The Financial Times (5/31/00, p. 1) reports "The US Federal Reserve must raise interest rates sharply to avoid a hard landing for the US economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. ..."

FED MUST RAISE INTEREST RATES AGAIN -- "OR ELSE"

"Unless central banks act now to head off the threat of inflation, the OECD says, then interest rates will in the end have to rise even further. That could cause a sharp slowdown in the world economy, accompanied by a 'disorderly correction' in stock markets and 'a loss of confidence in the dollar'."

U.S. DOLLAR'S "RESERVE CURRENCY" STATUS THREATENED

"The need for higher rates is most urgent in the US, where the economy has been growing at above 4 per cent for four years, and inflationary pressures have begun to show in the core consumer price deflator.

"Despite recent signs of a slowdown in growth, the OECD says, the Fed should raise interest rates immediately to prevent inflation picking up any further.

"'They have to do it now,', said Ignacio Visco, the OECD's chief economist. 'I do not think they can sustain growth of 4.5-5 per cent. The Fed has to front-load monetary policy so the economy can slow down to a soft landing.'"

James P. Philbin writes for Investor's Business Daily (5/4/00, p. A24) that Alan "Greenspan is chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, an organization that was surreptitiously conceived and planned by a cozy cartel of big bankers, financial elites, lawyers and politicians. Since its establishment in 1913, the Federal Reserve has had a major hand in elimination of the gold standard, a cataclysmic economic collapse, numerous financial panics and precipitous decline in the purchasing power of the dollar."

SHOULD ANTI-TRUST LAWS BE DEPLOYED AGAINST THE FED?

"While anyone can start his own software firm, the Federal Reserve has no such competition. In fact, the Treasury and Justice departments will not tolerate it. This arrangement is the most closely guarded in all political life. A competitor in this field will be quickly and severely punished.

"While [Microsoft Chairman Bill] Gates is held responsible by shareholders for the well-being of his company, Greenspan and the central bank's Board of Governors are beholden to no one. It is true that the chairman of the Federal Reserve occasionally testifies before Congress. In all reality, however, neither Congress, the president, the judiciary nor the public has any say in monetary policy.

"While this brief comparison could be easily extended, it should be clear to all which organization is a monopoly and which is not. ...

The November 3 Wall Street Journal (Damian Milverton, Dow Jones Newswires) reports (p. B13D) that "World Bank President James Wolfensohn attacked congressional trimming of the U.S. budget allocation for foreign affairs as a 'disgrace' that jeopardizes $6 billion in funding for developing countries.

"Addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he said Congress has cut the proposed U.S. contribution to World Bank concessional lending to $620 million from the $800 million the White House originally requested.

"'It would be just devastating -- devastating to American leadership and devastating to people in development,' Mr. Wolfensohn told reporters afterward."

THEY INSIST THAT YOU COVER THEIR BAD LOANS

"The World Bank has budgeted $6 billion a year over the next three years to be provided to the International Development Association [IDA], the vehicle through which many developing countries receive discounted loans. ..."

BUT YOU DON'T GET TO KEEP THE INTEREST -- THE BANKERS DO

"'It is a disgrace,' he said.

"Mr. Wolfensohn said the current push to bring meaningful debt relief to the so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries must be linked with continuing development lending to be effective. ...

"The World Bank, he said, needs more than $5 billion to plug the holes in its own balance sheet and at the IDA that debt forgiveness will leave behind.

"'I forgive this [$5 billion] today and people tomorrow have no money to borrow,' Mr. Wolfensohn said."

Dr. Lawrence Parks (Executive Director, Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education, FAME) writes in his white paper about the Federal Reserve system (Why the Gold Industry is Being Destroyed and What to Do About It, June 25, 1999) that "Putatively, the Federal Reserve regulates commercial bank credit creation. But, as a practical matter, the Federal Reserve is a creature of the large commercial banks. It was created as a result of their lobbying and is de facto under their control. While it is true that selecting members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors falls to the President, he looks entirely to the financial community elite for recommendations. ...

"[T]he original Federal Reserve legislation provided for a body called the Federal Advisory Council (FAC) whose member are selected by the boards of directors of the Federal Reserve Banks. Today, FAC members consist of the top management of banks whose assets sum to more than $1 trillion. FAC members meet regularly with the Board of Governors to air their concerns and provide advice to the Board....these meetings are held in secret with no oversight. ..."

MOST MONEY "CREATED" BY THE BANKS, NOT BY THE FED

"The amount of money in the U.S. in 1946 was about $150 billion. ...after the last remaining tie to gold was severed in 1971, money creation exploded to more than $6 trillion. Of that, the Federal Reserve created roughly $500 billion. The balance, about $5.5 trillion, was created by commercial banks. ..."

MONEY CREATION MAKES THEM RICH, EVEN AS IT DEFLATES YOUR WORTH

"[T]he ability to create money has been extraordinarily profitable for commercial banks. In 1997, they reported after-tax profits of nearly $60 billion! To put this into perspective, the profits of the automobile industry for the same period were less than $10 billion. ...

"[B]anks are able to reap this $60 billion windfall because of their ability to create fiat money and the financial 'products' that derive from it."

"LENDER OF LAST RESORT" COVERS THEIR GAMBLING DEBTS

"About half of bank profits result from gambling, euphemistically called 'trading,' as in 'currency trading' and derivative issuance, both of which are subsidized by the public. ...ordinary taxpayers guarantee the banking system's entire balance sheet. Its assets are guaranteed by the so-called 'lender of last resort' bailout facility at the Federal Reserve, and its liabilities are guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. ..."

IMF STOLE $185 BILLION OF YOUR $$ IN TWO YEARS

"In addition to these direct subsidies, there are substantial indirect subsidies. For example, in the last two years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has transferred about $185 billion of taxpayer's money to foreigners so they may make good on debts owed to mostly U.S. banks. ...

"[A]fter-tax profits tell only a small part of the story. There are, in addition, the multi-million dollar salaries, perks, pensions and stock options that commercial bank executives pay themselves."

Dr. Lawrence Parks (Executive Director, Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education, FAME) writes in his white paper, What the President Should Know about our Monetary System (9/12/99), that "For a promissory note to be legally valid, it must have these four elements: 1. A 'maker,' i.e., a person or entity that will make payment; 2. A payee, i.e., a person or entity that will receive payment; 3. An amount to be paid; and, 4. A date certain when payment is due.

"If any of these four elements is missing, then the promissory note is deemed to be defective under the law and cannot be enforced. ..."

THESE NON-"NOTES" PROMISE YOU ZERO

"When the Federal Reserve legislation was passed in 1913, the Federal Reserve was empowered to issue Federal Reserve Notes that were, in fact, promissory notes. ... The maker was the Federal Reserve. The payee was the 'Bearer.' The amount of the note was the face amount. And the due date was 'On Demand.' ... In 1963, Federal Reserve notes...began omitting the due date and the payee. Yet, these pieces of paper continue to be called 'Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs).' No longer 'Will Pay To The Bearer On Demand' This phrase has been removed"

"LEGAL TENDER" LAWS REQUIRE YOU TO ACCEPT PAYMENT IN FRNs

"This is material misrepresentation and constitutes fraud. ... The new Federal Reserve 'Notes' are not valid notes. ...if one identifies a piece of paper as a 'note' which lacks the legal requirements for being a note, it does not become a note. So, if 'Federal Reserve Notes' are not notes, what are they?

"In truth, they are just pieces of paper with ink on them. ..."

PROMISCUOUS PRINTING OF FRNs HAS DIMINISHED YOUR SAVINGS BY 90% SINCE 1950

• "In the U.S., people are forced by law to accept 'dollars' for all debts public and private;

• "'Dollars' are created out of nothing by the U.S. banking system -- mostly by commercial banks;

• " If, in the judgment of the Federal Reserve there needs to be additional 'liquidity' in the system, then the Federal Reserve may create additional 'dollars' in unlimited quantities. Generation of additional 'dollars' will dilute the purchasing power of 'dollars' that have been saved or promised for future payment, such as pensions;

• "Creation of new 'dollars' out of thin air has depreciated 'dollar' purchasing power by more than 90% since 1950;

• "'Dollars' are in no way obligations of the U.S. Government (the signatures of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer are gratuitous);

• "'Dollars' are tokens, i.e., ...paper tickets;"

PRIVATE COMMERCIAL BANKS CREATED $5.5 TRILLION OUT OF THIN AIR

• "In 1950, there were about $150 billion in the U.S. At the end of 1998, the banking system had created an additional $6 trillion. Of that amount, about $450 billion were created by the Federal Reserve, and the balance, about $5.5 trillion, was created by a small group of privately-owned companies called commercial banks; and"

LOANS INVOLUNTARILY GUARANTEED BY SAVERS AND WORKERS MAKE BANKERS RICH

"All over the world, fiat money has been legislated legal tender. In the last century, legal tender laws were called 'forced tender' laws. Our Constitution does not empower the government to issue legal-tender fiat currency. Somehow, the Congress has delegated to the banking system a power that the Congress itself does not have. ..."

BANKING PROFITEERS HAVE PROSTRATED ACADEMICS AND POLITICOS

"Another factor in the success of the fiat 'dollar' and the demise of honest monetary weights and measures is that the Federal Reserve has compromised the academic community. ...the Fed has spent millions hiring economic faculty members as 'consultants.' ...

"Banks have been buying off intellectuals for more than 90 years. ... The result is that more than three generations of Americans have been 'dumbed down' on the money issue. ..."

LEGALIZED THEFT IS PROFITABLE TO THEM AND COSTLY TO YOU

"The essence of any fiat monetary system is that it enables fraudulent wealth-transfer from those who produce wealth -- mostly working people -- to those who churn out and have easy access to fiat money -- mostly bankers, who get 'interest' and fees for generating it, Wall Street firms who garner transaction fees for moving it around, and large credit-worthy borrowers. ...

"Fiat money is not wealth; it is merely a potential claim on wealth. As people realize that the real wealth on which the fiat money has a potential claim does not exist, the fiat money is said to 'melt.' When fiat money melts, interest rates increase, the purchasing power of savings, pensions, and all forms of future payments denominated in the fiat money are greatly reduced, and people lose their jobs -- all through no fault of their own. ..."

IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE

"As a result, government, upon which people rely to 'regulate' the generation of the fiat money, is discredited, and most times people change their form of government. ...

"At the time of the American Revolution, Americans were repulsed by their experience with the fiat money of the day: continentals. There was even a derogatory saying 'not worth a continental.' As a result, the Constitution provided for gold- and/or silver-as-money; ...

"When Andrew Jackson ran for President in 1832, he opposed paper money and the Bank of the United States. His rallying cry was 'Gold is the friend of the farmer' [and the worker] -- and Jackson won!" (read Jackson's Veto of Bank of the U.S.)

Justin Raimondo, in the November edition of Chronicles, quotes a speech by Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, father of the aviator, in which Lindbergh asserts that "Wall Street, backed by Morgan, Rockefeller, and others, would control the [Federal] Reserve Association, and those again, backed by all the deposits and disbursements of the United States and also backed by the deposits of the national banks holding the private funds of the people...would be the most wonderful machinery that finite beings could invent to take control of the world."

WORLD WAR ONE WAS INSTIGATED FOR POWER AND PROFIT

Concerning World War I, "This machinery, once set in motion, was inexorable, and its sinister purpose soon became apparent to Lindbergh. As war broke out in Europe and the Lusitania sank beneath the waves, the hope that the United States might stay out of the carnage went straight to oblivion: Lindbergh wrote in a letter to his daughter Eva that 'we are going in as soon as the country can be sufficiently propagandized into the war mania.'

"While progressives throughout the Midwest opposed the war instinctively, Lindbergh had a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the causes of the coming conflict. In 1915, he published two issues of a magazine, Real Needs, in which he indicted the 'Money Trust' and the 'subsidized' press for scheming to lure us into the European imbroglio."

IF CONGRESS HAD NOT ABANDONED HARD MONEY, U.S. TAXPAYERS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN INDENTURED TO FINANCE EUROPE'S WAR

"He pointed out that 'the Wall Street end of the Federal Reserve System' was the financial pillar of the Allies: The resources of the U.S. Treasury and depositors' funds were marshaled in the service of the British and French empires. As Murray N. Rothbard put it in Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy, World War I could not have been financed by 'the relatively hard-money, gold standard system that existed before 1914. Fortuitously, an institution was established at the end of 1913 that made the loans and war finance possible: the Federal Reserve System.'"

THE FED FACILITATED INFLATION, DEBT, AND DEFICITS

"The new machinery of power, once set in place 'enabled the banking system to inflate money and credit, finance loans to the Allies, and float massive deficits once the U.S. entered the war.'

"As the war hysteria reached new heights and Wilson edged toward intervention, Lindbergh charged that 'invisible organizers' had 'buncoed' the American people on the war question. But they were not invisible to the congressman from Minnesota: 'Amid all this confusion the lords of special privilege stand serene in their selfish glee, coining billions of profit from the rage of war. They coldly register every volley of artillery, every act of violent aggression, as a profit on their war stock and war contracts.' The 'dollar plutocracy,' not the Kaiser, was 'the greatest foe of humanity.'"

"Since the end of WW I, the U.S. dollar has been the financial guarantor of last resort for the global economy. This has been backed up by U.S. military muscle. The goal of the United Nations has been to impose a one-world order in which it keeps order and imposes its egalitarian philosophy.

"Because of its role as the military gorilla, the United States has been allowed to get away with a lot of fiscal transgressions, the pain of which has been absorbed by other countries, not this one.

"For instance, Germany gives us Mercedes Benzes and we give them pieces of paper called dollars. Not a very good trade if you're a German.

"The United States has trashed its dollar, printing so many of them that its value has dropped substantially since 1945. But the U.S. has never had runaway inflation. No, that has been exported to other countries who endure it because the U.S. keeps the peace in the New World Order." Source: Moneychanger, October, 1999, p. 15