Bloomberg reviews End the Fed:
Can the Fed be fixed? Don’t bother, writes U.S. Congressman Ron Paul in “End the Fed,” a blistering libertarian broadside from a firm believer in Austrian economics.
Paul, a Republican from Texas, wants to abolish the Fed, freeze the money stock, and reintroduce a gold standard. His book lays out his arguments in blunt rhetoric pitched to the surly mood of an understandably disillusioned electorate. He attributes his title to a catchphrase he heard University of Michigan students chanting in October 2007.
“All around the country, people are gathering outside Federal Reserve buildings to protest against the power, secrecy and operations of the Fed, and chanting this great slogan,” he writes. “Their goal is not reform but revolution.”
Many of Paul’s assertions ring true. Inflation amounts to taxation, he says. Correct. Central bankers are central economic planners, he asserts. Absolutely. Wall Street likes “privatized profits and socialized losses.” No surprise there. He’s right, yet draws the wrong conclusions.
The review further criticizes Paul and cites the Panic of 1907. And yet Paul addresses this incident in some detail. This is not a work of science, such as Murray Rothbard wrote, but it is historically informed, economically sophisticated, and erudite in chapter after chapter. Ron Paul knows his stuff and it is on display here. Neither did I find it to be blistering or over-the-top in rhetoric. It is calm and explanatory, just as the author is in person. And highest praise goes to the sections of transcripts of his discussions with Fed governors over the years.
