Posted on 03/08/2010 9:36:54 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Our world balances on a sea of debt
The banks that control the world’s supply of money are no better than counterfeiters – and their system of juggling debt has left the global economy teetering on the brink of ruin. Convicted fraudster Darius Guppy offers a provocative personal view
By Darius Guppy
Published: 7:14PM GMT 20 Feb 2010
In 1994, there resided in the cell next to mine a certain “Tommy”. He had been imprisoned for counterfeiting Dutch Guilders to such a high standard that he had fooled the banks themselves.
As was customary among prisoners who became friends, Tommy allowed me to read his legal papers and I became fascinated by the judge’s sentencing speech, the gist of which was that his activities had been parasitical. By creating money out of thin air he had reduced the purchasing power of more deserving members of society. What would happen if everyone behaved like him?
I thought of arguments used, in a different context, regarding inflation. Like counterfeiting, it dilutes the value of the community’s wealth and constitutes a social evil. Creating too much money – “real” or “fake” – can wreck an economy. Such was the Nazis’ reasoning when they planned to ruin Britain’s economy by flooding the country with near-perfect counterfeit bills.
A lot of nonsense has been written about the world’s current economic woes – about how the crash is the fault solely of the banks and, by implication, governments are blameless; and how it could all have been avoided, and can be put right, by greater financial regulation.
It is a classic example of what the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre terms “the fallacy of managerial expertise”: an attempt by “experts” to blind us with science to justify their overpaid existences and mask their confusion.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
P!
No individual has to participate in this insanity!!!
that idea Pat Robertson always used to float out there about an International Year of Jubilee....suddenly it dosen’t sound so crazy anymore
Au contrare, mon ami - we all participate in it, whether we like it or not.
Some of it we have no choice....some of it we do...any one can start paying off their debt’s!
No individual has to participate in this insanity!!!
It is a slow day in a small Iowa town and streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
A rich tourist drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.
As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Farmer’s Co-op.
The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit.
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.
Compare our economy with nature. We have a plum tree in the yard. This tree grew to be huge, like our economy. We cut the tree way back, like we should do with our economy. The first year, after we cut it back, it didn’t bear fruit. This year it’s in full bloom and I expect a lot of fruit. We need to do the same with the economy. Cut it way back, stop spending and nature will take its course. That is if the people are allowed to do what they know is right.
Some of it we have no choice....some of it we do...any one can start paying off their debt’s!
Everyone in that town held a 100 dollar asset, which was an IOU from another member of town.
So each persons Assets - Debts began at zero and ended at zero.
It would be interesting to bring the concepts of interest, inflation and involuntary taxation into that analogy.
unfortunately “we” can not. As long as the state spends the money like crazy there is no way you can pay of this debt.
What are you gonna do donate your money to the state so they can spend this to? Just think about it. Take Haiti for example. States donated money to them they don´t even own.
You’re talking about national debt and I’m talking about personal debt....something almost every one has some control over.
His own understanding seems weak, and he offers no solutions. Completely worthless article.
oh my fault. Of course you are correct about personal debt.
(but somehow national debt is personal debt too because from whom will the government “collect” the money if they would be forced to pay back the debt?)
greetings
require some radical thinking one encounters nowhere in any of today’s political parties.
Excellent essay. Compare this man's analysis to virtually every politician running the US Federal Government.
Nice article. Another ‘banking system is a ponzi scheme’ article but it doesn’t read like a dry examination in some financial journal. Plus, the author is an ex-con, that fact alone is rather entertaining.
National debt is like a burgler breaking into your house...You had no choice in assuming the loss and virtually no chance of it being returned!!!
I didn’t know Robertson had advocated it...but it has occured to me recently that the Hebrews had a great system for resetting the nation’s debts every 7 years. If all US internal debts were just forgiven with folks being allowed to keep what wealth and property they had in hand(with adjustments made for obvious cheats and thieves), then the economy would behave like it was on steroids and Obama would get elected King. (Arrangements would need to be made concerning debts owed to other nations who wouldn’t necessarily buy into the notion.)
This would mean all debts, public and private. Everyone owes some one something. Now obviously recurring debts like utilities or club memberships wouldn’t be affected, just the static structural ones.
Robertson, I have some doubts about, but the Bible did speak of the 7 year plan followed by a year of jubilee every 49 years.
The world could make use of this plan as a saftey valve to move away from warfare and miserable depression. All debts by international agreement canceled everwhere all at once with wealth currently kept in hand by what ever persons, governments, and oraganizations with no further strings attached to that wealth. It would truly be a brave new world and existing power structures would definitely undergo change. God’s plan...will folks do it? probably not!
Correct! But luck for us all no one calls in the debt because simple everyone knows we just don´t have it and even if “we” would be willing (”WE” are not) to pay it we couldn´t. And this fits for many countries on this planet.
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