Former Presidential candidate Ron Paul may no longer be in Congress, but he is still as passionate as ever about promoting solutions to government-driven economic woes caused by central bankers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Paul sat down for an interview at the CoinDesk’s Consensus 2019 in New York City in May where he discussed cryptocurrencies. Once a skeptic, Paul is warming up to crypto as an alternative to the fledgling U.S. dollar and other currency instruments controlled by central banks.
Former US Rep. Ron Paul at #Consensus2019 being interviewed by @Coindesk’s @pete_rizzo_ for a live stream. I love a guy who favors real money! #EndTheFed pic.twitter.com/Mjm4grTCZZ
— David G Zeiler ⚡️ (@DavidGZeiler) May 13, 2019
“The more monopolized a currency is the worse [off] it is, and this is what has happened, and this is how to expand a government,” Paul said. “You can’t expand the government without a system like the Federal Reserve.”
“The Federal Reserve is a total failure in its finances, whether it’s social welfare, military welfare or corporate welfare,” he added. “We are flat out broke. We’ve been broke for a long time.”
Despite being a leading gold bug, Paul does not want gold to be imposed as the monetary unit for the U.S. and other nations. He wants currency competition and believes cryptocurrencies are an integral part of that competition.
“I think that’s what freedom is all about,” he said. “You call it marketing. I call it a competition of ideas and sometimes marketing comes without crowds getting together and sharing intelligence. There is always marketing by people by word of mouth. How do you think they are surviving in Venezuela? Who knows – they might even have Bitcoin in Venezuela. You know, they make their choices.”
However, Paul warns of meddling from powerful government and banking institutions that will continue hurting cryptocurrencies to maintain their stranglehold on power.
“Detail-wise I don’t know what they are doing yesterday, today but I do know that they are watching,” Paul said. “They are always watching because If you look at monetary history, governments always want and work for monopoly control of the monetary system, whether is gold, silver or peanut. And they’ll not give cryptocurrencies free ride.”
“I want people to come to this kind of conferences and have the opportunity to develop alternative means,” Paul said.
He hopes that the exchange of ideas and the proliferation of technology can help stave off economic disaster as the Federal Reserve’s policies inevitably come crashing down.
“It is likely that the next Fed-created recession will come sooner rather than later,” Paul said last October. “This could be the major catastrophe that leads to the end of fiat currency.”
Paul added: “This can create an illusion of prosperity. Eventually, reality catches up to the Federal Reserve-created fantasies. When that happens, there is a recession or worse, leading the Fed to start the whole boom-and-bust cycle over again.”
While this reality of economic despair may seem inevitable, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have emerged through the marketplace to give individuals a lifeline out of the government-controlled economic paradigm based on debt and death.
