What Have The Central Banks Of The World Done Now?

"The central banks of the world are acting as if it is 2008 all over again. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now the central bankers are pulling out all the stops. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank have announced a coordinated plan to provide liquidity support to the global financial system.

According to the plan, the Federal Reserve is going to substantially reduce the interest rate that it charges the European Central Bank to borrow dollars. In turn, that will enable the ECB to lend dollars to European banks at a much cheaper rate. The hope is that this will alleviate the credit crunch which has gripped the European financial system by the throat. So where is the Federal Reserve going to get all of these dollars that it will be loaning out at very low interest rates?

You guessed it - the Fed is just going to create them out of thin air. Our currency is being debased so that Europe can be helped out. Unfortunately, the impact of this move will be mostly "psychological" because it really does nothing to address the fundamental problems that Europe is facing. It is up to Europe to solve those problems, and so far Europe has shown no signs of being able to do that.

The major central banks of the world say that they want to "enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system." But essentially what is happening is that the Federal Reserve is going to be zapping large amounts of dollars into existence and loaning them out to the ECB very, very cheaply. Think of it as a type of "quantitative easing" on a global scale.

The decision to do this was reportedly made by the Federal Reserve on Monday morning. For the moment, this move seems to have stabilized the European financial system. It is quite unlikely that any major European banks will fail this weekend now.

But as mentioned above, this move does nothing to solve the very serious financial problems that Europe is facing. This intervention by the central banks is merely just a speed bump on the road to financial oblivion." (snip) ...

Read the complete article at this website:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/what-have-the-central-banks-of-the-world-done-now

NOTE: More relevant articles about "banking" at this website:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/category/banksters

Introducing Favabank - A New UK Social Bartering Website

FAVABANK Announces Pre-Launch Alpha Version of New UK Social Bartering Website.

"Favabank is a free social bartering website encouraging users to share their time, skills, resources, spaces, and everyday items with one another, using a virtual currency. This website provides a place for neighbours in the UK to get to know one another better through sharing favours and reducing waste by passing on everyday items.

Favabank.co.uk is a free to use neighbourhood portal for bartering favours and everyday items amongst community members. Favabank offers a mutual credit currency, called a 'Fava', which accounts for all transactions. Users may crowdsource favours, in the form of time, skills or resources, by posting geographically searchable wanted & offered ads. The website matches those with resources, skills or time available to those with a compatible need. Favabank falls into the growing trend known as 'Collaborative Consumption' which describes the use of technology to facilitate peer-to-peer sharing on an unprecedented scale.

Favabank.co.uk allows users to build their bartering reputations through the transparency of historical user transactions and its feedback system. Users may get to know one another through a social area, private messaging, and viewing suggestions of other users in their area who they may wish to connect with. Users are invited to think about the skills or resource they have and how they could share them with others in their neighbourhoods.

This social bartering website is ideal for people who want to contribute more to their community by discovering needs they may be able to fulfil. By connecting with their neighbours on Favabank, people can begin to feel more integrated with their communities, discovering the names of other people living on their street. It will be easier for them to ask for a neighbourly favour if ever they should need to.

With economies in decline, ordinary people being hit by job losses and government austerity measures, and concerns over the very survival of some of the world's currencies, we can build our own currencies for small local transactions between ordinary people. Each unit of the 'Fava' currency is created the moment that a trade occurs, showing as a debit / credit on the accounts of those involved in the trade. It is a peer-to-peer currency derived from the act of helping a fellow community member and the size of the Favabank economy will come to reflect the size of neighbourhood good will and generosity.

The website has been alpha tested in the UK during 2011, receiving a warm response from those have have used it. For those wanting to unleash the potential lying dormant and undiscovered in their own street they can now start connecting with their neighbours at http://www.favabank.co.uk

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Favabank/129457383784172
Twitter: @favabank
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/favabank

About Favabank:

Favabank is a UK based social bartering website allowing users to share their time, skills, resources, spaces, and everyday items with one another, using a virtual currency. This website provides a place for neighbours to get to know one another better through sharing favours and reducing waste by passing on unwanted items. Favabank is currently in final stages of alpha testing, with launch anticipated in late 2011." (snip) ...

This article is originally published at this website:
http://www.favabank.co.uk/index.php/about/press_23112011_favabank_pre_launch

NOTE: The Favabank website: http://www.favabank.co.uk

Iceland Rebuffs The Banksters

By Joseph P. Farrell

"Remember back when all this financial “crisis” started? It was Iceland that first went belly up. Now, recently, of course, we’ve been treated to endless news about Greece,Italy, and to a lesser extent, Spain and Portugal. Greece and Italy are of particular interest, because of course, the banksters have seen to it that “technocrats” – a nice fancy term for money managers, carpetbaggers, and banksters – will “rescue” Greece and Italy from the bumbling hands of their politicians and democratic processes, and restore “order” to their fiscal houses. Hip hip hurray for the banksters, that wise and beneficent class of well-intentioned businessmen out to create a world of sustainable growth and peace.

Except….what happened to Iceland?

Well, the IMF, the big British and Dutch banks, tried to do in Iceland what they’re attempting to do in Greece and Italy, namely, introduce “austerity” and make each Icelandic citizen pay increased taxes to bail out the banks. Iceland, however, didn’t play ball quite the way the City of London and Zurich and Basel wanted them to play. Instead, they put the whole matter up to a popular referendum of their citizenry – note that didn’t happen here in the supposedly “free” USA whose compliant bought-and-paid-for Congress bailed out American banks – and of course, as to be expected, the tiny nation’s citizenry of about 325,000 people overwhelmingly told their bankster class to go to hell, criminalized their behavior, and just for good measure, began to arrest some of them…. and to put out Interpol arrest warrants for the rest that fled the country.

Then, just for good measure, the Icelanders decided it was time for a new constitution, which was being written not by a committee of politicians behind closed doors, but by the entire nation’s citizenry online, on the Internet. Doubtless we haven’t heard about that too, because we can well imagine it has a few things to say about private international central banks too. Don’t believe me?

Read about it at this website: Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not

Now, to put all this in perspective, it would be as if the Occupy Movement had suddenly grown a pair, and a brain to match, grew to national majority proportions, decided to pressure the politicians to such an extent that they had to round up the shareholders of the “too big to fail banks,” brokerage houses, and coordinate a series of Marine raids on the Federal Reserve banks before the latter’s shredders could destroy the incriminating evidence, and audit the whole mess, and throw the various major shareholders of same in the pokey for criminality. No such luck here, but hats off to Iceland for having the moxie to do so." (snip) ...

This article is originally published at this website:
http://gizadeathstar.com/2011/11/iceland-rebuffs-the-banksters

NOTE: Joseph P. Farrell's website: http://www.gizadeathstar.com

Currency in the Community

BY MATT PRESCOTT
November 2011

"A growing group of communities are attempting to break away from the constraints of their official currency. The results include the charming Lewes, Totnes, Brixton and Tooting pounds, to name but a few British ones, and the noteworthy ‘BerkShares’ from the Berkshire area of Massachusetts, which boasts over 2.7 million BerkShares in circulation. This is no new experiment – it has its origins reaching back to the earliest forms of exchange – and it was re-imagined early in the 20th Century by the Swiss Wirtschaftsring to overcome currency shortages in the 1930s. Like many ideas co-opted by the sustainability community, it combines something old with something new.

Whatever the barriers, community currencies offer a way to bring visibility to the environmentally and socially damaging effects of our consumer culture. Hotbeds for local creativity, they are sometimes geographical, but at other times based on a disparate community of shared interest. They could play a role in articulating a more sustainable and progressive way out of the current financial malaise. Certainly for an environmentalist wondering how society can attempt to sidestep an upsurge in consumerism the minute the recession comes to an end, it’s an idea worthy of closer examination.

A community currency, as the name implies, operates within a defined community, ordinarily a town. Let’s invent the Robertsbridge franc. Normally used in parallel to the official currency, a hairdresser, for instance, might accept both Robertsbridge francs and British pounds. He or she might then be able to buy more vegetables from another participating trader with those Robertsbridge francs than with the equivalent ordinary pounds otherwise earned from the same haircut. Whatever happens, the Robertsbridge francs don’t leave Robertsbridge.

These transactions encourage an awareness of the provenance of goods, provide support for local traders and micro-enterprise, can lead to greater local employment and even counter a national economic downturn – very much ‘power to the people’. However, from the perspective of the environmentalist, they do something more profound – they don’t treat the environment as an infinite source of resources to be commoditised and sold, because the actors in the economy – local people – identify with the resources available locally and their natural limits.

It’s not about a green financial revolution. After all, community currencies have their limitations – they are unable to finance investments for instance – so they need to be seen as parallel, not alternative. However, they may offer real help in articulating a subtle shift towards a more sustainable economy. They exhibit few of the attributes of conventional currencies which cause concern to many environmentalists – fewer trade barriers, expanding markets and the commoditisation of everything conceivable, from the naming of stars to the pricing a tonne of carbon offset. Parallel and community currencies stimulate a complete reconsideration of value. Not only could they better calibrate the value of a sandwich lunch as compared to a haircut, but perhaps even determine the cost to the community of air pollution from vehicles passing through, maybe even tax it.

Back in the world of the familiar, retailer loyalty programmes – a form of parallel currency – have traditionally been employed to stimulate spending in the official currency. In these may lie a way forward. They have been recast by the more environmentally and socially conscious into projects like Wedgecard, a loyalty card for local shops, and as green incentive points, such as ‘Green Rewards’ points.

In an enlightened move to encourage greener behaviour through rewards linked to greener retail and support for local charities, Green Rewards have recently implemented a programme in the London Borough of Bexley to improve municipal recycling rates. Success is a win-win – residents receive ‘green rewards’ for positive behaviour change and the local authority saves money on the cost of landfill, which finances the rewards. Easily translated into other positive environmental behaviour changes, such as saving energy, schemes like this can deliver incremental, achievable environmental benefits, are scalable, affordable and involve no re-engineering of the financial system.

There are many more angles to explore, including both the Local Exchange Trading System, an informal local trading scheme first set up in British Columbia in the 1980s and now operating in over a thousand small communities around the world, time banks, and the energy-specific personal carbon trading schemes. Of these, there are several proposed variations, each designed to reduce energy use by individuals or householders to within centrally agreed national or global limits using a tradable carbon allowance.

All of these connected ideas offer opportunities for organisations of any kind to stimulate participation and innovation around shared goals. Corporates can, for instance, associate carbon budgets with individual teams or departments in the form of a number of tradable carbon units. Acting as a carbon spendthrift can not only be used as one important performance metric, but associated with a bonus or other benefit, while excessive spend could impact on next year’s budget or trigger a performance review. Beyond carbon, other environmental costs could be internally commoditised and used to focus minds on specific areas of sustainability performance.

So is this a thought experiment for middle class greens or the basis for a genuine shift in the social norms and behaviours of individuals, consumers and community or organisations members, irrespective of their underlying motivations and attitudes? Unlike a national or international ‘carbon price’, community currencies operate at the grassroots level, can be easily adopted by online communities, from workforces to charity members to campaign groups, and any quantitative easing is a sign of success." (snip) ...

This article is originally published at this website:
http://www.robertsbridgegroup.com/what-we-think/currency-in-the-community

NOTE: Matt Prescott is a co-founder of The Robertbridge Group.

Out of the parks, into our lives: Move beyond Occupy

By Laura Kaminker

Shortly after the Occupy Movement began to make headlines, my friend and comrade Dr. J wrote this on his blog your heart's on the left:

Is occupation a tactic or a principle? Should the focus be on the internal procedures of those actively occupying, or outreach to broader communities and struggles? How do we build a movement of the 99%?

. . . As the temperature drops, it will become more unsustainable to maintain outdoor occupations, and prioritizing this over outreach beyond the occupation will cut the movement off from broader struggles. . . . As we've seen from Tahrir to Wisconsin, occupations are simply one tactic in a broader movement for change. The main strategy needs to be the active participation of masses of people -- in the streets, campuses, and workplaces.

Dr. J. was ahead of the curve. Right now, as the Occupy Movement becomes immersed in struggles with city governments and abusive police, there is the risk of the act of occupation being fetishized, an end in itself, rather than a symbolic, strategic and tactical expression of a larger movement.

I'm not suggesting -- not for a moment -- that Occupy Wall Street walk away from The People's Library like nothing happened. Or that the students at UCal Davis -- when their eyes and lungs heal -- shrug their shoulders and quietly return to class. Or that Rob Ford win without a fight. I am concerned, however, that the central message of economic injustice -- and everything that stems from it -- is at risk of being lost amid battles for the right to protest in public spaces.

The impetus for this movement was not the right to sleep in parks. The rights of assembly, expression and protest are of paramount importance, and must be constantly defended. But we must not lose perspective. The message is "We are the 99%". And most of the 99 per cent can't sleep in the park.

For the movement to continue, it needs to both broaden and deepen. Broaden to the thousands upon thousands of people who cannot join an occupation, but who support the same ideals and values, who believe people and our needs are more important than profit. And deepen, with a historical perspective on other anti-capitalist struggles, and building a more just society. To do this, the movement must build and strengthen connections with existing movements that are fighting for the same thing.

In my many years as an activist, I can't count how many times I've been buttonholed by a stranger here to tell me The Answer. "Do you know what you guys have to do?" is the usual opening line. This person doesn't come to meetings, doesn't understand the complexities of the situation, makes no effort to get involved. He sits on the sidelines and criticizes.

I never want to be one of those people. Only the Occupy Movement -- the people creating it, day-to-day - can chart the movement's course. I fully respect that.

I write this only as a hope. I have thrilled to see this movement -- to see, at long last, people in North America organize around economic justice. And I fear that the broader struggle may be lost in the specific battles over sleeping in parks.

Well, not quite. Even if the Occupy Movement as presently conceived were to fizzle out tomorrow, it would still have accomplished so much.

It focused the national and international conversation on the injustices of capitalism. Wow! That's something I thought I'd never see.

People organized themselves and created a grassroots, democratic, decentralized and leaderless culture. People acted collectively, many for the first time.

Others saw their own values reflected in the protests and realized that they, too, could participate. They got a glimpse of their own potential to create change.

These gains are huge. They are nothing short of the discovery of an alternative model for society. So whatever happens next, I applaud the Occupiers with all my heart.

In addition, movements ebb and flow. Occupy Wall Street (and everywhere else) was related to the Arab Spring, and to the labour uprising in Wisconsin, and to countless smaller and less visible actions and protests taking place all the time. So if Occupy disappears tomorrow, that doesn't mean it has disappeared forever.

But it's time to talk about the future. How do we include everyone who supports this movement but could not physically occupy? How can Occupy link up with established and existing revolutionary movements?

How can we truly Occupy Everywhere?" (snip) ...

This article is originally published at this website:
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/11/out-parks-our-lives-move-beyond-occupy

Laura Kaminker is a Toronto-area writer and activist. Her blog is WMTC

Banks Are Evil, We're All Angry And Facing Bankruptcy, Let's Switch To Alternative Currency

"Money has been privatized by stealth, the greatest privatization in history has gone unnoticed, it's time to take from the banks the power to produce money", Ben Dyson writes in his article published a few days ago by the Guardian. "You know, my son, it's really unbelievable how stupid one can be when his job depends on how stupid he can become", mama said to Forest Gump who browsed through the pages of the largest national daily newspaper - ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections - filled with invitations and promises in which desperate workers and farmers have invested all their hopes. "Well, mom", Forest replied, "if banks are evil, and if we're all angry and facing bankruptcy, then let's switch to alternative currency"!

Are we simply just a lazy people who spend and consume beyond our purchasing capabilities and are now paying for our own negligence, or there is something else at work here that surpasses humankind's perception, provoking our intelligence and awareness? Is there anyone out there who still doesn't know that our global monetary system is a cause of enormous social stress we face today? For many centuries, there has been widespread infinite unpayable debt use. In the same way that common citizens must take out a third, fourth, fifth, and so on mortgage to repay their credit card obligations; powerful international banks have pushed world governments into a debt slavery trap from which there is no escape.

In these days when crucial moves for entire humanity are being pulled, extraordinary comedies of the absurd are taking place between those who know whose interest they continue to serve, and those who are doomed to suffer most. In short, officially, there is no solution on the horizon other than borrowing new money - all prescribed measures to deal with the current financial crisis incur more new debt to pay interest rates on old debt.

With utmost secrecy, in the period between December 2007 and July 2010, the FED distributed $US 16.1 trillion in emergency loans to financial entities all over the world. Almost half of this, a total of $US 7.75 trillion was given to four US banks: Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and the Bank of America. In July 2010, total US stock market capitalization was $US 15 trillion - the Federal Reserve injected about half of that. In a situation where politicians around the world are heavily trying to save the bankrupt banks and their global financial derivatives empire, almost all responsible for the social life are working to deceive the public by reciting text of the surreal comedy.

Everything is always predetermined in advance, free market does not exist and democracy is also just a propagandized image of a reality that exists only in our mentally programmed collective mind. The industry of terror and fear only serves as an excuse for subjugation of the popular masses. George Carlin, one of the most brilliant comedians of the twentieth century, once said: "You don't have choices, you have owners - that's the real reason why education sucks and why it will never ever ever be fixed".
We have stepped into the most important adventure in all of human history, in which money language is the most influential as well as the most widely used medium for formalization of the individual and collective capacities. If we fail to change the money, we will fail to escape death from cancer that devours us and this beautiful planet. Without self-reflection, understanding, new ideas, new kind of currencies and sustainable money philosophies; we truly can’t solve any of our problems.

So, how do we move towards a desired rapid economic, political, social and cultural transformation; or in other words, toward human, citizen and monetary sovereignty?

Time is the major value that life has to offer, and money is the perfect instrument to usurp from the people their time to live and evolve. Time is a way to increase the debt based production - often purposeless - and dominate the masses. Lack of time is what keeps us on this incredibly absurd route to cataclysm.

Learning the power of currencies enables us to dominate the power of the time.

People and business can choose to use a much better option than bank money, they are free to accept alternative currencies and exchange their products and services in a new way that is not damaging but rather good for all society.

Free Planet Currency is a simple and transparent alternative currency concept in which - regardless of where they live - people are enabled to barter or trade by paying in something what essentially is a sustainable substitute for imposed legal tender money.

You are kindly invited to explore if this kind of approach of building confidence between groups and individuals, companies and institutions through the freshly renovated payment infrastructure integrated within the specifically designed network for this purpose - makes sense to you in our "nothing can be changed" lives." (snip) "..

This article is originally published at this website:
http://cromalternativemoney.org/index.php/en/media/news/banks-are-evil-were-all-angry-and-facing-bankruptcy-lets-switch-to-alternative-currency.html

Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week - A Review

It was a whirlwind, seven days for this Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week from November 13th to 19th, 2011. A team of professionals from Grasshopper Media followed usuryfree creatives to various events and made some good video clips that will be shared with the world in the not-too-distant future. Watch for Grasshopper Media to release video clips at YouTube and at other internet sites. Readers are invited to view: "UsuryFree Week 7th Annual Highlights"

For the pre-launch of this Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week, usuryfree creatives gathered in Kitchener, Ontario on Saturday, November 12th, for a FREE, Public Forum titled: “Towards A Peaceful Economy - Solutions For The 99%.” Movie excerpts were shown, followed by discussions and dialogue and working groups.

The problems associated with the design flaw of usury were addressed in follow-up presentations and Winged Lion Awards were presented. The keynote, guest speaker was George Crowell who delivered an address titled: “Turning Our Monetary System Into A Creative Force.”

On Sunday, November 13th (UsuryFree Day), usuryfree creatives were invited to Conspiracy Culture in Toronto, Ontario for the official launch of the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week. Two guest speakers shared the floor. Peter Jon Simpson from Atwater, Minnesota and John “King of the Paupers” Turmel from Brantford, Ontario entertained and informed usuryfree creatives on issues relating to (a) our failing and faltering, orthodox, economic system of usury-based, debt money and (b) solution-oriented ideas and concepts that can be implemented immediately to save ourselves from total, economic enslavement as planned by the global, usury bankers.

Of course, the usuryfree community currency movement was lauded for its power and potential for we-the-people to shift the way we spend our money by shopping with local and home-based businesses where trades and exchanges can be negotiated using a usuryfree community currency as a complement with our diminishing amounts of federal cash. The concept of "Shop Locally" was promoted and consumers were encouraged to change the way they spend their money.

The usuryfree community currency movement is now recognized for its working models that are currently functioning in countries all over the world. It was suggested that the word “dollar” be avoided when labelling or identifying any usuryfree community currency and the word “wampum” was offered as an optimal label for any newly launched usuryfree community currencies.

The concept of a usuryfree time currency was explained as the potential, universal trading unit, since one hour of time is valued at 60 minutes on every continent on planet earth.

John Turmel, leader of the Pauper Party of Ontario explained how usuryfree creatives could take advantage of the tax credit program available to duly registered political parties in the province of Ontario. Since the Pauper Party of Ontario is fully supportive of the usuryfree community currency movement, John invited usuryfree creatives to double as volunteers for the Pauper Party of Ontario and thereby be eligible to collect and submit any receipts for expenses incurred for promotion of the usuryfree community currency movement as one plank of the platform advocated by the Pauper Party of Ontario.

On Monday afternoon, November 14th, a group of usuryfree creatives met at Robert Shackleton’s enterprise called “Orthodics Plus” in Brantford, Ontario. Robert Shackleton explained and demonstrated the concept of priority balancing (muscle balancing) and how it reactivates seven dysfunctions that virtually always result from foot distortion. It is the goal of usuryfree creatives to promote this breakthrough approach to achieving and maintaining optimal health and wellness so that they will prevent pain and performance problems when they are travelling and networking the truth about the problems associated with modern money creation and the solutions that will help usher in new age of usuryfree living for everyone on this planet.

On Monday evening, November 14th, usuryfree creatives were invited to attend Sydney White’s lecture at the Free University of Toronto, about “Understanding the First, Second, and Third World Wars” as part of her ongoing series titled “Studies In Propaganda.” Sydney focused on the insanity of war and how the global banking cartel profit from all wars by craftily funding both sides - but offering just a little more funds to whomever they choose to be the victors.

On Tuesday, November 15th, usuryfree creatives gathered in Hamilton, Ontario for discussions and dialogue on various topics - all of which are directly and/or indirectly related to the evil and immoral function of usury as the killer machine within our orthodox, economic system of usury-based, debt money. Kudos to Frankie Gotz and his mother for hosting a community dinner for usuryfree creatives in the Hamilton area who were celebrating the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week. Frankie earned himself a Winged Lion Award for the video clip that he made to promote the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week titled: "Time Currency Explained by Tom J. Kennedy."

On Wednesday, November 16th, usuryfree creatives gathered in Niagara Falls, Ontario for a meeting about health and wellness matters during the day, and yet another meeting in Port Colborne, Ontario in the evening. In Niagara Falls, Bruce McBurney gave a presentation about alternative health and wellness therapies eg. colloidal silver, colloidal gold, vibration and frequency healing etc.

Bruce McBurney doubles as a mechanic and he explained how usuryfree creatives could be travelling and getting 100 miles per gallon with their vehicles - except that the major oil corporations have succeeded in burying the technology of various inventors over the past century.

In the evening, at Port Colborne, usuryfree creatives learned lots about organic food growing and permaculture from John Miller. And usuryfree creatives were introduced to Cari-Lee Miller, host of Lifting-the-Veil - Free Think Radio. John and Cari-Lee were gracious hosts for yet another community dinner for usuryfree creatives. Many thanks for their hospitality.

On Thursday, November 17th, thanks to Jack DebtFree Elliott, a group of usuryfree creatives from London, Ontario were invited to the Holiday Inn Express for repeat presentations from John Turmel and Peter Jon Simpson.

On Friday, November 18th, the Family Life Foundation - a co-sponsor of various events for the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week hosted a dinner for usuryfree creatives and offered overnight accommodations in exchange for tokens of usuryfree community currency. The Family Life Foundation - a duly registered charitable organization, founded by Rev. Lindsay King in 1974, has been co-sponsoring events with the UsuryFree Network since the very first UsuryFree Week in 2005.

On Saturday, November 19th, a number of usuryfree creatives decided to visit “Occupy Toronto” to meet and talk with various tent-and-yurt people who were occupying St. James Park in downtown Toronto, Ontario.

Indeed, it is evident that occupy protestors are somewhat aware of the ever-increasing economic disparity between debtors and creditors (bankers), but too many are not yet aware of the solutions as offered by the usuryfree community currency movement. The good news is that the tent-and-yurt people with whom the usuryfree creatives engaged in conversation at “Occupy Toronto” were open-minded and welcomed the information that was shared about how the usuryfree community currency movement is mutually beneficial for all who choose to participate.

Though the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week ended on November 19th, there was yet another important meeting scheduled to be hosted by the Kingston Chapter of Comer on Sunday, November 20th and usuryfree creatives were invited to attend. At the Comer meeting in Kingston, Ontario, William Khrem was honoured as he celebrated his 98th birthday. It was William Khrem who founded Comer in the mid-1980’s.

The Kingston Chapter of Comer hosts a monthly meeting at 2:00 PM on the 3rd Sunday of each month and usuryfree creatives or otherwise are invited to attend. After the Comer meeting in Kingston, some usuryfree creatives ventured to Confederation Park in downtown Kingston where the “Occupy Kingston” protestors had pitched their tents. It was a pleasure once again to converse with some intelligent youth about the usuryfree community currency movement.

During the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week, numerous Winged Lion Awards were bestowed on individuals and/or groups for their ongoing efforts to help usher in a new age of usuryfree living for everyone on planet earth.

As the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week ends, we as active, usuryfree creatives salute the millions from all over the world who have participated in rallies and marches initiated by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. While there is much debate about who initiated the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and why - there is much evidence that it has struck a nerve within the common people all over the world.

For the most part, the “Occupy” protestors have been peaceful and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity as they seek to express their divergent opinions in a safe and respectful environment. The overwhelming response from awakening people everywhere, indicates they are seeking a message of justice and equality for everyone on this planet.

We - the usuryfree creatives will continue to share our message about the possibility of everyone experiencing the reality of usuryfree living and we encourage “Occupiers” everywhere to launch their economic lifeboats - a usuryfree community currency - in their respective, local communities as the last, best hope to free ourselves from the ultimate, economic slavery that the New World Order advocates (usury bankers) are planning for our future generations.

Let’s start planning events NOW for the Eighth Annual UsuryFree Week from November 13th to 19th, 2011. Forward details of your plans to: The UsuryFree Network, P. O.Box 9333, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 3V1 Email: usuryfree@gmail.com
The UsuryFree Eye Opener

Will "Occupy" End Up Doing The Bidding Of The Global Elites?

By Patrick Henningsen

"Slobodan Miloševic's downfall was in part down to a 'regime change' manual from a Boston thinktank.

A 21st-century grassroots movement faces many pitfalls. This was as true back in 1968as it is today. It could be infiltrated by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, or co-opted by a major party. As the state continues to creep further into our lives, activists can expect that it will use all its resources – not just the violent reaction seen in New York overnight, but also its agents, informants and surveillance packages – in its effort to monitor both sides of any serious social debate.

Even bleaker, however, is the possibility that the movement was actually planned and launched by the very establishment activists thought they were waging a battle against in the first place. The larger the movement, the more interested a major party becomes in absorbing it into either the left or the right side of the current two-party paradigm.

The sudden emergence of America's Tea Party movement in 2007 is a good example. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, its inventor, used it as a springboard to highlight libertarian and constitutional issues during his 2008 campaign. Soon after, it was co-opted by key political and media influencers from the US right wing, associating itself less with the libertarian manifesto, and more with emerging figures within the Republican establishment. Now it is has morphed into nothing more than a block of voters whom the Republican party can rely to strike a deal with during an election cycle.

Arguably, the Occupy Wall Street movement has already drifted into the shadow of the Democratic party – with a number of Democratic establishment figures from the top down endorsing it. The Democrats' own media fundraising and media machine, Move On, has visibly adopted the cause. Like the Tea Party before it, the Occupy block would swing a close election during a national two-party race, functioning as a pressure-release valve for any issue too radical for the traditional platform.

Alongside this is the threat of being infiltrated. Scores of declassified documents, along with accounts from veteran activists, will reveal many stories of members who were actually undercover police, FBI or M15. In the worst cases of infiltration, undercover agents have acted as provocateurs. Such incidents normally serve to radicalise a movement, thus demonising it in the eyes of society and effectively lessening its wider political appeal.

Although the global Occupy movement has branched out in an open-source way, many of its participants and spectators might be completely unaware of who actually launched it. Upon investigation, what one finds is a daisy chain of non-profit foundations, all tied together by hundreds of millions per year in operational funding. The original call for Occupy Wall Street came from non-profit international media foundation Adbusters.

Like many non-profits, Adbusters receives its funding and operating capital from other behind-the-scenes organisations. According to research conducted by watchdog Activistcash, Adbusters takes a significant portion of its money from the Tides Foundation, an organisation partnered with one of Wall Street billionaire oligarch George Soros's foundations, the Open Society Institute.

Although mostly hidden from the public eye, all major foundations and professional thinktanks undertake research and host training seminars, which are used to influence certain public and foreign policies, and thus, must have a political agenda. Theirs is the venue of choice for activities that cannot officially be conducted on the government clock.

Freedom House is another of Soros's Open Society partners. It supports the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (Canvas), an organisation started by Serbians Ivan Marovic and Srdja Popovic. After playing a pivotal role in the CIA-backed deposing of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, the western media hailed Marovic as a democratic genius, but it came out later that his programme came out of an elite Boston thinktank's "regime change" manual, From Dictatorship to Democracy, written by Harvard professor Gene Sharp.

Sharp's book is a bible of the colour revolutions – a "regime change for dummies". His Albert Einstein Institution has received funds from the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundations, and his work serves as a template for western-backed opposition leaders in soft coups all around the world.

There are also reports of Canvas activity during the early days of Occupy Wall Street, including a video of Marovic himself addressing the general assembly. Currently, Canvas are touting their recent role in working with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters from as early as 2009, teaching skills that helped bring down their presidents and spark regional revolt.

When the dust settles and it's all said and done, millions of Occupy participants may very well be given a sober lesson under the heading of "controlled opposition". In the end, the Occupy movement could easily end up doing the bidding of the very elite globalist powers that they were demonstrating against to begin with. To avoid such an outcome, it's important for a movement to have a good knowledge of history and the levers of power in the 21st century." (snip) ...

• Patrick Henningsen is speaking on Deep Politics and the Revolutions Business at Tent City University at St Paul's on Sunday, 20 November at 4pm

An Essay About Usury By Michael Murphy

"Why is usury strictly prohibited by God? Why is it in its essence, evil? It is quite easy to understand in our time, under the structure of the present world economy. All the money in use today (money as we generally understand it), is lent into existence (at interest) by the central banks of the major corporate and industrial nations--the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

We are speaking here of money, as money has come to be defined for us over time, for in reality the money we use--whether it be cowrey shells or dollars--is, firstly, a way of keeping an impersonal account of all of our transactions, but more importantly a substitution, not for the things we buy and sell but for the labor and the time it actually took to make a product or provide a service--a point well worth noting, for those who actually perform work with their hands, or render services to others, possess all the true wealth in the world. (When the crises come, and they will come, we will not be able to eat money...think about that...Zephaniah 1:14-18). So how did they, who do no actual work with their own hands, get to be in charge of all the money in the world? Think about that)

The overall supply of money is regulated into the economy (according to the shifting concerns of the central bankers) through the large commercial as well as neighborhood banks with which we in turn do business. The banks in turn support themselves through further investments in the economy (investments in the labors of other human beings) and the charging of interest (usury). When a borrower goes to the bank for a loan, whether it be a government, a large corporation or a private individual, it promises to pay back a sum of money greater than the sum they borrowed. The wickedness begins at this point. Where will the borrower get the money to pay the interest (usury) on the loan? This money does not exist anywhere in the economy. It is not there. Only the total amount of the principle on all loans exists in the economy, because that is all that was borrowed or lent into existence.

The amount of the interest (usury) due is not to be found, anywhere. It was never lent into the total supply of money upon which everybody in the economy draws. So where does the borrower go to get this added money that they owe on their loans if it doesn't exist--so that they may remain as members in good standing in the economic system, so that they may continue to borrow in the future?

They must figure out how to shift more of the existing supply of money in the economy in their own direction. They must, right along with the rich and powerful who have made a cunning art of such manipulations (they like to think it is a science), steal it from the existing supply of money. Between them they must either inflate the cost of their products and services, or what they believe is their own labors, which in either case favors the processes operating from the top of the
economy down, at the ongoing expense, however, of those who dwell at the bottom of the economy and who actually do all the work." (snip)

http://www.revelation2seven.org/AboutMike.htm

NOTE: I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Murphy in June 2004. He was on a panel with myself when we were discussing "usury" at the Community Currency Conference at Bard College in New York state.

"Time Currency Explained by Tom J. Kennedy"

Kudos to Frankie Gotz for creating this video clip that focuses on "usuryfree time currency" at the optimal, usuryfree, trading currency for we-the-people to negotiate our trades and exchanges.

Frankie Gotz writes:

"I apologize for the delay of this production. Here it is" I hope it can be used for its intended purposes of advertising the Seventh Annual Usury Free Week and your upcoming presentations. I have much respect and love for you Tom, in your dedication on tryin' to wake up the masses to the truth about the functions of the monetary system and exposing the fraud of the bankstaz..

Enjoy and share the video clip which I titled: "Time Currency Explained by Tom J. Kennedy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHtGVN7-FQ

Frankie Gotz's Youtube Channel - "The Awareness Network."
http://www.youtube.com/user/FrankieGotz

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Local Currency BerkShares Used To Weather Financial Storms

US Community Uses Local Currency to Weather Financial Storms

By Selah Hennessy

"A small community in the northeastern U.S. state of Massachusetts has embarked on an effort to keep its economy growing and stave off the negative effects of globalization. In Berkshire County, many residents use a local currency called the BerkShare to buy goods, at a discount, from area businesses.

Berksire County, Massachusetts, has long had a reputation for independence, as a home to artists and musicians. And for the past few years, residents of the hilly, New England community have been using their own currency at local shops and restaurants.

One of those shops is Bike and Board, a bicycle and snowboard store in the town off Great Barrington.

Owner Stefan Root says accepting the currency, called BerkShares, is no different than accepting U.S. dollars. But he says BerkShares tie him closer to the community.

"If somebody comes in spending BerkShares, it is somebody who knows our community and wants to support our community. So yeah, there is a conversation that’s created just because someone is using something that’s a little bit different from the norm," he said.

Peter Levy, a regular customer at Bike and Board, says he likes to use BerkShares because they help him save money.

"When it’s a significant purchase I will consider using BerkShares. For my day-to-day transactions, you know, I do not use it as much because you have got to have two different currencies and the change. But, you know, if I know I am buying something that I am really going to save a significant amount of money on I absolutely will," he said.

Five banks in the area will exchange dollars for BerkShares, just like a foreign currency.

"If they bring in $95 dollars then we give them $100 in BerkShares," says Chris Lovett, who works at Berkshire Bank. "So it kind of almost offsets tax, it is kind of a nice discount we have for purchases here in town."

For Nick Kacher, from the New Economics Institute, which supports BerkShares, "The idea of BerkShares is that if you can encourage people to shop locally whenever possible instead of resorting to big box stores or Internet it strengthens the local community economy, makes it more resilient, makes it feel much more like a community. That’s a big part of the goal of BerkShares.”

He says the global financial crisis has shown that shopping locally is good because economies are volatile.

"The economy is affected by tons of national and international forces, that are often completely beyond the control of especially rural areas. So part of the idea of a local currency involve building resilient local economies is to build economies that can sustain those national and international forces," he said.

Around three million BerkShares have gone into circulation since their introduction 2006.

The BerkShares project is still evolving, but Kacher says encouraging people to do business close to home could help shelter small communities from global financial woes." (snip) ...

NOTE: This article is originally published at this website:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Community-Uses-Local-Currency-to-Weather-Financial-Storms-133374073.html

Abolish Usury Forever - How and Why?

The advent and sporadic success of the usuryfree community currency movement, with its emphasis on restoring and re-building the spirit of local communities is timely indeed, as it offers a worthy alternative at a time when our orthodox, economic system of debt-money is in embarrassing disrepute and fast decline.

The usuryfree community currency movement must be regarded as a testament to the reality of the possibility of usuryfree living - the ultimate experience of peace, prosperity and abundance for all who choose to participate.

Why and how did the usuryfree community currency movment surface during the last quarter of the 20th Century? The usuryfree community currency movement was birthed in the early 1980’s when interest (usury) rates skyrocketed to over 20%. This modern version of “bartering and trading” was launched in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada with a usuryfree community currency known as “greendollars.”

Michael Linton designed a software program which he referred to as the LETS (Local Employment Trading System) software. The usuryfree, LETS software permitted the participants to list their “offers” and “requests” on a local database. The units of trade were called “greendollars.” One “greendollar” was equivalent in value to one Canadian dollar. Since the launch of "greendollars" countless usuryfree community currencies have been launched all over the world.

Initially, a telephone answering machine recorded all of the trades or exchanges ngeotiated by the local participants. On a weekly basis, these recorded trades/exchanges were transcribed from the telephone answering machine and recorded on the LETS software program.

On a monthly basis, each participant was mailed a copy of their statement of “greendollars.” This statement showed each of the “debits” and “credits” for all of the transactions negotiated during the month. There was a final balance also. These statements resembled the monthly statements from the commercial banks. However, there was one major difference.

The key element that distinguishes the LETS software from the software used by the orthodox, banking empire is its usuryfree element. The function of interest (usury) is eliminated within the LETS software. This simply means that no “interest” or “usury” is paid on any account with a positive balance and no “interest” or “usury” is exacted on any account with a negative balance. Economic statements, minus the function of "interest" or "usury" equals fairness with abundance and prosperity for debtors and creditors.

During the early years of the usuryfree community currency movement, many of the participating traders never understood the revolutionary implications of their circulating “greendollars” - being free of interest (usury). Over the years, the issue of the evil and immoral effects of the design flaw of usury on our orthodox, economic system of debt money has tested our conventional understanding of modern money creation as it was (is) taught by our institutions of formal education.

At issue here, is the falsehood that debtors mistakenly accept as truth. Actually, there are two elements of the common falsehood: (1) creditors (banking institutions) never lend out depositors’ funds and (2) neither do creditors create and put into curculation the interest (usury) portion of any loan or mortgage. This alone causes the forever shortage of money causing debtors to seek more loans - causing a vicious and never-ending interest (usury) spiral.

As we progress into this 21st Century, more and more debtors are awakening to determine that our orthodox, economic system of usury-based, debt money is designed to keep debtors in financial bondage to creditors for generation after generation.

Today, the idea that we-the-people (the debtors) can create and spend our own usuryfree community currency is a concept that empowers us to launch our own “economic lifeboats” now so that we will be ready when their (the bankers’) usury-based, economic Titianic goes down.

Here is an empowering thought. If instead of floating a bond and payng interest (usury) to bankers, a rural municipal council voted to implement The Innovative Proposal whereby the municipal council agrees to accept a usuryfree community currency as partial payment for property taxes - what would happen?

It is almost certain that when the first municipality dares to create and spend a usuryfree community currency, other municipalities will beat a path to their door and ask: “What are you doing and how are you doing it?”

In conclusion, the only certain method of abolishing usury forever is committed, economic action about usuryfree living at the grassroots level of society.

Whether the current “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS) movement will recognize the power and potential of we-the-people (the debtors) creating and spending our own usuryfree community currency and embrace the usuryfree community currency movement remains to be seen - but it is probably our best hope to usher in a new age of usuryfree living.

The OWS movement, must be fully aware of the perfected strategy of “problem, re-action, solution” as it applies to advancing the agenda of their New World Order. The strategy of “problem, re-action, solution” has been (and is) masterfully integrated with the intention of sabotaging protestors that know something is wrong, but they have no real solutions to offer. After there has been re-action to the problem, the New World Order advocates will offer a solution that is perceievd to be for we-the-people, BUT in fact, it will ultimately foster and support their New World Order mission.

The usuryfree community currency movement will have to assume a leadership role and exercise the positive and beneficial elements of abolishing usury forever while modelling the reality of usuryfree living within our respective, local communities.

Indeed, there was “Life Without Usury” and there will be “UsuryFree Living” once again in this 21st Century.

NOTE: Do make an effort to attend an event for the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day & Week OR host an event in your local community.

Financial Literacy Month (November)

We are now approaching the mid-point of Financial Literacy Month - November. Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty launched “Financial Literacy Month” at a kick-off event at the Central YMCA on downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 31, 2011. At this event Minister Flaherty is quoted as saying: “The issue of financial literacy means a great deal to me, and it certainly means a great deal to our Government.”

Market Watch published a news item about “Financial Literacy Month” titled “Financial Literacy Month Takes Flight.”

Among the blitzkrieg of events organized by the conventional economists who advocate “financial literacy” within their (the bankers’) orthodox, economic system of debt money are some events organized by usuryfree creatives during UsuryFree Week.

Since 2005, usuryfree creatives have been organizing events about “usuryfree financial literacy.” These events commonly begin on UsuryFree Day (November 13th) and continue during UsuryFree Week - ending on November 19th each year.

Now in 2011, UsuryFree Week already has a history of promoting “usuryfree financial literacy.” At some point in the not-too-distant future, we can proclaim November as “UsuryFree Month” - with events scheduled all over the world.

Elanah K. Mijosa, a usuryfree creative is quoted as saying: “The issue of usuryfree, financial literacy means a great deal to any debtor, and it certainly means a great deal to usuryfree creatives who advocate “Life Without Usury” as it was experienced in previous times.”

While the conventional economists focus on tips on how debtors can survive by “living with usury,” usuryfree creatives focus on exposing the lies, deceit and decpetion foisted upon the unsuspecting debtors about modern money creation while promoting “usuryfree living” as our, last, best hope for financial freedom with peace, prosperity and abundance for all.

The Knowledge Bureau has released the results of a poll about “financial literacy.” Details are posted in an article titled: “New poll finds Canadians worried about their Children's Financial Future.”

The Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day & Week will be celebrated on November 13th (UsuryFree Day) and for (UsuryFree Week) from November 13th to 19th, 2011.

Since the early 1980’s, my personal focus has been (a) to expose the lies, deceit and deception that by design surrounds our faltering and failing economic system of usury-based, debt money and (b) as part of the solution and as an active usuryfree creative, I advocate that we-the-people learn how to create and spend our own usuryfree community currencies to be used as a complement with our diminishing amounts of federal cash when we negotiate trades and/or exchanges for products and/or services that we need for our personal, family and business needs.

Now in 2011, with the advent of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, more and more people are coming forth to recognize that a launching a usuryfree community currency in our respective, local communities is an integral part of solution-oriented ideas that help solve the many problems associated with the design flaw of usury.

At this time we are fast approaching the dates for the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day & Week - from November 13th to 19th, 2011. In this regard, below is the details of a few timely events scheduled for November 2011:

1) In Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on November 12th the event is titled:
Towards a Peaceful Economy: Solutions for the 99%

2) In Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 13th, 2011, we are celebrating our Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day. Our Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week follows from November 13th to 19th, 2011.

3) In Kingston, Ontario, Canada there is a meeting hosted by the Kingston Chapter of COMER (Committee on Monetary & Economic Reform), scheduled for the afternoon of November 20th, 2011, titled, “Achieving A Just Society.” For details contact Richard Priestman: Email: rdpriestman@gmail.com

***************************************************

Below are some websites with relevant, background information:

I recently posted this article at my blog - The UsuryFree Eye Opener. It offers some background information about why we celebrate UsuryFree Week each year.

Seeking UsuryFree Heaven in 2011

Readers are invited to become familiar with UsuryFree Day & Week by reviewing the information posted at these links at the UsuryFree Eye Opener:

Launch of the Seventh Annual UsuryFree Week:

A Short History of UsuryFree Day & Week:

Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day & Week

Notice of the "Seventh Annual UsuryFree Day & Week"

Here are a couple of relevant and timely songs to spread around. "Messages with music" is a great way to re-educate those who are ready and willing to be re-educated.

We've Got Your Number World Bankers by Terry Canady way back in 1985

Q-York's new song dedicated to "99 to 1" - Listen and share - the words are on the YouTube page. - I have always said that messages can be networked widely through "music with a message." I suggest that some songs be written about not only the problems associated with "usury" BUT also about the solution as offered by the usuryfree community currency movement.?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqgT0jhw08

Enjoy this day and help to spread the details of our events by forwarding this email to your friends in cyberspace.

Tom J. Kennedy aka "Tommy UsuryFree Kennedy"
http://usuryfree.blogspot.com
http://www.usuryfreeliving.net
http://www.cyberclass.net/usuryfree.htm

We've Got Your Number World Bankers!

"We've Got Your Number" is a song produced and arranged by Terry Canady and Robert Chitwood in 1985. The words were created by Terry Canady and P. Nottoli. The song was (is) dedicated to the plight of the American farmer. They were away ahead of their time by creating a song that told the "truth" about the global banking cartel! We can expect more songs like this as the debtors awaken to the "truth" about modern money creation within our economic system of usury-based, debt money?

That's 26 years ago and the plight of the farmer has worsened significantly since then. In fact, it was in the spring of 1987 when I penned the article "The Genocide Of The Farmer" and published it in the LEADS Newsletter.

In the Spring of 2010, Grasshopper Media created this montage and added Terry Canady's song in the background.

Enjoy the montage and the song as we prepare to celebrate the 7th Annual UsuryFree Day (November 13th) and UsuryFree Week (November 13th to 19th) 2011.

Thanks to Grasshopper Media for creating the video clip - "In Defense of Our Land" - which is posted at Youtube at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-5JC0BBsC8

Now in 2011, the world is awakening to the words of this great song as sang by Terry Canady in 1985 - He was way ahead of his time AND Kudos to him.

Let's be awake and aware of the "problem, reaction, solution" strategy that is so often craftily implemented by the New World Order advocates - of which the Global Banking Cartel is a key player - as they move ahead with their devious and evil agenda to further enslave us financially. Let's not permit them to co-opt, infiltrate, sabotage, the current global awakening.

Let's keep it focused on the design flaw of usury and how this malfunction of our orthodox, economic system of debt money must be abolished forever so that once again all debtors can experience "Life Without Usury."

Terry Canady's blog: http://www.terrycanady.com

Terry Canady's YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/terrycanady

Enjoy another song by Terry Canady titled "Who Were You?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDF-GrmW5o

The awakening ones are finding an abundance of relevant information for their re-education at The UsuryFree Eye Opener. Bookmark it and refer to it often!

PS: Who can awaken our Christian clergy to help us expose the "truth" about modern money creation and about the evil and immoral aspects of the design flaw of usury? I have been writing "Letters To Clergy" since the mid-1980's when I learned how and why the design flaw of usury in the killer machine that keeps debtors in financial bondage to creditors for generation after generation AND not one single clergy member has responded to agree and thereafter to take a leadership role in abolishing usury forever.

Click to read a sample of one "LETTER TO MAINSTREAM RELIGIOUS CLERGY ABOUT "USURY"

John Perkins Writes about "Occupy Wall Street"

Dear friends,

I hope this newsletter will serve to inspire you to continue keeping the pressure on those who aid the corporatocracy and in your efforts to change the world. I also wanted to share this piece on how powerful we can be in rejecting the status quo through these Occupy movements.

These are the Times. . .
By John Perkins

"A man in debt is so far a slave." - (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

My job as an economic hit man during the 1970s was to enslave nations that had resources our corporations coveted by burdening them with debts they could never repay. We then demanded that they sell those resources cheap, without social or environmental regulations, to our corporations.

It was an incredibly successful strategy. In essence it created the worlds first truly global empire and the first one that was not built primarily through military occupations. It also transformed geo-politics. The power of elected officials was usurped by those who sit at the top of the multinational corporations (the corporatocracy).

This success led to the realization that similar strategies could be applied in the United States in order to emasculate a population that was exerting its democratic rights in ways that threatened the corporatocracy forcing an end to the highly profitable Vietnam War, demanding racial and gender equality, increasing social security, Medicare, education, and other services.

By 1980, the Reagan administration understood that its most effective weapon to protect corporations against labor movements was debt. Borrowers were deceived into believing that they were paying low interest rates when in fact balloon payments, adjustable rate mortgages, and other technically complex packages resulted in higher overall rates that made it increasingly difficult to break the shackles of debt.

This story continued. Regulations that protected our rights were demolished. New wars erupted. Family businesses were wiped out by the unfair practices of huge chains. The media was commandeered by a handful of giant conglomerates. Unemployment, poverty and foreclosures escalated. The upward trend line of a growing and prospering middle class plummeted.

We the people fell into a trance of lethargy.

Until now!

We have finally realized that we are serfs of a system that reflects the feudal Middle Ages. Modern-day lords of the castle, the corporatocracy had convinced us we who live outside the walls and supply all the food and conveniences for them that if we didnt pay our debts and service their every desire we would be raped and pillaged by soldiers from neighboring castles. But we are no longer buying their lies.

Across this planet, we have marched into the courtyards of those castles with the message that we are no longer blind. We will not be hoodwinked by their false promises or by their fear tactics. The Occupy movement spans seven continents. Participation expands at seemingly exponential rates, online as well as at the front lines. It is the largest mass protest since those against the Vietnam War and may well turn into the largest in human history.

Those at Wall St. and in the financial and political system who operate above the law without remorse or penalty and have believed for a long time that workers saddled with debt will not strike, quit, or demand justice, are hearing our message.

There are those among us who express skepticism. They say nothing will come of this. They are wrong. The Occupy movement has already changed the world and we must continue forward. With the recent arrests and uptake of policing these events, we must pay attention that our democracy and free speech is at threat.

The corporatoctacy are striking back. They are writing new laws forbidding us to assemble in places like Wall Street. They are attempting to censor the Internet (as they did in Egypt). They will come up with schemes we cant even imagine.

Each time they do this we must utilize their energy to inspire and empower us further. Coming from a place where we know we are right, we will employ the aikido of love, compassion, and cooperation to keep expanding our energy, our resolve, and our creative responses.

At a time during the American Revolution, when things looked very dire, Tom Paine wrote:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. . .A generous parent should say, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." . . . 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. . . By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue."

This is another of those times. Our souls are being tried. This is our opportunity to stand firm, to show our perseverance and fortitude. This is a time our children and grandchildren will sing about. Their ballads will praise us for bringing them the world we all deserve..

END

John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author

Please subscribe to my newsletter at
http://www.johnperkins.org

Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets IMPLODED-and What We Need to Do to Remake Them is now available in paperback and I hope youll support its release - http://tinyurl.com/3gj5mxu

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Hoodwinked
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Secret History of the American Empire
Shapeshifting
The World Is As You Dream It
Psychonavigation
The Stress-Free Habit
Spirit of the Shuar

Follow John Perkins on Twitter: - @economic_hitman
John Perkins welcomes your support the Occupy movement:
http://www.occupywallst.org

The Elite Plan for a New World Social Order

NOTE: This article is a lead story in the September-October 2001 issue of "New Dawn" magazine:

By RICHARD K MOORE

When the Industrial Revolution began in Britain, in the late 1700s, there was lots of money to be made by investing in factories and mills, by opening up new markets, and by gaining control of sources of raw materials. The folks who had the most money to invest, however, were not so much in Britain but more in Holland. Holland had been the leading Western power in the 1600s, and its bankers were the leading capitalists. In pursuit of profit, Dutch capital flowed to the British stock market, and thus the Dutch funded the rise of Britain, who subsequently eclipsed Holland both economically and geopolitically.

In this way British industrialism came to be dominated by wealthy investors, and capitalism became the dominant economic system. This led to a major social transformation. Britain had been essentially an aristocratic society, dominated by landholding families. As capitalism became dominant economically, capitalists became dominant politically. Tax structures and import-export policies were gradually changed to favour investors over landowners.

It was no longer economically viable to simply maintain an estate in the countryside: one needed to develop it, turn it to more productive use. Victorian dramas are filled with stories of aristocratic families who fall on hard times, and are forced to sell off their properties. For dramatic purposes, this decline is typically attributed to a failure in some character, a weak eldest son perhaps. But in fact the decline of aristocracy was part of a larger social transformation brought on by the rise of capitalism.
The business of the capitalist is the management of capital, and this management is generally handled through the mediation of banks and brokerage houses. It should not be surprising that investment bankers came to occupy the top of the hierarchy of capitalist wealth and power. And in fact, there are a handful of banking families, including the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, who have come to dominate economic and political affairs in the Western world.

Unlike aristocrats, capitalists are not tied to a place, or to the maintenance of a place. Capital is disloyal and mobile – it flows to where the most growth can be found, as it flowed from Holland to Britain, then from Britain to the USA, and most recently from everywhere to China. Just as a copper mine might be exploited and then abandoned, so under capitalism a whole nation can be exploited and then abandoned, as we see in the rusting industrial areas of America and Britain.

This detachment from place leads to a different kind of geopolitics under capitalism, as compared to aristocracy. A king goes to war when he sees an advantage to his nation in doing so. Historians can ‘explain’ the wars of pre-capitalist days, in terms of the aggrandisement of monarchs and nations.

A capitalist stirs up a war in order to make profits, and in fact our elite banking families have financed both sides of most military conflicts since at least World War 1. Hence historians have a hard time ‘explaining’ World War 1 in terms of national motivations and objectives.

In pre-capitalist days warfare was like chess, each side trying to win. Under capitalism warfare is more like a casino, where the players battle it out as long as they can get credit for more chips, and the real winner always turns out to be the house – the bankers who finance the war and decide who will be the last man standing. Not only are wars the most profitable of all capitalist ventures, but by choosing the winners, and managing the reconstruction, the elite banking families are able, over time, to tune the geopolitical configuration to suit their own interests.

Nations and populations are but pawns in their games. Millions die in wars, infrastructures are destroyed, and while the world mourns, the bankers are counting their winnings and making plans for their postwar reconstruction investments.
From their position of power, as the financiers of governments, the banking elite have over time perfected their methods of control. Staying always behind the scenes, they pull the strings controlling the media, the political parties, the intelligence agencies, the stock markets, and the offices of government. And perhaps their greatest lever of power is their control over currencies. By means of their central-bank scam, they engineer boom and bust cycles, and they print money from nothing and then loan it at interest to governments. The power of the elite banking gang (the ‘banksters’) is both absolute and subtle…

"Some of the biggest men in the United States are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere, so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." – President Woodrow Wilson

The End of Growth – Banksters vs. Capitalism

It was always inevitable, on a finite planet, that there would be a limit to economic growth. Industrialisation has enabled us to rush headlong toward that limit over the past two centuries. Production has become ever more efficient, markets have become ever more global, and finally the paradigm of perpetual growth has reached the point of diminishing returns.

Indeed, that point was actually reached by about 1970. Since then capital has not so much sought growth through increased production, but rather by extracting greater returns from relatively flat production levels. Hence globalisation, which moved production to low-waged areas, providing greater profit margins. Hence privatisation, which transfers revenue streams to investors that formerly went to national treasuries. Hence derivative and currency markets, which create the electronic illusion of economic growth, without actually producing anything in the real world.

For almost forty years, the capitalist system was kept going by these various mechanisms, none of which were productive in any real sense. And then in September 2008 this house of cards collapsed, all of a sudden, bringing the global financial system to its knees.

If one studies the collapse of civilisations, one learns that failure-to-adapt is fatal. Is our civilisation falling into that trap? We had two centuries of real growth, where the growth-dynamic of capitalism was in harmony with the reality of industrial growth. Then we had four decades of artificial growth – capitalism being sustained by a house of cards. And now, after the house of cards has collapsed, every effort is apparently being made to bring about ‘a recovery’ – of growth! It is very easy to get the impression that our civilisation is in the process of collapse, based on the failure-to-adapt principle.

Such an impression would be partly right and partly wrong. In order to understand the real situation we need to make a clear distinction between the capitalist elite and capitalism itself. Capitalism is an economic system driven by growth; the capitalist elite are the folks who have managed to gain control of the Western world while capitalism has operated over the past two centuries. The capitalist system is past its sell-by date, the bankster elite are well aware of that fact – and they are adapting.
Capitalism is a vehicle that helped bring the banksters to absolute power, but they have no more loyalty to that system than they have to place, or to anything or anyone. As mentioned earlier, they think on a global scale, with nations and populations as pawns. They define what money is and they issue it, just like the banker in a game of Monopoly. They can also make up a new game with a new kind of money. They have long outgrown any need to rely on any particular economic system in order to maintain their power. Capitalism was handy in an era of rapid growth. For an era of non-growth, a different game is being prepared." (snip) ...

Read the complete article at this website:
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/the-elite-plan-for-a-new-world-social-order