Ron Paul's Hearing to Ask: Mend or End the Fed?… Defenders of Ben Bernanke may be hard to come by in at least one gathering Tuesday on Capitol Hill. Ron Paul, the Republican congressman with libertarian positions who is still running for president, will host the much-hyped hearing titled, "The Federal Reserve System: Mend It or End It?" Mr. Paul, who heads the House panel that oversees America's central bank, has made a career for himself arguing the latter and the central bank is beyond fixing. (The congressman's 2009 book is also titled "End the Fed.") Witnesses include Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), who has introduced legislation to eliminate the Fed's dual mandate of promoting maximum employment and price stability. Mr. Brady opposed much of Mr. Bernanke's efforts to stimulate the economy by pumping money into it. He would rather the Fed just focus on inflation. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), who will also testify, has his own issues with the Fed. He feels the central bank spends too much time worrying about inflation and should be more proactive in curing the hangover from last decade's recession. – AP

Dominant Social Theme: Ron Paul? Isn't he a political non-factor … ?

Free-Market Analysis: Ron Paul, libertarian-conservative candidate for US president just won't quit. In fact, he keeps grabbing delegates and is threatening to deprive putative GOP nominee Mitt Romney of a first-round nomination.

Now he is holding a hearing today on the US Federal Reserve – a private/public monopoly-fiat central bank that he has helped expose as one of the leading causes of the current economic depression in the Western World.

There is evidently and obviously a power elite in the world that wants to consolidate global governance. Ron Paul is not for further "global integration" and has identified mechanisms leading to it that can be pared back in order to reduce its current impact.

Paul wants to remove US troops from overseas, which would do a great deal to reduce the pressure on foreign governments to acquiesce to Westernized sociopolitical and economic methodologies.

But the main mechanism of globalism is the elite-control of fiat-money monopoly banking that literally provides the top elites with a bankroll of trillions to do with what they wish.

It is this mechanism – central banking – that Ron Paul has seized on as a person who believes that societies function better when money is circulated via a free market rather than doled out by a handful of "good, gray men" in the service of apparent dynastic families.

It is the Internet itself – what we call the Internet Reformation – that has allowed libertarians like Ron Paul to bring his arguments to the larger masses and receive a hearing.

At first (and even to this day) Ron Paul and his fellow travelers were roundly ignored by the mainstream, bought-and-paid-for media. Then they were mocked.

Now Ron Paul and others who share his freedom ideology are being alternately ignored, attacked and bullied. But none of these tactics are working well for three reasons.

First, Ron Paul has been able to reach people with his message in the era of the Internet in the millions both at home and abroad.

Second, Ron Paul believes in his message and is a peculiarly altruistic person in this regard. He wishes to be remembered in a certain way – this is his self-interest – and is not willing to change his point of view for power or overwhelming wealth.

Finally, Ron Paul is no doubt correct in his views about the US Leviathan and monopoly money of any kind. When individuals have a monopoly in any area – especially a government-granted monopoly that is the only kind that "sticks" – then terrible booms and busts are inevitable.

Ron Paul – his peculiar personality and the populism offered by the Internet along with the correctness of his vision that draws on 500 years of free-market economics – has morphed into a formidable force in the 21st century.

We were among the first in the past decade to predict forcefully that this sort of evolution would take place. We called it the Internet Reformation and we once branded Ron Paul as its Martin Luther.