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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 11, 2008 - 12:06am PT
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Here's pinko Noam Choamsky relating how something about the history of our government and the world financial system plays into the current crisis
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10-4
Peace
karl
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 21, 2008 - 10:31pm PT
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article on credit default swaps along with some interesting comments from the peanut gallery
http://tinyurl.com/5yvl56
We are not out of any woods yet.
Peace
Karl
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MisterE
Trad climber
My Inner Nut
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Oct 21, 2008 - 10:32pm PT
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Show us the gold
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bachar
Gym climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Oct 22, 2008 - 02:49pm PT
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2008 - 02:48am PT
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Raymond mentioned the Zeitgeist Addendum a few posts up. Part 1 of the free 2 hour movie covers the monetary system and it's drawbacks. It's fascinating and at a minimum serious food for thought.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
I might not agree with the whole movie but it's a visionary world view and, since the future nature of society is never conceivable to people who never stretch their minds, I think the whole movie is an interesting concept to mull over.
I'll post the link in another thread.
Also, since you can say some of this borders on conspiracy theory, this post wouldn't be complete without linking the federal reserve to the Kennedy Assassination!
http://www.rense.com/general76/jfkvs.htm
it starts out
"On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous.
With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificats were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the gevernment the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver.
After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion in debt has been created since 1963, ..."
Peace
Karl
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2008 - 01:29pm PT
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if this doesn't make you scratch your head and proclaim money is just a fantasy scam, check out our current monetary situation. The real ponzi scheme seems to be the whole economy.
How does the US actually finance trillion dollar deficits paying almost no interest in depreciating currency?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122973431525523215.html?mod=yahoo_itp&ru=yahoo
a short excerpt
"...The 21st century Fed goes with what works -- or seems to work. What it hopes is going to work for the fellow who fell off the stepladder is more debt and more dollars. Just how much of each can be found every Thursday evening on the Fed's own Web site. Open up form H4.1 and prepare to be amazed. Since Labor Day, the Fed's assets have zoomed to $2.31 trillion from $905.7 billion. And what is the significance of this stunning rate of asset growth? Simply this: The Fed pays for its assets with freshly made dollars. It conjures them into existence on a computer; "printing" is a figure of speech.
In this crisis, the Fed's assets have grown much faster than its capital. The truth is that the Federal Reserve is itself a highly leveraged financial institution. The flagship branch of the 12-bank system, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, shows assets of $1.3 trillion and capital of just $12.2 billion. Its leverage ratio, a mere 0.9%, is less than one-third of that prescribed for banks in the private sector. Such a thin film of protection would present no special risk if the bank managed by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary-designate, owned only short-dated Treasurys.
However, the mystery meat acquired from Bear Stearns and AIG foots to $66.6 billion. A writedown of just 18.3% in the value of those risky portfolios would erase the New York Fed's capital account. In congressional testimony eight years ago, Laurence Meyer, then a Fed governor, tried to allay any such concerns (which then must have seemed remote, indeed). "Creditors of central banks...are at no risk of a loss because the central bank can always create additional currency to meet any obligation denominated in that currency," he soothingly reminded his listeners....."
Peace
karl
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