Super Imperialism

Michael Hudson: "Greenspan saw his job as a cheerleader for people who were able to get rich fast; sort of like a pilot fish for sharks"

Mike Whitney Interviews Michael Hudson

29/08/08 "ICH" -- -- 1 Mike Whitney: The United States current account deficit is roughly $700 billion. That is enough "borrowed" capital to pay the yearly $120 billion cost of the war in Iraq, the entire $450 billion Pentagon budget, and Bush's tax cuts for the rich. Why does the rest of the world keep financing America's militarism via the current account deficit or is it just the unavoidable consequence of currency deregulation, "dollar hegemony" and globalization?

Michael Hudson: As I explained in Super Imperialism, central banks in other countries buy dollars not because they think dollar assets are a “good buy,” but because if they did NOT recycle their trade surpluses and U.S. buyout spending and military spending by buying U.S. Treasury, Fannie Mae and other bonds, their currencies would rise against the dollar. This would price their exporters out of dollarized world markets. So the United States can spend money and get a free ride.

The solution is (1) capital controls to block further dollar receipts, (2) floating tariffs against imports from dollarized economies, (3) buyouts of U.S. investments in dollar-recipient countries (so that Europe and Asia would use their central bank dollars to buy out U.S. private investments at book value), (4) subsidized exports to dollarized economies with depreciating currency, and similar responses that the United States would adopt if it were in the position of a payments-surplus country. In other words, Europe and Asia would treat the United States as its Washington Consensus boys treat Third World debtors: buy out their raw materials and other industries, their export plantations, and their governments.

2 MW---Economist Henry Liu said in his article "Dollar hegemony enables the US to own indirectly but essentially the entire global economy by requiring its wealth to be denominated in fiat dollars that the US can print at will with little in the way of monetary penalties.....World trade is now a game in which the US produces fiat dollars of uncertain exchange value and zero intrinsic value, and the rest of the world produces goods and services that fiat dollars can buy at "market prices" quoted in dollars." Is Liu overstating the case or have the Federal Reserve and western banking elites really figured out how to maintain imperial control over the global economy simply by ensuring that most energy, commodities, and manufactured goods are denominated in dollars? If that's the case, then it would seem that the actual "face-value" of the dollar does not matter as much as long as it continues to be used in the purchase of commodities. Is this right?

Michael Hudson: Henry Liu and I have been discussing this for many years now. We are in full agreement. The paragraph you quote is quite right. His Asia Times articles provide a running analysis of dollar hegemony.

3 MW---What is the relationship between stagnant wages for workers and the current credit crisis? If workers wages had kept up with the rate of production, isn't it less likely that we would be in the jam we are today? And, if that is true, than shouldn't we be more focused on re-unionizing the labor force instead looking for solutions from the pathetic Democratic Party?

Michael Hudson: The credit crisis derives from “the magic of compound interest,” that is, the tendency of debts to keep on doubling and redoubling. Every rate of interest is a doubling time. No “real” economy’s production and economic surplus can keep up with this tendency of debt to grow faster. So the financial crisis would have occurred regardless of wage levels.

Quite simply, the price of home ownership tends to absorb all the disposable personal income of the homebuyer. So if wages would have risen more rapidly, the price of housing would simply have risen faster as employees pledged more take-home pay to carry larger mortgages. Stagnant wages merely helped keep down the price of houses to merely stratospheric levels, not ionospheric ones.

As for labor unions, they haven’t been any help at all in solving the housing crisis. In Germany where I am right now, unions have sponsored co-ops, as they used to do in New York City, at low membership costs. So housing costs only absorb about 20% of German family budgets, compared to twice that for the United States. Imagine what could be done if pension funds had put their money into housing for their contributors, instead of into the stock market to buy and bid up prices for the stocks that CEOs and other insiders were selling.

4 MW---When politicians or members of the foreign policy establishment talk about "integrating" Russia or China into the "international system"; what exactly do they mean? Do they mean the dollar-dominated system which is governed by the Fed, the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO? Do countries compromise their national sovereignty when they participate in the US-led economic system?

Michael Hudson: By “integrating” they mean absorbing, something like a parasite integrating a host into its own control system. They mean that other countries will be prohibited under WTO and IMF rules from getting rich in the way that the United States got wealthy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Only the United States will be permitted to subsidize its agriculture, thanks to its unique right to grandfather in its price supports. Only the United States will be free from having to raise interest rates to stabilize its balance of payments, and only it can devote its monetary policy to promoting easy credit and asset-price inflation. And only the United States can run a military deficit, obliging foreign central banks in dollar-recipient countries to give it a free ride. In other words, there is no free lunch for other countries, only for the United States.

Other countries do indeed give up their national sovereignty. The United States never has adjusted its economy to create equilibrium with other countries. But to be fair, in this respect only the United States is acting fully in its own self-interest. The problem is largely that other countries are not “playing the game.” They are not acting as real governments. It takes two to tango when one party gets a free ride. Their governments have become “enablers” of U.S. economic aggression.

5 MW---What do you think the Bush administration's reaction would be if a smaller country, like Switzerland, had sold hundreds of billions of dollars of worthless mortgage-backed securities to investment banks, insurance companies and investors in the United States? Wouldn't there be litigation and a demand that the responsible parties be held accountable? So, how do you explain the fact that China and the EU nations, that were the victims of this gigantic swindle, haven't boycotted US financial products or called for reparations?

Michael Hudson: International law is not clear on financial fraud. Caveat emptor is the rule. Foreign investors took a risk. They trusted a deregulated U.S. financial market that made it easiest to make money via financial fraud. Ultimately, they put their faith in neoliberal deregulation – at home as well as in the United States. England is now in the same mess. The “accountability” was supposed to lie with U.S. accounting firms and credit rating agencies. Foreign investors were so ideologically blinded by free market rhetoric that they actually believed the fantasies about “self-regulation” and self-regulating markets tending toward equilibrium rather than the real-world tendency toward financial and economic polarization.

In other words, most foreign investors lack a realistic body of economic theory. The United States could simply argue that they should take responsibility for their bad investments, just as U.S. pension funds and other investors are told to do.

6 MW---The Congress recently passed a bill that gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson the unprecedented authority to use as much money as he needs to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent. Paulson assured the Congress that he wouldn't need more than $25 billion but, the 400 page bill allows him to increase the national debt by $800 billion. How will the Fannie/Freddie bailout affect the dollar and the budget deficit? Are interest rates likely to skyrocket because of this action?

Michael Hudson: The Fed can flood the economy with money, Alan Greenspan-style, to prevent interest rates from skyrocketing. Nobody really knows what will happen to FNMA and Freddie Mac, but it looks like the mortgage and financial crisis will get much, much worse over the coming year. We are just heading into the storm where adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are scheduled to reset at higher rates, and where U.S. banks have to roll over their existing debts in a market where foreign investors fear that these banks already have no net worth left.

So the principle here is “Big fish eat little fish.” Wall Street will be bailed out, and banks will be allowed to “earn their way out of debt” as they did after 1980, by exploiting retail customers, above all credit-card customers and individual borrowers. There will be a lot of bankruptcies, and people will suffer more than ever before because of the harsh pro-creditor bankruptcy law that Congress passed at the behest of the bank lobbyists.

7 MW---A few months ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial which said that they could imagine two nightmare scenarios if the current credit crisis was not handled properly; either there would be a run on the dollar causing a sudden plunge in its value, or the unexpected failure of a major financial institution could send the stock market crashing. Last week, the former head of the IMF Kenneth Rogoff triggered a sell-off on Wall Street when he said, "We’re not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months, we’re going to see a whopper; we’re going to see a big one — one of the big investment banks or big banks." What happens if Rogoff is right and Merrill, Citi or Lehman go belly up? Is that enough to send the stock market freefalling?

Michael Hudson: Not necessarily. Citibank would be nationalized, then sold off. The principle should be that if a bank is “too big to fail,” it should be broken up.

This should start with a repeal of the Clinton Administration’s repeal of Glass-Steagall.

As for Lehman, that would be given the Bear Stearns treatment, and also sold off – probably to a hedge fund. Merrill is much larger, but it also could be parceled out, I suppose. The stock market’s financial index would plunge, but not necessarily industrial stock prices.

8 MW---According to MarketWatch: "In the three months from April to June, banks posted their second worst earnings performance since 1991.... Earnings for the quarter totaled just $5 billion, compared with $36.8 billion a year ago, a decline of 86.5%." Also, according to a front page article in the Wall Street Journal: "financial institutions will have to pay off at least $787 billion in floating rate notes and other medium term obligations before the end of 2009." How are the banks going to pay off nearly $800 billion ($200 billion by December!) when they only earned a measly $5 billion in the quarter!?! And how in the world is the Federal Reserve going to keep the banking system functioning when earnings can't even cover current liabilities? Do the banks have some secret source of revenue we don't know about or is the system headed for disaster?

Michael Hudson: The traditional way to pay debt is with yet MORE debt. The interest due is simply added on to the principal, so that the debt grows exponentially. This is the real meaning of “the magic of compound interest.” It means not only that savings left to accumulate interest keep on doubling and redoubling, debts do to, because the savings that are lent out on the “asset” side of the creditor’s balance sheet (today, that of America’s wealthiest 10%) become debts on the “liabilities” side of the balance sheet (the “bottom 90%”).

The banks don’t have a secret source of revenue. It’s right out in the open. They will take their junk mortgages to the Federal Reserve and borrow the money at full face value. The government will be left with the junk.

It then can either take over the bank, as the Bank of England did with Northern Rock when it went bankrupt early this year, or it can let the bank “earn” money by stiffing its customers some more.

9 MW---From 2000 to 2006, the total retail value of housing in the United States doubled, going from roughly $11 trillion to $22 trillion in just 6 years. For the last 200 years, housing has barely kept pace with the rate of inflation, usually increasing 2 to 3% per year. The Federal Reserve's low interest rates were the main cause of this unprecedented housing bubble and, yet, ex-Fed chief Alan Greenspan still denies any responsibility for what "The Economist" calls "the largest bubble in history". Did Greenspan understand the problems he was creating with his "loose" monetary policies or was there some ulterior motive to his actions?

Michael Hudson: He simply didn’t care about the problem. He saw his job as a cheerleader for people who were able to get rich fast. These always had been his major clients in his years on Wall Street, and he saw himself as their servant – sort of like a pilot fish for sharks.

Mr. Greenspan’s idea of “wealth creation” was to take the line of least resistance and inflate asset prices. He thought that the way to enable the economy to carry its debt overhead was to inflate asset prices so that debtors could borrow the interest falling due by pledging collateral (real estate, stocks and bonds) that were rising in market price. To his Ayn-Rand view of the world, one way of making money was as economically and socially productive as any other way of doing so. Buying a property and waiting for its price to inflate was deemed as productive as investing in new means of production.

Ever since his days as co-founder of NABE (the National Association of Business Economists), Greenspan has long looked only at GNP and the national balance sheet as an economic indicator, being “value-free.” This is his intellectual and conceptual limitation. He wanted to provide a way for savvy investors to get rich, and the easiest way to get rich is to be passive and get a free lunch. His ideology led him to believe the “free market” ideology that the financial sector would be self-regulating and hence would act honestly. But he opened the floodgates to financial crooks. His set of measures did not distinguish between Countrywide Financial getting rich, Enron getting rich, or General Motors or industrial companies expanding their means of production. So the economy was being hollowed out, but this didn’t appear in any of the measures he looked at from his perch at the Federal Reserve.

So just as journalists and the mass media proclaim every market downturn as “surprising” and “unexpected,” he was as clueless as a lemming running headlong over the cliff. It’s an inherent instinct for free-market boys.

10 MW---The housing market is freefalling, setting new records every day for foreclosures, inventory, and declining prices. The banking system is in even worse shape; undercapitalized and buried under a mountain of downgraded assets. There seems to be growing consensus that these problems are not just part of a normal economic downturn, but the direct result of the Fed's monetary policies. Are we seeing the collapse of the Central banking model as a way of regulating the markets? Do you think the present crisis will strengthen the existing system or make it easier for the American people to assert greater control over monetary policy?

Michael Hudson: What do you mean “failure”? Your perspective is from the bottom looking up. But the financial model has been a great success from the vantage point of the top of the economic pyramid looking down? The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy. From their point of view, their power has exceeded that of any time in which economic statistics have been kept.

You have to realize that what they’re trying to do is to roll back the Enlightenment, roll back the moral philosophy and social values of classical political economy and its culmination in Progressive Era legislation, as well as the New Deal institutions. They’re not trying to make the economy more equal, and they’re not trying to share power. Their greed is (as Aristotle noted) infinite. So what you find to be a violation of traditional values is a re-assertion of pre-industrial, feudal values. The economy is being set back on the road to debt peonage. The Road to Serfdom is not government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards; it’s the dismantling of government, the dissolution of regulatory agencies, to create a new feudal-type elite.

The former Soviet Union provides a model of what the neoliberals would like to create. Not only in Russia but also in the Baltic States and other former Soviet republics, they created local kleptocracies, Pinochet-style. In Russia, the kleptocrats founded an explicitly Pinochetista party, the Party of Right Forces (“Right” as in right-wing).

In order for the American people or any other people to assert greater control over monetary policy, they need to have a doctrine of just what a good monetary policy would be. Early in the 19th century the followers of St. Simon in France began to develop such a policy. By the end of that century, Central Europe implemented this policy, mobilizing the banking and financial system to promote industrialization, in consultation with the government (and catalyzed by military and naval spending, to be sure). But all this has disappeared from the history of economic thought, which no longer is even taught to economics students. The Chicago Boys have succeeded in censoring any alternative to their free-market rationalization of asset stripping and economic polarization.

My own model would be to make central banks part of the Treasury, not simply the board of directors of the rapacious commercial banking system. You mentioned Henry Liu’s writings earlier, and I think he has come to the same conclusion in his Asia Times articles.

11 MW---Do you see the Federal Reserve as an economic organization designed primarily to maintain order in the markets via interest rates and regulation or a political institution whose objectives are to impose an American-dominated model of capitalism on the rest of the world?

Michael Hudson: Shirley you jest! The Fed has turned “maintaining order” into a euphemism for consolidating power by the financial sector and the FIRE sector generally (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) over the “real” economy of production and consumption. Its leaders see their job as being to act on behalf of the commercial banking system to enable it to make money off the rest of the economy. It acts as the Board of Directors to fight regulation, to support Wall Street, to block any revival of anti-usury laws, to promote “free markets” almost indistinguishable from outright financial fraud, to decriminalize bad behavior – and most of all to inflate the price of property relative to the wages of labor and even relative to the profits of industry.

The Fed’s job is not really to impose the Washington Consensus on the rest of the world. That’s the job of the World Bank and IMF, coordinated via the Treasury (viz. Robert Rubin under Clinton most notoriously) and AID, along with the covert actions of the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy. You don’t need monetary policy to do this – only massive bribery. Only call it “lobbying” and the promotion of democratic values – values to fight government power to regulate or control finance across the world. Financial power is inherently cosmopolitan and, as such, antagonistic to the power of national governments.

The Fed and other government agencies, Wall Street and the rest of the economy form part of an overall system. Each agency must be viewed in the context of this system and its dynamics – and these dynamics are polarizing, above all from financial causes. So we are back to the “magic of compound interest,” now expanded to include “free” credit creation and arbitraging.

The problem is that none of this appears in the academic curriculum. And the silence of the major media to address it or even to acknowledge it means that it is invisible except to the beneficiaries who are running the system.

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist specializing in the balance of payments and real estate at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase & Co.), Arthur Anderson, and later at the Hudson Institute (no relation). In 1990 he helped established the world’s first sovereign debt fund for Scudder Stevens & Clark. Dr. Hudson was Dennis Kucinich’s Chief Economic Advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002



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Comments (63)

I have read and agree to comments policy as posted here www.informationclearinghouse.info/c1.htm

In the subject of imperialism, I found this article more relevant:
http://www.left.ru/inter/2003/no...ber/ salari.html
Oscar. | 08.29.08 - 4:55 pm | #

very smart...........but it will not work for a long time.....so kiss its green ass good byyyyyyyyyyyyy.
citizen | 08.29.08 - 5:34 pm | #

Oscar with respect, the subject of the article is the current state of US super-imperialism economically, and is very good in its own right.

I to follow Lenin's analysis, which has never been bettered as a way of understanding the age of imperialism (1880 - 2008?).

Technically the period of super Imperialism has already passed, what we have in this single power is a last bloody gasp, outliving its reason for being.

I will take an odd line of argument in this. During the period of Super Imperialism 1914-1990, competing imperial powers kept each other in check. That is, as best they could they invested in their national industries in order to support their military power in order to support their export of capital.

In imperial homelands wages and social conditions were kept relatively high, the people were promised and to a certain extent received "prosperity". There was an internal logic to the thing.

What we are seeing now is something else again -- first and foremost there is no future being promised. That seems strange, it is the most superficial thing after all -- but it is also the most obvious. There is no future, just more of the same, there is no prosperity even in the homeland state. The industrial infrastructure has been dismantled, the social infrastructure has been allowed to fall apart and the imperial economy rests on the single fact of its pre-established dominance as a world financial broker.

Foreign policy has lost its logic, allies are not sort only auxiliary forces (always a feature but never so obvious). Power has replaced not just diplomacy, but even military logic. Like Hitler everything is about brinkmanship and casino gambles with no specific end-point or objective.

And to uphold this unholy mess, repression and more repression, to keep the home crowd frightened, stupefied and docile, to put the fear of god into everywhere around the world. Do as I say, or suffer the consequences of my might -- sums up diplomatic reality, domestic and foreign policy.

Oil, finance, military "industries" run the show, nakedly, openly and for purely sectional interests. Wow, that ain't old-style imperialism, it looks more and more like the cabals that engineered fascism in Germany and Italy.

In other words this is the end-game of the Age of Imperialism.

Now a look at the up-side. A military solution a World War III, is really not on the cards, though I do fear a nuclear self-destruction because I see the US leadership is actually insane (Hitler with A-bombs).

But the very hubris of this power exposes its Achilles' heel, ironically the very thing that sets it all in motion -- finance.

Somewhere down the track the dollar plug will be pulled. This article, and a number of others I have seen in the Asian press especially (some very conservative) are well aware of the weakness.

The fall of Imperialism's last monstrous child, will not lead to world socialism automatically, but it will make sensible policy, policy for the interests of working people more and more a solution for a plethora of problems that are at the moment official "insolvable".

PS we are already in a period of Bourgeois Socialism -- it is now ultimately a class question (see Lenin on this also).
Greg Schofield, Perth Australi | 08.29.08 - 5:37 pm | #

Re:"Did Greenspan understand the problems he was creating with his "loose" monetary policies or was there some ulterior motive to his actions?"Sorry Mike--dead wrong on this one!
Here is something that has never been talked about--Greenspan,George Tenet-(both Jews) were cast-offs of Billy Goat Clinton era. Why did Bush accept these fraudsters? Simple--ass-kissers--smell of cash$!
Reason Greenspan lowered the interest rates to almost 1% was to pacify the general public,while the republicians pulled of 911 attacks and invaded two countries and host of nasty legislation passed--without a wimper from the gorged obtuse public. Well saps, the wine is finished ,dance & song & music are over, cause the band has packed up,and the party is over--now suffer ufools !
george archers | 08.29.08 - 5:50 pm | #

Greg,

"Now a look at the up-side. A military solution a World War III, is really not on the cards,"

So if WWI and II were about markets breaking free of nation states what DO you see in the cards if not WWIII? Just endless, disconnected mini-wars constantly smoldering in order to feed the military markets and keep the people stressed to docility?
antiup | 08.29.08 - 5:52 pm | #

Sorry, above question directed to George, not Greg
antiup | 08.29.08 - 5:53 pm | #

A military solution a World War III, is really not on the cards, though I do fear a nuclear self-destruction because I see the US leadership is actually insane (Hitler with A-bombs).
Greg Schofield, Perth Australi | 08.29.08 - 5:37 pm | #

Thankyou for your very good article. They are insane all of that elite class they will push the buttons to preserve thier positions. Thier backs are against the wall of the world.
darkbeaver | 08.29.08 - 6:24 pm | #

The US boasts of being a bastion of democracy. What humbug. The only way that word can be applied is in the term 'democratic dictatorship'. The only democratic right the people have is to vote for the political parties that will do the dictating. The same applies throughout the 'deocratic' world.

Wake up to your plight people. Would you in your most fickle of moments ever have voted for an economic sytem that gives 85% of your nations wealth to 10% of the people. So how does your vote count Mr. & Mrs. democratic citizen? It counts for zilch! You are worse of than citizens of acknowledged dictatoships because they atleast know their plight. You are being hood winked left right and center and all you can do is engage in academic, fruitless discussions. Stop stroking your egos and start realising what you are doing to yourselves, your families and your nation. You should be discussing how you got into this pathetic mess and how you are going to get out of it before it is finaly too late.

Stop ideolising money for a start and put right and wrong up their in it's place. What are you going to tell your children? That chasing the almighty dollar was more important than chasing right and fixing wrong? Get rid of the nation that what masks as free enterprise is capitalist greed in disguise.


Why should people be rewarded with profits galore when others battle just to feed their families. Is that the great American dream that you will soon vote yet again into power. Which voter with any common sense would vote for a system that guarantees the wealth of the few by taking it away from the majority. Stop living in a fools paradise and start creating the paradise that your nation should be. Stop voting for politicians. Make your vote count by determining your own candidates - candidates that are committed to determining the will of their electorate and representing that will in government. No more collusion of members and parties. No more dictatorship by stealth!!!!
Robbo | 08.29.08 - 6:40 pm | #

Bravvo Robbo-winston
winston smith | 08.29.08 - 6:49 pm | #

Better the US dollar than some other county's currency!!!!
Anonymous | 08.29.08 - 6:53 pm | #

You think so? You will never own it! It will never belong to you! But dream of it - at least the elitists will love you.
Robbo | 08.29.08 - 6:57 pm | #

Robbo...

How?
cornsilk | 08.29.08 - 7:36 pm | #

Good article. Stated that other countries buy US dollars to keep their own currencies from rising. Solutions are available. However, it is clear in another part of the article that bribery and coercion keeps it intact worldwide.
As good as Hudson seems to be in economics, i wouldn't presume he is correct about everything. He curiously mentioned 'the Fed and other government agencies.' Thats not clear perspective at all, reguardless of his intent.
All in all, Hudson has explained that our financial system has been a great success for the upper 10%; a criminal enterprise that is not at all interested in making anything better for the country.
refirex | 08.29.08 - 7:37 pm | #

cornsilk | 08.29.08 - 7:36 pm

How what? I don't understand!
Robbo | 08.29.08 - 7:41 pm | #

Antiup--answer this question and you might get your answer-- Hitler's Germany was zionist controlled and the media was 100% Jewish owned. Why did Germany attack Russia twice?
If anyone thinks that WWIII will not happen needs a rude awakening. All Jews hate Russia with a passion. Jews are smart,they won't fight them--but the low lifers will for demockracy.
Enough said!
george archers | 08.29.08 - 7:41 pm | #

Robbo...

"Stop living in a fools paradise and start creating the paradise that your nation should be. Stop voting for politicians. Make your vote count by determining your own candidates - candidates that are committed to determining the will of their electorate and representing that will in government."

It's a beautiful thought. But I really don't see how it can be done. Ron Paul truly tried. Dennis Kucinich truly tried. Can you be the candidate who will do it for us?
cornsilk | 08.29.08 - 7:52 pm | #

Good god, Michael Hudson's views are grimmer than I would have thought. A new feudalism?

This is another word for fascism. But he won't take the bait from Whitney and sign on to a conspiratorial NWO agenda. He must have a low opinion of the capabilities of the new class of global aristocrats. They aren't smart enough or organized enough to create a global order. That's good news.

And Hudson's solution: "My own model would be to make central banks part of the Treasury, not simply the board of directors of the rapacious commercial banking system". I wish Whitney would have pushed him on this point.

Mike could have asked Hudson if he were aware of the American Monetary Act. ( www.monetary.org ) He could have discovered whether Hudson has a coherent view of what a populist economics could be? ( See Richard C Cook's recent articles at ICH, Globalresearch.ca, DissidentVoice. org )

A populist monetary system as the new foundation of a truly democratic political economy is the only alternative, the only way forward, in the corporate fascist model that has put us on the high road to hell on earth.

Michael Hudson would be advised to read the new book (200 by Adrian Kuzminski, "Fixing the System, A History of Populism, Ancient and Modern".

Hudson is already on the way to a populist economics with his idea of incorporating the central banks into the Treasury.
cruxpuppy | Homepage | 08.29.08 - 7:53 pm | #

Bark for your masters, anonymous.

Good dog.

Sit up and beg.

Now roll over.
sneaker | 08.29.08 - 8:13 pm | #

Good interview.

It's funny how those economic theories that are proven in the field as wealth equalizers seem to disappear from the annals of learning and experience.

Now there’s a conspiracy theory that might actually have some legs.

T.
Turtle | 08.29.08 - 8:15 pm | #

cornsilk | 08.29.08 - 7:52 pm

You have to start by thinking out side of the square. Most people are locked into thinking that the political system is the way it is. That's it. And therefore when they see all the wrong that is being done by it they try to fix the political system. But you can't make something that is wrong, right. To understand this you must think outside of the political system and see it for what it is.

Politics is, by definition, the art of crafty intrigue. That government members are called politicians is not only a misrepresentation of a members lawful duty and resposibility it demonstrates how easily we have been made to accept a perverse representation of constitutional government as legitimate. Government members have a readily defined job to do. That is to represent the clearly expressed majority will of the electorate. No more, no less. There is no call here for intrigue, crafty or otherwise. But that's 'politics'!

One does not have to think to hard to realise that when politicians 'intrigue' that they are doing so against the interest of the public - why else the intrigue. By accepting politicians as members of government we are giving them the right to intrigue and pursue policies and laws that are not determined by the people. We are giving them the right to act against our interests.

It is difficult for people, condition by this system, to accept that the task of a 'representative' is just that; to represent the electorate that voted them into office. We vote for them, pay them and then allow them to intrigue with whosoever and make policies and laws that have no pretence of ever having been derived from the will of the electorate.

How rational is that? If you were an employer would you allow your employee to dictate to you? I don't think so! So why do we allow it for public employees in government?

Following this rational we quickly begin to realise how wrong it is that proclaimed candidates tell us what they are going to do for us when they get into power. Note, it is not their position to tell us what they are going to do for us. That is codswollop rhetoric calculated for no other purpose than to gain your support. There sole duty is to represent the will of the electorate that voted them into office. How can they do that by telling us what they are going to do for us. These people should be dismissed as legitimate candidates forthwith. The only candidate than should be considered for office is one that is committed to determining what the electorate wants.

Thus, despite many vital positions that Ron Paul upholds, it is not his position to proclaim policies and laws to the people. He is merely venting inside a system that is thoroughly controlled by the political establishment. It is much easier to dictate the course of events by controlling two political parties than it is to control the outcome of hundreds of valid reresentatives that will ony make laws in accordance to the will of their electorate.

So, for example, if the elite want to go to war with Iran, as things stand now, all they have to do is pull a few political strings. Alternately they would be confronted by the representative of hundreds of electorates. How would they manage that when each representative is duty bound to solely represent their electorate? You might say that they could manipulate public perception through the media. Then each electorate will be faced with the question of who controls the media? Then each member will voice the will of the electorate. How long do you think that power would last?
Robbo | 08.29.08 - 8:43 pm | #

Does the University near you devote about half the time in economic courses to socialism, and socialist economies?
If not...why not?

Did your ever read Le Monde Diplomatique?
If not...why not?

Ever heard of Ignacio Ramonet?
If not...why not?

Ever heard of "pensamiento unico"?
(the article mentions it as "the washington consensus")
If not...why not?

Do you really think that "history has ended"?

Do you really think that there is only capitalism?

Where does one find socialist economists?
In which university?
Biblio | 08.29.08 - 8:59 pm | #

cruxpuppy,
A new feudalism/fascism is a surprise? I'm always a bit surprised when people bring up alternative economic possibilities. The optimism that seems to say 'oh, this isn't working for us, so let's try this...'
The constitutional framework and various Acts over the years aimed at having a good system. It's been torn down. 'They' are merely not using the financial model that we would prefer.

"The Road to Serfdom is not government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards; it’s the dismantling of government, the dissolution of regulatory agencies, to create a new feudal-type elite." -Hudson.

He also mentions the silence of the media. You are dealing here with a mob of psychopathic gorillas and their minions. The problem is not in finding a better system. Anything honest can work. The present system of ultra corruption has a lock on the country. It will only fall from it's own inherent weaknesses. The average people are not informed very much at all.
'Political correctness' is also a problem. People don't want to 'sign on' to a conspiratorial NWO agenda, any more than they want to declare outright that the Fed is a fraud and a crime syndicate, or notice that Israel seems to own this country.
The psychology of the population and of the financial elite is the key to why a problem exists and what, if anything, can be done about it. Look at the psychology.
refirex | 08.29.08 - 9:05 pm | #

The criminal element are going for broke.

The system is breaking up. Believe it.
anonymous | 08.29.08 - 9:13 pm | #

The central bankers have taken the power to issue money away from democratic control and placed into their own hands.

The power to issue money is the "Organizing principle" of the society.

This power has been mis-used by these central bankers with their using this money power in the building of a genocidal planetary destroying nuclear war machine.

These nuclear weapons were built with the intent, from the beginning, to use them on the body of the human race.

We are only a 'spark' away from extermination. There is a vast well stocked underground shelter system awaiting our nuclear war fighting elite.

Our nuclear war fighting elite are not joking with us folks; they have pulled the 'Trigger' on us several times over the decades.

Once it becomes obvious to the majority of the population exactly what our nuclear war fighting elite have done,(Exterminate us), this extortion murder racket will face an inevitable shut down.

For some strange reason or another, most people cannot come to grips with the fact that our nuclear war fighting elite are really that bad; the facts are, they are worse than even that.

As we sit the gang in London, Washington and Tel Aviv are doing their best to provoke a confrontation with Russia, that they plan to end in a Nuclear holocaust for all of us.
.
Patrick | 08.29.08 - 10:06 pm | #

the problem with say, trying to make the Fed part of the Treasury is thay 'we'have lost control of the government (if 'we' ever had it) the multinational corporations and FIRE control the government of the US. Corporations have gained the rights of citizens but have more money and longer life spans. When it costs 2 million dollars every 2 years to run for the House, very few will not be compromised and beholden. the senate is and has always been a millionaire's club. As has been noted, corporations are run with the sensibility of a sociopath. As has been noted, psychopaths and sociopaths have an advantage rising to the top of hierchies and institutios. It does seem hopeless but there was a time that Unions were a positive force but they were coopted by being invited into the halls of power and then castrated. there is occasionally legislation like the clean air or clean water bills passed - the equal rights amendment and so on. more and more there are community supported farms so people can buy local produce once again. Universal education is still a relatively recent innovation with a lot work needed. the last time the financial system melted down there a small window opened for 'progress".

It seems to me that elites decided in the 70s to deindustrialize the US but keep its military weapons production. there is a race on to perfect robots or androids. then 'they' will not need us and the plan B of conpiracy theory will be implented. or global warming will actually take place or nuclear winter or ... but as they say in Russia, "we are stil alive and one day we might even be happy.'
Gepay
gepay | 08.29.08 - 10:11 pm | #

refirex
"The problem is not in finding a better system. Anything honest can work."

(I'm not surprised at the radical descent into feudal/fascist politics, but surprised that Hudson has this grim view. Glad of it. Increases my respect.)

Can't agree with your assertion quoted. The reason our representative republic and attendant rights is collapsing is a systemic issue. There's not much we can do about human nature, but like tax policy that will benefit one enterprise over another, our representative system encourages concentrations of wealth and power.

The founders of our republic were oligarchs with stars in their eyes.

We have an antidemocracy, as Adrian Kuzminski argues, because citizens are denied access to direct, individualized political power. The Declaration which announced the sovereign status of individuals was over ruled by the Constitution which denied them the means for direct political activity and created the current system of misrepresentative government, to use Kuzminski's term.

If the solution to our problems is not systemic, we are screwed, because there is no cure for human nature. Like nature, it is irrepressible. You don't change it fundamentally and "perfect" it, because it isn't perfect and furthermore, perfection does not exist outside Plato's fantasy of Ideas.

You don't perfect human nature and make all people good, you put it into a system where the good people have the opportunity to act politically to contain the scoundrels.

Psychopathy tends to concentrate in positions of power because the system is not democratic and more vulnerable to psychopaths than it would otherwise be.
cruxpuppy | Homepage | 08.29.08 - 10:11 pm | #

Quote, last paragraph of Article; "The problem is that none of this appears in the academic curriculum. And the silence of the major media to address it or even to acknowledge it means that it is invisible except to the beneficiaries who are running the system."

Except all those critical/constructive members of the working-class who carry the burdon of all the privileges, waste and destruction ordered by the wholely Parasitic, Capitalist Class rulers and their minions.

For a sane sustainable solution to freely provide a secure abundance for ALL Humanity from cradle to grave.

Go to; http://www.worldsocialism.org
.
On With The War of Ideas | Homepage | 08.29.08 - 10:39 pm | #

Sorry, above question directed to George, not Greg
antiup

Wooh! I DID mean Greg. Sorry George.
antiup | 08.29.08 - 11:11 pm | #

In the interview by Whitney of Michael Hudson, concerning global money control, Whitney is asking: have the Federal Reserve and western banking elites really figured out how to maintain imperial control over the global economy?

But I miss an important part of the answer, which has been given many times. By people here on ICH too. Because in the whole interview nothing is said about the BIS, even if there's talk about the 'central bank' of a country doing this or that. But the BIS is ''the Central Bank of all those central banks'' in a lot of countries, and via the BIS the world's economy is controlled.

Here's the full list of all the 'central banks' this BIS mafia runs. And mind you, the Board bankers of the BIS are the greedy 'Greenspans' and Bernanke-bandits of this world, the criminal financial cartel which can be seen as the 'dark force' behind this world's wars and global misery. They "maintain imperial control over the global economy". Probably your so called 'central bank' is there too. - Url.: http://www.bis.org/cbanks.htm

We must look at it in a global, financial way, and see who profits: who's behind the curtains. Name and shame the elephants that trample all and everything to death! Knowing that it's not politics, race, religion or the color of one's skin, but that it's wealth, power and profit, which are the root of all evil...

Whitney, Liu and Hudson - among many others, maybe are afraid of the global power the Rothschilds and Rockefellers have? They should have written the truth: that the BIS owners already for seven decades has been the major headquarter of the financial mafia. Look at the privately owned money printing shop called 'Federal Reserve' in the United States, with all it's tentacles, which also is owned and managed by the same 'foreign bank' figures, resorting under the BIS owners, which is the Rothschild 'banking' consortium.

And for those who don't know it yet: as far as is known, those are: 1. Rothschild banks of London and Berlin. 2. Lazard Brothers bank of Paris. 3. Israel Moses Seif bank of Italy. 4. Warburg bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam. 5. Lehman bank of New York. 6. Kuhn Loeb bank of New York. 7. Chase Manhattan bank of New York. 8. Goldman Sachs bank of New York. The remaining stock is held by their Chemical Trust (I.G. Farben) and the Rockefeller Trust. The Rockefellers and their gang have for ages 'run' the US too, and taken care of their own and the Rothschild dynasty's interests. And that includes the value of gold and silver, diamonds etc. world wide.

So, in the interview the questions asked concentrated on 'who controls global monetary affairs'? Well of course, only the 'managers' of the Greenspans and Bernankes do. Via their own BIS. It is by the way based in Basle, in Switzerland, and the BIS - as I said - is the one and only 'central bank' to all other central banks. Probably in your country too. And those who run the system, they know! And, maybe it's difficult to understand, but the BIS group and it's banks claimed and have greater immunity than any sovereign nation, is accountable to no one, runs global monetary affairs and - as said - is privately owned. This is a must-read report to understand the BIS and its for the 'Gnomes of Zürich' profitable 'globalization' process. - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/y6xmed

These 'Captains of Finance' recycle a lot of the loot at the BIS, and the Board of the BIS is very interesting. There you'll find all the same 'Greenspans and Bernankes' again. It's 'crooks united' all over. - Url.: http://www.bis.org/about/board.htm

And the BIS, as Eustace Mullins wrote, and some maybe don't know yet, really is 'A Bank for All Reasons': ''The Bank for International Settlements was a joint creation in 1930 of the world's central banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Its existence was inspired by Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, Nazi Minister of Economics and president of the Reichsbank, part of whose early upbringing was in Brooklyn, and who had powerful Wall Street connections. He was seconded by the all-important banker Emil Puhl, who continued under the regime of Schacht's successor, Dr. Walther Funk. Sensing Adolf Hitler's lust for war and conquest, Schacht, even before Hitler rose to power in the Reichstag, pushed for an institution that would retain channels of communication and collusion between the world's financial leaders even in the event of an international conflict.

It was written into the Bank's charter, concurred in by the respective governments, that the BIS should be immune from seizure, closure, or censure, whether or not its owners were at war.

These owners included the Morgan-affiliated First National Bank of New York (among whose directors were Harold S. Vanderbilt and Wendell Willkie), the Bank of England, the Reichsbank, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of France, and other central banks. Established under the Morgan banker Owen D. Young's so-called Young Plan, the BIS's ostensible purpose was to provide the Allies with reparations to be paid by Germany for World War I. The Bank soon turned out to be the instrument of an opposite function. It was to be a money funnel for American and British funds to flow into Hitler's coffers and to help Hitler build up his war machine." - [end excerpt]

And there's a lot more of what we were never told, weren't informed about in this interview and never saw in our history books, but which we need to know, The quote above was excerpted from the book 'Trading with the Enemy' - The Nazi - American Money Plot 1933-1949, by Charles Higham, Delacorte Press 1983 - TinyUrl.: http://tinyurl.com/6dexvz

By the way, isn't the saying: They who hold the gold, hold the power? Well, some of the Rothschild clan in London controls the value of gold too. - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/a2kkb

In this interview it clearly should have been spelled out: who - what group - runs the global fiat money system. And everything points in the direction of the - not in this interview mentioned - BIS and it's group of owners. According to me it's the BIS group and their global fake 'fiat money' which is the root of all evil! The usury system they globally run is a disaster for mankind, which is an easy and global analysis of the present dollar hegemony.

But one thing is certain: if this usury system is not ended, humanity will be.

Concerning that, I personally think that we maybe are on the point of no return.

Remember? "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws." - Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 - 1812
Henk Ruyssenaars | Homepage | 08.29.08 - 11:32 pm | #

Robbo - 08.29.08 - 8:43 pm:

Very eloquent!

Couldn't have expressed it better!

Thanks.
Henk Ruyssenaars | Homepage | 08.30.08 - 12:00 am | #

Thanks Henk, I appreciate your comments too.
Robbo | 08.30.08 - 12:53 am | #

So, working-class folks, ready for the neofeudalism that your republolibertarian friends, and their democratic allies have in mind for you? It's been the goal of those royalist bastards since the country began, all their balderdash about freedom and self determination notwithstanding. What they really mean is that those things will be theirs, and our only freedom will be the freedom to serve them.
Harvey Reading | 08.30.08 - 1:25 am | #

Quote; "But one thing is certain: if this usury system is not ended, humanity will be."
Henk Ruyssenaars | Homepage | 08.29.08 - 11:32 pm

Yes Henk, we will have never progressed as a species beyond the Waring Apes. To reach our full human intelligence potential. Which is only possible once we establish a truly democratic, production for USE money-less cooperative economy directed to serving ALL humanities needs. World Socialism/Communism.
.
On With The War of Ideas | Homepage | 08.30.08 - 4:27 am | #

The only democratic right the American people have is the right to chose among commodities.
Their leaders are preselected.
RPY | 08.30.08 - 5:25 am | #



Edited By Siteowner
Henk Ruyssenaars | 08.30.08 - 6:05 am | #

**The central bankers have taken the power to issue money away from democratic control and placed into their own hands. Patrick states**

It amazes me how people cannot see the 800 POUND GORILLA in the room.

As it is difficult to see that Jews are the WEALTHIEST minority in the USA, and it so happens that most of the directors , chairmen, presidents and boardmembers of the Federal Reserve, Treasury, IMF, World Bank, or anything to do with money ARE JEWISH.

Now I do not condone hatred based on race, nor aggressive persecution. However it is clear that the Jewish people have create a MONEY TREE, and a system that benefits themselves.

They create money for wars. They create money for their businesses. They create money to control the media. How can you stop that.

Madelaine Albright (who didn't realize she was Jewish until AFTER she became Secretary of State), her father was a player in Eastern europe,but when the family moved prior to WWII, he was immediately given funds and a fellowship. This money is endless, look at all the propaganda documentaries that feed your childrens heads. THis is all funded through grants that ultimately derive from the money tree.

Working people cannot even get small business loans, and the Federal Reserve is giving billions of 2% money to Sheister investment bankers who turn around and drive up the price of commodities.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM MUST GO. No one wants to persecute the Jews, at least I don't. But I'd like to see them have to compete with the rest of society, without the endless access to their money tree. And yes, I believe all Jews benefit from the money tree... not just Zionists.
paolo | 08.30.08 - 6:09 am | #

The system is failing, and the MSM is pouring on the propaganda. The two American political parties.. are one in the same... zionisti. All the other issues are tertiary at best.

As stupid, selfish and ignorant as most americans are, soon they will start figuring things out. And that will be when the next Pearl Harbor/9-11 happens, and their civil rights completely disappear, and their sons are being drafted to get killed and maimed in a world war. With war news and USO fundraisers and flagwaiving patriotism and stars on the windows, the analysis of the perpetuation of ruthless capitalism is almost impossible.

Look at history WAR is the critical link in capitalism and we are due.
paolo | 08.30.08 - 6:20 am | #

It does not matter what the nature of the fraud du jour is, or even if it is understood as fraud. Any social/economic arrangement which takes from the productive and rewards criminals and the unproductive is doomed to fail. At the tail end of Nazi Germany, even a wheel barrow of fiat currency would not buy a loaf of bread. Neither will $US.

This is easily proven "Mathematics of Rule":

http://www.nazisociopaths.org/mo...ticle.php/c1/ 32

The harder they squeeze and the more they try to control, the more slips through their grasp.

Bill Ross
(Electronics Design Engineer)
Bill Ross | Homepage | 08.30.08 - 6:27 am | #

There is no solution - the final nail in the coffin is the fixation with "one person one vote" principle.
It is this fundamental principle that enables the few to dominate the many.
Within "the many" there are certainly powerful minds capable of creative ideas and solutions but these minds are silenced in perpetuity by the dilution into the rest of "the many."
100 persons that want nothing are no match for two persons that want something. The "one person one vote" paradigm is perfect for the elite - it provides an easily manipulated "mess" of "minds" at the same time as it provides legitimacy for the elite. All in the bright light of day.
Watch how people make suggestions about "candidates" - you would have had to be asleep if you didn't marvel at the magic with which the "American System" eliminated the "bothersome candidates"...!
"Candidates" are not any solution - if push comes to shove, they'll be killed, pure and simple.
Ideas...are where the "solution" should be sought. Carried by many. The power elite knows this perfectly well - evidenced by the fact that the major "carriers of ideas" ("political parties") in the US are empty and void of ideas and solutions for the many.
Ultimately and collectively people get what they deserve. "Free expression" is still possible.
Follow the Facts | 08.30.08 - 8:50 am | #

cruxpuppy,
i guess i leave myself open to misinterpretation by trying to be concise. But you seem to be saying that the system never offered the people an opportunity to control it. Maybe you are right. We've had good ideas implimented over the years, only to be diluted or dismantled afterwards.
You seem to be saying that a better 'system' would protect the population. You are assuming that an artificial entity can insure the wellbeing of an organic one,- the population, - and then the problem is solved. The premis relieves the population of all responsibility for the corrupt system that is now in place.
I was trying to indicate the power of the system and it's international scope. Henk Ruyssenaars mentions how no one mentions the Bank of International Settlements. Well, i often mention an 'international banking cartel', because that is what it amounts to. But the concept does not get acknowledged or discussed. Likewise, to suggest that the system we have is somehow the true representative of what we as a people are, collectively, meets with a loud silence. The lines go dead.
To say that our political and economic system was imposed on us without any consent on our part is to say that we are just poor innocent victims who never had a chance. I don't believe that. Our political parties are composed of people who come from our own population, just as the lieing news commentators, and just as all the lobbies that enabled the Rothschild disease to take hold in this country and around the world.
refirex | 08.30.08 - 9:38 am | #

Please join the organisation established by G.Edward Griffin

http://www.freedom_force.org.

He is the man who wrote the great book called "The Creature from Jekyll Island."

and made the video, available on youtube or google by the same name.

There is no charge to join - and the more people who do join the more likely that we will find a way to destroy the BIS - asap.

If we don't, as Henk says, we hve no future.

Rather, the young have NO FUTURE.

It is desperately important.

Thank you Henk for those urls.

I was wondering about Ian - I thought Iran was not in this banking system - but it seems, from the list you posted that it IS.

Korea is listed only once - so I suppose that means S. Korea. North Korea is not in the system.
Isabella | 08.30.08 - 9:45 am | #

The article has good ideas about the current state of affairs but is written poorly.

"Michael Hudson: Shirley you jest!"

Surely, is correct. There are many others, this just really irritates me the most. Fix your erros and people might take you more seriously.
kyle | 08.30.08 - 9:48 am | #

For those of us who do not understand the banking system so well, or as intellectuallly as Henk and Cruxpuppy and Robbo - and all of you please indulge my simple way of trying to get it across once more.

(You need not read it - it is just for ordinary people who do not realise what a fraud it is - it is SO strange.)

Credit cards work like this:

You are offered a credit card. You accept this card. You use the card to buy something. You are now in debt to the bank which owns the credit card. You have to pay the amount which the shop charged you for the thing you bought.

You will also pay interest unless you pay the whole amount off on time and you will pay late charges and charges if you go over the "limit" - and so on and so forth.

When the bank which owns the credit card gets the request for the funds from the shop someone at the bank types some digits into a computer whihc transfers "funds" to the bank account of the shop.

So, the shop now has the "funds"
you have the goods - and it cost the bank NOTHING! Not a red cent - unless you count the salary of the person who spent a few seconds typing on the computer!

Now you have to pay the amount the shop charged you for the goods to that bank - which gave out NOTHING in the first place, AND interest etc.

It is so strange. The bank gets your real money - well, the money you have had to earn - for nothing. They get money when the transaction cost them not a penny!

Very weird indeed - and definitely fraud.

The banks work the same way when you take out a loan because when they have a deposit of 10 dollars they loan out MUCH more - they call it fractional reserve.

Please, do go and watch G. Edward Griffin's video OR

The Money Masters. (google)

OR

Freedom to Fascism.
Isabella | 08.30.08 - 9:59 am | #

The Federal Reserve treats the Government in the same way.

The Government sends a chit down to the Fed. It is called a Treasury Note or Bond. It is just an iou.

Someone, probably by name Rothschild, types the amount requested into a computer and that sends
message to the Government Mint.

The Mint prints up some paper with greenish ink.

These pieces of printed paper are called Federal Reserve Notes!!!

We call them dollars because we thin they are - but they are NOT.

The Mint sends these "dollars" to the Government department which asked for them.

The amount, however much it is, is now owed by the people of the US. and has ato be paid, through illegal taxes to the Federal Reserve "Bank". PLUS compound interest.

So much is now "owed" that it can never ever be repaid. They have America over a barrel for the future forever.

They have America enslaved in the same way they have been enslaved the Their World Countries since - I think - WW2.

It is completely mad.

On to of all that the Fed hasa been bailing out banks whihc have been going bust lately because of their own evil practises - banks which are part of their own cartel if you please, and charging the American people for that as well!!! !!! !!!

It makes me gasp, astounded and incredulous.

It HAS to be stopped. There is no way this can go on.

AS Henk says, not if Humanity is going to survive as Human Beings.

The young will suffer most.

Read "1984." and read The Protocols - urgently.
Isabella | 08.30.08 - 10:12 am | #

The power elite are psychopaths.

Psychopaths are snakes.

You kill a snake by chopping off its head.
myword | 08.30.08 - 10:55 am | #

Henk Ruyssenaars,

Brilliant analysis.

Yes the BIS, The Bank for International Settlements based in Basel, is the capital of the robbers.
As an intern attached to the IMF in the early nineties learnt a lot about the activities of the BIS.

BIS is an absolute MAFIA network and currently have Mark Carney (Canada) and Mervyn King (Governor, Bank Of England)- as Board of Directors.
These “GENTLEMEN” are nothing but front boys for the wealthy Zionist Financial Netwotwork.
M.Kumar | 08.30.08 - 12:14 pm | #

M. Hudson states –

“There will be a lot of bankruptcies, and people will suffer more than ever before because of the harsh pro-creditor bankruptcy law that Congress passed at the behest of the bank lobbyists”.

I have stated this many times on ICH. The American people must learn how the money system works and stop paying their credit card debts. Even the “loan agreement” on homes is a fraud. No money is lent from them or from depositors. They must stand up and scream loud by questioning their creditors by using their consumer protection laws. Filing bankruptcy means you screwed up and admit guilt so now they can garnish your wages,enslave you basically and no credit or bad credit for 8-10 years, etc.

Even if you dispute your credit cards using a bad faith letter, then creditors cannot collect. Look up Chase Manhattan vs. Kurtz. The Supreme Court has already ruled they must comply, acknowledge and/or respond to your dispute even if it were a bad faith billing dispute. Your case most likely will be dismissed (or settle for pennies on the dollar) if you dispute and have them prove why there are no credits reflecting on your statement in the transaction. Credit card companies fear going to court and unfortunately too many people also have a fear and don’t realize they have more consumer protection rights (power if they have the knowledge) than they think. They sell and charge off your credit card and sell it to a debt collector who has no jurisdiction to collect and cannot take you to court.

There is no secret source of revenue coming from the banks Mike W. The banksters will pay their debts with more creation of money, Higher interests and higher taxes to come due on the backs of the American people. The national debt will soon increase to about $180,000 for each and every citizen. The banksters and their cronies will not loot themselves, they will loot Americans, their children and grandchildren to pay more of this creation of money to bail out the financial institutions and to further debase and devalue the dollar and further destroy our standard of living at the expense of transferring more wealth to the banks.

“The government will be left with the junk.” Yeah right Mr. Hudson. This really means the banks will “create the money” like a counterfeiter and loan out the newly created money and compound it with interest. By the time this money goes around to the working people, it will be further debased/diluted. The government tends to pay back the people with diluted, debased, or devalued currency. This debased currency the people now use is further taxation on them which is really called “inflation”. Inflation being a hidden form of taxation. What a scam and fraud that will be perpetrated on the American people.

This “wealth creation” or what is really “money creation” will simple transfer more wealth to the Wall Street Banksters. Of course Greenspan wanted to provide a way for savvy investors to get rich. This is not new. He works for the FED manipulators. It was done during the Great Depression using money creation or easy credit.

The bankers used a similar deceiving trick during the Great Depression, and it was not accidental. During the Great Depression, they called in their loans and contracted the money supply. It was carefully and intentionally planned that way. They did this in order to be able to plunder the American people and take over their assets, such as the people’s homes, farms, businesses, cars, ranches, planes, and other assets. Afterwards, wealthy bankers and wealthy business people, politicians and others privy to inside sources of this fraud by the Fed to contract the money supply started to buy up all of the peoples properties and assets for pennies on the dollar! Great fortunes were made at the misery of others. Nothing new, just similar to what is going on with the housing, foreclosures, etc., that we see today, just in a different way to transfer wealth to your ruling elite. Your ruling elite Banksters just want you to...

be afraid, watch tv, consume, obey, shut up, be happy
F.A. | 08.30.08 - 12:20 pm | #

Isabella,

I did not read your article when I wrote the above.

What you describe is correct. Because of my involvement and committed research on the money issue and “loan agreement”, I probably understand it in more detail than you do. It is a very clever trick on how the "loan agreement" and credit cards work. I worked for a CPA expert witness years ago who was able to destroy the arguments of any judge or attorney on the fraud of the "loan agreement" They don't want this exposed and will never admit it in court. That is why they will dismiss or cancel your loan even without going to court if they know that you know how it works. Bank presidents and bank auditors have admitted this to this CPA. He is out of the picture now due to many threats and I have most of the info now.

I have had my credit cards dismissed or settled for pennies on the dollar because of the info I know. It is too lengthy to explain it here.

I met Aaron Russo before he died in West Los Angeles when “Freedom to Fascism” was still in the theatres and I brought up the fraud of the “loan agreement” “money creation” and other manipulating scams. He knew what I was talking about, but could not expound on it further. I saw the money masters years ago and have all E. Griffins books and much more. I have many books on banking and how they operate including banker’s manual’s and some are registered with serial numbers “For Bankers Only” and not allowed to be reviewed by the public or bank employees. It is a top secret type of manual with topics like “secret loan agreement”, “court and UCC secrets” “How bankers can quickly double investment money” (Wall street bankers use this secret) “Methods for controlling the media, politicians, and judges” etc. This material is out of print or banned now and probably never to be exposed again.

I already know what Henk and Cruxpuppy are talking about from past comments.

I would also recommend you read Ellen Brown’s “Web of Debt” and “Fixing the System, a history of Populism, ancient and modern” by Adrian Kuzminski, “The legalized crime of banking and a constitutional remedy – Silos Adams. I’ll cover more later.
F.A. | 08.30.08 - 1:28 pm | #

Went to look for Henk's posting on BIS and found a pornographic spam with Henk's name on it. Can the moderator remove this?

This perverted disruption attests to the particularly outstanding posts on this blog. Particularly Henk's spot on analysis which is apparently pissing them off.
paolo | 08.30.08 - 2:32 pm | #

Usually interns at the ADL are assigned to monitor such enlightening blogs,and when fingers point their way they resort to vulgarity.

In Henk's casem exposing the Bank of International Settlements as the Queen bee, obviously warrants porno spam.

But when you see porno spam on a site, dont click out until you find the reason for it... and it is usually a truthful and damning piece of information.
paolo | 08.30.08 - 3:28 pm | #

Did someone use Henk's name to publish porn here? Can Henk confirm this?

The porn mistake illustrates the connection between money/power and sex. Patriarchy is based on sexual exploitation. Banksters are screwing the earth.

Patriarchs are mob masters. That use money and guns but sex is their addiction. Patriarkill men became hunters out of blood lust. Making a financial killing is a sexual high.

Patriarchy killed off the previous womam focal culture. There are remnants of this original femina sapiens culture but mostly it is obliterated from memory.

This underlying love culture is the only power strong enough and capable of counteracting patriarchy and restoring balance.

Space does not allow me to describe the context for these brief assertions. Love is not just a four letter word; it is the foundation of a four square structure that lasted for almost 150,000 years but you'd never know it from reading hisstory.

What we need is lovers who understand sex because they are connected to love. Reframe the porn that "accidently" appeared here in a love context and you begin to sense the power of a love government.

Talking heads cannot compete with lovers of money because BIS bankmobbers have sold their souls to anti-love power (formerly called the devil). The only force that can challenge anti-love is love.

We must go directly to the source of power. There is no longer time to sit around discussing the matter. Lenin apparently said he could change the world if he had 10 lovers like Francis of Assisi.

BIS already have 10 anti-assisian lovers of money, sex and power. They mean to control everything and they are not joking (but they do not lack a sense of humor like using the emergency number of 911 for their inaugural address of terror).

The mind wants to know what love is before it acts. This is a trap of the patriarchal mind because the mind can only serve love, not understand it.

The mind complicates things, just like it does money. Love is simple and direct. It is available for the asking.

Money should be based on trust. How far are we away from that kind of love trust. The problem is stated right on the one dollar bill: In God We Trust. God is at the pinacle of the money pyramid. Patriarchs use God to build their money system. Read the Bible. Read the Constitution. Read between the lies.

Everybody believes in love but almost everyone has been conned into believing that God is love. Why? Because the Bible (and the Constitution) says so.

Patriarchy literally means "father principle." In other words, male rule overthrew the "lover principle" which was formerly embodied in a womam centered culture.

Salvation can only come from a return to the original plan of nature which is womam and child oriented with strong men supporting and defending that structure.

The myth of Lucifer rebelling against God is a patriarchal rewrite projection of men rebelling against the womam based culture. Men rewrote existing womam herstory with lies such as blaming sin on the first womam, Eve.

If we don't understand the deep lies of hisstory, we will keep falling into the traps. The endless rantings and infighting here illustrate how clever patriliary is. It's got us all fooled, tied up in knots and lining up to pay for protection that only further enslaves us.

Love and love alone can lift us to see the truth which will set us free.

I'm not preaching. I'm just telling the truth as I see it. I'm a love-truther sort of like a 911 truther. In a culture of lies, love gets about as far as the truth about 911.

Real love is rare. Lenin was about right in hinting there might be 10 lovers on the planet. Love is very powerful. To turn the planet around, we only need about 10, 12 to be safe. Although I mentally masturbate about it, I'm not one of the 10. I'm too tied up in fear and guilt.

But love has to be tough; sentimentality will not do. ICH has a leg up in this regard; the analyses here are deadly but I don't see the vision of a practical solution, and we need one now.

In general, I am convinced that it has to do with love, and that is connected with a deep understanding of history. The specifics such as money matters mostly elude me.

I have removed my money from anything that smacks of interest, usury, debt, stocks, speculation and all that crap. I do not eat the meat of killed animals. I am gradually seeing through the scam of the God (and atheism) system with all their patrikilery spinoffs.

Politically, I am a party of one. Group hysteria, like the Demoncratic Denver party scares me. The mass manipulation is awesome to behold. No wonder Goebbels admired our system.

Thanks for all the insightful posts above. I aim to reread them. The two Henks were especially noteworthy: right on the money and the sex; the latter I had to rewrite for a love context; however as a literary genre it was a turn on. That shows how patriarchal I am. It gets in your bones and makes you blind. Stopping meat eating gradually clears the sight but for me it's a long way to 20/20.
Dennis | 08.30.08 - 5:22 pm | #

Hey Dennis, Your post above seems like a bunch of tripe.

The porn with Henk's name on it wasnt a mistake. it was intentionally done and meant to discredit Henk Ruyssenaars who posts some great information, as well as to repel new readers to the ICH.

I disagree that that post had anything to do with love but was meant to be as sick and disgusting.

BTW, as someone who is somewhat of an expert of spam. Typically long drawn-out nonsence posts are made immediately exacting and informative posts to dilute the truth. Are you a shill of some sort Dennis?? Or Henk's alter-ego?
paolo | 08.30.08 - 7:02 pm | #

Ohhhhh the sky is falling!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous | 08.30.08 - 8:18 pm | #

@Henk Ruyssenaars

Very intelligent posting there Henk!
Anonymous | 08.30.08 - 8:20 pm | #

| 08.30.08 - 6:05 am |

------------

The post at the above time shows the thoughts of the absolute degenerate lowlife scum that apposes and denies any form of truth in the world. These creatures were born with no morals or conscience of any kind. There is a place for these people that are the cause of all of humanities problems and one day they will be there, trapped in their own self inflicted misery.

We all know the comments of other ICH posters and the one at 6:05 am does not merit any more attention. Hopefully "it" will disappear. These type of imposters will try to destroy the credibility of all people that are trying to get the truth out to make it a better and more peaceful world.
Willy | 08.30.08 - 9:02 pm | #

At the highest level of consideration we must consider the human condition as reflective of the developmental path of a species. For most of a hundred thousand years humans existed in relatively small numbers as part of small, self reliant groups. Then very recently (8-10 thousand years) we began to aggregate in ever larger social groups that developed ever more efficient means of extracting energy and resources resulting in a massive, unsustainable population growth. Our thinking became colored in this process with dominator ideology. Once initiated this process of domination by continual aggrandizement and centralization of control has led us to the brink of extinction.

Dominator thinkers like to envision a struggle between individuals - the Social Darwinist position. But the survival of species is actually more dependent on the struggle with parasites. The novel feature of the human species is that we are our own parasites. At this point our parasitic load, embodied in the financial and war making segments of our population, is so great that our means of survival as a species, a stable climate and renewable resources, are being destroyed at an exponential rate. It matters little in the long view wether our end is marked dramatically by thermonuclear war or by a more gradual extermination through climate instability and resource depletion.

It is just barely conceivable that human kind could become aware enough to elect to de-industrialize, decentralize and shrink our population size to a sustainable level. Certainly the mad hatters of finance and war will conceive of a plan to decrease the general population by means of war, pestilence and famine, but this is also sick reasoning as the mainspring of their thinking, dominator ideology, will merely continually reassert itself in as many iterations as it takes to eliminate the species.

Our species has seemed to have lost its struggle with parasitism. But in the lives of species a hundred thousand years is a good long run. It is also conceivable that this self destruction by means of self parasitism manages to last long enough to design a truly doomsday technology that could bring an end to all live on the planet and leave behind us a climate that can never again support life. But this total end of life scenario seems unlikely. More likely life will evolve beyond the human era. A more interesting speculation is whether or not life will evolve a species of high level intelligence again.
herb | 08.30.08 - 9:56 pm | #

Thanks for all the friendly comments.

Normally I don't even react anymore to those shill and/or porn postings. They're not worth a second of your time.

Isabella, Paolo, Willy and the rest of friends: thanks again!
Henk Ruyssenaars | 08.30.08 - 10:17 pm | #

@Dennis | 08.30.08 - 5:22 pm
I suspect your comment will go right over the heads of most people that comment here. A person must be willing to shut off their thinking mind for a few minutes to understand the meanings. I don't think, however, that anyone is wrong in believing that the porn post by "henk" has anything do with love since it is pedophilia, an attack against innocent children. Very hard to even envision this as a "turn-on" to a healthy adult.
anonymous | 08.30.08 - 10:52 pm | #

The heavyweights of finance and currency manipulation run through their paces and describe what looks, to the common money dunce,me, like trouble for workers and high times for bankers and investors,including their associates who glean wages's dregs in insurance,utility and food costs,which leave broke morons like me frothing at the mouth and asking, what did they say?

They said,workers will toil longer,be paid less and have no free time or expendable income, but as Hudson points out the news is not all bad, for a few lucky ones who can make what they need, grow it, raise it and get off of the grids of fuedalism and provide for themselves what they used to buy from, the "man".

Get a little farm, or jion a CSA(communitiy supported agriculture ), learn to build from scrath with earthborn materials and be as self sufficient as possible and the impact of this fuedalist society will be less on you and your family that office workers or service sector employees whose lifestyle are headede down the tubes.

" This is a done deal and if we fight it we will lose", is the common feeling of workers who understand little of the root causes and effect scenarios of this bankers wet dream, but fighting against elite bankers and their associated military industrial complex,insurance and infrastructure parasites is going to be fun,especially when their shit hits our fans and we are left to fend for ourselves as peasants with strong hands and cunning ways of fucking with the man.

What unerves me most about all of this is the resulting third world poverty which is the resultant product of wild greed. People will get desperate and do desperate thinks, like steal, murder, burn down banks and shoot cops, for the croth kiccking fun of getting their frustrations out, which ,by the by is allready evident in most urban blight ares of major cities and spreading throughout small towns ,unababted.

But fear not, the "man" has his guns, cops and agents of Homeland security to controll the masses, and control us they will or die trying,especially in the United States where the little people own lots of guns and shoot better than any fed or rank and file cop, because they do it to eat, not for fun.

Prisons are in place to lock us, the wild boars of poverty and insurrection up, like dogs in pens, but at least it will be three hots and a cot which may not be so bad, save for the possiblity of torture, which they have been perfecting in secret detention centers throughout the uncivilized world.

Stop paying any and all bills and see what laws they pass to get your ass in prison for what will resemble the French debtors prisons of pre bastille days, but faer not the peasants of that day busted their peers out to see Marie Antoinettes haed in a basket, which may be Palin's pretty mug,with McCain's tortured face to follow in the footsteps of HenryIV to the gillotines blade of justice.

All of this is pretty daunting , isn,t it? Money , money Money, makes the world go round but love brings the demons down, so seek love and be fortunate to be loved and give it,while suffering the fate of poverty for the sake of usery. At least you'll go down with a smile on your face and a loving flower blooming in your heart, and that;s all I have to say about that, Forrest Gump.
jerry gates | 08.31.08 - 8:36 am | #

Ten days and counting...

If the Large Hadron Collider goes wrong...will anything matter?

BBC4 Radio will be broadcasting "Big Bang Day" on 10 September to coincide with LHC being switched on.

http://public.web.cern.ch/public...LHC/LHC- en.html

Prof. Otto Rosler, a German Chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen who is one of the most vocal opponents of the project and who was one of the scientists who submitted the complaint to the courts said: CERN itself has admitted that mini-black holes could be created when the particles collide, but it doesn't consider this a risk.

Prof. Otto Rosler:
"My own calculations have shown it is quite plausible that these little black holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside out."

This one has incredible photos of this THING!

http://www.boston.com/ bigpicture...n_collider.html
Inhabitant | 08.31.08 - 1:35 pm | #

friends,
remember John Denver solo alabum'One man love can chane the world.'

Stalin was not spritual. he was ruthless butcher killrdrd 80millioan Russian and took world's largest gold reseve,had the same goal to controll the world by brutle force.their god on top of pyramid is another deception of gold.

Dot not expect mengo from lemon tree.
lp
lp | 08.31.08 - 1:54 pm | #

Great. The mad scientists schedule their hubris on 911 eve. Are these folks paid by the 911 bankers? What a clever sense of humor to make the emergency number International Terror Day, and now we have a vigil too.
Dennis | 08.31.08 - 2:00 pm | #

Zionists love to blackmail their victim.

It worked with Woodrow Wilson.

It worked with Dwight Eisenhower.

It worked with countless others.

The victim will do anything to escape their clutches but they are caught.
anonymous | 08.31.08 - 8:04 pm | #