quasi-transcript of closing remarks by Mr Partee of the Federal Reserve
(from debate with Ron Paul on gold standard):
I believe, that what I feel, that the country and the world and the
economic society needs is discipline, and I believe that what the
congressman thinks the world needs is discipline. But we have a
difference, in the way we would get there. And I think we also have a
difference in what we believe to be the degree of tolerance of the
societies of the world to discipline. Its a strong dose [gold standard].
And I'm afraid that if applied too blindly, too greatly, it would simply
be unaccepted. And probably in the first instance, but if it should by
some miracle be accepted in the first instance, it would be rejected in
the second.
The other comment I want to make is that I suppose I ought to be ---
having been in Washington as long as I have --- I ought to be pretty
cynical, and I guess I am really pretty cynical about the political
process, and the world of lobbyists, and political action committees and
all that kind of stuff, in determining what positions *are* on various
issues. But I guess I still perhaps am enough of a dreamer, that I think
that a politician in the long run reflects his public. And therefore I
don't really think that you ought to talk about those politicians over
there doing all those bad things that the public doesn't want, because I
think in the long run, a politician does what the public wants. And what
you have gotten --- and I'm sure this group will be 99% opposed to the
experience of the last decade or two --- what you've gotten over this
period is what the public wants.