The Federal Reserve - Who Owns It?
By James Quinn,
a certified public accountant
and a certified cash manager
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Styx – Grand Illusion
The
whole world is in a state of complete confusion. Americans are
coming to the realization that their lives have been a grand illusion.
You thought your neighbor had it made. They were driving a Mercedes,
spent $40,000 on a new kitchen with granite countertops and stainless
steel appliances, sent their kids to private school, had a second
home at the shore, and took exotic vacations all over the world.
Now their house is in foreclosure and you are paying to bail them
out. The anger and outrage in the country is at the highest level
since the Vietnam War. The American public is being misled by
government officials, politicians, and the Federal Reserve regarding
the causes of this crisis and the solutions needed to solve our
economic tribulations.
The average American does not know much about the Federal
Reserve. The government and the Federal Reserve prefer to operate
in the shadows. If the American public understood what their policies
have done to their lives, they would be rioting in the streets.
Henry Ford had a similar opinion:
"It is well that the 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."
Most Americans believe that the Federal Reserve is part
of the government. They are wrong. It is a privately held corporation
owned by stockholders. The Federal Reserve System is owned by
the largest banks in the United States. There are Class A, B,
and C shareholders. The owner banks and their shares in the Federal
Reserve are a secret. Why is this a secret? It is likely that
the biggest banks in the country are the major shareholders. Does
this explain why Citicorp, Bank of America and JP Morgan, despite
being insolvent, are being propped up by Ben Bernanke and Timothy
Geithner?
The history of National Banks in the United States has
been controversial since the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration
of Independence. The Constitution of the United States unequivocally
states that only Congress has the authority to coin money, not
an independent bank owned by unknown bankers.
The
Congress shall have Power to
coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and
fix the Standard of Weights and Measures
Article 1, Section 8 –
US Constitution
Our most recent horrifying experience with an all powerful
central bank has led to the current worldwide financial crisis.
In less than one century the Federal Reserve Bank of the United
States has destroyed our currency and has allowed bankers to gain
unwarranted power over the country. They had the ability and opportunity
to bring down the worldwide financial system.
When the average American is told that the dollar
has lost 95% of its purchasing power since the inception of the
Federal Reserve in 1913, they look at you with a blank stare and
start wondering whether American Idol is on TV tonight. The systematic
inflation purposely created by the Federal Reserve silently robs
the average American of their standard of living. The CPI figures
published by the US government tell the story.
Year |
Annual Average |
Annual Percent Change
(rate of inflation) |
1913 |
9.9 |
-- |
1914 |
10.0 |
1.0 |
1915 |
10.1 |
1.0 |
1916 |
10.9 |
7.9 |
1917 |
12.8 |
17.4 |
1918 |
15.1 |
18.0 |
1919 |
17.3 |
14.6 |
1920 |
20.0 |
15.6 |
1971 |
40.5 |
4.4 |
1972 |
41.8 |
3.2 |
1973 |
44.4 |
6.2 |
1974 |
49.3 |
11.0 |
1975 |
53.8 |
9.1 |
1976 |
56.9 |
5.8 |
1977 |
60.6 |
6.5 |
1978 |
65.2 |
7.6 |
1979 |
72.6 |
11.3 |
1980 |
82.4 |
13.5 |
1981 |
90.9 |
10.3 |
1982 |
96.5 |
6.2 |
2000 |
172.2 |
3.4 |
2001 |
177.0 |
2.8 |
2002 |
179.9 |
1.6 |
2003 |
184.0 |
2.3 |
2004 |
188.9 |
2.7 |
2005 |
195.3 |
3.4 |
2006 |
201.6 |
3.2 |
2007 |
207.3 |
2.9 |
2008 |
215.2 |
3.8 |
2009* |
218.4 |
1.5 |
Source:
BLS
The government began keeping official track of
inflation in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was created. The
CPI on January 1, 1914 was 10.0. The CPI on January 1, 2009 was
211.1. This means that a man’s suit that cost $10 in 1913
would cost $211 today, a 2,111% increase in 96 years. This is
a 95% loss in purchasing power of the dollar. For some further
perspective here are the prices of some other common items in
1913 per the Morristown Daily Record:
Boy's shoes for school,
.98/pair
Bread, .10/3 loaves
Cereal, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, .09/box
Peanut butter, .09/jar
|
Women's shoes, 2.00-8.00/pair
Butter, fancy, .30/lb
Eggs, Fresh Western, .27/dozen
Toilet paper, .26/6 rolls |
Daily Record [Morristown NJ], .01/daily
paper
Notable on the CPI chart is that in the years following
the creation of the Federal Reserve, inflation ran at double digit
rates to finance Woodrow Wilson’s foreign intervention into
World War I. The other notable period was in the years following
President Nixon’s closing of the gold window in 1971. This
led to rampant inflation that wasn’t tamed until the early
1980’s by Paul Volcker, the only independent courageous
Federal Reserve Chairman in its history. The figures so far in
the 21st Century seem modest. This is due partly to the methodical
downward manipulation of the calculation by government bureaucrats.
The period from 2010 to 2020 will show a dramatic jump caused
by all of the money printing and reckless spending that is occurring
today. Book it Dano.
The average American might just conclude that prices
always go up, so what’s the big deal about inflation. This
is where the Federal Reserve and politicians have pulled the wool
over your eyes. The CPI was 30.9 in 1964. Today, it is 211.1.
This means that prices have risen 683% since 1964. The only problem
is that your wages have not risen at the same rate, even using
the government manipulated CPI. Using a true CPI figure, average
weekly earnings are 64% below what they were in 1964. This explains
why a family of five could live well with one parent working in
1964, but even with both parents working and using debt in prodigious
amounts, the average family does not live as well today.
Don’t Know Much About History
The First
Bank of the United States was created in 1791. Alexander Hamilton,
the 1st Secretary of the Treasury, proposed this bank and convinced
a hesitant President Washington to agree. John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson were against the concept. It favored the moneyed classes
of the North versus the agrarian South. The bank was given a 20
year charter and President James Madison let it expire in 1811.
He then renewed the charter in 1816. The wise men who took unprecedented
risks in declaring independence from England’s tyranny,
feared the tyranny of bankers equally:
"All the perplexities, confusion
and distress in America rise, not from defects in the Constitution
or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as
from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation."
John Adams, in a letter to Thomas
Jefferson, 1787
"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 (of money) should be taken away
from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly
belongs."
Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President
-1802
[The] Bank of the United States... is one of the
most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form
of our Constitution... An institution like this, penetrating by
its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in
phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem
no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted
authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or
its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this
bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time
of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or
withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an
institution so powerful, so hostile?
Thomas Jefferson, U.S.
President -1803
"History records that the money changers
have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means
possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling
money and its issuance".
James
Madison, U.S. President
President Andrew Jackson was the first and
only President in the history to pay off the National Debt. He
worked tirelessly to rescind the charter of the Second Bank of
the United States. His reasons for abolishing the bank were:
·
It concentrated the nation's financial
strength in a single institution.
·
It exposed the government to control
by foreign interests.
·
It served mainly to make the rich
richer.
·
It exercised too much control over
members of Congress.
·
It favored northeastern states over
southern and western states.
President Jackson believed that only Congress
should be responsible for the issuance and control of the currency.
Delegating that duty to powerful New York bankers was distasteful
to him.
"If Congress has the right to issue
paper money, it was given to them to be used ... and not to be
delegated to individuals or corporations"
President
Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836
President
Jackson, shown here "driving out the devils and money changers"
with his order to withdraw public money from the central bank
-Edward
Clay lithograph, published 1833
President Jackson’s honesty and anger at the bankers
should resonate today, as bankers have again brought our country
to its knees.
“Gentlemen, I have had men watching
you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the
funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.
When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you
lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the
deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten
thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your
sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families,
and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.
I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God,
will rout you out.”
A President with Jackson’s strength of
character would put the blame where it belongs today. He would
rout out these criminal bankers, rather than give them more taxpayer
money to squander. A President with a moral backbone would put
an end to the disastrous 96 year experiment of the Federal Reserve.
Instead our last two spineless Presidents have put Goldman Sachs
bankers in charge of our national Treasury. An examination of
inflation throughout the history of the United States proves that
from the beginning of our nation through wars and the Industrial
Revolution, the country experienced virtually no inflation as
our currency was backed by gold. The creation
of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the closing of the gold window
in 1971 unleashed a tsunami of inflation that continues today.
Source:
Chartingstocks.net
1913 – A Bad Year for America
Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto in 1848.
It included 10 planks. Two of the ten planks were as follows:
A heavy progressive or graduated income
tax.
Centralization of credit in the hands
of the State by means of a national bank with State capital and
an exclusive monopoly.
The dates February 3, 1913 and December 24, 1913 framed
a year which placed our country on a downward fiscal spiral. The
United States had tinkered with an income tax during the Civil
War and the 1890’s, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
Until 1913, the U.S. government was restrained from overspending
because it was completely reliant on tariffs and duties to generate
revenue. The Sixteenth Amendment changed the game forever.
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect
taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
among the several States, and without regard to any census or
enumeration.”
When you give a Congressman a dollar, he’ll
take a hundred billion. The initial tax rates of 1% to 7% were
rather modest. That did not last long. The top tax rate reached
92% during the 1950s and today rates are still 500% to 1,000%
higher than they were in 1913. The government is addicted to tax
revenue. In 2007, they absconded $1.2 trillion in taxes from American
individuals. Does anyone think that the bloated government bureaucracy
spent these funds more efficiently or for a more beneficial purpose
than its citizens could have?
Partial History of
U.S. Federal Income Tax Rates
Since 1913 |
Applicable
Year |
Income
brackets |
First
bracket |
Top
bracket |
Source |
1913-1915 |
- |
1% |
7% |
IRS |
2003-2009 |
6 brackets |
10% |
35% |
Tax Foundation |
Source:
Wikipedia
Without $1.2 trillion in individual tax revenue, Congressmen
would not be able to add 9,200 earmarks to the current $400 billion
Federal spending bill every year. This is how they waste your
money:
·
$1.8 million to research “swine
odor and manure management” in Ames, Iowa.
·
$41.5 million to upgrade presidential
libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and John
F. Kennedy, according to the Heritage Foundation.
·
$2.9 million to study how to breed
and raise shrimp on “shrimp farms.” Citizens Against
Government Waste (CAGW) reports that since 1985 the federal government
has allocated $71 million to the study of shrimp science.
·
$209,000 to improve blueberry production
in Georgia, according to CAGW.
·
$200,000 for a tattoo removal program
in Mission Hills, Calif.
·
$5.8 million for the Edward M. Kennedy
Institute for the Senate in Boston, according to the Heritage
Foundation.
·
$6.6 million for Formosan subterranean
termites, also according to Heritage.
Rothschild, J.P. Morgan & the Federal Reserve
"Those few who can understand the system (check
book money and credit) will either be so interested in its profits,
or so dependent on it favors, that there will be little opposition
from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people
mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that
capital derives from the system, will bear it burdens without
complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system
is inimical to their interests."
Rothschild’s Bros. of
London
The House of Rothschild had been the dominant banking
family in Europe for two centuries. They were known for making
fortunes during Panics and War. Some claimed that they would cause
Panics in order to take advantage of those who panicked. The Panic
of 1907 was the used as the reason for creating the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis attributed the causes
of the Panic of 1907 to financial manipulation from the existing
banking establishment.
"If
Knickerbocker Trust would falter, then Congress and the public
would lose faith in all trust companies and banks would stand
to gain, the bankers reasoned."
J.P. Morgan (1837-1913)
In 1906, Frank Vanderlip Vice President of the Rockefeller
owned National City Bank convinced many of New York's banking
establishment that they needed a banker-controlled central bank
that could serve the nation's financial system. Up to that time,
the House of Morgan had filled that role. JP Morgan had initiated
previous panics in order to initiate stronger control over the
banking system. (Picture slimy Mr. Potter offering the members
of the Bailey Building & Loan, 50 cents on the dollar for
their shares during a bank panic in the classic movie Its A Wonderful
Life). Morgan initiated the Panic of 1907 by circulating rumors
that the Knickerbocker Bank and Trust Co. of America was going
broke, there was a run on the banks creating a financial crisis
which began to solidify support for a central banking system.
During this panic Paul Warburg, a Rothschild associate, wrote
an essay called "A Plan for a Modified Central Bank"
which called for a Central Bank in which 50% would be owned by
the government and 50% by the nation's banks.
In
November 1910 a secret conference took place on Jekyll Island
off the coast of Georgia. Those in attendance were: JP Morgan,
Paul Warburg, John D. Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, Senator Nelson
Aldrich, Colonel House, Frank Vanderlip, Benjamin Strong, Charles
Norton, Jacob Schiff, and Henry Davison. Out of this meeting of
the most powerful bankers and politicians in the country came
the plan for a Central Bank. This conference was unknown until
1933. In 1935, Frank Vanderlip wrote in the
Saturday Evening Post: "I do not feel it is any exaggeration
to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion
of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal
Reserve System."
Behind the scenes these powerful men were formulating
the plan for a Federal Reserve System. There was no outcry from
the public to implement this plan. The public knew nothing of
this. The Aldrich Plan was renamed the Federal Reserve Act and
pushed forward by Paul Warburg and Colonel House. Warburg essentially
wrote the Act and pressured Congressmen to see his way or lose
the next election. Colonel House, who had socialist leanings,
was the top advisor to President Wilson.
The Glass Bill (the House version of the final Federal
Reserve Act) had passed the House on September 18, 1913 by 287
to 85. On December 19, 1913, the Senate passed their version by
a vote of 54-34. More than forty important differences in the
House and Senate versions remained to be settled, and the opponents
of the bill in both houses of Congress were led to believe that
many weeks would elapse before the Conference bill would be taken
up. The Congressmen prepared to leave Washington for the annual
Christmas recess, assured that the Conference bill would not be
brought up until the following year. The creators of the bill
then pulled the ultimate scam on the American public. In a single
day, they ironed out all forty of the disputed passages in the
bill and quickly brought it to a vote. On Monday, December 22,
1913, the bill was passed by the House 282-60 and the Senate 43-23.
This meant that the single most important piece of legislation
ever passed by the Senate was missing the votes of 26 Senators
because it was passed during the Christmas recess. President Wilson,
at the urging of Bernard Baruch, signed the bill on December 23,
1913. A few years later, President Wilson had second thoughts:
"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 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 world--no longer a government of free opinion, no longer
a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government
by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
There were some brave Americans who did oppose this legislation
and foresaw the devastation that it would lead to.
“Throughout my public life I have supported all
measures designed to take the Government out of the banking business.
This bill puts the Government into the banking business as never
before in our history. The powers vested in the Federal Reserve
Board seen to me highly dangerous especially where there is political
control of the Board. I should be sorry to hold stock in a bank
subject to such dominations. The bill as it stands seems to me
to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency. I had hoped
to support this bill, but I cannot vote for it cause it seems
to me to contain features and to rest upon principles in the highest
degree menacing to our prosperity, to stability in business, and
to the general welfare of the people of the United States.”
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge – Dec 17,
1913
“From now on, depressions will be scientifically
created.”
Congressman
Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. - 1913
John Maynard Keynes, the current hero of the Obama administration
and Paul Krugman, had this to say about the Federal Reserve in
1920.
“Should government refrain from regulation
(taxation), the worthlessness of the money become apparent and
the fraud can no longer be concealed. By this means government
may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people
and not one man in a million will detect the theft."
Mandate from Hell
According to the Federal Reserve’s own website,
their duties fall into four general areas:
Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing
the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of
maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest
rates.
Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure
the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system
and to protect the credit rights of consumers
Maintaining the stability of the financial system and
containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
Providing financial services to depository institutions,
the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including
playing a major role in operating the nation's payments system
The American public was told that the Federal Reserve
would eliminate any future bank panics. From 1913 through 1920,
inflation increased at more than 10% per year as Wilson spent
vast sums during World War I and its aftermath. From the early
1920s to 1929, the monetary supply expanded at a rapid pace and
the nation experienced tremendous economic growth. Benjamin Strong,
one of the participants at the secret conference on Jekyll Island,
was the Federal Reserve head. By the end of the 1920s, speculation
and loose money had propelled asset and equity prices to unsustainable
levels. The stock market crashed in 1929, and as the banks
struggled with liquidity problems, the Federal Reserve cut the
money supply. This was the greatest financial panic and
economic collapse in American history so far - and it never could
have happened without the Fed's intervention. The
Fed caused the bubble with loose monetary policy. The Depression
did not become Great until the Smoot Hawley Act in 1930 destroyed
world trade and the raising of the top income tax rates from 25%
to 63% in 1932 destroyed the incentive to earn money. Over 9,000
banks failed and a few of the old robber barons' banks managed
to swoop in and grab up thousands of competitors for pennies on
the dollar.
The Federal Reserve’s primary mandates were maximum
employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.
Their other chief function was to supervise and regulate banks
to ensure the banking system is safe. Lets assess their success
regarding their mandates:
Unemployment reached 25% during the Great Depression;
attained levels above 10% in 1982; and will breach 10% in the next
year. Grade: Failure
Based on the chart above and the CPI data since the Federal
Reserve’s inception, the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing
power. Grade: Failure
Based on the chart below interest rates have been anything
but moderate since the inception of the Federal Reserve. They have
consistently caused booms and busts by setting rates too low or
too high. Grade: Failure
The Federal Reserve was supposed to supervise the activities
of banks. Instead, under Alan Greenspan, they stepped aside and
let banks take preposterous risks while giving an unspoken assurance
that the Fed would clean up any messes that they caused. This total
dereliction of duty gross negligence has led the greatest financial
collapse in history. Grade: Failure
Voices of Reason
The Chairman of the House banking & Currency Committee
Louis T. McFadden fought a lonely battle against the Federal Reserve
in the early 1930s. He was swept out of office when his opponent
in the next election received thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions.
"Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country
one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.
I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks,
hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government
of these United States and the people of the United States out
of enough money to pay the Nation's debt. The depredations and
iniquities of the Fed have cost enough money to pay the National
debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished
and ruined the people of these United States, has bankrupted itself,
and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this
through the defects of the law under which it operates, through
the maladministration of that law by the Fed and through the corrupt
practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.”
Louis T. McFadden – Representative
from PA 1934
Mr. McFadden has a soul mate in Representative Ron Paul
from Texas. Mr. Paul has been on a one man mission to abolish
the Federal Reserve for over a decade. He seems to be the only
person in Congress with the courage, fortitude and intellect to
understand the damage that has been caused by the Federal Reserve
and call for its abolition. The entrenched political class, despise
Mr. Paul because his call to abolish the Federal Reserve would
destroy their ill begotten wealth and power.
Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle
and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust
monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily
eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve's inflationary
policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the
American people.
From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the
seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble last year, every
economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years
can be traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed
a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading
to a misallocation of resources and an artificial "boom"
followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble
bursts. In
conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for
working Americans by putting an end to the manipulation of the
money supply which erodes Americans' standard of living, enlarges
big government, and enriches well-connected elites, by cosponsoring
my legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.
Ron
Paul – Sept 10, 2002
Representative
Paul sized up his colleagues in Congress and the Federal Reserve
perfectly in 2006 when they were oblivious to the impending disaster
that was about to befall the nation. He was belittled by the mainstream
press and fellow Congressmen.
The
coming dollar crisis is not likely to be “fixed” by
politicians who are unwilling to make hard choices, admit mistakes,
and spend less money. Demographic trends will place even greater
demands on Congress to maintain benefits for millions of older
Americans who are dependent on the federal government.
Faced with uncomfortable financial realities, Congress
will seek to avoid the day of reckoning by the most expedient
means available – and the Federal Reserve undoubtedly will
accommodate Washington by printing more dollars to pay the bills.
The Fed is the enabler for the spending addicts in Congress, who
would rather spend new fiat money than face the political consequences
of raising taxes or borrowing more abroad.
The irony is that many of the Fed’s biggest
cheerleaders are the same supposed capitalists who denounced centralized
economic planning when practiced by the former Soviet Union. Large
banks and Wall Street firms love the Fed’s easy money policy,
because they profit at the front end from the resulting loan boom
and artificially high equity prices. It’s the little guy
who loses when the inflated dollars finally trickle down to him
and erode his buying power. Someday Americans will understand
that Federal Reserve bankers have no magic ability – and
certainly no legal or moral right – to decide how much money
should exist and what the cost of borrowing money should be.
Ron Paul – July 11, 2006
Before he became a tool of the political ruling elite
and the bankers who truly control the country, Alan Greenspan
actually understood and supported a currency backed by gold which
couldn’t be manipulated by corrupt politicians. The confiscation
of middle class wealth through the insidious use of inflation
has proceeded unchecked for 96 years.
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no
way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There
is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would
have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold.
If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits
to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined
to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose
their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would
be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the
welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of
wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the
welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply
a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way
of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property
rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding
the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.
Alan Greenspan – 1966
I’m Mad as Hell
& I’m Not Going to Take it Anymore
Howard Beale, the news anchor in the movie Network,
could have spoken the same lines today that he was speaking
in 1976. He describes our current financial crisis to a tee.
I don't have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's
out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's
worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the
counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody
anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
I want you to get mad!
I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to
riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I
wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to
do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and
the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit!
My life has value!"
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you
to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and
go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going
to take this anymore!!"
Anyone who is not mad as hell at this point is not paying
attention. Your tax and spend corrupted politician leaders and
your banker controlled Federal Reserve have borrowed and spent
your tax dollars, your children’s tax dollars, and their
children’s tax dollars desperately attempting to prop up
this bankrupt system. The unleashing of a never ending tsunami
of printed dollars by the Federal Reserve makes every dollar worth
less. They have systematically created inflation that has slowly
but surely reduced your standard of living. Politicians in the
pocket of lobbyists, corporate interests, and bankers have used
their power to tax in order to spend trillions on worthless projects
in their districts to insure re-election. The combination of taxing
and printing has led to a National Debt of $11 trillion.
Bankers love debt. The more debt, the more interest
they collect. Issuing credit cards and collecting 21% interest
and billions in late fees seemed like a can’t miss proposition.
It was until people couldn’t pay the debt back. Now the
unwinding of the greatest debt bubble in history has created a
2nd Great Depression. Instead of learning from the past, the Federal
Reserve has chosen to do exactly what led to the crisis. They
have lowered rates to 0% and have printed money at prodigious
rates. The Fed has doubled their balance sheet in the last 12
months.
They have loaned billions to the bankrupt banks that
inhabit our financial system while accepting worthless pieces
of paper as collateral. They have hailed back to Jekyll Island
and the cloak of secrecy. They will not reveal to the public the
banks they have loaned money to or the collateral that backs up
those loans. The arrogance of Ben Bernanke proves that the Federal
Reserve answers to bankers, and not to the American public. The
books and records of the Federal Reserve are not open to scrutiny
by the General Accounting Office. Ron Paul has introduced the
Federal Reserve Transparency Act which would open their books
to the public. No organization with as much power as the Federal
Reserve should be permitted to operate in the shadows.
A recent article by David Galland from Casey Research
pointed out the insidious methods by which the government extracts
our money for their self serving schemes:
Accounts Receivable Tax
CDL License Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Excise Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Food License Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inventory Tax
Liquor Tax
Marriage License Tax
Personal Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Social Security Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Utility Taxes
Watercraft Registration Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax |
Building Permit Tax
Cigarette Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Fishing License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gross Receipts Tax
Inheritance Tax
IRS Interest / IRS Penalties
Luxury Taxes
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Service Charge Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
State Income Tax
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Well Permit Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Workers Compensation Tax. |
After digesting this disgusting list, do you feel under
taxed?
Depression, Collapse & Revival
The future is cloudy but the direction is clear. Government
will spend trillions of dollars. Congress will increase taxes
on the rich and secretly raise taxes on the masses by calling
them cap and trade fees. The Federal Reserve will pull out all
stops to create inflation. When you owe the rest of the world
$11 trillion, inflation makes the debt less burdensome. The dollar
will decline versus gold. With the enormous amount of currency
creation and spending by the government, the economy will eventually
pull out of this depression. The acceleration will take the Federal
Reserve by surprise. They will be hesitant to raise interest rates.
The inflation genie will get out of the bottle and will not go
back. The hyperinflation that takes hold will lead to social unrest,
rioting, and a drastic reduction in the American standard of living.
There is no solution that will not be painful to everyone
in the United States. The only solution that would put America
back on a path of sustainable prosperity would be a gold/precious
metals backed currency that would force government and its citizens
to live within its means. Congress would need to vote for something
that would take away its power. With our current political system,
this is impossible. Money is power. This leads to only one conclusion.
The existing Ponzi scheme will have to collapse before we can
adopt a rational financial system for America. It may take decades,
or it may happen in 2010. No one knows. If the country can be
convinced to follow the wisdom of Ron Paul, we still have a chance
to avoid this fate.
When the Federal government
spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has
three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money.
While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options
are bad for average Americans.
To discuss ways to take back our country
from corrupt politicians and criminal bankers join me at TheBurningPlatform.com.
Published - March 2009
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