Former Republican presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul says secession is happening and it's "good news." Paul later predicted the states would stop listening to federal laws.

"I would like to start off by talking about the subject and the subject is secession and, uh, nullification, the breaking up of government, and the good news is it's gonna happen. It's happening," Paul, the father of potential Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, told a gathering at the libertarian Mises Institute in late January. The event Paul was speaking at was titled "Breaking Away: The Case for Secession."

Paul said secession would not be legislated by Congress, but would be de facto, predicting "when conditions break down...there's gonna be an alternative."

"And it's not gonna be because there will be enough people in the U.S. Congress to legislate it. It won't happen. It will be de facto. You know, you'll have a gold standard when the paper standard fails, and we're getting awfully close to that. And people will have to resort to taking care of themselves. So when conditions break down, you know, there's gonna be an alternative. And I think that's what we're witnessing."

Later, Paul said the Federal Reserve would end and the states would stop listening to federal laws they didn't agree with.

"The Fed is gonna end. There is going to be a de facto secession movement going on. The states are going to refuse to listen to some of the laws. We've seen tremendous success already with states saying to the federal government, 'We're not gonna listen to you anymore about the drug laws.' And they're getting out of it, and I think the American people are waking up to that, and as far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier."

Here's the full video of his speech: