I’ve posted on this site another excerpt from my book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization. This portion of Chapter 17 outlines my view of an emergent Complete Web Based Trading Platform. Click here or find it in the sidebar under “Resources, Excerpts.”
The book can be ordered from Chelsea Green Publishing, Amazon.com, or your local bookstore — t.h.g.
The recent testimony before Congress of the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve is laughably outrageous—a startling example of the persistent stonewalling and obfuscation by the private central bank that runs our government. Fortunately, we have a few courageous Representatives who are willing to ask the right questions. This video of questioning by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) is a “must see.”
Here is an excerpt from Rep. Grayson’s newsletter dated June 11, 2009:
Since last September, the Federal Reserve Bank has handed out over $1 trillion. That’s $1,000,000,000,000. It won’t tell us who got the money.
The Federal Reserve Bank also has guaranteed loans for an even larger amount. Bloomberg News says around $9 trillion. That’s $30,000 for every American. It won’t tell us who got those guarantees.
I’m a member of the House Financial Services Committee. A few weeks ago, the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve Bank was called as a witness. I asked her if she knew who got the money. She said no.
The Inspector General also admitted that she didn’t know how much money the Federal Reserve Bank has lost, already, on those deals.
That video was posted on YouTube, here. Over 650,000 people have downloaded it and seen it. That makes it the 6th most popular news video in the world last month, as you can see here.
Add the number who have seen the high-fidelity version, here, and the number of viewers is over 900,000. Counting those viewers, it was the 4th most popular news video in the world last month.
900,000 concerned citizens. That’s more than the total circulation of every newspaper in Central Florida, combined. That’s more than the total number of viewers watching the local news at 6 pm and 11 pm, combined.
The media did not cover this hearing at all. But people found this clip on YouTube and told their friends about it, over and over again.
What this clip shows is that the Federal Reserve Bank is out of control. And I’m working to do something about it.
I was the first Democrat to come out in favor of Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve Bank, H.R. 1207. And I’ve used this video to mobilize bipartisan support for the bill. Since the hearing, dozens and dozens of members of Congress have signed up. They can see for themselves how badly this mess needs to be cleaned up. We’re getting close to 218 co-sponsors, a majority of the House.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) has introduced a bill to not only audit the Federal Reserve, but also to abolish it (The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act, H.R. 833. February 4, 2009). It’s encouraging to see the money and banking problem once more in the political spotlight. This is a time of great opportunity for liberating the “credit commons,” but it is also a time of great danger. Most politicians know little about the principles of sound money and banking, they believe in the centralization of power that is enabled by laws like “legal tender,” and they can easily be manipulated or bought off by the financial powers who will use any crisis as an opportunity to promote “solutions” that further enhance their power and ability to dominate economies, nations, and peoples.
It’s not only the Federal Reserve that’s “out of control,” it’s also our government and virtually all of our institutions and life support systems. The situation calls for the application of our collective intelligence to solving our problems and the devolution of power to the community level.
As I said in an earlier blog post, Eventually, it may be possible to act effectively at the governmental level, but only after the people have strongly asserted their own power to mediate the exchange process using their own credit apart from banks and the political money system. Only that assertion can bring about the “true free-market economy” that Mr. Paul desires. The nature of this power and how we can assert it are thoroughly addressed in my latest book, The End of Money and Future of Civilization. Please read it, and ask your representatives to read it. Better yet, send them a copy. –t.h.g.
An excerpt from my book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, has been published on Reality Sandwich. Is is one of the more important chapters, which contains a prescription for community empowerment and enhanced self-determination. That chapter, A Regional Economic Development Plan Based on Credit Clearing, is also here on this site under “Excerpts.”
Bill Bonner is absolutely correct in calling the monetization of debt The Grandest of Larcenies. He points out that, “Rather than honestly repaying what it has borrowed, a government merely prints up extra currency and uses it to pay its loans. The debt is “monetized”…transformed into an increase in the money supply, thereby lowering the purchasing power of everybody’s savings.”
As I argue in my new book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, enabling governments to spend more than they take in is half of the purpose of the central banking regime, the other half being to give the banking elite the privilege of charging interest on the people’s own credit.
As Bonner further points out, “Of course, the Fed will not want to do such a dastardly deed; but it will do it anyway.” They are desperate to keep the game going and the only other alternative is to let interest rates rise as government seeks to sell more of its debt to increasingly reluctant lenders abroad.
Government, for its part, must either cut its profligate spending or raise taxes, or both. From the rhetoric coming out of Washington, it is clear that social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, are on the chopping block, but not sacred cows like military spending or bailouts for banks and corporate dinosaurs–the empire must be preserved. Trial balloons for new taxes are now being floated. Is a VAT (value added tax) on the horizon?
As in the Weimar Republic between the World Wars, the politicians and bankers today may decide that hyper-inflation is the least onerous of their available options. The middle-class can say goodbye to their hard-earned savings.
This chart should tell you something about where stock prices are headed. Either earnings will have to make a dramatic recovery, or stock prices will have to fall a long way.
An article in The Financial Times reports that Brazil and China are working toward an agreement that will enable the use of their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar. This will be a major step that will encourage other countries to do likewise, thus reducing the longstanding dependence upon the US dollar as the international payment medium. As foreign dollar holdings stop increasing or are reduced, the US government will have a harder time selling its bonds. The buyer of last resort, of course is the Federal Reserve. As the Fed and the banking system monetize ever greater amounts of US government debt, the purchasing power of the dollar will drop precipitously.
The only thing that has supported the value of the dollar thus far has been the “great recession” in which the business sector is starved for credit and ordinary people are starved for cash; that and the abiding myth that the dollar will always be “as good as gold.” — t.h.g.
On May 4 I was interviewed by Tim Lynch of New Zealand’s GreenPlanetFM radio program. You can lsiten to it here.
Deirdre Kent and conference organizer Laurence Boomert have provided a link to audio records of the New Zealand Community Currencies Conference 2009 that was held in Whanganui April 17-19th.
Here is their note:
Here is a link to the audio recording of our keynote speaker Thomas Greco at the conference.
http://miscellaneous-sonstiges.blogspot.com/2009/04/thomas-greco-talk-on-radio4all-notes.html
Click on the link in the yellow box then scroll to the bottom of the new page and click on the red download arrow – enjoy
Audio recordings of other speakers at the conference will also soon be available and a bit later we will have the videos that go with the talks.
The written resource document that records the different models of currency brought forward at the conference will soon be available.
I’ve also now posted the photos to my photo gallery. — t.h.g.
The change in climate from Bangkok’s steamy heat to Auckland’s early autumn chill was rather a shock. I did not expect New Zealand weather to be quite so cool. Fortunately, my tropical wardrobe was quickly augmented with woolens borrowed from host and conference organizer Laurence Boomert or purchased from the local Salvation Army thrift shop. While time has not allowed a visit to the south island, my wide ranging visits around the north island give the impression of New Zealand as beautiful and pristine. With a land mass about the same size as Britain but less than one tenth its population and plenty of natural resources, the feeling is one of roominess and abundance.
A couple hours after my arrival at the Auckland airport, Laurence put on a ferry boat to Waiheke Island, a half-hour ride across the bay from the city, where I gave an evening presentation at the local theater to a group of about 70 island residents, then stayed the night at the home of the Peter Russell family, a beautiful place with awesome 180 degree views of the sea and nearby islands. My presentation there was called, Community Economic Development: A Comprehensive and Innovative Approach, in which I described the multi-stage regional development program I’ve been advocating for the past few years and which our south India project is trying to implement.
The next morning a small group gathered over breakfast at Peter’s house to discuss the possibilities for starting a community currency on the island. It took little more than an hour to reach a common vision and a plan for a currency that would initially be issued as vouchers by a popular local café, then shift over into a credit clearing association anchored by a few trusted issuing members. The expectation is that this first node might be the “seed crystal” that can precipitate the organization of similar small clearing associations that will eventually be linked up to form an Auckland area exchange network.
Returning to Auckland later that morning, Laurence hurried me over to the studios of New Zealand National Radio to record an interview with Kim Hill to be aired on her popular Saturday morning program. [That program was aired on April 11. During the following week I heard favorable comments from many people who had heard that broadcast].
That same evening, (Wednesday, April 8), a group of about 90 people gathered at Auckland University to hear my presentation on, Money, Power, Democracy, and War: Finding the path toward global peace, harmony, and prosperity. This was an updated version of a presentation I first gave in Tucson a couple years ago.
Waitakere is one of five cities (boroughs?) that comprise the Auckland metropolitan region. It seems that the new right-wing national government is determined to replace these five city administrations with a single “super city” administration, a move which will further disempower people and local communities. It is opposed by the majority of residents and likely to face serious citizen opposition. For now, the separate city governments are still functioning. Around noontime on the next day (Thursday), Laurence and I met with some staff people of the Waitakere city to discuss community economic development strategies.
The weekend provided an opportunity for some relaxation. The Prana retreat is located on the Coromandel peninsula on the east coast of the north island, about a four hour drive from Auckland. Although the weather was too cold for me to be interested in swimming in the sea, I enjoyed the occasional sunshine, the beach and spectacular views, the peaceful setting , the morning yoga classes, the music, the drumming and the people.
Taupo is known for its beautiful large fresh water lake and its hot springs. That was our next stop on the way to Wellington. On the way we stopped at a roadside stand to buy some avocados, which at $5 a dozen ($3 US), were an irresistible bargain. As a second thought I also picked up a bag of golden kiwis for $2. The golden variety, which I had never seen before, proved to be a delicious treat with flesh that is more delicately flavored and less acidic than the common green variety.
In Wellington, I gave a presentation called, The Political Money System: The Story of Central Banks, Inflation, and Legal Tender, which I began with a statement that I had posted on my blog in September, 2008:
The present disorder in the financial markets and the cascading failures of financial institutions come as no surprise. Those who recognize the impossibility of perpetual exponential growth and who understand how compound interest is built into the global system of money and banking expect the continuation of periodic “bubbles” and “busts,” each of increasing amplitude, until the systems shakes itself apart.
As I’ve said before, and as I argue forcefully in my new book (which I’m told has just come off the press), the separation of money and state is something that is urgently needed if any dignified form of civilization is to survive the deepening multi-dimensional global crisis.
Following the Wellington session Laurence drove home to Wanganui while I stayed and took up lodging for two nights in the Comfort Hotel which gave me an opportunity to explore a bit of the central waterfront area of this capital city. I had the chance on Thursday (April 16) to experience the fine New Zealand railway system, taking the train up to Carterton where I was the guest of Helen and Alf Dew. Helen is a living example of sustainable living on a largely self-sufficient urban homestead. I hope that she will some day write her own book detailing her approaches to gardening, water harvesting, food preserving, nutrition and the various other aspects of “the art of living.”
The national Community Currencies Conference (April 17-19) brought together well over 100 enthusiastic participants who convened at the Quaker Settlement in Wanganui to share information and discuss new possibilities. My Keynote presentation delivered on Saturday morning (April 18) was titled, Reclaiming The Credit Commons: The Key to Sustainability and Relocalization. Prefaced with a brief outline of my vision of societal metamorphosis, I argued that liberating the exchange process from monopoly control by means of localization and popularization of credit is a necessary prerequisite to achieving a steady-state economy and the devolution of power to local communities.
On Monday, the day before my departure for Australia, Laurence took a few of us on a tour of the Environmental Center and a couple community gardens around Wanganui. Towards the end of our tour he received a call from Merania, a reporter who writes for the local daily newspaper. She wanted to do an interview for a feature story, so we hurried back to the Environmental Center to meet her there. She spent quite a bit of time asking questions not only of me but also of Helen Dew and Margaret Jefferies, conference presenters who were in our party. Merania called back later in the evening to say that the editors had liked the story so much that it would be a front page feature in the next morning’s edition.
Before leaving for the airport the next day, Laurence went out to fetch some copies of the paper. There it was, complete with photo of me with Helen holding a copy of my previous book, Money. The headline read, How the recession could improve your life and was capped with the tag, Finance guru’s claim. Gosh, there’s nothing like a bit of praise to make one feel humble.
Tom
P.S. Back to the USA on April 27. Sorry the NZ photos won’t get posted for a while. Feel free to distribute this report.
My latest book, “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization” from Chelsea Green Publishers is now in print.
To cut through all of the peripheral points, the main problems with the political money and banking system are:
1. The issuance of money on improper bases, mainly government debt, real estate, and assets of questionable value.
Principle: Money should be issued on the basis of goods and services already in the market or shortly to arrive there. All other needs (capital formation and consumer spending) should be financed out of savings.
2. Legal tender laws that force acceptance at par of debased political currencies.
Principle: Legal tender laws should be abolished. Only the issuer of a currency should be required to accept it at par. In the absence of legal tender, debased currencies will either be refused or pass at a discount in the market.
3. The charging of interest on credit money that is created as “loans.”
Principle: Money should be created interest free as a generalization of trade credit that facilitates the exchange of goods and services.
— t.h.g.
