markets and opposes government intervention but that at the same time it demands that the government step in to prevent the free market from providing a certain kind of financial service. As I understand it, the intellectual trick here is to convince oneself that fractional reserve banking, in which banks don't keep 100 percent of deposits in a vault, is somehow an artificial creation of the government. This is historically wrong, but maybe the actual history of banking is deep enough in the past for that wrongness to get missed.

But consider a more recent innovation: money market funds. Such funds are just a particular type of mutual fund and surely the Austrians don't want to ban financial intermediation (or do they?). Yet shares in a MMF are very clearly a form of money you can even write checks on them created out of thin air by financial institutions, with very few pieces of green paper behind them.

So are such funds illegitimate?

In the Austrian view MMMF are not technically money and so deposit holders do not hold full reserves, but rather invest those deposits in short-term commercial paper. MMMF can lose value and owners may get back less than they deposited without the deposit holder going bankrupt. Technically they are not instantly redeemable and are not a final means of payment.

According to Joseph Salerno,

Although MMMF share accounts at first glance look like MMDAs [money-market deposit accounts], they are clearly excludable from the TMS [true money supply], because they are neither instantly redeemable, par value claims to cash, nor final means of payment in exchange. This requires a brief explanation of the nature of MMMFs.

Each MMMF share represents a claim to a pro rata share of a managed investment portfolio containing short-term financial assets, such as high-grade commercial paper, certificates of deposit, and U.S. Treasury notes. Although the value of a share is nominally fixed, usually, at one dollar, the total number of shares owned by an investor (abstracting from reinvested dividends) fluctuates according to market conditions affecting the overall value of the fund's portfolio. Under extreme circumstances, such as a stratospheric rise in short-term interest rates or the bankruptcy of a corporation whose paper the fund has heavily invested in, the fund's investors may well suffer a capital loss in the form of an actual reduction of the number of fixed-value shares they own. Unlike a check drawn on a demand deposit or MMDA, therefore, an MMMF draft does not simply represent a direct transfer of current claims to currency, but a dual order to the fund's manager to sell a specified portion of the shareowner's asset holdings and then to transfer the monetary proceeds to a third party named on the check. Note that the payment process is not finally completed until the payee receives money, typically in the form of a credit to his demand deposit. (Austrian Economics Newsletter 6.4)

No Paul, we do not want to ban MMMF.

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Krugman's MMMF Question

03-10-2012 20:06 Click to Tweet: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) discusses who he and his supporters will be voting for and what Romney could do to sway his vote. October 3, 2012 My Channel: Fair Use Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material. This material is made available for educational, research, and news reporting purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 USC section 107 of the US Copyright Law which allows citizens to reproduce, distribute or exhibit portions of copyright motion pictures, video tapes, or video disks under certain circumstances without authorization of the copyright holder.

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Ron Paul Gives His Pre-Debate Analysis - CNBC 10/03/2012 - Video

02-10-2012 14:51 Mitt Romney goes toe to toe versus his GOP rivals Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. Who will be the nominee? Created by Taige Jensen and Andrew Bouvé Additional Art - Emily Calderone Music - Ron Paul's Body - Molly Camp Executive Producer - Bill Smee Filmed at Russel Brothers Studio

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Political Kombat '12: Romney Vs. Gingrich and Ron Paul - Video

One word to describe the 2011-2012 academic year: change. Students have seen the beginning of outsourcing at the University level, rallied with GOP candidate Ron Paul, dodged traffic cones around construction on Wellborn Road and taken a nap in a newly renovated Memorial Student Center.

Construction

From building face-lifts to road construction projects on and around the Texas A&M campus, this year has been privy to construction.

There were five construction projects that characterized the year: the Wellborn Road Grade Separation Project, the College of Veterinary Medicine Building, the new Liberal Arts & Humanities Building and two recently completed projects, the Memorial Student Center and Blue Bell Park.

The $34 million Wellborn Road Grade Separation Project that has forced Wellborn traffic into a daily bottleneck started Nov. 11 and is scheduled to be finished August 2013.

The purpose of the project is to eliminate the hazards of crossing the tracks and Wellborn Road by local University vehicular traffic and pedestrians, said Bill Scott, construction project manager for the A&M System. [It] will consist of two underpasses running parallel and adjacent to the existing Old Main Drive.

On Dec. 16, 2010, the University broke ground on a new Liberal Arts & Humanities Building.

Its nice that A&M is expanding for liberal arts, when it is usually known as a science and engineering University, said Adriana Gramsas, sophomore psychology major.

The Olsen Field project was a planned strategy for the renovation of the Texas A&M baseball facilities. Olsen Field served Texas A&M baseball for the past 31 years. The new baseball facility was named Blue Bell Park after Texas A&M former students and Blue Bell creameries pledged a $7 million gift to the 12th Man Foundations Championship Vision capital campaign for the renovation and expansion of Olsen Field.

Parker Ray, pitcher for the Aggie baseball team and junior sports management major, said Blue Bell Park is the best facility in the country.

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Year of changes

04-10-2012 18:57 - Please like, share, subscribe & comment! Facebook Backup YouTube channel: Email updates: 9 Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy. To spread the message, visit and promote the following websites: (grassroots website) http (Ron Paul in Congress) (discussion forum) Disclaimer This video is not-for-profit clip that is uploaded for the purpose of education, teaching, and research, which falls under fair use according to the Copyright Act of 1976 and tips the balance in favor of fair use; all intellectual content within the video remains property of its respective owners.

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Ron Paul: The Campaign Continues! We Must Stop the Enemies of Liberty! - Video

04-10-2012 19:16 -Please like, share, subscribe & comment! Facebook Backup YouTube channel: Email updates: 10 Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy. To spread the message, visit and promote the following websites: (grassroots website) http (Ron Paul in Congress) (discussion forum) Disclaimer This video is not-for-profit clip that is uploaded for the purpose of education, teaching, and research, which falls under fair use according to the Copyright Act of 1976 and tips the balance in favor of fair use; all intellectual content within the video remains property of its respective owners.

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Ron Paul: I Haven't Decided Yet Who I'll Be Voting For - Video

05-10-2012 09:04 This is the debate the American people deserve to see: A debate between Bankster Puppet Obama and Independent Truth Telling Patriot Ron Paul. -Please like, share, subscribe & comment! Facebook Backup YouTube channel: Email updates: 10 Thanks to for the video. Original video here: Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy. To spread the message, visit and promote the following websites: (grassroots website) http (Ron Paul in Congress) (discussion forum) Disclaimer This video is not-for-profit clip that is uploaded for the purpose of education, teaching, and research, which falls under fair use according to the Copyright Act of 1976 and tips the balance in favor of fair use; all intellectual content within the video remains property of its respective owners.

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The Real Debate: Obama vs. Ron Paul - Video

04-10-2012 14:30 -Please like, share, subscribe & comment! Facebook Backup YouTube channel: Email updates: 10 Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy. To spread the message, visit and promote the following websites: (grassroots website) http (Ron Paul in Congress) (discussion forum) Disclaimer This video is not-for-profit clip that is uploaded for the purpose of education, teaching, and research, which falls under fair use according to the Copyright Act of 1976 and tips the balance in favor of fair use; all intellectual content within the video remains property of its respective owners.

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Ron Paul: I Don't Think Romney Will Have an Epiphany - Video

03-10-2012 20:11 -Please like, share, subscribe & comment! Facebook Backup YouTube channel: Email updates: 10 Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-America foreign policy. To spread the message, visit and promote the following websites: (grassroots website) http (official campaign) (Ron Paul in Congress) (grassroots site) http (discussion forum) (latest Ron Paul videos) Disclaimer This video is not-for-profit clip that is uploaded for the purpose of education, teaching, and research, which falls under fair use according to the Copyright Act of 1976 and tips the balance in favor of fair use; all intellectual content within the video remains property of its respective owners.

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Ron Paul: Why Governments Hate Gold and Love Fiat Money - Video

With Rep. Ron Paul's, R-Texas, latest and final quest for the presidency now history, his small but committed group of supporters are now mulling what to do now. Some are contemplating writing his name in as a protest vote.

Others maintain that writing in Paul would do little but make the re-election of President Barack Obama more possible, something the libertarian-leaning Paul supporters would seem to loath to do.

Paul himself has not publically commented about a potential write-in campaign.

Write in Ron Paul

In an article in the Hartford Courant, Howard Landis makes the case for writing in Paul's name. He does this by ticking off the positions of both Mitt Romney and Obama in three key areas.

The economic policies, states Landis, of Barack Obama has been abysmal, with the excessive spending, high taxes, and over regulations. By implication, Romney, while not perfect, would be far better on economic policy than Obama.

Landis favors the foreign policy of Obama over that Romney. It seems that Romney would take a more active role in world affairs, attempting to influence events, something that is anathema to a Paul supporter.

On social policies, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, both Romney and Obama get good marks on not being active in pushing those issues. However, the high incarceration rate of people Landis believes have "harmed no one" concerns him and neither candidate will address the issue.

So, the upshot, is that since both Obama and Romney have the correct view on only one issue, Landis will write in Paul's name.

Do not write in Ron Paul

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Ron Paul Supporters Contemplate a Write-in Campaign