Extraordinary Times, Intentional Collapse, and Takedown of the U.S.A.
by Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career
included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug
Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury
Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have
appeared on numerous websites. His book on monetary reform is entitled We
Hold These Truths: The Promise of Monetary Reform and will be published
this
autumn by Tendril Press. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An
Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest
Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, “the most im****tant
spaceflight book of the last twenty years.” His website is at
www.richardccook.com
short excerpt ::
Next Steps
To accomplish a program of real reform will require a strong president but
possibly a political revolution to get one. Congressman Ron Paul has made
history as the first major presidential candidate to call for the
abolishment of the Federal Reserve. He is right. The first thing a
president
worthy of the name should do is eliminate the Federal Reserve as a
bank-of-issue, get rid of our debt-based monetary system, and depose the
bankers and Wall Street financiers from the seats of power. Ron Paul is
also
right that the U.S. should withdraw its military from overseas and stop
trying to control the world.
What Ron Paul’s candidacy proves is that in the internet age, with
financial
crises jumping from the headlines every day, and authorities such as Ben
Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Secretary of the Treasury
Henry Paulson manifestly having no intention of making real changes, the
public is ready to listen to new ideas. But even progressive analysts are
so
locked into outmoded concepts that they fail to realize an entirely new
type
of monetary system is needed.
The basic concept that must be understood, as expressed repeatedly by this
author in past articles, is that credit is a power of nature that is part
of
the human “commons.” Credit allows society to materialize value by drawing
from future potential productivity into present actualized reality. Credit
therefore should be treated legally as a public utility, like water or
electricity.
Credit is not a mathematical abstraction that should be manipulated into
building pyramids of debt. Such practices are suicidal for an economy.
Rather credit is organic, deriving ultimately from human labor (including
mental labor, as in the application of technology), along with the sun,
the
soil, natural resources, and the rain. Thus we have gone full circle to
the
beginning of this article, where Russia and the U.S. were cited as the two
nations that best understood where real wealth comes from.
The management of credit may be licensed to responsible private parties
who
are accountable to public authority, but it should never be given away or
“privatized” to individuals or cor****ations who manipulate it mainly for
their own profit, as banks do today. It is the privatization of credit
through the banking systems of the world which has loaded humanity with
debt, rendered short-term profits the highest priority of all business
endeavor, and made modern industrialization as much a curse as a blessing.
Note that credit differs in this discussion from the legitimate investment
of capital derived from profits or savings whereby an individual risks a
****tion of his wealth through a contract with a producing entity. Capital
markets that facilitate this type of investment fall under the category of
commerce, not usury.
A national monetary system should reflect the treatment of credit as a
public utility and thereby make possible responsible economic activity and
the fair distribution of wealth. Some of the measures which should be
implemented are contained in the American Monetary Institute’s draft
American Monetary Act. (www.monetary.org/) The resulting currency could be
issued, not in the form of debt instruments like Federal Reserve Notes,
but
silver-backed Treasury certificates as in President Kennedy’s program of
1963.
AND ::
a.. In order to clear the way for these reforms, bankruptcy reorganization
of the entire $50 trillion of existing debt in the U.S. should be
undertaken, with debt being restructured and paid down over time or simply
written off. Bank lending for speculation, such as for mergers and
acquisitions, equity and hedge fund speculation, and purchase of
securities
on margin has been explosively enabled through bankers’ ability to move
massive amounts of funds electronically. These leveraging practices should
be outlawed, as they are abuses of the public interest. (According to the
London Times, one John Paulson made $3.7 billion in hedge fund trading
last
year. “Mr. Paulson’s firm, Paulson & Co, made a fortune from shorting
America ’s sub-prime mortgage markets.”) A national fuel conservation
program with real teeth should also be instituted. And at least half of
the
U.S. military budget should be eliminated, with half of the remainder
devoted to energy R&D and domestic public works. Employees of the
military-industrial complex will find many new career op****tunities as the
domestic economy revives.
As these measures are taken, the United States will no longer be dancing
to
the financiers’ tune. We would be helping prepare a future where man’s
inhumanity to man as expressed through war and financial exploitation is
no
longer glorified. Such a future would be a milestone in the eventual
enlightenment of the human race. But these are measures that must be
implemented now, before it is too late.
While we await these epochal changes, more modest steps may be in order.
The
author is often asked for personal financial advice. His advice is to
invest
in yourself and in other people. Plant a robust home garden. Learn new
skills. Start community food co-ops that buy local products. Establish
local
currencies and barter networks. Join or form a union. Raise bees. Put kids
through school. Get out of debt. Pray and meditate. Become politically
active. Demand change.
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a THOUGHT PROVOKING ARTICLE. SEAN.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8854
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