Change We Can Believe In Is All Around Us - WSJ.com

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As a result, it is probably true that when voters listen to talk about change, what they really hear are promises of "no change," which would be a huge difference from the status quo. They just want things "the way they were."...

The populists didn't like the gold standard and demanded more government regulation.

In 1913, the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM was created and the INCOME TAX was introduced to pay for a growing government. And then, during the Great Depression – which was caused by the new Fed, trade protectionism and tax rate increases – a massive expansion in government took place. Forty years later, in the malaise of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. finally figured out what it was doing wrong. By returning to hard money under Paul Volcker, and lower taxes and less regulation under Ronald Reagan, the high-tech leg of the Industrial Revolution began...


In contrast to what some people seem to believe, having the government take over the health-care system is NOT CHANGE. It's just a culmination of previous moves by government. And the areas with the worst problems today are areas that have the most government interference – education, health care and energy.

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Education, healthcare, and energy... what do you think of the government's attempt at a Triple Crown or hat-trick?

For or against?

Neither Obama or McCain, is calling for abolishing of the IRS. The only two candidates that were even tinkering with the idea was Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. Obama and McCain are both for government intervention depending on the purpose of the campaigned topic of the day. Obama more on economics and McCain concerning your privacy. Democrats want to tax the upper wealthy more and the corporations in return will downsize so that execs hang onto their precious six and seven figure bonuses. McCain will try to champion another failed trickle down economic policy that ends up urinating on the middle and lower class. Not very pretty either way, but I'm voting for the Democrat. The Democrats at least are not hiding their penchant for spending or the expansion of government when they think it will help.

The federal reserve taxes us so the politicians don't have to. Inflation is a tax and we are being taxed to death this very moment. They won't allow any president that will abolish the income tax, let alone the federal reserve, be elected. The dems may win this round and they are known for raising "real" taxes, and they will. In the mean time, inflation, or the inflation tax, will be allowed to deflate. Either way, you pay. It's all a giant ponzi scheme that will never end, with the private bankers that own the private corporation know as the federal reserve raking it in.
If the US dollar were backed by anything of real value, our government would not have a blank check. Just how much could the crooks steal if that were the case?
Which brings me to the real point of it all. The dollar really is valueless. It is just an illusion perpetuated by the people that need to control. The rest of the world has figured that out and that is the real problem, which will only get worse in the coming years.
$800 BILLION trade deficit. $9.2 TRILLION debt. Sorry folks but you may be evicted soon.

Compared to those figures, the only thing Obama has is change... chump change!

It doesn't matter who you vote for or who they elect. It will never turn around. It really is too late.

Just to dispute one of the points of the paste ; The Great Depression was almost completely caused by the protectionist policies that were created BEFORE the crash of 1929 . Monday, October 28,the day before the crash , the New York Slimes ran a front-page story on possible passage of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs .

It is a ludicrous idea to think that a modern nation can have a currency without a central banking system. It did not work before the Fed . Bank panics and Depressions were frequent events. Alexander Hamilton understood that during the countries infancy. The founders also understood this and put in the Constitution the "necessary and proper clause" enabling Congress to pass laws they deemed necessary for issues that although not enumerated are implied. One of the earliest SCOTUS cases decided by the Marshall court was McCulloch v. Maryland which upheld the constitutionality of a central bank.

When Andrew Jackson let the charter for the national bank expire there was semi-chaos to actual chaos in the American banking system until the creation of the Fed.

The Fed's Governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate so it is a stretch to say that they are independent of the government .

Also the stability of a gold standard is a myth . Had the government not been on the gold standard they could've expanded the money supply to encourage business growth and help end the Great Depression sooner(it did not end until the business expansion of the buildup to WWII).The expansion of the government by Roosevelt did nothing to end the Great Depression.

Gold values are not immune to cyclical fluctuations in value either .Despite the rhetoric we had inflation and deflationary periods in the currency values prior to the 20th century.

Yes Volker supported a strong dollar . It was a fiat dollar ;not a dollar based on gold . The political will for a strong currency has to be there. Volker would not have been able to bring down inflation without the support of the Reagan Treasury .

Governments are poor managers of industry . The Healthcare industry would be no exception.

That is Federal Reserve propaganda tom... and you really do know it. There is a better system in which the debt to the private bankers does not exist. The debt on the interest for the task of issuing the currency is paid back into the system that issues it. Cut out the middle man and keep it in our economy. What you refuse to address is the fact that not one penny of our federal tax goes back into America. It goes to profit foreign bankers. Any way you try to color it tom, we are getting ripped off. I know you NeoCons are all for grabbing what you can and heading for the gate but, most of us are tired of it. Time for a big change tom as you can see by the amount of debt we owe. Does the 10 Trillion dollar debt we owe to private bankers not arouse your interest tom? Does the billions in trade deficit not give you a clue that the federal reserve system has failed us tom? Oh, that's right, you are voting for McSame... never mind tom.

By the way tom, you can bet that your beloved private bankers are on the other side of the deficit, profiting from our down fall. I'll bet you my favorite 57 Strat against a jelly donut they are. They always do. That is the system as we know it today tom.

The Fed is a private entity much like the Post Office and NASA are. But no one would sit there and try to make a claim that they are working outside the interests of the government .It operates per it's charter and laws set by Congress. It is overseen by Congress. Those debts that you cite are the sole fault of Congress.

Is that why congress can't audit them. Come on now tom. You still think congress has any teeth? Congress is the store front for a bankrupt enterprise. Congress is so corrupt they might be pick pocketing each other.

Without a central bank ,how would you manage the national currency... or do you think that is a 10th amendment State right and 50 different currencies should be printed ? Or perhaps you would prefer each private banking interest distributing it's own species ? Yes bankers run the central bank . Of course they do . Who else would you chose to manage a bank ?
I can't argue with your point about Congress . Pehaps knowing their weakness Congress set up the reserve to have a degree of independence from political influence.

I have seen some good plans that may work. Much too much to go into here but I can tell you this, the first thing we must do is abolish the current system and take it out of the private bankers hands. Turn it over to the U.S. Department of Treasury and let them issue the one, and only United States Currency.
There is nothing wrong with charging interest, if we charge ourselves interest and pay ourselves back that interest. There is nothing wrong with a "reasonable income tax if that money is going to the United States of America, to be used for the betterment of the United States of America.
As it stands now, that is not the case. Because that is not the case, we are in debt that we can never, ever, ever pay back. So what do we give in return to pay it off? More power to the federal reserve? Land? Labor? Gold? More Gold? Our Souls? Dollars? I think not. First of all, there are not that many dollars in the entire universe. Secondly, if there were that many dollars, they would suddenly be called toilet paper with pictures of dead presidents on it.
The federal reserve system has not served the people of these United States well. It has destroyed us. That is why I dislike every politician in Washington. They are cowards. John Wayne McCain may be a big war hero, but when it comes to restoring America back to the American people, he too will cower. Obama is clueless. When he realizes what he has become a part of, he will cower down to them also.
Ron Paul may not be perfect but he has the cahones to tell it like it is and take the ridicule for it. Ron Paul told American what is really going down but they can't understand it. So, let them eat cake.