Most people know very little about the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. Throughout their schooling years they have heard next to nothing about this institution. Beyond the touting of simplistic general concepts, little exposure to the actual workings of the Federal Reserve is ever given the chance. It is told that the Federal Reserve is the lender of last resort, a safety net put in place to save the people from the dangers of unbridled capitalism, an institution created to maintain near full employment, and a protector of the nation’s money. But those familiar with the workings of the central bank know that this institution, and the whole banking system under it, is the real danger.

So here we are, nearly a century after the inception of the Fed, and everywhere you turn you can hear all sorts of chatter negatively directed toward the institution. No longer are those that shined such a dissenting light on central banking quickly discredited and ignored. Those sympathetic to a true free market find themselves less likely nowadays to be written off as conspiracy theorists, cranks, or contrarians…as if these are invalidating qualities anyway.

But why the sudden change of tone? Why now? Have the masses suddenly realized the destructive methods of the central bank? Is it all of a sudden apparent that the Federal Reserve is simply ripping the people off?

Some claim that it is merely our current economic circumstances that have triggered us to question our rulers more than before, to finally investigate how the government affords to sustain the unsustainable, to realize that the American economy is nothing like a free market, and to even ponder the existence of the Federal Reserve?

The crisis most certainly has much to do with sobering up the masses. But I am convinced that the only reason we can now productively discuss the imperious history, methodology, and necessity of the Federal Reserve is because of one man - Ron Paul. It is not because this man is the only free marketeer around trying to educate the masses about the importance of a free market in money. It is because he has been able to break through the mainstream so eloquently, respectfully, and patiently. When the general masses first heard this man speak in the 2008 presidential campaign, they recognized the sound of truth. And many, many more are coming to the realization of who really understands freedom and who does not. Of course, those who care nothing of truth or freedom, care not for Ron Paul. It is my sincere belief that if Ron Paul refrained from participating in that campaign, his screams, and the many others fighting for true liberty, would continue to fall on deaf ears.

And so now we have End the Fed, a book that will finally force the issue of the Fed into the grand economic debate. The case put forward is so boldly expressed in the title…the time to end the Federal Reserve is now. But the book is more than just a call to end the central bank. Ron Paul understands the market and is able to articulately layout to the layman how a market economy works, how hard (commodity) money freely arises, and how freedom is the best environment for prosperity to flourish. In End the Fed, it is explained that the root cause of our economic destruction is the “half socialized” banking system propped up by government to protect the profits and socialize the losses; a system that could not exist in a free market. He lays out the Constituitional case, the economic case, the libertarian case, and the moral case to end the central bank, showing that there is absolutely no beneficial reason for its existence.

In the beginning of the book, you get a short glimpse into the mentality of the young Ron Paul that experienced the tail end of the Great Depression where he learned the true value of savings from working for his father and getting paid in pennies. He talks about the fascination he had with the rarity of coins, particularly through the Indian Head pennies which were driven out of circulation as they were switched to the Lincoln Head pennies. At a young age he developed a great interest in the concept of money. But it wasn’t until Nixon ended the semi-gold standard in 1971 that he really got interested. At that point, he had realized that what all the great free market economists had warned about was eventuating.

Throughout the book, readers are exposed to some of the encounters Ron Paul had with such free market heroes as Mises, Rothbard, Blumert, Rockwell, and Hazlitt; as well as those in charge of monetary policy such as Greenspan and Bernanke, with some excellent word-for-word transcriptions of conversations through committee hearings.

This book is meant to be a starting point on the quest for economic knowledge and truth. At the end of the book Ron Paul provides an excellent suggested reading list, full of writings that are sure to spark the fire of liberty in those yearning for more information on markets.

As Ron Paul discusses in End the Fed, crises have always led to greater centralization of power. In general, politicians do not understand the concept of non-intervention; they are determined to “fix” everything they perceive as problematic, resulting in the exacerbation of existing problems and the generation of new ones. And so if they continue to intervene in the market at their current pace, we are destined to see price controls, shortages, and rationing when the effects of the Fed’s monetary expansion begin to appear. But as Paul describes so eloquently, it is during a period of crises that the market is needed more than ever. He gives much deserved respect to underground/black markets, explaining how the underground/black market emerges out of absolute necessity to solve the problems generated by government meddling.

As we are witnessing today in the midst of a dollar crisis, the Federal Reserve and the US government are both clamoring for more power to “fix” what they have destroyed. For this reason, this book is the most important book of the decade. The people must be educated enough to resist this power of destruction. The people must be educated enough to End the Fed.