Debt-based Money is a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Why are we ruled by debt? Our history is afflicted with debt, poverty, corruption, wars and assassinations, all underscored by the power of debt-based money. How has this happened? Banking fraud is as old as the hills. The ancient Greeks knew the destructive power of interest, or usury. Money was intended to be used in exchange but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth, this is the most unnatural. Aristotle 325BC (1258b, POLITICS) The money changers of the Bible also knew the power of interest. As the story goes, Jesus knew their ways and drove them from the temple, being arrested soon after and later delivered to his biblical fate. All religions once denounced the extraction of usury (any interest) as a corruption of money, and a sin. Why does interest corrupt money? Aristotle said that money was intended to be used in exchange. He was saying that money is simply a medium, with no intrinsic value. It doesnt breed like livestock, or grow like crops, nor can it be dug out of the ground like gold and multiplied. Its not a commodity. neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities. Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper, deposits merely book entries. Modern Money Mechanics, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. So the interest mechanism is a scam, because it converts money into something that it is not a multiplying commodity. Money is only a circulating medium that makes it easy for people to exchange their goods and services. It costs virtually nothing, and should never be in short supply, restricting trade and the economy. How have we been deceived? Money can be easily marked with values by using numbers and colours. This makes it even more convenient, but like plastic tokens, paper coupons, or IOUs, it only promises something of value. The real value comes from the human labour that produces the goods and services. The credit has always belonged to the man or the woman doing the actual work. Every man and woman has credit equal to the value of their contribution, limited only by that value. But over time, we have been trained to believe a lie, that the money itself is as valuable as the goods and services. This must be nonsense, because a piece of paper or numbers in a computer will not directly feed you, clothe you, shelter you, or provide you with any practical benefit.

By Lewis Verduyn

However, if we believe that money is a commodity, and then allow it to be monopolised, we are fated to pay interest and forever be in debt to the banks. What are the bankers doing? Suppose you go to a bank to borrow $1000. When you sign the contract, the bank creates $1000 in your account by typing in that amount, obliging you to pay them $1000 plus interest. At the same time, the bank balances its books by recording both an asset and a liability of $1000. They have just charged you $1000 plus interest for the credit that you created with your signature. The money doesnt come from the deposits of customers, it comes from you. So not only are you contracted to work for your own credit (the principal), but you must pay interest as well! The essence of the contemporary money system is the creation of money out of nothing by private banks. Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Editor, Financial Times, London. So if the banks are not loaning real money, there is no debt. Collectively, we are all in debt on paper only, and we work for the banks for free. At this point, money has been turned into a false commodity, and we are paying interest on our own credit, so could it really get any worse? Impossible to get out of debt The bankers knew that they could bankrupt citizens and governments at will, simply by demanding payment at an opportune time. They also realized that they could remove all hope of payment, and control everything. Prior to 1933, anyone (if they were fortunate) could pay off their bank debt with gold. Everyone had a chance to be debt-free. But on April 5, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt, under Executive Order, declared: "All persons are required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates now owned by them to a Federal Reserve Bank, branch or agency, or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System." Finally, on August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon closed the gold window, ending the ability of central bank nations to demand payment for debt in gold. Since 1971, it has been impossible to pay our collective debts. Even if you work hard and dont owe the bank a cent, the money in you account is still someones debt. The wealthier you become, the more you put others in debt. Debt cannot be paid with debt. Its that simple. The debt-money monopoly But worse, there was now no physical limit on the amount of debt that could be created by banks in the pursuit of profit. The only lever holding them back had been gold. The stage was set for financial deregulation and market excess. The debt game was always rigged, because the banks create the debt and not the interest, requiring ever more debt. But now the tragedy was fast-tracked.

The only possible outcome, until the game ends, is more debt, more global destruction in a hopeless attempt to service impossible debt, followed by more bankruptcies, more unemployment, and more poverty and misery. The disease of interest-bearing debt is so powerful that not only does it consume the debtors, ultimately, it must also consume the so-called lenders. Interest-bearing debt for the majority The banking sector extracts about half of the earned income of the population through either direct or hidden interest built into the cost of all goods and services (see graphic).

Interest-bearing debt functions as a redistribution mechanism, constantly transferring wealth from those who have less to those who have more, causing growing income inequality. This unearned income has been called sweat equity, and is reminiscent of the tribute payments historically demanded by rulers or conquerors. A money system that perpetuates and increases social polarization will eventually undermine any government. What can be done? The only solution, as Aristotle knew, is to restore money to its true place in society as a public medium of exchange, not a private commodity. This can be done locally with mutual credit currencies, and nationally with Full or 100% Reserve Banking. Leading economists have proposed Full Reserve Banking since the early part of the 20th century. They include early economic reformer Frederick Soddy, and later during the 1930s the great American economist Irving Fisher. Near the end of the century, Full Reserve Banking was advanced by Chicago School economist Milton Friedman. Canadian advocates include John Hotson, Henry Pope and William Hixon. Other notables include James Tobin, John Kay, Mervyn King (Governor, Bank of England), and Herman Daly, former Senior Economist at the World Bank. Today, groups such Positive Money UK are promoting this banking reform, but the democratisation of money must overcome centuries of habitual social conditioning, and the deep roots of imagined entitlement. Many communities are simply creating their own mutual credit currencies. Taking away the free lunch The international bankers have long since gained a strangle-hold on the politics and laws of our global economy. The dangerous struggle between private and public money is the history of America. Thomas Jefferson defeated the private money power of his day, and Andrew Jackson also succeeded, though he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Abraham Lincoln went further, establishing a national currency the greenback, but he was assassinated, and his public money was ruined. Garfield came next. Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate. 1881, President James Garfield assassinated a few weeks later on July 2nd, 1881. On June 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No.11110, instructing the U.S. Mint to issue public silver-backed currency, bypassing the privately run Federal Reserve. He was assassinated five months later, and no more debt-free notes were issued.

State-backed racketeering The banking sector has captured public credit for private profit. In doing so, governments and the law have been corrupted and harnessed to function against the public interest. 'Loan' contracts are made under the pretense that deposits are used, when in fact the credit does not exist until it is created by the 'borrower's' signature. Contract law requires that full disclosure is made, and that equal consideration is given, neither of which happens. This is fraud. Nevertheless, legislation supports the banks, so that when a default occurs, the courts act against the victim to obtain property, though the banks have not suffered a loss. Such extortion is state-backed racketeering. This singular power is disturbingly parasitic. It distorts and destroys society, and it is severely limiting human potential at a critical time in our history. The people are their own credit Every man and woman is endowed with innate credit, being able to provide something of value. For a healthy economy to exist, it is only necessary to allow people to exchange their credit, as their goods and services, freely. This is a fundamental human right. The world doesn't lack work that needs doing, or people with ability. Only the medium of exchange is lacking. Governments that allow private banks to monopolise public credit are literally subjugating their nation's citizens, through taxation and austerity, in the service of the private banking monopoly. But neither banks nor governments can survive a self-destructive system. No country can be sovereign without the public issuance of money, and in the end the power of sovereignty, and money, is born in the hands of the people. One of the primary attributes of sovereignty is the monetary function. Professor Irving Fisher, 1936. Only sufficient education, and sanity, can prevail over the corruption of money.