By Mason Mohon | @mohonofficial

We’ve got a “rigged economy with artificial interest rates,” former GOP Lawmaker Ron Paul said to CNBC on Tuesday.

“When you put a tariff on, the American people suffer. They have to pay it. It is a tax,” Paul said as he started off the interview.

Donald Trump’s recent protectionist tariff proposal has sparked debate as to what the economic impacts of such an action will be. Most agree that it will lead to pain in the economy, but to what extent is the question many are posing. Will it be a calamity, or will it be a minor correction that we will be able to recover from?

Dr. Paul thinks it will be a massive correction, and he does not think the tariff will be the sole cause. He states that we have been running on fiat currency for the last 40 years, referring to our exit from the Bretton Woods Agreement in the 1970’s and that that is contributing to a “danger sitting out there, bigger than ever before.”

Never before has anyone gotten away with such a “rigged economy” so “burdened with debt.”

“There’s no stopping it,” Dr. Paul states, referring to the coming bust, “I think the corruption is gonna be huge….’09 wasn’t able to restore its course.”