This is the best description of debt currency I've seen. Debt currency
is today's most effective form of slavery. It is today's American slavery.
The text is from the book:
THE ECONOMIC RAPE OF AMERICA
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
by Frederick Mann of Terra Libra
The book costs $19.95 plus $2 postage and handling.
It can be ordered from:
Terra Libra
2430 E. Roosevelt #998
Phoenix, Az 85008
CHAPTER THREE
THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANKERS
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buy-
ing in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and
the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, "It is written, 'My
house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of
robbers." Matthew 21, verses 12-13
"All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises,
not from the defects of the Constitution or Confederation, not from want
of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of
coin, credit, and circulation."
John Adams, Founding Father
(In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1787)
Congressman Louis T. McFadden said the following during a speech before
Congress on June 10, 1932:
"Mr. Cairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institut-
ions the world has ever know. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the
Federal Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a government board, has
cheated the Government of the United States and the people of the United
States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and
the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks
acting togeather have cost this country enough money to pay the national
debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined
the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practi-
cally bankrupted our government. It has done this through the defects of
the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law
by the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the
moneyed vultures who control it.
Some people think the Federal Reserve banks are United States Government
institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private cre-
dit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the
benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers; and rich and predatory
money lenders. In that dark crew of financial pirates there are those who
would cut a man's throat to get a dollar out of his pocket; there are
those who send money into states to buy votes to control our legislation;
and there are those who maintain an international propaganda for the pur-
pose of deceiving us and wheedling us into the granting of new concessions
which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds and set again in
motion their gigantic train of crime."
PERVASIVE MONEY PROBLEMS IN AMERICA
Americans, living in "the richest nation on earth," always seem to be
short of money. Women are working in unprecedented numbers, men hope for
overtime hours to earn more. Many take parttime jobs evenings and week-
ends. Children look for odd jobs to earn spending money. But the family
debt climbs higher. And psychologists say one of the biggest causes of
family quarrels and breakups is "arguments over money." Much of this
trouble can be can be traced to our "counterfeit money" system, which
leaves government free to perpetrate the most destructive monetary and
economic crimes.
On the national scale, in just ten years the federal debt has grown
from less than on trillion dollars to over four trillion. (In Chapter Nine
we will discover that the real national debt is much biggger.) The annual
interest on that debt is over $250 billion. And now we are told (not ask-
ed) that we must come up with between $200 billion and $500 billion to
"save" the S & L institutions. All this for only one reason: to protect
and perpetuate a fundamentally flawed system whose only object is to en-
rich and empower the Federal Reserve bankers who own and operate the sys-
tem.
During the last few years America has become by far the largest debtor
nation of the world. And our politicians have made their "contributions"
with boundless "generosity!" John Danforth, Republican senator from Miss-
ouri, was reported in the Arizona Republic of April 21, 1992 as follows:
"I have never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs...
I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been ac-
complices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful
country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America
and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy.... We have de-
frauded our country to get ourselves elected."
PAPER CURRENCY CAN BE A VERY PROFITABLE HUMAN CREATION
Economists use the word "create" when speaking of the process by which
paper currency comes into existence. "Creation" means making something
that did not exist before. Lumbermen make boards from trees, workers build
houses from lumber, and factories manufacture automobiles from metal,
glass, and other materials. But in all these cases they did not CREATE.
They only changed existing materials into more usable and more valuable
forms. Not so with currency. Here we actually CREATE something out of
nothing. A piece of paper of little value is printed so it becomes worth a
piece of lumber. That difference in value is literally CREATED out of
nothing. And with different numbers printed on the piece of paper, it can
buy the automobile or even the house. The VALUE of the paper has been
CREATED in the true sense of the word.
Paper currency can be created honestly or fraudulently. Gold and silver
certificates, being receipts for gold and silver, with a guarantee to pay
the bearer on demand, are honest paper currency. Federal Reserve Notes
currently in circulation constitute fraudulent, counterfeit paper curr-
ency.
Counterfeit paper currency is very cheap to "create," and whoever
prints it makes a huge profit! Builders work hard to make a profit of 5%
above their cost in building a house. Auto makers sell their cars 1% to
2% above the cost of manufacture, which is considered good business. But
counterfeit paper currency "manufacturers" have no limit on their profits
since a few cents will print a $1 bill, a $100 bill, or even a $10,000
bill.
THE DANGER OF A MONOPOLISTIC CENTRAL BANK
Thomas Jefferson understood the danger of putting the power to control
the currency of a nation in the hands of a few individuals in the form of
a MONOPOLISTIC central bank. This is why he opposed Alexander Hamilton's
scheme to establish the First Bank of the United States. Let me repeat
what he said in 1791:
"If the American people ever allow the banks to control issuance of
their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and
corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all pro-
perty until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their
fathers occupied."
President Andrew Jackson also understood the danger. He refused to re-
new the charter (a grant of MONOPOLY) of the Second Bank of the United
States. In 1836 Jackson said to the bankers trying to persuade him to re-
new their charter (so they could continue their harmful MONOPOLY):
"You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal
God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice
of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morn-
ing."
On December 22, 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson signed
the Federal Reserve Act, Congressman Charles A. Lindberg Sr. (father of
the famous aviator) said to the House:
"This Act establishes the most gigantic trust [*] on earth. When the
President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power
will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of
reckoning is only a few years removed. The trusts [*] will soon realize
that they have gone too far even for their own good. The people must make
a declaration of independence to relieve themselves from the Monetary
Power. This they will be able to do by taking control of Congress. Wall
Streeters could not cheat us if you Senators and Representatives did not
make a humbug of Congress... The greatest crime of congress is its curr-
ency system. The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by
this banking bill. The caucus and the party bosses have again operated and
prevented the people from getting the benefit of their own government."
[* At that time the word "trust" was synonymous with "MONOPOLY."]
THE DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s
In 1930 America did not lack industrial capacity, fertile farmland,
skilled or willing workers, or industrious families. It had an extensive
and highly efficient transportation system in railroads, road networks,
and inland and ocean waterways. Communications between regions and local-
ities were the best in the world, utilizing telephone, teletype, radio,
and a well-operated mail system. No war had ravaged the cities or the
countryside, no pestilence weakened the population, nor had famine stalked
the land.
In AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION, Murray N. Rothbard, Professor of Eco-
nomics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, describes how the creation
of the Federal Reserve System increased the bankers' ability to inflate
the currency supply sixfold. During 1923 to 1929 the bankers did inflate
the currency suppy enormously. Such an artificial inflation inevitably
brings about a subsequent need for deflation. Federal Reserve bankers, the
source of America's currency and credit, reduced the currency supply by
refusing loans to stable and growing industries, stores, and farmers. At
the same time they demanded payment on existing loans. They also increased
interest rates. Currency was rapidly taken out of circulation and was not
replaced. America was put in a depression and in deep trouble. Goods were
available to be purchased, jobs waiting to be done, but little currency
was available. Twenty-five percent of workers were laid off. Banks took
possession of tens of thousands of farms and businesses through foreclo-
sure. Gloom settled over America.
The contraction of the currency supply caused the stock market to
collapse and the ensuing depression. Seven months before the collase, Paul
Warburg, the main architect of the Federal Reserve System, in his annual
report to the stockholders of his International Acceptance Bank, wrote:
"If the orgies of unrestrained speculation are permitted to spread, the
ultimate collapse is certain not only to affect the speculators themselves,
but to bring about a general depression involving the entire country."
Both the inflation and the deflation, causing the depression, had been
planned - as predicted by Jefferson in 1791!
CURRENCY INFLATION ENDED THE "GREAT DEPRESSION"
The depression lasted until 1939, when the Federal Reserve System began
to send large amounts of currency into circulation for military prepared-
ness. As soon as the currency supply went up, people were hired back to
work, farms sold their produce instead of plowing it under, mines reopen-
ed, factories began to hum, both industrial and residential construction
began anew, and the "Great Depression" was over. Some politicians were
blamed for it and others took credit for ending it. The truth was that
bankers caused it and bankers ended it. The people were never told that
simple truth. The bankers who "manufacture" and "control" our currency
have used their huge profits to "buy" our politicians, and ultimately to
control our government.
POWER TO COIN AND REGULATE MONEY
When we see the disastrous results of an artificially created shortage
of currency, we can better understand why our Founding Fathers insisted on
placing the power to create and control money in the hands of Congress.
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states, "The Congress shall
have power... to coin money, regulate the value thereof..."
But in 1913 Congress passed the "Federal Reserve Act," relinquishing
the power to create and control money to the Federal Reserve Corporation,
a private company owned and controlled by bankers. The word "Federal" was
used only to deceive the people. The term "central bank" was carefully a-
voided. The Federal Reserve Act created a Board of Directors, the Federal
Reserve Board, to run the Federal Reserve Corportaion with a MONOPOLY to
create and control the currency of the United States.
This infamous legislation was acompanied with appropriate fanfare and
propaganda that it would "remove money from politics" and "prevent boom and
bust from hurting our citizens." The people were not told then, and still
do not know today, that the Federal Reserve Corporation is a private MONO-
POLY controlled by bankers, operated for the financial gain of the bankers
at the expense of the people.
Since that day of infamy a small group of privileged people who lend
us "our money," have accrued to themselves all of the profits of printing
paper currency - and more! Since 1913 they have created trillions of dol-
lars in currency and credit, which as their own personal property, they
then lent to our government and our people, with interest. "The rich get
richer and the poor get poorer" had become the secret policy of our nat-
ional government.
The main architect of the Federal Reserve System was Paul Moritz War-
burg, who came from a famous German banking family. The kingpin who steer-
ed the Federal Reserve Act through Congress was Senator Nelson Aldrich,
Chairman fo the Finance Committee. He was the maternal grandfather of Nel-
son A. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil and Chase Manhattan Bank. Aldrich's
daughter, Abby Greene Aldrich, married John D. Rockerfeller, Jr. in 1901.
At the time, many people regarded Senator Aldrich as the Rockefeller fam-
ily's mouthpiece in the Senate.
The Federal Reserve Act was passed during the presidency of Woodrow
Wilson. Just before he died Wilson is reported to have said that he had
been deceived and "I have betrayed my country." He also said:
"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our
system of credit has been concentrated. The growth of the nation and all
our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of
the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated gov-
ernments in the world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer
a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by
the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
WHO OWNS THE FEDERAL RESERVE?
There has been much speculation about who owns the Federal Reserve Cor-
poration. It has been one of the best kept secrets of the century, because
the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 provided that the names of the owner banks
be kept secret. However, R.E. McMaster publisher of the newsletter THE
REAPER, asked his Swiss banking contacts which banks hold the controlling
stock in the Federal Reserve Corporation. The answer:
1. Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
2. Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris
3. Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy
4. Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam
5. Lehman Brothers 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.
In THE SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE, Eustace Mullins indicates that,
because the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sets interest rates and con-
trols the daily supply and price of currency throughout the U.S., the
owners of that bank are the real directors of the entire system. Mullins
states:
"The shareholders of these banks which own the stock of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York are the people who have controlled our political
and economic destinies since 1914. They are the Rothschilds, Lazard Freres
(Eugene Mayer), Israel Sieff, Kuhn Loeb company, Warburg Company, Lehman
Brothers, Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller family, and the J.P. Morgan in-
terests."
THEY PRINT IT - WE BORROW IT AND PAY THEM INTEREST
An example of the process of currency creation and its conversion
into "people's debt" will aid our understanding. The Federal Government,
having spent more than it has taken from its citizens in taxes, needs
(for the sake of illustration) $1 billion. Since it does not have the
currency, and Congress has given away its authority to create it, the
government must go to the creators for the $1 billion. But the Federal
Reserve, a private corporation, does not give its currency away for free!
The bankers are willing to deliver $1 billion in currency or credit to
the federal government in exchange for the government's agreement to pay
it back with interest. So Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to
print $1 billion in U.S. Bonds, which are then delivered to the Federal
Reserve bankers. (The bonds are a kind of "IOU" that bears interest.)
The U.S Treasury prints $1 billion in bank notes. The printing cost is
about $20.62 per 1,000 bills - it costs the same irrespective of the de-
nomination - the cost of printing a $1 note is about the same as for a
$100 note: about .0206 cents. The Federal Reserve "buys" these bills from
the U.S. Treasury, paying only for the printing costs. The bills are then
exchanged at full face value for the bonds. The government uses the curr-
ency to pay its obligations. What are the results of this fantastic trans-
action? Well, the government's bills are paid all right, but the U.S. Gov-
ernment has now indebted the people to the Federal Reserve bankers for $1
billion plus interest!
Since this process has been going on since 1913, the people are now
indebted to the bankers to the tune of trillions of dollars. The people
are taxed billions of dollars each month just to pay the interest on this
"national debt." With both the principal and the interest climbing every
month, there is no hope of ever paying off this "debt." The working people
of the United States now "owe" the approximately 300 banking families and
their consorts more than the assessed value of all the assets in the
United States. And realize, the bankers got all this for the cost of
paper, ink, and bookkeeping!
THE MOUNTAIN OF DEBT
You say this is terrible! Yes it is, but this is only part of the
sordid story. Under this "debt-currency" system, those U.S. Bonds referred
to above have now become assets of the banks, called their "reserve."
Regular commercial banks use these assets to issue loans to individual and
commercial customers. Since the banking laws require only about a 12%
reserve, this means the banking faternity can lend up to eight times the
amount of the bonds they have on hand. As a result of the $1 billion
discussed here, they can lend $8 billion to private customers at inter-
est. This means that together with the $1 billion lent to the government,
the bankers can lend out $9 billion at interest for the original cost to
them of about $400,000 for the printing! And because the Federal Reserve
bankers have been granted a MONOPOLY, the only way our people and bus-
inesses can get currency to carry on trade and expand industry and farm-
ing is to borrow it from the bankers!
USING DEBT TO EXPAND CONTROL
In addition to the vast wealth drawn to them through this almost un-
limited usury, the bankers who control the currency are able to approve
or disapprove large loans to big and successful corporations. Bankers can
refuse a loan, thereby depressing the price of a corporation's shares on
the stock exchange. This enables the bankers' agents to buy large blocks
of the shares at depressed prices. Then they can approve a multi-million
dollar loan to the corporation, resulting in its share price rising,
allowing the bankers' agents to sell the shares, sometimes making huge
profits. In this manner billions of dollars are made to buy even more
shares.
Using this method since 1913, the bankers and their agents have pur-
chased secret or open control of almost every large corporation in Amer-
ica. Using that control, they force the corporations to borrow huge sums
from their banks so that corporate earnings are partially siphoned off in
the form of interest paid to the banks. This leaves little "actual profit"
to be paid out as dividends.
When bankers lend more, the currency supply expands. When they reign
in the loans, the currency supply contracts. By expanding or contracting
the currency supply, the bankers can make the stock market go up or down
at their pockets' content! They can cause "busts and booms" almost as
they wish.
That is why President James A. Garfield said, "Whoever controls the
volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and
commerce."
At the time of writing (July, 1992), the New York stock market has
been hovering around record highs for months, while the economy continues
to suffer a protracted slump. The bankers no doubt want the stock mar-
ket to be high and the economy to recover before the coming presidential
election. Keep in mind that they endorse all three presidential candi-
dates. Tweedledum and Tweedledee; or Louie, Huey, and Dewey; or Larry, Mo,
and Curly - they are all in the hands of the bankers.
WHY LOANS EVENTUALLY SHRINK THE CURRENCY SUPPLY
The only way new currency goes into circulation in America under this
wicked system is when someone borrows it from a banker. When people are
confident of success, they borrow more currency, which increases the
currency supply, and all seem to prosper for a while. Then, as they pay
off their loans, the available currency supply shrinks and currency be-
comes "scarce." Borrowers must always take more currency out of circu-
lation when they repay their loans, than they put in circulation when
they receive their loans. Interest and charges make the repayment total
larger than the loan. This means that only more people borrowing still
more can keep the medium of exchange available to the nation.
This example may aid understanding. When a citizen goes to a banker
to borrow $100,000 to purchase a home or a farm, and the loan is granted,
the banker gives the borrower a check for $100,000 or credits the borrow-
er's account with $100,000. The borrower, in turn, writes the necessary
checks to the builder, seller, subcontractors, etc. (who, in turn, write
more checks), thereby putting $100,000 of "checkbook currency" into cir-
culation. However, on a 30-year mortgage with 10% interest, the banker
wants $828 per month, or a total of $316,080. The buyer must take that
$316,080 out of circulation, reducing the overall amount in circulation
by $216,080.
The banker has not really produced anything of value, except the slip
of paper called a check or deposit slip. Yet the banker ends up having
$216,080 more than he had before, minus a few hundred dollars of clerical
and office costs. But the people, as a whole, have $216,080 less.
WHY SMALL LOANS HAVE THE SAME EFFECT
For those who haven't aquite grasped the impact, let us consider an
auto loan for only three years. Step one: citizen borrows $6,000 and pays
it into circulation (to the dealer, factory, etc.). Citizen agrees to re-
pay the banker $7,200. Step two: Citizen pays $200 per month. In 36 months
citizen has taken $7,200 out of circulation and paid it to the bank. Net
result? $1,200 less currency in circulation.
Since currency requirements increase with expanding population, in-
dustry, and commerce, and paying off any loan decreases the available
currency supply, it is clear that we would quickly run out of currency,
unless more and more people borrow more and more currency to keep curr-
ency in circulation!
Multiply the above examples by hundreds of millions of times since
1913, and you can see why America has fallen from a prosperous debt-free
nation to the most debt-ridden country in the world. Practically every
home, farm, and business is heavily mortgaged to the bankers. Practically
all our cars, furniture, and clothes are purchased with borrowed currency.
The interest to the bankers on personal, state, and federal debt totals
more than 25% of the combined earnings of the working population!
THE COST TO THE BANKERS? PRACTICALLY NOTHING
In the tens of millions of transactions made each year like those
shown here, relatively few bank notes change hands, nor is it necessary
