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The Economy, Bigger Troubles to come in the Future

Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 by evigilo

As much as I love President O, I do think as it relates to the Economy that we are setting ourselves up for bigger and bigger financial woes in the future. The reason being? True reform does not mean infusing money into an already broken system. Nor does it mean more regulation, it means a radical change in the removal of the system. Even moving to a Gold standard (As laid out in Ron Paul’s new Book, End the Fed) and away from a Fiat Currency will in the end only prolong the complete failure of an unworkable system and the enslavement of others by a few.

Here is a great article from the folks over at The Raw Story Site entitled Top economist: Obama ‘missed opportunity’ to reform financial system. Here is an excerpt

The Obama administration “refused” to take meaningful steps to reform the banking system in the wake of last year’s financial crisis, and the opportunity to do so has now been missed, says a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Simon Johnson told PBS’s Bill Moyers that he expects an even larger financial crisis to hit the United States in the coming years because the system was not fixed through reform, but rather through a massive injection of taxpayers’ money into the failing banks.

“The short term opportunity was missed,” Johnson said on Bill Moyers Journal Friday night. “There was an opportunity the Obama administration had. President Obama campaigned on a message of change. … The time for change for the financial sector was absolutely upon us, this was abundantly apparent in January of this year.”

Johnson continued: “Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff, is known for saying ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.’ The crisis for the big banks is substantially over. And it was completely wasted. The administration refused to break the power of the big banks when they had the opportunity earlier this year. And the regulatory reforms they are now pursuing … will turn out to be essentially meaningless.”

Johnson said that the bank bailout would not fix the long-term instability of the financial sector, and “when [the crisis] comes back, it will come back with a vengeance, and it will be I think even more devastating.”

Click here to read the whole article by Daniel Tencer.

Also, here are the videos that were posted in the article.

I find it interesting that the bank referenced (JP Morgan Chase) in the story felt no need to work with the congress woman Rep Marcy Kaptur (from OH) on the high rate of Foreclosures in her district. When one has total control their is no need to work out anything. Banks create money out of thin air via the “Fractional Reserve system” (To see how this works Click Here) and then charge interest on the money loaned that does not exist in the first place . So its no wonder why they even give a care what happens to people who are in foreclosure.

Is it not time for a change? how long will we as human allow the enslavement of so many other human beings? Is this the World and the Dream of Humanity that we want for ourselves and our children.

I leave you with this very wonderful Charlie Chaplin speech. These great words are from the 1940’s film The Great Dictator. it is moving and is still very much valid 69 years later. I hope it stirs you as it has me.

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Racism is Alive and Well, Wake up! We have work to do

Posted on Saturday, October 10, 2009 by evigilo

First of all, Congratulations Mr President,  I know there are a lot of folks who think you don’t deserve the Nobel. But I for one do, not for what you have done so much as for where you are going. Your Heart Sir, is in the right place regardless of what the “haters” say. Here is a great article from AlterNet by Jonathan L. Walton, entitled Conservatives Are Really Afraid of a Black President. This is a great article I believe, because it points out that we still has some work to do as Humans, and especially Humans who call themselves Americans.  Here is an excerpt:

Ever the statesman, and often candid to a political fault, former President Jimmy Carter said recently that much of the animosity directed toward President Barack Obama is “based on the fact that he is a black man.” A lifelong Southerner, Carter acknowledged that the inclination of racism still exists, and that “it has bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.” Though courageous, the former president’s pronouncement will surely be considered controversial to many Republicans and Democrats alike.

Some will view Carter’s comments as politically inexpedient. The topic of race in general, and charges of racism in particular, is political dynamite that typically explodes in the hands of the accuser — just ask [Harvard] Professor Skip Gates, [New York] Gov. David Paterson, or Obama (whom I will return to momentarily). Unless someone is wearing a Klan hood while yelling, “Nigger, Go Back to Africa,” the charge of racism seems to offend the accused these days more than the actual victims. This is true, in part, due to the most prevalent view of the problem of race and racism in this country.

In the eyes of many, the responsibility of moving beyond racial conflict in America is placed at the feet of minority communities of color, as opposed to the dominant society. We’ve all heard it. America will move beyond race to a colorblind society only when minority groups cease dwelling on difference. Such a view permeates the melting pot ideal of American folklore, the myth of meritocracy and even the “post-racial” dimension of electoral politics. Thus, for Carter to call out this segment of the white community, he is disrupting the conspiracy of silence concerning racial injustice that demands the allegiance of politicians on the national scene. Think about it. Is this not the racial bargain that Obama accepted to become the nation’s first African American president? Matters pertaining to race have been avoided unless absolutely necessary (cough, cough, the Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright). And in terms of policy, obstacles faced by any particular group, like disproportionate unemployment among communities of color, for example, are obfuscated by anemic and ineffectual broad-based prescriptions. Rising tides lift all boats, right? Yet Obama’s enormous success in life, whether as a highly educated community organizer or as America’s commander in chief, exposes the paradox this sort of faux post-racialism presents.

It’s a one-sided deal for people of color; as “post-racial” in effect means post-black, post-brown, post-red and post-yellow, while leaving the normative racial framework of whiteness intact. Race is the challenge people of color must confront and, dare I say, “get over.” But a post-racial America does not demand the same of those who identify with, and claim the social construction of, whiteness and perceived privileges and cultural superiority therein. This is why, it would seem, Obama’s body standing behind the American presidential seal has a critical segment of America losing its hold on reality — a reality, I would argue, few have ever been forced to acknowledge up to this point. Whether it’s the birthers, tea-baggers, deathers, indoctrinators, or “You lie!”-ers, they have neither veiled their racial animus nor cloaked their white nationalism. The prevalence of racist images of Obama brandished by protesters juxtaposed with calls of “taking our country back” are reminiscent of D.W. Griffith’s fictional America as depicted in the film Birth of a Nation.

Here is the Article in its entirety We have much work to do here. As long as we see each other as separate we will continue to war, hate and divide ourselves on the razor of religion, race, wealth, etc. Before we can transform our society we must awaken to the fact: WE ARE ALL HUMANS FIRST. If I see you as a human first, that is to say

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Further

We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will re-create each other.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We can begin to build a society that focuses on the care of Us vs. Me first and “Frak” you! Otherwise we will continue to create a world driven by control and fear. Think about it, if we see ourselves as humans first, would we be talking about providing health care for all vs those who can afford it.  Or leave our health care up to those who would put profit and  self interest above all, an embracing of Objectivism and unbridled Capitalism. How has the worked out for us thus far?  A society based on and driven by a Monetary System will destroy itself in order to preserve that institution under the guise of freedom.

No form of government will stop this implosion, only awareness and a willingness to move to a system (See A Resourced Based Economy) that will work for All Humans. Wake up! our problems are not the creation of others, rather the creation of  all of Us.  We can start by just becoming aware of who we are

Peace and Love

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A Better Way

Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 by evigilo

Hey All

I wanted to share this really great lecture that Peter Joesph did from the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project in the UK back in July.  In fact I would invite you to take some time and look at it and talk about it.  What I and my discussion group did was to look at it and then talk about it, we had a pretty lively discussion from “All these guys are communist and socialists, like Obama” to “Wow, we really need to wake up and do something”

Here, Check this out. You Owe it to yourself to become aware of what is:

I think most, walked away with a sense of how corrupt (Dysfunctional and prone to failure) the monetary system is, regardless of  what school of economics one ascribes too. It truly does serve a few and enslave the many. People who say that a Resource Based Economy is a form of Socialism and Communism forget that these systems were also based on a monetary system and were just as corrupt. I know, its hard for us to accept what our monetary system really is. We have been indoctrinated from birth to serve this system, we were told to “Get a great education, get a great paying job (Or Start a Business) and find a great wife/husband to marry, have some kids and start the whole process over again. “Oh yeah” lets not forget about working all your life, so you can retire and hope there is enough to live off of. For those of us raised in the Christian Church or  religious households, we can add “Obey and Love God” to the equation.  Of course God, the Universe, or what have you did not create the monetary system, we did. God has no need to create anything that stratifies and separates, we have done this all on our own.

The point of awareness for me was

Without social economic stratification, there could be no poverty; for one to be rich someone has to be poor, for how would one know the difference

Think about this, we have created a society based on stratification (Upper Class, The Middle Class and the Working Class, etc) where we measure one’s standing based on education and purchasing power. We, as pointed out in this lecture have created the means of production via planned obsolescence and inefficiency.  Think about what would happen to the auto industry if they built a vehicle that lasted more than thirty years with upgrades and self repairing systems designed into it. A vehicle that did not require fossil fuels to power it. How long would they be in business? including the supplier chain that is fed by it, the after-market and auto repair shops. Their is no way they could survive (Unless they sold this super car for a Million Bucks perhaps, but then who would buy it, who could afford it) within our current system with this kind of built-in efficiency and the removal of planned obsolescence. Keep in mind that this kind of efficiency and product quality would require a fully automated plant which would displace many workers from the assembly line. Thus without inefficiency (In the form of automation, technologies, efficient business processes, etc.)  there wouldn’t be enough jobs/labor for people to earn money to feed the economy via consumption.

Our monetary system is a drag on human progress and is time that we shrug off this antiquated system, grow up  and graduate to a system that will benefit all vs enslaving many. I’m not talking about a Utopia like is found in the Twenty First chapter of the Book of Revelations.  Although, beautiful in its composition and poetry, like most Utopias, they are static and are built on myths and fantasies.

We believe it is now possible to achieve a society where people would be able to live longer, healthier, and more meaningful productive lives. In such a society, the measure of success would be based upon the fulfillment of one’s individual pursuits rather than the acquisition of wealth, property, and power.

Jacque Fresco

Finally, I leave this very moving Video called ”Love Only Love” written by Imaj & Ron Grimes for your viewing pleasure. It is hope that it moves you as it has moved me, Peace and Love

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The Federal Reserve [Maybe] the black hole of our democracy

Posted on Friday, July 17, 2009 by evigilo

Hey Everybody

Its been awhile since I last posted.  I have been busy working on my book. I will let you all know when its done.

Here is a great article that I really wanted to share with you all from the AlterNet Web Site entitled  “A Dark Hole of Democracy: How the Fed Prints Money Out of Thin Air”, by William Greider.

Here is an excerpt

The financial crisis has propelled the Federal Reserve into an excruciating political dilemma. The Fed is at the zenith of its influence, using its extraordinary powers to rescue the economy. Yet the extreme irregularity of its behavior is producing a legitimacy crisis for the central bank. The remote technocrats at the Fed who decide money and credit policy for the nation are deliberately opaque and little understood by most Americans. For the first time in generations, they are now threatened with popular rebellion.

During the past year, the Fed has flooded the streets with money — distributing trillions of dollars to banks, financial markets and commercial interests — in an attempt to revive the credit system and get the economy growing again. As a result, the awesome authority of this cloistered institution is visible to many ordinary Americans for the first time. People and politicians are shocked and confused, and also angered, by what they see. They are beginning to ask some hard questions for which Federal Reserve governors do not have satisfactory answers.

Where did the central bank get all the money it is handing out? Basically, the Fed printed it, out of thin air. That is what central banks do. Who told the Fed governors they could do this? Nobody, really — not Congress or the president. The Federal Reserve Board, alone among government agencies, does not submit its budgets to Congress for authorization and appropriation. It raises its own money, sets its own priorities.

Representative Wright Patman, the Texas populist who was a scourge of central bankers, once described the Federal Reserve as “a pretty queer duck.” Congress created the Fed in 1913 with the presumption that it would be “independent” from the rest of government, aloof from regular politics and deliberately shielded from the hot breath of voters or the grasping appetites of private interests — with one powerful exception: the bankers.

The Fed was designed as a unique hybrid in which government would share its powers with the private banking industry. Bankers collaborate closely on Fed policy. Banks are the “shareholders” who ostensibly own the twelve regional Federal Reserve banks. Bankers sit on the boards of directors, proposing interest-rate changes for Fed governors in Washington to decide. Bankers also have a special advisory council that meets privately with governors to critique monetary policy and management of the economy. Sometimes, the Fed pretends to be a private organization. Other times, it admits to being part of the government.

The antiquated quality of this institution is reflected in the map of the Fed’s twelve regional banks. Five of them are located in the Midwest (better known today as the industrial Rust Belt). Missouri has two Federal Reserve banks (St. Louis and Kansas City), while the entire West Coast has only one (located in San Francisco, not Los Angeles or Seattle). Virginia has one; Florida does not. Among its functions, the Federal Reserve directly regulates the largest banks, but it also looks out for their well-being — providing regular liquidity loans for those caught short and bailing out endangered banks it deems “too big to fail.” Critics look askance at these peculiar arrangements and see “conspiracy.” But it’s not really secret. This duck was created by an act of Congress. The Fed’s favoritism toward bankers is embedded in its DNA.

This awkward reality explains the dilemma facing the Fed. It cannot stand too much visibility, nor can it easily explain or justify its peculiar status. The Federal Reserve is the black hole of our democracy — the crucial contradiction that keeps the people and their representatives from having any voice in these most important public policies. That’s why the central bankers have always operated in secrecy, avoiding public controversy and inevitable accusations of special deal-making. The current crisis has blown the central bank’s cover. Many in Congress are alarmed, demanding greater transparency. More than 250 House members are seeking an independent audit of Fed accounts. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi observed that the Fed seems to be poaching on Congressional functions — handing out public money without the bother of public decision-making.

“Many of us were…if not surprised, taken aback, when the Fed had $80 billion to invest in AIG just out of the blue,” Pelosi said. “All of a sudden, we wake up one morning and AIG was receiving $80 billion from the Fed. So of course we’re saying, Where is this money coming from? ‘Oh, we have it. And not only that, we have more.’” So who needs Congress? Pelosi sounded guileless, but she knows very well where the Fed gets its money. She was slyly tweaking the central bankers on their vulnerability.

Fed chair Ben Bernanke responded with the usual aloofness. An audit, he insisted, would amount to “a takeover of monetary policy by the Congress.” He did not appear to recognize how arrogant that sounded. Congress created the Fed, but it must not look too deeply into the Fed’s private business. The mystique intimidates many politicians.

Wow.

Please read the whole article it is very informative.   I think we all need to “Wake the Heck up” and realize that the world is the way it is, because we made it that way.

Peace

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The Greatest Story Ever Told

Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 by evigilo

Easter is fast approaching and most Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the Risen Lord and King. But is this really true? or is it a myth created by the Church Fathers to deify yet another God. Don’t get me wrong, the teachings of Jesus that has been pass down to us from the various Codecs which has created the Christian bible are wonderful and enlightening. However the religion and myth that we have created has only served to enslave and control us. Traditional Christianity has become a institution that is stuck somewhere in the ancient world and has fought emerging truths to maintain a obsolete Dogma that holds us to a belief system that has become in most cases bankrupt. We have created a God that is always mad at us, this God requires worship and rules to live by or face eternal damnation.

Please do not be offended, I meant no harm, I think the point was well made. I would like to share another more in-depth Video produced by Peter Joseph the creator of Zeitgeist the Movie Series with you that I think will share some light on where all of these myths and dogmas may have come from. This is about a thirty minute segment that talks about the origins of Christianity that is often never talked about in Churches, Bible or Sunday Schools. 

Wow, I know that was hard to digest and accept; I have found that most of my Traditional Christian friends and family reject anything that is different from what they have been taught or believe in. It is believe over reason and evidence, a faith that we have placed in a myth that no longer serves us, I was stuck in these conflicting beliefs for most of my adult life. Having to create more and more stories to make the existing ones true in the face of a greater truth that shines a brighter light on to dogmatic myths and reveals them to be what they are false, misguided and in some cases dangerous.

It’s not my attempt to de-convert you, but to share information so you can look at Christianity with your eyes open. Maybe even spur a debate to talk openly about why we believe what we believe. Because what we believe is killing us, our society and the dream I believe that God really has for us. That is to create a society where all benefit, where people matter vs. enslave by institutions and ideologies that create stratifications. IMHO, God is not a watch maker, metaphorically speaking God, the universe whatever, is a farmer where humanity is planted and evolved to see what we have become of ourselves, what will we create? It is up to us to create that which we desire the most, a peaceful stress free life without fear where every need is met vs fighting for everything we need in a blind effort to serve the institutions that enslaves us.

Make no mistake about this, the savior of Mankind is Mankind, God has given us everything we need to create a world that is much different  than what we are now experiencing.

Peace and Love

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Socialism, The New Buzz Word

Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 by evigilo

There has been a lot of talk lately about President “O” and the US becoming more and more Socialistic. First of All lets define what Socialism is

[Socialism is defined as the] theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

This Scares most Americans because they see this as Un-American and goes against the whole concept of what America is about, to be Democratic a Society means to be a Capitalist believing in the myth of Free Markets means Free People.  I’m not an Socialist nor am I afraid of the word, however I think we need to get away from the fear that this word portrays and begin to talk openly about what we need to do to get out of these “Boon/Bust” Business Cycles. This type of discussion will require us to wake up from our dream and myth how our current economic system works.

Here is an Article that was Posted on the Nation’s Web Site written by Robert Pollin, entitled “Be Utopian: Demand the Realistic“

Neoliberal capitalism–whose defining features were Wall Street greed and big business domination of government policy-making–is dead. But what comes next?

Solidarity, equality and freedom have always been the fundamental principles animating the left. It is from these principles that the left has constructed its various visions of a truly democratic, egalitarian social order–i.e., the only type of society that deserves to be called “socialist.” Given the collapse of neoliberalism, shouldn’t the left now advance a case for full-throttle socialism?

While socialism is desirable as a longer-term vision of a just society, it is unrealistic in my view to expect it to take shape today. The problem is that, at this stage in history, we do not know what a socialist economy would look like, nor do we know how to move from our current disintegrating neoliberalism to something approximating socialism. Socialism should be seen as a series of challenges and questions as we push a social justice agenda forward amid the ongoing crisis. It should not be seen as a package of obvious and ready-made answers.

This becomes clear in considering the collapsed financial system. In the short term, there are no longer any viable alternatives to government takeovers of failing banks. But nationalizing the banks, by itself, is neither a panacea nor an advance toward socialism. The fact that former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan now supports nationalization should at least give pause to its enthusiasts on the left. Over the longer term, a nationalized financial system presents daunting problems.

Realistically, such a system will inevitably produce failures and scandals tied to “crony capitalism”–privileged back-dealings with well-connected non financial businesses. In addition, individual financial enterprises, as with all business entities, require micro-management. The government would have to create an incentive system for the managers of the publicly owned banks that would substitute for the very straightforward profit motive that guides managers of private banks. If the nationalized bank managers are not committed to maximizing profits, how should their performance be evaluated?

Resolving such questions would require years of experimentation and fine tuning. In the meantime, taxpayers would pay for the inevitable breakdowns. This, in turn, could be the very thing–perhaps the only thing–that could shift the target of public outrage over the collapse of the financial system off Wall Street and onto the government. At this historical juncture, it is therefore preferable to fight for a new financial regulatory regime with primarily private bank ownership as the means of promoting financial stability and channeling credit to priority areas such as affordable housing and the green economy.

Building the green economy raises similar concerns. We need to stop consuming fossil fuels and defeat global warming over the next twenty to thirty years. This is a massive project, and it will not succeed by relying entirely on the public sector or community-based nonprofit organizations, however worthy. Rather, its primary propulsive forces will be large government incentives for private businesses to profit from clean energy investments, and for these same business interests to face significant costs through producing and selling fossil fuels. The Obama stimulus program is a first major step in the right direction, by mixing large-scale public investments–in the range of $80 billion over two years–with even larger incentives for private firms.

One of the most bracing slogans to emerge from the 1968 uprising in France was “Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible.” I am more inclined to embrace its mirror image as a guide for moving forward today. That is, “Be Utopian, Demand the Realistic.

Even if President Obama, whom I love very much, but even if his Stimulus Plan works, it will be temporary. This is because the Monetary system is inherently flawed, whether you subscribe to the Keynesian, Socialism or Austrian Model of economics, any Economy that is based on a Monetary system will be inherently flawed  and will leave a segment of humanity out in the cold.

I believe that we need to start a debate and talk about a Resource Based Economy that leaves no one out in the cold

A Resource-Based Economy is a system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resource; our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival.

…Money is only important in a society when certain resources for survival must be rationed and the people accept money as an exchange medium for the scarce resources. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is neither a natural resource nor does it represent one. It is not necessary for survival unless we have been conditioned to accept it as such.

Jacque Fresco

Peace and Love

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Our Financial and Monetary Systems does not work

Posted on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 by evigilo

Our Financial and Monetary Systems does not work and needs to be replaced. Consider this radical statement by Jacque Fresco:

…Money is only important in a society when certain resources for survival must be rationed and the people accept money as an exchange medium for the scarce resources. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is neither a natural resource nor does it represent one. It is not necessary for survival unless we have been conditioned to accept it as such. 

In a word, Money is just like a Religion, one that is accepted by a majority, placing their faith in it and building a society around it becomes an object of worship and a means of control, enslavement and the undoing of many.

 Think about it, what can we say about our current Monetary System

  1. Money is Debt, if there was no debt, there would not be any Money
  2. You don’t control the value of your wealth, the Fed does and regardless of what you may think, the Federal Reserve Bank is not a Government Institution, it is privately held. This is what is posted on the Fed’s website “The Federal Reserve System is not “owned” by anyone and is not a private, profit-making institution. Instead, it is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects.” What does Private Aspects mean and who controls that? Read the answer posted on their site carefully, it reads like its a bank where the government gets to appoint folks to it, which means exactly nothing. The Fed does what it wants with or without the Government’s permission. Hmmm, what if DoD was like the Fed? Think about it.
  3. Banks create Money out of thin air! no one else can create money out of thin air but Banks and the Fed
  4. Our current system is the cause of “Boon/Bust” cycle, which is labeled as The Business cycle, with each financial crisis worse than the previous one. The belief that somehow the system will self correct and weed out the chaff if left alone is both false and dangerous. If this was true, then why bail out banks and corporations like AIG?
  5. Our system creates social stratification and leaves a large part of humanity out in the cold. Have you wondered, where is your bail out?
  6. Money creates a society driven to obtain it in order to survive and prosper most will do anything to include defrauding others to get there piece of the pie. Even home based and alternative businesses are based on obtaining money without the trappings and drudgery of an traditional Job. But, there purpose is to create wealth that is based on obtaining Money which is somehow a source to your financial freedom. Don’t Kid yourself, any freedom that is based on something external is a lie. Your wealth and everyone Else’s is based on a Monetary System is only a slave to it, Perhaps not a Wage Slave, but a slave none the less. It is what it is
  7. Products and Services based on Money have built in Planned Obsolescence. When was the last time you brought a new car and did not have to take in for repair or service?

These are but a few examples of the major problems of our current Monetary system. What about the 780 Billion Dollar Stimulus Package? Don’t get me wrong I really love President Obama, he is a breath of fresh air but any stimulus or recovery plan devoid of a major overhaul or removal of the current system, will be temporary at best.

So what’s my idea? I think that a true Enlighten Democracy does not need a Monetary system at all, in fact I believe that a Resource-Based Economy  as laid out by Jacque Fresco is a holistic solution that address all of the problems we have with our current system, where all of humanity will benefit and no one gets left behind. What is a Resource-Based Economy you ask?

A Resource-Based Economy is a system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resource; our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival.

Jacque Fresco

The entire outline and explanation can be read here.

Also, below is a Video Section from the Documentary Zeitgeist Addendum that talks about what s Resource based economy, here Jacque Fresco is featured.

Peace and Love

Filed under: General, The How, The What, Videos | Tagged: , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Faith, Creating Money out of Thin Air

Posted on Sunday, March 1, 2009 by evigilo

In our last post (Lets Talk about Money) we talked a little about how our Monetary system works and how Money is funneled into the economy. We also talked about how this led to the housing meltdown. Here is a great summary on how Money is created from the folks over at Money Masters:

…[Making Money] is a four-step process. But first a word on bonds. Bonds are simply promises to pay — or government IOUs. People buy bonds to get a secure rate of interest. At the end of the term of the bond, the government repays the principal, plus interest (if not paid periodically), and the bond is destroyed. There are trillions of dollars worth of these bonds at present. Now here is the Fed moneymaking process:

Step 1. The Fed Open Market Committee approves the purchase of U.S. Bonds on the open market.

Step 2. The bonds are purchased by the New York Fed Bank from whomever is offering them for sale on the open market.

Step 3. The Fed pays for the bonds with electronic credits to the seller’s bank, which in turn credits the seller’s bank account. These credits are based on nothing tangible. The Fed just creates them.

Step 4. The banks use these deposits as reserves. Most banks may loan out ten times (10x) the amount of their reserves to new borrowers, all at interest.

In this way, a Fed purchase of, say a million dollars worth of bonds, gets turned into over 10 million dollars in bank deposits. The Fed, in effect, creates 10% of this totally new money and the banks create the other 90%.

This also explains why the Fed consistently holds about 10% of the total US Treasury bonds. It had to buy those (with accounts or Fed notes the Fed simply created) from the public in order to provide the base for the rest of the money the private banks then get to create, most of which eventually winds up being used to purchase Treasury bonds, thus supplying Congress with the borrowed money to pay for its expenditures.

Due to a number of important exceptions to the 10% reserve ratio, some loans require less than 10% reserves, and many no (0%) reserves, making it possible for banks to create many times more than ten times the money they have in “reserve”. Due to these exceptions from the 10% reserve requirement, the Fed creates only a little under 2% of the total US money supply, while private banks create the other 98%.

To reduce the amount of money in the economy, the process is just reversed — the Fed sells bonds to the public, and money flows out of the purchaser’s local bank. Loans must be reduced by ten times the amount of the sale. So a Fed sale of a million dollars in bonds, results in 10 million dollars less money in the economy…

I know the above is really hard to believe and accept because what we have been taught. Money is one of the biggest faith scams ever, in that we put so much belief in its value, and converting this value into power to obtain more. We do this believing this is what being rich or prosperous is all about, in fact we have created religions around the obtaining of wealth, how many Tv and Faith evangelist have you heard stating that God wants you to be rich and prosperous, just make sure you tithe and sow your money into my ministry to guarantee God’s blessing. Oh yeah, don’t forget to confess and attract your wealth as laid out in the Secret and many other Spiritual like principles.

Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in solid spiritual principles that opens up channels of wealth for all of us as co-creators with God, The Universe, etc. All without the charade and charlatans of Magic Thinking. Money may not be the root of evil, but some of us are  so consumed with obtaining it in our quest to become wealthy we ignore that we have become slaves to something that a few people have complete control over, all hidden behind a veil of an quasi-Government organization called the Federal Reserve Bank.

In fact, even becoming a multi millionaire is no guarantee of wealth when others can devalue your money simply by changing monetary policy, check this out.

Wow! Thats right, the Fed standing policy is to devalue and destroy the dollar in order to keep prices low, and then the Fed in order to create capital manufactures money out of thin air!

Lets stop praying and hoping for wealth. In order for you to be wealthy in our society means that someone else has to be poor or you have to consume/buy so much stuff to measure your wealth that it becomes not worth it, the measure of Wealth is the measure of scarcity and your ability to obtain what is scarce. What we need is a new model of wealth that includes everybody and not give a few the ability to control and create money out of thin air and call it prosperity. This is unsustainable and each financial crisis will be worse than the previous one, all of the wealth that people have accumulated will be worth less and less. Wake up! Placing faith in something that no longer works is foolish, we have created this mess and we can fix it so all can benefit, we are all divine and we can create a society were all can flourish and be prosperous. Look around you, we see companies and institutions that we placed so much faith in have failed or are on life support. Some will say, we should just turn it over to God, “Pray to the Lord and  do not place your  faith in Man” or “Humble yourself,  pray and God will heal our land” Yeah Ok, well how’s that working out for you so far?

We have been placed here and we are responsible, God has answered, just look in the Mirror! 

I leave this thought with you from  Jacque Fresco:

All of the world’s economic systems – socialism, communism, fascism, and even the vaunted free enterprise capitalist system – perpetuate social stratification, elitism, nationalism and racism, primarily based on economic disparity. As long as a social system uses money or barter, people and nations will seek to maintain positions of differential advantage. If they cannot do so by means of commerce they will resort to military intervention.

Peace and Love

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Lets Talk about Money

Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 by evigilo

There has been a lot of talk about the Economy, Stimulus, Home Foreclosures, etc. Its clear that we are in the middle of a crisis unseen since the great depression of the 1930’s. So, lets talk about Money and the credit crisis. I have two wonderful videos for your enlightenment. Knowledge , Wisdom and Awareness are keys to help you not to create myths and stories about what is, thus allowing one to create what is not, without fear,dogma or stress. 

The First Video is about our (US)  Monetary system from the film Zeitgeist addendum, by film maker Peter Joseph, Check this out with wide open eyes, heart and mind, with no judgement, just listen.

Ok, now check out this wonderful explanation of the Credit Crisis by Film Maker Jonathan Jarvis, Called The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Wow!

It seems that all of us have been trained and work in a Monetary system that at some point will either fail completely or will no longer support progress that we will need to sustain the quality of life that I believe all people should enjoy and have a right too. It does not matter how successful you are within this system, or what myths you may have about financial security because its all a myth, the system itself is broken. In fact, I believe that any economy that is based on a Monetary System will not be able to sustain and allow Humanity to progress and evolve to its highest state. Every institution that is based on this system will and has been affected negatively by our reliance on it that is no long relevant to our day and time.

Jacque Fresco, Arthur and futurist said:

…in today’s monetary-based economies, whenever new technology is introduced, the human consequences are of little concern to those introducing the technology – except, of course, as customers. In a monetary-based system, the major concerns of industry are profit, maintaining a competitive edge, and watching the bottom line, rather than the [well-being] of humanity. The social problems that arise from mass unemployment of people, who are rendered obsolete by the infusion of automation, are considered irrelevant, if they are considered at all.

Think about it, thus we know this to be true, Its not that automation is a bad thing, in fact its a great thing, but in our current Monetary System, it works against us not for us. Understanding all of this and accepting what is, is the beginning of wisdom. Now this does not mean, we sit by and do nothing, rather we are Aware of Reality and can change and deal with this without stress and fear.

What can we do about this? Stay tuned, I will share some ideas for debate and consideration.

Peace and Love

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An Open Letter to the President

Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by evigilo

Here is an Open Letter to the President, from one of my favorite Writers and Authors, Frank  Schaeffer. Check  this out with an open head and heart and I think you will see the truth in what he is saying to our President:

Dear President Obama: I know that from time to time you read Huffington Post because you’ve written for it. As a Huffington Post reader you’ll know that no one on this web site has more faithfully supported your candidacy and now your presidency than me. As a former lifelong Republican, son of a co-founder of the Religious Right; my late evangelical leader father, Francis Schaeffer, I’m in a unique position to tell you a few things about the Republicans from inside perspective. (As you know I left that movement in the mid 1980s.)

The lack of cooperation you’re getting from the Republican Party will continue. You were right to indulge in a little bit of tokenism when you had to Pastor Rick Warren pray and your inauguration. But if you think that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate are going to do more than their utmost to obstruct everything you are and what you stand for you’re dreaming.

As someone who appeared numerous times on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson, as someone for whom Jerry Falwell used to send his private jet to bring me to speak at his college, as an author who had James Dobson giveaway 150,000 copies of my one of my fundamentalist books allow me to explain something: the Republican Party is controlled by two ideological groups. First, is the Religious Right. Second, are the neoconservatives. Both groups share one thing in common: they are driven by fear and paranoia. Between them there is no Republican “center” for you to appeal to, just two versions of hate-filled extremes.

The Religious Right supply the kind of people who at McCain and Palin rallies were yelling things such as “kill him” about you. That’s the constituency to which your hand is extended when looking for compromise on your financial bailout bill.

There’s only one thing that makes sense for you now. Mr. President, you need to forget a bipartisan approach and get on with the business of governing by winning each battle. You will never be able to work with the Republicans because they hate you. Believe me, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the norm not the exception. James Dobson and the rest are praying for you to fail. The neoconservatives are gnashing their teeth and waiting for you to “sell out Israel” or “show weakness” in Afghanistan, whatever, so they can declare you a traitor.

The problem is that when you deal with the Republican Party you’re talking to the polished characters in Washington. I wish you could see the hate e-mail’s that I have received over the last two years because I supported you, letters calling for God to kill me, telling me that I hate God because I supported you and that I am “an abortionist” and worse a “fag lover” because I’ve written that I believe that you will be a great president.

What those senators and congressmen are telling you is not what their rabid core constituents are telling them. Like Rush Limbaugh they want you to fail. Their loyalty is to a fundamentalist Christian ideology on the one hand and American exceptionalism of perpetual warfare and hatred and fear of the “other” on the other hand. Between the neoconservatives and evangelical Religious Right Republicans you have no friends.

The good news is that most Americans support you. And if you will just get in the face of the Republican Party and call their bluff you’ll be surprised how many individual ordinary American Republicans will support you, not to mention the rest of us. America is sick of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party won for a reason: the Republicans failed and have taken us all down with them! You’re doing your presidency and America no favor by extending an open hand to the perpetually knotted fist of what has become the embittered lunatic fringe of our country. They would rather go down in flames than “compromise” their ideology.

As you showed us again at your press conference of Feb 9, you are a brilliant, articulate and decent man. Your Republican opponents are not decent people but ideologues bent on destroying you. To quote the biblical adage sir, don’t cast your pearls before swine.

As for me, this was in fact the kind of thinking and Ideology that I held, had faith in and believed this is what God wanted  and ordained. I later Learned, that God wants nor needs nothing and that my Ideology was just a myth driven by fear.  I agree with Frank, these folks are not going to give President “O” the time of day, In fact, these folks think that the President is Satan’s pick and that God going to punish America because she elected him. That’s just plain crazy and delusional, but Hey, these are the same folks who think the book of Revelation are Cliff notes to the Left Behind Series.

All I know is this, the very same diehards and party faithful who created and passed around the “Barack The Magic Negro” Thing, are the very same people who ran this country into the ground. So ask yourself a question, If God is talking to a select group of people (in fact God, the universe, life, etc  talks to all that will hear) Who or what group do you think that would be?  I’m Just saying and please examine this for yourself. God, the universe, life, etc. are no fools.  I leave this thought with you from Dr. MLK.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Peace

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