The American people have been lied to continually. Ben Bernanke praised "paper money" as superior to gold in meeting our debts. Throughout the years, since the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, the American people have been assured that the paper currency was backed up by literal gold and silver. No longer is this true—the Federal Reserve System has nefariously manipulated the supply of paper money, doing away with gold and silver backing (the gold has disappeared), providing virtually worthless IOUs from the Federal Reserve. The horrible inflation resulting from this trickery and manipulation has driven up the cost of gasoline 400%, from a little over a dollar per gallon in 1970 to about four dollars per gallon today. Without the safety of the gold standard, the criminals who run the Federal Reserve System have robbed Americans blind through galloping inflation. Ironically, when factoring in the Federal Reserve System's manufactured inflation, the cost of gasoline has not really risen at all, but powerful interests have stolen our real wealth, and left us with a pile of 'funny money.'