Ron Paul | The Libertarian Institute

Our Fifty Year Inflationary Legacy

by Ron Paul | Aug 25, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles

This month marks fifty years since President Richard Nixon closed the “gold window” that had allowed foreign governments to exchange U.S. dollars for gold. Nixon’s action severed the last link between the dollar and gold, transforming the dollar into pure fiat currency. Since the “Nixon shock” of 1971, the dollar’s value—and the average American’s living standard—has continuously declined, while income inequality and the size, scope, and cost of government have risen. Since the beginning of this year, price inflation has increased much, and it could continue onward to exceed the 1970s-era...

The Political Prisoners of January 6th

by Ron Paul | Jul 29, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

The recent felony conviction and eight month prison sentence of January 6th protester Paul Hodgkins is an affront to any notion of justice. It is a political charge and a political verdict by a political court. Every American regardless of political persuasion should be terrified of a court system so beholden to politics instead of justice. We’ve seen this movie before and it does not end well. Worse than this miscarriage of justice is the despicable attempt by the prosecutor in the case to label Hodgkins – who has no criminal record and was accused of no violent crime—a “terrorist.” As...

Get Your Kids Out of State-Enforced ‘Critical Race Theory’ Curriculum

by Ron Paul | Jul 21, 2021 | Featured Articles

Parents across the country are fighting to stop government schools from indoctrinating their children with Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is a form of Marxism that focuses on the “oppression” of racial minorities. Central to Critical Race Theory is the belief that free markets are a tool of racial oppression that must be abolished and replaced with socialism. This is dangerous nonsense. History shows that governments, not free markets, are and always have been the instruments of racial oppression. For example, legislators passed Jim Crow laws because private businesses refused to...

Like Vietnam, the War in Afghanistan Shows the Disasters of Interventionism

by Ron Paul | Jul 9, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The end of the 20-year U.S. war on Afghanistan was predictable: no one has conquered Afghanistan, and Washington was as foolish as Moscow in the 1970s for trying. Now, U.S. troops are rushing out of the country as fast as they can, having just evacuated the symbol of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, Bagram Air Base. While perhaps not as dramatic as the “Fall of Saigon” in 1975, where U.S. military helicopters scrambled to evacuate personnel from the roof of the U.S. Embassy, the lesson remains the same and remains unlearned: attempting to occupy, control, and remake a foreign country into...

Will the United Kingdom Trip Us Into a War with Russia?

by Ron Paul | Jul 8, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Less than two weeks after NATO members reaffirmed allegiance to Article 5—that an attack on one member was an attack on all members—the UK nearly put that pledge to the test. In a shockingly provocative move, the UK’s HMS Defender purposely sailed into Crimean territorial waters on its way to Georgia. Press reports suggest that there was a dispute between the UK defense and foreign ministries over whether to violate Russia’s claimed territorial waters with a heavily armed warship. According to reports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself jumped in to over-rule the more cautious Foreign...

The Military-Industrial Complex Has a Vote in War Too

by Ron Paul | May 5, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Even if “won,” endless wars like our 20 year assault on Afghanistan would not benefit our actual national interest in the slightest. So why do these wars continue endlessly? Because they are so profitable to powerful and well-connected special interests. In fact, the worst news possible for the Beltway military contractor/think tank complex would be that the United States actually won a war. That would signal the end of the welfare-for-the-rich gravy train. In contrast to the end of declared wars, like World War II when the entire country rejoiced at the return home of soldiers where they...

March Out of Afghanistan—NOW

by Ron Paul | Apr 21, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Last week President Biden announced a “full” U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan—the longest war in U.S. history—by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States. While this announcement is to be welcomed, the delayed U.S. withdrawal may result in Americans and Afghans dying needlessly for good PR optics back home. We all remember how many Americans died after President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” stunt in Iraq. The war has been a disaster from day one. So why wait to end it? The previous Trump administration had negotiated an agreement for the U.S. to be out of Afghanistan by...

Joe Biden’s Threat Against the Fourth of July

by Ron Paul | Mar 16, 2021 | Featured Articles

Last week President Biden addressed the nation on the first anniversary of the coronavirus being declared a “pandemic.” It was a disturbing speech, warning us that the “hopeful spring” will only emerge “from a dark winter” if all Americans “stick with the rules.” Whose rules? His rules. The message from the president was clear: he will only allow us to have some of our freedoms back if we do exactly as he tells us. It was the language of extortion, of a bank robber who demands you do what he says or face the consequences. It was not the language of someone we are told is the leader of the...