A Dark Hole of Darkness: The Federal Reserve

Comment on: A Dark Hole of Darkness: The Federal Reserve

George,

As a retiree (biochemist), I have recently had the time to delve more deeply into the depths of disciplines such as politics, money, economics and, to some extent, history; these subjects are related in ways which currently are more than a little confusing. My interest in this endeavor was intensified recently (since 2006) when I decided to try to learn why and how the events of 9/11/2001 were so easily sold to the American public. I also wondered how the events might be correctly explained. Clearly, the phrase ‘satisfy the curiosity of the American public’ is to talk about a very shallow topic as many members of that public actually appear to have no curiosity. The so-called 'official version' of events which occurred on 9/11/2001 clearly did not make sense, thus, it appears that the selling of the 'official version' of 9/11 could only occur because of a break-down in out educational system.

It became obvious early on that the secret to understanding those historic events was related to understanding political power; that led to my consideration of the relationship between money and power. The awesome nature of the events which led to initiation of the ‘war’ in Afghanistan/Iraq was also beyond comprehension in the sense that every so-called justification generated by the Bush administration was known then to be false. However, even if one were to suggest that the loss of lives would justify going to war, it is obvious that the estimated loss of life amounted to only around 3000 lives during the events of 9/11/2001; that hardly compares with the annual loss of life in auto accidents in the US which is of the order of around 10 times that number, the loss of life by any of a number of serious diseases can be, perhaps, many multiples of that value every year. In the end, war had to have been made acceptable by the television coverage which was sort of the ‘grand force’ which focused the attention of the American public on the awesome nature of the show, never mind the apparent gross inadequacies of our multi-trillion dollar military establishment.

Obviously, then, the controlling forces would seem to be identical with those which controlled almost every aspect of decision-making in both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. The simplest explanation seems to me to be that the super-wealthy have only become more so because they always play using the equivalent of a stacked deck of cards. The economic analyst who made most sense in attempting to explain these phenomena to me was Michael Hudson in his book 'Superimperialism'. However, Ellen H. Brown, Max Keiser, Eric Jansen and quite a few other economists/economics practitioners understand the subject just as well as does Wm Greider (While Wm Greider's article fairly summarizes a lot of what I have learned via other venues, it seems as if he tends to focus on trying to appease the obvious crooks in the banking system rather than to try the more daring task of proposing a potentially viable alternative paradigm). IMHO, while Mr Greider appears to be a bit better writer than many, he doesn’t seem interested in sort of going for the jugular - i.e., assume the crook's will never give in and propose that the crooks be made obsolete.

If I understand her writing, Ellen H. Brown favors doing away with the banksters' banking system. To determine whether there is any substance to her proposal, I suggest that your interview style should enable getting to the heart of the matter, regardless of the interviewee’s background. I would particularly enjoy hearing you interview Ellen H. Brown, JD., author of ‘Web of Debt’ in the context of her recent articles dealing with the possibility that California adopt a banking system similar to that of the Bank of North Dakota (I am not sure that is the correct name, but she will know what I mean to say). What exactly would be her proposal and would it be worth serious consideration?

[Thanks, Bill. I also have noted Brown's suggestion re California and find it quite interesting though, to be honest, I'm not so impressed with her other work. g.]

Re: Greider replacement

How about Branko Milanovic. I found his work thru Too Much weekly, "In Review: Did Derivatives Drive the Meltdown?", May 11, 2009 (http://www.toomuchonline.org/weeklies2009/may1109.html). Branko says no; that when wages went flat but profits continued to rise, the bubble and crash became inevitable, and that the only thing that can fix the economy is when wages once again rise to meet the growth of productive capacity.

[Thanks! Will look into his writings. g.]

George,

As a follow-up to my earlier comment, I know your readers can search for Ellen Brown's articles, however, I thought I would pass along a link via DandiolionSalad.wordpress.com which is one of my favorite link sites.

Let The Sun Shine In: California Could Be The Golden State Again

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/from-sunshine-state-to-subprime-state-by-dr-ellen-brown/

While I have seen no evidence that the powers-that-be in California have taken Ellen's suggestion seriously, your audience might be able to judge whether this lawyer/author (Dr Brown) might stand up to the exposure to a bona-fide economist podcaster.