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Republican candidate for president Ron Paul talks during an interview at the Venetian Tuesday, October 18, 2011.
By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Sun coverage
Ron Paul is having an I-told-you-so moment.
Running for president four years ago, Paul spawned a movement of mostly young political outsiders with doomsday talk of deficit spending and manipulation of the monetary system leading to economic ruin.
Perhaps nowhere else in the country did the movement take off like it did in Nevada, where his passionate followers fueled a second-place finish in the caucuses and hijacked the state convention in an effort to send Paul delegates to the national convention.
Now, Paul is seeking to build his following into an electoral force large enough to win the nomination. And he believes the economic collapse ignited by the bursting of the housing bubble, which he predicted well before it occurred, has given his message a credibility it lacked in 2008.
“We are winning this intellectual fight,” he told the Las Vegas Sun in a recent interview. “Last time they didn’t know what I was talking about. Now they do.
“The regulated economy and the inflation economy has brought us to our knees. It’s brought the world to its knees.”
But while Paul is positioning himself as the oracle of the collapse, just being right about the consequences of a burst housing bubble isn’t necessarily enough to draw a bigger political following, especially when his prescription for fixing the situation is to simply let the crisis run its course until the market can restore balance — especially when unregulated risk-taking with easy money played a major role in the financial industry’s collapse.
In Nevada, once home to a contingent of voters hungry for Paul’s brand of fiery rhetoric, that hands-off approach appears particularly painful.
The economic recession has led to a 13 percent unemployment rate. More than 60 percent of Nevada homeowners owe more than their house is worth, and, for many of them, their house likely will never again be worth what they paid for it. In September, one in every 118 Nevada homeowners received a foreclosure notice.
Paul’s grin-and-bear it approach might be more likely to shrink his appeal than grow it.
“For 15 percent of Nevada voters, they’ll say that’s exactly what I need,” UNR political scientist Eric Herzik said. “They’ll say I didn’t make those mistakes. I’m tired of bailing out people who made bad decisions.
“But outside of his base, to say ‘Oh, I was right,’ I don’t know that gets you anything. Particularly when the answer to the question ‘What are you going to do about it?’ is ‘nothing.’ ”
Republican strategist Robert Uithoven echoed that point.
“I don’t think voters spend as much time looking back as they do looking forward,” he said. “Voters more look at whether somebody has credible plans to address the problems. Simply saying you were right about policies in the past doesn’t differentiate you from other candidates.”
Paul strenuously disagrees with that notion. He argues the pain of government intervention and spending is much more severe than allowing the market to correct itself.
“Deficits really do matter,” Paul said. “When people know it’s in their best interest they will accept this. People are coming around to this. Just that we are getting a lot more support now is an indication they are coming around to this.”
In fact, Paul’s prescription goes beyond adopting a passive hands-off approach. He wants to withdraw American troops from around the globe. He would eliminate five cabinet-level departments and put the federal budget on a starvation diet — a diet he says will shrink even more rapidly as Americans realize the benefits of spending less.
And when it comes to monetary policy, he would eliminate the Federal Reserve and revert to the gold standard, in which all of the country’s currency would be backed by gold. That would prevent the government from printing enough money to fund its deficit spending on defense and “cradle-to-grave” social programs, according to Paul’s philosophy.
“The consequences are harsh by not doing it,” Paul said, countering the argument that a hands-off approach to the housing crisis in Nevada would be harsh.
Paul denied the pain of Nevada’s economic situation will be a drag on his campaign before acknowledging it’s a problem for him.
“I know we’re doing well out here,” he said. “It’s a very freedom-loving state, free-spirited.
“So if I could wave the wand and solve their housing problem a little faster, I would be a shoo-in.”
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
"Last time they didn't know what I was talking about. Now they do.
Epic statement on his part...
Jerry doesn't understand the "paradox of thrift" and neither does the crazy old libertarian.
It looks like Jerry is quoting basic facts on the Keating Five...although I wonder why Jerry hasn't mentioned Silverado and Neil Bush?
The problem with this article is that it states that lack of regulation caused the financial collapse: "especially when unregulated risk-taking with easy money played a major role in the financial industry's collapse."
However, the truth is that REGULATION WAS A SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN CAUSING THE COLLAPSE...see link below!
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/06...
Excerpt: "The fact is that neither political party, and no administration, is blameless; the honest answer, as outlined below, is that government policy over many years caused this problem. The regulators, in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, were the enforcers of the reduced lending standards that were essential to the growth in home ownership and the housing bubble."
I find it very scary that news reporters really don't dig into facts before making such statements. Please be proactive enough to research.
Ron Paul is correct...
If the USA quit spending money, we wouldn't be broke.
How simple is that???
Dr. Paul wants to be the Dr. Kevorkian of the U.S. Government.
Your "King Of Pain", Ron Paul.
All he needs to do is convince the electorate that the government needs to be largely dismantled, and that YOU will no longer get YOURS.
Good luck with that, Doctor.
Your patients have no patience.
Anjeanette, I respectfully disagrea with your statement that the cause of the bubble/bust was a lack of regulation. "especially when unregulated risk-taking with easy money played a major role in the financial industry's collapse". First, Ron Paul was against "easy money" - he regulary rails against the FED's easy money policies and believes it is one of the main causes bubbles. Second, surely you realize that the government provided a liquid marketplace for bad loans through FANNIE and FREDDI as they were only too willing to back such loans. The regulators work with the money men in Wall Street. Anjeanette, I think you are probably on Ron Pauls side! He is against easy money and he is against government working with Wall Street to circumnent prudent, market based investments. The whole debacle could not have occured without active government participation. He warned of this very thing on the floor of the House and was laughed at. Please, do a little research. Thank you.
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
Like Herman Cain, Ron Paul has no chance to be elected President! Both are just consuming oxygen and should go back to doing something else. What a joke!
This whole philosophy of letting the market self-correct has one inherent problem for me: The philosophy inherently allows for the system to get out of balance in the first place. And in those "out-of-balance" swings, innocent people can get hurt. Pension money gets lost; jobs get lost. And as we've seen, the rich get richer without feeling a need to contribute back to the system or to help correct for the losses people took. Letting the economy run its course and self-correct assumes that at least a powerful enough percentage of the market is honest enough and capable enough to correct the dishonest portion. How do we know this is actually so in real life? It certainly appears that the people with the greatest power are winning this "self-correcting" game.
I have no issue with wealth or capitalism. I have issue with ill-gotten gains, particularly the ones that hurt society. That is what none of these politicians (regardless of party affiliation) are willing to discuss.
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
Bottom line, you can't keep spending what you don't have. That is what our government is doing. I like Ron Paul. He's the only candidate that realizes you can't just keep spending your way out of a problem. I love the fact that he wants to withdraw all troops. Get these guys home. We cannot afford to be the world police anymore.
We are spending roughly 400 billion more every year than we take in.
In 5 years the debt has ballooned from 7 trillion to 14 trillion.
No one sees this as a problem? Seems Ron Paul does. So do I.
We are a nation of people who say "I have to have it"...."even though I can't afford it".
Truly amazing.
If you think it's harsh to have an oppressive federal government telling you what you can and can't do, wait until you have a UN gov bearing down on you and giving your money to poor Africans. That scenario isn't a pipe dream, it will certainly come to pass in our lifetime. On our watch, we will ensure that all those who came before us, fought for this country to keep us free, and paid the ultimate price died in vain.
Let me put this in a way that the avg liberal (being brain damaged) can understand. If you run a business that is running an unsustainable debt that you know at some point in time will cause it to go belly up, maybe not on your watch, most likely on your kids watch (they will take over the business), will you A) Do nothing and pretend everything is fine or B) Bite the bullet and suffer the pain today and for maybe years to come with the knowledge that eventually sound fiscal policies and being debt free will ensure your child will have a business to pass on to their children.
The leaders today are selfish and know that in 20-30 years, they will be old with a foot in the grave, and that the USA of today and yesterday will cease to exist in lieu of a world gov and economy where everyone is poor and slave to the Intl bankers and Corps that will own everything and keep the wealth "in the family". All I have to say to that is "Gee, thanks pops and mom! I hope you ROT IN HELL!"
By the way, I don't blame the Dems for this, the Reps are just as if not moreso guilty of selling us out to Intl interests. Why? The Reps were hijacked by jewish communists (Neocons) years ago. Google "sprintime for trotsky" if you didn't know. That explains why both parties allowed third world peasant to enter our country illegally and drive down wages. That explains why both parties make it possible for US businesses to set up shop in poor countries to take advantage of cheap labor, knowing full well the consequences back home. Both parties did nothing to fully investigate 911 and then went along with the flawed premises to wage budget busting wars that killed over 4400 of our servicemen FOR NOTHING! Our gov is f-ed up. Ron Paul is just one person, he wouldn't be able to implement even 10% of the things he wants to do to save this country.
A heads up. By 2017, the IMF says that the dollar will only be 25% of the "reserve" currency of the world. At that time, the UN will undoubtedly go belly up. That's in 5 years. My guess is that we won't even see a 2012 election next November and that things will happen next year, most notably Germany abandoning the Euro and going back to the Mark, which will result in civil unrest when our economy goes into a depression that is inevitable. It's just a matter of time.
TomD and MickeyA appear to know what's really going on; the rest of you have been watching too much MSNBC and FoxNews (and relying too much on THIS news outlet).
How about actually checking out Ron Paul's site and seeing what his economic plan is really about? (I haven't heard any other candidate talking about THEIR economic plan, except for Cain's laughable "9-9-9" junk and Perry's "postcard tax plan") How about digging deeper (alternative media) and doing some research yourself instead of relying on talking points and editorials from mainstream "reporters"?
The fact of the matter is, NO CANDIDATE other than Paul has a plan to make this country better for the average US citizen, in terms of prosperity or freedom/liberty. You couldn't possibly think that Cain (Former FED RESERVE exec), Perry (NAFTA advocate, Bilderberg attendee, forced inoculations), or Romney (Romneycare, business-as-usual spending/bailouts, gun control advocate) would be a better choice for digging our way out of the ditch that the Bush and Obama administrations have dug us into, do you really?
How many more Fed Reserve execs/chairmans and Goldman Sachs/JPMorgan/AIG/others execs can we put in charge of our economy before we realize that that's a bad idea?
How many more Middle East "liberations" are we going to "spring up" and fund before we realize that we are costing our fine soldiers unnecessary harm/danger, deepening our budget woes, and steering us down a path to World War 3 (which these globalists and banker elites want anyway)
How many more of our troops have to lose their lives fighting MEANINGLESS and UNWARRANTED battles before we finally say, "OK, we're good"?
Ron Paul doesn't care about special interests, expanding a "US empire", banks that fail from BAD BAD business practices (search for "the coming DERIVATIVES CRISIS" and be shocked), or "forced liberation". What he DOES care about are the well-being and freedom of the citizens of this country, and has a few good ideas on how we can right the ship before it's too late.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
My mistake, I thought the deficit for 2011 was about 400 billion. In reality, as per the (CBO) the deficit is 1.3 TRILLION.
With the Republicans, it's fiscal restraint until God tasks them with being number one and guiding the world in the paths of righteousness.
At that point in time, it's more important to obey God and spend like Hell, like they did in Iraq when fighting the heretics, then keep a campaign promise. After all, no one gets to Heaven by supporting a godless Democracy. It says so in the scriptures.
Do Ron Paul supporters really know what he wants
to do?
He wants to kill health care reform and he's a
doctor.
He wants to kill all of our social programs.
Is that what Americans really want?
I know Nevadans can't afford this radical,
right-winger.
Ms. Damon demonstrates the lack of economic understanding that not only plagues our country, but the entire world. Unemployment has stagnated all the while corporate profits and worker efficiency have hit all time highs. This means that there is plenty of capital out there; it is just waiting to find the right environment to invest in. The problem is every industrialized country has fallen into the incorrect belief that government spending and increased bank lending can boost demand and spur on the economy. This is simply not true. In high-debt situations, people and banks used that money to pay down debt.
With the southern European economies and Japan mired in zombie-like, persistent bailout states, massive spending reduction and deficit reduction here at home would send a signal to investors that the US is open for business. Reining in the printing of money for the purpose of bank lending would stop the decline of the dollar and encourage money to come to a rock solid dollar that is good as gold. Cutting government spending (and taxes to a lesser degree) will give certainty to businesses that the economic and regulatory environment in the US will improve and spur investment. We can still be the engine of the world economy if we make the right choices now. If we wait for the Euro to fail and our Congress to end-around the deficit reduction agreement made during the debt ceiling talks in August, we will be going down the same path as Italy and Greece.
This formula is not simply ideology or dogma; it was put into good use immediately after the end of World War 2. We slashed spending (military included) and taxes and put the capital back to work in the economy. There were no concerns about how hungry our GIs would be because they would no longer be getting government paychecks! The people working in the government bureaucracy now should be seen as no different than the GIs of then: We thank them for their hard work, cut their jobs, and return them to where they are needed the most... the market economy.
Republicans in Congress need to man up and sign
President Obama's jobs bill.
Over two million jobs will be created.
AMERICANS NEED JOBS.
WE CAN'T WAIT.
teamster,
Do you and Obama don't seem to understand why jobs are few and far between (and low paying). Illegal immigration drives down wages and steals jobs from old people and teens who can't buy a job these days. Why aren't unions complaining I wonder? Can it be because these illegals (who vote by the way with their fake papers) vote liberal and can it be they work union jobs in some instances?
Also, jobs are outsourced because dems and reps allow intl corps to do so. Ron paul would put an end to that as well as send the illegals packing. Those 2 things alone would put Americans back to work. He would also end wars, cut aid to other countries, cut taxes so that businesses can afford to hire. Dr Paul would put everyone who wants to work and who can work back to work and he would still honor our committment to ssi for those who have paid into it their whole lives. Younsters like me however would have an option to invest most of our ssi money for ourselves or not save at all and use the money now to invest in RE or whatever, whatever we want. That makes a more sense than letting the system go bk and allowing 10s of millions to starve to death as was the case when the communists took over China.
I often wonder why a journalist would inject comments from other sources that set-up a FALSE contradiction... Is it to fill space?
The writer says, "In fact, Paul's prescription goes beyond adopting a passive hands-off approach."
The writer then says, "He wants to withdraw American troops from around the globe." Bringing that huge federal payroll home would dry up the housing glut in a year. Then the writer says, "He would eliminate five cabinet-level departments and put the federal budget on a starvation diet -- a diet he says will shrink even more rapidly as Americans realize the benefits of spending less."
The writer could have mentioned Ron Paul's elimination of the personal income tax. The writer didn't include the fact that Ron Paul's cut in federal jobs would be done through attrition. No federal employees would be laid-off.
How would Ron Paul's message "fall flat" in Nevada?
I have aggressively shopped the real estate market in Northern Nevada for over a year. As a real estate investor who pays cash, I have not seen real estate prices fall to a realistic level yet. I know many properties are going for half price. But compared to other states the current prices are still inflated from the bubble days and the California refugee buyers.
I guarantee that if voters get sucked-in to voting for the next "Candyman" who promises the moon in government spending to "help" Nevadans, they will see more ghost towns. Government stimulus always backfires. Private stimulus leads to real growth.
No matter how you slice it. Ron Paul is the only candidate that has solutions to the economy. You can dis him all you want, but who else has a plan that pumps over $1.5 Trillion into the US economy, and trims $1 Trillion while reducing taxes during the first year? Who else has a plan to balance the federal budget in 3 years? Who else would bring the troops home, and change the way we recognize natural born citizens to end the massive tax burden caused by illegals?
You may not like the message, but we're in deep, and this is how to get out in a hurry. Had other leaders had more backbone, we wouldn't be looking down this barrel now.
It's time to end the madness in this country. It's time to elect a partiot to serve us.
Ron Paul 2012
The author misrepresents Ron Paul's message as "do nothing and let the people suffer". In fact Congressman Paul is saying let's stop doing the things that created this mess and let the economy recover.
The article does mention that he would drastically reduce spending, but doesn't even try to explain how that could help to solve the economic problems in Nevada.
I lived in Las Vegas during the boom years. Real estate prices were ridiculous, especially given the quality of the home construction. A doctor acquaintance of mine was flipping five houses at a time and probably ended up going bankrupt if he was doing that when the market crashed. The Federal Reserve's manipulation of the interest rates created the bubble that diverted capital away from sounder investments. While China, India, and Korea were creating REAL jobs, America was creating an economy based on a lie; that we can go on forever "consuming" our way to prosperity.
Las Vegas had the mother of all housing bubbles and probably suffered the worst crash in the nation.
What makes Ron Paul the best candidate for president is not just that he happened to predict the economic collapse, it is WHY he was able to predict it.
He understands the economy better than any of the other candidates because he understands Austrian economic principles.
If anything Nevadans should be even MORE enthusiastic for Ron Paul's candidacy than they were in 2008.
The Las Vegas Sun isn't doing its readers any favor by publishing such a superficial and dismissive article.
I'm Sickened by the personal attack comments. While it may be true us here in Nevada are weary about fiscal restraint, consider the alternatives.
Apparently Americans only consider candidates supported by big money for big money policy, which have failed and continue to fail. Ron Paul for President in 2012, may be our best option, although i doubt mainstream America is ready for truth in government. Here in Nevada, at least this undecided voter, believes our government has and continues to handle OUR money and our foreign affair message irresponsibly. Give us more money so we can kill people in foreign lands policy has to stop. Our Collateral damage is creating a far more threat to us. Ron Paul for President 2012 in my opinion the only American voice out there worth listening to.