LORD, I saw a car bumper sticker the other Day. Said, "Come the Rapture, Can I Have Your Car?"
Been thinking whether to keep my eye open for another Altima, or maybe just a simple Sentra...
I have a question for you Baruch: Do you think it would be right for me to snatch away all those owners/drivers/pilots of cars, boats, planes, and buildings... and leave the bankers holding "the bag" full of bad debts, they call them "toxic assets"?
I think I see what you mean LORD. Something like, if I eat at a fancy restaurant, guess I have to pay the check before leaving... hee, hee, pay the check before checking out!!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Valley of Dry Bones
What happened here LORD?
"This was at one time a large lake in the Garden. I told the inhabitants not to swim in this Lake. But they didn't listen... They insisted they knew what they were doing. A small fish, the Piranha...each one in the school took a small bite. Stripped the flesh off the bones in minutes... So I dried up the lake. There are all the bones, picked clean and bleaching in the sun. Sad, they didn't listen.
Maror, maror...
Don't you get it maahn? Trillions of dollars have been "Raptured" and You have been "Left Behind" [Well, somebody has to continue to hoe the cotton and make the Bricks... For what? Of course for Pharaoh's Tomb!]
Let's Play "What's My Line?"
Clues:
I don't extort, but I make you pay
I wear conservative pin-stripes, but love the "gaming tables"
I build houses...out of "paper"
I am a happily married home-wrecker
I am a magician more powerful than Houdini
I run the Capitol and the Capital
Brrrt---Times up!
Mystery guest tell us "What is Your Line?"
I am a Banker.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Let's Play "Who Said It?"
"Anyone who can't make a profit by borrowing money at 5.8% and lending it at 13.8% should find another line of work." Hint: answer is in The Book!
The Credit Card Business
Charles Cawley, former CEO of MBNA, said (that is before MBNA was sold to Bank of America, which was all before Bank of America applied for Government Bail-out Funds...) The Credit Card Business is a Very Good Business...
The $20,000 Car...
Question: If the car costs $10,000 to build, why is the price $20,000? Answer: Someone has to pay the interest on the $10,000!!!
The Complaint Department: U.S. Congress
What's yur "beef" Bubba, you elected these financial traitors!!!
Capitalism for the Poor DOA
in the fine print: you take the risks, we take the profits... and later only after you have signed the deal, do you learn you are Dead On Arrival!!!
Financial Counselors
otherwise known as "Court Prophets" or to the guy on The Street: Liars for Hire!!
Signs of Degeneracy...
The G20 Summit to Save The World' s Financial System...
Menu: Filet Mignon... on bone China
Menu: Filet Mignon... on bone China
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Chapter Three: The Mole
Another way of looking at the crisis is to get it "in your face." For the retirees of the U.S., who have lost trillions of retirement wealth, not just on paper, but in real amounts that have somehow just disappeared from their account balances, this is real serious. Now one could argue that the previous balances weren't real money anyway. And there is some truth to that assertion. You don't have a "real" loss, at least according to the IRS, until you actually sell the stock at less than what you paid for it originally. These are only bookkeeping entries until you go to "cash out." It is at that point the worth of your investments is finally "settled." So your dollars, or bonds, or stocks (or whatever...) have a "settled" value as of that day you sell, exchange, or perhaps decide to buy a chicken at the supermarket... Your dollar may buy more chicken or less. The merchant might even decide to refuse to take dollars at all, thus making them essentially worthless. All he is saying is that his chicken is worth 3 million dollars or 3 million German marks, as happened back in post World War I Germany. It is good to remember that something has value only if there is a willing seller and a willing buyer. So, "value" can suddenly appear or disappear. But somehow we suspect that this isn't really the whole truth of what is happening. And you would be right. There is a hidden reality, a grim reaping reality, that is operating.
Enter The Mole.
We all have probably been entertained by thriller stories of international intrigue where there is a mole. This shadowy character is a secret agent of a foreign power, disguised, hidden, and underground for the purpose of subverting or destroying another power. At the least, a mole gathers information for undermining the operations of that power. They can, and often do, operate undetected for long periods of time. They are difficult to recognize because they are skilled at the techniques of "leave no trace." The spy character takes its name from the animal in nature.
I raise garlic. In the past, my efforts were fairly large-scale, and the techniques I used mostly eliminated the likelihood of "a mole" operating. Besides, garlic isn't exactly snacking fare for most moles. But out behind my present house, I am raising a milder variety of garlic, and a mole has appeared, developed a serious taste for my garlic, and is tunneling from one plant to another, and generally wreaking havoc on my garlic "wealth." I would not have suspected its presence except for some larger plants that only half disappeared into a hole dug up from below. Several smaller plants had completely vanished undetected. My "investment" was being reaped by a hidden creature, the mole.
I mention this because the mole may help you to look at "debt-money" and interest from a perspective different than the one you are accustomed to using. Think like a mole, burrow underground like a mole, and generally put yourself in the tunnel of a mole. Mostly blind, but with a keen sense of smell, go hunting for something to eat. Below ground, hidden, you are mostly safe from enemies. And once you locate a good patch, the feeding can begin.
Now for a moment, contemplate where to go looking, since digging tunnels is hard work, depending on the soil.
Money, in all of its forms, is a creation of man. It didn't just fall from the heavens as a gift from the gods. It can and does serve worthwhile social, community, and national purposes. It can serve benevolent purposes; it can serve evil purposes. The creation of money today is out of control, and further, the process of creation has been taken over by unregulated, private, privileged oligarchies. The Constitution of United States authorizes the Congress to create money. Mostly today, this simply means authorizing an increase of the national "debt-money" in the form of Federal Reserve Notes via Treasury Bonds and Notes. But this money is a drop in the bucket when compared to the amounts of debt-money being created by private "banks" such as Macy's, Sears, Wal-Mart, General Motors, General Electric, AIG, Bank of America...the list goes on endlessly. Some, like GMAC the finance arm of General Motors, have lately been "recognized" by the Federal Reserve as "a bank," thereby qualifying for taxpayer bail-out funds.
All of these entities are privileged and unregulated, and they have one purpose: to increase the money supply in the form of interest-bearing debt. This debt-money is primarily for the benefit of the issuer, whether Wal-Mart or General Motors. This interest-accruing debt can and is ravaging both personal finances and public, national finances. The current fiscal year budget deficit in the United States is projected to be a trillion dollars, all of it debt-money borrowed at interest. So another trillion dollars of debt-money is created by the government, but this is a pittance when compared to what private interests are creating.
And this is The Mole tunneling under the garden of productive life in the United States and around the world, undercutting and "pulling down," just like the mole in my garlic patch. Suddenly, a business or company disappears. Suddenly, a house disappears. Suddenly, a tall robust garlic plant goes down a hole into an underground burrow. The "Garden of the Nations" is being ravaged by the Money Mole, and this little beastie, with its razor-sharp teeth can bring down nations. It is an eating machine, morphing and multiplying exponentially like its rat cousin.
In my garden of garlic, I'll try to forcefully persuade my mole to move on. After all, it is only a mole and life is sweet, even to a mole. In the Garden of the Nations, which the Money Mole is
ravaging, the only solution is to kill it. Can these private, unregulated, greed-inspired, parochial "debt-monies" be done in? We'll see.
Enter The Mole.
We all have probably been entertained by thriller stories of international intrigue where there is a mole. This shadowy character is a secret agent of a foreign power, disguised, hidden, and underground for the purpose of subverting or destroying another power. At the least, a mole gathers information for undermining the operations of that power. They can, and often do, operate undetected for long periods of time. They are difficult to recognize because they are skilled at the techniques of "leave no trace." The spy character takes its name from the animal in nature.
I raise garlic. In the past, my efforts were fairly large-scale, and the techniques I used mostly eliminated the likelihood of "a mole" operating. Besides, garlic isn't exactly snacking fare for most moles. But out behind my present house, I am raising a milder variety of garlic, and a mole has appeared, developed a serious taste for my garlic, and is tunneling from one plant to another, and generally wreaking havoc on my garlic "wealth." I would not have suspected its presence except for some larger plants that only half disappeared into a hole dug up from below. Several smaller plants had completely vanished undetected. My "investment" was being reaped by a hidden creature, the mole.
I mention this because the mole may help you to look at "debt-money" and interest from a perspective different than the one you are accustomed to using. Think like a mole, burrow underground like a mole, and generally put yourself in the tunnel of a mole. Mostly blind, but with a keen sense of smell, go hunting for something to eat. Below ground, hidden, you are mostly safe from enemies. And once you locate a good patch, the feeding can begin.
Now for a moment, contemplate where to go looking, since digging tunnels is hard work, depending on the soil.
Money, in all of its forms, is a creation of man. It didn't just fall from the heavens as a gift from the gods. It can and does serve worthwhile social, community, and national purposes. It can serve benevolent purposes; it can serve evil purposes. The creation of money today is out of control, and further, the process of creation has been taken over by unregulated, private, privileged oligarchies. The Constitution of United States authorizes the Congress to create money. Mostly today, this simply means authorizing an increase of the national "debt-money" in the form of Federal Reserve Notes via Treasury Bonds and Notes. But this money is a drop in the bucket when compared to the amounts of debt-money being created by private "banks" such as Macy's, Sears, Wal-Mart, General Motors, General Electric, AIG, Bank of America...the list goes on endlessly. Some, like GMAC the finance arm of General Motors, have lately been "recognized" by the Federal Reserve as "a bank," thereby qualifying for taxpayer bail-out funds.
All of these entities are privileged and unregulated, and they have one purpose: to increase the money supply in the form of interest-bearing debt. This debt-money is primarily for the benefit of the issuer, whether Wal-Mart or General Motors. This interest-accruing debt can and is ravaging both personal finances and public, national finances. The current fiscal year budget deficit in the United States is projected to be a trillion dollars, all of it debt-money borrowed at interest. So another trillion dollars of debt-money is created by the government, but this is a pittance when compared to what private interests are creating.
And this is The Mole tunneling under the garden of productive life in the United States and around the world, undercutting and "pulling down," just like the mole in my garlic patch. Suddenly, a business or company disappears. Suddenly, a house disappears. Suddenly, a tall robust garlic plant goes down a hole into an underground burrow. The "Garden of the Nations" is being ravaged by the Money Mole, and this little beastie, with its razor-sharp teeth can bring down nations. It is an eating machine, morphing and multiplying exponentially like its rat cousin.
In my garden of garlic, I'll try to forcefully persuade my mole to move on. After all, it is only a mole and life is sweet, even to a mole. In the Garden of the Nations, which the Money Mole is
ravaging, the only solution is to kill it. Can these private, unregulated, greed-inspired, parochial "debt-monies" be done in? We'll see.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Serious Money: An Introduction (Chapter 1)
" Hear O Earth: behold I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not given heed to my words. (Jeremiah 6:19) For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you, your deeds shall return on your own head." (Obadiah 15)
What starker warning does anyone need! The world's biggest creditor nation of a few short years ago is now become the world's largest debtor nation. The oppression of debt and interest we laid upon others is now laid upon us. And we shall be repaid for the oppression sevenfold and even more.
Everett Dirksen (deceased), a member of Congress from Illinois, must be turning over in his grave. He had a fierce reputation as a scrutinizer of the Federal budget, looking for waste, "Pork," and anything else he could cut from the budget. He would say, "a million here, and a million there, pretty soon it adds up to serious money..." How much more so in our day of a billion here and a billion there... For sure, they add up to trillions, and that folks is serious money!
Only fools continue to blithely, recklessly, and even presumptuous do the same things that are precipitating the expanding world crisis of debt-money. Only men of an evil eye and unquenchable greed continue to do the same things within a money system, "Mammon"---to use the Biblical term---which day by day increases the misery and suffering of billions of desperately poor people. The "greater fool" theory continues to inspire a dangerous, dream-like confidence, even a reckless bravado, which encourages the charade that the "buck" (also read debt) can always be passed on into the hands of yet another sucker, even if it has to be a whole new, as yet unborn, generation. However, in all chain letters, including the monetary one, there is always someone who loses their nerve, refuses to play, and the sucker cycle is broken. It is inevitable that this "loss of nerve" will occur somewhere in the money system, because, if you will look at the face of your money, you will see that it is an instrument of debt. Every "Federal Reserve Note"---those ubiquitous dollars which are sloshing about the world---is a debt of the people of the United States.
This book is intended to shock the socks off your "fat city" complacency and your religious smugness, both of which are quite certain that things will go on as before. There is a real crisis, and it is much, much more than a crisis of confidence. You can choose to seriously consider alternatives, and then in good faith go and make them real in your life, or you can continue to indulge in more of the typical unregenerate American optimism that gratuitously holds on to "the experts are working on it...and somehow it will all work out." The Hebrew wisdom of the Torah offers quite a different set of teachings and instructions. The present mess is going to sort itself out, but not the way most people think. In the richest western democracies there is the notion that God is for Capitalism, Democracy, and Bank of America! Every religious body has a list of "isms" that their God approves and underwrites. The God of the Torah doesn't strike me as much interested in anyone's "ism." But the cries of the oppressed, the cold, and hungry seem to be of considerable concern, and if He hears, His action soon follows. However, the arch-enemies of God, the "powers, principalities, and spiritual hosts of wickedness" collectively referred to as Satan, are interested in preserving and even expanding the Mammon-system of debt money.
This book is directed to all who "have ears to hear, and eyes to see" what the God of the Bible offers as His wisdom. His teaching and instructions are most clearly spelled out in the Torah, what some have erroneously termed "the Law." The purpose of the Torah is that "it might go well with you..." Only a fool would dismiss the teaching and instructions of a loving Father as having been "done away with...!" There are many who say they take the Word of God seriously, but by their actions demonstrate they neither know nor obey that Word. Has your religious tradition prostituted itself in service to the debt-money system? Is your religious tradition profiting from the exaction of interest? If so, how do you square those actions with The Word? Further, how do you plan to escape the consequences of such explicit disobedience of that same Word? You may have great discernment and awareness of "the signs of the times," but how is it you have failed to see how your "riches" are not riches at all? The world says its ways are the path to prosperity, in other words, do it our way and you will be rewarded. The clear implication is that the Torah-ways of God are not rewarded, or in other words, His ways are punished. The perfect lie: evil is good, and God's ways are evil. This is otherwise known as blasphemy!
The storm clouds of massive debt are already gathered worldwide. The United States, as the "giant" debtor of them all, can still bully the rest of the world. But for how long will the rest of the world "buy" the "paper" of the United States? It would be prudent to remember that confidence can go up or down just as fast as those dollars can be moved around. Exhaustion hasn't set in yet, but more and more individuals and even whole economies are having difficulty hanging on. The terminal phases of desperation and exhaustion may much faster than can be imagined.
Are you aware of what the interest is on the United States Federal debt of nine trillion dollars (soon to be raised to 12+ trillion)? Do you hear any of the politicians of either party speak about the actual amount? Since I wrote the last (2nd edition) comments in 1989, the Federal debt has tripled. If the consumer credit debt is added to corporate debt and these are added to the Federal debt, this total indebtedness exceeds the sum total of the value of all assets: land, buildings, equipment... When debt liabilities exceen net asset values, the resulting condition is known as banruptcy.
The world financial system is founded on a single premise: debt. The money that is created and put into circulation is essentially borrowed money, and every one of the transactions that puts money into circulation establishes a debt that is interest bearing. So the supply of money, regardless of how you reckon or conceive of money, cannot ever catch up to the debt, because the debt is not simply the amount of money borrowed: it is an ever-enlarging amount driven by the interest mechanism. The mechanism has been installed in the hands of a privileged oligarchy, as the Pujo Committee of 1912 termed it. This oligarchy operates a money vacuuming machine that sucks up more and more of the wealth, including productive labor such as "farming," in a concentration unknown in history. The wealth of this nation, following that of the Third World, is disappearing into a financial "black hole!" The movement toward a "cashless" society is only the latest and most sinister ploy to make every transaction of buying and selling go through the credit system, thereby making all transactions subject to the interest mechanism.
Every modern economy requires a monetary medium and a mechanism to facilitate the creation and exchange of goods and services. Money---whether wampum, gold, silver, or paper---is the life-blood of that exchange process. That life-blood is now metered and drawn off by the interest-sucking machine of the money monopolies: all the varieties and sub-species of the world's bankers who sit astride the flow, on one hand siphoning off a "profit," and on the other hand creating more of the same "money" to be run through the system over and over again, and always, if possible, subjecct to the application of interest. Thus, a bank or credit card company, or an insurance company, or an automobile manufacturer---all of them in fact banks (for example GMAC or Ford Credit)---creates money by creating credit. Credit=debt=money.
Can there be any escape from the money mess? In his book Megatrends, Naismith speaks of the possibilities of individualism, networking, and de-centralization which groups of citizens might use in new, alternative, and innovative solutions that take as the starting point the Biblical Wisdom of God. First, there must be an acknowledgment of the error of our ways, repenting and turning from them, and in a new Spirit, taking the Biblical Torah wisdom to heart as our own.
But in all times, there are those who are quick to adopt the easy explanation: they cry "conspiracy!" And every conspiracy discussion, sooner or later, looks for a scapegoat. Historically, Jewish bankers have been the favorite whipping boys, in spite of the fact that less than 2% of American bankers have been or are Jewish. Fact is 90+% of bankers are WASPs. A look at the world's largest banks quickly dispels such nonsense. Bankers, of whatever stripe, are captives of their own myths and delusions. They still ardently believe it possible to make money off of money, some of their own and a lot of yours and mine without any reckoning whatsoever. Compounding this delusion is their seeming ability to pass on their screw-ups to the "government, taxpayer, or some other third party." They go on perpetuating the fiction that they alone have the "Midas touch" and the keys to the mysteries of "creating money." But, the old-line insiders are getting nervous because they are being challenged with all sorts of new banks and quasi-banks: stock-brokers, insurance companies, major retailers, auto companies...the list of those wanting to join the bonanza keeps on expanding. Keep an eye on Wal-Mart! On every corner and in every shopping mall there is another entity offering "credit" or "financial services."
A notable line of Americans---Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, and Justice Louis Brandeis among them---has warned of the dangers of the banking scheme. Every economy needs mechanisms for the efficient transfer of capital. These have been developed, but they have been con-fused and merged with the "interest" exancting mechanism of the traditional (and now the non-traditional) banking establishment. The version of capitalism we now see operating is one that has been defined and promulgated by the ruling money-class in deference to their own interests of greed, power, and profits. The desire to be rich is the snare of materialism, and the whole world is in its clutches. As the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:9-10), it brings forth a harvest of material and spiritual wickedness, for "what causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not this passion of money?" (James 4:1-3)
What starker warning does anyone need! The world's biggest creditor nation of a few short years ago is now become the world's largest debtor nation. The oppression of debt and interest we laid upon others is now laid upon us. And we shall be repaid for the oppression sevenfold and even more.
Everett Dirksen (deceased), a member of Congress from Illinois, must be turning over in his grave. He had a fierce reputation as a scrutinizer of the Federal budget, looking for waste, "Pork," and anything else he could cut from the budget. He would say, "a million here, and a million there, pretty soon it adds up to serious money..." How much more so in our day of a billion here and a billion there... For sure, they add up to trillions, and that folks is serious money!
Only fools continue to blithely, recklessly, and even presumptuous do the same things that are precipitating the expanding world crisis of debt-money. Only men of an evil eye and unquenchable greed continue to do the same things within a money system, "Mammon"---to use the Biblical term---which day by day increases the misery and suffering of billions of desperately poor people. The "greater fool" theory continues to inspire a dangerous, dream-like confidence, even a reckless bravado, which encourages the charade that the "buck" (also read debt) can always be passed on into the hands of yet another sucker, even if it has to be a whole new, as yet unborn, generation. However, in all chain letters, including the monetary one, there is always someone who loses their nerve, refuses to play, and the sucker cycle is broken. It is inevitable that this "loss of nerve" will occur somewhere in the money system, because, if you will look at the face of your money, you will see that it is an instrument of debt. Every "Federal Reserve Note"---those ubiquitous dollars which are sloshing about the world---is a debt of the people of the United States.
This book is intended to shock the socks off your "fat city" complacency and your religious smugness, both of which are quite certain that things will go on as before. There is a real crisis, and it is much, much more than a crisis of confidence. You can choose to seriously consider alternatives, and then in good faith go and make them real in your life, or you can continue to indulge in more of the typical unregenerate American optimism that gratuitously holds on to "the experts are working on it...and somehow it will all work out." The Hebrew wisdom of the Torah offers quite a different set of teachings and instructions. The present mess is going to sort itself out, but not the way most people think. In the richest western democracies there is the notion that God is for Capitalism, Democracy, and Bank of America! Every religious body has a list of "isms" that their God approves and underwrites. The God of the Torah doesn't strike me as much interested in anyone's "ism." But the cries of the oppressed, the cold, and hungry seem to be of considerable concern, and if He hears, His action soon follows. However, the arch-enemies of God, the "powers, principalities, and spiritual hosts of wickedness" collectively referred to as Satan, are interested in preserving and even expanding the Mammon-system of debt money.
This book is directed to all who "have ears to hear, and eyes to see" what the God of the Bible offers as His wisdom. His teaching and instructions are most clearly spelled out in the Torah, what some have erroneously termed "the Law." The purpose of the Torah is that "it might go well with you..." Only a fool would dismiss the teaching and instructions of a loving Father as having been "done away with...!" There are many who say they take the Word of God seriously, but by their actions demonstrate they neither know nor obey that Word. Has your religious tradition prostituted itself in service to the debt-money system? Is your religious tradition profiting from the exaction of interest? If so, how do you square those actions with The Word? Further, how do you plan to escape the consequences of such explicit disobedience of that same Word? You may have great discernment and awareness of "the signs of the times," but how is it you have failed to see how your "riches" are not riches at all? The world says its ways are the path to prosperity, in other words, do it our way and you will be rewarded. The clear implication is that the Torah-ways of God are not rewarded, or in other words, His ways are punished. The perfect lie: evil is good, and God's ways are evil. This is otherwise known as blasphemy!
The storm clouds of massive debt are already gathered worldwide. The United States, as the "giant" debtor of them all, can still bully the rest of the world. But for how long will the rest of the world "buy" the "paper" of the United States? It would be prudent to remember that confidence can go up or down just as fast as those dollars can be moved around. Exhaustion hasn't set in yet, but more and more individuals and even whole economies are having difficulty hanging on. The terminal phases of desperation and exhaustion may much faster than can be imagined.
Are you aware of what the interest is on the United States Federal debt of nine trillion dollars (soon to be raised to 12+ trillion)? Do you hear any of the politicians of either party speak about the actual amount? Since I wrote the last (2nd edition) comments in 1989, the Federal debt has tripled. If the consumer credit debt is added to corporate debt and these are added to the Federal debt, this total indebtedness exceeds the sum total of the value of all assets: land, buildings, equipment... When debt liabilities exceen net asset values, the resulting condition is known as banruptcy.
The world financial system is founded on a single premise: debt. The money that is created and put into circulation is essentially borrowed money, and every one of the transactions that puts money into circulation establishes a debt that is interest bearing. So the supply of money, regardless of how you reckon or conceive of money, cannot ever catch up to the debt, because the debt is not simply the amount of money borrowed: it is an ever-enlarging amount driven by the interest mechanism. The mechanism has been installed in the hands of a privileged oligarchy, as the Pujo Committee of 1912 termed it. This oligarchy operates a money vacuuming machine that sucks up more and more of the wealth, including productive labor such as "farming," in a concentration unknown in history. The wealth of this nation, following that of the Third World, is disappearing into a financial "black hole!" The movement toward a "cashless" society is only the latest and most sinister ploy to make every transaction of buying and selling go through the credit system, thereby making all transactions subject to the interest mechanism.
Every modern economy requires a monetary medium and a mechanism to facilitate the creation and exchange of goods and services. Money---whether wampum, gold, silver, or paper---is the life-blood of that exchange process. That life-blood is now metered and drawn off by the interest-sucking machine of the money monopolies: all the varieties and sub-species of the world's bankers who sit astride the flow, on one hand siphoning off a "profit," and on the other hand creating more of the same "money" to be run through the system over and over again, and always, if possible, subjecct to the application of interest. Thus, a bank or credit card company, or an insurance company, or an automobile manufacturer---all of them in fact banks (for example GMAC or Ford Credit)---creates money by creating credit. Credit=debt=money.
Can there be any escape from the money mess? In his book Megatrends, Naismith speaks of the possibilities of individualism, networking, and de-centralization which groups of citizens might use in new, alternative, and innovative solutions that take as the starting point the Biblical Wisdom of God. First, there must be an acknowledgment of the error of our ways, repenting and turning from them, and in a new Spirit, taking the Biblical Torah wisdom to heart as our own.
But in all times, there are those who are quick to adopt the easy explanation: they cry "conspiracy!" And every conspiracy discussion, sooner or later, looks for a scapegoat. Historically, Jewish bankers have been the favorite whipping boys, in spite of the fact that less than 2% of American bankers have been or are Jewish. Fact is 90+% of bankers are WASPs. A look at the world's largest banks quickly dispels such nonsense. Bankers, of whatever stripe, are captives of their own myths and delusions. They still ardently believe it possible to make money off of money, some of their own and a lot of yours and mine without any reckoning whatsoever. Compounding this delusion is their seeming ability to pass on their screw-ups to the "government, taxpayer, or some other third party." They go on perpetuating the fiction that they alone have the "Midas touch" and the keys to the mysteries of "creating money." But, the old-line insiders are getting nervous because they are being challenged with all sorts of new banks and quasi-banks: stock-brokers, insurance companies, major retailers, auto companies...the list of those wanting to join the bonanza keeps on expanding. Keep an eye on Wal-Mart! On every corner and in every shopping mall there is another entity offering "credit" or "financial services."
A notable line of Americans---Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, and Justice Louis Brandeis among them---has warned of the dangers of the banking scheme. Every economy needs mechanisms for the efficient transfer of capital. These have been developed, but they have been con-fused and merged with the "interest" exancting mechanism of the traditional (and now the non-traditional) banking establishment. The version of capitalism we now see operating is one that has been defined and promulgated by the ruling money-class in deference to their own interests of greed, power, and profits. The desire to be rich is the snare of materialism, and the whole world is in its clutches. As the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:9-10), it brings forth a harvest of material and spiritual wickedness, for "what causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not this passion of money?" (James 4:1-3)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Bitter Irony
Bitter, bitter irony... Irony upon irony! The son, the descendant of slaves, borrows from the slaveholders to increase the debts of the slaveholders: heavier...heavier... Piling on heavier stones of debt day by day... Crushing bitter grapes to fill the cup to overflowing... Foaming fury tops the cup, overflows the brim; teeth are set on edge, and the wasp is stung with its own venom. Woe upon woe, and chaos kisses chaos.
Come my people, enter your chambers and hide, for wrath is in the streets.
Come my people, enter your chambers and hide, for wrath is in the streets.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Making Money...
The Old-fashioned Way of making money: Earn it.
The New-fashioned Way of making money: Create it, print it.
The New-fashioned Way of making money: Create it, print it.
Common Ancestry
What do GE Theater & "The Evil Empire" have in common? Ronald Reagan was host to both.
Preface & Chapter 9, Banketeering, Debt & Holy Wealth
O LORD, who shall sojourn in thy tent? Who shall dwell on thy holy hill? ...he who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. Psalm 15:1-5
Preface to the 3rd Edition (2008)
...And many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Yahweh. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled; and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day...from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth." Isaiah 2:3-19
The stubbornness of men seems to know no bounds or limits in resistance to the wisdom of God as contained in the Torah. As I write this preface to the 3rd edition, worldwide financial markets are in panic, U.S. retirees have lost better than 3 Trillion dollars (yes, you read it correctly!) in the value of their portfolios just over the last few recent days. All in the time it takes to stroke the keys of a computer keyboard. Stay tuned as the wizards mount rescue missions on behalf of their Titanic. Foolish is the man who attempts to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Beyond foolishness and stupidity are those who continue to insist they can do what God says will never have His blessing. And gratuitous comments such as Alan Greenspan's (former head of the Federal Reserve): "there may have been a flaw in the plan..." Really? According to God's wisdom, "the plan" is fatally flawed, has absolutely no virtue and nothing whatsoever to commend it! The "lender of last resort" (read as the U.S. taxpayer via the U.S. Government) is finally going to be pressed, like some prison chain-gang, into forced bail-out loans of a wild assortment of banks, insurance companies, automobile manufacturers... The basic reason being they are all "banks" in disguise. The bottom line reason why auto-makers need a bail-out is not to preserve manufacturing jobs per se, but rather to enable them to continue "lending", which after all is the most profitable part of making and selling cars. The bail-out is, in reality, a bail-out of GMAC, Ford Finance, Chrysler Finance, all of them profitable banks. And they are certainly right in asserting no one will buy (finance) a car from a Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankrupt corporation! And then of course we have the latest: the 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff. Don't you wonder how many other Ponzi schemes---Moles---are out there hidden behind "relationship" banking, fatuously wrapped in the words "Trust me..."? So fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be quite a ride! Read a bit further into the coming "shake, rattle, and roll," then get out while you can, because these temples of Mammon iniquity are going down! And, you really don't want to be a flea caught between mating elephants! November 2008
Chapter 9: Thus Says Yahweh the God of Israel
Yahweh said to me: Baruch what do you see?
I see a paper tower, like an inverted pyramid, ascending to heaven, tottering and bulging, dripping glue, held up by one old man. A tower of paper so heavy its fall will crush the world. And Jacob is so small..
Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel---
Unless I build the house, they labor in vain. And for vanity they do labor mightily!
What have you built O mighty man? A house of paper, making millions of souls your slaves to money and debt... And you would claim I built this house? Watch my breath consume it. Watch the wind carry the ash to the far corners of the earth!
You mock my instructions... I mock your creations.
Smoke, mirrors, sleight of hand, magic, and illusion can disguise iniquity for a season, from the eye already blinded by greed, and from the eye blinded by fear, and from the heart bound in a lust for power. Watch me dry up your wells of "credit" until you are utterly bankrupt. Who will loan to you even a crust of bread in the Day that I have appointed?
Your covenant with Mammon cannot save you. A prince who cannot deliver. Go on and covenant with all the world's bankers---see if that league will save you! What pride you have, a full-blown confidence in the covenants you make: covenants of politics, covenants of money, covenants with false messiahs, covenants of stubbornness and hardness of heart.
So you have anointed a new President! You elected George Bush---and what did his Presidency amount to? Religious jubilation became a cup of bitter tears! And how will you manage to drink the next cup? What will your political jubilation become? The leadership of "success" is no leadership from Me. The leadership of "alliances" is no leadership from Me!
Consider what my dealings with Israel have been---consider long and hard, then repent. I use kingdoms for My purposes. Your mighty men...I oversee and I employ for my purposes... Think not? Watch! I even use the lowly mole to bring down kingdoms.
You who call yourself Christian: do you walk as your Jesus walked?
You who call yourself a Jew: do you walk in the ways of Torah, my teaching and instructions?
You all walk in the ways of your father the devil himself: Satan is the god of your principality, and his ways are your ways. You covenant with death and destruction.
So come let us see if your riches will profit in the day I have appointed---a day of burning, a day of thirst, a day of fainting, a day of dark stumbling! Show me your derivatives; show me your best financial stuff! When I plow, it is well not to be standing in the middle of the field!
Your fatness is no fatness from me: I appoint it for the day of slaughter. Your pride is no glory from me: I appoint it for the day of sucking-up dust.
Heap it all up with all the cleverest bankers---I will have it all in the end. Who among you has the cattle on a thousand hills?
Leave off this iniquity of gathering interest on money, interest on houses, interest on lands, interest on all things...
Where is the man of my Wisdom and my Vision? Where is my son of Israel? Arise beloved Joseph from your sleep---show these puny pharaohs! Show forth my economy and my ways.
And return to me, the God of Israel. And see if I will open my storehouses...
In returning to me, in resting in me, and in silence, you will be saved. A remnant.
Preface to the 3rd Edition (2008)
...And many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Yahweh. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled; and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day...from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth." Isaiah 2:3-19
The stubbornness of men seems to know no bounds or limits in resistance to the wisdom of God as contained in the Torah. As I write this preface to the 3rd edition, worldwide financial markets are in panic, U.S. retirees have lost better than 3 Trillion dollars (yes, you read it correctly!) in the value of their portfolios just over the last few recent days. All in the time it takes to stroke the keys of a computer keyboard. Stay tuned as the wizards mount rescue missions on behalf of their Titanic. Foolish is the man who attempts to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Beyond foolishness and stupidity are those who continue to insist they can do what God says will never have His blessing. And gratuitous comments such as Alan Greenspan's (former head of the Federal Reserve): "there may have been a flaw in the plan..." Really? According to God's wisdom, "the plan" is fatally flawed, has absolutely no virtue and nothing whatsoever to commend it! The "lender of last resort" (read as the U.S. taxpayer via the U.S. Government) is finally going to be pressed, like some prison chain-gang, into forced bail-out loans of a wild assortment of banks, insurance companies, automobile manufacturers... The basic reason being they are all "banks" in disguise. The bottom line reason why auto-makers need a bail-out is not to preserve manufacturing jobs per se, but rather to enable them to continue "lending", which after all is the most profitable part of making and selling cars. The bail-out is, in reality, a bail-out of GMAC, Ford Finance, Chrysler Finance, all of them profitable banks. And they are certainly right in asserting no one will buy (finance) a car from a Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankrupt corporation! And then of course we have the latest: the 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff. Don't you wonder how many other Ponzi schemes---Moles---are out there hidden behind "relationship" banking, fatuously wrapped in the words "Trust me..."? So fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be quite a ride! Read a bit further into the coming "shake, rattle, and roll," then get out while you can, because these temples of Mammon iniquity are going down! And, you really don't want to be a flea caught between mating elephants! November 2008
Chapter 9: Thus Says Yahweh the God of Israel
Yahweh said to me: Baruch what do you see?
I see a paper tower, like an inverted pyramid, ascending to heaven, tottering and bulging, dripping glue, held up by one old man. A tower of paper so heavy its fall will crush the world. And Jacob is so small..
Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel---
Unless I build the house, they labor in vain. And for vanity they do labor mightily!
What have you built O mighty man? A house of paper, making millions of souls your slaves to money and debt... And you would claim I built this house? Watch my breath consume it. Watch the wind carry the ash to the far corners of the earth!
You mock my instructions... I mock your creations.
Smoke, mirrors, sleight of hand, magic, and illusion can disguise iniquity for a season, from the eye already blinded by greed, and from the eye blinded by fear, and from the heart bound in a lust for power. Watch me dry up your wells of "credit" until you are utterly bankrupt. Who will loan to you even a crust of bread in the Day that I have appointed?
Your covenant with Mammon cannot save you. A prince who cannot deliver. Go on and covenant with all the world's bankers---see if that league will save you! What pride you have, a full-blown confidence in the covenants you make: covenants of politics, covenants of money, covenants with false messiahs, covenants of stubbornness and hardness of heart.
So you have anointed a new President! You elected George Bush---and what did his Presidency amount to? Religious jubilation became a cup of bitter tears! And how will you manage to drink the next cup? What will your political jubilation become? The leadership of "success" is no leadership from Me. The leadership of "alliances" is no leadership from Me!
Consider what my dealings with Israel have been---consider long and hard, then repent. I use kingdoms for My purposes. Your mighty men...I oversee and I employ for my purposes... Think not? Watch! I even use the lowly mole to bring down kingdoms.
You who call yourself Christian: do you walk as your Jesus walked?
You who call yourself a Jew: do you walk in the ways of Torah, my teaching and instructions?
You all walk in the ways of your father the devil himself: Satan is the god of your principality, and his ways are your ways. You covenant with death and destruction.
So come let us see if your riches will profit in the day I have appointed---a day of burning, a day of thirst, a day of fainting, a day of dark stumbling! Show me your derivatives; show me your best financial stuff! When I plow, it is well not to be standing in the middle of the field!
Your fatness is no fatness from me: I appoint it for the day of slaughter. Your pride is no glory from me: I appoint it for the day of sucking-up dust.
Heap it all up with all the cleverest bankers---I will have it all in the end. Who among you has the cattle on a thousand hills?
Leave off this iniquity of gathering interest on money, interest on houses, interest on lands, interest on all things...
Where is the man of my Wisdom and my Vision? Where is my son of Israel? Arise beloved Joseph from your sleep---show these puny pharaohs! Show forth my economy and my ways.
And return to me, the God of Israel. And see if I will open my storehouses...
In returning to me, in resting in me, and in silence, you will be saved. A remnant.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Banketeering, Debt & Holy Wealth
Serialization of the 3rd Edition (first published in 1987) will begin next week, and I'm sure the ongoing news will give us something to laugh about, that is in between the groans and tears. As Everett Dirksen (deceased), former Senator from Illinois use to say in his pithy remarks, "A million here and a million there, it all starts to add up to "serious money!" Now we are up in the billion here, a billion there, a trillion... and that folks really does add up to serious money. And the worst feature of the scenario is this: it's all borrowed money, IOUs issued to anyone figuring to get their hand in the U.S. public treasury. The problem with debt-money as James Baker, former Secretary of the Treasury so pointedly put it: "The deficit will be financed...!" Even if every citizen has to be squeezed for the last dollar! So join the discussion as each excerpt is published.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Question Heard Around the World
You are my financial counselor...I pay you good money for advice and straight talk... "So, like where did all my money go?"
Thomas Jefferson
You are seeing, in our day, the prophecy of Thomas Jefferson come true. Hint: it had to do with a national banking system.
New Currency Motto
When the new Twenty-three dollar bill is finalized, here is a suggestion for its Motto: In Greenspun We Trust. A somewhat distant relative of "homespun!"
Brother Can You Spare a Trillion?
The traditional pan-handler on the street of "hard times" would approach someone with, "Brother can you spare a dime...?" Today, it is "Brother can you spare a trillion?"
Monday, January 12, 2009
This is the President: My Fellow Americans...
These are momentous times we live in... As your Commander-in-Chief, I am sad to inform you that you are a Citizen of the World's Biggest Bankruptcy Case. We, in your government, are doing everything possible to keep the "ship of state" afloat. "The Fed" and your Government are creating money as fast as we can, and rest assured the bail-out of the privileged few will be completed, with borrowed money of course...(well of course, it's your money), as soon as we can "cut the checks" and get them in the mail. After all is said and done, what is another trillion or so here, and a couple of trillion there...? Thank you for your patience and kind attention, and God bless America!
Operator, Can You Help Me...
Is this a Crash, a Depression, a recession, a correction, a downturn, or maybe "irrational exuberance"? And while you are at it, what is the difference between a Bear, a Bull, and a Bubble? My psychiatrist needs to know!
Willy Sutton Eat Your Heart Out!!!
Dear Willy---
Just a short note to let you know that you don't have to do time by robbing banks, because now you can still get the money---you were right about knowing where the money is---by "being the bank." It really is a piece of cake. Set up a bank, and then the people will give you their money. Can you believe it!! You might have to give the missus a toaster or stuffed animal for the grandchild. But you do need to get a hustle on, the "banks" are popping up on every available corner like crabgrass in your lawn. Talk to you later. Your pal, Bugsy.
Just a short note to let you know that you don't have to do time by robbing banks, because now you can still get the money---you were right about knowing where the money is---by "being the bank." It really is a piece of cake. Set up a bank, and then the people will give you their money. Can you believe it!! You might have to give the missus a toaster or stuffed animal for the grandchild. But you do need to get a hustle on, the "banks" are popping up on every available corner like crabgrass in your lawn. Talk to you later. Your pal, Bugsy.
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