That's all very interesting. But what are the implications? >From: Dirk Johnson <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine > <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Slouching toward Bedlamham >Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 10:26:03 -0800 > >It's pure fiat money (i.e., money simply printed on paper without value >other than that which law gives it). The entire U.S. (and European) system >is based upon debt, not value. If all debt were paid, under the current >system of banking, there would be no money at all. > >The money is created from debt and then used as a "reserve" to create >further debt under a fictitious fractional reserve (fictitious because the >reserve doesn't actually exist except as previous debt), which in turn is >used as a reserve upon which fractional loans and so forth again and again >up to, if memory serves me, 23 times, when it exhausts itself. Of course, >new debt is simply issued by the government (bonds, bills, notes) and new >money is printed to buy it and the whole shebang starts again. Banks >charge >interest on all of it. > >The classic case of usura. > >Since debt is the standard, precious-metal charge cards are directly to the >point, since debt has more value to banks than gold (or any other >commodity) >does. > >Dirk Johnson >Assistant Vice President >Kelling, Northcross & Nobriga >A Division of Zions First National Bank > >-----Original Message----- >From: charles moyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]] >Sent: Monday, December 25, 2000 9:50 AM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Slouching toward Bedlamham > > > Merry Christmas, Pounders and other Personae who have found a medium >for >projecting themselves (in their plurals) through the Internet. Today's >words >of wisdom come from Mark Twain who wrote that "It is by the fortune of God >that, in this country, we have three benefits; freedom of speech, freedom >of >thought, and the wisdom never to use either." > Twain again makes me aware of my shortcomings. Nevertheless, if the >bankers are still on line maybe they could explain what was meant by the >following discussion which took place between Congressman Wright Patman, >chairman of the Banking and Currency committee and Marriner Eccles, >Chairman >of the Federal Reserve Board in 1913. > > Mr. Patman: "Mr. Eccles, how did you get the money to buy these two >billion dollars of government bonds? > Mr. Eccles: "We created it." > Mr. Patman: "Out of what?" > Mr. Eccles: "Out of the right to create credit money." > > Don't get me wrong. I'm as willing as the next guy to be a >"believer", >and I wouldn't want to think that some group of cyclical, precession of the >equinoxes, "occult" nuts have a monopoly on the poetic truth, nor would I >want to throw a wet blanket on the chrematistical meliorists' burning >embers >of faith in the goose; but why do we never see a bank call itself "The >First >Fractional Reserve Bank"? And why is it inversely true that as the >standard >of money goes from the most precious metal to the lesser, and then to none >at all that the credit card advertising hype proceeds from nothing of value >to the "Silver Card", to the "Gold Card", to the "Platinum Card" on to a >"God-knows-what-metal-next Card". Some like it shiney? > Any comments or should I borrow Joe Brennan's copy of "Nostrodamus" >for >answers? > >CDM _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.