Category Archives: The Political Money System

Usury and the Money Problem, a Message to Faith Communities

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) is an international interfaith movement that has been working for peace, justice and nonviolence for almost a century. As a result of meeting Ray Foss during my tour of Oregon and Washington about a year ago, I reconnected with FOR. Ray has lately been instrumental in raising the issues of “usury” and “the money problem” amongst various faith-based communities. I think it is largely through his efforts that a recent issue of Fellowship, the magazine of FOR, had a major focus on Rethinking Money.

Starting with a fine editorial by Mark C. Johnson, FOR executive director, that section of the magazine contains articles by both Ray and myself. My article Money, Usury, and the Economics of Peace, can be read online.

The arguments against the practice of usury/interest go way beyond scriptural prohibitions. It is now obvious to anyone who cares to see, that there are solid economic and social arguments that should be sufficient to persuade any rational person that our present system of money and finance, based as it is on compound interest (usury), is not only unjust, but also destructive to the natural environment, the social fabric, and the common good.

World debt has been growing much faster than any measure of economic output, even GDP (gross domestic product), which includes not only the production of goods, but also the production of “bads.” The financial crises we are seeing in various countries and economic sectors are evidence that the debt burdens have grown far beyond what can be borne by either the private sector or by governments.

The growth of debt must stop. A new economic and financial order must soon emerge, if not consciously and deliberately, then it will happen on its own through the descent into chaos. If political and financial leaders cannot accept the end of the old order of things, then the people themselves must take the lead to develop new arrangements that build a peaceful, more equitable society, from the bottom up. How that might be done s the subject of the latter (prescriptive) chapters of my book, The End of Money and the future of Civilization.

Money and Life: An exciting upcoming documentary

 I’ve had the honor to be included in the list of people interviewed for a new documentary film, Money and Life, which has been in preparation for more than two years. Scheduled for release early next year, it is being billed as “A story about money that will change your life.” Judging from the official description and recently released trailer below, it looks like it just might live up to that billing.—t.h.g.

MONEY & LIFE is an essay style documentary that investigates the many faces of money. This cinematic odyssey takes us on a journey, exploring the origins of money to connecting the systemic dots on the current global financial crisis and how we got here. But most importantly looking at what is emerging in the so-called New Economy.

In addition to exploring perspectives on money and the workings of the money system we ask the viewer to engage and examine their own assumptions and beliefs about money, attempting to unearth and make visible the implicit and explicit agreements we have made around money and how it has come to govern our lives in ways that create suffering and dissatisfaction. The central thesis is understanding that different monetary designs produce different results in human society and in the natural world. If that is really so, then what is possible?

We interview an all-star cast of deeply engaged global citizens.

You can view the trailer here:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=24227019&autoplay=true

 

The Truth About the Economy

Well, part of it anyway. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains the part about the recent shift of the tax burden, the bankrupting of the government, and the war against the middle-class.

One thing the Huffington Post, Ron Paul and Glen Beck all agree on

AUDIT THE FED.

We need more transparency in how the money and banking system is managed, and an independent audit of the Federal Reserve is a start. There is widespread agreement on that point as pointed out in this Huffington Post article. But what will it take to make it happen?

The Great Unraveling—Entering Stage Two

There has been very little recognition of the Debt/Growth Imperative that is built into our global system of money, banking, and finance. As I have been preaching for many years, the creation of money as interest-bearing debt requires that indebtedness, in either the private sector or the public sector, must be continually increased at an accelerating rate in order for the system to continue to function. When the private sector is fully “loaned up,” government must step in as “the borrower of last resort.” That was clearly manifested in the latest bubble-bust cycle with the massive bank bailouts and the assumption by governments of enormous amounts of their “toxic debt.”

The aggregate debt burden is destined to ultimately become unbearable, and no amount of government or central bank intervention can save this flawed system (such is the nature of exponential growth). The fiscal crisis that is now confronting national governments around the world signals the imminent collapse. How that will play out is difficult to assess, but it behoove us to use our available resources to enhance the resilience of our communities and build new systems that can be relied on to provide the things we need in order to thrive and build a world that works for all.

One prominent commentator who “gets it” is Chris Martenson. His recent observations (below) are worth considering.—t.h.g.

The Breakdown Draws Near

Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 12:22 pm, by Chris Martenson

Things are certainly speeding up, and it is my conclusion that we are not more than a year away from the next major financial and economic disruption.

Alas, predictions are tricky, especially about the future (credit: Yogi Berra), but here’s why I am convinced that the next big break is drawing near.

In order for the financial system to operate, it needs continual debt expansion and servicing. Both are important. If either is missing, then catastrophe can strike at any time. And by ‘catastrophe’ I mean big institutions and countries transiting from a state of insolvency into outright bankruptcy. [emphasis added]

In a recent article, I noted that the IMF had added up the financing needs of the advanced economies and come to the startling conclusion that the combination of maturing and new debt issuances came to more than a quarter of their combined economies over the next year. A quarter!

I also noted that this was just the sovereign debt, and that state, personal, and corporate debt were additive to the overall amount of financing needed this next year. Adding another dab of color to the picture, the IMF has now added bank refinancing to the tableau, and it’s an unhealthy shade of red: Banks face $3.6 trillion “wall” of maturing debt: IMF

Read the rest of Martenson’s post here.

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Whose interests does a central bank serve?

There’s an old adage that says “the best way to rob a bank is to own one.” Well, take a look at what the owners of the Federal Reserve are doing with your money. And, this is, I’m sure, the mere tip of a very ugly iceberg.–t.h.g.

From Rolling Stone

The Real Housewives of Wall Street

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

By Matt Taibbi
April 12, 2011 9:55 AM ET

America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we’re broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year’s retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy.

Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?

Most Americans know about that budget. What they don’t know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the “official” budget in size — a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.

This article appears in the April 28, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue will be available on newsstands and in the online archive April 15.

Read the rest of it here.



60 Minutes exposes banks’ massive mortgage fraud

This is a truly astounding story about how major banks have routinely used falsified documents to foreclose on people who were lured into the housing bubble.

Money and Oil: The agenda in Libya becomes more evident

I hadn’t noticed it before, but on March 22, Bloomberg reported that, Libyan Rebel Council Forms Oil Company to Replace Qaddafi’s

Well, we’ve grown to expect things like that. The more interesting development reported in the article was this:

The Council also said it “designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”

Amazing! Grab the oil and grab control of the money machine.

For some interesting commentary on these developments read this article: America’s true reason for attacking Libya becomes clear with new central bank, , and this article: Wow That Was Fast! Libyan Rebels Have Already Established A New Central Bank Of Libya.

What IS the truth about Libya?

There are a lot of things about the turmoil in the Middle-east and the current assault on Libya that don’t quite add up. Here is one version of the truth that seems plausible. We’re all aware by now of the competition amongst the major power to secure oil supplies, and that oil is the primary reason behind the American war against Iraq.

Could it be that the burgeoning growth of Islamic finance has something to do with the policies of the Western powers in the Arab and Islamic world? Based as it is on funding without interest/usury (riba), true Islamic finance  is bound to eventually threaten the power of the banking establishment. –t.h.g.

The Truth About Libya

By Stephen Goodson 4-1-11

Colonel Muammar Gadaffi is frequently referred to in the media as a “mad dictator” and “bloody tyrant”, but do these allegations accord with the facts?

Libya consists of over 15O tribes, with the two main groups, the Meghabra living in Tripolitania in the west and the Wafallah living in Cyrenaica in the east. Previous attempts to unite these tribes by the Turkish (1855-1911) and ltalian {1911-43) colonial rulers failed and the country was split in two for administrative purposes.

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1959, but King ldris of the Senussi tribe allowed most of the oil profits to be siphoned into the coffers of the oil companies. The coup d’etat on 1 September 1969 led by Colonel Gadaffi had countrywide support. He subsequently married a woman from the royal Barqa tribe and adroitly unified the nation.

By retaining Libya’s oil wealth for the benefit of all its people, Gadaffi had created a socialist paradise. There is no unemployment, Libya has the highest GDP in .Africa, less than 5% of the population is classified as poor and it has fewer people living below the poverty datum line than for example in Holland. Life expectancy is 75 years and is the highest in Africa and I0% above the world average.

With the exception of the nomadic Bedouin and Tuareg tribes, most Libyan families possess a house and a car. There is free health care and education and not surprisingly Libya has a literacy rate of 82%. Last year Gadaffi distributed $500 to each man, woman and child (population 6.5 million).

Libya has a tolerable human rights record and stands at 61 on the International Incarceration Index, comparable with countries in central Europe (the lower the rating, the lower the standing – the USA occupies the no.1 spot!). There is hardly any crime and only rebels and traitors are dealt with harshly.

Anyone who has read Gadaffi’s little Green Book will realize that he is a thoughtful and enlightened leader. Libya has been accused of having committed numerous acts of terrorism in the past, but many of these have been perpetrated by foreign intelligence agencies as false flag operations – the Lockerbie bombing being a prime example.

The CIA and MI6 and their frontmen have been stoking up dissent in the east of the country for almost 30 years. Libya produces exceptionally high quality light crude oil and its production cost of $1 a barrel, compared to the current price of $115, is the lowest in the world.

Riba (usury) is not permitted. The Central bank of Libya is a wholly-owned by the Libyan Government and is run as a state bank, issuing all government loans free of interest. This is in contrast to the exploitative fractional reserve banking system of the West. The no-fly zone and the bombing of Libya have nothing to do with the protection of civilians. It is an act of war ­ a blatant and crude attempt by the oil corporations and international bankers to steal the wealth of Libya.

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The banker’s con job, MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan gets it, sort of.

With the thievery becoming so blatant, even the mainstream media can no longer ignore it. Some reporters are actually beginning to understand how the con job works. In this video Ratigan takes a shot at explaining it.

Yes, bankers run the government, yes, the Federal Reserve is a private company operated by and for the banking establishment, yes, they are robbing us blind by means of their control of the money creation process.

The thing that almost no one understands yet is the fundamental flaw in the system, which is the creation of money on the basis of interest-bearing debt loaned to individuals, businesses, and governments.   The interest burden creates the necessity of ever-expanding debt so that the money supply does not collapse, hence, the dot-com bubble, the real estate bubble, and every other financial bubble throughout our history. That debt imperative gives rise to a growth imperative, which drives artificial growth of the economy, resource consumption, and virtually everything else, for that matter.

Don’t believe it? Well, just look at the empirical evidence. The phenomenon I describe is clearly seen in the worldwide debt statistics of the past several decades. We’ve reached the point of no return.–t.h.g.