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.