The problem with the U.S. economy is the same as the worldwide economy – debt -- specifically the interest on the debt incurred when governments borrow their money from banks. In the United States, this year (2009) the interest payments on our “National Debt” alone will exceed $700 billion. To put that in perspective, there is much debate about ongoing funding for NASA -- a program highly approved of by the general public here. The entire NASA budget for 2009 is $14 billion.
It is the interest on the debt that is killing every economy in the world. The Sumarians (and later the Jews) had a solution for this -- the Jubilee. The Sumarians knew that every 50 years or so the weight of accumulated interest would collapse any civilization, so every 50 years all private debts were cancelled. This is actually what is going on to a certain extent now with banks "writing down" loans. But these small debt cancellations are merely patches to hold off the day when the slaves wake up and revolt – which is absolutely inevitable.
So let's just keep our eyes on the ball here. The bankers try to get us to focus our energies on irrelevancies. It matters not what backs a nation's money, for example. All that matters is who controls its quantity. If we allow the quantity of money to be controlled by banks, then we live in a plutocracy -- rule by the rich. If we give that power to the elected representatives to the national Congress or Parliament, then, and ONLY then, can we aspire to democracy or a democratic republic. There is no in between! Socialism, communism, fascism -- these are all just minor variants of plutocracy. You are either free or slave.
Controlling of the quantity of a national money is THE most important political question humans can ponder. Freedom cannot long survive when bankers are in control of the quantity of a nation's money. Their debt money system is THE cause of most of the bad things in this world; war, poverty, hunger, misery.
All we need to do is to take back the control of our national monies – that is issue our money without debt. To Abraham Lincoln, this was the most important responsibility of government. Make this the new mantra of the new human rights movement: No More National Debt!
For about 15 years now, I've predicted the ascendency of a gold money movement as the debt money system collapses. In my opinion, the gold money solution is specifically engineered to hasten the defeat of America's great experiment in self-determinism and our swift return to serfdom.
One goldbug recently characterized giving the money power to government as "ungodly". Where else would you vest the greatest of all sovereign powers? In commercial banks? Today, the quantity of our money is controlled by commercial banks, thinly fronted by the Fed pretending to be government. History has shown that no matter what theoretical face you try to put on it, the money power ends up in one of two places; government or banks. Please, please study William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech and understand the political controversy that was behind his 1896 presidential race.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, the question is not what backs the money -- gold, silver or nothing -- it's who controls its quantity. Even if you mandate government controlling the quantity of gold-backed money -- as Article 1, Section 8 puts it, "... regulate the Value thereof ...." -- history has shown that once you strap the money supply to gold, the plutocrats will simply manipulate the quantity of gold available and thereby have defacto control in no time flat. This has happened time and time again in history.
Issuing money and controlling its quantity ("...regulating the Value thereof....") is THE most important role of a sovereign nation. Without that power vested in the closest federally elected representatives of the people, government quickly becomes a sham -- a cover for plutocracy.
Theories are fun, but foolish unless you put them to the test of history. This theory has been tested before. It doesn't work -- for the average person. It works great for plutocracy, but not to enhance the march of freedom for the rest of us. In fact, history has shown that gold-backed money is the most effective freedom-minimalization tool ever invented. This is nothing less than the age old struggle of humankind grasping for self-determination to escape serfdom. Gold money has always highly favored the rich - plutocracy. Self-determination is an imperfect solution, but at least we the people have some say -- some power.
by Bill Still Nationalizing banking is not the solution to our economic problems. Why? Because it would further centralize power. Decentralization of power is the one key ingredient of the great American experiment in freedom.
But something has to be done, right? Government must step in to "fix" this problem, right? The question of how much government intervention is needed -- or even if government intervention is needed -- is what the libertarian vs socialism debate is all about today. But, is there another way of looking at the problem that renders this debate moot? What about a constitutional amendment to ban government borrowing? That's right; no more government borrowing, NO MORE NATIONAL DEBT! In fact, this was the one change to the Constitution Jefferson wanted.
“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution…. Taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.” [Jefferson, Thomas, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896), p. 310.]
National Debt should become a thing of the past. Governments don't need to be in debt. They don't need to borrow. They don't need to pay for it later. Governments can pay for it NOW! Why is this so important? According to the Bible (Pr 22:7): "the borrower is servant to the lender." Do we want our government to be a servant to big banks? As William Jennings Bryan put it in his "Cross of Gold" speech to the 1896 Democratic Convention:
"... the right to coin and issue money is a function of Government.... it is a part of our sovereignty and cannot, with safety, be delegated to private individuals.... [Some say] that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jefferson... and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of government, and that the banks ought to go out of the governing business."
In a debt-based money system, big bankers ALWAYS end up running the government. Abraham Lincoln hammered this point home:
“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency ... needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers.... The privilege of creating and issuing money is ... the supreme prerogative of Government.... By the adoption of these principles, the .... taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest.... Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.” [United States Congress, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Government Ownership of the Twelve Federal Reserve Banks, (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1938), p. 10.]
Most everyone reading this already thinks our government creates our money. But that's not how it actually works. In our debt money system, whatever Congress doesn't collect in taxes, it has to borrow from these banks at interest. That's what the National Debt is! The National Debt IS our national money. To reduce the National Debt -- while we are still laboring under this antiquated system -- would be to reduce our national money, which, all by itself, would cause a depression! It's the interest payments on this debt that's killing us. This year we'll spend less than $18 billion on NASA; but we'll spend over $700 billion on interest on the National Debt? That's more in one year than we have spent in Iraq TOTALLY! That's more than we spend on the defense budget! That interest payment is what's killing our economy. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can fix this. Without the power to create a national money, debt free, no nation is truly sovereign; no nation can ever hope to maintain freedom. Humankind's dream of self-determination -- government by and for the people -- will ultimately devolve back into debt-controlled serfdom. One million Americans have given their lives fighting to protect our cherished freedom. Their sacrifice will surely be wasted if we continue with this obsolete debt money system. NO MORE NATIONAL DEBT! Bill Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and produced the syndicated radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two documentary videos, including co-authoring The MoneyMasters.
Emergency! Emergency! Yesterday, after 159 Swine Flu deaths were reported worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised their Global Pandemic Alert to Phase 5 out of 6. Big emergency? But yesterday, alone, 100,000 people -- 16,000 of them children -- died from hunger. That's right; 36 million people die each year because of lack of money to buy food. The WHO estimates that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone -- all 6 billion people -- and could feed double -- 12 billion people. The debt money system is the leading cause of most of the world's problems: hunger, poverty, misery and disease. But we could save most of these lives in the first year after the implementation of monetary reform.
Today everyone is losing money. Our economy seems to continue to spiral downward despite massive injections of money by central banks in nearly every nation on earth. Why isn't it working? Does anyone know why? Is there a way we can possibly get out of this? Our economic system is failing for one basic reason: all our money is created out of debt. Every time a loan is written off today, that money is actually destroyed out of the system. The result; less money for everyone, fewer jobs, more and more bankruptcy. Yes, we can replace money, but when we replace it under the old system with "economic stimulus" money, we are replacing it with more debt. You can't drink yourself sober and you can't borrow your way out of debt. It works the same for both individuals and nations. Throughout American history, the U.S. has fought the debt money system. In fact, the last major battle over our money system occurred just as author L. Frank Baum was writing The Wizard of Oz in 1899. Could it be that symbols embedded in the Wizard of Oz may point the way out of this mess -- point the way to a better society over the rainbow?
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