Debt Serfdom Comes to America

[G_j]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_ellen_br_080314_today_we_re_all_iris.htm

Debt Serfdom Comes to America

by Ellen Brown (Posted by Ellen Brown) Page 1 of 2 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com


Today We're All Irish.

March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, when people of all national origins raise a glass and declare, "Today we’re all a bit Irish!" This may be truer than we know. The Irish were driven to America by debt, and they are leading the Western world in household debt today.

<snip>
The London Daily Telegraph reported on March 13, 2008 that household debt in Ireland has reached 190 percent of disposable income, the highest in the developed world; and that the Irish banking system is suffering such acute strains from the downturn in the housing market that it may have to nationalize its banks.1 The same may soon be happening in the United States, and for much the same reasons.

<snip>

A system of "debt peonage" is inextricably linked to a banking system in which money is issued privately by bankers and lent to the government rather than being issued as "greenbacks" by the government itself Today the "European plan" has evolved into the private central banking system, and it has come to dominate the economies of the world. A private central bank creates money simply by printing it or entering it as an accounting entry, then lends it to the federal government in exchange for government bonds or debt. Private commercial banks create many more dollars in the same way, advancing money created as accounting-entry loans without even incurring the cost of a printing press.

Except for coins, the entire U.S. money supply is now created as a debt to private bankers.4 Banks create the principal but not the interest necessary to pay back their loans, so more money is always owed back than was put into the money supply in the first place. More loans must therefore continually be taken out to cover the interest, spiraling the economy into increasing levels of debt and inflation, in a futile attempt to repay principal and interest on a debt that is actually impossible to repay. The result is "debt peonage," and it has systematically reduced the people to working for the company store, bound to their corporate masters for the food, shelter and health care formerly provided by slave owners under the old physical-slave system.

The Colonial Alternative: The Pennsylvania System of Benjamin Franklin’s Day

This is not the only way to run an economy. Until 1913, when the Federal Reserve Act was passed, the European system of debt peonage competed with what was called "the American system" – debt-free government-issued dollars generated by provincial governments to pay their expenses. This "greenback" system was not actually used in the United States after the American colonies became a nation, except during the Civil War; but the "American system" flourished for decades in colonial America. Paper money was issued by local provincial governments not only to pay their own expenses but as commercial loans.
..more..

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yep, and all **'s good friends in the money industry are loving him for it

[marmar]

2. K&R....Important read.

:kick:

[flashl]

3. K&R nt

[Hydra]

4. Amazing how many people refuse to believe that the game is rigged from the top

but he who refuses to see is already lost.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Bump

[arendt]

6. Yes, I said this a month ago. It got a lot of discussion then. Time to hear it again. K&R

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/arendt/137

arendt's Journal
While us peons were distracted, our masters have brought back Debt Bondage
Posted by arendt in General Discussion
Tue Feb 05th 2008, 05:28 PM

[Theres-a]

7. I remember that.

I feel like a slave.
Edit to add: I failed to mention that I like my job,and am grateful for it. Doesn't change the fact that I feel like a slave though,sadly. I feel as if I am completely dependent on it for survival.

[Brigid]

8. The more things change . . .

The more things stay the same. *sigh*

[G_j]

9. ==

[G_j]

10. St. Patty Kick

[NashVegas]

11. Speaking As Someone With Pretty Much Zero Debt

The real peon here is the US government.

It won't matter what party our president comes from this November if they aren't willing to go against the top 1%.

[Selatius]

12. English Parliament banning colonial scrip was, according to Franklin, the cause of Revolution.

Read about Colonial Scrip here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_scrip

Colonial Scrip was not backed by gold or silver and therefore the Colonies could control its purchasing power. This was a revolutionary concept in economics, because the conventional European mercantilist system of money required governments to borrow from banks and pay interest for those loans, as gold and silver were the only regarded forms of money. Colonial Scrip, however, were "bills of credit" created by the government, based on the credit of that government, and this meant that there was no interest to pay for the introduction of money. This went a considerable way towards defraying the expense of the Colonial governments and in maintaining prosperity. The Governments charged low interest when it loaned out this paper money to its citizens, with land as collateral, and this interest income lowered the tax burden on the people, contributing to prosperity.

The currency was born when a lack of gold and silver in the Colonies made trade hard to conduct, and a barter system prevailed. One by one, the Colonies began to issue their own paper money to serve as a medium of exchange to make trade vibrant. The Governments could then retire excess notes out of circulation by taxing the people, helping some Colonies generally avoid inflation. Each Colony had its own currency and some were better managed than others. It was banned by English Parliament in the Currency Act after Benjamin Franklin had explained the benefits of this currency to the British Board of Trade. Outlawing the circulating medium caused a depression in the Colonies, and Franklin and many others believed it to be the true cause of the American Revolution.

[havocmom]

13. "From Freedom To Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America" by Gerry Spence

written back in 93 or so, as I recall (gave my copy to a younger person a few years back)

Mr. Spence tried to warn us.

Good read, but nobody wanted to believe any of it back then either.