As America prepares to mark a full century since the creation of the Federal Reserve, Texas congressman Ron Paul recently christened the event by releasing his best work, End the Fed, in paperback version. Actually, it was released back at the end of September, 2010, but we’re only just now getting around to working up a full article about it.

The “Fed” in Paul’s title, of course, refers to the Federal Reserve, the half-socialist bank of last resort that is supposed to save our collective rear end when the fiat currency that circulates through our economy catches fire and really starts burning a hole in our pockets. Paul, a once and (hopefully) future presidential candidate, calls himself a republican for expediency but is a libertarian at heart.

Opponents claim the idea of ending the Federal Reserve is the raving of a lunatic senior citizen with bats in the mental belfry but, here at the American Monetary Association, we’re not so quick to dismiss his suggestion that we ditch the central banking system and return to a network of private banking. Paul not only has a been in his bonnet about disempowering “the secretive cartel of powerful money managers who exercise disproportionate influence over the conduct of public policy” but believes we need a return to the gold standard, which will eliminate the government’s ability to create inflation.

Hold on there a moment. You mean inflation is preventable? That’s exactly what Ron Paul alleges and it seems that he has common sense on his side. If the United States were to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when it was required by law that there must be an amount of gold held in reserve equal to the face value of the paper money in circulation. President Nixon eliminated the necessity of the gold standard in 1971 by presidential decree.

Paul claims that eradicating the Federal Reserve will eliminate the cycles of business busts and booms, wars, income equality, trade imbalances, and growth of government. Are his ideas correct or is he simply an extremist? Yes and yes. He may be an extremist but it seems to us that a bit of extremism is exactly what might save our country from joining the list dead economies littering the landscape of history.

Buy it. Read it. Decide for yourself.

The American Monetary Association Team