|
Carrying Capacity Network Action Alert
April, 2009
E-ALERT
Carrying Capacity Network
A Guest Editorial
|
 |
Much of the current financial crisis can be attributed to the failure of the central banking system in the United States, known as the Federal Reserve. It should be noted that the Federal Reserve is neither a federal institution, nor a reserve of any kind. It is a small consortium of very large, privately-owned, for-profit banks that have been authorized by Congress to create money out of thin air. The government allows the membership of this small group of owners to remain secret. In a financial deal that boggles the mind, the U.S. Congress, rather than using the U.S. Treasury to create new funds at no cost, allows the Fed to create those funds, which the Fed then loans back to the government, with interest. In addition to controlling the supply of money to the government and other banks, the Fed also controls the interest rates at which it is lent. This information is confirmed by Chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernake in a rare interview on 60 Minutes (of particular interest is the statement at 8:00 of the video).
With government spending at an all-time high, our loans from the Fed amount to just under half of the federal deficit. This means taxpayers unnecessarily owe an unfathomable $6.15 trillion to the small group of private banks that comprise the Federal Reserve. On this debt, the government paid almost $400 billion in interest payments in 2008 alone. We are on track to pay $800 billion in interest payments in 2009. As a comparison, the U.S. Government will pay enough interest to the Federal Reserve in 2009 to pay for President Obama’s entire bailout package. If the government were to have authorized the creation of this money through the U.S. Treasury instead of through the private, for-profit banks of the Federal Reserve, those interest payments would be ZERO. Instead, the government unnecessarily pays hundreds of billions of dollars annually to private, super-wealthy bankers who comprise the Fed.
Many former Presidents including Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, opposed a central bank like the Fed because it introduces unnecessary expenses to the government and transfers control of monetary policy to a private group of vested interests. In fact, JFK felt so strongly that he issued an executive order taking control of monetary policy away from the Federal Reserve and returning it back to the U.S. Treasury. He recognized that private, for-profit banks, whose primary responsibility is to enrich their shareholders, can never create sustainable economic policy. President Kennedy was assassinated just a few weeks after issuing this order. The order has been long-ignored by subsequent Presidents. Others who would abolish the Fed include noted economist Milton Freidman and well-known investor Jim Rogers, who was recently interviewed on CNBC, and many others.
The Fed relies on growth to enable the government to continue paying ever-increasing interest and to fuel the need for more credit — that is, more money that The Fed is authorized to create out of thin air and loan, at interest, to the government and other banks. This ideology of limitless growth has been infused into our culture and leads to higher debt, higher inflation, higher taxes, greater government waste and ultimately a degradation in quality of life for everyone. Current Treasury Secretary Geithner and President Obama’s Chief Economic Advisor (former Harvard President and multimillionaire hedge fund investor Larry Summers) still advocate using The Fed to increase money supply. This comes as no surprise, since they have both made multiple millions of dollars from the current financial system. Former Savings & Loan regulator William K. Black has recently gone on record, charging that Geithner is continuing a massive coverup initiated by former Treasury Secretary Paulson. (click here for the April 4th interview) Black accuses the two men of hiding the real state of Fed banks from the Government and the citizens. He says, in part, "Geithner is publicly saying that it's going to take $2 trillion...taxpayer dollars to deal with this problem. But they're allowing all the banks to report that they're not only solvent, but fully capitalized. Both statements can't be true. It can't be that they need $2 trillion, because they have masses losses, and that they're fine."
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and carries enormous weight in financial circles. Congressman Frank recently spoke at Harvard University in what was billed as a major speech on housing and our financial system, where he confirmed that in September 2008, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke invoked powers given to the Federal Reserve in 1932, allowing him to simply create $82 billion out of thin air to bail out AIG. In fact, this Federal Reserve bailout money is where AIG got the money to pay its employees exorbitant bonuses. He explained that the Fed created this money from nothing, and even declared that the Fed has too much power. Frank excused himself and his congressional colleagues from any culpability, claiming that, under a 1932 statute, Congress has not authority over the Fed. But he did not address any solutions to this problem and has not supported abolition of the Fed, nor return of control over monetary policy back to the U.S. Government.
Take these simple steps to encourage the policymakers to stabilize our economy by creating new money directly through the U.S. Treasury, not through the Federal Reserve, saving trillions of taxpayer dollars and ensuring a more sustainable economy and providing a higher quality of life for everyone.
- Call your Senator and Congressman and ask that they support House Bill 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve
and support an executive order returning control of U.S. monetary
policy to the U.S. Treasury.
Click here to contact your Congressional Representative in the House!
- Call the White House at 202-456-1414 or click here to e-mail to let President Obama know that
you support House Bill 1207 and that you support an executive order
similar to President Kennedy's Executive Order 11110 returning control
over monetary policy to the U.S. government, not a secret consortium of
private banks with no oversight
- Spread the Word! Many people, even legislators, are unaware of how the Federal Reserve
operates and how U.S. monetary policy is set. The banks belonging to
the Federal Reserve are kept secret and there is no transparency as to
how they operate. This needs to change. Please pass the information in
this letter along to anyone that may be interested.
- Call Barney Frank! As Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank has the
authority to force the issue of abolishing the Fed, instead of ignoring
the issue. Instead of using existing statues as an excuse for letting
the Fed control U.S. monetary policy, he should work to change or
eliminate those statutes. Contact him and let him know that the
government cannot afford to needlessly waste hundreds of billions of
dollars to enrich a small group of banks, especially in these tough
economic times. Please call or write his office, as Congressman Frank
does not have an email address.
Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5931