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BlankI just received this amazing news from Boudewijn Wegerif in Sweden.
Nader is now fully populist and the American political scene is changed
forever.
Every man who understands the plundering deceits of the current monetary
system
must get behind this conference. It is the biggest crack yet in the
now-begun
crack-up of globalist tyranny.
Let this be the end of the 500 year curse that is monopoly finance, the end
of
the plunder machine that has dwarfed and crippled us all for so long.
And Mr. Nader said "let there be light!"
Dick Eastman
Yakima
=========================
WHAT MATTERS-39 --January 7, 2001
Ralph Nader Calls Federal Reserve Conference – “Reality verses Myth”
Plus “Test your Knowledge about the Fed” questionnaire
_______________________
Dear list members,
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and 2000 presidential candidate, has
called a conference in Washington for today, Monday, January 7 – “To place a
spotlight on” the Federal Reserve. Bill Murphy, chairperson of the Gold
Anti-Trust Committee, will attend to draw attention to the Fed’s role in
suppressing the gold price. Item 1 below is Ralph Nader’s media release for
the conference. Item 2 is a “test your knowledge about the Fed”
questionnaire drawn from "Secrets of The Federal Reserve" by Eustace
Mullins. My source is list member Alan Lewis – [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In friendship,
Boudewijn Wegerif
What Matters Programme
Folkhogskola Vardingeby **
This E-letter is also posted at
http://www.whatmatters.nu/wmemails/wmemails6.http#WM-39
______________________
1.
MEDIA RELEASE
By Ralph Nader
The Federal Reserve wields enormous power over the national
economy. Its decisions have a major impact on every citizen.
Jobs, shelter, and the quality of life are greatly affected by
what the Federal Reserve decides on monetary policy.
Yet the Federal Reserve is allowed to make its decisions in
secret. The transcripts and minutes of the meetings are carefully
"sanitized" before they are released. For example, when the
Federal Reserve voted to lend money to Mexico, the Fed's records
were carefully redacted to keep the details of the transactions
secret.
In a recent article in Barron's Magazine, Dr. Robert Auerbach,
who investigated the Federal Reserve as staff economist for the
Banking Committee of the House of Representatives, recounts
numerous incidents in which Fed minutes were destroyed or heavily
edited when the Fed made critical decisions.
Auerbach, other economists, and long-time observers of the
Federal Reserve will be gathering at the National Press Club in
Washington on Monday to discuss what goes on behind those
tightly-locked doors at the Federal Reserve.
In sponsoring this conference, it is my hope that we can place a
spotlight on this dark corner of our democracy and begin a
campaign for a more open process in establishing economic
policies that affect the daily lives of working families and
well-being of the entire economy.
The kind of secrecy and closed-door government carried out by the
Federal Reserve has no place in a democratic system. In addition
to exemptions from open government requirements such as the
"Sunshine Act," the Federal Reserve does not face the normal
checks and balances of the congressional appropriations and
budget process. It drafts its own budgets and spends whatever it
desires without seeking permission from Congress. It is little
wonder that the Federal Reserve feels free to operate as
virtually a separate government.
One of the experts who will appear at our conference is William
Greider, a long-time journalist, who wrote the book "Secrets of
the Temple," a carefully researched tome which has become a
must-read for students of the Federal Reserve.
Keynote speaker for the conference will be James Galbraith, Ph.D
at the LBJ School of Government at the University of Texas, who
has written and lectured extensively on the Federal Reserve and
who is rapidly becoming the nation's most outspoken and best
informed critic of the the Federal Reserve and monetary policy.
In addition to setting interest rates in carrying out monetary
policy, the Federal Reserve has wide-ranging regulatory power for
consumer protection over the financial community. It is strange
indeed that this power would be exercised by the current chairman
of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, whose past would give
little comfort to anyone who believes in regulatory protections.
Greenspan was an early follower of Ayn Rand, the leader of the
Objectivists, an anti-government collective. Greenspan
collaborated with Rand in writing "Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal,"
in which he denounced regulation, particularly consumer
protections and anti-trust laws, which he described as "cardinal
ingredients of welfare statism."
Later Greenspan became a lobbyist for the financial industry
against regulation and represented some of the high flyers-like
Charlie Keating of Lincoln Savings, who plundered the savings and
loan industry.
So we plan for our conference to take a deep look at how well this
former foe of regulation is representing the public in his current
position as chief government regulator of banks, big financial
services corporations, and the economy.
The conference is titled "The Federal Reserve -- Reality versus
Myth." We hope that our panel of experts will be able to unravel
some of the myths that have allowed the Federal Reserve to escape
accountability for so long to the detriment of the vast number of
working Americans and our democratic system of government.
_______________________
2.
Test How Much You Know About the Federal Reserve -
Answer True or False
1. The Federal Reserve System is an Agency of the Federal Government.
2. The Fed has the exclusive authority to print and issue all U.S.
currency.
3. Interest on money loaned by the Fed to its member banks is used
to reduce the Federal Draft.
4. The Fed is restricted to an amount of currency it can print by a
specified amount of gold held as reserves.
5. The books of the Fed are audited on an annual basis and are of
public record.
6. The Fed is responsible for loan losses such as the banking
debacle of the late 1980's.
7. Although the President appoints the chairman of the Federal
Reserve Board, the Chairman acts independently.
8. The Fed sets interest rates.
9. The Fed confines its monetary activities strictly to the U.S.
10. Americans can benefit from an understanding of how the Fed works.
ANSWERS:
1: False. The Federal Reserve System was created by the Federal
Reserve Act, and passed by both houses of Congress just prior to
Christmas recess on December 22, 1913. Section 5 of the Act calls for
a member bank to buy and hold stock in a district Federal Reserve
Bank equal to 6% of its capital and surplus. For example, as of 1983,
ten major New York City banks owned approximately 66% of the
outstanding stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That Bank
in turn owns a portion of the stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of
the U.S. together with the eleven regional member banks. A review of
the major stockholders of the ten New York city banks clearly shows
that a few families related by blood, marriage or business interests
control those 10 New York city banks, which in turn, hold the
controlling stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In
addition, approximately 38% of the stock of the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York (as of 1983) was held by banks that are subsidiaries of
foreign banks, namely the House of Rothschild which controls the Bank
of England. The fact that the Federal Reserve System is controlled by
private interests is one of the best kept secrets in American
history.
2: False. Article 1, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution provides that
"The Congress shall have power to borrow money on the credit of the
United States...and to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of
foreign coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures."
According to the National Recovery Act (NRA) decision in the 1930's,
Congress can not delegate the power to coin money to the Federal
Reserve System. However, during the great depression and during
Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term as President, the U.S. went off
the gold standard and gold and silver Treasury Certificates were
gradually replaced by Federal Reserve Notes, which are "coined" by the
Fed in violation of the Constitution.
3: False. Prior to 1933, the Federal Reserve Act required that a
portion of the earnings of the Federal Reserve Banks go to the
government, but the banks never complied. The Banking Act of 1933
legislated that all earnings of the Federal Reserve Banks go to the
banks themselves. The assets of the Federal Reserve Banks increased
from $143 million dollars in 1913 to $45 billion dollars in 1949,
which enriched all of the shareholders of the banks. There is no
evidence that the law or the method of accounting of earnings has
changed since 1949.
4: False. The Fed has no restriction on the amount of money it can
create since the U.S. went off the gold standard in the 1930's. As
Congressman Wright Patman said in 1964, "The dollar represents a one
dollar debt to the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Banks
create money out of thin air to buy Government Bonds from the U.S.
Treasury...and has created out of nothing a ....debt which the
American people are obliged to pay with interest." In 1958 the U.S.
owned $700 million ounces of gold. Today the nations bullion reserves
have dwindled to a mere 281,000,000 ounces ($100 billion dollars)
which is minuscule in relationship to the amount of paper currency in
circulation and the amount of Treasury debt. The goal of the Fed is
to make gold irrelevant as a measure of monetary value so it can
continue to print an unlimited amount of paper currency.
5: False. Despite numerous attempts by Congressman Wright Patman and
others who have called for an audit of the books of the Federal
Reserve System, no audit has been made available to the public since
the System was founded in 1913. On March 1, 1982, the Arizona State
Legislature, as well as a number of other states passed a resolution
calling for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve System. All
efforts to expose and change the System have been thwarted.
6: False. Easy, Fed monetary policy in the late 1970's led to double
digit inflation and a prime rate that eventually reached 21.5% in
1981. This caused the collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry.
Congress, accommodating the banking lobby, passed the Garn-St Germain
Act to bail out the Savings and Loans. Stimulated by a rush of new
money created by the Fed, attractive real estate tax laws, and the
authority to directly invest in real estate deals, the Savings and
Loans quickly created a speculative bubble of overvalued real estate.
By 1990 the massive amount of bad real estate loans caused a banking
crisis. The Resolution Trust Corp. was formed to market foreclosed
real estate, and the biggest write down of real estate assets since
the Great Depression began. Thus, in a period of 12 years, the Fed
was obliged to bail out both the Savings and Loan and the banking
industries as a direct result of its own monetary policy. Incredibly,
the losses were absorbed, not by the Fed, but by the taxpayers and
the shareholders of the local institutions that collapsed. Millions
of Americans went bankrupt in the early 1990's and to this day don't
understand what happened.
7: False. The history of the Federal Reserve System in the U.S. is a
study of money and power and its ability to determine world events. A
small group of elitists, their successors and assigns have been able
to influence public opinion through control of the media, elect or
discharge Presidents and politicians, make wars and cause economic
booms and busts. Neither the President of the U.S., nor the Chairman
of The Federal Reserve Board act independently. They both hold office
at the discretion of those who control the Federal Reserve System and
those wealthy elitists who are intent on establishing a New World
order. Alan Greenspan said in 1966 "The abandonment of the gold
standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking
system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit." Greenspan's
view changed dramatically after he became a director of J.P. Morgan
and Co. and later the Fed Chairman.
8: False. The markets and the demand for money ultimately determine
interest rates. The fed sets in the Discount Rate (the rate at which
member banks borrow from the Fed) and the Fed Funds Rate. (the rate
which banks charge each other on overnight funds) Both of these rates
are short-term interest rates. At present the Fed is increasing these
rates while at the same time maintaining that inflation is only 2.6%
and not a problem. Low rates and an increase in the money supply have
fueled a "speculative bubble" in the stock market. Additional
increases in rates could slow the economy and cause a market crash.
The Fed has found itself again in a dilemma which it created.
9: False. The fed has acted directly as bank of "last resort."
Normally, loans to other countries would be made by the International
Monetary Fund, the Bank of International Settlements or other
entities which are primarily funded by the Fed. In the case of
Mexico, however, the Fed made a loan directly to that country after
the President by-passed Congress and issued an Executive Order.
Reliable sources indicate that the Fed has recently delivered
approximately $40 billion newly printed $100 bills to Russian banks
which are controlled by the Russian Mafia. Since 1940 the U.S. dollar
has lost 94% of its value. The prolific printing of our currency, the
mounting $5.3 trillion in Federal Debt and the widening trade deficit
could soon result in the crash of the U.S. dollar and disastrous
ramifications for Americans.
10: True. 66% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the U.S. is
consumer spending, and the spending habits of the American people are
greatly influenced by the cost of money. Understanding an overview of
how the Fed works and anticipating a major shift in monetary policy
can be extremely critical for a business person as well as an
investor. The bottom line question is: Whose interest does the
Federal Reserve serve? The bankers or the people? Now you know the
answer to that question.
SOURCE: "Secrets of The Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins.
Available from We Hold These Truths for $15.00.
___________________________
** The What Matters Programme is an initiative by Boudewijn Wegerif, to
spread information about what is happening in the world today, and how
things could be, given a schooling at all levels to free the self and the
world from debt/guilt oppression and money madness - a schooling for love.
The trustees of the What Matters Programme are the collegiate of
Folkhögskola Vårdinge By, an adult education residential college south of
Stockholm.
You can read WHAT MATTERS E-letters 1-39 at the WHAT MATTERS web site –
http://www.whatmatters.nu/wmemails/wmemailsindex.html
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the WHAT MATTERS E-letters:
http://www.whatmatters.nu/contacts.html
Boudewijn Wegerif,
Torsberget, 669 92, Deje, Sweden.
=====================================
I recommend:
Non-CFR news and analysis of the WTC crashbombing frame-up
of Afganistan and related matters
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.rense.com
http://www.copvcia.com
http://www.Public-Action.com
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/
http://daastol.com/EurasianGreatGame/
My key articles available at:
http://www.memes.org/article.php?sid=743
http://www.apfn.org/old/apfncont.htm
(many helpful discussant/activists archived here)
Solution oriented (good men, good minds, right objective,
appropriate means):
http://www.whatmatters.nu/wmemails/wmemailsindex.html
http://members.ams.chello.nl/jsteenis
Action:
Ron Paul for President in 2004
(both a call for reform and a protest in
one well-placed constructive best shot)
http://www.petitiononline.com/Paul2004/
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