Economists Testify on Federal Reserve Before House Committee Chaired by Ron Paul

By  •  Wednesday May 9, 2012 10:31 PM PDT  •  2 Comments

On May 8th, five economists, including our Research Fellow Peter Klein, appeared in testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Ron Paul. The panelists included two economists from the Austrian School, two Keynesians, and one monetarist:

  • Peter G. Klein, Research Fellow, The Independent Institute; Associate Professor of Applied Social Sciences and Director, McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, University of Missouri (Austrian)
  • James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government, University of Texas (Keynesian)
  • Jeffrey M. Herbener, Professor of Economics, Grove City College (Austrian)
  • Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution (Keynesian)
  • John B. Taylor, George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics, Hoover Institution; Raymond Professor of Economics, Stanford University (monetarist)

Here is Dr. Klein’s written testimony, “Federal Reserve Folly and the Great Recession,” and the full panel can viewed below:

For further information on the harmful effects of central banking, including the Federal Reserve, please see the following:

Depression, War, and Cold War: Challenging the Myths of Conflict and Prosperity, by Robert Higgs

Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts, by Vern P. McKinley

Money and the Nation State: The Financial Revolution, Government and the World Monetary System, edited by Kevin Dowd and Richard H. Timberlake, Jr.

Tags: Austrian School of economics, Bailouts, Budget and Tax Policy, Economics, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Europe, Federal Reserve, Free Market, Inflation, Money and Banking, Price control, Socialism, Taxation, The State, Unemployment, Video

2 Comment(s)

  1. This excellent video demonstrates, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the object of the Federal Reserve is to sidestep and go around any Constitutional restraints that financially prohibit the growth and functions of the Federal Government. Without the Federal Reserve (a private banking cartel that is neither Federal nor has a Reserve) the numerous wars and welfare state programs enacted over the last 100 years would have been fiscally impossible.

    libertarian jerry | May 10, 2012 | Reply

  2. I am reminded of Thomas Jefferson and his spot-on comments about banks. Although I am unable to quote the Gentleman verbatim the gist of it was if the people allow banks to control their money first by inflation and then by deflation, our Grandchildren will grow up paupers on the continent their forefathers died to conquer. If there is no agency or oversight that is adequate to control the Federal Reserve the system must not be allowed to continue to operate without the necessary controls either being put in place or the system must be dismantled and no longer allowed to function. That lesson should have been learned when the Atomic Energy Commission ran amuck with no oversight.

    Larry Ring | May 10, 2012 | Reply

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