End the Fed, by Rep. Ron Paul (R, TX): on Free Trade

Ron Paul: Market can sort out mess created by central banks

We could not enter Afghanistan. But nearby there was a huge cave set up as an exchange post with goods as numerous as a giant department store's. Russian and Eastern goods were sold, as well as American ad other Western goods. It was peaceful under the earth. Here the people were permitted to trade and converse (authorities on both sides knew of the underground market) because it served the interests of both, while up above, the Cold War raged.

Governments & central banks mess things up, but the market, if it is permitted to operate, is capable of sorting out the mess even under duress. There will always be the underground, smugglers, and the black market, as long as we allow our governments to plunder and control us by making voluntary exchanges and associations illegal. It is government controls themselves that give us a rise to a black market.

Ron Paul: Inflation is regressive & results in protectionism

Inflating is never a benefit to freedom-loving people. It destroys prosperity; feeds the fires of war; & is responsible for recessions. It's deceptive & addictive, and causes delusions of grandeur. Wealth cannot be achieved by creating money by fiat.

Depending on monetary fraud for national prosperity or a reversal of our downward spiral is riskier than depending on the lottery.

Inflation has been used to pay for empires since ancient Rome. And they all end badly. Inflationism and corporatism engender protectionism and trade wars. They prompt scapegoating: blaming foreigners, illegal immigrants, ethnic minorities, and too often freedom itself for the predictable events and suffering that result