While perusing another person’s blog I ran across this quote attributed to Thomas “Nostradamus” Jefferson as I like to call him. Well not really as I’ve never called him anything before, but maybe you will after you read his quote from 1802 or so.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.


Its not that the Continental Congress was against banking as they had already established The Bank of North America in 1781. But like all things that start out simple, greed and corruption have to screw it up.

Think about it..I don’t really want to house my money under my mattress, as for one, I’m the worst sleeper out there as it is, and b) talk about the Princess and the Pea…so any currency under my bed is going to be uncomfortable and misconstrued.

There’s always been some kind of banking as we know the big JC got a bug up his ass and threw the money changers out of the temple, turned over their tables and caused a ruckus. Matthew 21.12 Now, nothing for nothing but rumor has it they had no green lollipops that day, and his blood sugar was a little low.

But concepts which are so easy on paper…I put my money in, I take my money out, and I’ll pay you a bit of rent (interest) for holding my money  gets distorted.

I’m thinking about all of this as I was very staunch in my views that the banks can’t fail. During the Great Depression, over 9000 banks went under and we lost 1/3 of our money supply. That was when money actually counted for something and had value and was backed by the gold standard.

Today, you may as well wipe your face with your dinner napkin and take it to Walmart and use it. That’s about as much value our currency has, since we run out, the government just prints more. There’s not a shiny stack of gold in Fort Knox adding to the value of your dollar, and the bailout that was supposed to help Americans got pushed through Congress so fast…puhlease..they forgot to tell the banks what to do with it.

You mean with all the time they had, and it wasn’t an overnight, leave the candle burning, and where’s my quill and ink when I need it thing, no one remembered to legislate…TELL THEM ITS NOT FOR BONUSES AND IT HAS TO BE ACCOUNTABLE!

So 350 billion, just..disappears. Well not really, we know where it went we just didn’t approve.

Ok, so we still have 350 billion left of our tax dollars on the line.

The big O, no not Oprah or Orgasm, but definitely a black excretion named Obama, and the same democratic led congress is dealing with the balance.

So Take Two (clap board) this is what they are promising this time.

1. Foreclosure mitigationEven after being prodded by lawmakers and other members of the Bush administration, Paulson steadfastly refused to use bailout cash for foreclosure mitigation.  “The Obama Administration will commit substantial resources of $50-100 [billion] to a sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis,” Larry Summers, the incoming director of the National Economic Council, said in a letter to top lawmakers. “We will implement smart, aggressive policies to reduce the number of preventable foreclosures by helping to reduce mortgage payments for economically stressed but responsible homeowners, while also reforming our bankruptcy laws and strengthening existing housing initiatives.”

2. Tracking the cash. “The Treasury will require detailed and timely information from recipients of government investments on their lending patterns broken down by category,” Summers said in the letter. “Public companies will report this information quarterly in conjunction with the release of their 10Q reports.”

3. Executive compensation restrictions:The Obama administration also says it will put more restrictions on executive pay by requiring “that executive compensation above a specific threshold amount be paid in restricted stock or similar form that cannot be liquidated or sold until the government has been repaid,” Summers said in the letter.

4. Limiting acquisitions:The use of bailout cash to finance acquisitions has also stirred controversy. As a result, the Obama administration has made promises to restrict certain deals. In implementing the second $350 billion, the incoming administration will “preclude use of government funds to purchase healthy firms rather than to boost lending,” Summers said in the letter.

[Source USNews ]

Ok, that’s good on paper..but we all know everything like I’ve said a million times before, looks good on paper. Wait I’m sorry, I can’t say it..do you see the loopholes in every statement? Suffice it to say, the more things CHANGE, the more things stay the same.

But lets take it the extreme and as so many people were against the bailout then what? The banks fail, we lose all
of our money, the country goes down and as we’ve been witnessing the global economy is right in the toilet along with it. Jobs are lost, homes are lost, businesses close and we’re standing around looking at each other wondering what has value now to trade and live by.

See, somebody always wants something and sees value where no one else might. The ancient Romans, used and controlled salt flats in western European and Mediterranean until about 400 AD when the flats became flooded and they had to move inland.

But where there was once a thriving economy based on the availability to produce and trade salt, once the seas rose and wiped out the flats, the general population fell as the salt trade almost disappeared. The Romans then were forced to move their operations (outsourcing) to such remote hideous locations such as the Dead Sea and Asian and African salt mines in desert flats. These then became havens for the Europeans, as they followed the salt trail.

It wasn’t until 700 AD or 300 years later when the waters receded again and voila the salt grabbers were there and ready and let the fighting commence! Suddenly an abundance of salt, based on the theory of how valuable it was, missing the obvious function of supply and demand, and salt monopolies were born.

Concurrently, gold, having been used as a commodity for oh, the last 3000 years, from 700 BC to 1930 when salt fell out of flavor.  Then we segued into paper and silver currency from the 30’s to the 70’s then paper and base metals with no backing of silver or gold for the last 40 years, and as of 8/15/71 the “floating currency” was born, courtesy of Tricky Dick Nixon.

Why is this important? It closed the gold window held by all other nations as the reserve behind their own currencies.

What’s the best way to gain political power? No not through force and war, though it does go hand in hand. Newp, devalue the currency.

There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
John Maynard Keynes – The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919)

So here we are, a nation that has outsourced is production, devalued our own currency, and become a nation of whiners and consumers.

So I don’t know about the rest of you folk, but personally I’m going to hoard the Morton’s and anything  I’ve bought off of QVC and trade my worthless paper and buy up anything shiny I see on  Ebay and in pawn shops.

Originally published Jan 2009, yet it still stands today in 2012.