"Money"
The Greatest Hoax On Earth
BY Merrill Jenkins
FORWARD
It is difficult to recall a period in history of like proportion to our present months and years when so much honest investigation of a world-wide problem has yielded so little hope for a sensible solution. Inflation is the problem! Money is the tool that has produced it! Merrill Jenkins, in this book, " MONEY, '' THE GREATEST HOAX ON EARTH, is the man who explains it-as it has never been explained before!
Concerning the causes of inflation, economists disagree, businessmen disagree, labor leaders disagree, and of course politicians disagree. Something appears to have ensnared the reasoning power of the very elite, for surely they are of honorable intent and would not hesitate to shape the avenue of escape if they but saw it. Clearly, the issue has the governing communities around the world buffaloed. The calamity of a currency collapse is feared by all, yet no one has stepped forth to point to the foe in ambush, the real cause of inflation-no one, that is, until Merrill Jenkins, self-styled - monetary- realist " and economic observer.
From a point outside the pale of immediate involvement, he has been able to see the economic forest through the trees. He has been able to clarify great chunks of misreasoning with a single re-definition of a common economic term. His glossary, for instance, cuts to the heart of all of the hazy thinking that has been going on in economic circles everywhere.
The mesmerism that would engulf thinkers on this subject makes it almost appear that some strange economic infection from outer space has now invaded the earth to the point where our leaders find it necessary to ask all of us to unite in a solid front to fight this mysterious enemy which threatens our life style as we know it, if not our very lives themselves. Has not each of us asked himself how could it possibly be that we are in such a predicament.
After reading this book, one feels suddenly prepared to see through the disarray of conflicting opinions that disport themselves on this subject in every learned quarter. Reward enough for reading it. It is predicted that you too will find the clarifying truth that this book unfolds simple indeed. Simple, yes, but profound nonetheless, and since its base is moral, not always so easily entreated.
Mr. Jenkins sets forth his exposition directly and persistently in textbook fashion, stating his radical premise time and time again, supporting that premise from one viewpoint and then from another, and then stating the premise again. There can be no logical escape. And so it must be, in order for this book to do its teaching job, since so many of our preconceived notions about the all-too-common commodity ''cash" have to be patiently uprooted and replaced with the facts-old facts, admittedly, yet understood by so few throughout the world today.
Money in the United States today is totally without backing and is therefore virtually worthless, Mr. Jenkins tells us, from every conceivable angle. The same can be said of money in most other countries of the world, and this is the reason, pure and simple, for the currency crisis that presently envelopes the globe, according to Mr. Jenkins. Instead of money representing wealth in a banker's vault, there is no wealth on hand to redeem his money. Yet day in and day out the banking industry continues to create unbelievably huge sums of it in order to profit handsomely from its loan. This is the little understood financial process which shapes our economic path as individuals and as nations, accounting for the demoralizing inflationary effect we find almost everywhere.
The great divergence in Merrill Jenkins' analysis is that he lays the blame for our resent economic woes directly at the door of the banking industry, principally the Federal Reserve
Banking System which he insists is not a part of the federal government in any way in spite of its name. Whereas everyone else blames the government for the money mess (logically enough since we seem to be dealing with the "coin of the realm''), Mr. Jenkins cuts through the smoke to the fire which Is controlled very systematically by a few privileged entrepreneurs. Even the government pays tribute to these powerful few, according to Mr. Jenkins.
II
It apparently accomplishes little these days to attack that which the people have set up to reign over them with absolute authority, namely their government. If inflation has been directly caused by government, so the reasoning goes, then it must be somehow proper that we have it with us. Hence the reluctance abroad to come to grips with the monster. Mr. Jenkins points the finger in another direction entirely, away from the "holy land'' of government to a private sector of society, the bankers, and in so doing he should gather the support of the multitude. In due course the seeker for an answer will most assuredly discover that his government gave the privilege to the banking industry in the first place, and for not the purest reasons. But then, in the final analysis, the seeker for the whole truth will find the basic elements of fraud in his own thinking, the desire to have something for nothing, shadowed forth in the government he condones.
Merrill Jenkins began searching out the facts systematically some five years ago, following whatever meager trail of logic and evidence he could find, to the point where he has been able to piece together the truth in this book. His efforts to fully substantiate his conclusions have been exhaustive. His confrontations with high officials in the banking industry, have further convinced him that his facts are straight and his logic sound. He relates that money as a medium of exchange has degenerated to such an extent that even eminent international economists cannot agree on what money nowadays really is or just how banks create it. The world of currency is indeed ''stranger than fiction, at first glance, a mystery beyond belief! At second glance, Mr. Jenkins' glance, a simple everyday garden variety type of economic phenomenon.
F. Andrew Bell
(Businessman and
Free-Enterprise Proponent)
III
A PRE I.M.F. SEMINAR OF EMINENT ECONOMISTS COULD NOT AGREE ON WHAT "MONEY" IS OR HOW BANKS CREATE IT. Front page of Wall Street journal 9-24-71
$
This book answers the question: What is ''MONEY" and where does it come from?
$
"Money' in the United States is: Make-believe "Dollars"; paper and ink records of numbers preceded by a dollar sign ($) in bookkeeping entries, accepted by the people as imaginary mediums of exchange. whose volume increases daily with official and individual conjurings; are seigniorage, credit, inflation, money, and totally intangible, cannot be sighted, heard, smelled, taste6 or touched, can exist in human thought only, and are shifted about by check and credit card to "settle by imagination" ninety five percent of all indebtedness.
$
Anyone UNAWARE
is UNAWARE
of being UNAWARE!
IV
IN 1933 AS IT WAS:
A MERCHANT EXCHANGED WEALTH FOR DOLLARS, BORROWED FROM, THE BANK-AND COULD EXCHANGE DOLLARS FOR WEALTH AT THE BANK.
A BANK WAS OBLIGED TO REDEEM DOLLARS FOR WEALTH ON DEMAND, THEREFORE-THE BANK HAD TO HAVE A PLEDGE OF WEALTH FROM THE BORROWER BEFORE LENDING ITS DOLLARS.
40 YEARS HAVE ELAPSED AND IN 1973 AS IT IS:
A MERCHANT EXCHANGES WEALTH FOR DOLLARS BORROWED FROM THE BANK-BUT CANNOT EXCHANGE DOLLARS FOR WEALTH AT THE BANK.
THE BANK IS NOT OBLIGED TO REDEEM DOLLARS FOR WEALTH ON DEMAND, BUT-THE BANK STILL INSISTS ON A PLEDGE OF WEALTH FROM THE BORROWER BEFORE LENDING ITS DOLLARS.
PLEASE-JUSTIFY-OR FIND THE ERROR!
IT CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED-AND THERE ISN'T ANY ERROR!
IT IS SIMPLY PROOF POSITIVE THAT THE PUBLIC IS NOT AWARE OF THE OPERATIONS OF ITS MONETARY AUTHORITY AND COMMERCIAL BANKS.
DO NOT LAY THIS BOOK DOWN UNTIL YO U ARE AWARE!
V
A dictionary is an alphabetical list of words.
This list of words is intended to convey the maximum in understanding. The object of the list is to set bounds to ideas. By reason of confining these ideas within limits, it makes them easy to understand.
It is a simple truth that most of our ideas are mere clusters of notions, not clearly defined. They are vague, and this vagueness often leads to considerable practical difficulties.
This is especially true in our nation where wealth and money are concerned. For centuries, wealth and money have been treated synonymously. In fact, one is tangible and the other intangible, respectively.
In all the ramifications of economic knowledge, the art of distinguishing exactly between wealth and money requires, above all, a clear idea of every item dealt with.
The needs of the middle-class public have not hitherto been considered from this aspect. Most explanations of this subject have been prepared for technicians, most of whom have little need therefor. Yet even these may profit. This will be the most interesting of all books on this subject. It is more than that: it is the gateway to all other books on economic subjects since it makes clear the words these books must employ.
Account: Bookkeeping records where wealth and "money respective identity.
Assets: Wealth in possession.
Bank: Wealth depository.
Banking: A system of renting capital to facilitate progress and expansion of wealth production.
Banker: One who operates a bank.
Barter: Wealth exchanged in direct exchanges.
Bearer certificate: Written claim on wealth.
Capital: Wealth used in the production of more wealth
Capitalism: A system in which capital and labor are used cooperatively in the production of wealth.
Capitalist: One who employs capital and labor in the production of wealth.
Cash: Currency.
Check: Written order to transfer a record of debt.
Circulation: The act of passing from person to person.
"Circulation": The "money volume" conjured and accepted to date.
Coins: Pieces of precious metal with weight and fineness of specific commodity stated on them.
Collateral: Wealth pledged to guarantee repayment of a loan.
Commodity: Material thing produced
Consumer: One who uses or consumes production.
Cost: Human exertion required to obtain wealth or service desired.
Credit: Imaginary demand, inflation, money and seigniorage.
Currency: Current-legal tender tokens.
Debased coinage: Coins with their metal purity content reduced to below the circulating face-value.
Deflation: Repudiation of -legal tender.
"Deflation": Reduction of the legal tender
Demand: . Supply-wealth.
VI
Devaluation: Official reduction of the legal tender token's parity in relation to a commodity.
Discount rate: Fed's charge to its member banks for borrowing its "dollars. "
Dollar: An expression of measure to facilitate a cross reference between wealth and credit- imaginary demand -inflation money - seigniorage.
Dollar Bill: Paper token representing one imaginary demand
unit- "dollar."
Economic Rhetoric: Skillful use of the artificial elegance of language in speech
to psychologic
ally create "dollars."
Evaluation: Condition in a free market where both parties to an exchange consider the worth of wealth received greater than the value of the wealth exchanged.
Expropriation: Transfer of wealth ownership from producer to money creator by fraud.
Falling Cost Level: A decreasing amount of human exertion required to obtain the wealth or service desired.
Falling Dollar Parity: An increasing amount of dollars required to obtain the wealth or service desired in competitive bidding because of a decreasing amount of human exertion require8 to obtain the dollars to be exchanged to obtain the wealth or service desired.
Falling Price Level: A decreasing amount of human exertion required to obtain the wealth or perform the service to be exchanged to obtain the wealth or service desired.
Federal Reserve Note: A paper token representing imaginary debt--dollars" accepted by the people as a medium of exchange, due to legal tender law.
Flat Media: Non-redeemable tokens.
Fiat: Money as a medium of exchange.
Fractional Reserve: A means of perpetrating fraud whereby imaginary debt is considered a reserve supporting the issuance of additional imaginary debt.
Free Enterprise: The ability to direct ones exertion to produce a product or perform a service and exchange that produce or service, in competition with others, in a free market, in the absence of government restriction against any activity that is not directly restricted by the pe6ple themselves in open referendum.
Free Market: One in which the public is able to exchange production or service by competitive bidding,. open to all, in the absence of government restriction against any commodity that is not directly restricted by the people- themselves in open referendum.
Imaginary Demand: Credit-inflation-money-seigniorage.
Inflation: Credit-imaginary demand =money-seigniorage.
Inflationary Effect: Failing "dollar parity.
Interest: Money charge for ' the use of borrowed money.
Inventory: Goods on hand for exchange.
Invisible Confiscation: Expropriation of wealth by seigniorage.
IOU: Personal note
VI
Page VII is missing
Labor: All human exertion engaged in the production of wealth or performing a service.
Loan: Permission to use dollars.
Medium Of Exchange: Anything accepted in exchange in lieu of the wealth form desired.
Money: Psychologically created entity credit Imaginary demand-inflation-seigniorage.
Moneyism: The institution of imaginary debt as a medium of exchange.
Moneyist: One who provides money in place of capital for use with
labor in the course of production.
Money Supply: Contradiction-money is intangible-supply is wealth.
Note: Certified claim on wealth.
Ostrichism: A belief that knowledge ignored does not exist and cannot
effect anyone.
Parity: Value of any material thing expressed in terms of any other material thing.
Price: Human exertion required to obtain the wealth or perform the service to be exchanged to obtain the wealth or service
desired.
Price": Money parity to wealth.
Producer: One who produces wealth.
Profit: The wealth production in excess of consumption during successful efforts of capital and labor.
Realist: One who seeks to recognize, understand, and acknowledge natural laws and their invincibility to violation.
Redemption: Actual settlement in wealth from the creator of dollars to the dollar token holders.
Rent: Wealth charge for the use of borrowed wealth.
Resources: All material things outside of man and his products, potential wealth, latent wealth.
Rising Cost Level: An increasing amount of human exertion required to obtain the wealth or service desired.
Rising Price Level: An increasing amount of human exertion required to obtain the wealth to be exchanged to obtain the wealth or service desired.
Savings: Unexpended wealth accumulated.
Seigniorage: The difference between the circulating value of legal tender and its worth in a free market.
Services: All human exertion as useful labor not engaged in producing a product.
S. D. R.: Special Drawing Rights-unit "quantity" of imaginary gold.
Supply: Demand-wealth.
Tax: Assessment for the support of government.
Token: Any material thing representing what it is not.
Valuation: Act of determining the value of wealth or services in terms of other wealth or services.
Value: Worth.
Wages: Labor's share of profit.
Wealth: All material things produced by human exertion having
exchange value, - demand - supply.
Worth: Degree of human satisfaction derived from use or consumption value
VIII
ECONOMIC TRUTHS
1 Retaining the God-given right to distribute one's own wealth Is the only guarantee of freedom from tyranny.
2 Money accepted as a medium of exchange subjects people and their government to the influence of its creator.
3 Money is - credit - imaginary demand - inflation - seigniorage.
4 More cannot be returned to an only source, than is taken from it.
5 A contract cannot protect anyone who lacks the wealth with which to force its fulfillment.
6 Supply and Demand are Wealth and cannot be imbalanced.
7 During an inflationary effect "prices" and employment rise together.
8 During a deflationary effect "prices" and employment fall together.
9 Whatever, during any exchange, is accepted as a medium of exchange, in lieu of wealth, is imaginary demand.
10 Wealth is material-money is psychological.
11 Money can be created or destroyed in the human mind.
12 Inflation cannot be controlled.
13 Money created in the human mind, has to be accepted by all others to function, once money is generally accepted all people will create it in volume to satisfy their desires, and control is impossible.
14 Money accepted in exchange for wealth is subconscious fraud.
15 Rent is material -interest is psychological.
16 Rent is a wealth charge for the use of borrowed wealth.
17 Interest. payment would require that more be returned to an only source than was obtained from it.
18 Interest is a money charge for the use of borrowed money.
19 Wherever money is accepted as a medium of exchange wealth and freedom are forfeited.
20 Money is accepted in exchange for wealth only until the psychological nature of money is exposed, or until wealth expropriation consumes most of production and the public begins to starve.
21 Where freedom reigns, those who do not produce food directly, have to produce wealth or perform service to exchange for it.
22 Wealth exchanges freely on historic worth, money exchanges due to legal tender laws and the public's ignorance of its true nature.
23 Money is a force of evil.
24 Attempts to control and circumvent free market natural laws, causes hidden free market transactions.
25 Wealth is supply or demand by use or viewpoint.
26 As the exchanges of money (imaginary demand) for wealth increase, the parity of money falls.
27 Inflation is possible without the inflationary effect only at the expense of the standard of living, until wealth expropriation consumes most of production and the public begins to starve.
28 Inflation held as savings does not cause the inflationary effect.
29 Inflation feeds on itself and accumulates at an ever increasing rate.
30 Money may exchange for wealth but it can never be wealth.
31 All money is imaginary and its volume cannot be measured.
32 Wealth only as media makes inflation impossible.
33 Inflation ends with deflation.
34 Money is valueless unless accepted in exchange for something.
IX
35 Wealth has worth is use, consumption, or as media-money depends on imagination and is usable only as a medium of exchange.
36 Deflation can be honorable only by redemption.
37 The deflationary effect is possible without a deflationary exchange of tokens.
38 Money has to have parity to have exchange value.
39 Wage and price controls obscure the inflationary effect but cannot control inflation.
40 Parities are determined by exchanges developed by competitive bidding with respect to return on labor, variations in time, location and circumstance.
41 Exchanges determine parities.
42 Wealth supports independence-money enslaves.
43 Government regulations of the use of capital inhibit free enterprise and cause economic decline.
44 Conspiracy to expropriate wealth with money assures the eventual destruction of the conspiracy.
45 The main economic function of money is the expropriation of wealth.
46 Unless wealth exchanges for wealth directly credit extension or wealth expropriation is the result.
47 Take away all that a man produces and he stops working.
48 Supply can never exceed demand because a quantity cannot exceed itself.
49 A fractional reserve monetary system embezzles production within its sphere of influence.
50 Controlled prices oppose competitive parities.
51 No one can discover and disclose a truth based on a false premise.
52 Money expropriates wealth.
X
PAGE XII
Wages: Confiscated by government for distribution according to individual wants.
Private distribution in proportion the contribution to production.
General Competition and private enterprise to give way to direction by government.
No individual rights except as granted by the government.
Private enterprise and competition in the open market. A free field and no favors. Recognition of the God-given and constitutional rights of the individual.
The author believes the trend in the United States is hell bent in the direction of socialism, and can only be reversed by immediate, decisive congressional action in the direction as outlined by his interpretation of natural economic truth and the immediate abolishment of all legal tender laws.
XIII
Chapter Page
Free Enterprise-Free Coinage System .................................................................................................................12
Deposit Credits on Pledge Notes .........................................................................................................................36
Paradox ................................................................................................................................................................37
Free Market ..........................................................................................................................................................41
Controlled Market ................................................................................................................................................42
Treasury Bonds to the Fed.................................................................................................................................... 64
Ostrichism ............................................................................................................................................................70
Invisible Government ...........................................................................................................................................73
The Fractional Imaginary Reserve System ..........................................................................................................103
Runaway Falling Dollar Parity ...........................................................................................................................120
0ur Currency Must Be Redeemable.....................................................................................................................140
XV
Chapter Page
67 The S.D.R.: nonsense! 212
68 A new "price" for gold? 215
69 What will the new ''price'' of gold be? 218
70 "Money" expropriates wealth! 222
71 It is 'what'-not 'who'! 226
72 Preserving one's assets-liquidity 230
73 Why hasn't the monetary collapse happened yet? 237
74 How to help yourself 244
Summary
CHARTS & TABLES
Most charts and tables were omitted
XVI
Realist 1
Chapter I
Realist
Realist: One who seeks to recognize, understand, and acknowledge natural laws, and their invincibility to violation.
Being a realist one must suffer through opposition at every turn. It is necessary to fight a
lifetime of indoctrination o acceptance of what was offered without question: accepting the teachings without question, and committing them to the personal memory data bank. Our
minds have trem
