As I begin this column about the current economic crisis in the United States, the first things that pop into my mind are the Bill of Rights and the action of Jesus when he entered the temple.
Jesus had all the rights he needed to drive the traders out of the sacred temple, and put a whip to their livestock, as well as to the men who were defying the sacred temple.
And I have all the rights of freedom of speech to raise hell about the current scandal of the modern money changers who have been playing fast and loose with money placed in their trust – as well as, probably, hefty accounts of their own hidden in the banks, old shoes and holes in the ground.
In this time of economic chaos, every bit of which was caused by those who seek riches with no pain, I must say it is a relief for the U.S. Government officials to finally resolve to become involved.
It would be nice if government officials used a whip, as Jesus reportedly used, but today we could at least slap them on the wrist for their careless and no doubt very illegal actions that have brought the world of finance to its knees, begging for mercy.
It was long overdue. Anyone with common sense can see that New York had become the counterpart of Las Vegas, except, perhaps, for the girls.
It is plain to see that government officials are charged with unwinding the virtually unwindable chaos the money-mongers have created. But it is just as plain to see that they waited too long to start castrating Bulls of the market that were horning out any semblance of reality.
The virtual “robbery” of money by raiders in the market with no semblance of reality was plain as daylight to anyone with a nickel’s worth of brains. But the mad dash for riches apparently blinded anyone with the least bit of common sense. How could any person in Congress, in business, have kept from seeing what was ahead with the wild, senseless trading and money-mongering that was going on the last two or three years?
Did they not have intelligence or common sense enough to know that everything that goes up must come down – no one excepted?
Blind people could have seen – and known – that a law of gravity says that everything that goes up must, and will, come down, especially something as volatile as money.
And that is exactly what happened.
Almost overnight now, the blind have opened their eyes, but too late. The damage has been done. Untold millions, billions, even, have vanished. The damage done to innocent people whose lifetime savings have been lost will probably cause some folks to commit suicide.
Where, in heaven’s name were governmental watchdogs that are at least expected to call attention to proper authorities that alarm bells were ringing?
But look at it another way. Almost from the beginning of the chartering of the United States, there was a battle over those who wanted money that they could expand or shrink at will.
When it came time for President Andrew Jackson to approve or deny renewal of the First Bank of America he chose to make it a bank for the people, not a bank for the bankers, headed by one Nicholas Biddle.
Then came the Civil War. Lincoln wanted to have a people’s bank. And you also know what happened to him, he was assassinated.
Time went on with ups and downs until 1913 when three brothers named Warburg came to the United States with a scheme to create the bank that would be controlled by bankers.
The Warburg brothers gave us the Federal Reserve Bank, which is controlled by a cartel of bankers even to this day.
Thus, the banking industry can decide when it is good for it to have tight money or easy money. They select which is best for them.
To my way of thinking, every recession in the United States during my life time has been caused by bankers declaring “tight money,” thus wiping out unlucky borrowers who could not meet their payments, but lost their homes, farms and businesses to the banks.
Nice work if you can get it, no?
But today, it seems as if some of our biggest bankers in the United States, or the world, have been trapped in a recession of their very own making. Hoisted on their own petard, so to speak.
They have fallen on their own sword. And taxpayers are supposed to bail them out? Thanks, but no thanks.
Unfortunately, as always happens, a lot of little people are going to hurt, too.
And now old Uncle Sam is just going to have to come to the rescue, to a certain extent, just to keep an absolute torrential hoard of innocent folks from suffering loss of their homes and businesses.
My worst fear is that by the time it is all over with, and the big crooks take their medicine, the governing officials of the United States won't be tough enough to make things right.
Let's get rid of the damnable law that created the Federal Reserve System – which is only a law that lets bankers and speculators make more money – and open up a new level of prosperity in the United States, while we are rapidly shrinking to the status of a second-rate nation.
A golden opportunity is now in sight to correct a lot of wrongs in our society.
Pray we do not overlook it this time. We may never have another such golden opportunity.
Let them eat, not cake, as Queen Antoinette said of the French, while we issue real United States notes, the real money of a free and open nation.
