The Minnesota Daily editorial on Feb. 6 concerning Ron Paul was a refreshing  look at many of the upsides to his often complex stances on several issues. However, labeling his economic ideas as âÄúirresponsibleâÄù seems to have come from some oversight of the reasoning behind his logic.

First of all, the Federal Reserve is a terrible, terrible idea. As misleading as the name might be, it is in no way part of the federal government. It is a private bank like Bank of America or Wells Fargo that has a license to print money out of thin air via the U.S. Mint. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, can wake up tomorrow and decide what your dollar should be worth since the money supply is essentially in their hands, making the U.S. dollar a fiat currency manipulated by private bankers. Unless you take your fiat currency and invest it in something tangible, it simply remains Monopoly money.

While the Federal Reserve prints more money, they are not adding any additional wealth to the nation. Instead, the Fed is just devaluing the buying power of the dollar.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, during our recession, has encouraged this by spending hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars in the âÄúTroubled Asset Relief Program.âÄù This bailed out the massive subprime fiascos of the banks, which already lobby enough in our government for favorable policies. Thanks to bailouts like TARP, the national deficit increases, causing the Federal Reserve to print more money, which causes inflation. This current policy is terrible for prudent people who work hard and save their money because rapid inflation quickly devalues what they have invested with such low interest rates.

Also note that the interest rates of the banks are decided by the Federal Reserve, which has been devaluing the U.S. fiat currency even further through low interest rates. Both low interest rates and rising inflation have encouraged a culture of indebtedness in America with massive student loans, credit card debt and federal debt.

All of this is fueled by a ceaseless government appetite for war and military aggression, in addition to our own mindless consumerism. The middle class would normally save most of its money, but it is prodded by these policies to spend more and then enslave ourselves to corporate banks by taking out endless loans to feed the economy with more nonexistent money. Then of course you have the richest Americans running large banks profiting off of their own interest rates due to all of these loans on their hands.

To end this, the U.S. dollar needs to be tied to something like gold, which actually has value and cannot be so easily manipulated by these elite bankers like Ben Bernanke. Now, there are complaints that there is not enough gold to tether it to the dollar, and thatâÄôs a reasonable argument. However, there is no reason it has to be gold; thatâÄôs only been a traditional item to link currency to. It could easily be silver or virtually any commodity, precious metal or combination of anything with any marketable value to keep inflation from getting out of hand.

Tying the U.S. dollar to gold seems like a radical idea, yet thatâÄôs how it worked up until the Nixon administration in the 1970s. It is worth noting that 1970s America was not a chaotic wasteland thanks to a relatively unregulated monetary policy. While itâÄôs often trendy, and rightfully so, to rant against the 1 percent of corporate America running our lives, they are only allowed to do so thanks to the actions of the Federal Reserve and a fiat currency.

We desperately need to hold big banks and our elected officials accountable before our country is beyond saving.

I encourage my fellow students to inform themselves about Ron Paul and his mission to end the corporate stranglehold on our monetary policy and legislation. Other politicians might talk about the economy, terrorism, war or poverty. These are only talking points to get heads nodding in support. They are symptoms of our countryâÄôs real problems like the Federal Reserve which only Ron Paul seems brave enough to stand up against.