‘Is Gold Money?’: Ron Paul Grills Bernanke on Fed Policies

Congressman Ron Paul skewered Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday in a U.S. House Financial Services Committee Meeting amidst growing rumors that the Fed is turning on the money spigot for a third round of quantitative easing.

Rep. Paul opened the discussion with deep concerns about the future of the economy, stating his disbelief in forecasts of better times ahead. The congressman pointed out that the $5 trillion already injected into the U.S. economy through borrowing has been totally ineffective at improving the overall economic situation of Americans.

He went on to cite a few sobering statistics: on Obama's watch, the National Debt went up $5 trillion, average unemployment used to be 17 weeks -- now it's 40 weeks, and prices have gone up 9% every year. Paul also pointed out that if consumer spending were truly important to the economy,  the federal government could have given a check for $17,000 to every man, woman, and child in America for the cost of the $5 trillion debt increase.

If you want to watch the most combative part of the exchange, skip right to the 5:00 minute mark of the video below. Here is an abbreviated transcript of it:

Rep. Paul: Do you think Gold is Money?

Bernanke: No....

Rep. Paul: It's not money? Even if it was a precious metal for 6000 years somebody reversed that, eliminated that economic law?

Beranke: Well...it's an asset. Would you say treasury bills are money? I don't think they're money either.

Rep. Paul: Why do Central Banks hold it?

Bernanke: It's a form of reserves.

Rep. Paul: Why do central banks hold it? Why don't they hold diamonds?

Bernanke: Tradition, long term tradition...

Rep. Paul: Some People Still think it's money....