Money, the worlds greatest Religion and its greatest danger with not an 'Atheist' in sight!
After World War Two as a result of intense argument, particularly instigated by the British[who tried to keep it] - the 'Gold Standard' was abandoned by the dollar in 1973. And as of 2013 no country in the world is on 'the Gold Standard' as a basis for its monetary 'value'. All money in the world now has its value dictated by 'fiat' - [formal authorization or proposition; a decree] - in short, currency has value because somebody says it does! As of now, due to US fiscal debt, ignoring private debt, every person in the US owes in excess of $46000 and this is rising exponentially. US debt last year was $17.2 trillion [17 followed by 12 zero's see here :-http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html] dollars if you tried to pay this back at $1.00 a day it would take roughly 46 billion years to do so - which is roughly 33 billion years longer than current theories give of the age of the Universe! (13.8 billion years). This should alert us to something odd - the most powerful 'economy' in the world is not the 'most powerful' 'economy' in the world - it IS the 'most powerful' 'economy' in the world only [and I emphasize] ONLY - because the thought of it not being so is too cataclysmic to contemplate - and so the 'illusion' continues - the 'national credit card limit' is raised and exponential borrowing continues as does the myth of the 'worlds most powerful' economy! What has all this to do with money? My reply? ....plenty! How does money work in this topsy turvy universe? Well money is 'created' through 'borrowing' - yes 'requests for money = debt' create money! So you go to your bank and request a mortgage [the old term actually translates as 'death gamble' - and so it is] say $200,000 - it is approved - $200,000 appearing magically in your account as a credit. Now if you do this - ask the manager of the bank to show you a 'deficit' in the banks accounts - (they won't I've tried it!), they will tell you that it is far more complicated than that - well it is - though not for the reasons the manager will give you! How this magisterial sleight of hand is achieved, is through 'fractional reserve banking' - the miracle that a bank can create money based on its 'fractional reserve' ie not 100% - not 50% but something far less as dictated by the Central Banks. Now ok there is still 'some' value there at least? Wrong! A large proportion of that 'reserve' wealth is in the form of 'debt' because to a bank DEBT IS AN ASSET! Indeed your $200,000 is used as an asset to finance your own loan. In achieving this impressive feat the bank will then enact an 'interest' payment on top of the 'hocus pocus' of fiscal finance after all what could be wrong with that? An example is in order:- BANK OF WORLD controls all money in circulation and issues it to the worlds population (100 people in this example). $100 each at 5% interest/ per annum yea! - we have an economy! All the money in circulation is 100x100 = $10000 - where is the $500 interest payment coming from since they did not issue that in the initial 'handout'? How do you furnish the interest payment since all the money in existence cannot finance it? Well two simple choices:- 1...Cause Bankruptcy in others so that you can seize their cash for your interest payment - far from desirable, not alas on morality caveats, but rather because it does not increase money in circulation. 2...Grow the economy, either through creation of 'real wealth' or through further borrowing! You notice how the 'growth' of the economy can be mediated by further borrowing - this is exactly why the US fiscal debt is perpetuated - it creates the 'illusion' of global growth - how weird is that! The upshot is that every dollar in your pocket does not equal any kind of 'real wealth' it represents a deficit which for some bizarre reason we all accept as real er...wealth!??? The Consequences 1... The Infinite Growth Paradigm - It is absolutely imperative that economies 'grow', they must perpetuate 'borrowing' to service the requirement for 'more borrowing' = money circulation. 2... Morality is replaced by the mediation of money in all areas of human endeavor - Science, Art, Religion, Charity - there is now not a single section of human endeavor that cannot hope to prosper without the use of this 'drug' called currency. 3...The planet depletes its energy resources to furnish interest payments not wealth. As a final example I will show you the absurdity of 'economic' models and how a consequence of bizarre views of 'reality' condemn our children to an 'energy' deficient future:- One car requires 70 barrels of Oil to produce in energy terms. One barrel=50 US Gallons. Now watch the economic model work its magic! To Produce 1 Car - Price in currency terms $Astronomic.00 To Produce (and sell) 100,000 Cars - Price = $15000 - affordable. To Produce (and sell) 1,000,000 Cars - Price = $1500 - super cheap! So the more production the cheaper the product but look at what happened to the 'true wealth' = energy in these equations:- To Produce 1 Car - 70 Barrels - Price in Currency Astronomic To Produce 100,000 Cars - 70 x 100,000=7,000,000 barrels of Oil - Price in currency $15000 To Produce 1000000 Cars - 70 x 1000000=70,000,000 barrels of Oil - Price in Currency $1500 ! So whilst the 'consumer' price drops 'consumption' increases according to the law of Physics - How does this work? Well - because pricing is fixed by 'consumption' rather than value so Oil is relatively (until recently) - because we consume vast quatities of the stuff - cheap [Coca Cola or Starbucks Coffee being far dearer, as is bottled water!] and hence energy is vastly underpriced in its 'real' value. We might ask:- "What happens when Hashem's Cosmic Law begins to bite and Humanity will have to pay back its 'debt' to the world? The sad point is however, we should never have 'believed' all this 'greed induced idolatry of money' in the first place, but now that we do, how do we convert? What god can possibly compete with the comfort inducing, intoxication of 'infinite wealth' 'manufactured' out of nothing - less than nothing - the Serpent still speaks and we keep 'consuming' the Apple! The Fall is inevitable! Quotes Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th Edition - "Banks create credit. It is a mistake to suppose that bank credit is created to any extent by the payment of money into the banks. A loan made by a bank is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community." Lord Acton, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1875 - "The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the People v. The Banks." Mr Reginald McKenna, when Chairman of the Midland Bank in London - "I am afraid that ordinary citizens will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people. Mr Phillip A. Benson, President of the American Bankers' Association, June 8 1939 - "There is no more direct way to capture control of a nation than through its credit (money) system." USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924 - "Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.
