MINNEAPOLIS — In a recent appearance on Fox Business, Dr. Ron Paul criticized both major political parties for failing to address the faltering U.S. economy.

During the July 12 interview, Paul responded to Jeb Bush’s recent criticism of Donald Trump’s platform as unrealistic.

“It’s all politics, and Bush is not going to be helpful in any way because I think the country is in such dire problems that the solution is not going to be found in either the Republicans or the Democrats talking with each other … because they won’t admit where the real problem is — the country’s bankrupt,” Paul said.

The former Republican congressman, two-time presidential candidate, and long-time critic of U.S. economic policy said the United States is witnessing the “end of an era of Keynesian economics and Republicans and Democrats are struggling to survive.”

“Both sides want to spend more money — one for the military, the other for the welfare state,” he continued.

Inflation is increasing, he said, suggesting that the stock market is being artificially propped up by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, popularly known as the “Plunge Protection Team,” which has contributed to record highs on Wall Street.

“This is a desperate attempt for the Federal Reserve to preserve a system that can’t be preserved,” Paul explained. “Everything is directed toward the stock market.”

“The liberals argue with me, and they say there’s no inflation … but there’s tremendous inflation. The money supply continues to increase and it has to go somewhere,” Paul said. “And right now it’s designed by the Plunge Protection Team … to save the stock market. “

But he warned that an overvalued stock market doesn’t reflect economic strength in the U.S., where business and manufacturing remain weak. Paul explained:

“[Politicians] say we’re going to force these people to bring these jobs back to this country, but you have to create the conditions where a businessman will borrow money. They don’t even want the money. They money’s not worth anything to them because it’s not worth it to build new plants in this country.”

Paul, who ran for president as a Republican in 2008 and 2012, told the Fox Business panel that he hadn’t yet decided who would get his vote in November.

“Overall, the policies of the country and the trends in the country, economically and in foreign policy, won’t change one bit” after the next election, Paul predicted.

He was particularly critical of Trump, accusing the presumptive GOP nominee of being belligerent and inconsistent in his policies and proposals:

“There was a killing by an American Muslim, and therefore, he says the solution is go over there and really bomb the living daylights out of somebody. That is not a policy.”

Paul compared the current American political landscape to the final days of the USSR:

“But this is a desperate attempt to try to save the system from falling apart. We’re witnessing something similar to the breakup of the Soviet system. That system didn’t work, this system doesn’t work, but nobody wants to admit there’s something wrong with the system. So they’re struggling to hang on to power and to patch it together.”

Rather than focusing on either major party or its candidate, Paul said it makes more sense to focus on traditional Libertarian values such as nonaggression.

“All we have now is government aggression to do and get their will, thousands of policemen carrying guns, and we have a militarized police force. So it transfers into our society” and fosters hate, he said.

“The productivity of this country is down and we’re in a mess,” Paul concluded.