“Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.”

I wish he could be a little bit more specific; Phraseology like this just gets people fired up and emotional without really giving any real information. Now lobbyists hold in their hands the destiny of the people.

Waffler, lobbyists must operate with in the bounds set by the debt (money) creators. Lobbyists and politicians only effect how the debt creators policies are administered.

Mike hit the nail on the head. The privilege afforded special interests, (including the military/industrial complex), can only be financed through taxation or inflation. The state loves inflation because if they taxed us outright for all of their bombs and benevolence we'd be coming for them with pitchforks and torches. The whole system is based on the game 'musical chairs.' Those in power walk around and promise their constituents something for nothing and hope that someone else is in power when the music stops. Inflation cannot stave off the inevitable forever. The pitchforks and torches are coming.

Bryan hit another nail on the head.

God save America because the people through their government can't get it done with all the roadblocks put up to assist in aid of escaping accountability to anyone. the people. The fed has no accountability to the government and the government has no accountability to the people. The people feel no accountibility to any one but themselves so what we have is a partially controlled anarchy and the controllers are the plutocracy and it is a distinct possibility that it could all fall apart in their "hands" resulting in total anarchy. If this happens then will be the time to..ahem...restore order.

Great job, Mike and Bryan. Prior to World War 2, People paid their income taxes once a year, there was no withholding from each pay check. The withholding tax was supposed to be a temporary tax to finance the war. However, taking it out weekly from each check made it easier to rob the suckers a little at a time and the thieves in Washington realized that they were on to something. As taxes are raised, as they always are, citizens would rebel if they had to pony up the money all at once as they would really see just how much robbery was taking place, and the "temporary" tax is with us today. The government's definition of "temporary" is in the same catagory as their definition of "voluntary".

What does my bloviation above have to do with the quote, you say ? Not much, really, but it's pretty timely as we approach April.

Inflation good deflation bad. With deflation folk will sit around waiting for prices to drop tomorrow. Mild inflation is normal and gives people an incentive to live today rather then hiding out waiting for prices to drop further. Never do prices stay exactly the same in a free society. Anon, Bryan, Mike, Jim and others, get a grip and a sense of humour or levity. Get some presence of mind, this liberty-tree site is a very narrow group of folk, if all you do is communicate with others on this site in this way no wonder you are looney. Last night economic news was good. Remember the doom and gloom after 911 and the then the boom years later. The USA and its government as always will get through this. The sas thing is I don't think you guys want it to.

The British Chancellor of Exchequer (CE) is the country's senior cabinet-level budget director. S/he prepares and submits the national budget to Parliament and is the equivalent of our Secretary of the Treasury and has the final administration say over financial and economic affairs. The CE determines tax rates, the budget of other government departments and affects the monetary policy of the Bank of England (the rough equivalent of our Federal Reserve). In short, the CE determines the level of taxation and how those tax revenues are spent. Let's relate this to the US. The US Treasury Department under Bush, along with the Republican-controlled Congress, decided that it was ok to spend about $3,000,000,000,000 (THREE TRILLION DOLLARS) on Iraq; that is a MINIMUM of what the war, debt financing, treatment and benefits for GI's, arms and equipment, construction related expenses will cost. And the biggest chunk of that money will have gone to defense contactors the oil industry and other giant corporations. Now, IMAGINE WHAT WE WOULD BE ABLE TO DO IN OUR OWN COUNTRY WITH THAT SAME MONEY -- it is much more than twice the amount that has been allocated for the stimulus that Republicans are continually grousing about (and this includes interest costs) -- the same Republicans who demanded that we spend all that money on Iraq, to begin with. Bush and the Republicans allowed an unregulated banking system to prop up the housing market and the economy with disastrous monetary policies and all kinds of phony financial instruments, hoping everything would stay afloat just long enough to get another Republican elected President. But the house of cards could bear no more weight and collapsed on Bush's head. Can you imagine John McCain as President? It would truly have been a third Bush term, since McCain clearly demonstrated that he knows absolutely nothing about either economics or finance. This is getting to long, so, in brief, I'll just say that it is time this country started investing in ALL OF ITS PEOPLE and not just those at the top. Our current banking and finance system is a parasite, bleeding working people dry. How else can a hedge fund manager be paid more than THREE BILLION FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS ($3,500,000,000) in ONE YEAR when his company has lost tens of billions of dollars of people's in that same year? And how can the US Government justify insuring a PRIVATELY OWNED brokerage firm for $260,000,000,000 for only 7 billion dollars in insurance, while the brokerage is liable for only $30 billion, max? But it get's worse -- the same brokerage was allowed to continue to own the "toxic" assets, which, if they ever increased in value, all of the increase would go directly to the brokerage firm -- and not one penny to the government that bailed them out? Individuals like you and I get stuck holding the bag, scrambling to pay our bills, feed our kids and keep a roof over our heads, while the same people who brought us to our knees are taking junkets to 5-star hotels and gambling in Las Vegas with multi-million dollar bonuses. The Republicans are geniuses to have been able to sell their garbage policies to hard-working rank-and-file Republicans. Either that, or rank-and-file conservatives are truly in the negative IQ range. Unless the banking system, the SEC and the FED and their minions are properly regulated, this will happen over and over again just as has periodically been the case, almost like clockwork. They screwed us for tens of billions before, but now they're screwing us for trillions at a time -- and we can't afford another hit. We need to change our laws so that those at the top cannot profit from wrong-doing. Any loss of 1 billion or more should be punishable by 25 years to life and ALL of the offender's assets should taken away. They should have to go on welfare. If somebody can steal, say, $50 billion (like Madoff) and serve a few years in jail and then come back and enjoy what they have stolen, wouldn't that few years be more than worth the trouble to most? If Obama tries to regulate the banks, he may be assassinated by some very rich and powerful figures -- but if he doesn't, our nation doesn't stand a chance -- it will mean the assassination of our country. WE NEED TO BACK THE PRESIDENT AND AT LEAST GIVE HIM A CHANCE TO CHANGE THE WAY THINGS ARE.If we don't, then we don't deserve him, anyway.

Welcome back Chitty. I believe you have posted here before. We need some reasonable posts on this site.

Chitty, good comments even though you didn't mention any of the Democrats participation. Those of us that are neither Rs or Ds and prefer law, order and individual liberty/freedom (economic, of movement, thought, religion, etc.) to the alternative, know that collectivism, socialism, fascism, a theocratic oligarchy or any other form of despotism and tyranny is/are not the answer. Neither the Rs, Ds, or newly coronated have offered anything that in anyway resembles a resolution to the problems.

Absolutely true! Chitty, nationalization of banks and industry is the road to fascism. Take away the banks ability to create money, and we will all be better off. I wonder why the govt tries to save banks at the expense of the people when they could let the banks fall and the people's debts would be cleared. Banking is pure profit -- it is legalized counterfeiting and the result is the massive unpayable debt we have today. Obama would do better to get rid of the Fed altogether and restore American sovereignty and liberate us from the chains of this iniquitous institution.

Absolutely right, Archer. And it's not a new struggle either, this banking credit/money-creation stranglehold. "Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies...first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson.

If you think the talk of "the pitchforks" by Bryan Morton (above) is crazy, here's how it ends: a debt-bust in the bond markets (think sub-prime governments); an Int'l sovereign crisis in 2013-15, a crash in the affected currencies, Helicopter Ben doing what he does best, and an unsettled period.

For growth to continue, debts need to be restructured or liquidated, with difficult consequences.

Mr McKenna, the Socialist believes that the practical ideas coordinating the life processes direct the destiny of the people?