The root of the worlds problems

[Toban]

I would say that the monetary system that governs the world is the most pressing issue of our time. I found a few excellent quotes to illustrate my point:

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
-Woodrow Wilson, (1856-1924) 28th US President, passed the Federal Reserve Act

"If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of currency or coin in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon."
-Robert Hemphill, Credit Manager of Federal Reserve Bank, Atlanta, Ga.

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
-Henry Ford

"100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal Debt ... all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services taxpayers expect from government."
-Grace Commission (report submitted to President Ronald Reagan on January 15, 1984)

"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 practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."
- Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
-Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin.....Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and, with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again.....Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in.....But, if you want to continue to be the slave of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit."
-Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."
-Mayer Amschel Rothschild

[Iolaus]

Yes, the Rothschild banking cartel is the root.

[Nick]

This article explains things in a very simple manner: I Want The Earth Plus 5%

[ExpectantlyIronic]

I still don't see why everyone gets so worked up over the federal reserve system. An innate distrust of banks? It isn't as if you can't trade your paper money out for other assets like gold or land. That everyone can't do that at once without an economic collapse is somewhat worrisome, but it isn't going to happen if nobody sows distrust in the banking system, now is it? If you gave me a choice between the uber-rich having the proportion of the wealth they do now marked down on paper somewhere or in real goods, I'll choose the less tangible assets every time. It leaves real goods circulating through the economy instead of sitting stagnant to provide Bill Gates or someone with some rainy day savings. One has to remember that if all money was 100% backed, a lot of crap would have to be shoved aside instead of being made use of.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

Desire of some kind has always fueled progress and growth.

Growth always reaches to and beyond the edges of destruction.

Do you think it can be any other way?

[Faust]

I still don't see why everyone gets so worked up over the federal reserve system. An innate distrust of banks? It isn't as if you can't trade your paper money out for other assets like gold or land. That everyone can't do that at once without an economic collapse is somewhat worrisome, but it isn't going to happen if nobody sows distrust in the banking system, now is it? If you gave me a choice between the uber-rich having the proportion of the wealth they do now marked down on paper somewhere or in real goods, I'll choose the less tangible assets every time. It leaves real goods circulating through the economy instead of sitting stagnant to provide Bill Gates or someone with some rainy day savings. One has to remember that if all money was 100% backed, a lot of crap would have to be shoved aside instead of being made use of.

That's because you're an idiot. You fail to see how the federal reserve works, or not works, and consequently you think the main problem is not being backed up by anything. The federal reserve is retarded because it is precisely the opposite of its name. Fact is, a whole country is screwing itself by having a small group of criminals make and print the money of an entire nation!!!!! Then, they LOAN this money TO THE GOVERNMENT, with an INTEREST on it. Consequently this makes such a terrible and impossible to pay-back debt, that the government has to LOAN more interest-ridden money to PAY debt!!! Any economist will you tell the phenomenon of compound interest will surely bring the country to its knees.

Expectantly as expected, got so stuck up in his useless Wittgenstein verbiage, that he failed to see the illogic behind the federal reserve. Fact is that by the constitution, the government must print its own money, so that the people have DEBT FREE money to use. If this happened, our mortgages and our impossible to pay off debts would quickly disappear, and we'd be living like the colonies before the Revolution, which by the way, occured precisely because the Bank of England tried to impose this monstrous system on them.

[Matt Gregory]

I still don't see why everyone gets so worked up over the federal reserve system. An innate distrust of banks?

Here's an interesting article about it, which I think is from a fairly credible source:

http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail. ... rticledate

I don't know about banks, but I have an innate distrust of centralized power. It's screwed up to let a small group of people control the economy at such a fundamental level as the currency. There's just no way to avoid corruption in a situation like that. At least gold is something whose value can't be changed by the mere whims of one individual.

What's that saying? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Iolaus]

For you guys in Autralia...

Over at Savethemales.ca a commentator from down under said this:

Hi Henry,

I'm writing to let you know whats been happening in Sydney, Australia lately. We have the APEC summit coming up in the next month and there have been a some interesting measures taken that seem to be leaving, at least me, with more questions than answers...

1. new permanent public address speakers throughout the city
2. new armed helicopters for the police (if they were just for the APEC summit, couldn't they borrow some from the army short term?)
3. Special 2.8mtr concrete 'ferral fence', as it is being called, to be erected throughout the CBD to separate the 'VIP's' from the everyday people who might be voicing their concerns about this world of ours... are they trying to hide something/someone?
4. Special riot squad training additional to that which the police already have. We don't have a history of violent protests here.
5. Special one-off Sydney metro area public holiday so that there are less 'security risks' in the area. Meaning that businesses and individuals have to go without earnings.
6. The City of Sydney Council has been advertising a 'Lets Get Ready Sydney' campaign for emergency situations. One of the things recommended is a 'Go Bag' - a bag of essentials that you should have ready to grab and run out the door with. Handy, but very odd.

There's something bigger on the horizon, but we wont know it until its happening.

Thanks for all you interesting investigative work and articles.

regards,
clare.

[Faust]

I don't know about banks, but I have an innate distrust of centralized power. It's screwed up to let a small group of people control the economy at such a fundamental level as the currency. There's just no way to avoid corruption in a situation like that. At least gold is something whose value can't be changed by the mere whims of one individual.

you don't understand, the federal reserve is NOT a government institution. It is a PRIVATE BANK that LOANS money to the government with interest!!!! The constitution says that the government must make its OWN money for the people, to make it debt free!!! The federal reserve isn't even controlled by one individual, it's ruled of a few private bankers who are making money from a country's entire currency.

watch the Money Masters on Google Video. Search federal reserve on youtube, and read this: http://iamthewitness.com/DarylBradfordS ... schild.htm

[Trevor Salyzyn]

Faust: you just described a situation where a few bankers own (and hence, control) the entire apparatus of government. I don't care what you decide to call the government itself (democracy, fascist state, communist state, etc.), if it is controlled by banks it can only actually be one thing. Is that type of government adequate to the task of helping the most number of people lead the best possible lives? I doubt it: you need to posit Gods, demons, and their modern equivalents (invisible hands, market movements) to even hope to trick people into thinking that they are leading a sane existence -- let alone a wise one.

[DHodges]

I don't care what you decide to call the government itself (democracy, fascist state, communist state, etc.), if it is controlled by banks it can only actually be one thing.

There is really only one form of government - kleptocracy. Some are nicer than others, however (giving back to the populace a greater proportion of what is taken), and some are run with good intentions.

Anyway, any time you think you have found one thing that is the root of everything that is wrong in the world, you can be sure you are over-simplifying.

[Trevor Salyzyn]

Dave, I hope it didn't seem like I was implying that I thought a necessity of governance is the worst thing in the world. In fact, I was trying to imply that thinking that we live in democratic states, for instance, is a delusion that causes much more harm than any kleptocracy ever could. Even the desire to live in a democracy, as though democracy would magically be better, is a dangerous delusion.

So long as you know and understand the amoral agent of power, you can compensate for it.

[Faust]

if the governments made the country's money themselves instead of private bankers that have no intention to govern as best as possible, then the country wouldn't be the slave of money and interest any more. we are in so much debt because our money is not debt-free when it needs to and can be. the American Colonies were thriving because there was a public money system which results in full circulation and usage of currency without a private central bank which easily enslaves humanity.