WHO Controls YOUR Destiny ? not just for bumps anymore

POSTED BY: out2theblack
UPDATED: Friday, December 11, 2009 22:42
VIEWED: 3083
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OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, November 27, 2009 9:07 PM

<(O)>

The Economic Crisis and What Must be Done

By Richard C. Cook

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16258

Global Research, November 24, 2009
richardccook.com - 2009-11-23

The United States does not control its own destiny. Rather it is controlled by an international financial elite, of which the American branch works out of big New York banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Wall Street investment firms such as Goldman Sachs, and the Federal Reserve System. They in turn control the White House, Congress, the military, the mass media, the intelligence agencies, both political parties, the universities, etc. No one can rise to the top in any of these institutions without the elite’s stamp of approval.

This elite has been around since the nation began, becoming increasingly dominant as the 19thcentury progressed. A key date was passage of the National Banking Act of 1863, when the system was put into place whereby federal government debt was used to collateralize bank lending. Since then we’ve paid the freight through our taxes for bank control of the economy. The final nails in the coffin came with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

In 1929 the bankers plunged the nation into the Great Depression by constricting the money supply. With Franklin D. Roosevelt as president, the nation struggled through the decade of the 1930s but did not pull out of the Depression until the industrial explosion during World War II.

After the war came the Golden Age of the U.S. economy, when the working man, protected by strong labor unions, became a true partner in the prosperity of the industrial age. That era lasted a full generation. The bankers were largely spectators as Americans led the world in exports, standard of living, science and space exploration, and every measure of health, longevity, and culture.

Roosevelt had kept the bankers subservient to the interests of the economy at large. The Federal Reserve was part of the New Deal team, and interest rates were held at historic lows despite a large federal deficit. One main impact was the huge increase in home ownership. After World War II, the G.I. Bill allowed home ownership to grow further and millions of veterans to attend college. The influx of educated graduates led to productivity growth and the emergence of new high-tech industries.

But the bankers were laying their plans. In the early 1950s they got the government to agree to allow the Federal Reserve to escape its subservience to the U.S. Treasury Department and set interest rates on its own. Rates rose throughout the 1950s and 1960s. By the time of the interest rate hikes of 1968, the economy was slowing down. Both federal budget and trade deficits were beginning to replace the post-war surpluses. High interest rates were the likely cause.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon removed the dollar’s gold peg, allowing the huge inflation resulting from oil price increases that the international bankers engineered through control of U.S. foreign policy when Henry Kissinger was national security adviser and secretary of state. Nixon’s opening to China resulted in early agreements, also overseen by banking interests, to begin to transfer U.S. industry to overseas producers like China which had cheap labor costs.

By the mid-1970s, the U.S. had been taken over by a behind the scenes coup-d’etat that included events in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a conspiracy that could only have been instigated by the highest levels of world financial control. In the election of 1976, David Rockefeller succeeded in placing fellow Trilateral Commission member Jimmy Carter in the White House, but Carter upset the banking community, thoroughly Zionist in orientation, by working toward peace in the Middle East and elsewhere.

I was working in the Carter White House in 1979-80. Unbeknownst to the president, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, another Rockefeller protégé, suddenly raised interest rates to fight the inflation the bankers had ca

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, November 27, 2009 9:20 PM

"...Summers assignment is to bring the broader economy to its knees; to crush big labor by keeping unemployment high, to force state and local and governments to privatize more public assets and services, and to generate as much human misery as possible. In short, Summers is laying the groundwork for structural adjustment within the US, a policy which reflects his ongoing commitment to multinational corporations and neoliberalism. It's the shock doctrine redux. These people are monsters."

Soaring Unemployment and Double-dip Recession?

Blame N.W.O. Larry

By Mike Whitney

November 26, 2009

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24068.htm

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, November 27, 2009 9:53 PM

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business.
If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
-- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, November 27, 2009 9:57 PM

The Great Marginalization

Planning for Poverty?

By Carl Ginsburg

"...The word from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at last week's community meeting in the Bronx was disappointing, to say the least. After promising "good jobs" during a recent campaign, how could a man with so many billions, and now fresh from a re-election victory, oppose a $10-an-hour wage? "

http://counterpunch.org/ginsburg11272009.html

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Saturday, November 28, 2009 7:10 AM

Long article to wade through. I must have a short attention span.

But basically I think it's something that I've said for awhile. Who has control of America (or any country come to that)? Who holds the power? Certainly not the government - all those who decry government power and control fail to see that the democratic process holds very little in the face of those who have the main control over our lives - two industries I'd say - finance and media. Or in other words, money and information.

GINOBIFFARONI

Saturday, November 28, 2009 7:24 AM

http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/091298
6212

Either your with the terrorists, or ... your with the terrorists

Lets party like its 1939

PIZMOBEACH

Saturday, November 28, 2009 11:50 AM

Thx for posting O2B - I've wanted to start a thread asking "who are TPTB?" It seems that there are some here who believe they know. while I'm a skeptic! I look forward to reading your posts above (this is a bump).

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

SIGNYM

Saturday, November 28, 2009 4:28 PM

Yep, pretty much what I've been saying all along: One dollar, one vote. Been against the concentration of wealth ever since whenever, and certainly against Goldman Sucks and The Fed.

But keep in mind there are many bases of power besides money and info, including bullets and production.

ETA: Just saw this on CNN:

Bernanke: Don't tamper with the Fed

Quote:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, just days ahead of his confirmation hearing, is warning Congress that actions limiting the central bank's independence could prove detrimental to the causes of financial reform and economic recovery.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/28/news/economy/bernanke_oped/index.htm

Why NOT????

Makes me wanna put his head through a wall.

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 28, 2009 5:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Long article to wade through. I must have a short attention span.

...all those who decry government power and control fail to see that the democratic process holds very little in the face of those who have the main control over our lives - two industries I'd say - finance and media. Or in other words, money and information.

You're on to something there...

And yes , these stories are detailed and lengthy...That's the thing of history...It takes some focused examination and research . There's not much in the way of 'news' or information that has a shelf life of more than a day or two ,
and the 'money and information' powers provide the next distraction of bread and circus...
" Puppet Theatre for the somnambulant public..."

That's why the masses are so easily manipulated ; they can't manage to stay focused and recall all that has gone before...

The actors and scenes may change , but the story remains the same...

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 28, 2009 5:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by pizmobeach:
Thx for posting O2B - I've wanted to start a thread asking "who are TPTB?" It seems that there are some here who believe they know. while I'm a skeptic! I look forward to reading your posts above (this is a bump).

Thanks for noticing , and bumping .

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 28, 2009 10:16 PM

Quote:
Bernanke: Don't tamper with the Fed

Renominated chairman writes commentary warning Congress not to limit the central bank's independence.

That right there , oughta set off all sort of alarm bells in people's heads...

Firstly , it is an acknowledgement that the Federal Reserve is independent , a 4th branch of government that doesn't answer to or serve the people , but its own interests...

So much for the notion of democracy .

Secondly , it ought to rile folk to know that the beast has the nerve to snarl in the face of elected representatives in Congress...

If one needs to kill a wardog , don't start by cutting off its tail...Cut off its head .

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 28, 2009 10:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:
http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/091298
6212

EXACTLY !

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, November 28, 2009 10:22 PM

Quote:
Fed rage boils over on Capitol Hill
Fed chief Ben Bernanke is expected to win confirmation to a second term. But it won't be pretty. The push in Congress to rein in the central bank is gaining steam.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/23/news/economy/Bernanke_confirmation/ind
ex.htm

Folk ought to recall that ScamBO Administration was in favor of giving these Fed bungers even MORE power...

Who , exactly , is he supposed to answer to , and what about that Oath to support and defend the Constitution ?

DREAMTROVE

Sunday, November 29, 2009 12:06 AM

Pizmo, I already started a thread with that title, and the intent of trying to find out the answer to that question. It sank like a stone. i'd be happy to revive it for you

o2tb

Thanks for posting. Most people are probably aware of this, but there are always some who aren't.

Here's something to try.

Take the article. Edit it. Keep editing applying strunk and white, and try to cut it down as short as you can

Then edit your post to include:

1. Your new terse style summary.
2. the link to the original article
3. leave the full text at the end of the post, in case it disappears from the link, as they often do.

Then you will have more commentary. I'm very busy at the moment, but this is worth discussing.

OUT2THEBLACK

Monday, November 30, 2009 7:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:

o2tb

Thanks for posting. Most people are probably aware of this, but there are always some who aren't.

Here's something to try.

Take the article. Edit it. Keep editing applying strunk and white, and try to cut it down as short as you can

Then edit your post to include:

1. Your new terse style summary.
2. the link to the original article
3. leave the full text at the end of the post, in case it disappears from the link, as they often do.

Then you will have more commentary. I'm very busy at the moment, but this is worth discussing.

With CRG posts , it's all or nothing.

That's in the disclaimer , included at the bottom of the article...To edit for brevity would essentially be 'modifying' the text...

Those inclined to read it , will...

The others , there's probably nothing could be posted here in this forum to wake them up .

I think i see your point , though...I take you to mean I should summarize and paraphrase so that the slow kids can decide if they ought take the time to read further...

I'm too busy to be their errand boy...

OUT2THEBLACK

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 12:44 AM

From the Lefsetz Letter :

Song Of The Decade

'...Yes, it's been ten years. And I'm not one for lists. But in magazines and newspapers decade-ending rankings have started to appear. Best movies, best TV shows and best songs. So I thought I'd weigh in.

"Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore"

I've had a rough year. Financially.

After a disastrous nineties, I owe nothing. I live on a cash basis. I saved every damn cent I could, figuring it's hard to make a living on a freelance basis, and then the bottom fell out.

I'm not complaining. I've got my cash hoard. But it's depressing. Because almost everybody I know is broke, or close to it. I've even got a friend who put her stuff in storage and is bouncing from guest bedroom to guest bedroom, she just can't find a job.

They don't exist. Even if you want to work, you can't.

Your best bet is the network, those people you've known for decades. You can call and lean on them, if they still even have their jobs.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is paying record bonuses and their Chairman Lloyd Blankfein says the firm is doing God's work. He must pray to a deity I've yet to encounter, one who wants to see the populace suffer. Used to be Wall Street helped build America, now traders just profit off exotic investment instruments. Meanwhile, if we didn't prop up AIG, the banks would be bankrupt and their employees would be just like us, without a job and with no prospects. Hell, did you see that story in the "New York Times" about ex Lehman Brothers employees? They can't work.

Not that I've got sympathy.

"Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans, let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore"

By time you read this our President, Barack Obama, a man who ran on the mantra of hope, may be getting us deeper into Afghanistan. Isn't Al-Qaeda in Pakistan? And, if the Soviets couldn't win there, why should we? A country owned by China with disastrous financials (that's us, in case you didn't recognize your homeland).

And if you join the armed forces to serve your country, to pay your bills, you're entering the Hotel California. It seems you can never leave. You wish you were a rock star, high on dope, as you jumpily wait for people to attack you one more time. Coming home to a country that pays you lip service, but doesn't give a shit. If you come home at all. And if you do return, you're probably so traumatized you figure suicide is the best solution.

"In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore"

Not only have they ditched music in schools, now they're closing the libraries. Guess everybody's got to sit in front of the TV, paying media giants to have crap shoved down their throats. Elvis Costello sang about vapid radio? Well, they killed radio and now have us anesthetized in front of the flat screen, selling us products we don't need, that we put on credit cards that charge 29%. As for holding back... Didn't they say it was American to shop, that we were entitled? If we sacrifice, maybe that means the future truly is bleak. So, we consume until we go bust.

I try to have hope. Can't say that I achieve this state every day.

But one thing that helps me get through is James McMurtry's "We Can't Make It Here". Not only my favorite song of the

GINOBIFFARONI

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 3:42 AM

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/11/2009113083115721105.html

Wither the US dollar?
By Adhip Chaudhuri in Washington

Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, wants a strong dollar but has taken no steps to defend it against its downward slide in international markets [EPA]

During a recent visit to Tokyo, Timothy Geithner, the secretary of the US treasury, said that a strong dollar is "very important" to Washington, even as the American currency continued its noticeable depreciation.

This is a very curious statement as it seems to indicate that the US treasury is going to defend the dollar from any further slide in the near future. But this is highly unlikely as the US treasury does not have a history of intervening in foreign exchange markets.

It is true that the treasury's Exchange Stabilisation Fund (ESF) can be used to prop up the dollar, but it has never really been used for that purpose. The ESF, which right now has about $50bn, was originally created by the Roosevelt administration in the early 1930s to deal with currency upheavals as the Gold Standard was being dismantled.

The ESF was used only once in international financial markets and that was to defend the Mexican peso in 1994.

Therefore, the treasury's use of the ESF to defend the dollar can be ruled out.

In any case, it would take a lot more than $50bn to stabilise the greenback if there were to be a speculative attack on the dollar, like there was against the British pound in 1992.

On September 16, 1992, the UK withdrew the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after short selling in global markets brought the value of the British currency below its agreed lower limit.

Liquidity and the Fed

The Fed has been providing banks with funds at nearly zero per cent [EPA]
The US Federal Reserve (popularly known as the Fed) is also unlikely to be defending the dollar any time soon. To prop up the currency, the Fed would have to buy back dollars which would require that the US offer euros, British pounds and Japanese yens in exchange.

The Fed does not have much foreign currencies in stock because the US has been running trade deficits continuously for a long time now.

The fact that the Fed does not have a war chest big enough to intervene credibly in the foreign exchange market on behalf of the dollar, paradoxically, discourages short and swift "shark attacks" - the massive selling of dollars by speculators in a very short span of time.

Speculators need some entity to bet against, and typically such opposition is provided by a central bank, such as the role the Bank of England played in its defence of the pound in 1992.

In fact, the Fed is at present much more interested in supplying dollars than in buying them. It has committed itself to providing liquidity to the banks at rates closer to zero per cent.

The banks can then presumably lend this money to households and firms at much higher interest rates and pocket the difference. For example, the mortgage rate in the US has been hovering around five per cent.

While getting near-free money from the Fed and then being able to lend it at five per cent provides enormous potential for profits (and large bonuses and salary increases for top management), it also reflects the high risk of default the banks perceive as a threat, given the defaults that have taken place on past lending.

The Fed creates this cheap money by paying for US government bonds that it buys from the public. Thus, the Fed ends up financing US government debt, albeit indirectly. Hence, a lot of the bailout money for AIG, Fannie Mae, and GM, has been indirectly financed by money created by the Fed.

'Too much money?'

However, could the creation of all this money lead to inflation? After all, was it not the danger of rising inflation that principally fuelled the dollar's downward spiral?

These concerns stem from the simplest, yet best-known economic theorems: inflation is caused by "too much money chasing too few goods".

While it is true that the treasury a

OUT2THEBLACK

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 8:30 PM

http://dailyreckoning.com/fiat-currency/

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, December 4, 2009 5:25 PM

"...The main thrust of our discussion was the status of legislation Ron has introduced in every session of Congress for the past dozen years or so. He wants to see an audit of the Federal Reserve. When that happens (and he is convinced it will some day), so much damaging information will be revealed that it will make it far more likely that the second part of his campaign—to abolish the Federal Reserve System—will become a reality.

Ron says the Fed itself is helping his cause, both by their unbelievable largesse and also by their incredible secrecy. He told me that the Fed has issued more than $2 trillion worth of loans and loan guarantees in the past year and won’t even tell Congress where the money has gone!

“If Congress can pass $700 billion of bailout funds and not know where the money is going,” Ron said, “what about all the trillions of dollars in loans and guarantees the Fed has issued since the crisis hit? Not only did the Federal Reserve help cause the (economic) problems, they are perpetuating them. But we have absolutely no idea how much the Fed has spent or promised to spend. That’s why an audit is so important.”

Ron says the latest survey shows that three out of four Americans—some 75 percent—support his demands for an audit of the Fed. So it’s no surprise that a majority in Congress has seen which way the wind is blowing and has signed up as sponsors of his bill.

But getting a majority to support it doesn’t mean it will pass. The congressman said he expects House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to do everything in her power to prevent the bill from ever coming up for a vote.

“Won’t this make people even angrier?” I asked him.

“The people are already angry,” he replied. “And rightfully so. I think it’s healthy that they are directing their anger toward Washington. That’s beneficial.” But then he issued an important warning: “If it gets out of hand, if violence erupts, that would be a dangerous thing. Our civil liberties are not all that well protected any more, thanks to the Patriot Act and other incursions on our liberties. The important thing is to make sure we direct that anger in such a way that there will be positive change.”

An audit of the Federal Reserve is a good start. But what we really need to achieve, the congressman told me, is to undo two great mistakes this country made nearly 100 years ago.

“We need to Repeal 1913!”
Then the congressman said something that I hope becomes a powerful new slogan for all of us working to restore Constitutional liberties. “What we really need to do,” he said, “is repeal 1913. That way we could get rid of the income tax and the Federal Reserve at the same time.”

Most Americans are probably not aware of what a disastrous year 1913 was for our historic freedoms. The very same year that saw the Federal Reserve System foisted on a gullible Senate by lies and deception also saw the enactment of the first graduated income tax in our nation’s history.

I don’t have the space today to go into detail on either of these nefarious schemes and how a group of elitists in New York and Washington conspired to bring them about. Suffice it to say that our would-be tyrants delivered a one-two punch that year from which freedom has never recovered.

I could tell Ron was getting as excited about the idea as I was. “You know, if you repeal Big Government, you get rid of government intrusion in our lives.” I could tell he was getting more and more enthusiastic. “You stop the hemorrhaging of the dollar. You repeal inflationary conditions. You restore a sound currency, which would go a long way to restoring a sound economy.”

My next question was obvious: How are we going to do this?

“The most important thing is to become as knowledgeable as possible,” he replied. “Education is the key to victory.”

The congressman is adamant that we need to understand why we are in favor of free markets, sound money, and personal liberty. “We must be able to answer the liberal do-gooders who claim they have the moral high ground, that they are the only ones who care

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, December 5, 2009 6:59 PM

Abolish The Fed And Return Money Creation Power To Congress
By Stephen Lendman

http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman051209.htm

"...According to US constitution only the Congress has the authority to create money. But a private bank, the Federal Reserve is printing money in direct violation to the US constitution and goes on bankrupting America, taking the whole world with it..."

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, December 5, 2009 8:30 PM

" News Item--WASHINGTON, December 2 (Press Release)–
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today placed a hold on the nomination of Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

YAY! I don't know if this hold will have much effect in the long run. But it is good to see a progressive who does SOMETHING besides sigh and roll over when the government gives the moneyed elites yet another gift. It is also encouraging to see that he has bi-partisan support and is not just a voice crying in the wilderness.

The Fed is too secretive an institution and needs to be audited, especially since it has so much of our tax money. We the People have the right to know what it is doing. Bernanke is right that this audit move is the first step in a campaign to destroy the Fed, but this is a good thing. As long as we are going to have a monetary system--remember that I am for abolishing money altogether--we should return to the constitutional system of government-issued money. Right now our money is issued by the Fed--look at a dollar; it says Federal Reserve Note--and lent to the government at interest. The Fed is a private institution owned by its member banks that are also private institutions. Thus, even if the government were not engaged in deficit spending, it would still be paying interest on the money it uses, because it is borrowed from a private entity--The Fed.

It is vital for Americans to understand the private nature of the Fed and its unconstitutional role in our economic system."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Sanders-Hold-the-First-by-Kellia-R
amares-091203-746.html

Bernanke a 'key architect of the Bush economy,' Sanders says

Bunning to Bernanke: You are 'the definition of moral hazard'

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/12/03/bunning-statement-on-bernank
e-you-are-the-definition-of-a-moral-hazard/

Update: A fourth senator has joined three other senators in placing a hold on the Fed Chairman's nomination. Louisiana Republican David Vitter will also move to keep the chairman's nomination from coming to the floor.

“Over the past year or so, the Fed has doled out several trillion dollars to any number of troubled institutions through a series of programs that were supposed to turn our economy around,” Vitter said in a statement. “These programs have worsened our economic crisis by making ‘too big to fail’ a permanent government policy and created further debt that will now be the burden of our children and grandchildren. His endorsement of these unsound fiscal policies gives me great pause.”

OUT2THEBLACK

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 12:11 AM

December 7, 2009

Unemployment Decline An Illusion, Financial System Collapse Ahead

On Friday it was announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the U.S. unemployment rate in November declined from 10.2% to 10%. While the mainstream media would like you to believe we have seen a peak in unemployment and the worst of the economic crisis is behind us, we know that this dip in the unemployment number is phony and the recession is only beginning.

http://www.inflation.us/unemploymentdeclineillusion.html

OUT2THEBLACK

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 8:43 PM

Who still Loves ScamBO ?

Obama Far Outdoes Bush in Escalating War -- The Numbers Will Surprise You

By David DeGraw, Amped Status. Posted December 9, 2009.

'Increasing numbers of deployed soldiers, mercenaries and drones all add up to Obama being more of a war president than Bush, in terms of hard numbers.

...As Obama announced plans for escalating the war effort, it has become clear that the Obama Illusion has taken yet another horrifying turn. Before explaining how the Af-Pak surge is a direct attack on the US public, let’s peer through the illusion and look at the reality of the situation.

Now that the much despised George W. Bush is out of the way and a more popular figurehead is doing PR for Dick Cheney’s right-hand military leader Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is leading his second AF-Pak surge now, and with long time Bush family confidant Robert Gates still running the Defense Department, the masters of war have never had it so good.

Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate, has proven to be a perfect decoy for the military industrial complex. Consider all the opposition and bad press Bush received when he announced the surge in Iraq. Then consider this:'

http://www.alternet.org/story/144449/obama_far_outdoes_bush_in_escalat
ing_war_--_the_numbers_will_surprise_you

SIGNYM

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 9:28 PM

Alas, too true.

JONGSSTRAW

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 9:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by out2theblack:
Who still Loves ScamBO ?

Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate, has proven to be a perfect decoy for the military industrial complex. Consider all the opposition and bad press Bush received when he announced the surge in Iraq.

Obama's anti-war stance was for Iraq. That position helped him defeat Hillary for the nomination. He's always stated throughout the campaign that the war we should be fighting was in Afghanistan. He re-affirmed that when he sent additional troops there in February, then he appointed Gen. McChrystal in March, and he re-affirmed the commitment again over the Summer in a speech to the VFW. When he got the "plan" from his hand-picked General in August he then decided he needed to proceed with caution. After 3 months he announced a new surge of 30,000. He did not look or sound all too happy last week when he made that speech. I think he really did not want to make that speech, but he must have felt a bit boxed-in. His advisors are warning him of this or that scenario, and he himself is very cognizant of his potential place in history for making these decisions. This is one campaign promise he actually has kept.

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, December 11, 2009 6:05 PM

2009-2010: An Economic Crossroads

URL of this article :
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16489

By Richard C Cook

Global Research, December 10, 2009

richardccook.com

The crisis of 2008-2009 exposed the U.S. financial system as being unstable, subject to abuse, and tending to favor the rich while putting everyone else deeper into debt.

The housing bubble was based on the biggest credit inflation in history. It raised the prices of homes to unprecedented levels but created the deepest recession in a generation when it collapsed. $6 trillion in wealth has now simply disappeared.

Meanwhile, unregulated global capitalism continues to concentrate wealth, outsource jobs to the cheapest possible labor markets, accelerate U.S. unemployment, and destroy local and regional economies.

Even if the recession results in a modest recovery, it is likely to be of the “jobless” variety, or else jobs at low wages, with the U.S. still the most wasteful, resource-intensive, debt-oriented economy in history. A budget for war expenditures of almost $1 trillion doesn’t help.

Steps toward recovery are being fueled by enormous increases in the national debt due to federal budget deficits now over $1.4 trillion a year, with the U.S. economy carrying a total debt load of $200,000 for every man, woman, and child in the nation.

The huge debts of government at all levels, combined with reliance on government employment as a Keynesian economic driver, have raised the total government tax and fee burden (federal/state/local) to up to 40-50% of an individual’s income.

The “elephant in the room” is the debt-based monetary system run by the Federal Reserve, which since its inception in 1913 has based the U.S. money supply almost entirely on bank lending, including lending to government for its deficits. The Federal Reserve Act gave the banking system the incredible privilege of creating money out of thin air and charging interest for its use. The federal government now pays the banking system, trust funds, and investors, including foreign governments, almost $400 billion a year just for interest.

When you add it up, interest and taxes today probably consume over half the entire U.S. gross domestic product.

Final elimination of the gold standard in 1971 removed any objective measure of the value of Federal Reserve currency. Since then, the dollar has lost 85 percent of its value. Despite the rhetoric, government and Fed policies inflate the currency in order to pay off debt with dollars of less value.

Some members of Congress are trying to rein in the Fed, but so far with little success. Numerous proposals for monetary reform are coming from all quarters, but the power of the Fed and banking system in favor of maintaining the status quo is enormous.

With the power wielded by the privileges of big banking, combined with big government and its Keynesian deficit-based financial system, we have completely forgotten that time in our history when money was viewed as a medium of exchange for producers of goods and services. Prior to 1913, the creation and use of money was much less centralized and mainly served the marketplace.

The true purpose and meaning of money was rediscovered during the Great Depression when many businesses and local jurisdictions produced their own money in the form of scrip. Scrip is actually a more stable form of currency than bank-created fiat money where people are forced to accept it as legal tender. The same goes for the use of self-generated “trading units” by trade exchanges acting as producer currency coops.

Today a similar movement has begun through the creation and use of legal alternative currencies. It may be our best immediate hope of achieving a semblance of real economic democracy and restoring local/regional economic sustainability. Proponents should also lobby government to accept alternative currencies for payment of taxes.

Richard C. Cook is a former federal government anal

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, December 11, 2009 6:19 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-h
ari-leaders-of-the-rich-world-are-enacting-a-giant-fraud-1837963.html

Johann Hari: Leaders of the rich world are enacting a giant fraud

Corporate lobbyists can pressure or bribe governments to rig the system in their favour

FREMDFIRMA

Friday, December 11, 2009 6:43 PM

Interesting stuff, worth reading - but you know, Out2B, if you weren't such an ass about it when they did, more folk would be willing to discuss it with you.

You *can* learn even from those who disagree with you, just sayin.

-F

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, December 11, 2009 10:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

Interesting stuff, worth reading - but you know, Out2B, if you weren't such an ass about it when they did, more folk would be willing to discuss it with you.

You *can* learn even from those who disagree with you, just sayin.

-F

This kind of thing is only for them as need it told...The folk who disagree just to be disagreeable aren't likely to *learn* anything anyway , since they know it all already...

You know the difference 'tween horse and mule ?
Nobody ever sees my kicking mule if they've not already been shining their horse's @SS in my direction...Turnabout is fair play , and all...Not all know what goes on behind the scenes , so their judgments don't mean diddly if they don't maintain the courtesy of at least civility , if not mutual respect...

There are two kinds of aircraft , yanno , just fighters and targets...Someone shows me their six and they've already got a debt that ain't been paid , they're like to end up with a tailcone full of hot lead...

Still , and all , coming from you , I'll take it under advisement...Thanks for saying...