Exchange following prepared remarks in the House Financial Services Committee, February 11, 2004.
Dr. Ron Paul: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Welcome Chairman Greenspan. I want to call attention to the committee that I certainly was pleased that you brought up the subject of deficits because deficits obviously do cause a problem. And you mentioned that deficits usually cause interest rates to go up. But, I also would like to suggest that deficits alone are not the problem because whether you borrow the money or tax the money out of the economy, it still puts pressure on the capital markets. So, deficits alone are not the problem. Big government, big spending – the amount that we spend here that really really counts.
But, you said that deficits could – future expectations of deficits could raise interest rates and I certainly would agree with that. But, we all must remember that future expectations of the inflation rate and future expectations of the value of the dollar also can raise interest rates. Those are monetary policy causes and therefore the pressure or the emphasis or the blame for high interest rates that will come can’t be put on the deficit alone and has to be put on those who manage monetary policy.
Also, you warned on page seven that the printing presses won’t run indefinitely. You use the word indefinitely and that’s good. Because if they do run this fast indefinitely, will all know what will and can happen. So that’s good that eventually you will turn the printing presses off. But, for now you said we can be patient and that means we’ll just let the money flow and see what happens. Which I think is a risky proposition. But, you mentioned the condition of protectionism. You’re worried about protectionism, which I think is characteristic of all societies that destroy their currency. Especially when you have fluctuating fiat currencies, people yield to the temptations of protectionism. But, once again, there are different ways of bringing about protectionism. There are the tariffs. But, there’s also the competitive devaluations in the exchange rate of the dollar which is a reflection of monetary policy. But, my question is related a little bit to the wording of ‘indefinitely’ and ‘being patient’ because they’re arbitrary. They’re subjective and in January, your report, FOMC report, omitted two words; two words that were subjective and that was ‘considerable period.’ I find that very interesting and also very alarming, the amount of clout, the amount of power that we as a nation, that we as a committee have allowed to get into the hands of one or two individuals, or a committee. From the time the market was up to the release of that report the stock market lost $250,000,000 as a reflection of the concern about the dropping of two words.
Frederick Hayek was fond of saying that the managed economy was in danger because it was based on a pretense of knowledge that certain things the economic planners don’t know. And, for instance, he would agree with me that we don’t know, you don’t know, the Congress doesn’t know what the overnight rates ought to be and that we reject the marketplace. But, its part of the system and I understand that. But, doesn’t it ever occur to you that maybe there’s too much power in the hands of those who control monetary policy? The power to create the financial bubbles. The power to maybe bring the bubble about. The power to change the value of the stock market within minutes. That to me is just an ominous power and challenges the whole concept of freedom and liberty and sound money.
Alan Greenspan: Congressman, as I’ve said to you before, the problem you are eluding to is called the conversion of a commodity standard to fiat money. We have statutorily gone onto a fiat money standard and as a consequence of that it is inevitable that the authority, which is the producer of the money supply, will have inordinate power. This is one of the reasons why I’ve indicated, because of that and because of the fact that we are unelected officials, it is mandatory that we be as transparent as we conceivably can and remember that we are accountable to the electorate and to the Congress. And the power that we have is all granted by you. We don’t have any capability whatsoever to do anything without the agreement or even the acquiescence of the Congress of the United States. We recognize that and one of the reasons I’m here today is to endeavor to convey why we are doing what we are doing, and I will continue to do that and I’m sure that all of my colleagues are fully aware of the responsibility that Congress has given us. I trust that we adhere to the principles of the Constitution of the United States more so than one would ordinarily do.
