How do we reform the financial system without first...

[BanzaiBonnie]

having campaign finance reform? I keep coming back to this...



We are in some deep shit financially. I don't need to tell any of you that.

We're not going to get real representation for reforming financial institutions, until we have campaign finance reform. Who is working on that? What groups? And how do we join in their efforts?

Now, I'm not the smartest person in the room. I'm just smart enough. But I'm smart enough to know that all of us together have more wisdom than the single wisest person we know. It's only together that we'll come out of this without getting skinned.

In my current reading repertoire, is a book written by cellular biologist Bruce Lipton and political and cultural commentator Steve Bhaerman. “Spontaneous Evolution” is broad in scope and depth.

What I want to share with you, from Spontaneous Evolution, is a simple explanation of the death spiral of economic structure we are working under.

So, let’s say you borrow $1,000, the privilege for which you must repay the bank $1,100. Where do you get the extra $100? Well, from selling your goods or services to other people. True --- but where do they get the money to pay you? Oh, yes ---- they borrow the money from the same bank, which, of course, charges them interest, too.


Let’s say a country has a population of one million people and each citizen borrows $1,000 from the bank to create an economy based on currency exchange. Collectively, the bank loans the country $1 billion in bank notes. In return, the country owes the bank $1 billion dollars for the loans principal, plus another $100 million for the interest. So where does the country get the extra $100 million in currency to pay the bank? It doesn’t. It can’t.

Now remember, only banks can create money. What’s happening today?

Inevitably, the compounding of the debt leads to a situation in which creditor insolvency motivates banks to foreclose on loans. The debtor’s property, used as collateral for the loan, is confiscated and distributed to the bank’s shareholders. Because the money loaned by the bank was never equal to the value of the collateral, the shareholders happily accept foreclosures.

So, how long has this been going on?

This persistent pattern in the money game can be traced back to ancient Babylon. Centuries before Jesus cast the moneychangers from the temple, the priests of Baal had their own money racket. Each spring, they would extend credit to farmers to plant their crops. At harvest time, the priests expected payment. However, because the priests also regulated the money supply, they made sure there was never enough money in circulation for all the farmers to repay their loans. This led to more credit being extended, which meant that, at the next harvest, the debt was even greater. Repeating the same game plan over a number of years inevitably led to the farmers becoming indentured servants to the priests, who produced nothing. The Babylonian civilization eventually collapsed when the productive elements of their society were reduced to little more than slaves.

This is where we’re at today. Many of the founders of our country were scholars who knew history. They understood this and warned of just this scenario.

It’s been about 80 years since the last intentional collapse of our economy, which was called the Great Depression. It’s been long enough that many who would recognize the repeating pattern were gone, or almost gone. So, we have the pattern repeated... voila, the Great Recession. Thank god it’s not a depression. Man, we’d really be hurting.

Make no mistake, the bankers learned this, promoted it and carried it out. It’s an incredible scheme. Better than Ponzi, because you can keep it going much longer AND with the blessings of the government and the governed.

I’m not willing to be a wage slave, but thanks for playing.

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ended most attempts at campaign finance reform...

I think you could pass a law requiring all campaign donations to be open, that all donors names must be available. But, like Dred Scott Decision's effect on Southern Slave owner property rights, this decision changed the landscape so that no reasonable limits can be placed on political speech, especially the political speech of corporations. The 14th amendment was necessary to make sure the Dred Scott decision was removed from the books. I think anything short of an amendment will fail because the SCOTUS will say that no reasonable limits can be placed on freedom of speech.

[socialist_n_TN]

3. The capitalist system is set up on boom and bust cycles

During the booms everybody invested in the system makes money, but the ones that make the MOST money during the booms are the ones who INVEST the most. They're also the ones who can buy the information that allows them to (mostly) get out before the bust happens. And they can invest more because they're the ones that start out with the most. That's usually inherited money.

The booms become unsustainable because the basis of the booms are some sort of real property which has a finite ceiling. When this ceiling is surpassed by enough, the bust happens. The bust clears out MOST of the investors by bankrupting them. The ones at the very top however, have the information necessary to get out before the busts happen AND to survive WITH ASSETS LEFT OVER what losses they do incur. They then swoop in and buy up these assets of the bankrupted when the cycle is at the lowest ebb and the assets are then UNDERVALUED.

That's capitalist accumulation. It allows, nay ENCOURAGES, the accumulation of assets into fewer and fewer hands. In a Monopoly game, the one who wins is the one who bankrupts everybody else. That's capitalism.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. It's at the top of the list.

You might be surprised how many rw'ers agree.