How can The Fed still operate legally?

My major goal of this blog is to raise people's awareness of the rampant fraud and corruption in the American circumstance. I especially focus on exposing the Fed for what it is, a crime syndicate authorized by our federal government, and wholly responsible for the destruction of the american laborer's wealth. Sadly, for 95 years we have allowed this unconstitutional organization to create credit from thin air, institute gradual inflation, and profit at the expense of the innocent and unsuspecting citizens of this great country.
But, we have been warned. There are numerous leaders, congressmen, industrialists and others that have spoken out against The Fed. so, why have we allowed its existence and for it to control our society's monetary system? Well, I have my reasons. Here is a long list of quotes of well-respected people who have had the courage to speak. End The Fed

Quotes On Banking and the Federal Reserve System FRAUD

"The entire taxing and monetary systems are hereby placed under the U.C.C. (Uniform Commercial Code)." -- The Federal Tax Lien Act of 1966

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependant on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." -- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."-- Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States." -- Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AZ)

"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." -- James A. Garfield, President of the United States

"Banks lend by creating credit. (ledger-entry credit, monetized debt) They create the means of payment out of nothing." -- Ralph M. Hawtrey, Secretary of the British Treasury

"To expose a 15 Trillion dollar ripoff of the American people by the stockholders of the 1000 largest corporations over the last 100 years will be a tall order of business." -- Buckminster Fuller

"Every Congressman, every Senator knows precisely what causes inflation...but can't, [won't] support the drastic reforms to stop it [repeal of the Federal Reserve Act] because it could cost him his job." -- Robert A. Heinlein, Expanded Universe

"It is well that the 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

"The regional Federal Reserve banks are not government agencies. ...but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." -- Lewis vs. United States, 680 F. 2d 1239 9th Circuit 1982

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)

"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)

"Some [Most] people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers." -- Congressional Record 12595-12603 -- Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (12 years) June 10, 1932

"[Every circulating FRN] represents a one dollar debt to the Federal Reserve system." -- Money Facts, House Banking and Currency Committee

"...the increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks." -- Eustace Mullins

"As soon as Mr. Roosevelt took office, the Federal Reserve began to buy government securities at the rate of ten million dollars a week for 10 weeks, and created one hundred million dollars in new [checkbook] currency, which alleviated the critical famine of money and credit, and the factories started hiring people again." -- Eustace Mullins

"By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft." -- British Lord John Maynard Keynes (the father of 'Keynesian Economics' which our nation now endures) in his book "THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE" (1920).

"These 12 corporations together cover the whole country and monopolize and use for private gain every dollar of the public currency..." -- Mr. Crozier of Cincinnati, before Senate Banking and Currency Committee - 1913

"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world-- no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." -- President Woodrow Wilson

"We are completely dependant on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system.... It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon." -- Robert H. Hamphill, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank

"The Federal Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities..." -- Lewis vs. United States 9th Circuit 1992

"The Federal Reserve banks, while not part of the government,..." -- United States budget for 1991 and 1992 part 7, page 10

"The Federal Reserve bank buys government bonds without one penny..." -- Congressman Wright Patman, Congressional Record, Sept 30, 1941

"The Federal Reserve system pays the U.S. Treasury 020.60 per thousand notes -- a little over 2 cents each-- without regard to the face value of the note. Federal Reserve Notes, incidentally, are the only type of currency now produced for circulation. They are printed exclusively by the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the $20.60 per thousand price reflects the Bureau's full cost of production. Federal Reserve Notes are printed in 01, 02, 05, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollar denominations only; notes of 500, 1000, 5000, and 10,000 denominations were last printed in 1945." -- Donald J. Winn, Assistant to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system

"Neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities, intrinsically, a 'dollar' bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries." -- Modern Money Mechanics Workbook, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1975

"This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President [Wilson} signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized....the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill." -- Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. , 1913

"From now on, depressions will be scientifically created." -- Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. , 1913

"The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money" -- Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1923

"The [Federal Reserve Act] as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency... I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency." -- Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., 1913

[Note – From 1913 until now inflation of the dollar has been 2950%. A 1913 dollar would now be worth $.034. When I became a wage earner in 1950 I could buy a full breakfast, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, shortstack, juice, and coffee for $.39. This morning I paid $9.60 for the same, an inflation of 2460%]

"When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money." -- Putting it simply, Boston Federal Reserve Bank

"There is a distinction between a 'debt discharged' and a debt 'paid'. When discharged, the debt still exists though divested of it's charter as a legal obligation during the operation of the discharge, something of the original vitality of the debt continues to exist, which may be transfered, even though the transferee takes it subject to it's disability incident to the discharge." -- Stanek vs. White, 172 Minn.390, 215 N.W. 784

"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs....I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and unforgivable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart, we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected." -- John Danforth (R-Mo)

"Capital must protect itself in every way...Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd." -- Taken from the Civil Servants' Year Book, "The Organizer" January 1934.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.

"If Congress has the right [it doesn't] to issue paper money [currency], it was given to them to be used by...[the government] and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations." -- President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance." -- James Madison

"Should government refrain from regulation (taxation), the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent and the FRAUD can no longer be concealed." -- British Lord John Maynard Keynes (the father of 'Keynesian Economics' which our nation now endures) in his book "THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE" (1920).

"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." -- George Washington in a letter to Jabez Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787

The economic Crash of '29 and the Great Depression were caused by the money vultures and foreign swindlers of the Federal Reserve withholding currency from circulation and raising interest rates after an inflationary easy money policy in the early 1920s. The Federal Reserve's fear of excessive speculation led it into a far too deflationary policy in the late 1920s, "destroying the village in order to save it."

The U.S. economy was already past the peak of the business cycle when the stock market crashed in October of 1929. The Federal Reserve did "overdo it" -- raising interest rates too much, bringing on the recession that they had hoped to avoid.

This contrived "emergency" by the money vultures and the political manipulations of FDR, et. al. since then has created innumerous abuses, usurpations, and abridgments of Constitutionally delegated Powers and Authority as clearly stated in Senate Report 93-549 (1973):

"A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, [-1823 years now in 110] freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have in varying degrees been abridged by laws brought into force by statutes of national emergency."

CONSEQUENCES OF EXTEND/PRETEND

There are consequences to every action and every inaction. What can we expect from the banking industry moving forward from this economic crisis? Is the worst behind us? Don't count on it. Here is an interesting excerpt pertaining to the consequences of extend/pretend accounting and the temporary suspension of capital standards by the FASB. IT'S NOT GONNA BE PRETTY.

Guest Post: What Do We Have to Show After a Year of “Extend and Pretend”?

By Gonzalo Lira, a novelist and filmmaker currently living in Chile

In 1982, many of the banks hit by the Latin American debt crisis were effectively insolvent. Paul Volcker, as the then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve—charged with overseeing the banking system—effectively cast a blind eye on this banking insolvency.

Volcker’s reasoning seems to have been that the US banks were not broke—they were just getting temporarily squeezed. Volcker seems to have concluded that time would heal the balance sheet wounds caused by the Latin American defaults. Therefore, to hold the banks to the letter of the accounting rules would likely drive one or more of them broke, to no useful purpose—and it could potentially cause a bank panic and general financial crisis. But to pretend (for a while) that all was right with the US banks would avoid a potential panic—so long as the crisis sorted itself out and the banks repaired themselves by writing off and renegotiating their toxic Latin American debt.

Volcker gambled, and won: The US banks indeed took the Latin American debt hit, but grew their way out of their hole. None of the large American banks were pushed to bankruptcy in 1982, and by 1983, the worst had passed. By 1984, the biggest chunks of Latin American debt had either been renegotiated or written off—so far as the American banking system was concerned, the crisis was over, with not a single name bank going broke. And most importantly, stability and calm reigning all the while.

Score for Volcker and what we could say was the Volcker Call.

In 2008, when Lehman went bankrupt because of all the “toxic assets” on its balance sheet, the severe credit crisis that happened as a result was because everyone realized that Lehman was the canary in the coal mine. All of the American banking system was insolvent, for more or less the same reason: Assets on their books simply were not worth anything close to their nominal value. These assets were clustered around CDO’s, mostly in the real estate and commercial real estate markets.

To relieve the credit crunch that peaked in September, 2008, the Federal Reserve Board opened the money spigots—all kinds of lending windows were opened, with a dizzying array of acronyms, all of them doing basically the same thing: Lending out wads of cash at zero interest to the American banking system, all in an effort to keep it from going broke.

Between September, 2008, and March 2009, the Fed backstopped the entire US banking system—but it still wasn’t enough. The losses were too great, the holes in the balance sheets too big.

So on April 2, 2009, a key FASB rule was suspended: Specifically, rule 157 was suspended, related to the marking of assets to market value—the so-called “mark to market” rule.

Essentially, the mark-to-market rule means marking an asset to the value it can fetch in the open market at the date of the accounting period. If I own a share of XYZ stock which I purchased at $100, but today it’s quoted at $60, I mark it on my books at today’s market price—$60—not at the purchase price—$100. The reason is obvious: By marking the asset to market value, I’m giving a realistic picture of the financial shape of my company or bank.

However, ever since April 2, 2009, when the FASB rules were suspended, the American banking system has been floating on nothing by air. By suspending rule 157, none of the banks have had to admit that they’re insolvent. With the suspension of mark-to-market, accounting rules are now basically mark-to-make-believe.

Why was FASB rule 157 suspended?

Geitner, Bernanke and Summers seem to have been trying to duplicate what Volcker did so successfully in 1982. This period since March 15, 2009, when the suspension of the rule went into effect, has been called “extend and pretend”.

Has it worked?

Prima facie, it would seem so. The banks seem to be stable, and have been raking in the big bucks ever since the rule was suspended. The markets—from their March ’09 lows—have rocketed onward and upward. In fact, Citigroup stock has quadrupled, Goldman Sachs has doubled—everything is wonderful! Nothing hurts!

However, the basic problems in the banking system remain: The banks are still broke, because of the same reason—the toxic assets on their books.

The banks have taken “extend and pretend” to heart—they have lobbied to extend the suspension of FASB, while they have pretended to repair their balance sheets, when in fact, they have not.

In fact, compared to the write-off mania of ’08, the banks have not written off any of these non-performing assets. They sit like dead weight on the balance sheets of the banks—we still do not have a clear grasp of even how much of this garbage is still lurking out there, like turds in the Venice canals, because of the obfuscation of the basic accounting rules—an obfuscation which the banks insist on perpetuating.

The banks still have the holes in their balance sheets which caused the crisis in 2008.

But then, how have the banks made such staggering profits during the last year?

By trading. Instead of being banks, since March of ’09, the Big Six US banks have effectively become hedge funds. They have been trading themselves into profitability. Worst of all, these banks qua hedge funds have been making money by trading with each other. Price-to-earnings ratios bear this out—their general upward trend, across sectors and industries, even as the economy has been severely weakened, is indicative of a speculative bubble. A massive bubble—the kind that makes the Hindenburg look puny.

All of the markets have risen from their March ’09 lows because of what I would term musical chair trading—everyone makes money so long as the music doesn’t stop. The “music” of this metaphor is a combination of Uncle Ben’s easy money, relative calm in the world, and good ol’ “extend and pretend”, courtesy of FASB.

But when the music does stop, the banks are going to realize that it’s not that there’s one less chair in the circle. There are no chairs left.

That when the next crisis will hit—when the music stops, and everyone rushes to get out of their musical chair trading positions.

To continue with the analogy, when will the music stop? When will everyone rush to find a seat—and find that there are none left? My guess is, it will be something from left field, something in-and-of itself not particularly earthshattering: A punitive Israeli airstrike against Iran, say, or Somali pirates sinking a big oil tanker. A lousy consumer sentiment number, or a surprise burst of unemployment.

Why hasn’t Team Obama’s version of the Volcker Call worked? Simple—because Paul Volcker made it clear to the banks in ’82 that he would declare them insolvent, if they didn’t repair their balance sheets. Volcker scared the bankers, scared them enough to make then do what was necessary—which was to clean up their balance sheets.

What did Team Obama do 27 years later? Did they twist bankers’ arms, and force them to write off the garbage on their balance sheets?

No they did not. Instead, they bowed and scraped at the banksters, as if they were truly Masters of the Universe, instead of what they really are—scum of the earth dressed up in really nice suits.

In 1982—unlike 2009—the banks had a reason to try to renegotiate and write off the bad Latin American loans: Volcker was breathing down their collective necks, and the banks were scared of him. Volcker had a credibility then that Team Obama today does not have now—Volcker showed himself willing to bring the entire US economy to a halt, in order to purge inflation. What was putting a few big banks out of business, compared to that? Nothing—catnip for Volcker.

But Geitner, Bernanke and Summers have shown themselves willing to do anything for the banks—they’ve become twisted around, and come to think of the banks as ends-in-themselves, rather than means-to-ends, within the economy.

What should have happened starting in March of ’09 was for the banks to take the suspension of mark-to-market and used it to purge their balance sheets of all the crap they are still carrying.

But they did not. Nor will they. Because no one is forcing them to. No one forced them in April of ’09, no one is forcing them now in April of ’10.

Therefore, once the era of Musical Chair Trading ends with some ridiculous non-event that will send everyone panicking, the banking sector will be right back where it was on Septmber 18, 2008—the only difference, of course, being that Bernanke has already shot his wad, and politically, it will be impossible to pass another TARP.

That’s when the world ends—the second crisis will be loads worse than the one in the fall of ’08. Loads worse, even, than ’29.

When will it happen? I don’t know. Then again, I don’t know when the Yankees will next win the Pennant—but I’m pretty sure it’ll happen.

“Extend and pretend” could have been used to do what Volcker did in ’82—the Volcker Call. But Geitner, Bernanke, Summers, and ultimately Obama himself lacked the will or the gumption to force the banks to do what needed to be done—clean up their balance sheets. Write off all that crap.

So get ready: The countdown to oblivion was paused by “extend and pretend”—but it wasn’t suspended, much less averted. I don’t know if the end will be hyper-inflationary or mega-deflationary—all I know is that it’s gonna really suck.

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A KEYNESIAN INDUCED RETIREMENT

GARY NORTH DOES HIS BEST TO EXPLAIN WHY OUR RETIREMENT, OUR FUTURE, IS RELIANT UPON A GIANT CONFIDENCE GAME, INDUCED BY THE FED. IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD.

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No Bang for the Keynesian Buck by Gary North by Gary North Recently by Gary North: Obamacare and the Politics of Revenge You may not have watched my video seminar, "Retirement Armageddon." It's here. Let me explain why you should. In fiscal 2010, the Federal debt will increase by an estimated $1.5 trillion, give or take $100 billion. Have you estimated your share yet? Probably not. Divide $1.5 trillion by 300 million Americans. The figure is $5,000. Every American resident, from oldsters to infants, just got hit with an extra $5,000 tab. This is on top of what he already owes. What does he already owe? Something in the range of $300,000: a $90 trillion total debt divided by 300 million. It will happen again next year. And the next. We are told that the deficit over the next decade will be in the range of $900 billion a year. That is $3,000 per person. This is a low-ball estimate. We are talking about the on-budget debt, which is in the range of $12.7 trillion this week. What about the off-budget debt of the two trust funds: Social Security and Medicare? The estimated unfunded liability is about $75 trillion this year. Some say it is more. I will be conservative. This will not be funded. Congress will kick the can, as always. In a mortgage in which the debtor pays nothing – interest or principal – each missed payment is added to the principal owed. This is sometimes called a backward-walking mortgage. Option ARM mortgages are backward-walking. The trust funds are comparable to mortgages. They are therefore backward walking. If we assume that the interest rate on these obligations is in the range of 5% over 75 years, and principal repayment is 1.33% (100% divided by 75), then the amortization rate is about 6.3%. Let's be conservative. Call it 6%. If you multiply $75 trillion by .06, you get $4.5 trillion. This is the unfunded liability for fiscal 2010. It is tacked onto the existing $75 trillion. So, the increased debt per person of the two forms of Federal debt totals $6 trillion ($4.5t + $1.5t). Divided by 300 million Americans, that is $20,000. In one year. This will continue until the debt is paid off. It will happen again in fiscal 2011. But in fiscal 2011, the "mortgage" will be $79.5 trillion, not this year's $75 trillion. How many Americans understand this? The infants do not understand. The oldsters don't care. Neither do the people in the middle. As we all know, most Americans pay relatively few taxes. The tax burden is borne by others. So, your share is way above $20,000 this year. It will be way above $20,000 next year. Will these debts ever be paid off? No. Will there be a default? Of course. Do the politicians factor this into their plans? Of course not. Do the economists sound a warning? Only Austrian School economists. Do you believe this scenario? I mean, really, truly believe it? Sit down with a copy of Quicken or your financial software. How much money did you invest last year in assets that will not be wiped out in the inevitable default? That exercise will tell you how much you believe it. THE GDP/DEBT RATIO We are now facing a monumental debt crisis. We were warned. From the recession of 2001 until his death in August 2007, Dr. Kurt Richebächer warned in his monthly newsletter about an ominous development in the U.S. economy. The level of increased debt necessary to produce one additional dollar in GDP was rising. He said repeatedly that this would eventually produce a major financial crisis. The increased debt would require increased production to finance it, quarter by quarter, let alone repay it. If economic output per dollar of increased debt is declining, there will come a day when an increased dollar of debt will lead to negative returns. We are there. We reached that point in 2008. It continued through 2009. GDP fell, yet total debt increased. Here is a chart that describes this falling ratio, GDP to debt, 1965–2000. The problem is debt financing. If creditors see that their loans will not be able to be funded by the borrowers, quarter by quarter, they will cease lending money at low interest rates. They will demand a higher return in order to compensate them for the increased risk of default. Borrowers will have to pay rising interest rates in order to persuade lenders to continue lending. The cost of capital will rise. The return on investment will fall. At that point, rolling over the existing debt will become a matter of institutional survival for borrowers. Corporate borrowers use banks as a way to keep the doors open. Governments rely on non-bank lenders, such as insurance companies and retirement funds. But all of them are in the same ship of debt. They cannot afford to have the flow of funds cut off. If this were to happen, they would have to shut their doors and declare bankruptcy. Small businesses are already facing a crisis. Commercial banks have ceased lending. Banks are actually contracting their loan portfolios. Borrowers are still able to get lenders to lend at low rates. This is because of the state of the economy. It is no longer suffering from the threat of immediate price inflation. Interest rates have fallen. Lenders have decided that T-bills are safe. They are letting the Treasury borrow at rates well under two-tenths of a percent. This has affected other rates. They are lower. Lenders are not yet ready to consider the long-run implications of the incredibly low return on investment in terms of economic output – negative in 2008 and 2009. The rate of return may have been slightly positive since mid-2009. We will find out next quarter, when the report is published. THE KEYNESIAN BUCK The phrase, "More bang for the buck," became popular in Washington during the Vietnam War. It referred to Defense Secretary McNamara's attempt to increase the efficiency of the military forces in Vietnam. He wanted larger kill/budget ratios. He demanded that all assessments be accompanied with objective data. He used this phrase to filter all assessments not based on objective data: "I'm not interested in your poetry." The commanders got the message. They supplied him with impressive information on kill ratios. The dead were always military forces, never civilians, by definition. Then the North Vietnamese won the war. The kill ratio kept rising, but the war was lost. The North Vietnamese turned out to be exceptionally good poets. They won the war in the American media and in undermining the will to resist in South Vietnam's troops. Keynesians are equally committed to data. They believe that an economic downturn can be reversed by increased debt, especially government debt. They argue that the recession is the result of insufficient aggregate demand. The Federal government must step in and supply this demand. How? By borrowing money. But won't this borrowing reduce the supply of capital to the private sectors? No, say Keynesians. Then where does the money come from? From people who would have converted their money to currency and hidden it under the mattress. Keynesian theory is based on 1936 models of how people behave. People withdrew currency from banks, 1931–34, before the FDIC. Therefore, they will do it again if the Federal government does not increase spending by increasing its debt. Forget about the FDIC. Forget about the fact that money saved is invested. You may think I am exaggerating for effect. I wish I were. I have discussed this Keynesian outlook elsewhere. Keynesians view increased government spending/debt as a way to increase aggregate demand, despite the fact that the money lent to the government comes from private savers, with this exception: when it comes from central banks. These days, about half of the Treasury's debt is bought by foreign central banks, which create domestic fiat money, buy U.S. dollars, and purchase U.S. Treasury debt. To the extent that foreign central banks do this, and would not otherwise buy the U.S. dollar, the Keynesians have a legitimate point. There is an increase in demand. But this increase keeps prices higher in the U.S. than they would have been. Without this increased demand for Treasury debt, the Federal government could not have spent the borrowed money. Then Americans would have purchased either consumer goods or production goods. When they put money in a bank, the bank lends it. Historically, this has meant lending the deposits to borrowers. This time, however, there has been a change. Commercial banks have deposited over $1 trillion in their excess reserve accounts at the Federal Reserve. This sterilizes the money. It does not get spent. This is the fault of prior Federal Reserve policies. Commercial bankers are afraid to lend money in this economy. This is why prices from January to February this year were flat. The CPI did not change. Neither did the Median CPI. In a free market with stable money, prices would generally decline as output increases. Central banks have not allowed this in the modern world. But now, because of excess reserves, it is happening. INCREASED DEBT INCREASES THE GDP, SAY KEYNESIANS The basis of Keynesian fiscal policies in an economic slump is a theory that increased government debt will increase aggregate demand, which will in turn lead producers to hire more people and buy more resources in order to meet future rising demand. The increased debt gives the economy a much-needed shot in the arm – or, these days, a shot in the ARMs. The government stabilizes demand, and this increases the confidence of producers. The commercial bankers are not yet persuaded. They refuse to lend. They see big trouble ahead: commercial real estate loan losses. They want liquid reserves available to keep them from having to call in commercial loans to cover the expected losses in their portfolios. We are told repeatedly that the recovery is weak. Bernanke keeps telling anyone who will listen that the FED will keep rates – meaning the federal funds rate – at or below 0.25%. The market is doing this, not the FED. The FED need only do nothing to achieve this result. Banks are not lending overnight to other banks, because they have such high excess reserves at the FED that they do not need overnight loans to keep from exceeding their legal reserve requirement. As the increased output per dollar of increased debt has gone negative, the Keynesians have called for even more debt. They have said that the $787 billion stimulus passed in October 2008 was not enough. But the trend of the GDP to debt has been falling for decades. This was not some overnight problem in late 2008. The ratio went sharply negative. This was a surprise to everyone except Austrian School economists. But this was merely the result of the severity of the recession in relation to the massive Federal stimulus. The numbers got much worse very fast. But this was an extension of a long trend. The Keynesians have taken credit for the recovery, such as it is. They have argued that things would have been much worse if Congress had not ignored the voters and passed the bailout. But the weakness of the recovery and the size of the Federal deficit indicate that the Keynesian prescription for prosperity is about to produce undeniably negative results. The size of the predicted annual Federal deficits is so large that the economic recovery must be unprecedented in its rate of increase and sustained for a decade if the decline in the GDP to debt ratio is to return to pre-2008 levels. No one in authority in Washington is predicting either outcome. On the contrary, they are predicting a weak recovery. Keynesians are facing a crisis in faith. If the GDP/debt ratio continues to hover around 0, the Keynesian prescription will not solve the problem: massive escalating debt without an even greater percentage increase in output. That will mean that the U.S. economy cannot grow its way out of the present crisis. Such a failure will call all school of economic thought into question. The exception is the Austrian School. CONCLUSION We are way beyond the point of return economically. There is no possibility that the economy will grow its way out of this level of debt. There is no way that there will not be a default. The experts keep telling us that the economy can grow its way out, but they do not say how. They talk as if growth were automatic, as if capital accumulation were automatic, as if the Treasury were not absorbing $1.5 trillion in additional capital this year, as if the numbers really did add up. The numbers do add up: to default. What have you done so far to protect yourself? What extra will you do to protect yourself? April 2, 2010 Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 20-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.

Secrets of The Federal Reserve

I believe that the existence of The Federal Reserve Bank is at the root of almost all of our problems here in America. Without learning about its secrets, and its historical actions, the commoner will lack the knowledge to fully evaluate our circumstance here in America. Instead of trying to explain to you what I mean, I defer to the writings of Eustace Mullins. He has written a piece that fully dissects and explains the many facets of The Fed, and helps the reader to gain a thorough knowledge of its creation, practice, and personnel. I hope you take the time to read this ,material. Reading it, will forever help you discern the complexities of Federal government propaganda and policy enactment. Happy Trails...



Declaration of Independence - 1776
The Constitution for the United States, Its Sources and Its Application
Undermining The Constitution - A History of Lawless Government
Our Enemy, The State

Secrets of the Federal Reserve
by Eustace Mullins
From Web Archive Sources

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foreword Introduction Chapter One — Jekyll Island Chapter Two — The Aldrich Plan Chapter Three — The Federal Reserve Act Chapter Four — The Federal Advisory Council Chapter Five — The House of Rothschild Chapter Six — The London Connection Chapter Seven — The Hitler Connection Chapter Eight — World War One Chapter Nine — The Agricultural Depression Chapter Ten — The Money Creators Chapter Eleven — Lord Montagu Norman Chapter Twelve — The Great Depression Chapter Thirteen — The 1930's Chapter Fourteen — Congressional Expose Addendum Appendix I Biographies Bibliography Questions and Answers Index

Eustace Clarence Mullins (born 1923 in Virginia ) was an American political writer, author and biographer. A friend of American poet and artist Ezra Pound and the author of his only authorized biography, Mullins has written a number of books on political and racial subjects, many of which are called anti-Semitic. He was a veteran of the USAF, with 38 months of active service during World War II.

During Ezra Pound's period of incarceration in a mental institution following his arrest for making pro-Axis radio broadcasts on behalf of the Benito Mussolini government during World War II, Mullins was a regular visitor to him; he wrote about these visits in his book This Difficult Individual, Ezra Pound.

Mullins' books include several critiques of the United States banking system. In a 1952 book, Secrets of the Federal Reserve, Mullins blamed Paul Warburg, Bernard Baruch, and other American Jews for drowning Americans in debt. According to Mullins, The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 put the nation's banking reserves in the hands of the "Jewish International Bankers" for the purpose of carrying out a plan for world dictatorship. The German edition of the book was burned in West Germany in 1955. It was the first book publicly burned in West Germany since the defeat of the Nazi government.

Mullins' book A Writ for Martyrs is largely a verbatim transcript of Mullins' own FBI file obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Mullins' book The World Order, which is about an alleged Illuminati conspiracy, was cited as a reference by Pat Robertson in his 1991 book The New World Order.

Mullins is also the author of a number of tracts including "Jewish Television: Sick Sick Sick", "The Lindbergh Murders: Hauptmann Was Innocent", "Why General Patton Was Murdered", and "The ADL/FBI Conspiracy Exposed". In a 1955 article entitled, "Jews mass poison American children", Mullins claimed that the polio vaccine, invented by Jonas Salk, was a poison because it contains live germs. Mullins publicized, and probably created, the forgery A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century, which supposedly revealed a Jewish/Communist plot against white Americans. Mullins denied having written this document.

As of 2005 Eustace Mullins was a member of the Southeast Bureau editorial staff of the populist and nationalist newspaper American Free Press published by the National News Reporting Company of Washington, DC, run by former staff of Spotlight newspaper. He was also a contributing editor to The Barnes Review.

Bibliography

• Secrets of the Federal Reserve, 1952. Reprinted in 1983, ISBN 0965649210
• The World Order
• The Curse of Canaan: A Demonology Of History
• Murder By Injection: The Medical Conspiracy Against America, ISBN 0880606940
• The Rape of Justice
• Education for Slavery
• The London Connection
• Who Owns the TV Networks
• My Life in Christ
• This Difficult Individual Ezra Pound
• A Writ for Martyrs

• An Afternoon With Eustace Mullins
• The Barnes Review

Next

GOTTA LOVE JUDGE NAPOLITANO

Lies The Government Told You

by Andrew P. Napolitano
by Andrew P. Napolitano
Recently by Andrew P. Napolitano: 4 Health Care Questions and Answers

Before you finish reading this book, return to those quotations at the beginning. Did I prove my case? If you believe in God, you believe He is Truth. But a Roman governor asks if anyone can know the truth, and a modern-day American vice president marvels at its debasement by the government. And two philosophers claim we are ripe for being plucked into the baskets of the deceivers.

As I finish writing this book, the country is consumed with a great public debate over proposals for the federal government to take over and manage the delivery of health care to every person in America.

During that debate, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) was disciplined by his colleagues in the House of Representatives because he called President Obama a liar during the President’s address to a joint session of Congress. The statement that the President made, which provoked the Congressman’s ill-timed outburst, claimed that illegal aliens would not receive health care benefits under the President’s government option proposal, which essentially establishes a Medicare-type program for everyone in America under the age of sixty-five.

When the Supreme Court last looked at government attempts to deny social benefits to certain groups, the Court held that the Constitution protects all "persons"; persons are citizens as well as strangers, people born here and people who end up here, people here lawfully and people here unlawfully; and in the area of social services, whatever benefits the government makes available to the general public cannot be kept away from a class of persons based on their immigration status or that of their parents.

Did the President know this when he stated the contrary to the Congress? Did he lie? And if he did lie, wasn’t that lie in the tradition of his forebears?

We know where his forebears’ lies have brought us: war, fear, power, loss of innocent life, loss of liberty, and loss of property. My friend Llewellyn Rockwell, an astute philosopher and commentator whose Web site, LewRockwell.com, is the best monitor of government excess in America today, is fond of reminding me that we are all susceptible to temptation; we all have lusts within us that we must suppress. And the most pernicious of those lusts is libido dominandi, the lust to dominate.

This lust is in the heart of all in government who lie, who break the laws they have sworn to uphold, and who violate the Constitution they are committed to preserve. They lie to enhance and retain their power over us. Justice Antonin Scalia has commented that courts should refrain from reading what members of the legislative branch have publicly stated about a law when the courts are endeavoring to interpret the meaning of that law. It doesn’t matter, he has argued many times, why they say they voted for any given law. They only do so, he maintains, for one reason: To get reelected – the Natural Law, the Constitution, the laws of the land be damned. They want to dominate us.

I don’t personally know this lust, but it must be overpowering. My own lust is to challenge illicit authority, to break the chains of slavery with which the government has bound us, and to liberate all persons to fulfill their lives as they see fit, by pursuing happiness. How can we do this?

We will need a major political transformation in this country to rid ourselves of persons in government who kill, lie, cheat, and steal in our names. We will need to recognize some painful truths.

First, we must acknowledge that through the actions of the government we have lost much of the freedom that we once all thought was guaranteed by the Constitution, our laws, and our values. The lost freedoms have been cataloged in this book and need not be restated here. In sum, they are the loss of the primacy of the individual’s inalienable rights and the concept that government is limited in its powers. We have lost the diffusion of power between the states and the federal government. We have lost a federal government that stays within the confines of the Constitution.

Second, we must recognize that we do not have a two-party system in this country; we have one party, the Big Government Party. There is a Republican version that assaults our civil liberties and loves deficits and war, and a Democratic version that assaults our commercial liberties and loves wealth transfers and taxes.

Third, we must acknowledge that there is a fire in the bellies of millions of young people who reject both wretched visions of the Big Government Party. These millions of young folks need either to form a Liberty Party or to build on the libertarian base in the Republican Party by banishing Big Government conservatives, neocons, and so-called social conservatives who want to use government to tell others how to live their lives back to the Democratic Party from whence they came.

Then we need a political fever that consumes the careers of all in government who voted for the Patriot Act, the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the TARP and stimulus programs, the federal takeover of education, spying on Americans without warrants, and all other unconstitutional monstrosities that have tethered lovers of liberty to Washington, D.C.

We should abolish the federal income tax, prohibit eminent domain, impose term congressional limits, make Congress part-time, return the power to elect senators to State legislatures, abolish the Federal Reserve system, and prosecute for malfeasance any member of Congress who cannot articulate where the Constitution authorizes whatever he or she is voting for or who has voted for any law that he has or she has not certified under oath that he or she read and fully understands. And we must reject the nice smiles and easy ways and seductive promises of anyone in government who lies to us.

The Big Government Party crowd is obviously not afraid of lying or being caught in a lie. Its members do not fear their own lawlessness or our loss of freedom. They only fear the loss of their own power. So let’s use that fear against them. Jefferson understood and articulated this best when he wrote: "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."

If we fear our own government, if we accept its deceptions, its lies to us, if we take no action to redress them, our freedoms are doomed.

March 23, 2010

Andrew P. Napolitano [send him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at the Fox News Channel. His next book is Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History, (Nelson, 2010).

Copyright © 2010 Andrew P. Napolitano

OUR REALITY, AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

THIS GUY PRETTY MUCH SUMS IT UP. I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF.

The Economic Elite Versus The People of the USA

Politics / US Politics Mar 21, 2010 - 09:53 AM

By: David_DeGraw

Throughout this report, I have presented statistical and fact-based evidence to demonstrate that a strategic attack has been launched against 99% of Americans. Despite the efforts of the mainstream media and most current politicians, awareness of this reality is spreading throughout the United States.A recent Rasmussen poll found that only 21% of Americans think that the government has the consent of the governed. An Opinion Research Corp. survey revealed that 86% believe “the system of government is broken.”

An overwhelming majority of the population has come to the realization that our government doesn’t effectively represent us anymore. It is just a matter of time before people start taking it upon themselves to begin organizing on a mass scale. Our survival instinct will soon overwhelm our conditioned passivity and erupt into a powerful countervailing force. However, the longer we hesitate and delay action, the harder it will be to obtain economic and political justice.

We cannot continue to stand by and watch our nation be raped and pillaged like this. We can no longer remain idle and passive while our families’ futures are destroyed as we are sentenced to a slow death.

It’s time for 99% of Americans to mobilize and move on common sense political reforms.

We will obviously have many differences on how our country should be run, but we can all come together to dismantle the Economic Elite by making several pivotal political reforms. As long as the game is rigged in favor of the Economic Elite, we will all lose. So let’s find common ground and focus on several obvious battles that we need to win, and can win:

Election Reform

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery.” – Thomas Paine, Dissertation on the First Principles of Government

* Electronic Voting: First and foremost, no private corporation should be able to tell us who has won an election without providing an auditable paper trail. Many Democrats felt that Bush stole the 2000 and 2004 elections, and many Republicans felt Obama stole the 2008 election. Of course people are going to feel that elections are stolen when you have a private corporation secretly counting the votes; it is the inevitable result when you can’t verify the election results. In the past few years companies that count the votes have been consolidating, and one company, ES&S, now secretly controls the majority of all our votes. As voting watchdog Brad Friedman stated, “With the ES&S takeover of Diebold/Premier, their nearest competitor, the privately-run election Goliath now has an un-overseeable lock on virtually every election in the United States of America.” It is common sense to say that this is way too much power to be put into one private corporation.

* Campaign Finance: The stunning ruling by the Supreme Court to allow unlimited political spending by the Economic Elite has made a bad situation even worse. We must level the playing field by enacting laws to prevent the overwhelming influence of big money interests in controlling politicians who are forced to pander to them for the ever-increasing need to raise more and more money to have any shot at winning public office. Statistics show how much the Economic Elite already dominate this process: over 90% of the time the candidate who simply spends more money on their campaign wins the election.

* The Two-Party Oligarchy: We must end the two-party system by funding and voting for alternative parties. It is absurd and completely outdated to only have two dominant political parties in a technologically advanced nation of 309 million people. The two-party paradigm is obsolete and creates a system easily manipulated, as the past decade proves with the co-option of the Democratic and Republican parties. We can give our money and support to whomever we like - Libertarians, Tea Party, Progressives, Greens, Independents and the many soon-to-be-created political groups. However, it is pivotal that we immediately cease support for both the Republican and Democratic parties. We understand that there are representatives from both parties who are fighting for our interests, but they are very few and easily marginalized by paid-off party leaders.

* Getting on the Ballot: Republicans and Democrats have created rules to make it increasingly difficult for opposing political parties to even get on the voting ballot. We must make this process easier and invite new parties onto the ticket.

* Debate Commission: The Democratic and Republican control over who is allowed to participate in the nationally televised debates gives the two parties an insurmountable advantage over any other parties. If you are not even allowed to participate in them, you have no shot at winning. Along with this, all candidates should be given a fair share of television coverage.

* Voter Registration: If you are a citizen, you should be automatically registered to vote.

Governmental Policy Formation

* Secrecy, Transparency and Accountability: Government secrecy is at the root of most of our current societal and economic problems. When decisions are made in secrecy, corruption will most often be the result. By throwing light and investigation on the government policy process, we can easily expose the Economic Elite’s agenda and limit their influence. As part of this, all legislation and conference reports must be posted online prior to Congressional debate and vote.

* Lobbying: Along with campaign finance, political lobbying is another way the Economic Elite can easily manipulate our political process financially, in what amounts to legalized bribery. In 2009, a record amount of money was spent lobbying Congress, and now with the new Supreme Court ruling, lobbyists will have even more power to manipulate the political process with what amounts to buying the laws of our nation. Lobbying activities behind closed doors must cease entirely and equal time must be given, transparently, to all the parties directly affected by the law being written.

* Shutting the Revolving Door: No politician should be allowed to profit from government laws or policies which they have written or supported. The practice of leaving a major company to become a politician who then creates and/or supports laws that directly benefit the corporation he or she used to work for, or, conversely, politicians who leave public office to take a high-paying job for a company they have benefited, is a grotesque abuse and manipulation of the democratic process. The revolving door between politics and big business is worse than it has ever been and has corrupted the government like never before.

Information Platforms

* Media Concentration: Having a few large multinational corporations dominating the overwhelming majority of our news and information system will never lead to an informed citizenry. Only ten multinational corporations dominate our mainstream media system. These companies are run by 118 individuals who actively work to propagate Economic Elite rule. The people who run these media companies also sit on other corporate boards that often represent a major conflict of interest. Having only 118 people in ten companies dominating a system that creates public opinion for 309 million people is absurd. We must break up this information cartel and support a more diverse and vibrant independent press that fosters real investigative journalism.

* Net Neutrality: The free and open architecture of the Internet is vital to our success. Without an open Internet our most powerful medium for research and communication, and key organizing tool, will be lost. The Internet must be protected from growing forces that seek to control it by limiting our access to information and our ability to communicate on a mass scale.

Healthcare

* Medical Costs: We have disagreements on how to best provide healthcare, but we all agree that whatever the method, the result needs to be lower costs. We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world and we now pay twice as much as other nations. Other than creating huge salaries for health industry-related executives, there isn’t any reason why we should be forced to pay such outrageous sums of money for second-rate care. No American should die due to lack of money, or have to face bankruptcy in order to get life-sustaining treatments.

* Food and Water Supply: Our food and water supply systems have become a major health hazard. The amount of harmful chemicals found in both our food and water have reached record levels and is causing alarming levels of sickness in a growing number of people.

Real Economic Competition

* Most Americans Believe in Competition: If a person works hard, is productive and good at what they do, most everyone believes that they should make more than a person who sits around looking for handouts. However, just as in sports, to maintain a competitive environment you have to have rules in place that prevent people from having an unfair advantage. For those who believe in competition, in capitalism and free markets, you have to acknowledge that what we have now is not a free market based on fair competition. It is a rigged market, where larger institutions like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have an unfair advantage. We cannot allow them to be beyond the law, manipulate the market and then receive taxpayer funds to increase profits and risk-taking while smaller companies, outside of Economic Elite circles, have to play by a much stricter set of rules.

You can’t have free market capitalism when you have government policies favoring companies that have more political clout than others. What we have is socialism for the rich and trickle down economics for the rest of us. We have a market systemically designed to funnel money into the pockets of the richest. If the past few years have proved anything, they have proved that our economy is much more like a pyramid scheme than a free market, where the more money you have, the more money you make. So whatever your economic beliefs and theories might be, let’s all come together to admit that our “free market” is an illusion. We need to make the economic playing field fair so we that can have real competition.

* Redistribution of Wealth: Due to the rigging of our economic and political system, vast sums of wealth have been hoarded by the Economic Elite over the past 40 years. This money must be redistributed to the 99% of Americans who have been robbed and exploited. There will be much heated debate over how this money should be distributed, but we all need to agree that we must first hold the Economic Elite accountable and our wealth must be seized from them.

* Investigations and Prosecutions: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has the power to reveal the inner workings of the financial coup. We must apply intense public pressure and scrutiny to force the Commission into conducting a real investigation. Another urgent priority needs to be a much wider-ranging look at war profiteering. There has been some investigation, but not nearly enough and hardly any prosecution. These are just two of the many investigations that need to be launched. As long as we keep letting the Economic Elite get away with outright theft in broad daylight, we will never be able to restore a nation of law. here are obviously other vital issues that need to be addressed, but these are the core common-ground issues that we must urgently rally around and support. Unless we organize and take decisive action on all these issues, we will all suffer the consequences of our collective inaction. Any politician who does not urgently move on these issues must be voted out of office and replaced by people who will aggressively fight on these fronts.

These are the core issues that keep the Economic Elite in power. As famed military strategist Carl von Clauswitz wrote in his study “On War,” it is pivotal to strike at this core structure, at “the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends.”

To those Americans who feel powerless to change things, I say that your feelings are only a result of your induced delusion. You have become so propagandized that you do not even understand the significant position that you are in. We are not peasants trapped in a Third World existence. We are still a mass of people who have the power to change the course of history. The Economic Elite realize this, which is why they are attacking us with an increased intensity.

Why We Must Take Mass Organized Action Now: The Devastation Ahead

Market Watch recently ran an article entitled, “Death of American Capitalism: The 10 final scenes.” The article references Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s long-time investment partner, stating: “Munger is warning us ‘It’s Over’ for America. Yes, ‘o-v-e-r,’ America’s in decline, at the end-of-days, coming to ‘financial ruin,’ says Munger.”

As a result of the Economic Elite’s attack on us, the inequality of wealth between the economic top one percent and the remaining 99% of the population is the highest it has ever been in our nation’s history. The Robber Barons of the Gilded Age have now been overtaken as America’s most depraved and despotic class.

As this attack continues, social safety nets and important public functions that are already reaching a breaking point will collapse under the weight of prolonged decline. With the national deficit now at an all-time high, economists are expecting major cutbacks in vital government programs and tax increases “that aren’t even imaginable.” President Obama has recently put together a “Deficit Commission” and is prepared to make “painful choices.” Many state economies are already running high deficits and preparing for deep cuts in Medicaid and retirement pensions. Major cuts in Social Security payments are also a real possibility.

On top of the 160 banks that have already failed in the past year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has listed another 702 banks as being in danger of failing. These banks “collectively hold more than $400 billion in assets” and the FDIC is already operating at “a deficit of nearly $21 billion as of Dec. 31, or more than double the previous quarter.”

With 30 million Americans now unemployed and underemployed, over the next few months five million people will lose the unemployment benefits which they have been surviving off of. Unemployment benefits in 27 states have already gone into the red. In total 40 state programs are expected to go broke. Even the most optimistic economists believe high unemployment rates will continue for the foreseeable future.

Millions more will be added to the five million families who have already been kicked out of their homes, as the number of foreclosures is expected to reach 13 million within the next few years. Food and homeless shelters are already overwhelmed, and there will be millions more in need of these life-sustaining services. 50 million Americans are currently in need of food stamps for survival and approximately 20,000 new people are added to this total every day.

Despite all the healthcare reform talk, the bill still being discussed will do little to reduce costs and extend coverage to those who urgently need it, as insurance rates continue to rise. The number of Americans without health insurance continues to skyrocket to now well over 50 million, with 45,000 preventable US citizen deaths occurring per year. Due to economic hardship, the number of people suffering from psychological depression has hit an all-time high, as suicide rates keep rising.

With a prison population of 2.3 million people, we now have more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. Our per capita rate of 700 people imprisoned per 100,000 citizens is higher than the darkest days of the Soviet Union. On top of this, the prison industry is expecting major growth over the next few years, as a “new prison opens every week somewhere in America” and Obama commits more tax dollars for the federal Bureau of Prisons.

All told, the death and destruction wrought by this economic crisis is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every single week! And the attacks continue unabated, with no significant measures taken to defend against them and hold those responsible accountable.

With almost 200 million Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, and over 50 million already living in poverty, people are quickly running out of options. The clock is ticking loudly for them, and time delayed is time closer to death.

At the same time, Americans are arming themselves at an alarming rate. The demand for guns and ammunition has hit a record high, and the gun industry cannot produce enough bullets to keep up with orders. In the past year, 100 new armed militia groups have been formed, as militia members have doubled in numbers. Federal authorities are gravely concerned about the “uptick in militia activities.” One federal authority recently said, “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”

The recent suicide-bomber who hit the IRS building in Texas will be the first of many violent acts if we don’t demonstrate that justice and the rule of law can be restored in a non-violent manner. Suicide-bombers have already reeked havoc in many countries across the globe. As the last act of revenge and desperation, people throughout the world have increasingly resorted to this method of violence and terror.

Fate has placed us in our nation’s most pivotal moment. If we do not take it upon ourselves to lead in decisive non-violent mass action, our country will soon be torn apart by violence and destruction.

In our nation’s history, the stakes have never been higher. It is vital that we recognize the urgent gravity of the situation. What happens over the next few years will determine the fate of our very way of life, of our families’ very existence. We have been attacked, and we are now at war. This is the unfortunate reality of our current crisis. Our enemy is extraordinarily powerful. However, we are 99% of the US population, and they are only 1%. If we fight, we win!

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will.” Frederick Douglass

“All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency is great and unendurable. And oppression and robbery are organized, I say; let us not have such a machine any longer. I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.” – Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

“We have no choice left…. A concealed yes drives us that is stronger than all our no’s. Our strength itself will no longer endure us in the old decaying soil. We venture away, we venture ourselves! We know of a new world.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

By David DeGraw

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David DeGraw is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by David DeGraw

© Copyright David DeGraw, Global Research, 2010

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