June 7, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to French President Francois Hollande’s plan to lower France’s retirement age to 60 at the same time Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke promised that the central bank was “prepared to take action as needed to protect the U.S. financial system and economy in the event that financial stresses escalate”:
“At a time when a European collapse caused by too much debt is the very thing that is weighing down markets, French President Hollande’s big plan is to throw fuel on the fire by lowering France’s retirement age, placing more strain on an already threadbare system. Meanwhile the financial elites have engaged in a whispering campaign to have the U.S. prop up Europe and the rest of the global economy with more quantitative easing money printing. Ben Bernanke says he’s ‘prepared to take action’ if that’s what it takes.
“This is obscene. The American people are being forced to pay, through higher inflation and direct bailouts through institutions like the IMF, to enable the French to work less, the Greeks to default on their debts, and to prop up insolvent Spanish banks.
“Now is the time for House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus to send HR 2313 to the floor of the House, which would roll back $108 billion of additional commitments the U.S. made to the IMF in 2009. With U.S. lending to the fund topping $32.7 billion, direct bailouts to Europe now account for most of that at $24 billion. Action is needed quickly to prevent any more bailouts from going out the door.
“There also needs to be a clear prohibition on the Fed from engaging in any more backdoor bailouts to Europe, including its continued dollar liquidity operations to help expand European lending. Defunding the IMF will do little good if, in the end, the bailout just comes from the central bank. For good measure, a real audit is needed at the Fed while we’re at it to see just how many trillions of dollars have gone out the door since the European crisis began.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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