A symptom of a sophisticated economy without enough regulation. Whether it's pollution, destruction of habitat, lead-paint on toys, ripping off legitimate businesses, or threatening the health of the world with counterfeit drugs,
http://www.uscc.gov/hearings/2006hearings/written_testimonies/06_06_07wrts/06_06_7_8_pitts_peter.php
China has some real work to do.

the currency is worth what people believe it's worth. gold is valuable because everyone agrees it's valuable. paper money is valuable because the government (and army) say it is, and everyone might as well just agree it's valuable.

so the difference is, if you have the someone printing money you are giving them power. but if you agree on gold, then there's a finite amount and that's that. i know it's not that simple but anyway.

until alchemy is invented, gold makes more sense to me, and paper tied to gold (for practical reasons) is fine as long as you can trust the banks (which you currently can't, because the money isn't tied to gold so it is fundamentally corrupt or "counterfeit" as RP says).

However, don't listen to me, i have taken zero courses in economics... i just know that the dollar isn't worth shit any more because the military power and political stability that guaranteed its value is fubar.

Okay, to respond to a few of the arguments I've seen.

-(The FCC thing) The irony of that solution is that Ron Paul is adamantly opposed to the FCC, it is federal regulation therefore = bad.

-(Ron the anti-rich) I have no idea where people are getting the idea that Ron Paul is against the rich/or pro-poor. His policies would be extremely beneficial to the rich as far as I can see. Someone please explain how Ron Paul would less the rift between the rich and the poor instead of increasing it exponentially.

-(Civil Rights, States, and Ron Paul)I wouldn't go so far as to say most states are more progressive than the federal government. Again I think this is an issue on where you live. I firmly believe if not for federal intervention many a large portion of the south would still be working under the old Jim Crow system. People down here are still mad about the Supreme Court rulings on desegregation. (assuming he got his way) Ron Paul only thinks the federal government can prosecute matters of treason, counterfeiting, and piracy. This means the federal courts would not be there when civil liberties are trampled on. Maybe in the blue states things like affirmative action seem unfair, in most of the south it's a necessary evil. I'm not saying things haven't changed, the racism isn't overt at all (well in some places it is) but there seems to be an attitude among a large enough percentage of the population that African Americans, (and other minorities) are lesser as a people. And here is my point, Ron Paul's policies would be disastrous to minority populations living in those states, and there wouldn't be anything the federal government could do about it.

Yeah, trick the brain into seeing what you want it to see, distract it, program it... bingo. Now, imagine how much easier this trick would have been with counterfeit money.

I saw this guy pulling the same trick to get people to give him their wallets. Very scary stuff, but it wakes you up to see it.

Wtf, counterfeit Jamie and Adam??