hey you're not the Ron Paul alt are you?

He didn't really grill him.

Also, Bernanke is right to talk about gold as an asset, as the dollar is.

The 5 trillion dollar was payed back and generated revenue he said. Now, it was paid back, wasn't it?

Now I haven't done any research the positive and negatives of this loan, but are you suggesting that this 5 trillion was negative, and if so what outcome would we see if this did not occur?

5 Trillion was printed; Bernanke just spins it by saying they as an organization were paid back; because they printed 5 trillion dollars and bought securities (stocks/bonds/etc); they later sold the securities for a profit (100+billion). However that was not the question; the question was about the damage from the 5 trillion printed. Printing dollars has the effect of devaluing all dollars; this is called inflation.

Gold is money. And no I'm not the Ron Paul alt.

The point is 5 trillion was printed and that money is still out there; causing the devaluation of all dollars. The price stability is important for a currency because of its usage for storing value and it's usage as a unit of account.

Think a chart where a price is measured over time using how much it cost in dollars. That chart is only useful if the dollar is worth the same through the entire chart.

Gold is unique because of its ability to keep its value relatively stable. This is why gold has been used as a currency since the beginning of time.

In other words; if an ounce of gold is going up in dollars; that is a very good indication that the dollar is devaluing; because gold has a much longer history of being a stable price (+3000 plus years or something) then the fiat dollar (40-50 years or something).

Gold isn't becoming more valuable; the currencies are just becoming less valuable; is what I'm saying.

If you measure the DOW by Gold instead of dollars; it peaked in the 1999s and never came back. Sounds about right. DOW in dollars has us back to before the recession. Does it feel that way to you?

Here is a much better explanation with illustrations:

http://www.safehaven.com/article/6214/the-us-dollar-vs-gold-you-should-care

Btw; that link is from 2006 so kudos on that guy calling it back then. I only noticed it in 2008-2009.

Ha, Ron doesn't let Ben finnish his point, changes the subject and finnishes with an ad populum.

He seems to think that gold is money because people accept it in exchange their stuff, which is a definition for asset, not for money. Ben seemed to be puzzled by the ignorance.

Nunes; Ben tried to filibuster the time by rambling on; Ron needed to interrupt to avoid having his 5 minutes eaten up. Go ahead an watch and tell me if you think Ben is answering honestly or spinning.

As for Gold; at least read the link I posted before commenting. It will explain the importance of gold in history to calculate inflation of fiat currencies.

Dead:

Whether damage resulted from the 5 trillion is whether the funds, when borrowed, were invested wisely. The 5 trillions should not have been borrowed unless the payoff was 5 trillion plus return on investment greater than principal plus interest.

dc is right in that the 5,000,000,000,000 printed remains in the general pool of cash.

all the fed did was provide the financial institutions to borrow money an near 0% interest and then sell that paper to the govt at a 2-3% rate. The banks get to unload their bad assets, generate some very easy revenue and make their balance sheets look normalized.

the govt gets the benefit of having its debt financed at low rates, bc of the demand that was created by the fed.

the real loser of this exchange is the american people whos life savings at the time of qe2 gets devalued by the printing of money.
inflation = a tax on savings. money you saved up today will be worth less in purchaning power tomorrow.

ron paul was simply trying to illustrate the point that gold remains independent of the fed in that its purchasing power is not tied to any real intervention through fiat currencies. as prices increase gold retains its ability to buy things.