What is so sacred about the Federal Reserve? And what is the particular problem about "THIS" time?
Absolutely nothing. We've lived without it for a long time, which constitutes a simple proof.
As I said earlier, the question is, what is better? As Nietzsche said, to wit, "Free from what? I do not want to hear that. Free for what? Tell me that."
"And what is the particular problem about "THIS" time?"
In my humble opinion, the essence of the present time is that we witness a coup: a fundamental change being imposed on the country under the guise of economic crisis (FDR did exactly the same). The opposition, both Republicans and Libertarians, have bought into Obama's framework. They argue, for instance, against his stimulus bill.
But there is and has never been a stimulus bill. Of those $700B, only a timy fraction has any potential to stimulate economy. The same is with healthcare: Obamites claim that it will help to recover the economy. That this is garbage is easy to show: we had the same healthcare system but a booming economy in 1990s.
The opposition should vigorously do is oppose these immediate dangers. If health-care reform is needed, fine: let's talk about it when the economy fully recovers (and we can possibly afford it).
People like ROn Paul focus instead on the issue of not even secondary but terciary importance (no, it was not Bernanke that bought GM; it was Bush and Obama administrations; he has no power to do such things without presidents and Congress).
This is much like Bush chose to focus, after his re-election, on reforming social security. Of much greater immediate importance was shutting our borders and scrapping the idiotic tax code.