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Five things Ron Paul wants from the Republican National Convention

It looks as if Ron Paul is going to be an active participant in the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August.  Here’s our take on the five things Paul hopes to gain from staying within his party’s tent in 2012.

3. Paul wants to irritate Ben Bernanke

Richard Clement/Reuters/File
Rep. Ron Paul (R) of Texas questions Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Feb. 24, 2010.

  • By Peter Grier Staff writer

The Federal Reserve has long been one of Paul’s favorite targets. He insists that the nation’s central bank is not an engine of American economic development, as many economists believe, but a massive Ponzi scheme that “creates money out of thin air, manipulates interest rates, and interferes with the free market,” according to the Paul campaign website.

As a House Financial Services subcommittee chairman, Paul has had occasion to spar over these issues with Fed chief Mr. Bernanke. What he wants to do in August is bring his objections to the conventional wisdom on this issue to the Tampa GOP convention – specifically, to platform committee meetings.

Paul wants a platform plank on Fed transparency, according to his campaign. He has said that if elected president he would work for comprehensive audit legislation, so presumably that is what he’s talking about – a push to get the Fed to open up its books.

It’s possible he’ll get Romney to agree on this. In the course of the primary campaign Romney said he agreed that there is a need for greater transparency at the Fed. (He also said he wouldn’t reappoint Bernanke.) But the presumptive nominee is on record as opposing Paul’s longer-term goal of ending the Fed. He’s also said he does not think Congress should be in the business of micromanaging monetary policy.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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