In my latest reading of This Is Herman Cain, Herman Cain
talked about how he saved Godfather's Pizza from bankruptcy as President
of Godfather's (essentially, he highlighted to the public what
Godfather's was known for----it's quality----rather than trying to be
like Domino's, which was known more for its delivery), how he and a
friend bought Godfather's from Pillsbury (with the help of loans), and
how Herman Cain challenged President Bill Clinton in a forum about
Clinton's health care plan and the cost that Cain felt it would impose
on restaurant owners.
What I want to highlight in this post,
though, is Cain's discussion of the Federal Reserve. Cain is
unapologetic about the fact that he worked for the Federal Reserve, and
he does not agree with the Republican Presidential candidates who want
to abolish it (though he says that he does not care if it's audited).
Cain supports the Federal Reserve because he believes that it regulates
the money supply, and he does not think that the money supply in the
U.S. and the world would self-regulate without the Federal Reserve. At
the same time, Cain believes that the Federal Reserve should be reformed
because it over-extends itself----as (for example) it seeks to manage
unemployment. Cain states on page 84 that "you cannot manage
unemployment, price stability, and our currency with one arrow, and they
had multiple targets but only one arrow."
I can't say that I
entirely understand Cain's argument, but he does appear to challenge an
idea that is promulgated by such figures as Ron Paul: that the Federal
Reserve causes inflation by printing a lot of money, and that the money
supply will be restricted (and thus inflation will be low) without the
Federal Reserve (or so I understand Paul's position). Cain's point
seems to be that the Federal Reserve controls the money supply, and that
all bets are off were it not to exist. Ron Paul probably believes that
other things are necessary to control inflation besides the Federal
Reserve, such as the gold standard. I'll be reading his book, End the Fed, sometime in the future, so that will provide me with more of an opportunity to learn about his perspective.