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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow The Big Banks Run The World -- At Your Expense
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The recent Public Banking conference held in Philadelphia offered a message that is at once so simple - but also so bold - it is hard for most Americans to pause long enough to understand how profoundly their thinking had been corralled by the masters of finance - in ways far, far, far more insidious and powerful than even the latest financial crisis suggests.
To understand what has happened, however, you first have to take a minute to shake a few cobwebs out of your brain about "money" - and how it is created and by whom and for whose benefit.
Money is "created"? Yes, obviously so - or did you imagine there is some fixed pile of "money" some place that exists once and for all and for all times?
Think about it: If that were true, it would be impossible for the economy ever to change and grow. If the "money supply" were not increased over time, the original economy of, say, 1776 - which served about 2.5 million Americans - would still define the amount of "money" we would have to work with today.
(And yes, going back further, if money were not increased - i.e. "created" - the amount that existed even in a far smaller economy prior to 1776 would be all there was and is, even down to today.)
banned from Kos
(4,017 posts)of assets and the general population. This is why the gold standard is for lunatics or for the filthy rich (their proportion of money grows in a static environment).
Our government manages the money supply. Banks do not.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)once predicted the eventual--and inevitable--collapse of capitalism. This philosopher was vilified by people whose agendas were both selfish and devious. However, for those who have read Karl Marx without a knee jerk "I hate communism!" response, current socio-economic events are not surprising.
Marx recognized that as we humans evolve, we will progress through economic behaviors that mirror our macro-level mental and emotional maturation. Those who denigrate his vision of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," are simply not able to grasp the bigger picture he envisioned (let's not argue whether we humans are indeed capable of the kind of spiritual gnosis that could erase hierarchy and greed from our social, political, and economic interactions--why is this vision any less real than our species' current world view?).
Over 7 billion people worldwide are competing for Earth's "limited resources." Yet, less than 400 individuals control better than 45% of said resources. THIS is the grim actuality of our world economy. How we define our economic behavior is of no consequence in the face of this radical income inequity.
The world's wealthiest people want the rest of us to remain mired in ignorance and bipartisan bickering. As long as we are complicit in maintaining the status quo (especially, by chasing that ubiquitous and meaningless wealth carrot), the uber wealthy can continue to enjoy the fruits of our labor without ever having to raise a finger.
One final observation: the bank(er)s will always, always, always, always, always, always--did I mention always?--always get their money.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)It is important on several different levels. And it ties environmental and economic together. That is something I don't think many people are fully realizing.
Thanks for posting that.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)your post. I hesitate to post threads. I guess I should try a few, and see how it goes.
Thank you for responding to my post.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)want you to know is that they practice Marxism every day. They just do it to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)from the very start. In a sovereign nation that can print its own currency, there is no reason other than corruption for the banks to play the role of interest-sucking middleman that they do. The way the system is rigged, there is no possible outcome other than their enrichment and the impoverishment of others.
They create fake money with the press of a button. They charge interest for every bit of it that enters the system. The people can never pay back more than was created in the first place. When we cannot pay it back, the banks then come for our very real assets....our houses and cars and everything we own.
Wake the hell up, America.
Henry Ford had it right about a system he profited from:
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
xchrom
(108,903 posts)banned from Kos
(4,017 posts)other than in a Monopoly board game.