Gold and Money

Slate has a good piece on Ron Paul: "We have not seen a lot of hearings on monetary policy from the monetary policy subcommittee," notes Mark Calabria, the director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. "To a certain extent, a lot of members of Congress don't want to bother with the topic. The way I see it, Paul will attempt a public-information campaign. It is not going to be the end of the world for the Fed" (page 3).

It reminds me of that line of John Adams's that Ezra Pound was so fond of quoting. "All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." I think Ron Paul is working in that tradition. Like Pound, he believes that that ignorance is the real enemy (SP, p. 314).