We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Debunking Money (volume 1): Money, Myth, and Machiavelli [12:26m video]

by Dvrabel from Council on Renewal

The blogger in this first video (apparently more or another is planned) tries to explanation how our monetary system works by simplifying it so that ordinary people can understand it. I think that one can simplify things too much, but this may offer a basic idea and hopefully his future videos will add more helpful detail. When he talks about the banking system, it seems to me that he mostly means the Federal Reserve. 

There is one comment following the video that I think is really helpful, and that is the one by "DrKrbyLuv".

The "Fed" is a consortium of private banks that own the "Fed" through stock ownership. It has a veneer of government participation--an attempt at legitimacy--through the appointment of the Board of Governors by the President and confirmation by the Senate. However, I believe that this is only a formality, that he essentially appoints members after he gets the word from key capitalist advisers.

I am presently an informal student of money and have plans to continue my studies. I don't think it is possible to learn about this subject in any school which to me illustrates how important it is to gain an understanding of it, and how important it is to the ruling class that you don't understand it. I recommend that a good place for a novice to start is with Ellen Brown's book entitled, Web of Debt.

Thus far during the course of my studies I learned that the issuance of money was what the agrarian Populist movement in the late 1800s was all about. The financial capitalists fought the Populists ruthlessly and eventually crushed them which illustrates how important the control of money is to them. The best source of information about this movement is a book by Lawrence Goodwyn entitled, Democratic Promise

This story, like so much else of real importance in US history, was covered very superficially in the schools I attended. Who was it that said that the victors write history? Well, in our history the capitalists won and they have written our history.