Two subjects command attention today.
Whopping amounts of rainwater…
And the Fed rides again.
The Ozarks’ famed James River that heads in Webster County and wends its way to meet the White River in Branson, Mo., reached its greatest flood stage ever – perhaps – during its march this March.
I am reminded of its previous greatest flood stage. I had no sooner become full-time reporter for Springfield Newspaper in June of 1956, than Sheriff Glen Hendrix called me and asked if I would go with him in a boat to rescue two women and a man stranded in a tree top in the middle of the raging James River south of Springfield.
I eagerly agreed, grabbed my huge Speed Graphics camera case, which with film, flood lights and so on weighed 50 lbs., and set out for a very dangerous mission. By the grace of God we breasted the raging waves, rescued the shivering trio, and made it to shore, drenched, shivering and praising the Lord for providing us salvation from a near-death experience.
I have never ridden in a boat since that day, thank you, and I carefully walk around even a mud hole in the road.
As for the federal reserve system, as far as I am concerned, it is far more dangerous than a raging river.
It controls the economic welfare of the USA. By whim or calculation, it holds the welfare of the USA hostage. It can make or break the nation’s economy, make or break farmers, businessmen and anything else regarding economics. The footprints of every economic disaster in the United States came since its questionable creation by Congress in 1913.
Its actions are blamed by many people for creating massive economic damage in the 1920s, through the early 1930s, again in the 1950s, during the pitiful reign of President Jimmy Carter, again in the Reagan presidency and now, what has happened most recently?
The nation was sailing along quite well, when the new head of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, began increasing the rates of interest on borrowed money. When that happens working people suddenly find they have been lured into a lion’s den of foreclosure and the ripple effect soars to all of society.
And the race is on. Usually, the race is to the bankruptcy courts. Usually, the Little People are the ones who limp away, broken and bitter, while the Big Shots merely tsk-tsk, and rake in the millions by foreclosing homes and businesses. And so another cycle of recovery begins, credit is once again the lure to get back to the stores and realtor’s offices and the same old con starts all over again.
But oops! Something went wrong this cycle. The Biggies got overconfident and some of them got their tails in a crack. One of the biggest, worth billions on paper and considered untouchable, that never made a mistake and which claimed its shares of stock was worth $80 each, fell in the tank. When the smoke cleared it found itself worth only two dollars a share and headed for the hands of receivers.
But guess who rushed the rescue? Good old Uncle Sam, who arranged a takeover by JPMorgan Chase. If my history is correct, Chase was controlled by the Rockefeller family, the offspring of the fabled John D. Rockefeller, once considered the richest man in the world.
While the matter of who controls “The Fed” and who buys up big banks that allowed their chief executive officers to run wild and get caught with their economic pants down may seem a long way from affairs down on the farm, they cannot be overlooked.
History shows there is always a ripple-down effect that sooner or later will find its way, and eventually be felt by the working class and agriculture.
For the moment, at least, all agriculture appears to be riding on a wave of good times, led to a great extent by the energy crisis and all-out production of corn as the primary stock to feed the 200 or more ethanol plants that have been built up almost overnight.
And while we know that if every ear of corn is used to make fuel it will still not be enough to free us from OPEC oil, it might be enough to carry us through until the USA gets other fuel sources under way. It is now well-known that hydrogen should be the fuel of the future for it breaks down into water and is, therefore, nonpolluting.
And there is no lack of “Feed Stock” as long as we have the oceans and the hydrogen cycle – which is a vital part of our world even when it is dumping gallons of water on our region and into our overflowing rivers and streams – for water IS the feed stock. There are hydrogen vehicles on the road today, but they are expensive. Sooner or later – and we hope it is sooner – I predict they will be the only motor cars on the road.
I long to see the day we can tell those OPEC jerks to take their oil and eat it.
