Welcome to the RLH Volatility Model

Some people lead privileged lives.  Most people don't.

 

Speaking on behalf of my humble life, I count a few instances that I've been truly privileged to have had a role.  These would certainly include working for industrial giant W.R. Grace & Co. and its then CEO Peter Grace.  Thanks to Grace, I enjoyed the honor of being one of a couple of thousand American citizens appointed by President Reagan to serve on the Grace Commision's investigation into government spending.  I'm equally proud to have been associated with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. (now Alliance-Bernstein) and its then CEO Sandy Bernstein, when it was still an independent investment-management firm setting standards for company and economic research.  During the 1990s I was named to the Board of Directors of The Foundation for the Fund for Aging Services (now The Aging in New York Fund, Inc.), the original parent of Meals on Wheels, as well as a significant resource for The City of New York's Department for the Aging, at that time headed by Aging Department Commissioner Herb Stupp under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  These were, for me, all great privileges and honors.

 

 

Around the end of July 2009 the telephone rang and Barbra Alexander of the Moneydots Network asked me if I wanted to come on her show to be aired on her syndicate during early August.  I readily agreed without knowing the subject material she had in mind.  Then she told me I'd be on for a half-hour following a segment featuring Dr. Ron Paul, the congressman representing the 14th District of Texas and Libertarian Party nominee for president.  Dr. Paul, who, by the way, is not only a medical doctor, but who put that career aside to study economics, and who today is numbered among the top contemporary scholars of the Austrian School, ranks very highly among Americans I deeply admire, and his efforts to restore the practical might of the law to long neglected elements of the United States Constitution distinguish him as a rare statesman and patriot in a modern Washington political scene dominated mostly by nosecounters.

 

For some time Dr. Paul has been crafting and mustering cosponsorship and public support for H.R. 1207 ("Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009"), a bill before congress currently locked up in committee aimed at overturning key provisions of legislation that established The Federal Reserve Board way back in 1913 that have never been challenged.  Perhaps the most significant element of what Dr. Paul's bill if enacted into law would do is to open the door to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the Fed and its myriad and far-reaching activities worldwide.  That prospect is no less than titanic, since the Fed operates globally, and its operations connect with every central bank, currency and economy, and the magnitude of its actions involve trillions upon trillions of dollars.  The fact that numerous powerful forces in business, finance and government around the world oppose Dr. Paul and his bill--which only seeks to pull the curtain back on what the Fed does--speaks volumes about the state of freedom and democracy in America today and our sovereignty as a nation, and sheds considerable light on the context of the enormous legislative initiatives already accomplished and pending effecting radical changes in the relationship between our government and the people in industry, our banking system, health care, the energy and utility industries and our daily lives--not to mention how quickly these changes are occurring.

 

The three MP3 files clickable below comprise a one-hour broadcast led off by Barbra's interview with Dr. Paul, then followed by the half-hour segment in which I participated and commented on what the congressman is trying to do.  I'll always cherish the memory of this experience among the scant true privileges of my modest life.

 

--RLH.8.1.09

 

Click here for the first of three segments.

 

Click here for the second of three segments.

 

Click here for the third of three segments.