The UsuryFree Eye Opener

The UsuryFree Eye Opener is the electronic arm of the UsuryFree Network. It seeks active usuryfree creatives to help advance our mission of creating a usuryfree lifestyle for everyone on this planet. Our motto is 'peace and plenty before 2020.' The UsuryFree Eye Opener publishes not only articles related to the problems associated with our orthodox, usury-based 1/(s-i) system but also to the solutions as offered by active usuryfree creatives - and much more for your re-education.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

My Blog Report for October 1st, 2009: "Break Free From Usury Slavery"


I was invited to participate in a radio interview by way of Skype - with Chris Toland at Radio Skidrow in Austrailia on Tuesday afternoon, September 29th, details at this URL:
http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/09/today-tuesday-september-29-2009-on.html


Then, I attended a workshop on Tuesday evening, September 29th, 2009 at the Ottawa office of Solution Finance where the “Smart Equity” program was presented. A brief presentation can be viewed at this link: http://solutionfinance.ca/get-real

While at the office, I browsed through a book titled “Who Took My Money - Break Free from Debt Slavery.” In my mind, I was thinking a better subtitle would have been - “Break Free from Usury Slavery.”

In reference to the book “Who Took My Money” authored by Ottawa author, Monique Amyot it is written at this website: http://solutionfinance.ca/marketplace “The author of this book is committed to help you become debt free quickly.” I concur with this statment because when you are free of debt, you are free of usury and I add: “Usuryfree creatives are committed to help you become usuryfree.”

Here are a couple of memorable quotes from the presenter of the Smart Equity program at Solution Finance: “Nobody is shy to say they are mortgage free.” I concur with this statement because if you are mortgage free you are likely usuryfree and I add: “BUT no debtors can say that they are usuryfree and a very small percentage of home owners are mortgage free since most mortgages are renewed every eight years and the cycle of positive feedback on the debt (usury) continues.

The other memorable quote from the presentation is: “Compound interest is the killer for everybody.” I concur with this statement and I add: “The design flaw of usury is the killer machine that keeps debtors subservient to lenders - generation after generation.” John “The Engineer” Turmel keeps telling me to stress the point that the real problem with our orthodox system of money is the “positive feedback on the debt money” - of course that “positive feedback” that he is referring to is the function of “usury.”

I do encourage anyone who lives in the area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and who is a novice in the realm of money creation BUT who has a gnosis that the growth of their debt is killing them financially to visit the website: http://www.solutionfinance.ca and purchase the book “Who Took My Money” from the online store at this URL:
http://solutionfinance.ca/marketplace The ideas in the book will give any debtor a starting point for his/her re-education about our orthodox money system.

Likewise, if you seek coaching to help you develop a positive view of how you can survive in our orthdox system of usury-based, debt money, you may very well benefit from the information and perhaps some of the resources offered by Solution Finance will accelerate your mission to become free of debt (usury).

As you begin to climb out of debt, you may be ready to take your re-education to the next level where you will learn the “truth” about the design flaw of usury and the “truth” about money creation. When you are ready for this segment of your re-education, I recommend that you watch some informative and persuasive film documentaries.

A good starting point are the two separate DVDs made by Paul Grignon: “Money As Debt I” and “Money As Debt II.” “Money As Debt I” is posted at google video at this url:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544#
I have additional copies of the DVDs - “Money As Debt I” and “Money As Debt II” for distribution. For details of how to get your copies please forward an email to: tom@cyberclass.net with “Money As Debt” in the subject line.

Another highly recommended film documentary about the historical origins of the political and economic power structures that have ruled the world and still rule the world today is “The Money Masters.” This film documentary if 3 1/2 hours in length, so for novices, it is best to view it in shorter segments from this URL at google video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

And “Money: Who Creates It? Who Controls It” by Issac Isitan is yet another good film documentary about money creation. It also introduces people to different aspects of the usuryfree community currency movement.

And as you graduate in your self-imposed course of study on economic topics that formal education neglects (or neglected) to teach you will hopefully choose to become a voluntary, usuryfree creative.

As a voluntary usuryfree creative, I encourage you to continue pursuing your self-imposed courses of study and you will find that when you have exposed the lies about the design flaw of usury, you will quickly discover many more lies and much deceit and deception in many elements of our “sacred systems.”

In conclusion, you will eventually determine that all of the “lies, deceit and decpetion” in matters relating to education, greening and global warming, religion, energy, big pharma, etc. revolves around “money” - that’s why I refer to the design flaw of usury and the hidden “fifth column” being protected by the banking cartel - which includes politicians, media barons, and executives of the giant trans-national corporations, all of whom are hoping to usher in their New World Order.

As a becoming “usuryfree creative” I draw your attention to some articles with relevant background information at these websites:

UsuryFree Creatives:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2244408643&ref=ts

http://usuryfreecreatives.ning.com

The UsuryFree Eye Opener:

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com

The UsuryFree Network:

http://www.cyberclass.net/usuryfree.htm

The Cyberclass Network:

http://www.cyberclass.net

I also invite you to actively participate in the forthcoming "Fifth Annual UsuryFree Week" scheduled from November 13th to 19th, 2009. Details about that at these urls:

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/fifth-annual-usuryfree-dayweek-nov-13th.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/invitation-to-participate-and-celebrate.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/09/winged-lion-awards.html

I have other resources to share and I offer private consultations for those who are motivated to become an active usuryfree creative. As well, being available for radio talk shows, I am also available for workshops/seiminars.

Enjoy this day!
Tom J. Kennedy aka “Tommy UsuryFree Kennedy.”

This Blog Report is also posted at Facebook at this URL:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=174214459965&ref=mf

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Today, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 on Radio Skidrow at 5:15 PM (EST)



Greetings Friends here at The UsuryFree Eye Opener:

Radio Skidrow is broadcasts live on the FM Band on 88.9 MHz from studios in Marrickville, Australia - (New South Wales, Australia) - near Sydney.

This community radio station streams LIVE on the Internet at this website:
http://www.skidrow.com.au Radio Skidrow has been on air for more than 25 years. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week from its studios. Radio Skidrow is operated mostly by dedicated volunteers who dare to address topics that manistream radio dismisses as “not newsworthy.”

Chris Toland http://www.facebook.com/chrispyt a friend in cyberspace at Facebook hosts a breakfast show at Radio Skidrow. Chris will interview me today, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 via Skype at 5:15 PM (EST) - which is 7:15 AM Wednesday morning in Sydney, Australia.

Radio Skidrow has a presence at Facebook at this URL:
 http://et-ee.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58312933684 Readers are invited to join this group to support and promote Radio Skidrow to an even wider audience of ‘awakened ones.’

During today’s interview we will discuss the orthodox money system of usury-based, debt money and the alternative or complementary and innovative exchange system of usuryfree community currencies.

Since my passion is (a) exposing the design flaw of usury on our orthodox system of usury-based, debt money for the evil, killing machine that it really is and (b) teaching we-the-people that we have the power to create and spend our own usuryfree community currency which can be used to negotiate trades or exchanges in our respective local communities these topics will be addressed.

Wherever you live you are invited to go to the Radio Skidrow website and listen.
http://www.skidrow.com.au

Enjoy this day and listen if you can.
Tom J. Kennedy aka “Tommy UsuryFree Kennedy”

PS: I draw your attention to some articles with relevant background information at these websites:

UsuryFree Creatives:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2244408643&ref=ts

http://usuryfreecreatives.ning.com

The UsuryFree Eye Opener:

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com

The UsuryFree Network:

http://www.cyberclass.net/usuryfree.htm

The Cyberclass Network:

http://www.cyberclass.net

We will also talk about the forthcoming "Fifth Annual UsuryFree Week" scheduled from November 13th to 19th, 2009. Details about that at these urls:

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/fifth-annual-usuryfree-dayweek-nov-13th.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/invitation-to-participate-and-celebrate.html


http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/09/winged-lion-awards.html

NOTE: This message is alos posted at Facebook at this URL:

Monday, September 28, 2009

The “Monster” of Chestnut Street



The life and death of the Second Bank of the United States is a cautionary tale about the exercise of monetary power.

Phil Davies - Senior Writer
September 2008

In July 1832, Congress sent a bill to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States to the White House for President Andrew Jackson’s signature. The measure had passed both the Senate and House by comfortable margins; many legislators and their constituents believed that over the past decade the Bank had proven itself a wise and efficient overseer of the nation’s monetary affairs.

The institution had virtually erased the government’s debt from the War of 1812. Its paper notes were as good as gold anywhere in the Union. State banks and businesses had benefited from tens of millions of dollars in loans by the Bank. Thanks to its interregional payments system, trade was flourishing from Boston to Chicago, on the expanding frontier. These successes argued for a new lease on life for the Second Bank.

Jackson begged to differ. The war hero known as “Old Hickory” to his followers considered the Second Bank an unconstitutional “money power” that favored wealthy stockholders over working people and twisted democracy to its own ends. As the bank bill sat on his desk, Jackson lay ill, suffering from a flare-up of an old battle wound and the hot, sticky weather. Martin Van Buren, who would succeed Jackson as president, visited the White House one day and found his mentor lying on a couch, pale and gasping for breath.

“The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me,” he said in a whisper. Then Jackson grasped his friend’s hand tightly and added, “but I will kill it.”1 True to his word, Jackson vetoed the bill, and four years later, upon expiration of its charter, the Second Bank closed its doors. There would not be another bank like it for 77 years, until the formation of the Federal Reserve System.

The creation and destruction of the Second Bank were flashpoints in a long-running debate in the United States over the need for a central bank and how the economic power of such an entity should be controlled. Established as a national bank to restore financial order after the war with Britain, the Second Bank got off to a rocky start. But led by the brilliant and forceful Nicholas Biddle, the institution thrived and developed into a de facto central bank with some functions analogous to those of the modern Federal Reserve. Most scholars agree that by issuing a uniform currency, ensuring access to credit and facilitating domestic and international trade, the Bank fostered economic stability and growth in the 1820s and early 1830s.

But what many regarded as a force for public good came to be seen by others as a plutocracy that held too much sway over the nation’s fortunes. “Many people have argued that United States history shows the suspicion of all concentrated power but a special suspicion of concentrated financial power,” said Richard Sylla, an economic historian at New York University, in an interview.

The Bank War in which Jackson and his supporters killed the Second Bank was a reprise of the bitter fight 20 years earlier over the recharter of the First Bank of the United States (see the September 2007 Region). Congressional opponents brought down the First Bank by charging that the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton was unconstitutionally powerful and an oppressor of state-chartered banks. Similarly, Jackson aroused populist passions and the envy of state banks to topple an institution that he considered unconstitutional and a menace to society because of its unrivaled economic power exercised outside government control. Biddle’s desperate efforts to save the Bank, prostrating the economy in hope of forcing Jackson to relent, showed even its supporters that the Bank was capable of abusing its power.

The architects of the Federal Reserve System took to heart the fate of the Second Bank. Instead of a mostly private bank that massed financial power in one city, the framers of the Federal Reserve Act created a federal bank composed of 12 independent, regional banks overseen by a central board in Washington, D.C. The eventual legacy of the Second Bank was a more democratic banking system that has rendered largely moot the ideological struggle that doomed its predecessors.

For “the public exigencies”

The idea of a national bank was reborn during the War of 1812. The war had thrown the country into financial chaos, with federal debt mounting as the government borrowed heavily to prosecute the war and a British naval blockade of eastern seaports suppressing foreign and coastal trade. Economic activity shrank and investor confidence plummeted.

It didn’t help matters that there was no longer a national bank to issue a uniform currency. The closing of the First Bank in 1811 had greatly increased the number of state-chartered banks issuing their own notes. In 1814, when British raids on Washington and Baltimore triggered bank panics, many state banks stopped redeeming their notes in specie (gold and silver coin). In a monetary system that relied on a bimetallic standard to restrain note issue (paper currency could be readily exchanged for specie held in bank vaults), the refusal of banks to stand behind their notes caused their notes to depreciate at different rates. The uncertain value of paper money complicated financial transactions, disrupting commerce.

The depressed economy hampered the federal government’s efforts to collect revenue and raise money from bond issues, resulting in defaults on public debt. Moreover, without a national bank, the U.S. Treasury had no one bank to go to for a quick loan, and no easy way to move funds to where they were needed. In 1814, Congressman Alexander Hanson of Maryland reported that the Treasury had so little money and credit that it was unable to pay its stationery bill.2

Before the war, the Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson had decried the First Bank as a corporate monopoly that flouted the Constitution and enriched financiers while bilking yeoman farmers and other ordinary workers. But after the war, ideological objections gave way to the pressing need to fix a sputtering economy. The Treasury needed a national bank to furnish it loans, hold government deposits and restore the value of currency by pressuring state banks to resume specie payments.

President James Madison, who had vehemently opposed Hamilton’s original proposal for the First Bank but supported recharter because he believed the constitutional issue had been settled by precedent, now urged Congress to provide a bank for “the public exigencies.” Madison emphasized the nation’s money woes in his December 1815 annual message (today’s State of the Union address): “The benefits of an uniform national currency,” he said, “should be restored to the community.”3

Congressman John C. Calhoun of South Carolina then introduced a bill to establish a national bank, offering in its favor a rebuttal to the old argument against the First Bank’s constitutionality. The Constitution gave Congress an exclusive right to regulate the value of currency, he said; therefore it had an obligation to do so, by creating a national bank that would impose discipline on state banks.

Calhoun’s argument and those of other bank proponents were persuasive; Congress passed the bank bill, and the Second Bank opened for business Jan. 7, 1817, in the same building in Philadelphia that the First Bank had once occupied.

Under its 20-year charter, the new bank had much in common with the old. The government owned a fifth of its stock; merchants, landowners and other private investors held the rest. Three-quarters of its privately held shares were to be purchased with government securities, enhancing demand for the country’s war debt. Backed by its stock and government deposits, the Bank was authorized to issue a sizable currency suitable for the payment of taxes and to lend to businesses as well as government.

However, the Second Bank was a much bigger institution than its predecessor, with more than three times the capital and many more branches (by 1828, there were 25 serving every part of the country, compared with the First Bank’s eight). Another difference was the government’s somewhat larger say in the daily operation of the new institution. Directors chosen exclusively by stockholders ran the First Bank; in the Second Bank, five of 25 directors were appointed by the U.S. president with Senate approval.

Avarice and panic

Reincarnated to breathe life back into the economy, America’s national bank appeared to do more harm than good in its early years. Its first president was William Jones, a Philadelphia merchant and politician backed by businessmen in Baltimore eager to tap the Bank’s wealth. The Second Bank began its career, recalled future Bank president Nicholas Biddle years later, as “a monied institution governed by those who had no money … a mere colony of the Baltimore adventurers.”4

The Bank lent aggressively to merchants and land speculators, and gave sweetheart loans secured by the Bank’s own stock to Jones’ associates. In the Baltimore branch, lending to directors and other insiders without collateral resulted in a loss of $1.5 million—$21 million in today’s dollars.

Ironically, one of the recipients of these fraudulent loans—Baltimore Cashier James W. McCulloch—is immortalized in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that seemed to affirm the Second Bank’s constitutionality once and for all. In 1818, the state of Maryland had imposed a stiff tax on the Baltimore branch and other banks not chartered by the Legislature. In McCulloch v. Maryland, the court ruled that the states had no power to interfere with a bank incorporated by Congress under the necessary-and-proper clause of the Constitution.5

Profligate lending weakened the Bank, and—coupled with its failure to persuade all but a handful of state banks to resume specie payments—caused paper currency to depreciate at varying rates in different parts of the country, weakening the national economy.
On the brink of collapse, the Bank was forced to retrench, calling in loans and slashing circulation. Langdon Cheves, who replaced Jones as president in 1819 after a congressional inquiry into the Bank’s problems, tightened credit further—just as the country was sinking into a depression. The Bank’s efforts to save itself worsened the Panic of 1819, which caused widespread bank and business failures.

Many scholars believe that the Bank’s actions (or inaction) during the Panic sowed the seeds of its later destruction. Jane Knodell, an economic historian at the University of Vermont, notes that in the west, where Bank branches had been active in lending for land purchases, the Bank repossessed people’s livelihoods. “There was lingering resentment,” Knodell said in an interview. “People saw the Bank acquiring all these assets that were formerly theirs, and that created some pretty permanent enemies for the Bank.”

Nicholas Biddle’s bank

After serving as a government director of the Second Bank, Biddle became its president in 1823. A member of a prominent Philadelphia family who had turned his talents from literature to finance (see “The Rise and Fall of Nicholas Biddle”), Biddle transformed a national branch banking system with federal fiscal duties into a functional central bank, a forerunner of the Federal Reserve. Sylla of NYU points out that by leveraging the Bank’s currency reserves, Biddle systematically regulated the monetary system for the good of the overall economy in a period when the Bank of England was only tentatively flexing its monetary muscle. “I could make an argument that he was the world’s first self-conscious central banker,” Sylla said.

An effective tool for regulating the money supply was the Bank’s holdings of notes issued by state banks. As the chief repository of customs duties and other government revenue, the Bank received millions of dollars annually in such notes, which could be redeemed for gold and silver (the majority of state banks had reluctantly resumed specie payments by this time). Because most banks kept minimal specie reserves, they were forced to curtail lending when the big bank in Philadelphia or any of its branches demanded specie.

To tighten credit, the Second Bank promptly presented state banknotes for redemption, sometimes buying banknotes in the money market to apply more pressure; to ease credit conditions, the Bank held onto the banknotes, letting the banks lend more freely. Through this early form of open market operations, Biddle and his lieutenants aimed “to preserve a mild and gentle but efficient control over the monied institutions of the United States,” as Biddle explained in an 1826 letter.6

The Second Bank also regulated the money stock by issuing currency and lending to state banks. The Bank’s notes, legal tender for the payment of taxes and accepted everywhere at par, were the closest thing the country would have to a national currency until after the Civil War. Biddle kept a tight rein on circulation, making sure that the Bank provided an adequate money supply while removing the temptation of some branches to overissue by requiring that notes be payable only at the bank location that issued them.

Loans to banks—provided by the Federal Reserve today to banks that cannot otherwise meet their reserve obligations—allowed them to avoid calling in loans when bank runs or regional trade imbalances drained their specie reserves. Historians credit timely lending by the Second Bank for helping to avert bank failures during the global stock market crash of 1825, which closed scores of banks in Britain.

In addition to fine-tuning the monetary system, the Bank stimulated interregional and international trade through bills of exchange, financial instruments that enabled farmers and merchants to obtain payment for their goods from customers in distant markets. By selling drafts at a premium, the Bank acted as a clearinghouse for long-distance transactions—a function roughly similar to check clearing at the Fed.

Unlike the Federal Reserve, the Second Bank operated as a commercial bank as well as a central bank. The Bank profited from its domestic and foreign exchange business, which competed with services offered by state banks and brokerages; and it accepted deposits from and made loans to businesses and individuals.

By the time Jackson was elected president in 1828, the Bank was, in historian Robert V. Remini’s words, a “financial colossus, entrenched in the nation’s economy.”7 Headquartered in a splendid new building on Chestnut Street and modeled on the Parthenon (the structure still stands, in the care of the National Park Service), the Bank was by far the largest corporation in the nation. The head office and its branches maintained a note circulation of $21 million, held one-third of the banking system’s total bank deposits and specie, and accounted for 20 percent of the country’s loans.8 At the colossus’ head was Biddle, his sure hands on the levers and pulleys, personally directing the Bank’s lucrative commercial business and tightening and relaxing access to credit at will.

But some Americans disapproved of the Bank’s power, none more resolutely than Jackson. The president and Biddle would soon be locked in a Manichean struggle over who should govern the nation’s monetary system.

The Bank War

Jackson held a jaundiced opinion of banks. Like Jefferson, he believed they perverted democratic ideals, profiting bank stockholders and mercantile interests at the expense of the working class. As a young man, he had been stung in a land speculation scheme, an experience that soured him against paper money and banks in general. Jackson was hostile to the Second Bank in particular because of what he perceived as its stranglehold on financial power—the ability of a single private institution to redistribute wealth among different social classes and regions of the country.

The president was also convinced that the Bank was wielding its financial clout against his party, the Democrats (or Jacksonians). He had heard reports that during the last election, the Bank had bought votes in Kentucky to assist the reelection of Republican John Quincy Adams, donated money to the National Republican party and spurned the loan applications of Democrats. Whether or not they were true, the rumors deepened Jackson’s animus toward the Bank, convincing him that its power must be curbed.

In his annual message of 1829, Jackson attacked the Bank, resurrecting the constitutional issue. A literal interpreter of the Constitution and an ardent supporter of states’ rights, Jackson asserted what he saw as his prerogative to disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in McCulloch v. Maryland. He also charged—contrary to available evidence—that the Bank had failed to establish a uniform currency, and he proposed that the Bank become an arm of the Treasury in order to bring it under closer government supervision.

Over the next two years, Jackson stepped up his campaign against the Bank, denouncing it in speeches and letters as a “monster,” a fearsome hydralike creature that threatened liberty and the Republic. Jacksonian newspapers such as the Washington Globe picked up on this bestial imagery, excoriating the Bank in editorials and cartoons.

Old Hickory’s accusations struck a populist chord with farmers, laborers and artisans who shared his view of the Bank as a tool of the rich that threatened equal opportunity, the essence of democracy. Many Jackson supporters in western and southern states still resented the Bank for calling in loans and foreclosing on their property during the Panic of 1819. Allied with the populists were state banks and businessmen who chafed under Biddle’s “mild and gentle” monetary restraints in an era when credit was in high demand to fuel economic expansion and development on the frontier. Wall Street bankers were jealous of the Bank’s financial might and coveted its federal deposits.

As what came to be known as the Bank War escalated, Biddle the master financier found himself out of his depth. “Where Biddle gets into trouble is his political skills, or lack thereof,” Knodell said. “He made a lot of bad moves.”

Compromise may have been possible with Jackson, who in December 1831, looking to enhance his reelection chances, signaled that he was willing to make peace with the Bank. But Biddle didn’t propose substantive changes to the Bank charter that might have mollified the president and ended the Bank War. Instead he used Bank funds to place newspaper articles praising the Bank’s salutary influence on commerce and to pay handsome retainers to politicians such as Massachusetts Sen. Daniel Webster, an eloquent spokesman for regulation of currency and credit.

Then Biddle made a strategic blunder that sealed the fate of the Bank. Encouraged by Webster and presidential aspirant Henry Clay, who wanted to make the Bank’s future an issue in the 1832 election, Biddle applied to Congress to renew the Bank’s charter. The charter still had four years to run, but Webster, Clay and other Bank supporters believed that Jackson would be more likely to sign a recharter bill before the upcoming election than afterward.

Fight to the finish

They were mistaken. The bank bill easily won approval in both the Senate and the House, receiving strong support from lawmakers in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. But Jackson was waiting, ailing yet determined to not just chain the “monster” but kill it outright. In his famous veto message of July 10, 1832, Jackson blasted the Bank, insisting that it was unconstitutional—not “necessary and proper” for the execution of Congress’ powers—and depicting it as a financial monopoly that granted “titles, gratuities and exclusive privileges to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful.”9

Dismissing Jackson’s veto message as “a manifesto of anarchy,” Biddle redoubled his lobbying in an effort to get Congress to override the veto, courting legislators with large bank loans. And he openly supported Jackson’s rival Clay in the 1832 election, drawing upon Bank funds to distribute Clay’s speeches in favor of a national bank and recharter. Biddle’s aggressive politicking availed him nothing; Congress lacked the will to overturn the veto, and Jackson scored a landslide November victory over Clay.

When an emboldened Jackson took steps in the fall of 1833 to remove the Second Bank’s Treasury deposits and give them to “pet” banks friendly to the administration—a move that would cripple the Bank as a regulator of currency—Biddle made a last desperate bid to save his Bank. So far he had used Bank resources to curry political favor by retaining high-powered lobbyists and bribing newspaper editors and lawmakers. Now, in an act that would be unthinkable for a financial institution today, Biddle deliberately curtailed credit to inflict misery on the money market and force Jackson to not only return the deposits but agree to recharter as well.

Decreasing lending was a natural defensive response to the loss of federal deposits, but Biddle took matters to extremes. Over the next few months, he cut loans drastically and ordered state banks to immediately pay off their debts in specie—which forced many banks to curtail their own lending. By the following spring, the Bank’s assets and demand liabilities had fallen by a fifth, contributing to a recession exacerbated by general panic. Banks and mercantile houses collapsed, wages and real estate values fell, workers lost their jobs. Delegations of businessmen begged the president to restore the deposits and end Biddle’s contraction. Jackson sent them packing, and Biddle was now committed to a fight to the finish.

“My own course is decided—all the other Banks and all the merchants may break, but the Bank of the United States shall not break,” Biddle wrote in February 1834.10
Finally, Biddle was forced to relax his chokehold on credit when the public and even the Bank’s supporters turned against him. His scorched earth policy seemed to confirm what Jackson was saying; the Bank was indeed an all-powerful, dangerous beast that must be destroyed for the good of the nation. With its federal deposits drained away, the Bank lost the ability to restrict the note issue of state banks and ceased functioning as a central bank. After the Bank’s charter expired in 1836, Biddle defiantly kept the head office going as a private, state-chartered institution, but the bank was dogged by mismanagement and allegations of fraud, and it collapsed in 1841. The building that the Bank’s enemies had derided as “the Greek temple in Chestnut Street” became a U.S. Custom House.

The once and future bank

Jackson’s pet banks multiplied and lent exuberantly in the mid 1830s, providing the funds entrepreneurs craved to start new businesses and expand operations. Economists have estimated that between 1834 and 1836, the money supply grew at an average annual rate of 30 percent, sparking a commercial boom but also rampant speculation in land and commodities. In a replay of events following the demise of the First Bank, notes issued by state banks depreciated, forcing Jackson to intervene by ordering federal officials in July 1836 to accept only specie for the purchase of public lands.

Within a year, the speculative bubble burst in the Panic of 1837. There’s considerable debate about the exact causes of the Panic and subsequent deep depression that lasted until 1843, but recent scholarship has shown that the death of the Second Bank was a significant factor. Knodell’s research, for example, indicates that the closing of Bank branches spurred private investment in western state banks, which leveraged that equity and their new federal deposits to make risky long-term loans for land development. When many of those loans turned bad, the banks were forced to curtail credit, quickening the country’s slide into depression.11

Banking booms followed by busts would occur roughly every decade for the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th. Without a bona fide central bank to exercise control over currency and access to credit, the monetary system was susceptible to periodic banking disruptions.
Finally, the Panic of 1907—a stock market meltdown and ensuing recession relieved by the intervention of financial mogul J. P. Morgan—prompted the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. In designing an institution that would issue a uniform currency, hold Treasury deposits, discount commercial paper for banks and perform other central bank functions, the founders of the Federal Reserve were aware of the traumatic history of the Second Bank. They understood that the immense financial power the Bank put in the hands of a select few bred distrust and disaffection.

In 1909, Sen. Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, chair of a commission charged by Congress with reforming the monetary system, invoked the Second Bank in a speech to a group of Chicago businessmen. Aldrich said that the Bank had been “destroyed as a matter of party policy” and assured his audience that any new central bank would be governed and structured differently from its predecessors to avoid becoming mired in politics. “[N]o one is thinking of adopting the First or Second Bank of the United States as a model,” he said. “No institution of similar construction or methods in management could possibly receive the approval of the people of the United States at this time.”12 Two years later, Aldrich chided critics of his central banking plan for conjuring “the ghost of Andrew Jackson” to stir up political opposition.13

Aldrich’s vision of a central bank that avoided the political pitfalls of the past was a starting point for a central bank proposal developed by Rep. Carter Glass of Virginia and economics professor H. Parker Willis. The new institution created by the Federal Reserve Act struck a balance between public and private, centralized and local control of the monetary system. A Federal Reserve Board in Washington would oversee operations carried out by “not less than eight nor more than twelve” District Banks spread around the country, under the direction of representatives from local banks.

Thus the Federal Reserve did not concentrate financial power in the private sector and in one city, as the Second Bank had done. And unlike the Second Bank, it was not a commercial bank; it would assist state and national banks—by lending them reserves and clearing checks—but not take business away from them. The ghost of Andrew Jackson could rest in peace.

Legislation during the Great Depression restructured the Federal Reserve, giving more power to an oversight board in Washington and less autonomy to the 12 District Banks. Today’s Fed is fundamentally a government entity dedicated to the public interest, not private gain. This is the legacy of the nation’s first central bank, an institution that fostered prosperity during most of its 20 years of life. How the Second Bank died is a cautionary tale about the political dangers of concentrated financial power that appears to benefit private or parochial interests rather than the nation as a whole.

Endnotes
1 Martin Van Buren, Autobiography, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, 1920), p. 625.
2 Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957) p. 230.
3 Ibid., p. 233.
4 Charles Sellers, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America 1815-1846 (Oxford University Press, 1991) p. 134.
5 17 U.S. 316 (1819).
6 Hammond, p. 307.
7 Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War: A Study in the Growth of Presidential Power (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967) p. 39.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., p. 83.
10 Nicholas Biddle, The Correspondence of Nicholas Biddle, ed. Reginald C. McGrane (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1919) pp. 221–22.
11 Jane Knodell, “Rethinking the Jacksonian Economy: The Impact of the 1832 Bank Veto on Commercial Banking,” Journal of Economic History 66(3), pp. 541–74.
12 “Keep banks free, Aldrich advises,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 1909,
p. 7.
13 “Bankers indorse Aldrich money plan,” New York Times, Nov. 22, 1911, p. 9.

A note concerning the art for “The ‘Monster’ of Chestnut Street”
The Region acknowledges generous assistance from Karin Murphy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Karie Diethorn, chief curator, and Andrea Ashby, photo librarian, Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia; Susan Drinan of the Atwater Kent Museum, Philadelphia; and Erica Kelly, photoduplication services, Library of Congress.

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=4046

Sunday, September 27, 2009

5th Annual AMI (American Monetary Institute) Monetary Reform Conference


Sept. 24-27, 2009 at Roosevelt University in Chicago

"Talks will focus on what can be done NOW, to turn this monetary and banking disaster, created and perpetuated by false people and false economic and monetary ideas into an opportunity to achieve real and lasting reforms for humanity. We'll focus on why A moral approach is at the heart of successful reform. Warm regards." Stephen Zarlenga, AMI

This conference has just completed. If any readers were present or if you know of someone who attended, please share any significant information/ideas that were presented.

A list of the various speakers is included at this AMI Monetary Reform Conference website:
http://www.monetary.org/2009schedule.html

More details about theAMI (American Monetary Institute) are at the main website:
http://www.monetary.org

"Over time, whoever controls the money system controls the nation." - Stephen Zarlenga, Director, AMI

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Dr. Van de Meer Predicts Monetary Collapse Of US Starting On September 30th


By Benjamin Fulford
9-11-9

A private but extremely influential, silent individual, Dr. Michael Van de Meer, is the person predicting a financial collapse of the United States starting on September 30th. That is the end of the fiscal year and the final date for payments the Federal Reserve Board wants to act, but cannot, because it is in a catatonic state, as are the leaders of every nation state in the world.

There will also be indications on September the 16th, he informed me some ten months ago, “Although September 30th will be the tipping point at which the tree’s fate is determined, the branches will not hit the ground until October 7 and 27th and going on into November,” he says.

Dr. Van de Meer correctly predicted the financial panic that started in September of 2008 (also 10 months in advance) and has made many other accurate predictions.

In a separate confirmation, the Chinese Government is no longer entertaining and investing in derivatives, and have declared a Nova-to, meaning they will not be paying the trillions “due” on these these illegal instruments. In fact the Chinese are using stronger language saying these criminally foisted instruments are a declaration of a financial war.

Meanwhile, in a significant break in corporate media censorship, the CBS TV program 60 Minutes reported that Alan Greenspan, in concert with Bill Clinton and George Bush, Senior, facilitated in the year 2000, during the middle of the night, the passage of a criminal, highly illegal unconstitutional Bill that created the mortgage and property bubble. The bill allowed unscrupulous individuals in the major Banks and Insurance Corporations such as I.A.G. to hedge bets at a cent to the dollar.

This allowed them to create derivatives contracts whose supposed face value runs into the quintillions of dollars (In either the British or American systems that is the next number after a quadrillion!) . On September 30th all these fiat numbers created out of nothing will no longer be accepted. Both China and Japan have not said they will only accept gold from America but they have none. Bernanke and Geithner are desperately calling the people who own the gold and asking for some but they have been told they will not get even one ounce.

The bundling of the worthless inflated dollars created a devaluation in the banking system and major banks went down in a domino spiral, the affects of which will be felt for many years around the world. The destruction of the world’s accounting system is so extreme that the tax base of every state and municipal government is strained, some house values have fallen 80%, farmers cannot get credit for parts, seed, fertilizers and water meaning many innocent people will pay, maybe even with their lives.

The Wall street banksters that own the Fed are being forced to put all their derivatives garbage on the books by September 30th. If they do that, they will be exposed as totally bankrupt.

The new financial system has been embraced by the Vatican, the British Empire and the Dragon family as well as the new Japanese government so it is hard to see how the Fed will be able meet the demands. Also people are now on to them and without secrecy their entire fiat con-job ceases to function.

There are still so many smart people, supposedly educated in “economics” and “finance,” who do not understand the true nature of the banking system that is now collapsing. People need to march on Washington by the millions to demand that the right to issue currency be returned to the people.

Those of us who are aware need to get as many people as possible to learn the truth about the Feds. The Federal Reserve Board is a conglomerate of 12 banks and the Rothschild family. They spew out trillions of worthless “Fiat” (out of nothing) dollars to the Americans and the world at large.

Please read what is on each dollar bill (this note is legal tender for debts, public and private) and try to explain to the public that means we are spending worthless debt dollars. We all need them to ask exactly who we owe this “debt” to.

Please call this number 1-800-595-6596 to order a book written by Edward Griffing entitled The Creature from Jekyll Island. It is guaranteed to anger you and make you demand change. It is about how the Feds took control of the US’s security by seizing the right to print and control money. It must be brought to your attention that the Federal Reserve is a hoax that has been insinuated on the US and the entire world by means of the contrived name “Federal Reserve.”

Even people who have taken and MBA and have studied all the subjects taught at universities about “Finance” and “Economics” are led to believe the Fed is owned by the government, ie “we the people” when it is not. I was a financial journalist for 25 years and yet never learned this truth until recently. The fact is the Fed is a pariah institution created in the dead of the night in an empty Congress on Christmas eve in 1913. Close to a hundred years later they have put us in debt to the tune of quintillions of dollars, meaning theoretically we and our descendants will be debt slaves forever. This system must be brought to closure. The book will rivet you.

The book explains how a group of Europeans were able to steal the American people constitutionally given rights. Here are the names of these criminals.

1. Nelson W. Aldrich, business associate of J.P. Morgan and father in law of John Rockefeller Junior. :

2. Abraham Piat, assistant secretary of Treasury.

3. Frank A. Vanderlip: president of National Bank representing William Rockefeller and the banking and the banking house of Kuhn & Loeb & co.

4. Henry P. Davidson, partner to J.P. Morgan.

5. Charles D. Norton, president of J.P. Morgan’s ” First National Bank.

6 Benjamin Strong, head of J. P. Morgan’s First National Bankers Trust Company.

7. Paul M. Warburg, head of J.P. Morgan’s Bankers and Trust company, a brother to Max Warburg , head of the Warburg consortium in Germany and the Netherlands, all representing the Rothschild’s.

These people plotted their evil deed of enslaving the American people on Jekyll Island in Georgia, U.S.A. before returning to Europe. The compromised the America way of life by taking control of their money and the rights to create it. They then took control of all industry and created the tax code in 1914 to force Americans to pay for the compounded debts insinuated on them from that moment on. they would insinuated upon the american populace from that moment on. This was facilitated by the arch traitor Woodrow Wilson.

We the people need to rid ourselves of the Pariah known as the Federal Reserve Bank. The people need to reverse this evil and start issuing real dollars again that are based on the good will of the American people and their ingenuity. The financial devaluation that has happened over the years has led to a loss of sovereignty for the American people and has caused untold calamity throughout the world.

To get the whole story order the 600-page “Creature from Jekyll Island at 1-800-595-6596. The hard cover copy is 36 dollars and the soft cover 20.

The new financial system that will replace the Fed will not allow any off ledger transactions nor any hedge funds or derivatives. Wall Street will not be allowed to as Dr. Van de Meer puts it to “do all their contrivances selling worthless air and paper and contrived named instruments that by their very names are comic to the ear. They have been gerrymandered to fool the millions who buy worthless stocks just like little old ladies in sneakers working slot machines.”

The American people who are 4% of the world’s population but consume 40% of the world’s resources have been paying for it all with illusory money. The illusion has burst and there will be a 90 degree fall in the value of money, followed by a lot of hard work as the country rebuilds itself back into greatness.

Fortunately, by developing all the new technology that was suppressed by the Feds, the end result of the rebuilding will be a golden age for all. But remember, there will be no gain without pain. However, the Americans are resilient people and will pull together and be a more informed and strong nation once again. First though, they need to seek out this Wall Street crowd; tar and feather them, and run them out of the country on a rail.

–Benjamin Fulford

http://eldib.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/dr-van-de-meer-predicts-monetary-collapse-of-us-starting-on-september-30th

Friday, September 25, 2009

They Own It All (Including You!) - By Means of Toxic Currency


authored by Ronald McDonald and Robert Rowen M.D.

THIS BOOK WILL PROVE TO YOU THAT ALL CURRENCY IN THE WORLD IS TOXIC RESULTING IN THE FOLLOWING:

1. You are legally a debtor and chattel (property) owned by a hidden creditor.

2. There is a hidden lien on everything transacted for by or with a Federal Reserve Note.

3. Your entire alleged wealth is/has been liened, you don’t own anything! You merely have possession by privilege. This privilege may be yanked at any time if you don’t obey the real owner.

4. The Federal Reserve Note is a foreign product owned by a foreign corporation, and not by you or the U.S. government.

5. The States and the United States courts are bankruptcy courts representing the interests and property of the foreign creditor.

6. Without knowing it, you have been compelled into international commercial law, where you have none of your unalienable

rights. Hence, you have been insulated from your birthright, the common Law from which your rights are immutable.

7. You are charged an income (excise) tax for transacting in the foreign commodity known as Federal Reserve Notes.

8. You have been divested of the rights to, value of, and profits from your labor, which has been stolen.

9. Lawful gold coin (pre 1933) money transactions are invisible to the states and national government(s).

10. The real cause of draconian governmental regulation and your loss of rights is the toxic currency.

11. The United States lost its sovereignty in 1933. It is in receivership to the hidden creditor. The bankrupt government is a puppet to the real master, as declared by Banker Rothschild on the cover.

12. The real cause of the current economic calamity is the toxic currency.

13. The hidden creditor (international bankers) owns everything, including you.

14. You have been living within an illusion, believing that you are free, but in reality you are owned!

Read more about "They Own It All (Including You) - By Means of Toxic Currency" at this website:

http://www.newpeopleorder.com

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Debtors' Revolt has begun...


Ann Minch's video clip has taken on a life of its own. In just 10 days 225,454 people have viewed it and it has initiated a lot of coverage in the print and electronic media as well. Do a search at any search engine for "Debt Revolt" and you will find some of the follow up, print media stories.

Readers are invited to view the video clip and share it with other debtors and tell others about The UsuryFree Eye Opener.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Project Camelot interviews Jane Burgermeister




This is a MUST WATCH interview to fully re-educate you and your family, friends, neighbours, working colleagues and anyone and everyone you within your circles of influence. This interview was taped on September 8th, 2009 by Project Camelot.

"David and Goliath might be an appropriate title for this video. Because Jane Bürgermeister, as a committed Christian, possesses an almost unreasonable amount of courage in her single-handed stand - against what many perceive as being a giant that few people are equipped to fight.

Jane is a young woman living in Vienna who, while working as a medical editor, was horrified to learn in early 2009 of the fiasco in which a Baxter International research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria, sent a quantity of human H3N2 viral material to 18 European laboratories.

Such a supply of experimental material would have been totally normal - except that in this instance the H3N2 had been somehow contaminated with live H5N1... the far more lethal Avian Flu.

As a medical editor, Jane immediately realized the import of what had happened - and what had nearly happened - and raised the alarm. But no-one in the Austrian media was interested. She then took matters into her own hands and filed legal charges against those who she considered the perpetrators to be.

Very soon after, Jane was dismissed from her job without explanation. Undeterred, she sought support on the internet and continued her campaign. In the months since then she has attracted committed followers - and critics - all over the world. She is not alone in suspecting that there exists a literally diabolical plan which is nothing less than the genocide of potentially hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Project Camelot can understand how she has inspired many others to wake up and take action: it's a little harder to understand some of her critics. When we learned that a number of serious accusations had been leveled against her, the obvious thing to do was to seek her out and talk to her on camera - one of the things that Project Camelot is equipped to do best.

So, this we have done. The result speaks for itself. We bring you the real Jane Bürgermeister: feisty, determined, passionate, articulate, and authentic." (snip) ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PelTWCUmTsU

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

The Winged Lion Awards


The Winged Lion Awards are in honour of the ‘Winged Lion’ - which is the historical symbol of usuryfree money. The Winged Lion Awards are presented to the winners from the nominated usuryfree creatives on behalf of the UsuryFree Network during the Annual UsuryFree Week scheduled from November 13th, until November 19th, each year.

Nominations are commonly accepted from local, national and international usuryfree creatives.

The winners of the Winged Lion Awards are honoured at a special event each year during the celebration of UsuryFree Week.

Nominations are currently open for the following 15 categories:

1. A community that has launched new paper notes of usuryfree community currency during the current year. This community must have done something unique for their launch of paper notes of usuryfree community currency. Samples of the paper notes and details of this unique activity must be submitted with the nomination.

2. An individual usuryfree creative who has authored a unique article about the design flaw of usury during the current year. A copy of the article must be submitted with the nomination.

3. An individual usuryfree creative who has authored a unique article about the usuryfree community currency movement during the current year. A copy of the article must be submitted with the nomination.

4. An individual usuryfree creative who has authored a noteworthy quote about usuryfree living during the current year. A copy of the quote must be submitted with the nomination.

5. A newspaper or magazine that has published at least one article about the usuryfree community currency movement during the current year. A copy of the newspaper or magazine containing the article must be submitted with the nomination.

6. An individual usuryfree creative who has traded for more than $1000.00 worth of any usuryfree community currency or any combination of two or more usuryfree community currencies during the current year. Proof of amount of trading must be submitted with the nomination.

7. An internet company that is facilitating the completion of an online database of usuryfree creatives who are committed to advancing the mission of connecting the various usuryfree community currency groups - locally, nationally and internationally. Details of the project must be submitted with the nomination.

8. An individual usuryfree creative who is dedicated to the political application of usuryfree living at any level of politics - municipal, provincial/state or federal. Details of the political activity must be submitted with the nomination.

9. An individual usuryfree creative who has produced a DVD or video during the current year wherein the problems of usury and/or the solutions as offered by the usuryfree community currency movement are presented. A copy of the DVD must be submitted with the nomination.

10. An individual musician or a musical group that has written a song about usury-based economics or usuryfree economics during the current year. A copy of the song must be submitted with the nomination.

11. A duly registered political party that officially endorses the usuryfree community currency movement. Proof in writing from the duly registered political party must be submitted with the nomination. This duly registered political party may be provincial/state or federal.

12. An individual or group of usuryfree creatives who has/have planned and hosted a usuryfree community currency conference during the current year. A copy of the schedule of events for the conference complete with the location and date must be submitted with the nomination.

13. A charitable foundation/organization that openly supports the usuryfree community currency movement. Details of how this particular foundation/organization supports the usuryfree community currency movement must be submitted with the nomination.

14. A member of the clergy (from any denomination) who is actively speaking outagainst the design flaw of usury and its eveil effects on individuals and on society. Proof of his/her usuryfree mission must be submitted with the nomination.

15. An individual usuryfree creative who incessantly seeks justice in matters relating to taxes and usury in their JUST-US system of commerce where it is enforced by their judges. Details of how justice is sought by this individual usuryfree creative must be submitted with the nomination.

NOTE: Readers are invited to suggest additional categories that could be considered for a nomination for a Winged Lion Award. Send your suggestion to the The UsuryFree Network at the address below.

All nominations must be submitted in writing. All nominations must be signed by the nominee and the seconder and mailed to: The UsuryFree Network, P. O. Box 9333, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3V1

All nominations for the Winged Lion Awards must be postmarked on or before November 1st, of the current year.

Definitions:
UsuryFree Creative: ‘One who is dedicated to living a usuryfree lifestyle.’
UsuryFree Network: ‘A private network of usuryfree creatives who are actively promoting the usuryfree lifestyle.’
Winged Lion: ‘The historical symbol of usuryfree money is re-born and is printed on various paper notes of usuryfree community currency in this 21st Century.’

For more information about the "Fifth Annual UsuryFree Day and Week" visit The UsuryFree Eye Opener regularly:
http://usuryfree.blogspot.com

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Introducing "Conspiracy Culture" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada



If you live within driving distance of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, or if you are visiting Toronto from elsewhere do make an effort to visit "Conspiracy Culture." Patrick and/or Kadina will greet you and you will get to browse the very best in books and DVDs. You will learn lots that formal education neglects to teach and remember this: "The biggest conspiracy is that there is no conspiracy."

BTW, on Friday, November 13th, (UsuryFree Day) 2009, Conspiracy Culture will host a meeting to launch and celebrate the "Fifth Annual UsuryFree Week - from November 13th to 19th, 2009. Watch for a posting about this event and email Patrick to reserve your place as this event has sold out in previous years.

From the website of "Conspiracy Culture."

"With the recent surge in questionable actions from our world leaders, the general populace has taken more of an interest in conspiracy theories. Conspiracy Culture is the talk of the town: see industry quotes below.

Conspiracy Culture provides an off-line, physical space for people to satisfy their curiosity. The content is strictly non-fiction, researched theories on a wide array of controversial, conspiratorial and paranormal subject matter in the form of cutting-edge books, magazines and ground-breaking DVDs and DVD rentals. The space also holds a gallery of memorabilia, a reference library and several unique and fascinating products.

ConspiracyCulture.com wants to help free-thinking Canadians find the information they want from a credible and easily accessible source. Conspiracy Culture located on west Queen Street West hopes to spread awareness in the Toronto community: lectures, presentations, movie screenings and book signings are all part of the agenda."

For more information visit the Conspiracy Culture website: http://www.conspiracyculture.com

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