 Due to technological advancements,over the past 35 years there has been an explosion in production, distribution, profits and wealth creation. Most of that wealth increase has gone to only one-hundredth of one percent of the population, to the modern day aristocracy. In the United States, the 400 richest people now have as much wealth as 185 million people combined, nearly 60% of the entire population. US millionaire households have at least $46 trillion in wealth, yet only one-tenth of one percent of the population makes one million dollars a year. $46 trillion. Can you comprehend how much money that is and what could be done with that stunning amount of wealth, the implications, the possibilities? Especially given the capabilities of modern technology. Think about how we could evolve society with that astonishing amount of wealth, and how much better off we would ALL be if we did. It’s hard to comprehend how much wealth $46 trillion represents. One trillion is equal to 1000 billion, or $1,000,000,000,000. People cannot comprehend that much wealth because there is no frame of reference, no comparison of scale or historical precedent. An entire generation of stratospheric wealth has been systemically denied to the people and hoarded into the hands of a few. It’s the greatest theft of wealth in history, a crime against humanity. Once you wrap your mind around how much wealth $46 trillion is, and realize how profoundly society can be transformed by it, you begin to grasp the fact that we’ve been living under neo-feudal rule. If Americans had a real understanding of how much wealth is being kept from them, we would have a full-blown societal evolution right now. There’s no doubt about it; the denial of wealth is what keeps us in check, in debt. As a wise man once said, “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One by sword, the other by debt.” The harsh, unavoidable truth is that we live in a system of debt slavery. The indentured servant is now the indebted consumer, indebted to a modern day aristocracy that thinks we are merely wage slaves and glorified peasants. Instead of using the advancement of technology and exponential increase in production, distribution and wealth creation to empower humanity, these modern neo-feudal lords are pathological in their shortsighted greed. When you understand the wealth at hand, you begin to recognize the crime against humanity that is afoot. We live in the richest, most technologically advanced society in human history. Yet here we are, in the 21st century, with the highest number of people living in poverty in American history. People can’t afford to pay their medical bills. Millions upon millions of American families foreclosed on. An all-time record number of children going hungry, as record-breaking profits and record-breaking bonuses are handed out to the bailed out aristocracy. It’s a massive crime against humanity. We have people walking this earth who crashed the global economy, then profited from it. They are responsible for the impoverishment of tens of millions of people, and for their recklessness, they get bailed out and then have the audacity to not only keep their jobs, but to give themselves all-time record-breaking bonuses, bonuses on the backs of hardworking American taxpayers. Their scandalous and shameful behavior makes the Robber Barons look like Boy Scouts. It’s so shortsighted, unstable and unsustainable. Pathological shortsighted greed is humanity’s most severe disease. To paraphrase Guy DeBord, ‘The economy has declared war on humanity, attacking not only our possibilities for living, but our chances of survival. When an all-powerful economy lost its reason – that’s what defines these times.’ We anticipate reactionary, propagandized minds impulsively attempting to dismiss this perspective as a demonization of wealthy people. To be clear, we’re not against wealthy people; just because you have wealth doesn’t make you a tyrant. It’s the people who crashed the economy and use their money to rig the political system, to rig the legal system, to rig the market, to rig the rules against hardworking Americans. It’s all the corrupt crony-capitalists we are calling out. In fact, we don’t blame any single person. It is a systemic problem. It’s our archaic and incredibly outdated system, a system that’s increasingly vulnerable to, and easily rigged by, the forces of shortsighted greed. We know many people within the economic top one percentile who are using their wealth and resources to improve the human condition in many different ways. We wish more wealthy people would put their money where their mouth is. We’re sure they will soon enough, in the interests of preservation, but just having wealth in no way makes you a tyrant. Again, when you break it down, it is really only one-hundredth of one percent of the population that is doing the damage. And ultimately, it is the political system and mainstream media that allows them to get away with it, that deceives, dumbs down and mentally conditions the population to the point where the overwhelming majority remains unaware of their own power and potential in an incredibly wealthy and technologically advanced society. Even more shocking than the $46 trillion and the 400 Americans who have as much wealth as 185 million Americans combined, is the fact that a mere 147 tightly knit companies control 40 percent of the global economy. This is obviously a highly unstable, unsustainable and unhealthy situation. To paraphrase from several quotes by philosopher and social psychologist John Dewey: ‘There is no such thing as the liberty or effective power of an individual, group or class, except in relation to the liberties and effective powers of other individuals, groups or classes. Fortunately, that day is now upon us. A critical mass of humanity is now awake and aware of the obsolete systems that limit our potential. If the 400 wealthiest people and the CEOs from the 147 most powerful corporations were not so blinded by shortsighted greed, they would urgently call for a summit to strategize the most efficient and effective way to evolve their destructive behavior and use the immense resources that they are presently in control of to enhance the renaissance that is just beginning. We are on the right side of history. We are offering an olive branch. We come in peace, respect and love. We’re here to amplify the mass transition into a new age of enlightenment. The Occupy movement was the first awakening wave from a tsunami of transformation that is just beginning to wash over the planet. Each successive wave will be more effective in eradicating humanity’s most severe disease, pathological shortsighted greed.
You shall reap what you sow. Karma. As a very wise man once said, “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” Just over the horizon shines the first ray of the new rising sun. Welcome to Renaissance 2.0. |
46 Trillion Reasons To Evolve Society Right Now
Posted by David DeGraw
December 8, 2012
Ye are few… hoarding $46 trillion.
Nicki S
Powerful essay!
Makes you realize how corrupt the mainstream media is. It’s all fiscal cliff hysteria that steals more wealth from the increasingly desperate working class. More wealth for the modern aristocracy. They can’t get enough
Simon
Damn brother! You’re on fire… two in a row. How much ammo do you have stored up? Time to grab my helmet and prepare for battle
Admin
Simon,
He’s got at least 5 more to come that I know of. All of them mind blowing!!
Kristina
A crime against humanity. An absolute crime against humanity. As more people wrap their mind around this, I do believe a Renaissance 2.0 will happen. How could it not? $46 T R I L L I O N
Jeff
400 = 185,000,000
Yeah, that’s a healthy society. A true 3rd world banana republic. What a tragic joke.
Roberta Crawford
Because our economy is rigged in a way that money can only come from DEBT, we are forced to play an eternal game of MUSICAL CHAIRS. Of course nobody can win.
The U.S,. Treasury must stop borrowing its money from the private cartel, the Federal Reserve and instead must issue its own American money, as is provided in the Constitution.
If every citizen understood how the Federal Reserve sneaked to an island in 1910 and plotted to steal the U.S. Treasury and then got away with it by deceit, the population would call on Congress to pass a law ending the coruptive power of the Federal Reserve, which has made Americans slaves without knowing it.
Gary Goodman
I’m on your side (our side) in general but your facts are partly wrong about the Federal Reserve.
1) Before the Fed, there was a thing that operated LIKE the Fed. It was John Pierspont Morgan and his bank. He was called up to bail out insolvent banks — if he agreed — and he was called to lend money for wars and whatever else the Govt was doing.
2) Arguably, the Fed institutionalized and democratized under Congress what was already done by JPM.
3) Per Gabe Kolko’s book on the “Triumph of Conservatism”, meaning the Big Business aristocracy, cited by libertarian prophet Murray Rothbard, the Federal Reserve was NOT conceived on a Jekyll Island getaway, NOR passed in secret. That’s G. Edward Griffin’s myth from the Birch Society.
In reality, the IDEA of the Central Bank was debated for YEARS, maybe a DECADE, first a paper or two by an academic, eventually big meetings in NYC and Chicago. Not sure if meetings were open to the average citizen, or if they would understand much, but not some secret cabal either, many prominent people attended.
The CB plans — there were two, Sen. Vanderlip and Sen. Glass later of Glass-Stegall — were discussed and tweaked and had some relatively minor differences, and these were sent around to significant business leaders EVERYWHERE across the USA, including the South and West. There was widespread approval and minor objections such as over how much power “Class A” bankers had vs “Class C” non-banker businessmen.
There were also Senate and House committee debates at several levels, prior to a vote.
4) To the average voter and “populist “, it was sold as a kind of “democratic” institution, but it was designed to be shielded from “politics” by keeping Congress out of operational decisions, though Congress retains overall ruling power — if not political power, considering the closeness to Wall Street of the NYFED.
5) The extended “financialization” of the Fed, it’s incestuous relationship with Wall St major banks can be seen as following the overall financialization of America, the Reaganomics with tax policies that favored Credit over Equity-Finance for companies, favored Hostile Takeovers using Credit, Looting of Pensions, the Bain Capital and Michael Milken types of activities, a policy change which actually started with Jimmy Carter and can be traced back to the 50′s when Big Biz decided to go offshore rather than retool post-WW2 factories, and the entire Reaganite revival of anti-Union, anti-Labor, pro-Corporate, pro-Banker thrust of the “Conservative Revolution” and the rise of concepts of what is called “Neoliberalism” as if that’s an extension of “Classical Liberalism” of Adam Smith. Neoliberalism is the rejection of almost all the radical views of Smith, except for “Invisible Hand”.
6) The Fed Govt is FORBIDDEN by the Constitution to create money, except Coin. On the other hand, the Constitution allows the Treasury to issue Debt, that is to “borrow”. Considering the Fed + Treasury as one unit with two wings, this is basically the Govt borrowing from itself.
Tsy Bonds and Bills pay interest. The Fed collects some of that interest when it buys T-bills. But the Fed returns ALL profits from activities to the Treasury .. which does not need any profits since the “fixed exchange rate” was abolished in 71.
Lincoln’s Greenbacks were printed to pay soldiers, but it was argued they were NOT “money”, only IOUs. However, they began to be circulated AS money anyhow.
Probably to get around the Constitutional prohibitions, without an amendment, Congress created a Central Bank a kind of “agency” that is like an extension of the Treasury, and which is PART public and PART private corporation. The Fed is incorporated by Fed Gov instead of a State. It has a public purpose, low inflation + full employment. (Conservatives want to dump the “employment” purpose.) The Fed’s “private” aspect issues non-tradeable shares to member banks. Member banks earn 6% dividends by Law, but member banks also pay interest to the Fed. On the “public” aspect, the Board of Directors (Governors) is appointed by the President and rules set by Congress.
Congress MANDATES that the Tsy must auction Bills and Bonds to “middleman” banks picked as “primary dealers”. The Fed is forbidden to buy Tsy Bills directly, but can buy them from PD banks.
Congress could easily ABOLISH the issuance of “debt” by the Treasury.
It’s really not “debt” as we normally think of it, but a no-risk Investment Vehicle that Treasury offers to banks and corps and individuals. In other words, the “national debt” is a kind of “welfare” for the rich, but also a tool of the Fed for monetary operations and management.
Tsy CHOOSES to pay interest, as does the Fed sometimes, but in normal times the Fed does not buy “toxic assets” from the banks to prop them up, only buys govt securities (T-bills).
Blaming the Fed for current problems is like a guy who blamed FDRs “Fannie Mae” for what was done after it was fully sold off by the Govt and became a private for-profit corporation … still with some backing from the Fed. Even at that, Bush had to ORDER Fannie to increase its buys of risky mortgages from 2 Billion to 400 Billion eventually to 700 billion. Other private Wall St banks bought most of the high risk mortgages.
The Fed was able to bail out MANY kinds of companies, not just banks, such as McDonalds.
Congress chose to NOT use the Fed’s powers to bail out ordinary citizens.
I could add more.
On one hand, Warren Mosler explains the Fed very well and what it is supposed to do.
On the other hand, the Fed has been “crooked” in NOT regulating the Housing Bubble and then Tim Geithner secretly bought “toxic” securities from Bear-Stearns for a secret bailout back when Bush was President. The Fed helped cover up the financial rot, which amounts to lying to investors in the market.
Alan Greenspan was practically a charlatan from the get-go, and a puppet of big Wall St banks. Michael Hudson tells a story about when he worked as an examiner of sorts for David Rockefeller, and Rockefeller had Hudson — a young college graduate — investigate Alan Greenspan’s numbers on some oil investment. Hudson uncovered Greenspan’s lies and fudging the numbers. Rockefeller had Hudson FIRE Greenspan from Chase, because Rockefeller was afraid that if he fired Greenspan himself, Alan had powerful friends and might bite back in the future.
Given his reputation for being a crook for rich cronies, is it surprising or not surprising that Reagan appointed Greenspan to head the Central Bank? I have read stories about Greenspan arrogantly dismissing *honest* officers at the Fed who dissented with him on some policy matters, like deregulating the banks so they could gamble more wildly. Now the Fed is filled with many Greenspan protégés, like Bernanke.
On one hand, Bernanke has been honest on a few occasions, with Congress grilling him, about the Fed’s inability to actually repair the whole economy by using Milton Friedman’s bogus theories and methods.
On the other hand, it’s Tim Geithner also of the NY Fed who is pushing the Govt to SLASH spending on the poor and middle class, the “budget crisis” bull$hit, which will remove a large quantity of money from OUR economy while we are still in recession. Not content to gut welfare and gut jobs, now they want to gut our entire money supply. The government’s “debt” IS our savings, our assets, what we OWN. They are treating OUR savings as a “cancer” that must be eliminated, by calling it a “debt crisis”.
old reb
This letter has been sent to my congress-critters detailing WHY the Federal Reserve is the SOURCE of all the problems in the U.S. (and maybe the world).
Olde reb
*************************************
RE: FUNDING OUR OWN SELF DESTRUCTION
Dear congress-critter,
TRUTHOUT website documents the control Goldman Sachs has acquired over European nations by financial indebtedness using various scams resulting in imposed austerity: Infiltration of our government is also presented with austerity measures already being discussed for the U.S. Ref. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12996-goldman-sachs-global-coup-de-tat .
A link to an article identifying the IMF and the World Bank (operatives of Wall Street) as the largest sources of world poverty inside the New World Order should be of interest: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-globalization-of-poverty-inside-the-new-world-order/5313987
The IMF and World Bank rely upon the CIA to impose their exploitation upon indigenous citizens. Ref. KILLING HOPE by William Blum; CONFESSION OF ECONOMIC HIT MAN by John Perkins.
That the CIA is the operating arm of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) should be obvious. The government has no financial gain from the above mentioned exploitation. Numerous nefarious acts by the CIA including war-mongering and assassination operating against the best interests of the U.S. have been alleged. Ref. http://www.scribd.com/doc/49566880/CIA-ROGUE-AGENCY-RUN-AMUCK . The U.S. military is used to squelch any resistance.
That the CFR is the social facade of businesses and organizations to consolidate operations and eliminate competition is evident from their operation. That their organization is funded and controlled by Wall Street is unquestionable. TRAGEDY AND HOPE by Carroll Quigley.
That interlocking directorships of major businesses as controlled by Wall Street and Rockefeller Trusts and Foundations has been known for decades. ROCKEFELLER FILE by Gary Allen.
That every dollar of deficit spending ($4 billion EVERY DAY !!! ) is hidden profit for the Federal Reserve BOG (with unidentified ownership assumed but assured to include Goldman Sachs and Wall Street banks) through the FRBNY using the auction accounts of Treasury securities has been presented. The mathematical conclusion appears inescapable. Ref. Federal Reserve Heist, http://www.scribd.com/doc/101937790 ..
Those funds that legally belonged to the government have assuredly been the funds that helped promote and finance the above cabal. Concealment of funds that belong to the government is a crime. Ref. RIP OFF BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE, http://www.scribd.com/doc/48194264/rip-off-by-the-Federal-Reserve-revised
Every action of the Federal Reserve for the past five years has been to protect Wall Street and international bankers.
And Congress proposes a National Budget that gives the cabal more trillions of dollars via National Debt and has the audacity to claim fiscal responsibility? GET REAL !!!!!
Deficit spending by the government is funding our own self destruction for the benefit of Wall Street.
An audit of the Treasury auction accounts at the FRBNY should be demanded.
Respectfully submitted,
Your constituent,
John Doe.
Gary Goodman
It’s true that the IMF and World Bank has a long history of using it’s powers of denying credit to countries — effectively embargoing them on world trade — if they don’t follow the IMF’s policy prescriptions for their economy: domestic austerity and cutbacks, pay Wall Street and global private banks first.
Sometimes countries are required by the IMF to take loans from banks like Citigroup along with World Bank development loans. Joe Stiglitz, not a radical economist, has written one or more books on the “misguided” (he’s polite) policies of the IMF and World Bank. They fired him from the WB immediately when his book came out.
Greg Palast writing on the Golden Straitjacket explained in blunt and more sarcastic terms what Joe Stiglitz said in many diplomatic words. He interviewed Stiglitz.
But you also have a few misunderstandings.
The Fed is now owned by “unknown” parties. ALL shares of the Fed are 100% owned by member banks of the Fed. These are ordinary commercial banks, where people have checking accts and savings. (It was Congress — Phil Gramm and other Republicans, working with Clinton — that passed the Financial Modernization Act that gave commercial banks full permission to engage in high-risk gambling, on the premise the ordinary consumer accounts would be protected and the banks would only gamble a bit on the side. Of course the CEOs over-leveraged and put their entire institutions at risk, PLUS used their powers to greatly expand the Bubble, playing a role therefore in greatly expanding the Crash.
It is mandated BY LAW that every commercial bank under the Fed MUST own shares of the Fed, and that ONLY commercial banks are allowed to own shares of the Fed. There is no mystery about this at all.
Of the total profits that the Fed makes on all operations, including charging banks interest on loans and collecting interest on Securities it bought from banks, including “toxic” mortgage Securities filled with non-performing loans, after paying operating expenses, the entire remaining profits are returned to the Treasury. No mystery or ripoff about that fact either.
The ironic thing is that the Treasury DOES NOT NEED ANY PROFITS, fer cryin out loud!!! It’s the Government, not a private corporation. YOU and ME need positive income flows. Companies need positive income flows. Monetarily Sovereign nations and their Treasuries DO NOT need positive income flows, or a “surplus”. A positive income for the Treasury means they are TAKING dollars OUT of our economy and destroying those dollars that they previously created via deficit spending. The Treasury’s deficit is OUR surplus in the private sector. The national debt is OUR wealth in the private sector.
Now, granted, that wealth and income is SEVERELY mal-distributed. That is mostly Congress’ to blame. The Treasury spends what Congress tells it to spend. If Congress spends on “contracts” with crony capitalists, that is considered OK.
For many people in America, even to mention that fact leads them to name-calling you a “socialist” and “liberal”. They don’t believe the Rich get ANY corporate welfare, and pointing out articles from even their own Cato Institute has no effect. They believe that only poor uneducated lazy slob moochers collect welfare. They have no conception and refuse to accept that “capitalism” has always been a corrupt welfare program for the Super Rich and crony insiders.
On the other hand, any Congressional spending that supports the bulk of society as a whole, THAT is castigated as “socialism”. Even tho Treasury creates United States Dollars, they are convinced that the Left is stealing it from hard working taxpayers. Taxpayers would have zero dollars with which to pay taxes if the Treasury & Congress had not spent those dollars first. How could anyone give the Fed Gov back USA Dollars if those were never printed or spent into existence in the first place? Use our own Inkjet printers?
Even tho Banks “print” vastly more money —- 97% of total in circulation —- than the Govt “prints” or issues — and the Banks essentially “rent” the money they print for a monthly payment to them — they are convinced that Govt printing of $1 Trillion is going to cause hyper-inflation, when Banks printing of $12 Trillion in a few years time caused intentional inflation in house prices but not hyper-inflation, and for understandable reasons that Bubbles do Crash, like when house prices rise far faster than overall GDP, now the reversal of the Bank lending is causing a massive DE-flation crisis.
Lastly, even though the Fed Gov NEVER actually NEEDS to take any money back from the private sector for revenue — it does so for policy reasons
Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete!
NY Fed Chairman B. Ruml, January 1946
http://www.save-a-patriot.org/files/view/ruml.html
— many people are becoming convinced that lower income wage-earning working class people the 47% ought to have to pay income taxes on top of artificially-reduced wage levels.
They think it’s “unfair” that poor wage slaves don’t pay taxes, and then some qualify for some “social spending”.
This is entirely in contradiction to Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations who wrote that NO taxes should be levied on wages — neither the poor NOR the middle class — only the investor class should pay.
This was the same ideal for the very conservative admin of Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Mellon. Mellon argued that income taxes should ONLY fall on the top 2% — generally considered to be “unearned” investment income or “rents”, not wage income.
People think the Federal Govt is going broke, when the Fed Gov CANNOT go broke.
Should we be surprised that with the propaganda running so thick and so effectively, that American society — not the Government — is going broke, getting wages cut, and getting pushed into debt-serfdom?
Some wingnuts OPENLY want their fellow citizens to live in poverty, because we are all “lazy” and we have demanded a decent wage for our work. Some wingnuts OPENLY think pensions that people negotiated, earned, and paid into should just be taken away … but don’t break any contracts that the Banks have to collect what they are owed. They apparently think this will HELP the American economy and bring us “freedom”.
Mitt Romney and certain people like him have collected millions of dollars from the Govt, as they demanded, yet no one considers them suffering under lack of freedom due to all the handouts they got.
We are living in bizarre times.
Gary Goodman
CORRECTION: The Fed is NOT owned by “unknown” parties.
Max Mogren
Dave, your articles are always a great, inspiring read. Thank you so much!
I think it’s important to note that people are also being dumbed down intentionally not just via the media but with Fluoridated water/toothpaste, food additives like Aspartame, toxic foods like HFCS and GMOs, aerosolized nano-particulate spraying of neurotoxins like aluminium/barium/strontium, and even electromagnetic manipulation of our minds. The only reason many people are still trapped within the Matrix is because they’re being poisoned into lethargically accepting the insane system we were all born into. As such, awareness on all of these topics is crucial to bringing the awakening to as many people as possible. Thanks again. Peace.
Max Mogren
Also, here’s an article on the monetary system that I recently wrote that caters to the average working man. It might be worth sharing with folks who don’t speak the jargon of economics… Banksterism 101… http://www.oilfreefun.com/p/banksterism-101.html
Gary Goodman
You make some good points, but consider this: “Fixed Exchange Rate” i.e. Gold Std was a “standard”. In other words, it was a Govt regulation. Who “Fixed” this rate?
Under “Fixed Exchange” govt bureaucrats and domestic or global bankers met and agreed to “FIX” the ratio between Dollars and Gold and other currencies — Dollars the Govt and banks are legally licensed to create and spend OR lend — whether or not that ratio was correct.
Lysander Spooner was correct writing in the 1800s. The moment a Govt stamps a price on a piece of shiny metal (coin) of specific weight and fineness, that value is wrong. Not only does that value fluctuate in the Market, the demand for precious scarce metal for Govt coins *causes* the value to rise. Then people melt down the coins and remove them from circulation. Gresham’s Law.
The only answer is to have money be a neutral value-free “unit of account” (kinda like “medium of exchange”), and have the precious metals market be separate.
(Also, the Bretton Woods Conference was NOT HELD in 1971. It was held in 1946, after the USA won World War 2. It was for a new plan for global trade, dominated by USA. This was when the Dollar was set to equal 1/35 oz of Gold and foreign currencies pegged to the Dollar, regardless of actual market pressures. What happened in 1971 is Nixon unilaterally abolished Bretton Woods and the entire world quickly reverted to “free-floating” currency. Nixon and crew made this decision because foreign investors and central banks — esp France — was sending their $ back to the USA and demanding one ounce for every $35, when it was becoming obvious that Gold was worth much more than $35 … more like $400. So Nixon flipped them the bird. Nixon was expanding the existing war in a former French colony, Vietnam, so that’s probably the main reason Dollars were flowing back to France.)
Under so-called “Fiat” currency, who sets the value ratio between Dollars and Gold and other currencies? The Market. The Fed only sets the “target” interest rate by it’s own edict and management. Not the exchange rate. (Not unless it’s secretly buying or dumping Gold or E-Gold.)
Private banks are responsible for setting the Quantity or Volume of money, not the Govt. Private banks lend as much as they choose to whomever they think is a good credit risk, with no practical limits whatsoever (no limits beyond what “regulations” permit). So when banks create loans they create “money-in-circulation”, in potentially infinite volume. However, private banks add ZERO “net” dollars to circulation that the economy as a whole could save.
If only banks created money and Govt created no money, the ONLY way anyone could be a net saver is if other people were net debtors. Although the Govt does create money and spend it, the situation is unbalanced between net savers and net debtors. The Govt’s debt — our net savings — is $16 Trillion, while the overall debt of households and business to banks is $42 Trilion, 300% of GDP.
In our system, it’s OK (in one sense) that debt is big, when it leads to sane economic growth. It’s NOT ok when growth of debt all goes to inflating asset prices — like real estate — which is largely the actual case, especially as time moves away from the Crash of the Great Depression. See Steve Keen’s explanation of Minsky’s theories on Capitalism evolving from sane investing to Ponzi Finance over time.
Economics is a complex topic. There’s so many interconnections that affect things. It’s not simple algebra. Steve Keen is attempting to model capitalism using Chaos theory and higher math. The current “neo-classical” theories were developed to not only be anti-Marx but anti-Classical anti-Adam Smith anti-Progressive. Michael Hudson paints this as a kind of high-tech information age Neo-Feudalism.
Under Feudalism, the King and some of his key appointees owned Land and charged exorbitant “rents” on peasants. Under Neo-Feudalism, it’s less obvious, but Banks now own more Equity in American real estate than the actual deeded owners. They are attempting to grab the entire public sphere — cities, states, counties, public roads, public hospitals, privatize everything — by loaning money for operations as Fed Govt slashes spending, then they can take over ownership or gain long-term leasing where all the rents and fees go to creditors and control goes to creditors, while maintenance and costs get shoved onto the citizens.
This is the same as when Enron took over Argentina’s water system and destroyed it, while raising water rates astronomically.
In Kentucky, following Hank Paulson’s TARP, the AIG company bought up the water systems of a few poor communities and jacked up rates by five times.
You know they would LIKE to seize ownership of the Great Lakes, and privatize ALL the roads and public spaces. Some extreme insane libertarians paint that privatization as “freedom” from nasty Govt control, but Govt will be kept in place to enforce the Ownership rights of the Creditors or the “holding companies” they create.
Oldnwise
scaled pics of what trillions look like…..https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151055122144127.459418.677994126&type=3
Brad
1 trillion dollars is a stack of 1 thousand dollar denomination bills 94.7 miles high (or long which ever you prefer to imagine) 46 trillion is the same stack 4356 miles high
Pal Simon
nah Brad, $1 million is just one piece of paper with the words “I O U $1 trillion dollars” written on it. ROFL
Phyl
Their time is here on earth is ending, ‘game over’… earth (Gaia) is 3.9+ nearer the 4th dimensional vibration, and they cannot bring their ill gotten gains into this higher vibration as these monies (whatever amount) is a 3rd dimensional and lower heavy energy. Come January 2014 all man-made 3rd dimensional creations will dissipate (far too heavy for the 4th dimensional lighter frequency)..
Pal Simon
One good way to revive the economy and get more taxes to reduce the debt would be legislation to cancel all defaulted consumer debt in the hands of parasitic Wall Street investors. We also need to go back to the old bankruptcy laws that permitted all bank card debt to be cancelled if consumer unable to pay. It would also be helpful to get a Consumer Protection Commission to REALLY protect consumers from people who victimize debtors who have been victimized the bank-created economic decline. Look at this: Country needs defense against Debt Machine: Scum bags at work destroying the American economy by economically killing off victims, throwing them into the streets, cheating them, and worse, using our legal system to do it sometimes, and sometimes just sneaking things around the law: http://www.scribd.com/doc/84945605/Debt-Machine-Debt-Buyers-Overhwelm-Courts-NCLC-2010
Gary Goodman
This is precisely what Steve Keen spells out in greater details and with graphs and math to back him.
In other words, he explains why it would not just be “nice” but good and essential for normal capitalism to WRITE DOWN outstanding consumer debts. But some many of those debts were sold off to investors for retirement and such, pension funds, there would also have to be some kind of TARP or Quantitative Easing by the Treasury + Fed for the rest of the economy, not just the tiny percent at the top.
There are many Steve Keen videos on YouTube. I just watched one meeting he had with Dennis Kucinich and others.
James Be Derain
Re. Article on $46 Trillion
The analysis is too general, hence misses the mark completely. One has to
distinguish between honest wealth creation as a result of free enterprise (wealth is mot a zero sum game – the generation of wealth by one never forfeits the generation of wealthy by anyone if allowed to do likewise), and individual initiative and those that stifle the productive capacity and opportunities of the many while generating wealth for themselves. All socialistic schemes for society fall into the latter category. Socialists cunningly and insincerely promise liberty and plenty while delivering the opposite – for their true goal is enslavement. The writer knows or should know who these international Masonic bankers are but refuses to identify them but opts for a vague and general lamentation.
You cannot benefit anyone by promising to distribute the wealth of others. If the creative energies of the individual is not engaged in the creation of wealth then the individual is degraded and made brutish by coveting the wealth of others. The politics of greed and class warfare will never set anyone free or empower him to think and create for himself.
Alan8
“You cannot benefit anyone by promising to distribute the wealth of others.”
Bullshit! A self-serving LIE from a 1%-er. Redistributing the obscene wealth of the .01% would IMMEDIATELY end starvation and homelessness in the U.S.
Your lies can’t obscure this fact. There are more of us than you. And many of us are starting to wake up. End the class war and start reparations or we’ll do it for you. And if we have to, it’s not going to be pretty.
Geoffrey Owen
The wealth does not need to be redistributed. It needs to be reinvested in society. The return on investment in education, infrastructure and job creation is immense. Only a parasite hoards the host for his own end. If Walmart invested in it’s labor force it could become far more profitable. If it invested in rural infrastructure it would be more profitable. If the minimum wage were raised to $10.60 (equivalent to 1968) Walmart would make more profits. Hoarding wealth and promoting an indentured class is the ultimate in economic stupidity. Pareto calculated that 80% of the wealth would go to 20% of the population. Little did he know about how distribution of wealth feeds to the top.
Alan8
Great article! You’ve hit the nail on the head! We need a fair system for wealth redistribution.
Many people feel this way, but because these subjects are censored from the corporate media, people think they’re isolated and the only ones thinking this.
Keep up the good work!
Bobby Bickham
With the advancement of technology, automation, and robotics, companies were able to make more and more profit with less and less employees. Add the pressure of the shareholders who continually demand higher and higher stockprices. This forced the companies to get leaner and meaner often leading to even more layofffs and pay freezes in order to increase profits. This also caused more and more people to become underemployed and unemployed. Wages have stagnated for the last twenty years. Now these people are dependant on the government to survive.
Linda
I’m not so sure enough Americans have awakened to produce of tsunami of change. When reading the comments on FB, people are still supporting everything the president and our military are doing–falsely in our name, and falsely, for our protection. The 3 branches of govt. are still coupled with Wall st., and that really doesn’t appear to be changing.
Geoffrey Owen
Milk Money
Think of our economy as a farm. Think of money as milk from our prize cow. And think about How we get the milk from the cow and use it to economize our farm and our village. Today it is not working as well as we know it can and we are concerned. The entire village has too much debt, and you have too much debt. Why do you work so hard and then go into debt just to provide the “necessaries” as Thomas Paine refers to them in Common Sense?
The problem is that we get our Milk from a Farmer named Sam sitting on a three-legged stool. Our deficit spending and our national debt arises from the three-legged stool he is sitting on. One Leg is the FED and its financial relationship with Wall Street which feeds it with milk watered down by other debt created in the milking process. The second leg, the Military-Industrial Complex is using $1 trillion in milk every year to defend us from a non-existent enemy. Since we “have” to pay for this we need the milk, but we are only allowed to use milk that is certified by the FED. In other words we owe them for the milk that feeds the military. The stool is balanced by the third leg which is congress. It decides for us that what Sam does with the milk drawn from our cow is in our best interest.
The stool is capitalism. You can study this in a great many books over written over the years. It did not exist until the time that the bank of England was chartered in 1693. This dates it about 320 years ago. For the purpose of making a scant number of families very rich it has worked very well. For the death and enslavement of millions and millions of people it has worked even better. Today the enslavement is by control of government, who must participate in the World Bank and locally with the FED and in Europe with the ECB.
It has reached its expansive end. It is parasitic. It has been compared to fleas on a dog. After sucking out all of the blood the dog dies and the fleas are stranded. Our milking stool is a parasitic object. And worldwide, the capitalists are calling for the payment of the debt that they have instigated. The blame of course goes to you the villager. Some of you are saying I have worked hard, blame those getting entitlements. Blame the disable. Blame the elderly. Blame the sick who use health care. And most of all blame the poor.
Yet while you are doing the work, the capitalist has you paying taxes, paying for a mortgage, paying for student loan which you are indentured to pay, and borrowing for your car, your gas and your groceries. Your phone bill is $200. Your credit cards $500. Did the poor do that to you? Come on, you worked hard as an American. You have lost value in your home. Your company does not provide a pension. Everything you buy comes from Asia. Your 401k was decimated and you made loans and withdrawals there to make ends meet. Do you want to sacrifice the future of Social Security and Medicare by blaming Granny Smith, and her daughter who works three jobs to survive in poverty, for the Debt that you have on your Farm and the Debt of the entire village?
Sam gets some revenues from our farming, but the milk he takes from the cow while sitting on the stool is what causes our debt problem. Remember the cow is our National Economy. She produces a lot of milk, cheese and butter. This cow is a prize cow. She produces all the milk needed for the village and more. She produces more than any other cow can produce. But the milk can only be used as it feeds the needs of the stool. The stool wants Military-
Industrial spending. The stool wants us to provide the milk and then owe the milk it takes. And the stool wants congress to support its agenda.
The milk that feeds our children, the cheese we trade for the Doctor, and the nourishment for the cow; the grass; the water; the air, are being taken to pay for the debt created by the stool. The payment you receive for labor is siphoned back to pay as well in lower wages and taxes. You are not making a penny more than you did in 1980, and if you earn the minimum, you are making 30% less. 15 million people have been put out of work. 60,000 factories have closed. Tax rates have not been lower in 50 years.
The Capitalist (Milking Stool) will have you believe that if it weren’t for the costs of those things that there would be no debt. No, that is not right. Every spike in the debt in our village since 1790 corresponds to war. In the current scenario there is no war. I heard a friend’s comment that “this is the most dangerous time in our history and we cannot sacrifice our defense. We can get attacked at any moment from outside or inside by our unseen enemy (the terrorist)”.
The Capitalist (Milking Stool) has created a war on terror. It has sucked out the 15 million jobs and 60,000 factories. And it wants you to believe it was the poor.
The Farmer, the Capitalist (Milking Stool) and everyone else has bought into the ruse that using the cows milk for our economic benefit will cause inflation. This is not true. The milk drawn from the cow and assigned as debt to the Farmer to pay for security is lent out ten times over by the banks putting the entire village into individual and collective debt. This is inflation. And when it gets extended too far the banks call it back and cause a recession.
In 2008 they had extended it so far as to bet the entire GDP of the planet on financial security bets called derivatives. You don’t know what they. I don’t know how they work. Basically they are the Capitalist (Milking Stool) betting against the cow. The cow lost. And we bailed out the financiers on behalf of the Capitalist (Milking Stool), and they used your money, created even more debt for the village, and the FED loaned them $15 Trillion more at zero percent interest. (NO, you didn’t get to reboot at zero interest, sorry.)
Today the Financiers of the Capitalist (Milking Stool) are not gambling with just one year of the Gross World Product, they are gambling 17 times that amount. One Quadrillion Dollars. Ooh, that’s 1,000 trillion, isn’t it? The first amount got us into real trouble, what do you think this will do? Can we nick the poor to cover the cost of this, or would you like to think of a way out?
The cow can take care of all of us with her milk. We need to claim what is ours. We can milk beyond the arrangement of the FED, the Military-industrial Complex, and with the consent of congress. We already issue virtual milk for food programs. For $1 issued, $1.87 comes back to the Farm. This milk can provide education, healthcare, road building, food, and pensions for the elderly. The milk does not leave the country. It does not create debt. It creates better welfare for the entire village. The use of the milk enhances the economy of the village. It can erase the Student Loan Debt as easily as a runner on Wall Street can yell, SELL!
Once we take the milk for our own use, and not for the benefit of the stool, the excuse for austerity is empty. So is the excuse for the stool. And the excuse for the FED and the excuse for excessive military spending. The milk drawn off the cow without the involvement of the Capitalist (Milking Stool) is called Fiat Money. We can call it Milk Money.
Next April the FED is 100 years old. Next year the income tax is 100 years old. Next year is the anniversary of World War I. When we created the FED it knew that it was time for a really big war, since it knew that this would get the Village to lend milk. It also had congress pass the tax so that money to pay it for the new debt would be needed. Yes, you are right, the War had not started so how would they know we needed an income tax? How indeed? And as our economic benefactor how did they fail to protect the village in 1918, 1929, 1938 1957, 1979, 1999 and 2008? How is it that both sides of the World War II were planned before Hitler had invaded Poland? Pearl Harbor? The Japanese filmed it foe us. Korea? Vietnam? What was that all about anyway? The Cold War and the build up from 1946 – 1991, the Gulf War just when Saddam Hussein wanted to take oil off the Dollar, 9/11 and the dog and pony show that followed, and the war to liberate Iraq; what were these really about? And we have been in Afghanistan for over 4100 day more than the rest of them combined. You do remember our mission and purpose for being there?
The banks today are reaping 56% of the GDP. This is more than half of what the farm produces. 99 of 100 people in the village are in debt. 100 of them owe the bank, and we all owe for the debt milked from our Cow by Farmer Sam sitting on the pretense of Capitalism (Milking Stool). The too big to fail banks have grown bigger and fatter. Credit is built into a loaf of bread, and added on again when you buy it, and then added to your account as long as you can pay the minimum and….. you are going in debt faster. Do you really think a gallon of gas should cost $3.55? It cost that when gas oil was $110 per barrel, but now its under $90. You are paying for the Capitalist (Milking Stool) to speculate on the oil, driving up the price. And the Corn, the wheat, the cotton, the sugar, the beef, the pork, the chicken, the ebans, the tomatoes, the …..
Before the Bank of England, which was established in 1692 by the incorporation of debt for a war that the King needed to have with France, the local marketplace ran with credit between merchants and customers which was common, and expected, and legal.
The process of the local market was devoid of the impersonal credit as loans from a bank, but very much like the virtual credit of the plastic we use exchange daily, an exchange between villagers.
Today, a chamber of commerce could issue a credit card in conjunction with a credit union and process transactions in the locality very efficiently and for little or no cost to members. After all, when you use your card, the bank doesn’t exactly put up any cash from its vault. The business gets a credit and the customer a debit. This does not involve issuing cards to people who are not productive in the district, but it does not involve 20% interest and multiple fees that only benefit the bank. I digress only to point out that local commerce has not changed so much in 300 years.
No actual cash money is involved. No gold, silver or coins are exchanged. Wealth does not leave the community. The credit of exchange is based on labor and no Usury is involved. Yes we all have to account to the credit union for our exchanges.
Fiat (Milk) money is of the very same nature. Fiat (Milk) money still comes from the cow, It is sovereign in nature. It was used by Abraham Lincoln to save the union from the usury of Wall Street and the bank of England. Lincoln called them Greenbacks. They were green and were backed by the government. The argument against fiat (Milk) money is the argument that it deprives the Capitalist (Milking Stool) of our debt, and his usury.
Our current situation relies on a milk stool of debt driven by Wall St, the military industrial complex and the government. Each leg feeding of the others as the finance exacts debt from the government in exchange for money to wage war. They use the deposit of the debt money to exact more debt from the rest of us through fractional reserve lending.
Global commerce has changed little in 500 years. The financier now owns the commerce from top to bottom and as we rely on him for the exchange of commerce the value of our labor has become what he says it is. The minimum wage has gone down 30% since 1968. The pay of CEOs have skyrocketed by 500%. If we were still running on a gold standard, we would be the ones no longer holding gold, since history has shown that the gold goes to the country actually making the things sold in the market. In the 1500s the conquistadors enslaved the natives and mined the gold from Peru to Montana, shipped it back to Europe and it then went to the Chinese, never providing any economic advantage to Europe.
Fiat (Milk) money that touches no sea does not effect the value of international gold and silver. It can be based on labor, service or need, all of which drive the demand in our economy. Of the jobs in our village today, 86% are in service and 14% in manufacturing. In the population, there is a growing segment of the population that is aging, disabled and can’t labor. Added to that are 15 million underemployed who have seen their jobs go to the East and 6 million who are over worked and paid a salary, often lowering their wages below the minimum wage. Re booting our economy with fiat (Milk) money will put more people to work which lowers the percentage of those who have demands on the system that are need based and not labor based. The tax base rises. The debt no longer expands and can actually be paid off.
Since 1971, when the USA went off the gold standard, we have been on the dollar ( Federal Reserve Note), and the world has followed. If they don’t, they find themselves staring down the barrel of Farmer Sams’ rifle. Backed by the full faith and promise of the United States. We still have gold in Fort Knox and the FED stores the world gold 150 feet beneath Wall Street, moving the balances between countries monthly, with forklifts.
There is no inflation in a system outside of the FED banking system by using fiat money. The influx of printed currency into the village, backed in full by the United States, will act as a catalyst for our economy. The capitalists do not want you to know this. For their purpose Capital can only come from Capitalism; the creation of debt by war which fuels fractional reserve lending. The FED and the five banks have made a lot of money off this system and you are in a lot of debt due to this.
A large part of the debt is Social Security and Medicare Trust funds which were in the form of IOUs. If these were paid directly from the treasury each month the debt notes could be erased. The debts to foreign countries, most of who we protect and do business with can be repaid from revenues. The defense can be mandated as an affordable percentage of GDP.
The balance of debt to the FED. The FED was authorized to manage our money and they have looted the treasury for 100 years. Empty out their vaults of everything not directly necessary for the operations of the banks. The reserves needed to share with the banks will be maintained. There is no need to ever face another crisis. Our politicians are entirely to blame and the FED has profited immensely.
Get Wall Street out of the White House. The revolving door between the top banks and investment firms and the Treasury, the SEC and the FDIC needs to end. This is how the Capitalist (Milking Stool) tells Farmer Sam what to do. At this point we need to regulate what Wall Street Does and how it does it.
1. We need to reinstate the Glass-Stiegel Act to stop the speculation by the deposit banks and separate them from the investment banks.
2. We need to regulate the types of investment being made.
3. We need to tax transactions. This will slow the constant turnover of our investment dollars. A very minimal tax can generate a lot of revenue and at the same time protect the investments of individuals, municipalities and pension funds.
4. End the FED in its current form and maintain the infrastructure of the FED and the SEC and the FDIC to regulate the process for payment and not profit.
5. End corporate welfare at all levels and reduce the corporate tax rate accordingly.
6. End the practice of offshore bank accounts. If an individual or corporation is evading tax by moving cash off shore they will pay. If they are importing their goods as a foreign entity then they should be subject to reasonable tariff. In other words the Chinese will pay to import. A US company will pay tax on what they earn.
These recommendations are not liberal in any way. They are as conservative as our forefathers were that set us on this course and chartered this village.
What you can do about it.
Your credit union, if you have one, and you should, lends money on deposit. They have lots of deposits. Borrow money there if you need to borrow at all. This money stay in your community. They may be selling off your mortgage, which you don’t want them to do. Find a place to that will keep your mortgage in their portfolio so that we don’t face another 2009.
As an investor I have loans out to 500 families. I did not take $20,000 and lend out $200,000. I only lent out $20,000, $25 at a time to families wishing to avoid doing business with banks. Without the strict regulation of Wall Street it won’t be long before they will suck up this enterprise as well.
If you thought that the Capitalist (Milking Stool) was there to offer capital to expand our economy that was wrong. The intent has to been to expand debt.
Investment is what provides Capital. Your Investment, my investment and the investment of companies earning profits. If investment is low the return paid is high. This is why there is no return today. The FED has created money for nothing, and too much of it, by compounding our debt. Now is the time to take it back and invest in ourselves.
Geoffrey Owen
Some great posts here. I wrote this so people without a background in money could understand just what capitalism is and how it has eaten up their labor.
We need to evolve to a system where the basis of money is labor and not debt. And we need to systematically eliminate the debt.
Leroy Sylvania
THEIR WEALTH IS ONLY FIGURES ON PAPER BECAUSE THERE IS NOT THAT MUCH PHYSICAL WEALTH
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being back again a whole lot more frequently. Thank you ,Mohamed