Money Gone Bad

Review - "Modernising Money" by Andrew Jackson and Ben Dyson

"Money makes the world go round." However, ongoing chronic failures in banking, finance and monetary systems are causing massive global economic instability and are prompting urgent distress calls for monetary reforms. "Modernising Money" presents a clear explanation of why the current monetary system has gone wrong, with substantial proposals for radical reforms.

"Money doesn't grow on trees." Unnatural, human-contrived money and the arcane, shady world of banking are exposed to a clear light of enquiry in "Modernising Money". Some widely held false beliefs concerning present-day banking practices are carefully explained in the first part of the book - "The Current Monetary System". In the second part - "The Reformed Monetary System" - some very sensible and well-reasoned reforms for our current broken-down banking system are proposed.

"The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." However, money seems to be necessary for the functioning of our worldly activities and complex global exchanges. Meanwhile, ongoing financial crises especially in the UK, EU, USA and Japan are also having knock-on consequences in social and political as well as economic spheres of human activity. It's therefore essential for us to understand money more thoroughly, and not allow bankers and financiers to pull one over on us for their own personal benefit. "Modernising Money" is a very timely explanation of monetary practices for the layman, and offers valid proposals for reforms that need serious consideration by all concerned with our personal, national and global economic situation.

"Money, money, money, it's a rich man's world." In section 5.3 entitled "Inequality" it is stated that "for there to be a supply of money, some people must be in debt." Again in section 5.4 entitled "Private Debt" it states: "For there to be money, there must also be debt." Money, if without intrinsic value such as gold or silver, is little more than "I owe you" notes or promissory tokens. It is therefore a symbol of debt to be repaid or exchanged for goods or services at a later date. As money thus has negative connotations associated with evil and debt, "Positive Money" would seem to be an ironic name for the organisation through which the authors are promoting their timely ideas for radical monetary reforms.

However, our current obviously dysfunctional monetary, financial and banking systems certainly cry out for some positive propositions and fertile grounds to plant new seeds for healthy growth and prosperity. In section 9.4 it states that in the proposed reformed system "money will exist without a corresponding debt." This refers to current commercial bank practices of monetising debt and using leverage to effectively create money, whereas money itself is actually a symbol of debt i.e. IOU notes or tokens that can be exchanged for goods or services at a later date. The proposed reforms largely shift the control of money away from commercial banks towards an independent central bank which would then control the issuance of fiat tokens in the form of electronic money, notes and coins.

I recommend "Modernising Money" for its clear explanations of banking, and its opening up of new possibilities for a world grown weary and wilting while watching the current system's spent shells fall, apparently having shot itself in the foot, or worse, and limping along very badly on crutches provided by tax-payers through the agency of the state.

Debt Mountains and Humpty Dumpty

All Fall Down

The absurd U.S. debt mountain is not going away. The wall of money the U.S. government does not have to pay off its public debts is growing by the day. The only surprise is how long the wall of debt has stayed up while it has grown ever bigger and higher.
http://youtu.be/WFP-2_iDYMU

Murmurs are heard from the Romney morons (sorry, did i mean Mormons?) about putting the US$ back on a gold standard! But if one measure of money is used (M2) this would mean that ALL THE GOLD EVER MINED ON EARTH would be needed to back the US$!

Then there is massive Japanese debt, and growing EU debt too, with Greece leading the way. NO CHANCE IN HELL OF GOVERNMENTS RAISING MONEY TO PAY OFF THESE DEBTS WITHOUT DEVALUING THE MONEY THEY'RE PAID IN!

For example, if i borrowed a million Zimbabwe$ back in 1980 i could have exchanged it immediately for very roughly 10,000 oz. gold. At 10% interest per year i'd maybe have a debt of 20 million Z$ now. But the currency became worthless - 20 million Z$ became worth less than 1US$! So i sell a speck of gold dust to buy back 20 million Z$ to settle my debt. The 10,000 oz gold, minus a speck, which remains mine for all my efforts is now worth about 16 million US$!

THE QUESTION IS WHO IS LOSING AND WHO IS WINNING FROM THIS DIABOLICAL DEBT MOUNTAIN GAME? WHO IS SELLING WHO DOWN THE RIVER? FOR A GAME, A MARKET, AND MONEY, HAS AT LEAST 2 SIDES TO IT. It's a duality (Devil's business).

It seems obvious, when one applies one's mind to it, but most people seem to be moronically ignorant these days. They are kept that way by those who do know what's going on and are profiting on the other side of those DEBT MOUNTAINS!

Joe Public is stuck with paying back impossible government debt through increased taxes, selling off of public assets to private investors, failure of pension funds and medical services he's contributed to, and the lower value of money in his pocket! Some may be screaming blue murder, but few see what their own elected leaders have done to them!

Over the impossible DEBT MOUNTAINS - which Joe Public cannot see beyond or get his head around - there are those PRIVATE INTERESTS, the global transnational corporations, the wealthy elite few, living in the lap of luxury with more paper or digital money than they can sensibly use.

Capitalist-bought-out government officials - the Bushes, Clintons, Obamas, Blairs, Browns, Camerons, and all the other clowns like them - have been involved in the largest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen, whether they understand what they did and are doing or not! And methinks for the large part they do not understand, but were swept along by global currents they had no moral strength to withstand.

The end result of capitalist-bought-out game plans is a very few absurdly wealthy people who appear on paper to own much of the world's resources, manufacturing production, service industry and finances. Meanwhile, Joe Soap is taken to the cleaners looking for a job to pay him devalued money to stay afloat in the bath with inflated prices for goods and services!

Joe Soap ends up being little more than a serf, slave, or outcast scum of the capitalist-bought-out system. A pool of cheap labor like those poor Africans who were forced to pick cotton on plantations. Joe Soap these days may have no physical chains on him, is not forcefully transported to foreign shores, and actually wants to find work or a job. However, Joe Soap's slavery is worse than having physical chains on his body. His slavery is mental and insidious, because he has no idea how this situation came upon him. And he has no idea what those insurmountable, absurd, DEBT MOUNTAINS looming over his world mean! No, he has no idea! So he's led by the nose!

Beyond the debt mountains, on the other side of their utter absurdity, all is not well either! The Bill Gateses, Carlos Slims and George Soroses have more money in paper or digital form than any human can make much sense of in ordinary terms. Their casino-like capitalist game-plan is to play with the world's resources, betting on the next place to make profits, although they already have enough money to live in stupendous luxury for countless lifetimes.

A nod or shake of a capitalist casino player's head may mean companies go bankrupt with thousands of Joe Soaps out of work. As pure capitalists they see numbers as more important than people - people as mere numbers! They themselves are numb, less than human! They may try to assuage what remains of their burnt-out consciences with humanitarian projects, as failed capitalist-bought-out governments leave large populations in derelict conditions. However, their projects also end up treating humans like guinea pigs, social-engineering material, and don't really solve the problems which their capitalist-game-plan system has brought about in the first place!

The human condition is akin to staring at an impossible wall, currently a global debt mountain, from its two separate sides. There's the side of the poor masses, Joe Public, burdened with massive public debt and taxation to pay it off. Then on the other side of the impossible dividing wall there are a few wealthy elite playing capitalist casino games. No answers are forthcoming from either side! NONE! One side accumulates wealth and perhaps throws away or trickles down some to assuage the pain on the other side where masses of people are bought-out, sold, trafficked, divested and stripped bare like slaves were in the old days. Joe Public is not so much an owner of anything, as owned, bought and sold! He sold his birthright, and thus he's no longer his own master but ruled by others whose rules he does not understand or have any say in making.

The rich elite, play their capitalist casino games with world resources and people as chips. They tend to see the world's problems as not of their making, but rather made by people themselves! However, they are really slaves of the enslaved public because the whole capitalist board they play on is based on the world's population and resources - take these away and the elite masters are exposed as nothing but worldly tricksters and high-stakes gamblers lacking ethical vision while they sit at their board games fingering their chips.

The wall dividing the world, dividing wealth, causing revolutions and wars, is the duality of the human mind. Humpty Dumpty falls on one side or the other. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again! So what is to be done about it?

Capital Crime of Finance Capitalism

Unkept Paper Promises

Money = Debt, or IOU Notes. The issuance of "I Owe yUo" notes by those who know they cannot honor them, or have no intention of paying them to the same value, is fraud.

Holders of Icelandic, Irish and Greek government and private debt in recent years have taken a haircut, been sheared like sheep. Holders of U.S., Japanese, U.K., Spanish, Italian, French IOU paper should be concerned.

Notes issued by the Bank of England denominated in pounds sterling carry the words “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of …” However, if you go to the Bank of England and demand payment in pounds of sterling silver they will not give it to you. You will be stuck with the paper. And if the paper they issue becomes too large compared with the economy then inflation arises and the paper loses value vis-a-vis goods and services. However, the BoE is currently required to ensure that inflation in the U.K. stays around 2%, and if it doesn't the Governor has to explain to Parliament why not.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/about/history.aspx  

Events in the economic world, especially since 2008, have seriously eroded any trust we may have had in the people who manage government and bank finances. An increasing number of people are now looking for alternate ways to manage their economic affairs. Governments, banks, and corporations are coming under closer scrutiny with more cases of financial jiggery-pokery being exposed almost on a daily basis.

We are now witnessing the demise of laissez-faire capitalism as Europe, U.S.A., Japan and other states attempt to stop the collapse by issuing bonds or through quantitative easing. But such attempts are bound to end in failure as the enormous debts run up by governments cannot be paid off without either exorbitant tax increases, phenomenal economic growth, or massive inflation. Raising government funds through privatization of public assets is essentially selling the population into the private hands of neofeudalism, as explained in my previous articles.  

Political leaders know this, or should do otherwise they are irresponsible. Financial criminals have been imprisoned in recent years. The debacles they have caused have become top political issues as politicians are intimately involved in the finance business and its regulation. However, politicians are, as ever, avoiding the radical changes necessary, while attempting to kick their very battered can of financial worms down the road a little further.

Their political can is full of holes, exposing financial worms grown very fat and ugly. And it looks like their performance is falling apart to the point of absurdity. But while this political laughing stock try to hold their financial can of worms together they are still not changing the underlying causes and thus the problems are growing bigger. Thus the collapse, when it comes, will be bigger than 2008, or 1929, in terms of its political, economic and social costs.

Revelation 8

¹⁰ And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

¹¹ And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

http://www.amazon.com/False-Dawn-Delusions-Global-Capitalism/dp/1565845927

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14764357

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2009/mar/09/capitalism-crisis-john-gray