Category Archives: The Political Money System

Prof. Michael Hudson explains today’s financial parasitism

This presentation by Prof. Michael Hudson at this year’s conference of the American Monetary Institute is highly informative. Please pay close attention.

Money, Power and Sovereignty: How we’ve all been caught in the “debt trap.”

This is a brilliant and inspiring presentation by Australian, Jeremy Lee, in which he clearly relates how Australia has gone from being the richest nation in the world to being massively in debt to global banking and corporate interests. It is a story that applies equally to America and virtually every country of the world.If you want to understand how your sovereignty and freedom have been taken away, watch this six part video.

Dollar debasement and its eventual loss of purchasing power

The Federal Reserve and the banking system have been monetizing (buying) U.S. government debt at an accelerating pace. So why haven’t we seen greater increases in prices?

The fact is, some prices, like food and energy, have increased over the past 2 or 3 years. Having lived much of that time abroad, I notice it when I return. The reasons why price increases have not so far been more general are (1) the unemployment and business failures have left a large portion of the population with reduced incomes. Their diminished ability to buy and consume has offset, to some extent, the increased volume of dollars being lavished on the military, industrial, and financial sectors, (2) it takes time for those dollars to trickle down from the favored recipients who get to spend them first, and (3) the savings rate has gone up because in a depression, such as we are experiencing, people who do have money are more cautious about spending it. These savings are largely absorbed by government borrowing but they will never be sufficient to forestall debt tsunami that is building up. Add to this the fact that the rest of the world seems no longer willing to finance U.S. government deficits as they have in the past, and the outlook for the dollar is bleak. There will be no alternative to massive monetization.

A useful article titled, The U.S. Path to Collapse, was posted recently on the website of the National Inflation Association.  Unfortunately, they blame social spending like unemployment insurance, social security and medicare for the budget deficits, but ignore the massive spending to maintain the American empire and the pursuit of “full spectrum dominance” around the world. –t.h.g.

Banks still not lending; number of problem banks rising

This CNN report says that banks are still not lending, and that the number of banks considered by the FDIC to be “problem banks” has risen to its highest level since 1993. Scroll down and watch the 2 minute video summary by Colin Barr.

Should we keep the Money Hole?

No TARP funds for Shorebank

Shorebank in Chicago was closed by regulators last Friday. This bank, which has been prominent for its commitment to the needs of local business and low-income clients, was closed “after Wall Street backers failed to rescue the institution.” Over the past 2 years the federal government has lavished hundreds of billions of dollars on major Wall Street institutions while allowing small, local banks to fail. One must wonder why. According to a Reuters report:

“… the [Shorebank] bank, which was put on the ropes when the recession hit its lower-income borrowers especially hard, was unable to secure the funds it was seeking from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, it needed to match private-sector pledges.”

Read the full report here.

The financial reforms will fail!

It seems that everything the government does to fix the economy only makes matters worse. Why? Because they are trying to sustain a moribund system of money, banking, and finance. The recent passage of a “financial reform” measure by Congress, while hailed as a measure to prevent a recurrence of the abuses of the recent past, will do nothing of the kind. In fact, it will enable them to continue and will further strengthen the huge financial institutions that have been robbing the American people.

Peter Schiff has a better understanding of the situation than most financial pundits. While even he does not seem to get quite to the root of what ails our economy and our society, his insights go deeper than most.  He offers three reasons why the new law will fail do achieve its stated purpose:

1. The bill doesn’t get to the root causes of the crisis.

2. The law fails to end ‘Too Big to Fail.’

3. More regulation means higher costs for smaller financial services firms, reducing competition.

He explains this in this brief video.

I have pointed out in my books and writings that the very nature of the money creation process is at fault. The creation of money by banks on the basis of interest-bearing debt creates a “debt imperative,” which in turn creates an economic “growth imperative.” Since the physical limits to growth have been reached on planet Earth, this money system cannot be sustained, yet every action by the governments of the developed nations attempts to do just that.

The crisis will continue to deepen until people create parallel decentralized systems of exchange (money) and finance that enhance the vitality of their communities and local economies. –t.h.g.

Bailout tab hits $3.7 trillion

Reuters reports:

Increased housing commitments swelled U.S. taxpayers’ total support for the financial system by $700 billion in the past year to around $3.7 trillion, a government watchdog said on Wednesday. The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government’s pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market. Increased guarantees for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Government National Mortgage Association and the Veterans administration increased the government’s commitments by $512.4 billion alone in the year to June 30, according to the report. “Indeed, the current outstanding balance of overall Federal support for the nation’s financial system…has actually increased more than 23% over the past year, from approximately $3.0 trillion to $3.7 trillion — the equivalent of a fully deployed TARP program — largely without congressional action, even as the banking crisis has, by most measures, abated from its most acute phases,” the TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, wrote in the report. The total includes Federal Reserve programs and a myriad of asset guarantees, including Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protection for bank deposits. The increased government commitments more than offset about a $300 billion decline in the U.S. Treasury’s TARP commitments in the past year as programs have closed and banks have repaid taxpayer funds….  More…

This pretty much explains the global debt situation

Who Owns You?-Debt Bondage and the Structure of Financial Empire

Here is a video by Damon Vrabel that provides an excellent description of our current predicament and the system that dominates our lives. The series contains 6 lessons divided into 12 segments and pretty well explains many of the points that I’ve been trying get across about the money system and the power structure. It dispels the myth that ours is a government by the people and for the people. In reality, we, and all our governmental entities are in a state of debt bondage. Who are we in bondage to? Watch it and find out.

The author’s solutions, which are presented in Lesson 6, are well intended and in the right direction, but he seems to have a mistaken notion that sovereignty resides in the national government. I take issue with his advocacy of the “greenback solution” (https://beyondmoney.net/resource-links/take-back-the-money-power/), but aside from that, I’m in close agreement with everything he says.

This series takes about 2 hours to watch, but if you don’t have time to watch it all, or if you are already somewhat knowledgeable about these matters you should watch at least Lessons 1 and 6.

For some reason the website Renaissance 2.0 is no longer available.

I hope everyone will watch this series and spread the word to your networks.–t.h.g.

P.S. And if you can stand coarse language and the bitter truth, watch George Carlin explain it.