What a load of bankers!
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be
fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.”
Lord Acton
Due to the structure of our financial systems most of the money in circulation today
is a figment and in real terms represents no more value than the paper on which it is
printed. The result of this insubstantial currency, which some see as fraud or at best
legalised theft and others an essential part of the modern economy, is the credit
crunch we see today.
By Tom Wilson
The simple truth is that there are
not enough reserves in the bank
vault to honour the promises on
the paper we hold in our hand, a
vacuum where worth should be.
Make no mistake, whilst many
face bankruptcy and poverty at
the fickle whims of our current financial
system the very existence
of our modern financial institutions
and the ups and downs of
our usury economy (the lending
of money at an exorbitant rate of
interest) make the really rich richer
whilst bleeding the rest of us
dry. Stocks, oil prices, and interest
rates soar and plummet, house
values and retirement funds disappear
in the blink of an eye. Sadly,
our assets, merely electronic
data, are easily erased by the touch
of a button. This economy is designed
for planned executions and
reprieves and as ever only the architects
of this financial rape reap
the true benefits.
Many great minds throughout
the ages have warned against exactly
the situation we are in now
only it seems to be violently silenced.
JFK in the months before
his assassination was proposing
drastic changes to the US banking
system and Jesus expelled the
moneylenders from the temple
four days before his execution, so
the bible says. Presidents, philosophers,
intellectuals and obscure
laymen have all warned against
the evils of the financial system
this world is currently forced to
embrace. A few people are making
money, lots of money, real
hard cash, but as a result the world
suffers. Again the blind pursuit
of wealth and power leaves in its
wake a mire of devastation and
anguish.
Bygone days
The history of banking begins
with fear of loss and a touch of laziness.
Gold is weighty and risky
to lug around. On a long journey
you could get robbed or worse,
even on a short one come to that,
and so it naturally fell to the goldsmiths,
who already handled most
of the commerce in gold and silver
coins, to provide safe storage
for the gold of travellers and city
dwellers alike. Far and wide, people
began to entrust their gold to
the goldsmith and in exchange
for a modest rental fee they received
a goldsmith’s note. As a
network of goldsmiths emerged,
holders could redeem the note in
other towns receiving the worth
of that note, less expenses, without
the hassles and dangers of carrying
the gold from place to place
themselves. The goldsmith’s note
was the origin of our modern paper
money.
More and more these notes of
tender became trusted and the
world of banking came into being.
In its first incarnation it was a
reasonably fair and useful system
keeping assets safe whilst offering
the ability to move quantities of
wealth without risk. All went well
until the goldsmiths realised they
could issue more notes than the
value of bullion they held in reserve
as it was seldom, if ever, that
people came to collect all their
wealth at the same time. Only if
confidence in the liquidity of the
bank was low would they experience
a ‘Bank Run’ where a rush of
note holders insisted on retrieving
their gold and silver coin. Some
succeeded while for others the
note would become worthless and
the bank would become bankrupt.
The bank’s holdings were
then often sold off at a fraction
of the real value mainly to other
banking concerns. This happened
somewhat frequently in the early
years of banking and as a result
large banking families emerged
and learned fast from earlier mistakes,
greed being an exceptional
motivator. Many of these families
still control banking today.
Family business
From the start the banks began
to make huge profits by lending a
promise of money in the form of
a bank note, charging interest and
insisting on hard cash in return.
The lending started with individuals
but in time these institutions
ended up lending to Kingdoms.
Of course in real terms much of
the money didn’t exist until it was
repaid, so began the debt economy
in which clutches we find ourselves
today. As the goldsmiths’
tangible reserves of gold and silver
coin grew, so did the amount
of notes in circulation. We now
see up to nine times the deposited
value of any transaction credited
to and in turn lent by the banks.
This simple fraud has ballooned
and amounts in the trillions are,
in real terms, worth no more than
thin air. The huge wealth collected
by the banking cartels gave them
unprecedented power worldwide
and this is power they still hold
today.
The Federal Reserve cartel
which controls currency issue in
the US is, in essence, a privately
owned bank and the US borrows
money from this private corporation
issuing in return government
bonds, which are essentially
a promise to repay debt. The Federal
Reserve and the US government
point out the many safety
nets governing the running of the
Federal Reserve but it is still, at its
heart, a private corporation with
the well known aims of such entities,
profit and power.
Banks and their position control
the global economy and as
almost everyone owes money
to the bank they could be seen
as literally owning the world by
default.
History is written on the back
of greed. Countries became so indebted
and beholden to the banks,
normally whilst waging war, and
banks manipulated the countries
in their debt to consolidate their
position. Many well known episodes
throughout history can be
traced back to these traders in
gold. Charles I of England revoked
the charter of the banks regaining
control of the issue of monies
and returning to a value based system.
It is alleged the banks, in particular
the Rothschild’s, which financed
Oliver Cromwell to over
throw the King and reinstate the
banking system.
The Boston tea party leading
to the war for independence can
be linked to the need of the UK
to honour its debt to the largest
and most powerful banking
family, again the Rothschilds.
The American colonies at the
time were planning a break from
Europe and had begun to print
their own form of legal tender.
This move would have stripped
the European banks of power
and wealth in the new world.
With pressure from the bank
cartels the UK raised taxes in the
US colonies making life unbearable
and bringing about the war
for independence. After victory
the US, for a time, enjoyed a fairer
system of financial commerce
but in the background lurked the
ever-present banking families
and, despite the warnings of the
likes of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew
Jackson and later Lincoln,
all who lobbied strongly against
a bank charter, the banks once
again took hold of the US and
didn’t let go.
Money and power it seems
are too intoxicating to be spread
around even a little. With so
much of the money we handle
each day being, in the event of a
financial crash, worthless the old
adage that one per cent of the people
own 99 per cent of the wealth
may be sorely understated.
You snooze, you lose
In this system Joe Public has to
honour his debt with serious
consequences on default. It is often
quoted that most of us live
three pay cheques from disaster,
and even if we have paid faithfully
for years, fail to live up to
our repayments and the banks
can and, often do, take it all.
In a landmark court case in the
US, a man challenged the bank’s
right to repossess his home, citing
the fact that the bank had
used money that didn’t exist to
honour the loan agreement, this
being the case why should they
get his house as they had actually
lost nothing. He had offered to
pay what he could when he could
but the banks had ignored his
pleas and foreclosed anyway. He
won the case and kept his house
- an all too rare judgment on the
side of those struggling showing
that the system does work sometimes.
This judgment is of course
being appealed.
The banks, like the corporations,
wield incredible influence,
altering law and policy to suit
their insatiable need for more.
Inherent in the mass abuse of
trust being committed by our
government and economic institutions
is the potential to initiate
remarkable change to our
condition.
The system can work and the
need for a global agreement on
issues of environment, people
and commerce is undeniable but
maybe across the board we need
a fair and reasonable use of the
system built on compassion and
common sense not the blind pursuit
for the bottom line.
We are not blind anymore and
from bitter experience we know
the system needs some major
tweaking because in the end is
it this sole pursuit for gain that
corrupts and perhaps inevitably
retards the growth of our
civilisation?
Corporations are created to be
solely concerned with the bottom
line and dherence to the
law, political or natural, depends
on the effect on profit. Our safety
net of governmental and public
oversight has failed allowing
the influence of selfish intent to
dominate world events and some
accuse the central banks of being
the axis of this evil. When the influence
of money is not given absolute
precedent could the spectres
of poverty, disease and war
be given a chance at resolution?
Ask yourself a question
photo woodsy
By good fortune, technology has
given us access to so much information.
Information provokes
questions, questions that need to
be answered, not with political
spin or a slick corporate tongue
but with substantive responses.
Can we continue to ignore the
words of those who question the
direction we are being forced to
take?
Even if it was originally all the
bankers’ fault, it is ultimately
us who have allowed the system
to falter as we stood complicit
watching those in power and
luxury dismiss their humanity.
But maybe, as we are so often
told, we need this system despite
its obvious faults and that in the
end we are all being served by
this endless pursuit for wealth?
What do you think?
In Thomas Jefferson’s opinion:
“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 will deprive
the people of their property until
their children will wake up
homeless on the continent their
fathers conquered.”
Enough said.
Federal Reserve of the USA’s (a private banking cartel) explanation
relating to the need for Fractional Reserve Banking.
“The fact that banks are required to keep on hand only a fraction
of the funds deposited with them is a function of the banking
business. Banks borrow funds from their depositors (those with
savings) and in turn lend those funds to the banks’ borrowers
(those in need of funds). Banks make money by charging borrowers
more for a loan (a higher percentage interest rate) than is paid
to depositors for use of their money. If banks did not lend out
their available funds after meeting their reserve requirements,
depositors might have to pay banks to provide safekeeping services
for their money. For the economy and the banking system as a
whole, the practice of keeping only a fraction of deposits on hand
has an important cumulative effect. Referred to as the fractional
reserve system, it permits the banking system to “create” money.”
This cumulative effect has seen the bubble burst more than once.
