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THE COMING ANARCHY

Robert D. Kaplan in The Atlantic Monthly, February 1994:



How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet

The Minister's eyes were like egg yolks, an aftereffect of some of the many illnesses, malaria especially, endemic in his country. There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes. He spoke in a slow and creaking voice, the voice of hope about to expire. Flame trees, coconut palms, and a ballpoint-blue Atlantic composed the background. None of it seemed beautiful, though. "In forty-five years I have never seen things so bad. We did not manage ourselves well after the British departed. But what we have now is something worse--the revenge of the poor, of the social failures, of the people least able to bring up children in a modern society." Then he referred to the recent coup in the West African country Sierra Leone. "The boys who took power in Sierra Leone come from houses like this." The Minister jabbed his finger at a corrugated metal shack teeming with children. "In three months these boys confiscated all the official Mercedes, Volvos, and BMWs and willfully wrecked them on the road." The Minister mentioned one of the coup's leaders, Solomon Anthony Joseph Musa, who shot the people who had paid for his schooling, "in order to erase the humiliation and mitigate the power his middle-class sponsors held over him."

Tyranny is nothing new in Sierra Leone or in the rest of West Africa. But it is now part and parcel of an increasing lawlessness that is far more significant than any coup, rebel incursion, or episodic experiment in democracy. Crime was what my friend--a top-ranking African official whose life would be threatened were I to identify him more precisely--really wanted to talk about. Crime is what makes West Africa a natural point of departure for my report on what the political character of our planet is likely to be in the twenty-first century.

[...]










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Guantanamo "hell on Earth,"

says Mohamed Saleban Bare, a Somalian recently released after 8 years in the U.S. prison:

AFP, 12/22/09--[...] "At Bagram and Kandahar, the situation was harsh but when we were transferred to Guantanamo the torture tactics changed. They use a kind of psychological torture that kills you mentally," he said.

This included depriving prisoners of sleep for at least four nights in a row and feeding them once a day with only a biscuit, he said.

"And in the cold they let you sleep without a blanket. Some of the inmates face harsher torture, including with electricity and beating," he said.

[...]

"No human rights convention stands in Guantanamo. Interrogators force inmates to confess crimes they didn't commit by torturing them and sullying their religion," Bare said.

"They would throw Korans into the toilet and raise the volume of their music during prayers," he recounted.

Bare said the US authorities had never told him why he was arrested.

"They used to ask many questions, most of them relating to my background like what I was doing in Somalia and about the people I know. It was all about suspicions and not a clear case," he said.

[...]

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British priest condones shoplifting:

[...]

'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

'I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

'I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.

'I offer the advice with a heavy heart and wish society would recognise that bureaucratic ineptitude and systematic delay has created an invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope.'

[...]

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Random Violence in Philadelphia

Cowardly teen punched middle-aged man from behind:

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/20/09--Arthur J. Harvey, a radiation oncologist, had just finished a long day seeing cancer patients at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and was walking from his office to his home in Center City early Friday night.

He was upbeat, enjoying the holiday atmosphere as he walked along Chestnut Street, which was still crowded at 6:15. He was approaching 13th Street when everything suddenly went black.

When he came to a moment or two later, his glasses were gone, his face hurt, and male teens were running on Chestnut toward Broad Street.

A female pedestrian told Harvey, 53, that one of the teens had come up from behind, punched him in the head, and run off. Harvey said the force of the blow caused him to black out momentarily, but he remained upright.

He found out later he must have been one of the random targets of roaming bands of teens who caused havoc near the Gallery and neighboring streets Friday afternoon and early in that evening. Some witnesses reported seeing as many 100 teens roving in the area.

Police said students from several city high schools responded to a call via Facebook to participate in a massive gathering in response to fights at the Gallery food court Wednesday and Thursday that resulted in four arrests.

Despite an increased police presence Friday, there were several assaults, such as the one on Harvey.

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said yesterday large groups of roving teens remained a problem. He said the deputy commissioner of Regional Command South had been monitoring the activity closely. "That's why there were extra police in the Gallery area."

But Vanore said the only arrests police made were for minor offenses.

Harvey did not report his attack to police. He treated his own injury, which caused swelling and left him with a black eye. As a lifelong Philadelphian, he was shaken by the experience.

"I walk around Center City, and I feel completely safe," he said yesterday. "Maybe that's not the case."

Harvey said he was baffled and troubled "that we live in a time and place where our children are plotting terroristic rampages in the heart of Center City on a medium such as Facebook."

.............................................................................................
Another victim from that day, attorney Jane Lessner, had blogged on December 9th:

[...] Everyone wants their child’s holiday to be a happy and memorable one. After 2 decades of working with children and families and after consulting with child psychologists about what children need, I’ve learned a few things that might be helpful for you and your children.

First, the holiday cannot be and does not need to be perfect. What it needs to be is a day without fighting, without guilt and without fear [...]

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If you want to help the homeless at the tent city in Camden,

send your donation to:

Lorenzo "Jamaica" Banks
c/o New Visions Community Services
523 Stevens Street
Camden, New Jersey 08101


Call New Visions at (856) 963-0857 if you have questions. Among the items they need: non-perishable food, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, cold meds, trash bags, tents, cots, futons, blankets and quilts.


I was at the tent city today. There are 49 people living there, down from a high of 112 earlier this year. Casper and Cynthia are gone, having moved into an apartment. Casper has been getting work at the dock. "Wolfman" is also gone, but he's locked up. Rex, 76-years-old, and Tina, 19-years-old, are still there. There was a kid, maybe 23, who was freaking out, so I lent him my cellphone to call his mom. He was saying shit like, "Mom, I can't take it any more. I'll do whatever you say, just get me out of here!" Lorenzo said he'll put him on a Greyhound maybe tomorrow.

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LIKE I SAID, LIFE IS FLATULENT WITH SUPERFLUOUS LOGOS. ARE YOU POINTING THAT WORD AT ME?











I DECREE THAT EACH REDUNDANT SCRATCH IS A FELONY PUNISHABLE BY A THOUSAND WASHED OUT AND MISPLACED SYLLABLES DRENCHED ONTO YOUR SUNSHINY FACE.











THIS MORNING, JUST MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, MIND YOU, I RAN INTO A POEM THAT WAS AGLITTER WITH TEXTURE AND NOTHING ELSE, AND ANOTHER THAT TELEGRAPHED ITS ENJAMBMENTS CLEAR ACROSS THE STATE. I FELT SO SORRY, I ALMOST REACHED FOR MY CHECK BOOK.











NO LONGER YOUNGISH, I STILL CRAVE MOMENTUM WHEN I DANCE.

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Police track roving gangs in Center City

A while back, I wrote about the benefits of living in the city, in spite of all its nuisances and dangers, but as America deteriorates further, many of our metropolises will likely experience spasms of violence and chaos. A foretaste from Philadelphia:

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/18/09--Police made a show of force in Center City today after they were alerted that large groups of teens planned to gather in response to two earlier fights at the Gallery [shopping mall].

Throughout the afternoon, police monitored gangs of youths - sometimes numbering more than 100 - as they roved around Center City.

Some bystanders were assaulted by one of the gangs.

[...]

Police Lt. Michael Brady said there were fights yesterday and Wednesday at the Gallery's Food Court that resulted in four arrests.

Calls for a massive gathering then surfaced on Facebook, he said.

[...]

"One of the groups is smacking people," he said. "When anybody confronts them they become combative."

[...] the students came from Audenreid and South Philadelphia [the same school where, two weeks ago, black students assaulted 30 Asian students, sending 7 to the hospital] High Schools and from Preparatory Charter School of Math, Science Technology and Careers, which is located in Point Breeze.

Security guards were posted at every entrance to the Gallery and did not permit juveniles without adults to enter the mall, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

Large groups collected outside the doors and blocked the entryways, Vanore said. Police arrested two teens when they refused to disburse.

Officers followed groups of teens on Market, Chestnut and Samson Streets from 9th to 16th Streets.

Jane Lessner, a Center City lawyer, said she just left Macy's after doing some holiday shopping when she saw a group of 70 to 100 youths approaching.

She was trying to make her way through the group when "they started pushing me."

"One pushed me into another, who pushed me into another, who pushed me into another until one girl hauled off with her fist and hit me in the face," Lessner said.

The punch knocked out a lens of her glasses and left here with a bloodshot eye.

Brendan Meehan, 44, of Media, who also was Christmas shopping, saw the attack and called 911.

"I saw a teenage girl hit her right in the face," he said. "The girl came back and taunted her as I called 911."

Lessner, he said, "was shaking and held onto me as I called."

Police took her to Hahnemann Hospital for treatment.

Another witness said he saw the same gang knock down a bicylist.

At one point, six police vehicles responded to a Wendy's on 15th and Chestnut when a call came that there were 100 teens inside. The officers dispersed the group.

In the midst of the confusion, a man robbed a bank at 18th and Market Streets about 2 p.m.

Gallard, the school district spokesman, said that the district was working closely with Philadelphia police and had dispatched extra school police to the involved schools.

"We had a very smooth closing in our schools," Gallard said.

[My wife works in the mall mentioned above. Two days ago, she saw a teen punched a security guard, who struck back before arresting him. Yesterday, she found out that five security guards had to go to the hospital from injuries suffered in these altercations. The Gallery is the biggest shopping mall in downtown Philly. Business is way down, so I don't expect it to survive another year.]

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A card from Bobby Byrd:

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A card from Jack

and Jenny Collom:

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Federal Reserve for Dummies

We celebrate our biggest criminals. I've posted this, but here it is again. From Money Masters:




Who owns the Federal Reserve Banks?

Answer: The Federal Reserve Banks of each region are owned by (issue their stock exclusively to) the member banks of that same region. The member banks are privately owned corporations. Thus the Federal Reserve Banks are privately owned. This is a matter of law and anyone may read the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 for themselves (see below).

Question: Why then do some people deny that the Federal Reserve Banks are owned by private corporations?

Answer: Three groups of people deny this fact, for differing reasons:

The first group consists of the private owners of the Federal Reserve Banks, and their shills. It is obviously not in their interest that the American people realize that private bankers own what most people regard as a part of the public treasury and government. The people would doubtless not like it if they knew that the stockholders of the Federal Reserve Banks receive 6% interest (raised higher in the past) per year on their stock ownership, risk free. The people would be legitimately concerned to know that the member bank stockholders elect six of the nine members (i.e., 2/3rds) of the Boards of the reserve banks of their regions. Rather than regulating or controlling the activities of private banks in their regions, the opposite is the case.

The second group consists of those persons who, in their ignorance, have believed the propaganda of the Federal Reserve Banks, which sometimes issue ambiguous, doublespeak statements attempting to obfuscate their private bank ownership. Here is a typical example from the NY Fed website, quite easily seen through: “Although they are set up like private corporations and member banks hold their stock, the Federal Reserve Banks owe their existence to an act of Congress and have a mandate to serve the public. Therefore, they are not really "private" companies, but rather are "owned" by the citizens of the United States…Member banks do, however, receive a fixed 6 percent dividend annually on their stock and elect six of the nine members of the Reserve Bank's of their region… the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks.”

The third group consists of those people who consider that because the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate that the Fed is firmly under government control and that this is sufficiently equivalent to ownership to put them at ease (never mind the outright private bank control of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks). Let’s hear how the Fed itself regards such indirect “government control” (again from the NY Fed website): The Federal Reserve System is not "owned" by anyone and is not a private, profit-making institution. Instead, it is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects.

If you are a little uncomfortable with “your” Fed having “private aspects,” you are not alone. Notice also the contradiction with the other NY Fed quote above, which claims the citizens of the US own the Fed – here it claims no one owns it (same website). The truth and the law is that the member banks own and control all 12 Federal Reserve Banks. Another interesting doublespeak quote from the NY Fed website: Therefore, the Federal Reserve can be more accurately described as "independent within the government.” A little independence is a good thing, unless that independence is in reality virtually total and the entity involved controls the nation’s money and economy. Think about it: if the Fed is independent from the government that created it, then who controls it – it has no brain of its own – it is not a person. If it is not controlled by our government, then by whom?

Question: Doesn’t the fact that the President appoints the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System make it a quasi-governmental sort of entity?

Answer: Yes, but how “quasi” is quasi-enough? The Board of Governors of the System consists of 7 members, one appointed every two years (one term begins every two years, on February 1 of even-numbered years, a full year after inauguration day) by the President and confirmed by the Senate for 14 year terms. Wow…those are really long terms. Why? Let’s see: if a new President comes into office pledged to reform the Fed, end its independence from effective government oversight, throw the rascals out and replace them with his own appointees, he had better be very patient, as he can only replace one member every two years. So in his four year term (10 years less than Fed Governors’ terms) he can replace only two of the 7 members. Of course, he had better be able to sustain the ire of the remaining Governors (almost all connected to financial institutions indirectly in various academic and think-tank institutions financed by banks and bank grants or loans, or which they hope to join in revolving door relationships after their single terms are up), who can run the economy up, down or sideways, in the interim.

But assuming the President can sustain the fight with the Fed, its bank-PAC financed cheerleaders in the Senate, voters upset over a suddenly sinking economy, the banks who control the Fed and the media giants they also own, then all this brave but foolhardy President has to do is get elected to a second term, and hang on long enough to appoint two more Board members. Thus, assuming all of this goes well, in the span of seven years (a glacial pace in American politics), near the end of his second term, he can finally begin some reform – if he manages to get his four appointees confirmed, is still in office and has any allies left – even in his own party. We think the prefixed word quasi-governmental is a good one, if you understand quasi- to mean pseudo.

Keep in mind also the distinction between the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and the Federal Reserve System as a whole. The private ownership of the 12 Federal Reserve banks we addressed above. "Federal Reserve System" usually refers to the entire framework established by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, including those 12, privately owned Federal Reserve Banks, and the Board of Governors of the system, which meets in Washington D.C. The Fed Board of Governors was also established by the Act of 1913. These are the 7 members with 14-year terms, also mentioned above. Two of them are appointed by the President to 4-year terms as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board (largely nominal positions - no extra votes). They, of course, are not owned like corporation stock is owned. So when someone is trying to mislead folks by denying any private ownership of the Fed, they will inevitably refer to the Federal Reserve System (rather than to the Federal Reserve Banks) and declare it is not privately owned (which is partly true [the Fed Board of Governors is not "owned"], and partly false [the 12 Federal Reserve banks are]). We have addressed these two elements in detail, above.

Question: Have the Courts had to decide whether the Federal Reserve Banks are privately owned or not?

Answer: Yes, in several cases. Here is one of them on point which went up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals: LEWIS v. UNITED STATES

John L. LEWIS, Plaintiff/Appellant v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant/Appellee. No. 80-5905. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Submitted March 2, 1982; Decided April 19, 1982; As Amended June 24, 1982

"Plaintiff, who was injured by vehicle owned and operated by a federal reserve bank, brought action alleging jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The United States District Court for the Central District of California, David W. Williams, Jr., dismissed holding that federal reserve bank was not a federal agency within meaning of Act and that the court therefore lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. Appeal was taken. The Court of Appeals, Poole, Circuit Judge, held that federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.
Affirmed.

. . .Examining the organization and function of the Federal Reserve Banks and applying the relevant factors, we conclude that the Reserve Banks . . . are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.

Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stockholding commercial banks elect two-thirds of each Bank's nine member board of directors. The remaining three directors are appointed by the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board regulates the Reserve Banks, but direct supervision and control of each Bank is exercised by its board of directors. 12 U.S.C. § 301. The directors enact by-laws regulating the manner of conducting general Bank business, 12 U.S.C. § 341, and appoint officers to implement and supervise daily Bank activities. These activities include collecting and clearing checks, making advances to private and commercial entities, holding reserves for members banks, discounting the notes of members banks, and buying and selling securities on the open market. See 12 U.S.C. §§ 341-361.

. . . The Banks are listed as neither "wholly owned" government corporations under 31 U.S.C. § 846 nor as "mixed ownership" corporations under 31 U.S.C. § 856, . . .

Additionally, Reserve Banks, as privately owned entities, receive no appropriated funds . . ."

Let’s sum up: The Federal Reserve consists of 12 regional banks, the stock of which is owned and the Boards controlled by the member banks, which are privately owned bank corporations. These institutions receive 6% profit on their funds paid into the Fed, rain or shine, peace or war (sometimes more).

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is an independent (its own word) entity “within” the government (i.e., something much like an independent, internal parasite in a host organism), with 14 year, reform-proof terms (i.e., only one of 7 can be replaced every two years).

The Fed was deliberately designed to appear as a sort of government body to hide the fact that it is a private banking cartel whose member banks share in the vast profits of seigniorage (i.e., the difference between the cost of printing/minting or otherwise creating money [a few cents per $100], and its face value). Yes, the Department of the Treasury does still mint our coins (at the US mint) but that represents under 1% of the US money supply, the great bulk of which is simply bankbook entries - electronic keyboard impulses in computer memories - created by banks on-the-spot to fund loans they make in response to loans applications their "customers" submit (hence the competition by banks for your loan applications and credit card borrowing).

Wouldn't you love to have that exclusive ability - simply to type numbers on your keyboard creating bank accounts, and then write checks or charge purchases to those accounts (actually, no - it is gravely unjust to everyone else and is impoverishing the world for that power to be in private hands).

The Federal Reserve Notes we all accept as currency (there are no U.S. Notes printed since passage of the ill-advised, 1994 Reigle Act abolished Lincoln's greenbacks) are actually sold to the Fed at the cost of printing - a few cents per sheet - by the Treasury Department Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Seigniorage is properly a benefit solely to government (and indirectly then to the people) - not to private bankers - that the Federal Reserve Act, passed by misrepresentation and deception, transferred to the bankers. Thus, rather than the government receiving the vast benefits of creating all of our money, private banks create over 98% of our money supply - literally billions of dollars annually - and pocket the interest charged on loaning that new money, as their private profit. Our government is left with only the insignificant seigniorage from minting coins.

Since the bankers actually wanted to control the new, national central bank (called the Federal Reserve Banks), to accomplish this they had to make it appear governmental, which accounts for the occasional use of the term quasi-govenmental, to describe this governmental facade. This also explains the construction of the Federal Reserve headquarters building on the Mall in Washington, DC, right in the midst of the authentically governmental buildings there.

The real problem is, thus, not the Fed itself (it only makes about 2% of the money supply – the base for the rest), it’s the private banks that, pursuant to the fractional reserve banking authorized by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, make/create-from-nothing-for-their-private-profit the other roughly 98% of the US money supply. The Fed is just a quasi-governmental smokescreen (and central organizing body) for the private banking cartel's money-creation operation.



From Frederick Mann's THE ECONOMIC RAPE OF AMERICA (Free America! Institute, 1992) chapter 3, on the Federal Reserve:


THEY PRINT IT - WE BORROW IT AND PAY THEM INTEREST

An example of the process of currency creation and its conversion into "people's debt" will aid our understanding. The Federal Government, having spent more than it has taken from its citizens in taxes, needs (for the sake of illustration) $1 billion. Since it does not have the currency, and Congress has given away its authority to create it, the government must go to the creators for the $1 billion. But the Federal Reserve, a private corporation, does not give its currency away for free! The bankers are willing to deliver $1 billion in currency or credit to the federal government in exchange for the government's agreement to pay it back with interest. So Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to print $1 billion in U.S. Bonds, which are then delivered to the Federal Reserve bankers. (The bonds are a kind of "IOU" that bears interest.)

The U.S. Treasury prints $1 billion in bank notes. The printing cost is about $20.62 per 1,000 bills - it costs the same irrespective of the denomination - the cost of printing a $1 note is about the same as for a $100 note: about .0206 cents. The Federal Reserve "buys" these bills from the U.S. Treasury, paying only for the printing costs. The bills are then exchanged at full face value for the bonds. The government uses the currency to pay its obligations. What are the results of this fantastic transaction? Well, the government's bills are paid all right, but the U.S. Government has now indebted the people to the Federal Reserve bankers for $1 billion plus interest!

Since this process has been going on since 1913, the people are now indebted to the bankers to the tune of trillions of dollars. The people are taxed billions of dollars each month just to pay the interest on this "national debt." With both the principal and the interest climbing every month, there is no hope of ever paying off this "debt." The working people of the United States now "owe" the approximately 300 banking families and their consorts more than the assessed value of all the assets in the United States. And realize, the bankers got all this for the cost of paper, ink, and bookkeeping!


THE MOUNTAIN OF DEBT

You say this is terrible! Yes it is, but this is only part of the sordid story. Under this "debt-currency" system, those U.S. Bonds referred to above have now become assets of the banks, called their "reserve." Regular commercial banks use these assets to issue loans to individual and commercial customers. Since the banking laws require only about a 12% reserve, this means the banking fraternity can lend up to eight times the amount of the bonds they have on hand. As a result of the $1 billion discussed here, they can lend $8 billion to private customers at interest. This means that together with the $1 billion lent to the government, the bankers can lend out $9 billion at interest for the original cost to them of about $400,000 for the printing! And because the Federal Reserve bankers have been granted a monopoly, the only way our people and businesses can get currency to carry on trade and expand industry and farming is to borrow it from the bankers!


USING DEBT TO EXPAND CONTROL

In addition to the vast wealth drawn to them through this almost unlimited usury, the bankers who control the currency are able to approve or disapprove large loans to big and successful corporations. Bankers can refuse a loan, thereby depressing the price of a corporation's shares on the stock exchange. This enables the bankers' agents to buy large blocks of the shares at depressed prices. Then they can approve a multi-million dollar loan to the corporation, resulting in its share price rising, allowing the bankers' agents to sell the shares, sometimes making huge profits. In this manner billions of dollars are made to buy even more shares.

Using this method since 1913, the bankers and their agents have purchased secret or open control of almost every large corporation in America. Using that control, they force the corporations to borrow huge sums from their banks so that corporate earnings are partially siphoned off in the form of interest paid to the banks. This leaves little "actual profit" to be paid out as dividends.

When bankers lend more, the currency supply expands. When they reign in the loans, the currency supply contracts. By expanding or contracting the currency supply, the bankers can make the stock market go up or down at their pockets' content! They can cause "busts and booms" almost as they wish.

That is why President James A. Garfield said, "Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce."

At the time of writing (July, 1992), the New York stock market has been hovering around record highs for months, while the economy continues to suffer a protracted slump. The bankers no doubt want the stock market to be high and the economy to recover before the coming presidential election. Keep in mind that they endorse all three presidential candidates. Tweedledum and Tweedledee; or Louie, Huey, and Dewey; or Larry, Mo, and Curly - they are all in the hands of the bankers.


WHY LOANS EVENTUALLY SHRINK THE CURRENCY SUPPLY

The only way new currency goes into circulation in America under this wicked system is when someone borrows it from a banker. When people are confident of success, they borrow more currency, which increases the currency supply, and all seem to prosper for a while. Then, as they pay off their loans, the available currency supply shrinks and currency becomes "scarce." Borrowers must always take more currency out of circulation when they repay their loans, than they put in circulation when they receive their loans. Interest and charges make the repayment total larger than the loan. This means that only more people borrowing still more can keep the medium of exchange available to the nation.

This example may aid understanding. When a citizen goes to a banker to borrow $100,000 to purchase a home or a farm, and the loan is granted, the banker gives the borrower a check for $100,000 or credits the borrower's account with $100,000. The borrower, in turn, writes the necessary checks to the builder, seller, subcontractors, etc. (who, in turn, write more checks), thereby putting $100,000 of "checkbook currency" into circulation. However, on a 30-year mortgage with 10% interest, the banker wants $828 per month, or a total of $316,080. The buyer must take that $316,080 out of circulation, reducing the overall amount in circulation by $216,080.

The banker has not really produced anything of value, except the slip of paper called a check or deposit slip. Yet the banker ends up having $216,080 more than he had before, minus a few hundred dollars of clerical and office costs. But the people, as a whole, have $216,080 less.


WHY SMALL LOANS HAVE THE SAME EFFECT

For those who haven't quite grasped the impact, let us consider an auto loan for only three years. Step one: citizen borrows $6,000 and pays it into circulation (to the dealer, factory, etc.). Citizen agrees to repay the banker $7,200. Step two: Citizen pays $200 per month. In 36 months citizen has taken $7,200 out of circulation and paid it to the bank. Net result? $1,200 less currency in circulation.

Since currency requirements increase with expanding population, industry, and commerce, and paying off any loan decreases the available currency supply, it is clear that we would quickly run out of currency, unless more and more people borrow more and more currency to keep currency in circulation!

Multiply the above examples by hundreds of millions of times since 1913, and you can see why America has fallen from a prosperous debt-free nation to the most debt-ridden country in the world. Practically every home, farm, and business is heavily mortgaged to the bankers. Practically all our cars, furniture, and clothes are purchased with borrowed currency. The interest to the bankers on personal, state, and federal debt totals more than 25% of the combined earnings of the working population!


THE COST TO THE BANKERS? PRACTICALLY NOTHING

In the tens of millions of transactions made each year like those shown here, relatively few bank notes change hands, nor is it necessary that they do. 95% of all "cash" transactions in the U.S. are by check. Checks are thus effectively also currency. The banker creates the so-called "loan" by writing a check or deposit slip, not against actual money, but against your promise to pay back the loan. The only cost to the bank is the paper, ink, and a few dollars in salaries and office costs for each transaction. It is "check-kiting" on an enormous scale! The profits are enormous as shown below.


THE COST TO YOU? PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING

In 1910 the U.S. federal debt was $1,147,000,000 - $12 per citizen. State and local debts were practically non-existent, and government was small and not oppressive.

By 1920, after only six years of the Federal Reserve handling our currency, the federal debt had jumped to $24 billion - $228 per citizen. The Federal Government began to grow like an invisible cancer in its early stages.

By 1968 the federal debt had jumped to $347 billion - $1,717 per citizen. Ten years later, by 1978 it had doubled again to $763 billion - $3,500 per citizen. That is a debt of $17,500 for every family of five in America. Federal debt has been growing faster and faster since. And the Federal Government has become a debilitating cancer rapidly sapping and weakening its victim.

Today in 1992 the federal debt is over $4 trillion. (And they "cook the books" on the low side to come up with that figure - see Chapter Nine.) The $4 trillion national debt amounts to $16,000 per citizen, or $80,000 per family of five. And if that debt were calculated in terms of working or tax-paying families, it would be considerably higher. The Federal Government has become a bloated, out-of-control parasite, a terminal cancer. The economy seems so weak that even after many months of blowing up the currency supply, signs of recovery have to be searched for. The entire system may be on the brink of complete collapse.

[...]



CANTO XLV
Ezra Pound


With Usura


With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting
that design might cover their face,
with usura
hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luz
or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,
with usura
seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines
no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour
with usura the line grows thick
with usura is no clear demarcation
and no man can find site for his dwelling
Stone-cutter is kept from his stone
weaver is kept from his loom
WITH USURA
wool comes not to market
sheep bringeth no grain with usura
Usura is a murrain, usura
blunteth the needle in the the maid's hand
and stoppeth the spinner's cunning. Pietro Lombardo
came not by usura
Duccio came not by usura
nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin' not by usura
nor was "La Callunia" painted.
Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio Praedis,
Came no church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.
Not by usura St. Trophime
Not by usura St. Hilaire,
Usura rusteth the chisel
It rusteth the craft and the craftsman
It gnaweth the thread in the loom
None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;
Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi is unbroidered
Emerald findeth no Memling
Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man's courting
It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth
between the young bride and her bridegroom
               CONTRA NATURAM
They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet
at behest of usura.

Usury: A charge for the use of purchasing power, levied without regard to production; often without regard to the possibilities of production. (Hence the failure of the Medici bank.)

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I'M INARTICULATE WITHOUT TELEVISION. I GO TO BED EACH NIGHT WITH THE TV ON. TELEVISION BABBLE CONSTITUTES MY DREAM LIFE.









MY NEIGHBORS ARE NOTHING BUT TRASH, I TELL YOU. ALL THEY DO IS DRINK, BREED AND ASSAULT EACH OTHER. THEY MAKE ME SO SICK, I ALMOST TURN MY TV OFF.










I DO READ, THOUGH, INTERVIEWS OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STARS, FINANCIAL FORECASTS AND MAYAN HOROSCOPES. I EVEN MAKE TIME FOR POETRY, WHEN I'M ON THE CAN.










I WISH LIFE WAS AS PERFECT AS PORNO. I FEEL LIKE A UKRANIAN TONIGHT. I'VE HAD IT WITH THAI.

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YO SKIN IS YO MOST IMPOTENT ASSET. BEFORE YOU COULD EVEN OPEN YO MOUTH, YO SKIN HAD ALREADY SPOKEN VOLUMES.












JUST BEFORE HE CROAKED, MY DADDY AVERRED, I’M SORRY BUT I WOULD EAT A MILE OF HER SHIT, JUST TO SEE WHERE IT CAME FROM.












I DON'T THINK YO SKIN GOES WITH THIS ENVIRONMENT. HELL, I DON'T THINK IT JIVES WITH THIS ENTIRE CONTINENT.












WHERE ARE YOU FROM? WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHERE I’M FROM? WHERE ARE YOU FROM?












NOW THAT I’M BLIND, I CAN FINALLY SEE THE FOUR WALLS OF MY ROOM.

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Obama's Big Sellout

Don't be suckered by Obama's new mask. American politics is like lucha libre. MATT TAIBBI on Dec 9, 2009:



The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway

Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers "at the expense of hardworking Americans." Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it's not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing.

Then he got elected.

What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.

[...]

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BEHOLD THIS GASEOUS SHOW MADE FROM VARIOUS MEAT LIKE MATTERS. WATCH HOW IT BLUSHES, PIROUETTES, THEN ROTS.










THE THINK TANKS HAD NO CLUES WE WERE HEADED FOR SEXUAL CALAMITY. WHY DID YOU STOP, BUBBLE? IS THAT ALL?










HOW MUCH ANIMAL STUFF CAN I GET FOR THIS GENUINE ACORN? IS THAT TRUE TRIPE?










CONCISION IS FINE UNLESS IT'S YOUR WALLET, SIR. PAUSING EVERY FEW STEPS, HE KEPT RECOUNTING HIS FISTFUL OF ACORNS.

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GOD IS NO FAGGOT BUT AN ANGRY HETEROSEXUAL MAN. FUCK WITH THIS DUDE, HE WILL KILL YOU.










WE ARE BORN SLIMY, THEN CONDITIONED TO DESIRE ANY CARNAL SUCTION THAT'S PURGED OF THE TAINT AND WHIFF OF CHEF BOYARDEE.











RISE, HUFF AND DEMAND THAT OUR FACTORIES BE RETROFITTED WITH PENNY SLOT MACHINES. STARVING, THE BODY CHEWS ITS OWN FAT, THEN MUSCLES.











CHECK OUT THAT ROTUNDITY SWALLOWING ITS OWN TONGUE. MAY I INTEREST YOU IN A PARLOR GAME? GASPING, AMERICAN LETTERS RECYCLE.

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MY TEAM WON. MY CANDIDATE WON.











EAGLES 469 REDSKINS 0












SIXERS 243 LAKERS 0












PHILLIES 92 YANKEES 0












I'M SORRY BUT SPECTATOR SPORT IS THE EMBODIMENT, NO, EFF THAT, IT IS THE FRUITION OF ALL THAT'S FABULOUS ABOUT OUR POSSE. EVEN WITH THE ENDLESS, SCREAMING TEDIUM AND SHADY REFS, IT IS A FESTIVAL, GALA AND ORGY OF FAIR PLAY AND RACIAL INTEGRATION. I WILL ROOT FOR PLAYER X ALTHOUGH HE IS OF THE WRONG COMPLEXION, UNTIL SOMEONE OF THE RIGHT HUE COMES ALONG, HOPEFULLY NEXT YEAR.












EYEBALL THAT QUEER WITH THE MEGAPHONE. EVERYONE HAS A RUNG. THOUGH NOT MUCKING IN BUCKS, YOU CAN STILL CHEER FOR THE WINNING CARTEL.

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