By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
(08-25) 21:30 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) —
In a chilling forecast, the White House is predicting a 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion — more than the sum of all previous deficits since America’s founding. And it says by the next decade’s end the national debt will equal three-quarters of the entire U.S. economy. More…
Posted in Finance and Economics, The Political Money System
Tagged budget deficit, inflation, national debt
I’ve been extremely busy of late doing radio interviews by telephone, preparing upcoming presentations, keeping up with correspondence, and adding content to my blogs. As I get these interviews and presentations processed and edited, they will be added here. See the sidebar under My Audio-visual presentations.
I’ll soon be on the move again doing presentations and visits in various parts of North America. Here’s a partial list of my still evolving itinerary.
Featured presentation. Sustainable Tucson, August 12, Tucson, AZ. http://www.sustainabletucson.org/
Keynote presentation. Pennsylvania Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival on Sept 18-20, 2009 in Kempton, PA. The festival is hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association (MAREA). http://www.paenergyfest.com/general.shtml
Featured speaker. The International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA), October 1-3, Dallas, TX. http://www.irta.com/
Featured speaker. The Economics of Peace conference, October 18-23, Sonoma, CA. http://economicsofpeace.net; http://www.praxispeace.org
Presenter. In the lecture series titled Reinventing the World––Redefining Wealth, Rethinking Economics, Reforming Health Care & Rebuilding Community. October 27, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA.
Keynote presentation at The Conference on Michigan’s Future Energy, Economy & Environment, Crystal Mountain Resort, Thompsonville, Michigan, Friday, Nov. 13 – Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. http://futuremichigan.org/index.htm
New Dimensions Radio Interview
Before leaving California in May, I journeyed to Ukiah where I spent a couple hours being interviewed by Michael and Justine Toms for their nationally syndicated New Dimensions radio program. (See description below). That program is scheduled to air during the week of September 23-29, 2009 (their broadcast week begins on a Wednesday).
A shorter (11 minute) interview that we did, entitled “Toward a Credit Commons,” is available now and can listened to or downloaded at New Dimensions Café. Go to http://www.newdimensions.org and on the left-hand side click on New Dimensions Café Listen Now! If you would like to subscribe to the New Dimensions Café podcast which features many of the guests that appear on New Dimensions, it is available for a free subscription on the home page as well.
The one-hour “flagship” New Dimensions radio program, “Investing in the Bank of You and Me” (Program 3308) will be airing the week beginning Wednesday, September 23-29. You can hear it streaming on the New Dimensions website that week for free. You can also hear it on a radio station close to you during that week. Go to “Listening Options” in their website for a list of stations that carry “New Dimensions.” It will also be available to download for a small charge. This interview, as well as over 850 others, is part of their wonderful archive. New Dimensions is working in partnership with Stanford University Library to digitize their entire archive of over 8000 hours of deep dialogues with hundreds of the most innovative movers and shakers on the planet. More hours are added to the archive every week.
INVESTING IN THE BANK OF YOU AND ME, with THOMAS GRECO, Jr.
Our financial system is in disarray. In 2008 and 2009 banks and investment companies have collapsed faster than taxpayers can dish out money to prop them up. At the same time the United States economy is being depleted as rapidly as the rainforest, and our global credit is looking as dingy as our once pristine rivers. But Thomas Greco has a solution. With his fresh perspective on money, credit, and…well…civilization, he believes we can save our economy and our planet by reconstructing our financial system—and find ourselves happier and healthier in the bargain. By reclaiming control over our money and credit, so that neighbors rather than banks are at the center of our transactions, we can restore balance to every aspect of our lives. Mr. Greco tells us, “We’re facing a mega-crisis that includes several things converging at the same time. We’ve got peak oil, we’ve got climate change, we’ve got resource depletion, we’ve got pollution. Our institutions are failing us—they fail to educate, they fail to provide health care adequately to everyone. And so we have to take a hard look at what we’ve been doing and look at new ways of doing things. We’re about to embark on an existence that’s quite different from the past, a new steady-state economy. I see it as a more peaceful, more pleasant life for everybody. Hopefully we’ll see an end to war. We’ll see an end to starvation. We’ll see an end to deprivation of the essentials that we all need, and an opportunity to realize our full potential.”
Among the topics to be covered:
Recent Articles
I recently wrote a couple articles that were published in the web journal, Alternet. Both are linked from my blog, beyondmoney.net. The first is titled, How Bad Will the Economy Get? It begins with the claim that:
Historically, every financial and economic crisis has been used to further centralize power and concentrate wealth. This one is no different, and in fact the moves being promoted by the Obama administration and the central banks of the Western powers will take the whole world to the pinnacle of financial despotism — unless enough people wake up and claim their own “money power.”
It continues with an outline of recent and historical developments that make the case, but concludes on a hopeful note with my brief description of existing cashless exchange mechanisms that are not dependent upon political money or banks. You can read the complete article here.
The second, titled, The End of Money: Take Power Back From the Money and Banking Monopoly, begins:
The dysfunctional nature of the dominant global system of money and banking has for a long time been apparent to anyone who has cared to look at it. Now, in light of the present financial meltdown, it has become painfully obvious to virtually everyone. What most people have failed to recognize is that, regardless of the nominal form of their government, their political power has been neutralized and exhausted by the privatization and misallocation of credit money.
The political money and banking system disempowers communities and enables a small elite to use the present centralized control mechanisms to their own advantage and purpose. It misallocates credit, making it both scarce and expensive for the productive private sector while enabling central governments to circumvent, by deficit spending, the natural limits imposed by its above-board revenue streams. Read more..
That article also explains how the “Greenback solution” being proposed by many monetary reformers, fails to address the fundamentally undemocratic nature of centralized control of money.
Be sure also to view the important imbedded videos on this site featuring Peter Schiff, Matt Taibi, and Congressman Alan Grayson.
This is a time of transition that requires us to inform ourselves and to take responsibility for our own health, education, and wellbeing, not in isolation but in communities of cooperation, sharing, and mutual support. –t.h.g.
Posted in Finance and Economics, My activities, The Political Money System
Tagged Greco, new dimensions, tour
Is that daylight we’re seeing at the end of the recession tunnel, or is it the headlight of an oncoming train?
The “ticker guy” shows some charts that seem to answer that question. See it here.
Posted in Finance and Economics, The Political Money System
Alternet has just published another one of my articles, The End of Money: Take Power Back From the Money and Banking Monopoly.
The dysfunctional nature of the dominant global system of money and banking has for a long time been apparent to anyone who has cared to look at it. Now, in light of the present financial meltdown, it has become painfully obvious to virtually everyone. What most people have failed to recognize is that, regardless of the nominal form of their government, their political power has been neutralized and exhausted by the privatization and misallocation of credit money.
The political money and banking system disempowers communities and enables a small elite to use the present centralized control mechanisms to their own advantage and purpose. It misallocates credit, making it both scarce and expensive for the productive private sector while enabling central governments to circumvent, by deficit spending, the natural limits imposed by its above-board revenue streams. more..
Reporter Matt Taibbi recently wrote an article for Rolling Stone called The Great American Bubble Machine. In this five part video he elaborates upon the theme and describes how Goldman Sachs has virtually taken over the U.S. government. Watch it.
Posted in Finance and Economics, Geo-politics, The Political Money System
Tagged Goldman Sachs, money power, Taibbi
Fed Chairman Bernanke could not or would not tell which foreign central banks got $500,000,000,000 from the Fed.
Posted in Finance and Economics, Global Economy, The Political Money System
Tagged Alan Grayson, Bernanke, central banks, Fed
The only surprising thing about this report is that it appeared on Fox News. Goldman Sachs has just reported record profits. Glenn Beck explains how your government made it possible.
Posted in Banking, Geo-politics, The Political Money System
Tagged bailout, Glenn Beck, Goldman Sachs
How Bad Will the Economy Get? This is the title of my article that was recently published on Alternet. It begins with the claim that:
Historically, every financial and economic crisis has been used to further centralize power and concentrate wealth. This one is no different, and in fact the moves being promoted by the Obama administration and the central banks of the Western powers will take the whole world to the pinnacle of financial despotism — unless enough people wake up and claim their own “money power.”
It continues with an outline of recent and historical developments that make the case, but concludes on a hopeful note with my brief description of existing cashless exchange mechanisms that are not dependent upon political money or banks. You can read the complete article here. – 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.
Posted in Banking, Geo-politics, The Political Money System
Tagged Alan Grayson, audit, bailout, Congress, Federal Reserve, investigation
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.
Posted in Finance and Economics, Global Economy, The Political Money System
Tagged Brazil, China, dollar, dollar decline, Fed, foreign trade, purchasing power
The first edition of my book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, was published by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2009. While it remains
as relevant today as it was when first published the printed book has been out of print for several years. But, having had the rights reverted to me by my publisher, I am making the entire book available for free in PDF format. You can read it or download it HERE. If you would like a hard copy of the first edition used copies can still be found on Amazon.com, Abe books, Thrift books and elsewhere.
Better still, you can avail yourself of the new revised and expanded 2024 edition which I have been working on for almost two years and is almost complete. Eighteen chapters have already been posted and can be freely read or download HERE.
My previous books, as published, may be freely accessed in digital format by clicking the title below.
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (2001)
New Money For Healthy Communities (1994)
Money and Debt: a Solution to the Global Crisis (1980)
Collectors may find used and some new print copies of my books as published, on amazon.com and elsewhere online. Start by clicking on the title below:
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (2001)
Beyond Money
Beyond Money 