Quote:
Originally Posted by lch
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimMorrison
Because what happens when we are low on money? The "Federal Reserve" prints more, and "loans" it to us. Where do they get it? It's paper. Who are they? The heads of the largest banks in the world.
Eventually we will owe the Federal Reserve so much money, that they could declare the nation bankrupt, and attempt to seize the "hard assets" of the nation, in order to recoup their "losses" (of "paper" that they "loaned" us). We already gave them Fort Knox to "hold onto".
|
I don't think it can be summarized to something so easy as that. Money is actually not as easy as most people think, since as you already understand it has no real value in itself, it only has a value attributed to it. How and why money works, and what to make of it, that's a science on itself I'd say. |
Until the creation of the Federal Reserve, all US currency was backed and valued with hard assets - gold and silver. The US government was the only body who could print more currency, and I would agree that I am mystified by what process they determined the value of gold and silver, and how much money could circulate based on that.
However, what I am not so confused about, is the creation of the Federal Reserve. It is a private organization, that was handed the right and responsibility of printing all US currency. They also have the right and responsibility to alter interest rates, and other economic factors - with the express purpose of NOT allowing this sort of thing to happen. But you know what? 16 years after the creation of the Fed, in 1929, we entered the darkest financial times in our nation's history - the precise situation that the creation of the Fed was supposed to preclude.
I am no conspiracy theorist. But, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to guess that if some people knew there was about to be a horrible economic downturn, they could liquify their assets, and gobble up enormous amounts of property when the market crashed.
I am not saying that happened - all I am saying is that with humanity's penchant for greed and thirst for power, it is entirely unreasonable and irresponsible to give this sort of power to the richest people in the world, without 100% transparency and oversight. But, they meet in private, and do not release any of their discussions to the public - only their conclusions and economic manipulations.
Also, I may not fully understand all of the ins and outs of our current corporate financial juggernaut - but I do know that we will always be better off with currency being based on something real and tangible, rather than an arbitrary currency that is manipulated by private hands, behind closed doors.
Possibly a $trillion bailout occurring right now. How many people have actually read the text of the bailout plan? How many people have any idea what it will actually accomplish - WHERE all of that money will end up? You see, high finance is a lot like the shell game. Once things start moving around, and things are rapidly changing hands, and there's a $trillion being tossed around - who is going to account for where that money ultimately goes?
If we can unload $13billion in unmarked, untraceable US currency on a forklift in Iraq and then
lose track of it, then I would have to sadly say that we are in a position to make some disgustingly wealthy people even more money right now - just because they can slide those shells around the table so deftly.