money, power, democracy, and war finding the path toward global peace, harmony, and prosperity...
TRANSCRIPT
Money, Power, Democracy, and War
Finding the path toward global peace, harmony, and
prosperity
Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 2
Who Shall Rule?Property or People?
“The Divine Right of Kings” has been transmuted into “The Divine Right of Capital”
An aristocracy of property Elitism vs. Egalitarianism.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 3
How Do Elites Gain Power?
Appropriate essential or desired resources, and compel everyone to pay to gain access. Monopoly, Oligopoly, Cartels
Land Enclosures Government-granted privileges
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 4
Money Creation is the Mother of All Monopolies
The entire machinery of money and banking has been contrived to centralize power and wealth.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 6
Why is Money so Important?
Exchange is a fundamental necessity in advanced civilizations.
Most of what we need, we get by trade. When the division of labor has been once
thoroughly established, it is but a very small part of a man’s wants which the produce of his own labor can supply. – Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 7
Whoever Controls Money Controls Everything Else
Give me the power to create a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws. – Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Whoever controls the money in any country is master of all its legislation and commerce. – President James A. Garfield
Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world. – Henry Kissinger
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies... – President Thomas Jefferson
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 8
Hamiltonian vs. Jeffersonian Government
Hamilton’s goal was to create a firm alliance between government and business.
Jefferson’s vision was of a more egalitarian society based on widespread land ownership and distribution of wealth.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 9
The Central Government-Central Bank Nexus
Hamilton founded the First Bank of the United States – 1791-1811.
FiBUS was modeled after the Bank of England. Both were privately owned.
The debt economy rests upon a conspiracy between the political state and the banking interests against commercial exchange…
E. C. Riegel
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 10
The Central Government-Central Bank Nexus
The Bank of England was the prototype central bank.
The banking cartel enjoys special privileges granted by the government.
The government, in return, gets to spend as much as it wants without regard to limited tax revenues (by deficit spending).
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 11
The Struggle for Power in America
Historical Landmarks
Jefferson vs. Hamilton The First Bank of the United States
Andrew Jackson vs. Nicholas Biddle The Second Bank of the United States
Abraham Lincoln vs. the Bankers The Greenbacks
Woodrow Wilson’s Error and Lament The Federal Reserve Act
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 14
The FED “The Creature From Jeckyl
Island”
The Federal Reserve Act, passed in 1913, reestablished central banking in the U.S.
It was sold as a decentralized system, but in reality operates as a unitary power instrument at the center of the banking cartel.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 15
The New World Order?
”The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole... Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world's money…”
- Prof. Carroll Quigley, Georgetown historian, mentor of former President Clinton, and author of Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 16
The Global Political Money System is Destructive, Undemocratic and
Unsustainable
The political money system starves productive enterprise but finances lavishly the destructive activities of war. -- E. C Riegel
It’s undemocratic because it concentrates power in the hands of a few unelected people who are unresponsive to the needs and wishes of the people.
It’s unsustainable because interest (usury) creates a growth imperative.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 17
DysfunctionalPolitical Money System
Political money based on debt is: Misallocated Kept artificially scarce Expensive and exploitative
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 18
Monetary Scarcity and Misallocation
Most [present-day money] is ‘backed’ by loans which should never be made
-- loans made to monetize the debts of government; loans made to finance war and the military-industrial complex, monetize the securities of giant corporations which should not exist at all, and to finance speculations in securities, commodities, and land.
-- Ralph Borsodi, Inflation and the Coming Keynesian Catastrophe
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 19
Democratic Government Requires the Separation of
Money and State.
In the exercise of the money power, under the dictates of political expediency, the state is driven inevitably from libertarian forms of democracy and republicanism to the autarchic forms of fascism, socialism and communism.
-- E. C. Riegel
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 20
The Growth Imperative
The interest burden of debt-money forces cancerous growth!
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 22
The “Magic” of Compound Interest
Growth of One Dollar
6% 10%
50 years $18.42 $117.39
100 years $339.30 $13,780.65
200 years $115,124 $189,906,200
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 23
The Good NewsMoney is Being Reinvented
At the grassroots level LETSystems and local currencies
At the business level Trade exchanges or “barter”
exchanges The governmental level
Municipal and provincial bonds and tax credit certificates are circulating as currency.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 24
Money is CreditMoney Has Evolved in Stages
Commodity Money, to Symbolic Money (redeemable
paper), to Credit Money
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 25
The Money Problem Must Be Solved
As long as the banking cartel controls our credit and charges us interest for using it, environmental destruction and social degradation can only worsen.
The key to the survival of civilization lies in regaining popular control of our own credit.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 26
How Is Money Created Today?
The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith
Money is credit. Banks create money by lending
our credit back to us – at interest.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 27
Bank
DebtMoney
Mortgage note
MortgageNote
(asset)
Banks now create only debt money, not as notes, but in the form of bank account “deposits” when a “loan” is granted.
AccountDeposit
(liability)
The Creation of Bank Debt-Money as Deposits
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 28
Transcending the Money Monopoly
Requires Commercial and Non-commercial Action at All Levels:
• Local• Regional• National• Global
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 30
Liberating Exchange
Two Synergistic Approaches:
Mutual Credit Clearing Exchanges
Complementary Private Currencies
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 31
Mutual Credit Associations and Community Currencies Provide Exchange Media that are:
Sufficient Interest-free Community controlled Democratically allocated Self-adjusting Stable and Sustainable
Mutual Credit Issuance and Circulation
Member - IssuersMutual credit clearing association Member - Non-Issuers
Issuing members begin the process by buying from other members.
Then credits are used to pay for purchases within the association.
Currency Issuance and Circulation
Non-member users
Member - IssuersMutual credit clearing association Member - Non-Issuers
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 34
Advantageous Outcomes
Reduced need to borrow from banks, lowering interest costs and the risk of default.
Supplements the supply of scarce official money, enabling businesses to sell more of their unused capacity, and consumers to buy it.
Increases independence from outside manipulation of interest rates and money supply.
Enhanced ability of local businesses to compete with large corporate chains.
March 1, 2007 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 35
Learn More and Keep Up-to-date on Developments
Explore the website: http://www.ReinventingMoney.com Read, Money: Understanding and Creating
Alternatives to Legal Tender, and Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global
Crisis by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Make a donation to Community Information
Resource Center. Get involved with Sustainable Tucson