XAT is not a project put together by academics, but one created by people who want to share some positive alternatives.
What we want to produce with XAT is an ideas centre that everyone can contribute to, however, the means by which we simply bring everyone's ideas together is proving to be, in practice a very complicated project in itself. As a result we are constantly trying to improve upon our current system and any suggestions you may have to help make the communication among members easier is always going to be greatly appreciated, especially as we are finding an increase in the amount of people contacting us wanting to add their thoughts and/or talk to others of a like mind.
As time goes on XAT relies more and more on contributions received by e-mail and through its Internet Forum and is continually being enriched by these additions. Eventually we envisage XAT being maintained by all its members equally sharing and cooperating with each other. While a self governing system may at first seem a bit of a daydream, there are plenty of good examples now emerging around the world of companies1 successfully being run by their own workforces, proving that this style of in house management is possible.
The central topic in XAT is money, and though we dislike the fact that money has become a measure of value for almost everything these days, we recognise its benefits, and realise that it is the way we use and perceive our money, and not its actual existence which is the cause of our problems.
To explain our view, we believe that a monetary system simply designed to make the trade in goods, ideas and services easier, is not in itself harmful and does not create massive inequalities in wealth distribution. Instead we believe the problems lie in the economic practices of Usury and Fractional Reserve Banking as these are the harmful triggers. The greediness in which money is being initially created, has the tendency to filter down into the rest of society. The majority, who then find themselves with a fraction of the worlds wealth, and proportionate power and influence, naturally may then find it difficult to see the world as a fair place, and so may choose to survive by the rules that society seems to be run by, rather than by a preferred set of rules which are more caring and thoughtful.
Because it is near impossible to influence those in power who could actually change the monetary structure, we have set up our alternative currency to run alongside, and hopefully, if enough people use it, replace the unfair present set of economics.
It's difficult to know if what we're attempting will be successful, but we think it's worth our small efforts to try. Networking with others who have similar ideals is of course vital for XAT to develop. All those who have already participated by either making suggestions, reading, writing, opening accounts, trading, creating links to the site, telling their friends, etc have definitely brought us much closer to this goal, and we thank you.
We hope you enjoy the ideas presented in this book, and while some of them may be already familiar to you, we are sure you will come across many which are not.
1. Ricardo Semler, Seven-Day Weekend
NTRODUCTION
It connects us through trade and inspires innovation; from the most fantastic to the simply mundane, economics is the life blood of human creativity. However throughout our evolution, economic systems have been developed in ways which primarily serve the needs of the richest and most powerful residents on our planet.
As we increasingly continue to recognise the rights of the individual, this unbalanced arrangement becomes less and less acceptable, making the need for a fairer system more vital with each passing day.
If the changes so far proposed in XAT were to be fully realised they would have profound implications not only for global business, but also for our own personal perceptions as individuals and as a society.
XAT is a non-profit organisation introducing a working economic model with its own interest-free New Global Currency, set up and supported by ecologically sound principals and based upon historically tested methods proven by, among others, the administrations of Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.
Alongside this a system of Specialised Direct Democracy is also being suggested, using aspects of the Swiss model in combination with new ideas aimed at addressing the fundamental problems usually faced by this type of democracy.
XAT is a model designed to be demonstrated by participation and eventually offered at referendum to peacefully replace the current system via the democratic process.
Using technologies available today, all of the projects proposed in XAT are easy to implement, with some aspects already up and running and waiting for you to try.
This is no small thing. We spend our next chapter exploring just how important your participation can be.
CAUSE AN EFFECT
In the early sixties meteorologist Edward Lorenz gave us the chaos theory example of a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing, and how this could set off a chain reaction that would end up with a hurricane in New York.
This magical and potentially inspirational model suggests just how important small actions can be.
We can find obvious examples of this in the many seemingly little things we do in our own day to day lives. Consider the effects of recycling, buying fair trade products, purchasing organic food, or boycotting items tested on animals.
What we choose to buy or not to buy has a huge impact on Global business. Producers and suppliers rely totally on willing consumers to survive and have to regularly change to keep up with consumer approval. In this sense the consumer really is King! But what good is a King who rules by chance, with no thought for the consequences of his actions?
To encourage further the promotion and trade in positive goods XAT, as part of its plan, has provided members with an Alternative Classified Ads. Uniquely, all items can be paid for (in part or in full) using the XAT fair trade global currency, which we shall explain in greater detail further on.
When we talk about demonstrating positive alternatives, we mean exactly that.
"Experience is the only teacher we can really trust."
Leonardo da Vinci
We all do what we think is best for us from our experience. From our thoughts originate all our actions. If anything is to ever change in our world, then the way we think will have to change first.
POPULAR PERCEPTIONS
Because we can't weigh thoughts, and we don't need heavy transport to move them, it's easy to mistake our thoughts for being something flimsy, unimportant and almost unreal, yet some of the most powerful things on our planet are the thought systems we all subscribe to.
We interact with each other along the tracks of thought we have inherited. Our politics, economics, how we manage the environment, our education, social perceptions, our moral values, diets, and how we treat our friends or strangers in the street are all expressions of the thought systems we have adopted as our own.
Most of our thought systems are obviously necessary and beneficial, and may be applied well at any time within our world; others however are only useful during specific periods and when these ideas are enforced and promoted beyond their sell-by date, real problems can occur.
All of the world's power structures depend on people's co-operation to stand. We all together make them possible. While it remains true that we support injustice by not objecting to it,1 surely this implies we could withdraw our support at any time.
Sounds easy and sensible to drop outdated thought systems. But when we have been taught to adopt and serve these very ideas since we were born (and the majority of the respectable accomplished people we have learned to look up to have their social positions anchored in these antiquated patterns of thought), it's not so easy.
In XAT, some of the systems we will be suggesting to alter may at first seem too well-established and powerful for the average person to have any real affect on, that is why it may be helpful throughout this book to bear in mind the example of the butterfly because ultimately, it's impossible for us to know what big effects can come from our apparently small actions.
1. Martin Luther King
NATURE'S EXAMPLE
Our creativeness has led us towards trying to conquer nature and to isolate ourselves from its less desirable effects. While there is nothing wrong with building shelter from the cold, this attitude of us against nature has led us away from what nature can teach us. Nature is successful because it is not centrally controlled. There is no tree in Brussels or Washington that dictates how other trees must grow.
Each organism, plant, animal or cell is responsible for its own space, and appears to naturally understand how to fulfil its function, whilst at the same time being part of a complex web of co-operation and sharing.1,2
It seems only right then, that we would benefit from adopting natures highly-evolved system of organisation to fulfil the needs of our human society. The obvious success of Nature's system surrounds us. If it wasn't successful, life on earth would not exist.
XAT has been developed with these things in mind. As a result, all of the improvements and changes being proposed here are, in essence, a move into a more holistic approach to the organisation of our various modern-day systems.
Our structure of commerce is the first we shall be looking at.
1. Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life
2. James Lovelock, Gaia, 'The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine'
MONEY
Economics has an intrinsic connection with most of the things on our planet. It is the driving force behind the bulk of human activity and holds so much power and influence over us that most people aren't even aware of the harmful effects that bad economics is causing.
Our current system of exchange was created with a profit motive aimed at capitalising on people's need for currency. The Central Banking System (which produces the actual currency and loans it to governments at interest and sells it to high street banks at face value) was set up as a network of private businesses with official-sounding names, engineered to make a profit for their shareholders. These include the Bank of England,1 The Federal Reserve,2 and all the other Central Banks throughout the world. Not one of them is democratic! All of them are masters of disguise. Even nationalisation has not stopped Bank of England stock holders from receiving their dividends, nor stopped the bank from keeping 75% of its profit, while writing off the 25% it pays to the Treasury as corporation tax. 3
The use of money allows the necessary exchange of goods and services within our world, much the way blood cells aid the distribution of oxygen through our bodies. It would be right and good if this exchange medium was provided freely according to need; but instead, the production of money has been turned into a profit-centre. If our own bodies were to work on this basis they would not function in a healthy way for long.
The Central Banks (which charge interest to governments for the money they produce from out of nothing, with no labour or wealth involved) have secured these loans against your future taxes. Without even asking you, a substantial part of your future worth has been put up as collateral.
What Central Banks do in a big way with countries, your local bank will replicate on organisations and individuals, using the same slight of hand to produce the funds they lend out of thin air.
1. Graham Bannoc R.E. Baxter and Evan Davis, 'The Penguin Dictionary of Economics' page 34 also The Economic Organisation of Europe, 'Cambridge Economic History of Europe V' page 352
2. Graham Bannoc R.E. Baxter and Evan Davis, 'The Penguin Dictionary of Economics' page 155
3. Bank of England Act 1946
USURY
What the world financial systems are primarily involved in, is known as Usury, (loaning money at interest), which has been condemned throughout history for moral reasons, legal reasons, and for the detrimental effects this practice has on society.
The major religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have all criticised the practice of Usury. So too have many of the worlds greatest thinkers like Plato, 1Aristotle, 2 Seneca,3 and Plutarch.
Many pages, books in fact, have been written explaining why Usury is bad. The main contention is however that it allows the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor getting poorer. You might not begrudge a person making money for providing a product or service to the community. But Usury allows a person to get richer simply because they are rich. As a result whole countries are now in debt to the banking system.
To give an example of just how destructive Usury can be, imagine a situation where a choice exists between two investment projects. One is for the placing of money into a bank at a 5% return, which the bank then unethically invests in a polluting business, the other choice is for a direct investment into a project beneficial to both people and the environment, say a hydroelectric plant, but with returns of only 3%. Financially the more viable project is the one which is most destructive to us and our environment and whilst profit incentives are vital in encouraging progress, the unregulated practice of Usury is highly damaging and can actual hinder progress, if such a direction is deemed to be less profitable to pursue.
"Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
Cree Indian Prophecy
The practice of Usury allows only the rich to benefit by choosing whether or not to invest and what to invest in, simply on the grounds of how much money it will make for them.
To add insult to injury, there exists a potentially even more harmful aspect of Usury, and that is that projects being invested in needn't even be successful in order for the investors to make money on them!
Because financial institutions more often than not demand collateral to be held against loans, as a guarantee should a venture fail, there is no incentive for them to invest in workable projects above pointless ones. People now are borrowing vast amounts against their homes and lenders encourage this, standing to gain either money from repayment or property from repossessing.
The rewards made possible by Usury can encourage all sorts of irresponsible investments, because from the financiers point of view, it appears sensible, being guaranteed to make them a profit, no matter what the result.
When it doesn't make any difference they don't have to care.
If we are talking about a fair way to share the resources in our world, then this is not it.
The rot starts the moment the currency is produced.
1. Plato, Laws, v. 742
2. Aristotle, Politics, I, x,xi
3. Seneca, De beneficiis, VII, x
FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING
Usury however is not the only way in which banks can produce money from nothing. Most of new money creation comes from high street banks giving out private loans for anything from a designer suit to a new car; as well as the interest earned on these loans, they also benefit through the practice known as fractional reserve banking. Depending on risk, a bank needs to keep just 8% to 20% of its capital in reserve, the rest, it is allowed by current regulations to lend.
How does this create money out of thin air?
Imagine an individual goes into a bank and deposits £100 (we'll call them person A); from this £100 deposit only 8% needs to be kept by the bank, the remaining 92% can now be lent out to someone else (we'll call this other someone person B).
Person A still has £100 in their account, but person B now has £92 as well. From out of thin air £92 has been created. But the process doesn't have to stop there. If person B wishes to put their £92 into a bank account also, then the money creation cycle will be repeated even further. (This scenario we give is actually generous to the bankers as it doesn't take into account the fact that they can use their own capital, buildings and so on, as reserves, so allowing for an even bigger chunk of deposited cash to be used in their money creating project. The richer the bank gets, the more money they can loan out).
Restricting this practice is paramount if we wish to have more control over the amount of money in circulation. Fractional reserve banking is one of the main reasons for our mounting private debt and this in turn is adding considerably to the economic uncertainties that businesses and individuals are finding themselves at the mercy of.
Remove Usury and fractional reserve banking from the equation and a wide range of alternative economic strategies open up to us, including ones which will free us from the cyclical effects of boom and bust and from the need to collect taxes. From here a more caring economic alternative can be allowed to grow taking in the needs of both people and the environment.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT?
Think of world finance and most people picture some huge establishment over which they have no control. This image is what those running our finances prefer us to see and they go to great lengths to maintain their grandiose illusion.
Impressively they engrave their currency notes with faces of authority and issue them from triumphant buildings supported by glorious pillars often decorated with gold leaf. The marble halls that dwarf the individual and inspire awe are designed to intimidate and remove all doubt about who holds the power.
Yet this intricate frame so cunningly designed has only one purpose: to distract attention away from the one element that is vital to a currencies survival.
That element is actually our collective faith in money's value.
It has been said that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen, but in the case of currency, it is even more than that. It is the vital ingredient that transforms paper into gold.
Alternatively if we all stopped believing that our current currency has value, then it would become worthless overnight.
A staggering thought!
We do not accept currency because it features fine works of art or intricately engraved designs or even because it is produced by an official mint. We accept currency because we believe others will accept it from us later, in return for things we might want, and for no other reason.
In simpler terms, if people in general did not believe in the value of money, money would have no real value of itself.
Power to the people is not a futuristic chant, it's a fact, today.
We collectively, almost unconsciously, have the vital ingredient which supports the whole financial system. If enough of us wanted to, we together could shift this support to something more fairer such as the currency XAT is providing.
We have the ability to give this alternative real value, simply by believing in it.
IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE
The idea of producing money independent of the powerful Usurers, and Fractional Reserve Bankers, is nothing new.
Back in the 1700's the American Colonies were doing rather better than was expected for a backwoods land. No one paid income tax, yet prices remained stable with no inflation. There was not a single unemployed man, no poor and no vagabonds. When Benjamin Franklin was asked how he could account for all this new found prosperity he replied:
"That is simple. In the Colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.
In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one."
Breaking all the modern conventions of economics, the Colonies continued to prosper producing their own unbacked interest free money, until the production of Colonial Script was made illegal by the Currency Act of 1764. 1
This was an act pressed into law by the Bank of England fearing the production of Colonial Script would put them out of business.
This act forced the Colonies to pay taxes in the form of gold and silver to the British Central Bank and, as a result, the Colonies effectively handed back control of their economy to old world interests who, for the most part, would never see the new world as anything more than an entry on a balance sheet.
The effect of losing the Colonial Script on the Colonies was disastrous, bringing a rapid end to their prosperity as economic depression set in.
1. The Currency Act of 1764, British Parliament - 1764
KNOW OR OWE?
There is no risk of a new publicly owned currency not having value. If enough people agreed to support it by accepting it for trade, it would be as real as the current usury and fractional reserve constrained money we now have in existence. XAT has already created a digital currency which is growing in value every day and has the potential, with your participation, to expand into a currency that will make our future economic system fair for all. There are various reasons why such a new currency deserves your support.
1. It's Interest Free
Put simply, our current economic method carries with it a substantial service charge, whereas the Colonial Script was interest free.
The growing mountain of debt which is referred to as 'the national debt' would no longer be growing, which means the money now being siphoned off to pay this debt could be used to provide better public services which would benefit everyone.
Most countries are struggling under huge national debts. If you are living in one of them, your welfare is being maintained by what is essentially a bankrupted organisation which has only saved itself from folding by further borrowing.
This really does affect you and every social service you rely upon to live a normal healthy life.
2. It encourages Fair Trade
Publicly owned money would create with it a fairer means of trade for all, and a more responsible economic morality that could be built in as a condition of its use. (more on this in detail later)
At present it's the people who shuffle the money around that are earning the big wages, whilst the producers, especially those in the poor countries are earning a pittance.
Today there are thousands of institutions set up for the exchange and transfer of financial claims, and these are all designed to make money from money. The people and organisations concerned are not interested in efficiency or fairness, but primarily in making a profit for themselves at other peoples expense. The financial system that exists today is systematically corrupt.
In 1991, the amount of foreign exchange transactions were on average US$880 billion a day, this being a figure 60 times that of the total amount of trade in actual goods. In 1991, making money from money accounted for 98.36% of world trade; and the numbers of those involved in these production-less transactions have continued to rise ever since.1
3. It provides for No Taxes
Another benefit of this new money would be the ability to live tax free.
If legislation is the reins of power, taxation is the bit.
Taking back the power to produce money would, with proper controls, allow us to pay for public services without ever needing to collect taxes. Proper controls would have to insure that needed services are bought at the current price, i.e. the same price you would pay using borrowed or tax collected money.
While the money being produced to fund, for example, a much-needed hospital would not be backed by anything as it was being printed, we could instead consider it backed by the hospital it was produced to purchase.
Instead of having money circulating which is backed by gold or silver as in olden days, we could have our modern currency backed by essential resources instead. All it would take to make this possible and to give this money value would be an agreed willingness on the part of the public to accept this currency as legal tender when it was offered to them.
At present our governments produce a bond and borrow the bills we need against that bond at a considerable cost. Most economic students would confirm that there is no difference between producing a bond and producing a bill. Both are essentially the same.
Inventor Thomas Edison had a keen understanding of this:
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way.
It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency.
Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people." 2
Here we have a proclaimed genius telling everyone essentially that tax collection is unnecessary. And what do we do? We proceed to fill out our tax returns by the light of one of his bright inventions.
4. It's Environmentally Caring
Environmentally our current economic system is massively destructive.
As an example, the value of trees and plants is not based on their life giving properties (such as the clean air they give us, the fertile soils they maintain, the medicines that can be gained from them, and the countless other benefits they can provide). No, instead their value is based in terms of money.
The rewards set up by our current economic system encourage resources to be converted into money as soon as possible. Save money and you will get paid interest; save some trees and you get nothing. Take the money you get from selling your trees, invest it at 10%, and with compound interest your money will double in about 9 years. Leave the trees to be harvested in 10 years and you'll make much less. It's definitely more profitable to be less ecologically sound. It's better business to use up resources as quickly as you can so that you can get paid sooner.
The values held within our present system are not just unfair, they are ridiculous. A new economic system is not only desirable but desperately needed. An overall view of cause-and-effect needs to be considered to give value to actions which affect us all, considering real people and the Earth's real needs.
A new framework must be both enabling and conserving. Real value of action has to focus on the end result over any short term gain.
We must first consider how much water will be let in, before we decide to burn the hull of the ship to keep warm.
Conventional economics has no regard for sustaining resources or for its effect on people and the environment. Because at present we place value on how much money a person earns, we devalue all the other good things he or she might do for themselves and others.
We are also being deprived of things to which we have a natural right. No reasonable person would deny you the right to breathe, yet you have no control over those who have a stranglehold on the forests that produce your air.
If you would like to start trading with the XAT Alternative Currency, click on one of the JOIN links below.
If you would like to discover, in greater detail, how this currency works and how it could allow for a true Direct Democracy, click on the NEXT PAGE link below.
Please read on...
1. Bank of International Settlements, 1992.
2. The New York Times, December 6, 1921 issue
http://www.xat.org/xat/usury.html
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XAT3 THE HISTORY OF MONEY PART 2 The 19th century became known as the age of the Rothschild's when it was estimated they controlled half of the world's wealth. While their wealth continues to increase today, they have managed to blend into the background, giving an impression that their power has waned. They only apply the Rothschild name to a small fraction of the companies they actually control. Some authors claim that the Rothschild's had not only taken over the Bank of England but they had also in 1816 backed a new privately owned Central Bank in America called The Second Bank of The United States, causing huge problems to the American president. ANDREW JACKSON (1828 - 1836) When the American congress voted to renew the charter of The Second Bank of The United States, Jackson responded by using his veto to prevent the renewal bill from passing. His response gives us an interesting insight. "It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners... is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country?... Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence... would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy. If government would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favour alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles." Andrew Jackson 1 In 1832 Jackson ordered the withdrawal of government deposits from the Second bank and instead had them put into safe banks. The Second Banks head, Nicholas Biddle was quite candid about the power and intention of the bank when he openly threatened to cause a depression if the bank was not re-chartered, we quote. "Nothing but widespread suffering will produce any effect on Congress... Our only safety is in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction - and I have no doubt that such a course will ultimately lead to restoration of the currency and the re-charter of the bank." Nicholas Biddle 1836 By calling in existing loans and refusing to issue new loans he did cause a massive depression, but in 1836 when the charter ran out, the Second Bank ceased to function. It was then he made these two famous statements: "The Bank is trying to kill me - but I will kill it!" and later "If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system - there would be a revolution before morning..." Andrew Jackson When asked what he felt was the greatest achievement of his career Andrew Jackson replied without hesitation "I killed the bank!" However we will see this was not the end of private financial influence passing itself off as official when we look at... 1. Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Bill, to the Senate, (1832) ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR (1861 - 1865) With the Central Bank killed off, fractional reserve banking moved like a virus through numerous state chartered banks instead causing the instability this form of economics thrives on. When people lose their homes someone else wins them for a fraction of their worth. Depression is good news to the lender; but war causes even more debt and dependency than anything else, so if the money changers couldn't have their Central Bank with a license to print money, a war it would have to be. We can see from this quote of the then chancellor of Germany that slavery was not the only cause for the American Civil War. "The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the US, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world." Otto von Bismark chancellor of Germany 1876 On the 12th of April 1861 this economic war began. Predictably Lincoln, needing money to finance his war effort, went with his secretary of the treasury to New York to apply for the necessary loans. The money changers wishing the Union to fail offered loans at 24% to 36%. Lincoln declined the offer. An old friend of Lincoln's, Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago was put in charge of solving the problem of how to finance the war. His solution is recorded as this. "Just get Congress to pass a bill authorising the printing of full legal tender treasury notes... and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also." Colonel Dick Taylor When Lincoln asked if the people of America would accept the notes Taylor said. "The people or anyone else will not have any choice in the matter, if you make them full legal tender. They will have the full sanction of the government and be just as good as any money; as Congress is given that express right by the Constitution." Colonel Dick Taylor 1 Lincoln agreed to try this solution and printed 450 million dollars worth of the new bills using green ink on the back to distinguish them from other notes. "The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers..... The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprises, the maintenance of stable government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power." Abraham Lincoln 2 From this we see that the solution worked so well Lincoln was seriously considering adopting this emergency measure as a permanent policy. This would have been great for everyone except the money changers who quickly realised how dangerous this policy would be for them. They wasted no time in expressing their view in the London Times. Oddly enough, while the article seems to have been designed to discourage this creative financial policy, in its put down we're clearly able to see the policies goodness. "If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." Hazard Circular - London Times 1865 From this extract its plan to see that it is the advantage provided by the adopting of this policy which poses a threat to those not using it. 1863, nearly there, Lincoln needed just a bit more money to win the war, and seeing him in this vulnerable state, and knowing that the president could not get the congressional authority to issue more greenbacks, the money changers proposed the passing of the National Bank Act. The act went through. From this point on the entire US money supply would be created out of debt by bankers buying US government bonds and issuing them from reserves for bank notes. The greenbacks continued to be in circulation until 1994, their numbers were not increased but in fact decreased. "In numerous years following the war, the Federal Government ran a heavy surplus. It could not (however) pay off its debt, retire its securities, because to do so meant there would be no bonds to back the national bank notes. To pay off the debt was to destroy the money supply." John Kenneth Galbrath The American economy has been based on government debt since 1864 and it is locked into this system. Talk of paying off the debt without first reforming the banking system is just talk and a complete impossibility. That same year Lincoln had a pleasant surprise. Turns out the Tsar of Russia, Alexander II, was well aware of the money changers scam. The Tsar was refusing to allow them to set up a central bank in Russia. If Lincoln could limit the power of the money changers and win the war, the bankers would not be able to split America and hand it back to Britain and France as planned. The Tsar knew that this handing back would come at a cost which would eventually need to be paid back by attacking Russia, it being clearly in the money changers sights. The Tsar declared that if France or Britain gave help to the South, Russia would consider this an act of war. Britain and France would instead wait in vain to have the wealth of the colonies returned to them, and while they waited Lincoln won the civil war. With an election coming up the next year, Lincoln himself would wait for renewed public support before reversing the National Bank Act he had been pressured into approving during the war. Lincoln's opposition to the central banks financial control and a proposed return to the gold standard is well documented. He would certainly have killed off the national banks monopoly had he not been killed himself only 41 days after being re-elected. The money changers were pressing for a gold standard because gold was scarce and easier to have a monopoly over. Much of this was already waiting in their hands and each gold merchant was well aware that what they really had could be easily made to seem like much much more. Silver would only widen the field and lower the share so they pressed for... 1. Lincoln By Emil Ludwig 1930, containing a letter from Lincoln, also reprinted in Glory to God and the Sucker Democracy A Manuscript Collection of the Letters of Charles H. Lanphier compiled by Charles C. Patton. 2. Abraham Lincoln. Senate document 23, Page 91. 1865. THE RETURN OF THE GOLD STANDARD (1866 - 1881) "Right after the Civil War there was considerable talk about reviving Lincoln's brief experiment with the Constitutional monetary system. Had not the European money-trust intervened, it would have no doubt become an established institution." W.Cleon Skousen. Even after his death, the idea that America might print its own debt free money set off warning bells throughout the entire European banking community. On April 12th in 1866, the American congress passed the Contraction Act, allowing the treasury to call in and retire some of Lincoln's greenbacks, With only the banks standing to gain from this, it's not hard to work out the source of this action. To give the American public the false impression that they would be better off under the gold standard, the money changers used the control they had to cause economic instability and panic the people. This was fairly easy to do by calling in existing loans and refusing to issue new ones, a tried and proven method of causing depression. They would then spread the word through the media they largely controlled that the lack of a single gold standard was the cause of the hardship which ensued, while all this time using the Contraction Act to lower the amount of money in circulation. It went from $1.8 billion in circulation in 1866 allowing $50.46 per person, to $1.3 billion in 1867 allowing $44.00 per person, to $0.6 billion in 1876 making only $14.60 per person and down to $0.4 billion only ten years later leaving only $6.67 per person and a continually growing population. Most people believe the economists when they tell us that recessions and depressions are part of the natural flow, but in truth the money supply is controlled by a small minority who have always done so and will continue to do so if we let them. By 1872 the American public was beginning to feel the squeeze, so the Bank of England, scheming in the back rooms, sent Ernest Seyd, with lots of money to bribe congress into demonetising silver. Ernest drafted the legislation himself, which came into law with the passing of the Coinage Act, effectively stopping the minting of silver that year. Here's what he said about his trip, obviously pleased with himself. "I went to America in the winter of 1872-73, authorised to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill demonetising silver. It was in the interest of those I represented - the governors of the Bank of England - to have it done. By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money." Ernest Seyd Or as explained by Senator Daniel of Virginia "In 1872 silver being demonetized in Germany, England, and Holland, a capital of 100,000 pounds ($500,000.00) was raised, Ernest Seyd was sent to this country with this fund as agent for foreign bond holders to effect the same object (demonetization of silver)". 1 Within three years, with 30% of the work force unemployed, the American people began to harken back to the days of silver backed money and the greenbacks. The US Silver Commission was set up to study the problem and responded with telling history: "The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices... Without money, civilisation could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply, it must languish and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to $1,800,million. By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less than $200,million. History records no other such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages..." United States Silver Commission While they obviously could see the problems being caused by the restricted money supply, this declaration did little to help the problem, and in 1877 riots broke out all over the country. The bank's response was to do nothing except to campaign against the idea that greenbacks should be reissued. The American Bankers Association secretary James Buel expressed the bankers attitude well in a letter to fellow members of the association. He wrote: "It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural and Religious Press, as will oppose the greenback issue of paper money and that you will also withhold patronage from all applicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money. To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore to circulation the government issue of money will be to provide the people with money and will therefore seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders. See your congressman at once and engage him to support our interest that we may control legislation." James Buel American Bankers Association 2 What this statement exposes is the difference in mentality between your average person and a banker. With a banker 'less really is more' and every need an opportunity to exploit. James Garfield became President in 1881 with a firm grasp of where the problem lay. "Whosoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce... And when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." James Garfield 1881 Within weeks of releasing this statement President Garfield was assassinated. The cry from the streets was to... 1. Senator Daniel of Virginia, May 22, 1890, from a speech in Congress, to be found in the Congressional Record, page 5128, quoting from the Bankers Magazine of August, 1873 2. from a circular issued by authority of the Associated Bankers of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston signed by one James Buel, secretary, sent out from 247 Broadway, New York in 1877, to the bankers in all of the States FREE SILVER (1891 - 1912) Fleecing of the flock is the term the money changers use for the process of booms and depressions which make it possible for them to repossess property at a fraction of its worth. In 1891 a major fleece was being planned. "On Sept 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi, and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price... Then the farmers will become tenants as in England..." 1891 American Bankers Association as printed in the Congressional Record of April 29, 1913 The continued gold standard made this possible. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic candidate for president in 1896, campaigning to bring silver back as a money standard. (free Silver) "We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." William Jennings Bryan Of course the money changers supported his opposition on the Republican side so long as he wanted the gold standard maintained. The factory bosses were somehow convinced to tell their work force that business would close down if Bryan was elected, and everyone would lose their jobs. The Republicans won by a small margin. Bryan tried again in 1900 and in 1908 but lost both times. He became secretary of state under Wilson in 1912 but became disenchanted and resigned in 1915 under suspicious circumstances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania which drove America into the First World War. J.P.MORGAN AND THE CRASH OF 1907 If you want to work out the cause of the crash of 1907, checking who benefited is where you might like to look first. With the stock market slump causing most of the over extended banks to falter, in steps J.P. Morgan offering to save the day. People will do strange things when in a panic, and this might explain why Morgan was authorised to print $200 million from nothing, which he then used to prop things up. Some of the troubled banks with less than 1% in reserve had no choice. It was accept this solution or go under. Even if they had worked out that their problems had been caused by the same people now offering the solution, there is not a lot they could have done about it. J.P.Morgan was hailed a hero. "All this trouble could be averted if we appointed a committee of six or seven men like J.P.Morgan to handle the affairs of our country." Woodrow Wilson But not everyone was fooled. "Those not favourable to the money trust could be squeezed out of business and the people frightened into demanding changes in the banking and currency laws which the Money Trust would frame." Rep. Charles A. Lindbergh (R-MN) Apart from making a small number rich at the expense of the many, in this case the instability also served the second purpose of encouraging the public to believe that they would be better off living under a Central Bank and a Gold Standard. Desperate people have little time for logic. LINCOLN WATCHES In Washington the statue of Lincoln sitting in his chair is facing a building called the Federal Reserve Headquarters. This institution would not be there if Lincoln's monetary policy had been adopted by the USA. It is not Federal and it has doubtful reserves. The name is an open deception designed to give this private bank the appearance that it is operating in the public's interest, when in fact it is run solely to gain private profit for its select stock holders. It came into being as the result of one of the slickest moves in financial history. On 23rd December 1913 the house of representatives had past the Federal Reserve Act, but it was still having difficulty getting it out of the senate. Most members of congress had gone home for the holidays, but unfortunately the senate had not adjourned sene die (without day) so they were technically still in session. There were only three members still present. On a unanimous consent voice vote the 1913 Federal Reserve Act was passed. No objection was made, possibly because there was no one there to object. Charles Lindbergh would have objected. "The financial system has been turned over to... the federal reserve board. That board administers the finance system by authority of... a purely profiteering group. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other peoples money." Rep Charles A, Lindbergh (R-MN) Louis T. McFadden would have objected. "We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board... This evil institution has impoverished... the people of the United States... and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through... the corrupt practice of the moneyed vultures who control it." Rep. Louis T, McFadden (R-PA) Barry Goldwater would also have objected. "Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders... The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and... manipulates the credit of the United States." Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) Most Americans would object if they knew. The Federal Reserve is the largest single creditor of the United States Government, and they are also the people who decide how much the average persons car payments are going to be, what their house payments are going to be, and whether they have a job or not. The three people who passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, knew exactly what they were doing when they set up this private bank, modelled on the Bank of England and the fact that THE BANK OF ENGLAND had been operating independently unopposed since 1694 must have given them a great deal of confidence. WHERE THERE'S WAR THERE'S MONEY War uses up more materials more quickly than most anything else on earth. In war expensive equipment doesn't wear out slowly, it gets blown up. (It's interesting to note that during the 119 year period from the founding of the Bank of England to Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, England had been at war for 56 years, while the rest of the time preparing for it. In the process the money changers had been getting rich.) So there it was, the newly formed Federal Reserve poised to produce any money the U.S. Government might need from thin air with each dollar standing to make a healthy interest. Nine days after its formation the Federal Reserve founders were wishing each other a Happy New Year. What good fortune might 1914 bring? THE HISTORY OF MONEY PART 3 WORLD WAR I (1914-1918) The Germans borrowed money from the German Rothschilds bank, the British from the British Rothschilds bank, and the French from the French Rothschilds. American super banker J.P. Morgan was amongst other things also a sales agent for war materials. Six months into the war his spending of $10 million a day made him the largest consumer on the planet. The Rockefeller's and the head of president Willson's War Industries Board, Bernard Baruch each made some 200 million dollars while families contributed their sons to the bloody front lines, but profit was not the only motive for involvement. Russia had spoiled the money changers plan to split America in two, and remained the last major country not to have its own central bank. However, three years after the start of the war the entire Russian Royal Family was killed and Communism began. You might find it strange to learn that the Russian Revolution was also fuelled with British money. Capitalist businessmen financing Communism? Author Gary Allen gives his explanation: "If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth programme, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite." Gary Allen, Author W.Cleon Skousen wrote in his book 'The Naked Capitalist'. "Power from any source tends to create an appetite for additional power... It was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world. To achieve this, they were perfectly willing to feed the ambitions of the power-hungry political conspirators who were committed to the overthrow of all existing governments and the establishments of a central world-wide dictatorship." W.Cleon Skousen Extreme revolutionary groups were controlled by being financed when they complied and cut off, with money sometimes being given to their opposition, when they didn't. If you find this hard to believe, listen to what the so called dictator of the new Soviet Union had to say. "The state does not function as we desired. The car does not obey. A man is at the wheel and seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes." Vladimir Lenin 1 Rep. Louis T. McFadden, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee throughout the 1920-30s explained it this way. "The course of Russian history has, indeed, been greatly affected by the operations of international bankers... The Soviet Government has been given United States Treasury funds by the Federal Reserve Board... acting through the Chase Bank. ... England has drawn money from us through the Federal Reserve Banks and has re-lent it at high rates of interest to the Soviet Government... The Dnieperstory Dam was built with funds unlawfully taken from the United States Treasury by the corrupt and dishonest Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks." Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) 2 Even when Communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin revealed that most of the foreign aid was ending up, we quote. "straight back into the coffers of western banks in debt service."1. Wurmbrand, "Marx and Satan," p. 49 2.United States Congressional Record, June 15, 1934 WORLD DOMINATION With Russia down the money changers now had control of every major national economy. Like a steam roller moving and a wolf gathering its pack, there was only one thing left to do and that was to go global. The first attempt was the proposal at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI to set up the League of Nations. Old habits die hard, and even what they called 'the war to end all wars' was not enough to convince nations to dissolve their boundaries. The League died. If politicians really were being controlled, you would think at least one would break ranks and cry out against it. Many did. One was no less than former New York City Mayor John Haylan "These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.... The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over City, State, and nation... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and every agency created for the public protection... To depart from mere generalisations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organisations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business... These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country." John Hylan, Mayor of New York 1927, 1 These warnings fell on deaf ears, drowned out by the music and excitement of the roaring 20's. People don't tend to complain much in times of prosperity, so the money changers used this boom time they had created to defuse any complaints about their growing control. 1. (Former New York City Mayor John Haylan speaking in Chicago and quoted in the March 27, 1927, New York Times) DEPRESSION IN 1929 Stack in front of you the biographies of all the Wall Street giants, J.P. Morgan, Joe F. Kennedy, J.D Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, and you'll find they all marvel at how they got out of the stock market and put their assets in gold just before the crash. Non mention a secret directive, since revealed, sent by the father of the Federal Reserve, Paul Warburg, warning of the coming collapse and depression. With control of the press and the education system, few Americans are aware that the Fed caused the depression. It is however a well known fact among leading top economists. "The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by one-third from 1929 to 1933." Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist "It was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence... The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all." Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) "I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to re-acquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America as the result of World War I." Rep. Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) 40 billion dollars somehow vanished in the crash. It didn't really vanish, it simply shifted into the hands of the money changers. This is how Joe Kennedy went from having 4 million dollars in 1929 to having over 100 million in 1935. During this time the Fed caused a 33% reduction of the money supply, causing deeper depression. HOW THE FED CREATES MONEY We've been talking about how the privately owned Federal Reserve can produce money from thin air. Here's how it's done. 1. The purchase of bonds is approved by the Federal Open Market Committee. 2. The Fed buys the bonds which it pays for with electronic credits made to the sellers bank. These credits are based on nothing. 3. The receiving banks then use these credits as reserves from which they can loan out ten times the amount. To reduce the amount of money in the economy they simply reverse the process. The Fed sells bonds to the public and money is drawn from the purchasers bank to pay for them. Each million withdrawn lowers the banks ability to loan by 10 million. The Federal bank in this way has overall control of the US money supply, as each country's central bank does in the same way. The bankers, through the magic of fractional reserve banking have been delegated the right to create 90% of the money supply. This control makes a mockery of any elected government. It places so called leaders behind a toy steering wheel, like the plastic ones, set up to amuse small children. Or as Rep.Charles Lindbergh father of famous aviator Lucky Lindy puts it when commenting on the Federal Reserve Act: "This act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalised. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill." Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN) Or as Woodrow Wilson put it: "We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled governments in the civilised world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by... a vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." Woodrow Wilson In order to clearly establish that this is not a conspiracy theory, but is actually how things are controlled, we further quote Charles Lindbergh. From the house of representatives, Lindbergh was well placed to see exactly what was happening back then and continues to happen today. "To cause high prices all the federal reserve board will do will be to lower the re-discount rate..., producing an expansion of credit and a rising stock market; then when... business men are adjusted to these conditions, it can check... prosperity in mid-career by arbitrarily raising the rate of interest. It can cause the pendulum of a rising and falling market to swing gently back and forth by slight changes in the discount rate, or cause violent fluctuations by greater rate variation, and in either case it will possess inside information as to financial conditions and advance knowledge of the coming change, either up or down. This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money. They know in advance when to create panics to their advantage. They also know when to stop panic. Inflation and deflation work equally well for them when they control finance..." Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN) ADOLF'S BANKERS Most all will be aware of Hitler's rise to power. What they probably don't know is that he was almost completely financed by money drawn from the privately owned American Federal Reserve. "After WWI, Germany fell into the hands of the international bankers. Those bankers bought her and they now own her, lock, stock, and barrel. They have purchased her industries, they have mortgages on her soil, they control her production, they control all her public utilities. The international German bankers have subsidised the present Government of Germany and they have also supplied every dollar of the money Adolph Hitler has used in his lavish campaign to build up threat to the government of Bruening. When Bruening fails to obey the orders of the German International Bankers, Hitler is brought forth to scare the Germans into submission... Through the Federal Reserve Board over $30 billion of American money has been pumped into Germany. You have all heard of the spending that has taken place in Germany... Modernistic dwellings, her great planetariums, her gymnasiums, her swimming pools, her fine public highways, her perfect factories. All this was done on our money. All this was given to Germany through the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board has pumped so many billions of dollars into Germany that they dare not name the total." Congressman Louis T.McFadden (D-PA) who served twelve years as Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency. FORT KNOX In 1933 new President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill forcing all the American people, to hand over all their gold at base rate. With the exception of rare coins. He disowned himself from the bill claiming to not have read it and his secretary of the treasury claimed this was "what the experts wanted". Bought at bargain basement price with money produced from nothing by the Federal Reserve, the gold was melted down and stacked in the newly built bullion depository called Fort Knox. Once collected in 1935 the price of gold was raised from $20.66 up to $35 per ounce, but only non American gold qualified to be sold. This meant those who had avoided the crash by investing in gold they had shipped to London could now nearly double their money while the rest of America starved. But that's not all folks. By the end of WWII Fort Knox did hold 70% of the world's gold, but over the years it was sold off to the European money changers while a public audit of Fort Knox reserves was repeatedly denied. Rumours spread about missing gold. "Allegations of missing gold from our Fort Knox vaults are being widely discussed in European circles. But what is puzzling is that the Administration is not hastening to demonstrate conclusively that there is no cause for concern over our gold treasure - if indeed it is in a position to do so." Edith Roosevelt Finally in 1981 President Ronald Reagan was convinced to have a look into Fort Knox with a view to re-introducing the Gold Standard. He appointed a group called The Gold Commission. They found that the US Treasury owned no gold at all. All the Fort Knox gold remaining is now being held as collateral by the Federal Reserve against the national debt. Using credits made from nothing. The Fed had robbed the largest treasure of gold on earth. WORLD WAR II (1939-1945) World War II saw the US debt increased by 598%, while Japan's debt went up by 1,348%, with France up by 583% and Canada up by 417%. When you hear this, what is your first impression? Do you automatically think this is bad or this is good? Most of us feel a well programmed sense of desperation when we hear figures like this, but remember, to the money changers, this is music to their ears. With the hot war over, the cold war began, the arms race causing more and more borrowing. Now the money changers could really concentrate on global domination. Step one, the European Monetary Union and NAFTA. Step two, centralise the global economy via the World Bank, the IMF and GATT (now the WTO). THE WORLD CENTRAL BANK (1948 - Present) In Washington, the headquarters of both the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) face each other on the same street. What are these organisations, and who controls them? To find out we need to look back to just after WWI. At this point the money changers were attempting to consolidate the central banks under the guise of peacemaking. To stop future wars they put forward the formation of a world central bank named the Bank of International Settlements, a world court called the World Court in the Hague, and a world executive for legislation called the League of Nations. In his 1966 book entitled Tragedy and Hope, president Clinton's mentor Carroll Quigley writes about this. "The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching [plan], 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 meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank... Sought to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world." Carroll Quigley, Professor, Georgetown University They got 2 out of 3. The league of nations failed largely owing to the suspicions of the people and while opposition concentrated on this, the other two proposals snuck their way through. It would take another war to wear the public resistance down. Wall street invested heavily to rebuild Germany, as the Chase bank had propped up the Russian revolution. Now the Chase merged with the Warburg's Manhattan Bank to form the Chase Manhattan which would later merge with the Chemical Bank to become the largest bank on Wall Street. In 1944 the US approved its full participation in the IMF and the World Bank. By 1945 the second League of Nations was approved under the new name 'The United Nations'. The war had dissolved all opposition. The methods used in the National Banking Act of 1864 and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 were now simply used on a Global scale. The Federal Reserve Act allowing the creation of Federal Reserve notes is mirrored by the IMF's authority to produce money called Special Drawing Rights (SDR's). It is estimated the IMF has produced $30 billion dollars worth of SDR's so far. In the United States SDR's are already accepted as legal money, and all other member nations are being pressured to follow suit. With SDR's being partially backed by gold, a world gold standard is sneaking its way in through the back door, which comes with no objection from the money changers who now hold two-thirds of the worlds gold and can use this to structure the worlds economy to their further advantage. We have gone from the goldsmith's fraud being reproduced on a national scale through the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, to a Global level with the IMF and the World Bank. Unless we together stop giving these exchange units their power by our collective faith in them, the future will probably see the Intergalactic Bank and the Federation of Planets Reserve set up in much the same way. This radical transfer of power has taken place with absolutely no mandate from the people. Nations borrow Special Drawing Right from the International Monetary Fund in order to pay interest on their mounting debts. With these SDR's produced at no cost, the IMF charges more interest. This contrary to bold claims does not alleviate poverty or further any development. It just creates a steady flow of wealth from borrowing nations to the money changers who now control the IMF and the World Bank. The permanent debt of Third World Countries is constantly being increased to provide temporary relief from the poverty being caused by previous borrowing. These repayments already exceed the amount of new loans. By 1992 Africa's debt had reached $290 billion dollars, which is two and a half times greater than it was in 1980. A noble attempt to repay it has caused increased infant mortality and unemployment, plus deteriorating schools, and general health and welfare problems. As world resources continue to be sucked into this insatiable black hole of greed, if allowed to continue the entire world will face a simular fate. As one prominent Brazilian politician, Luis Ignacio Silva,ðput it. "Without being radical or overly bold, I will tell you that the Third World War has already started - a silent war, not for that reason any the less sinister. This war is tearing down Brazil, Latin America and practically all the Third World. Instead of soldiers dying there are children, instead of millions of wounded there are millions of unemployed; instead of destruction of bridges there is the tearing down of factories, schools, hospitals, and entire economies . . . It is a war by the United States against the Latin American continent and the Third World. It is a war over the foreign debt, one which has as its main weapon interest, a weapon more deadly than the atom bomb, more shattering than a laser beam . ."1 If a group or organisation had used its hard earned money to help these developing nations, then we might sympathise that there should be a real effort to repay these loans. But the money used was created from fractional reserve banking. The money loaned to the Third World came from the 90% the banks allow themselves to loan on the 10% they actually held. It didn't exist, it was created from nothing, and now people are suffering and dying in an effort to pay it back. This has gone beyond clever financing, it's whole sale murder and it's time we stopped it. We can! If you haven't already, read XAT3 to see how. 1. Luis Ignacio Silva, at the Havana Debt Conference in August 1985, quoted by Susan George, A Fate Worse Than Death p 238 |
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