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I spent my working life as an independent small business owner/operator. My academic background is in philosophy and political economy. I began studying monetary systems and monetary history after the 1982 banking crash that was precipitated by the Mexican default and rendered 7 of America's 8 biggest banks, and 4 of Canada's Big 5, technically insolvent. They were quietly bailed out then as they are being loudly bailed out now. After the 2008 banking crash I started blogging about monetary system reform, in the tradition of Irving Fisher and CH Douglas who were prominent voices for reform during our last systemic collapse in the 1930s. I also write about the wide divergence between perception and reality in matters of public opinion, and the central role of mass media propaganda in moulding perception and manufacturing consent, a role identified by Walter Lippman and perfected by Edward Bernays and Madison Avenue. Financial, industrial, and military-industrial corporatism is increasingly usurping the functions of government in America, Europe and elsewhere, replacing elected republican and democratic forms of government with unaccountable plutocracies mascarading as "free enterprise". Plutocracy is a neofeudal tyranny of lawless power, serving the interests of wealth rather than democratic justice. Responsible government with the power to legislate and enforce laws and control its own monetary system is our only bulwark against concentrated corporate power, which is why plutocrats are intent on destroying the credibility and power of elected governments leaving the new feudal masters free to abuse and plunder the masses of serfs at their leisure. The money issuing function is a most fundamental feature of government sovereignty, and America's government transferred that power to private bankers in 1913, placing the effective government of the nation in the hands of the money power. It may not be possible for the people to take back control of their government from the plutocrats. But it is some consolation to be able to read and write about the truth of what is currently happening to our once free countries.
OpEd News Member for 712 week(s) and 6 day(s)
26 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 1775 Comments, 0 Diaries, 0 Polls
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Tuesday, June 23, 2020Illusions Lost - An Elegy in Three Parts (I) This article is Part 1 of a long essay that laments the perverse ideological path that delivered us to our present oh-so-"smart" cul-de-sac of doom-cycle clusterf*cks; and asks, Is it really that hopeless?
Wednesday, May 6, 2020Measles and Medical Malfeasance I am a survivor of childhood measles. This is what measles taught me about an industry that wants to sell millions of doses of vaccines by proclaiming the awesomely good news that vaccines prevent measles.
Thursday, July 23, 2015The Great Unbinding Part 3.3 In this final installment of the Great Unbinding series we'll consider the "inflationary" consequences of overt money funding of government deficit spending, and government payment of a basic monthly income. And finally, we'll bring shadow banks into the equation, and see why radical monetary reform would more likely cause a collapse than prevent it.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015The Great Unbinding Part 3.2 British Lord Adair Turner advocates "the policy that dare not speak its name": overt money funding of government deficit spending. Which -- for Turner's mainly conservative audiences -- is a less stroke-inducing way of saying "government issuance of its own deficit spending money". But that's what it means.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015The Great Unbinding Part 3.1 There is a fatal mismatch between our value-adding real economy and the zero sum money system it has been shackled with. Monetary reformers seek to unbind the positive sum real economy from its zero sum monetary straightjacket, by adding positive sum money into the economy.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015The Great Unbinding Part 2 Monetary understanding is not new knowledge, though the knowledge seems to have been lost in recent decades. It may come as a surprise to people who associate him with neoliberalism, economic hitmen and IMF enforcers; but the "early" Milton Friedman understood money, and advocated intelligent and humane solutions to our bank-debt money system problems.
Sunday, July 12, 2015The Great Unbinding Part 1 Private commercial banks exercise a near absolute monopoly on the primary issuance and allocation of money. Money is created out of nothing by banks and loaned into existence as government and private debt. Debt binds the nations in compliant submission while money buys the world at destitution prices. It doesn't have to be this way. Monetary reform -- breaking the bank debt-money monopoly -- is the way toward a solution.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015Banksters vs Humanity: Round 14 Humanity is on the ropes, and the banksters appear unbeatable. Unless we open our eyes, recognize their tactics, and hit 'em where it hurts. When an opponent succeeds behind a glittering veil of obfuscation, the truth is where it hurts.
Monday, July 6, 2015Economic Democracy vs Bankster Plutocracy Rob is asking for positive narratives that illuminate alternatives to the status quo: alternate ways of doing things that produce outcomes that socially and economically benefit the democratic masses. What might happen if a people-serving government issued its own debt-free fiat money? ... instead of using bank-issued credit/debt money that makes debt serfs of everybody except a plutocratic oligarchy of "owners".
Sunday, July 5, 2015Ah, Sweet Enlightened Reason The Enlightenment was 250 years ago. Before the Industrial Revolution. Before electricity. Before the internet. Ideals that made sense in that bygone era no longer apply to present realities. We need a new Enlightenment for the modern era.
Friday, May 15, 2015Animal People vs Spirit People; Why Do People Vote Against Their Own Interests Why do Americans systematically vote against their own interests? It is because they have been brainwashed to perceive and believe that their conquerors' and subjugators' interests are "my" interests. To break free of self-destructive mentalities we have to challenge the truisms of the dominant worldview. We have to step outside the prison walls of the ruling paradigm and see a different version of reality.
Monday, December 22, 2014The End Contrary to misinformed popular belief, we do not use government-issued fiat money. We use commercial bank-issued credit/debt money. The difference in arithmetically inevitable outcomes is the difference between economic democracy and neofeudal serfdom. Let's explore the consequences, and see what a "solution" to The Money Problem would look like.
Thursday, November 27, 2014The Physics of Spirit This article presents a synopsis of the neurophysics of our brain-consciousness relationship. Mainstream neuroscience does not presently understand what consciousness is or how it works, and the reductionist strains of the science deny that we really "exist" as individual conscious persons. We exist. Neurophysics explains how we "work".
Saturday, October 18, 2014Lamentations For A Lost World The world seems to be spiraling into deepening doom down multiple cataracts feeding a foaming cauldron of chaos. All alliteration aside, is anybody in charge of this clusterf**k? If so, who? And why, despite loud democratic cries to rein in the beast that is dragging us down, does our supposedly representative government seem unable to do anything other than paddle harder toward the lemming-drop cliff?
Wednesday, October 1, 2014Shepherds, Wolves, and the Tao of Good Government Confucius and the Taoists recognized that in human societies there are leaders and there are the led. Shepherds lead the people to green pastures and still waters. Wolves herd the flock to the fleecing floors and the slaughterhouses. The Tao is the "right" way to lead a people. China's leaders are revisiting Confucius, seeking the Way forward for their nation now that capitalism has built up China's economy.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014Why Most People Can't Believe the Truth About Money An understanding built on false facts is a false understanding. To see the simple truth about money requires fact checking some very old, and still wrong, beliefs about the world we live in.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014The Perverse Roots of the Mentality of More Why do we always need more? Why is economic growth the single-minded goal of economists and government policy? Is there some perverse motive deep within our nature that drives the rat-wheel of human society? Or is there some more mundane mechanism driving our pursuit of more?
Saturday, July 12, 2014Size Matters: Local Democracy vs. Global Plutocracy Is democracy even possible within a large nation? Or is plutocracy the natural form of government beyond the local scale?
Friday, May 30, 2014Social Evolution Some thoughts on breaking free of mindsets and lifestyles that no longer serve our interests as human beings.
