Kevin Freeman: Why do the government print money and then borrow money

Kevin Freeman: Hey, I've got a question for you. If the government prints money, and they do, why does it have to borrow money? Think about that for a moment. That was a question that stumped President Biden's number one top economist named Jared Bernstein in the Finding the Money documentary. You can watch it on YouTube. It's worth watching. I differ entirely with the conclusion of the documentary. The documentary was, supporting modern monetary theory and it was made by, Bernie, Sanders, economist. But, I love this clip, from the top economist of then President Biden, who demonstrates how ridiculous the theory is that you, why do you print money and then borrow money? How does this all work? We'll play a clip from that here on the show. and if you enjoy watching public officials make complete fools of themselves, you'll want to stay tuned to Pirate Money Radio so you can see this. The good news is that this program is going to bring you instead biblical truth and common sense from a former public official who can make economics understandable. A guy that actually has an economics degree. And this is going to empower you to make better decisions in your life and in politics. Now, joining me for the interview we have this morning is one of my best friends from the past 30 years, the amazing Mike Carter.

Bob McEwen is a former six term congressman and expert on economics

Welcome, Mike.

Mike Carter: Good to be here today, especially when I see we have, Bob, McEwen on board. He's always an all star guest. My wife thinks of him as Paul Harvey. He's kind of got that, voice and storytelling of Paul Harvey. So we're excited to have you here.

Kevin Freeman: Today and the wisdom and everything else. So a special guest from D.C. former six term congressman in this corner and terrific friend, Bob McEwen, master of economics from a human perspective. And by that I mean simple, understandable and sensible. Basically, he makes sense when he explains the concepts. And Bob and I were both speaking at a conference together recently in Colonial Williamsburg. He got a huge ovation from pastors for explaining how economics really work. Just think about that. A bunch of pastors gathered together and giving a standing ovation to a former politician explaining the intricacies of economics. That's because he's an amazing conservative leader. He's respected by the best of the best in Washington and across the country. Welcome, Bob McEwen to Pirate Money Radio.

Bob McEwen: Well, Kevan, it's an honor and a pleasure to be with you. You know what a fan I am of what you're doing. I don't know of any single human being who's making a greater impact on our monetary policy than what you're accomplishing. And just a privilege to be with you, Bob.

Kevin Freeman: You're too kind. I want you to share basic truths of economics like you did with Liberty Pastors. That was such a fun time we had there. and it seems pretty simple when you share it. It gets complex when I listen to Jared Bernstein and others like that. But why is it so tough for members of Congress to understand basic economics?

Bob McEwen: Well, actually, Thomas Jefferson anticipated it. He really didn't want those city folks to take over. He was very concerned that America be agrarian society. And anybody that grows up on a farm, anybody that was in 4H, they understand that you have to produce something, you have to have input, you have to feed it and give it medical care and all that, and then eventually sell it for a price. And if you understand that, then life functions. But if you. We've gone from, It broke during Franklin Roosevelt, less than half of the people in the country were on, on, on the farms and producing food and fiber. when I got involved in politics in the 1970s, it was 10%. Now it's down to 2%. 2% of Americans produce all food and fiber, twice as much as they did 30 years ago. But, most of the people live in New York aoc and these folks, they have no clue as to how economics works. And so she even has an economics degree from, from Boston College. And yet they don't have a clue. That's what we're going to talk about today.

Kevin Freeman: Absolutely.

Bob McEwen discusses the difference between free markets and socialism

All right. And there's another problem with Washington. There's a lot of lawyers there and a lot of corruption there. And not every lawyer is corrupt, but a good number of them are. and it seems like the nature of the job as a Congress is to be perpetually confused. and I watch my friends who go to Congress and then all of a sudden they're just drug around like crazy. What's that like being in Congress?

Bob McEwen: Well, it's, it's really not that hard if you know what you believe in. I had a congressman right next to me that just, they always were bombarding him, buying ads and doing billboards and all, trying to get him to vote on certain things. And some years after I was out of Congress, I was with a bunch of lobbyists and I said, why didn't you guys ever do that to me? And they all started laughing and they said, because we know how you're going to vote. So, you know, the only thing you find in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead cats. So if you stand for something, life is a lot simpler if you understand what you believe in and go and do it. And as Jim Jordan always says, being in Congress is simple. Just do what you said you were going to do.

Kevin Freeman: Wow, Mike.

Mike Carter: Well, I was just glad we've got someone that can explain it in such a simple way. and I don't want to take much time away because Bob, I've heard you speak on third party payer, but I was looking at some of your notes. It looks like you're also going to get into helping us understand in a simple way the difference between, free markets and socialism.

Bob McEwen: Yes. Let me just begin. You're talking about Congress. One of the most difficult things is that people do not know in America how wealth is created. Now socialists know how to redistribute it, they know how to tax it, they know how to take it, but they don't know where it comes from. So they stand up there and you know, Bernie used to talk about those millionaires, get those millionaires. Well, you know, he became a multimillionaire as a senator and so now he only talks about get those billionaires, those horrible billionaires. He doesn't understand, but they don't understand where it comes from. And let me just explain that. Suppose there's a car going down the street in front of the building. There are only two ways to get money out of that person's hand, out of that person in the car. Only two ways. One is called free enterprise and that's where you lay awake nights thinking of ways to, do something good for the person such that they slam on their brakes and they pull in and you're going to wash my car and clean the windows and do the carpeting and wipe off the dash. I would much rather have that than have this $20 bill. I'd much rather have that pair of shoes than this $60. I'd much rather have a global positioning unit that I'd never get lost again. I'd rather have that than have this $200. Under free enterprise, you figure out ways to bless the person such that they voluntarily, freely reach in their pocket, make an exchange, which at the end of the exchange they are both better off. They have created wealth and if they're not better off, they don't make the exchange. Let me hit it again. Suppose, there's a farmer with a pile of wheat and There's a baker with 10 empty ovens. He says. The baker says, if I had his wheat, I could make donuts and sell them in the morning. The farmer says, I don't need this wheat. If I had his money, I could buy a new tractor, put a roof over the barn. And so the two of them come together and they make an exchange, which at the end of the exchange, they are wealthier than they were before. And if not, then they don't make the exchange. That is the only way that wealth is created. That's why only free enterprise, in which people voluntarily, freely reach in their pocket and take something. And that's how wealth is created. Now, there's another way to get money out of that car going down the street, and that is if you just go over and take it. They stop at the street, you take a gun, put it in. I want 50% of everything in that purse. Now, when they've done that, have you created any wealth? No. What have you done? You have redistributed it. That's why Bernie always talks about redistributing wealth. That's why, de Blasio, when he's running for president, he said, there's plenty of wealth in this country. It's just the way it's distributed. So what they do is they want to redistribute it. Now, when they take it, when they reach in there and take the money away, two things happen. The person that earned it is offended because they worked. They don't get the product for the person that gets it without earning it, they feel they've been benefited. Why should they work? So in the process, whenever you do that, that's called socialism. Socialism is when you use the police power of the state to take from another person. they call it redistribution. When you do that, you discourage the person produced, reward the person that didn't, and as a result, no wealth is created. And the degree to which you do that is the degree to which you have poverty. In our next segment, we're going to talk about the fact that you can put on a chart and you can just land at an airport and drive around for an hour, go back and leave. And you can tell how much of what I just described goes on in that country. How much wealth is stolen by socialism as opposed to created by free enterprise.

Kevin Freeman: Well, that's a great point. I mean, I've never heard of a robber who sticks a gun in your car and asks for only 50% of what you get. But now I understand that's Government because they realize they have to leave you a little bit so they can come back tomorrow and take 50% again, because it's a robber that has permission to return to your house or to your car every day of the year if they want to. Whereas a thief, at some point, we would catch them and throw them in jail. But that's a great point. only two ways to produce wealth. We're talking with Bob McEwen, and we're talking about, really, the future of America. We have two roads to take. One of them is socialism. That's bad. The other one is free market capitalism. That's good. We'll be right back with Bob McEwen after this break.

Kevin Freeman: How does printing money steal from people

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, and I'm joined by Mike Carter. And we've got a special guest, Bob McEwen. And, Bob just left us hanging at the end. we're talking about money, and he says, you know, in our next segment, we're going to talk about how you can tell the difference between one that's gone down the socialist path or one that's gone down the free market path. But it's all about money.

Mike Carter: Yeah, we talked about people robbing you and so forth, or the government robbing you. But they have a stealth way of doing that. a way of kind of printing money so you don't even realize you're being robbed.

Kevin Freeman: Well, printing money, and then they take it right out of your paycheck. You see a little line item, you don't even get to look at the money that's yours. It's already taken before you get to even see it. But there are only three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. And here at Pirate Money RA we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in ways that promote liberty, security, and values. Patriot Mobile, it's a mobile phone company. They support the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile, and operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room. Patriot Mobile is available at piratemoneyradio.com afr that's piratemoneyradio.com afR Patriot Mobile has done a lot of good for conservative causes. It's so nice to know businesses working to support our values. Now, we've Talked with Bob McEwen, and you just said it, Mike. You said that they just print money and that's the way they steal a.

Mike Carter: Stealth way to steal from us. So I don't even realize the guy's coming up to m me with a gun right now. It just kind of slowly keeps disappearing from my wallet.

Kevin Freeman: Now how does that work? We've got six term Congressman Bob McEwen. How does printing money steal from people?

Bob McEwen: Well, Mike made a reference to the fact, and you did as well, Kevan, about what happens when they come and just take 50% of what you have. the reason I use that example is because understand this. If a criminal takes it or if a politician takes it, the impact is the same. So you go to the pay window and you get your money. You walk out across the parking lot on the way to your car. cross criminal comes up, puts a gun in your rib, says, I want 50% of everything you have. You go home, sit home with your wife and children. You say, this is how much money we have for food, clothing and shelter. The kind of house we can buy, the kind of car we can drive, the kind of vacations we can make. Or you make it all the way to the truck, you open the paycheck, you see Uncle Sam's already been there, half of it is already gone. The impact is the same. And that's why we're going to get back and talk about the chart.

It's important that the dollar remains steady, that it be faithful

But let me just finish up a little bit more on the idea of, of the fact that the money, what you mentioned. What is money? Money is a representation of a contribution that I've made to someone else. So a, ah, fellow, goes to, he, sees a pair of shoes, and you say, I'd like to have those shoes. What the shoe store says to him is basically, what have you ever done for anybody that you're entitled to have these shoes? And you can say, well, I mowed Widow Johnson's yard. How do I know you mowed widow Johnson's yard? I have this. What is that? It's a $20 bill. It is a representation of a contribution that I've made to another. You say, well, that's, that's nice. I'm really glad that you did that. It, probably took you an hour to do that. It takes three hours to make these shoes. These shoes are worth $60. When you go back and mow widow Johnson's yard a couple more times and you have $60, then you can come back. And what is the money? The money is a representation of a contribution that I've made to someone else. That's why it's important. Just as Mike's question was, it's important that that measurement of service, that representation which is the money, that it be steady, that is it be faithful. That way you can save it, you can invest it. But if you destroy that, and that's why, we've always used gold as a benchmark. Why gold? Well, because 90 to 95% of all the gold that's ever been, ever been mined in the history of the world is available today. The gold that the pharaohs had, the gold that, that the children of Israel took when they, when they went to Israel, it's hanging around somebody's neck. There's a little bit of it that might be in somebody's tooth that was buried some years ago, but most of it is still, it is the most steady. That is why you say, how tall is, is a mountain? How tall is a hill? You have to have a standard. What is it? It's sea level, because the sea level is the same, notwithstanding what environmentalists try to claim about it. But basically it's the same regardless. That's what gold is. Gold is a standard. So if you had a, had an ounce of gold in 1900, you could get a nice tailor made suit with that. If, you had an ounce of gold in 1950, you could get a nice tailor made suit with that. You have an ounce of gold in 1990 or today, you could still get a nice tailor made suit with that ounce of gold. It stays the same. Now the representation of it, the dollar, which is a synonym for that, it's important that it remains steady as well. And that's what you're committed to and that's what America has done better than any other nation on earth. So that at the end of World War II, people said we have two options. We can hold gold or we can hold American dollars, which are as good as gold. Because those Americans aren't like the Argentinians, they're not like the Venezuelans. They're not, they're not going to print money willy nilly. They're going to keep it steady and the same. America has basically done that. And that is why the entire world uses the dollar as to rely upon as a substitute for gold. And that's why you and I must elect politicians to make sure that they don't undo that. Because when they undo that, they don't trust the dollar, which is what is happening all over the world. Because we elected a person who deliberately and intentionally, I'm talking about Obama and Biden, deliberately tried to weaken the dollar so that they would have a substitute because it Gave the American dollar, gave America strength. And that's why bric, that is, the Brazil, Russia, India and China got together, said, we're going to have a substitute bridge dollar. We're going to have one that will supplant the American dollar. But they can't do it because they haven't had the moral courage to stand still. So people still trust America. And that's why your work and the American character is so important that we elect people to maintain the dollar similar to representing the amount of work that a person does. And how do we know when they do it? Well, there's only one benchmark, and that's gold. Determines whether or not person is behaving. So when. Just a quickie. When, when, Ronald Reagan came in, the price of gold was over $800 an ounce under Jimmy Carter, had 18% inflation, 22% interest rates. When, When Reagan put a stop to that, the price of gold fell to $300. Why? Because they were willing to hold the dollar again because we're going. And it maintained steady then for. For 30 years. And now recently, they've begun to misbehave again. It's the principle of the character of the people that we elect to make sure that that doesn't happen. And if they. If it does happen, then we have to have the alternative. And that. That's. That's what, pirate money is all about.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, no question.

Bob McEwen was chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden

Well, I want to play a clip because I want our audience to hear what the chief economist for President Joe Biden. Now, he was with him when he was vice president. He was with him before that, and he was the head of the Council on Economic Advisors during the Biden presidency term. And it is the exact opposite of what you said. We need Congressman McEwen for leadership. So let's play this.

Mike Carter: Now, this was, his chief financial advisor for Biden, and he's a doctor, right? A doctor in economics.

Kevin Freeman: No, no, he does not have a doctorate. It's a doctorate in social work. In fact, he has no economics degree, not an undergraduate or anything else. And I know, Bob, you've got an undergraduate, economics, just like I do. He has no doctorate in economics, but this is what he was asked, a very simple question. If the government, prints money, right? And he said, yes, then why do we have to borrow money? Let's listen to his answer.

Kevin Freeman: Some of this stuff gets. Some of the language that the. Mm. Some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money, and it definitely lends that money. Which is why, the government definitely prints money and then it lends that money by, by selling bonds. Is that what they do? yeah. they sell bonds. Yeah, they sell bonds. Right. Since they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money.

Bob McEwen: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: So a lot of times, at least to my year with mmt, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing. But there is no question that the government prints money. Then it uses that money to,

Kevin Freeman: So, Yeah, I guess I'm just. I can't really talk. I don't. I don't get it. I don't know what they're talking about. Like, because it's like the government clearly prints money. It does it all the time, and it clearly borrows. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this debt and deficit conversation. So I don't think there's anything confusing that.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, he said I'm confused, but there's nothing confusing there. You know, Bob, as I watched this, and I watched the whole documentary, which was written by a very thoughtful, filmmaker, who is an economist working for Bernie Sanders, and she was trying to promote modern monetary theory, that there needs to be no standard whatsoever for money. And you, know, it reminds me of something you said to Liberty pastors about we can all. As long as we don't have truth in the room, we can all get along. Can you explain that?

Bob McEwen: Well, yes, because truth reveals error. And so I can say the room is 30ft wide. You can say it's 15. Another person say it's 25. We can just talk about it. We have conferences. We can write white papers. We can get PhDs in it. We can write magazines. Everything's all fine until someone comes along and measures it. And we understand that the measurement is truth. Everything else is just opinion. And what happens to the person that reveals the truth? Everyone dislikes that person. Because before. Because truth reveals error. And also, as I mentioned, that truth overcomes error. We could talk about that as well. But that's why people in error, they hate truth. And that's why everybody turns. They can all get along, religiously. You can pray in the name of Mother Earth and eagle feathers and. And just all. And be so tolerant until someone comes in and names the name of Christ. Every. If you refer to scripture, suddenly they all turn. They all bear their. Their fangs. why? Because I am the truth. And this nation was founded upon godly truth. And everything flowed from there. That's why there's such a great effort to take God out of our pledge of Allegiance to take any references to Christ off the city seals. Why do they care about that? Because that's the standard I am come that you might have life. They're the source of life and their desire is to have man in control, not God. And therefore America is the lighthouse for the world. 85 cents out of every dollar that goes for global evangelism comes from this little 4% of the population of the world. This is the standard of righteousness on the planet, whether it be on the high seas or in aircraft, or in copyrights or in banking. We stand for truth and righteousness. Therefore we are involved in a spiritual battle for its preservation. And you and I are in the middle of it proudly. And America is succeeding in it, I'm pleased to announce.

Mike Carter: You know, we got to get that truth message out even more though. I saw a Gen X, interview the other day and she was like, well, free markets and capitalism, that stands for survival. But socialism, communism, that's about community. And we've got it. Yeah, it was Gen Z.

Pirate Money Radio focuses on helping future generations enjoy liberty and security

And so we've got to, do a better job of educating our youth. We've got to do a better job of getting the message that Bob has and makes it very simple to understand economics and what this is about and the value of trading services and holding value. And Bob, we're going to get you a Pirate Money logo on that black suit of yours because, you are talking our language. That is beautiful. Thank you.

Bob McEwen: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: You mentioned Jesus, who is the standard for truth. Absolutely, no question about it. We could call him the gold standard for truth. And you mentioned earlier that gold was the standard for money. And what we're talking about is we're talking about having genuine standards by which we can measure everything else. We've got two more segments with the great Bob McEwen, six term congressman. And we're going to be talking about how we can help right, the American ship for future generations so our children and our grandchildren can enjoy liberty. We'll be right back.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: Young people say that socialism is about community

Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, and we're here. I'm joined by Mike Carter, co host and also our special guest, Bob McEwen, a former six term congressman. really an economist, but a lover of Jesus. I think that he loves truth and he loves Jesus and he's one of the great orators of our day. speaking of great orators, I think back to the founding fathers and when they were writing and establishing the Constitution. They wanted it written and based in truth. They wanted it written and based on the truth of Jesus Christ, but also the truth of standards, like the gold standard, rather than paper money, fiat money. And Congressman, you're a student, of history, and you have studied the founders. What were they thinking about when they wrote the Constitution?

Bob McEwen: Well, they looked throughout all recorded history and they found out what worked and what didn't work. Which gets back to Mike's question at the end of the last segment as to how these young people say that socialism is about community. And nobody goes to the very next question. Where do you get what you want to communize? If you want to give them food, where does the food come from? What? Why is a person going to get up in the middle of the night in the winter to pharaoh hogs, if the reward is not there, if there's no profit in doing so. So therefore those people always starve. You know, the vice President was talking about, he was going to investigate as to why everybody wanted to come to America. What is the root cause of all these people coming from Latin America? I'll tell you what the root cause is. It's very simple. It's socialism. It's the same people that people are leaving New York, the same people that are escaping from Los Angeles. The degree to which you do that is a degree to which you take from people. That's called stealing. If you do it in a group, and you do it through politics, that's called socialism. If you do it one on one, that's called a criminal. But the impact is exactly the same thing. So the only way that people can benefit is when they're able to produce through free enterprises. Which is exactly our discussion now you mentioned as to what happens when they take that away from you. and there's a strong effort, we're willing to do some of that. And our founders said that it should be based upon a principle. And what is the principle? Not what you think, not what I think. They said we're going to use the Creator as our standard. And so they had, every one of them at the Constitutional convention, had the second treatise of Locke, and in there are 1500 scriptural references as they're all trying to decide the separation of powers, all the things that are scripturally the source. And so when they put it together so that people would have equality before God and just quite frankly, let's just be frank about it, there's only equality one place, and that's at the Foot of the cross. And the further you get from the cross, the more you break into, into tribalism. And so in the Middle east, you see the tribes of the Middle East. So, Sadat, or not Sadat, but, the president of Syria just recently left, and he was an Alawite. And they've ruled. They're only about 20% of the people of Syria, but they've ruled Syria for the last 45 years. And the fight is a tribal fight. And we try to take that in other countries. We say, let's have a majority vote and the tribes vote. The only place it's equal in America, we didn't vote by tribe. We voted as an individual before God, which is the basic fundamental of the Mayflower Compact and the scriptures that our founders created. in so doing, we honor economically equality as well. That is, I get to own a piece of property and produce a good. Not because of my bloodline, not because of the melanin in my skin, not because of my origin, only because. Not because of how much land I own, only because I invented something and decided to do something good for the person, whether it be transcribe, books or write music or anything that I would do. And so this little 4% of the population of the world, 4%, created the airplane everybody wanted to fly for thousands of years. The airplane, the light bulb, the telegraph, the telephone, the global positioning system, the Internet, the elevator that makes for skyscrapers all over the world. It wouldn't be if it weren't for Elisha Otis inventing the elevator, air conditioner so they could be in places where it's warm because of Willis Carrier. The list goes on. All of it comes from one place called America. Why is America? Are we extra special and smarter, work harder than anybody else? No, we're people from all over the world that have a spiritual value system. That man's dignity comes from God, not from his tribe, not from his political party, not because he has women's rights or majority rights or black rights or gay rights, or he has rights that come from God. It's right there in our birth certificate. They understand that we were equal. And in so doing, this nation every day, every year, writes more books, more plays, more symphonies, more copyrights, more inventions than the other 96% combined. And that is a spiritual battle that America stands for. And that's why the people that we elect, it's really, really important that they understand that. And when folks, we're talking about the chaos that we have, when people who call themselves religious leaders and they are willing to endorse this kind of error. We are the lighthouse. We're the only hope. This is the place that people hope to someday escape to. And if we don't hand it judiciously, then we'll pay a price. We got a couple more minutes.

The more choices I take away from you, the less freedom you have

Let me just talk about if you had a rule, if you had a slide rule. How much of this do you do? Let us suppose that, that you have $100 bill and you go to Walmart and the most expensive thing at the store is $99. That means you're completely free to choose anything in the store. You have enough money to buy anything in the store. If someone comes along and takes money away from you, say they take 25%. Now you only have $75. There are some things that you can no longer purchase. That is, you have fewer choices. Thomas Jefferson said, freedom is having choices. The more choices I take away from you, the less freedom you have. And anybody who's ever raised a teenager, they've had this fight. But also, if I take money away from you, you're worse off financially. And that's only, that only makes common sense. if you're with the New York Times, that would be a profundity. But most people understand if I take money away from you, you're worse off. And so instead of taking, taking 25, suppose a person took 50%. Now you've got less. That means you have fewer choices, fewer things you could buy lower, standard of living. Suppose someone takes 75. Even fewer choices, even the lower standard. Suppose someone comes along and takes it all. What do we call a person who works all day and keeps absolutely nothing? That person is called a slave. Now, as we discussed in the first segment, Kevan, there are only two people that can come and take money away from you. One is a criminal. He has a gun and he can come and take money away from you. The other is the, the government has a gun and can come and take money away from you. And as we said, the impact is the same. So, when you look on a chart, you tell me what percentage of the gross domestic product, what percent of the GDP of any city, any state, or any nation. And the principle applies. The greater the freedom where you go in, you can buy anything you want. The greater the freedom, the greater the wealth, the greater the government, the greater the poverty. And it only works that way every time. So, New York and Florida have exactly the same population. Florida just passed New York slightly. So they're right exactly the same. The budget in Albany, New York is twice the size of the budget in Tallahassee, Florida. When I was in the state legislature in Ohio, we were number one and new job creation. And we elected the governor, said, we can put a stop to this. And so as they began to increase the taxes. Ohio now has been 48, 49 or 50th for the last 20 some years. You can make any rich place poor or you can make any poor place rich, that is. When Thatcher took over poor Britain was, was in the, the National Monetary Fund was controlling the pound, this pound sterling because they were in such a state of utter collapse. And first thing she did was cut taxes. What did that do? Leaves money back in people's pocket. Remember the 75% and the 50% put more money in people's pockets. They began to buy, sell and invest, which you teach so well. And by the time she left office, Britain had gone from the bottom to the fourth largest economy in the world. I repeat, you can make any rich place poor. When I was young, Detroit was the richest city on the planet. Not even close. The richest city city in the history of mankind. Today it's the poorest city north of the Rio Grande in all of North America. You can make any rich place poor or you can make any poor place rich if you understand that principle.

Kevin Freeman: You know, I look at this, I've got the EU, the European Union, 1980, when President Reagan was elected was 13% larger economy than the United States of America. And they, I think everybody would agree, they've enacted socialist style policies and now they are 33% smaller. At the end of 2024, the combined power and economic might of the European Union is 33% less than the United States. So we've had more liberty, the greater liberty, the greater prosperity. they've had less liberty and less prosperity. And so to your point, Bob, you're 100% right. I would add one thing though is you're right. Government can steal from the power of a gun. They can come and take out of your paycheck, or they can mandate that you write a check at the end of every April 15th you have to write a check and send it into the government. A criminal just comes and takes when he does, but the effect is the same. But there is also a same effect if they diminish the purchasing power of your dollar by producing too much money. Like Jared Bernstein was talking about, the more money they print, the less valuable those dollars are and the more they create unbounded by anything, the Net effect is at Walmart, when you said the most expensive thing was $99, well, now it's $199. And you've lost liberty because you still only have $100.

Mike Carter: When Bob brought that up about the slide rule, let's say you have $99 and you want to spend that. There's been a fair amount of exchange there. Well, look at what's happened and how we worked against what our founders saw within that Constitution. You know, the dollar's lost to it since 1972, 95% of its value. So that $99 is worth 10 cents, maybe, at the best. So it depends how you want to measure that. Exactly. But what did George Washington say? What did Jeff. What did, Jefferson say? What did our Madison say out there? George Washington, said that if we had paper money, it would ruin commerce, oppress the honest, open the door to every species of fraud and injustice. we had Jefferson out there straight out, paper is poverty. it is only the ghost of money and not money itself. and then James Madison, paper money is unjust. it's unconstitutional for its effects of the rights of property as much as taking away equal value in land. So our founders got it.

Kevin Freeman: Even Hamilton said, to omit an unfunded paper is the sign of value. Ought not to continue as a formal part of the Constitution, never, ever hereafter to be employed being in its nature pregnant with abuse and liable to be made the engine of imposition and fraud. We have nothing against paper money if it's backed by gold and silver. And Bob, you once talked about a Continental note. So I went out and got a Continental note from Philadelphia in 1776. And you pull it up and it says the bearer is entitled to, one Spanish mill dollar, or the equivalent in gold and silver. But the problem is, they didn't have any gold and silver behind it. So what did Continentals become worth? We've got 30 seconds, Bob.

Bob McEwen: Became worthless.

Pirate Money Radio talks with former Congressman Bob McEwen about economic issues

And even to this day, all these years later, when we say something has no value, you say it's not worth a Continental.

Kevin Freeman: That would be something without any value. So we're talking with the great Bob McEwen. We're talking about basic, simple economic truths, the kind of things that we wish every congressman would know and understand in Washington. so they'd quit stealing from the American people, and they would quit inflating away the value of our dollar. The good news is we have some solutions for these, and Bob can explain to us, the difference between first, second and third party Payers what that means for us as individuals and lessons that the politician should learn from somebody that's a hard working man. Like former Congressman Bob McEwen. We'll be right back with him after this break.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: Pirate Money Radio is promoting transactional gold and silver

Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm joined by Mike Carter, the co host and the Great Congressman Bob McEwen. Former Congressman. Now he's just a conservative leader that is teaching truth, justice and the American way. We can call him Superman, because he's out there leading for those things.

Mike Carter: He is Superman. I remember when we had him at our first NSIC conference talking about this third party payer and every advisor in the room is like, I need to get a copy of that. How do we get this video? that message needs to be heard by all. So I'm glad we can get this in this segment here.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, we've got to get it in this segment. And the, the good news is he's talking about having standards. And we just ended with the Continental, which was produced by the Continental Congress. It funded the Revolutionary War and really had nothing behind it about bankrupted our nation. And so all the founders, whether it's Washington or Jefferson or Madison or even Hamilton, who was the first treasury secretary, he said we should never, ever, ever do that again. And we did it again in 1971 when President Nixon took us off the last vestiges of the gold standard. And from that D till the present, we've lost 90% of the purchasing power of the dollar. and still it's better than most other nations because we have a lot of liberty left in America. And we were built on a, religious and moral people and the Constitution and so forth. But we came up with this, Mike, you and I travel the country to bring out pirate money legislation which is transactional gold and silver. We got it passed in five states this year and maybe a dozen other states next year.

Mike Carter: And we're working Ohio, Bob. So any extra effort you can push to get Ohio over the finish, that would be great.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, working Ohio and Alaska and Idaho and so many North Carolina, so many other great states. Alabama, I couldn't name them all. But a company in England saw what we were doing and they'd actually created a technology that let you spend gold and silver and they wanted to sponsor our efforts and their sponsor, Pirate Money Radio. So support for this program comes from Glint, a financial technology service offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access their gold holdings for everyday purchases. With Glint, users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in a managed vault. At the time of a transaction. Gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history and manage their account through the Glint app, available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are available at glentpay.comgold247 again that's glenntpay.comgold247 glint providing access to gold for modern spending. And that's what the Continental was supposed to be. You got a note, you could turn it in and I want to get my gold or silver and it's really there and I believe it. And Glint is that for us.

Mike Carter: And what that technology does though is it literally makes gold transactional. So I can literally go into any store that takes a MasterCard, I can pull out that debit card and I can spend gold and silver just like I would, money, it's awesome.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Bob Manne: Why does socialism not work? Everybody says it never works

Now that leads us into spending and who's the payer for it and who's the person being paid and who's receiving the benefit of it. Which is one of the greatest talks on economics I've ever heard in my life. And I've been in economic realm my entire career, business career. Bob, can you explain the difference between a first party payer and someone else?

Bob McEwen: Well, pardon me, Kevan. It goes to the very point as to why does socialism not work? Everybody says it never works. It never works. Why doesn't it work? Here's why. Suppose you're going to buy something for yourself. You care about two things. You care about the price because you're paying for it. You care about the quality because you're going to consume it. And no one can make that decision as well as you can. You might pay $5 for a cup of coffee at 7 in the morning, for which you wouldn't pay 50 cents at 3 in the afternoon. When it's your money buying something for you, you make the best decision. That's called a first party purchase. Now let us suppose one of those two things. The price or the quality is not controlled by you. That's called a second party purchase. Now you're more flexible. For example, maybe you're going to buy something for someone else. Do you care about the price? Sure. Because you're paying for it, but you're a little more flexible on the quality, you know, by the time it breaks, they'll be married for three years. They'll forget who gave it to them. This will be fine. We've all bought things for people we wouldn't have bought for ourselves. Why? We care about the price. Yep, we're paying for it, we're not going to consume it. Therefore we're not so concerned about the quality. Now let's suppose it's the other way around. Let us say we are going to consume it, but we're not paying for it. So the waitress comes along and says, would you like to have a glass of orange juice? And you ask, how much is it? And she says, well, it's ah, four and a half dollars a glass. And you say, no, really, I'm fine, I'll be fine. She says, oh, I see you got the pancakes. Well, it comes with the pancakes. We said, well, in that case I'll take three glasses, pour away. Do you care about the quality? Yes. Because you're consuming it. You don't care about the price because you're not paying it. You might walk off and leave half a glass. You wouldn't if you were paying for it. But since you're not, you don't care so much about the price. Now that's called a second party purchase. One of those two things is not controlled for you. The final example is a third party purchase. A third party purchase is when you don't control either one of those things. You don't care about the price because you're not paying for it. You don't care about the quality because you're not consuming it. Let's explain. I use an example. There's a million that we could come up with in a few hours. But let's just take for example that suppose where you work, everybody has to put $5 in the kitty for being late at the end of the month. They raffle it off and see who wins. And so it's the last day of the month. And the boss says, john, count the money in the kitty. How much is there? And you count out, it's $150. He said, we'll buy something with it, we'll raffle it off today. So at the end of the, you come back from lunch and you've forgotten how I was supposed to get something. What was I supposed to get? look around and there in the store window across the street is a six, six foot tall stuffed frog. A stuffed M Mannequin. And so you think, oh, well, that'll be great. I'll go over, check the price. $149. Oh, this is perfect. You buy it, you shove it in the closet. The end of the day, the boss invites everybody down, harasses them for being late. Everybody draws a number, see who wins. The new secretary wins. What does she win? Open the door. Six foot tall, stuffed frog. Oh, that's so funny. She rolls her car up, they put it in the front seat, she drives off. Everybody clapping and cheering. What is that called? That is called a third party purchase. A third party purchase is purchasing something with money that's not yours, therefore you don't care about the price. If it was 100, if you had $100, you'd spend that. If it was $300, you would have spent that. It's not your money. You don't care to purchase something you're not going to personally consume, so therefore you don't care about the quality. Now, at this point we have to pause just for a second because this is not Democrat, Republican, conservative, Christian Labor. Ah, Christian Democrat. This is just the facts, and that is that all government purchases are third party purchases made with money that's not theirs to purchase, things they will not personally consume. Therefore, will there be waste in the highway department? You can count on it. Will it be waste in the Defense department?

Every time we take a dollar from an individual and run it through government

Absolutely. That's why we believe, as Abraham Lincoln said, that government should do only those things which a man cannot do better for himself. Why? Because every time we take a dollar from an individual to save and invest and improve his family, on a first party basis and run it through a third party system called government, we are in the process of making the nation poorer. And therefore we go back to the chart that I mentioned in the last segment that you find out what percentage of any city, any state or any nation is done in that manner, the larger the government, and you can put it on that chart, and the principle applies, the greater the freedom, the more individual I buy it for myself. the greater the freedom, the greater the wealth, the greater the government, the greater the poverty. And that's all government is. It's a fight. So every time some politician comes along, I'm going to give you free health care, I'm going to give you housing, I'm going to. What's that, Communist in New York. I'm going to give you, grocery stores, I'm going to give you free rides on the, on the metro. I'm going to give you, you have to Ask the question from where are you going to get it? Where you're going to take it from someone. And the degree to which they do that, those people are diminished and poorer. And the degree, the greater the socialism, the greater the poverty. I repeat, it only works this way every time.

Kevin Freeman: You know, you're so right in that I think of health care and I think, you know, when I go to the doctor, oh, this isn't covered by my health insurance. Well, how much does it cost? And I care about that. I actually talk with them. But then you walk in and say, oh, no, your health insurance, we could run this extra test for you. Now, it may not yield a whole lot of additional information, but we could.

Bob McEwen: Run it for you.

Kevin Freeman: What does that cost? Well, it might cost $4,000, but your health insurance covers it. Oh, okay. Well, then run it. I, you know, everything you said is real.

Bob McEwen: Kevan, you and I need to do a segment on health care because that is the perfect example of why it doesn't work. We consume it so we have the finest health care on the planet, but the prices are all out of whack. Why? Because of what you said. A second party purchase. I can explain how we could fix that in 24 hours. It would right itself like a sailboat when you let go of the, the jib. It could fix, it could be fixed. But you, first of all have to understand what caused it. And what you just said is 100% correct, is after World War II, we went from individuals buying health care to 85% have a second party purchaser. And therefore we do not care about the price. And that's why it's out of all proportion. But it could be fixed just as rapidly as it was ruined.

Kevin Freeman: And health care came in because we started stealing from people with extra taxes from their income tax. And employers weren't allowed to give raises. It's government involved. They weren't allowed to give raises. We've got to do something to keep our employees. So, we'll give them health care benefits. And also, all of this has happened, really. It happened, with fdr, when we started taking money out of people's paychecks. And then we limited. Oh, no, you can't pay them that much. Isn't that ironic? Government sometimes tells a business you have to pay this much, $30 an hour, and of course that ruins the economy. Or sometimes they say, no, you can't give raises and you can't pay anymore. Why is the government deciding these things for us, Bob?

Bob McEwen: Why? Well, it was an executive order by FDR that created this problem. We could correct it overnight. Great to be with you, Kevan and Mike.

Mike Carter: Well, that was the gold standard on third party payments. And if you're listening to this on the radio, I encourage you to go back, listen to the podcast so you can hear it again. Because you describe the problem and the solution, Bob, like nobody else can. Thank you for that.

Kevin Freeman: All right, Bob, where can people follow you? what's the best way?

Bob McEwen: Well, I don't know how they do that, really. I'm just happy. If they're listening to pirate radio, I'm happy.

Kevin Freeman: how about Bob McEwen.com? does that work?

Bob McEwen: It could, yeah. Okay.

Kevin Freeman: We need to pray for America to return to God's principles

All right.

Kevin Freeman: This is an opportunity for us to learn truth. And the truth is based on biblical principles. It always is. All truth is. As the great congressman, thank you so much for being with us. We in America, we need to pray. We need to pray for America to return to God's principles, and in doing so, his divine protection. Pray for us to be faithful with unrighteous mammon. Pirate money has a role in this. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, etcetera, It's Kevan Freeman and Mike Carter and former congressman Bob McEwen for pirate money Radio argument.

Pirate Money Radio features Kevin Freeman, Mike Carter, and former Congressman Bob McEwen breaking down basic economics, contrasting free markets with socialism, and exposing how inflation and taxation reduce freedom. McEwen explains wealth creation through voluntary exchange, the dangers of third-party payments, and why government spending is inherently wasteful compared to first-party purchases. The discussion critiques Modern Monetary Theory, defends sound money with gold as a steady benchmark, and ties America’s prosperity to truth, liberty, and constitutional principles. The show also highlights practical solutions like transactional gold technologies and state-level efforts to restore monetary standards.