- The late Georgetown University historian Carroll Quigley
said in his book titled, "Tragedy and Hope:"
-
- "(T)he powers of financial capitalism had another
far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial
control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each
country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be
controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting
in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings
and conferences."
-
- By controlling democratic and despotic governments as
well as others in between, they've moved closer to absolute global control
of money, credit and debt to dominate economies, politics, commerce, and
imperial adventurism. As a result, they've benefitted handsomely at the
expense of nations and popular interests.
-
- Josiah Stamp, former Director of the Bank of England
said:
-
- "Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born
in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them
the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create
enough deposits to buy it back again."
-
- "However, take it away from them, and all the great
fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this
would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain
the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue
to create money."
-
- Aesop said "We hang the petty thieves and appoint
the great ones to public office." Bankers with money power are the
most pernicious of all.
-
- Ellen Brown's must-read book titled, "Web of Debt"
discussed private banking, how it usurped money creation power, and how
we can get it back.
-
- She explained what growing numbers know about the malignant
effects of its destructive power. Everyone should understand that the Fed
isn't federal. It's a private banking cartel owned by its major bank members
in 12 Fed districts. New York has controlling power through its majority
interest.
-
- As a result, the Fed rules globally with the European
Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan. They're the world's dominant
central banks along with the Bank for International Settlements - the central
bank for central bankers, or unaccountable banking boss of bosses.
-
- In America, except for coins, banks create money called
Federal Reserve notes, in violation of the Constitution under Article I,
Section 8 that gives Congress sole power "To coin (create) money (and)
regulate the value thereof....;"
-
- Coins and paper money comprise less than 3 percent of
America's money supply. The rest is in computer entries for loans.
-
- Banks create money that didn't previously exist. Around
30% of it is for their private accounts - for speculation and other non-productive
purposes.
-
- A 1960s Chicago Fed booklet called Modern Money Mechanics
explained how through "fractional reserve" banking, saying:
-
- "(Banks) do not really pay out loans from the money
they receive as deposits. If they did this, no additional money would be
created. What they do when they make loans is to accept promissory notes
in exchange for credits to the borrowers' transaction accounts."
-
- Money is created by "building up" deposits
in the form of loans. They, in turn, become more deposits, not the reverse.
The system goes back centuries based on the idea that paper receipts can
be issued and loaned out repeatedly.
-
- Under the gold standard, enough had to be held in reserve
so depositors had access to their money. Today it's run the presses, anything
goes, and print it like confetti, even if currency debasement's risked.
-
- Fractional reserve banking literally creates money out
of thin air. It's then used to create multiples more.
-
- Unlike previous times, today's major banks are "giant
betting machine(s)." Traditional banking is a lost art, at least at
the mega-bank level. Most, or at least many, community ones operate responsibly.
-
- Run recklessly, banking giants use multi-trillions for
high-risk casino-type operations, through devices like derivatives and
securitization scams.
-
- Since Andrew Jackson's presidency (1829 - 1837), the
federal debt hasn't been paid off, only interest to bankers and other owners
of US obligations.
-
- The 16th Amendment let Congress levy an income tax so
bankers could be paid interest on federal debt. If America controlled its
own money, it would be interest-free, and taxing people to pay it wouldn't
be necessary.
-
- Early colonists did it. So did Lincoln. Why not now by
returning money power to public hands where it belongs. Onerous taxes would
be minimized or eliminated. Money for productive growth could be created
inflation-free. Prosperity could be sustained. Full employment and social
justice would be possible.
-
- Imagine that America. Imagine the entire world that way,
instead of one plagued booms, busts, inflation, deflation, instability,
crisis, and perhaps the greatest ever Depression today bankers caused for
their own self-interest to achieve greater consolidation, wealth and power.
-
- In September 2010, a trader named Alessio Rastani on
BBC said "governments don't rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the
world." As a result, "(t)he savings of millions of people are
going to vanish."
-
- Warning viewers to prepare, he said the "economic
crisis is like a cancer. If you just wait and wait thinking this will go
away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late."
-
- He added that most traders "don't really care about
having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation. Our job is to make money
from" whatever goes on, up or down, good or bad. "Personally,
I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night
and I dream of another recession."
-
- "When the market crashes....if you know what to
do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from
this."
-
- In 1929, rampant fraud caused the crash. In summer 2007,
market scholar/analyst Jeremy Grantham warned of a "slow-motion train
wreck" caused by "the first truly global bubble."
-
- Market manipulated speculation caused it. Money power
in private hands gamed the system destructively.
-
- Supposedly, the Fed was established to stabilize the
economy, smooth out the business cycle, maintain healthy sustainable growth,
create price stability, control inflation, and work for the betterment
of everyone.
-
- The 1978 Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (called
the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act) was enacted to fulfill the mandate
of the Employment Act of 1946 by pursuing "maximum employment, production,
purchasing power," price stability, and balanced trade cooperatively
with private enterprise.
-
- It also required the Fed to pursue monetary policy for
long-term sustainable growth with minimum inflation and stable prices.
Specific goals included maximum unemployment of no more than 3% for persons
aged 20 or over, not more than 4% for those aged 16 or over, and inflation
not exceeding 4%.
-
- In fact, a 1988 target of zero inflation was set. The
law let Congress revise goals over time, but its purpose was to achieve
sustainable, full employment low inflationary growth with Fed governors
providing responsible monetary policy to help.
-
- Instead, before and after Humphrey-Hawkins, they've been
economic crashes, multiple recessions, instability, high inflation, soaring
unemployment, the Great Depression, and today's Greatest Depression expected
to persist for years and leave incalculable human wreckage behind.
-
- Fed policy also caused soaring consumer debt, record
budget and current account deficits, an unprecedented national debt at
exceeding 118% of GDP rising exponentially, high levels of personal bankruptcies
and mortgage loan defaults, America's manufacturing base offshored abroad,
a secular declining economy, an unprecedented wealth disparity, over one
third of US households impoverished, eroding social services, and a nation
pursuing unbridled militarism helped by Fed complicity funding it.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- Clearly, money power in private hands failed. It's wrecking
the country, devastating the American dream, impoverishing millions, destroying
jobs, contaminating the environment, and funding America's military machine
that's ravaging the world one country at a time, and threatening humanity
with extinction.
-
- Job one should be stopping this monster from doing more
harm, returning money power to public hands, using it responsibly to restore
what decades of Fed policy destroyed, and hope it's not already too late.
-
- OWS and global protesters must grasp this as top goal
to achieve others for long-denied social justice currently being lost entirely
because corrupt politicians plan it with bankers.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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