REVIVING THE LOCAL ECONOMY WITH PUBLICLY-OWNED BANKS

The credit crunch is getting worse on Main Street, despite a Wall Street bailout now in the trillions of dollars. The Fed may have played all its cards, but state and local governments still hold a few aces. Some local politicians are looking into the feasibility of opening their own publicly-owned banks, providing them with their own credit machines.

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/publicly-owned.php

Daily Bell posts

The Daily Bell, a Swiss journal in the hard-money camp, interviewed me (here) , then had Larry Parks respond (here). Now they’ve critiqued my latest article, on the IMF (here). They’re not budging from their hard-money position, but they are so diplomatic! They say, “we will comment on it and hope that Brown doesn’t mind we have returned to her work. She shouldn’t write such interesting articles!” If anybody wants to jump in and defend the Greenbacker position, that would be great.

P.S. They did a followup here. Quite fun. Here is my favorite part:

Most people need backing of some sort to break through and capture a share of the public mind, but Ms. Brown has seemingly accomplished this all by herself, without funding of any kind. It almost defies comprehension. If we wore a thousand hats, they would all be doffed in respect to Ms. Brown’s courageous and apparently independent intellectual journey.

We are impressed enough with Ms. Brown’s approach to award her a title all her own, in fact. There are in our opinion, in modern economic thought, now Keynesians, Austrians and Brownians.

Of course, then they proceed to lay into all my best tenets, but whatever; let the games proceed!

There is more here, titled “The Brownian conundrum: Is a state solution possible?” (Daily Bell, October 10, 2009). Thanks, trusty bloggers and Daily Bell!

Oct 12, 2009: They’re still at it. They seem to have found our crowd congenial sparring partners. I think they’re congenial too! Anyone who wants to take a tilt at the hard-money windmill, it’s here.

Legal relief for distressed homeowners

Many people have written asking for help with their foreclosures, following several articles I wrote on that subject. I’m not actively practicing law now, just writing, so I thought I would suggest some alternatives here. For legal help, you could try these websites —

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/in-trouble-right-now-press-here/lawyers-who-get-it-work-in-progress/

http://www.succeedwithloanmods.com/

http://www.carlperson.com/

http://www.citizensreformcenter.com

For steps to follow if you want to do it yourself, try this —

http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2009/09/01/fight-foreclosure-make-em-produce-the-note-5/

http://cyclopswarrior.blogspot.com/2010/02/primer-on-how-to-successfully-challenge.html

A free book may be downloaded here —

“Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies” http://www.scribd.com/doc/25443175/Debt-Hope-Down-and-Dirty-Survival-Strategies-Evaluation-Version-Complete

Bobby Wilbert adds:

Please let your readers know about these sources for lawyers who fight foreclosures and who get it (some like me handle cases at no costs to clients). These lists have the best of the best in foreclosure defense —

Click to access Boot_Camp_MasterList.pdf

http://naca.networkats.com/members_online/members/directorya.asp?token=

http://www.lsc.gov/map/index.php

Good luck!

THE IMF CATAPULTS FROM SHUNNED AGENCY TO GLOBAL CENTRAL BANK

“A year ago,” said law professor Ross Buckley on Australia’s ABC News last week, “nobody wanted to know the International Monetary Fund. Now it’s the organiser for the international stimulus package which has been sold as a stimulus package for poor countries.”

The IMF may have catapulted to a more exalted status than that. According to Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for scientific consulting firm Omnis, the unannounced purpose of last week’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh was that “the IMF is being anointed as the global central bank.”

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/imf.php

LANDMARK DECISION PROMISES MASSIVE RELIEF FOR HOMEOWNERS AND TROUBLE FOR BANKS

A landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case may have given millions of distressed homeowners the legal wedge they need to avoid foreclosure. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834, the Kansas Supreme Court held that a nominee company called MERS has no right or standing to bring an action for foreclosure. MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a private company that registers mortgages electronically and tracks changes in ownership. The significance of the holding is that if MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose – on 60 million mortgages

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/mers.php

ECONOMIC 9-11: DID LEHMAN BROTHERS FALL OR WAS IT PUSHED?

The disastrous collapse of Lehman Brothers on 9-11-08 was the catalyst that changed the rules of the game for the big Wall Street financial players. The banks would henceforth be bailed out by the taxpayers, no matter what the cost. Was the Lehman bankruptcy the result of “market forces” or was it engineered? If the bank was pushed over the brink by invisible hands, whose hands were they and what goal was being served?

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/economic9-11.php

THE MERCURY MISCHIEF: AS OBAMA WARNS OF HAZARDS, THE FDA APPROVES MERCURY DENTAL FILLINGS

The government seems to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth, as the President preaches one thing and the FDA does another. If we are going to have “smarter medicine that really works,” we need to get politics, lobbies and cronyism out of science.

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/mercury_mischief.php

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO RECLAIM THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY: An Open Letter to the American Monetary Institute

A response to a critique of a publicly-owned bank solution posted on the American Monetary Institute blog.
Read response here.

THE SECRET OF CHINA’S MIRACLE ECONOMY: THE GOVERNMENT OWNS THE BANKS RATHER THAN THE REVERSE

While the U.S. spends trillions of dollars to bail out its banking system, leaving its economy to languish, China is being called a “miracle economy” that has decoupled from the rest of the world. As the rest of the world sinks into the worst recession since the 1930s, China has maintained a phenomenal 8% annual growth rate. Those are the reports, but commentators are dubious. They ask how that growth is possible, when other countries relying heavily on exports have suffered major downturns and remain in the doldrums.

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/secret_of_china.php

THE PUBLIC OPTION IN BANKING: HOW WE CAN BEAT WALL STREET AT ITS OWN GAME

President Obama has repeated his call for a public option in health care, in order to create some competition for the insurance companies and keep them honest. We the people need to call for a public option in banking, in order to create some competition for private banks and keep them honest.

Read more here-
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/public_option.php

HOW CALIFORNIA COULD TURN ITS IOU’S INTO DOLLARS

California has over $17 billion on deposit in banks that have refused to honor its IOUs, forcing legislators to accept crippling budget cuts. These austerity measures are unnecessary. If the state were to deposit its money in its own state-owned bank, it could have enough credit to solve its budget crisis with funds to spare.

Read more here-
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/california_iou.php

TOWARDS A SOLUTION TO THE DEBT CRISIS IN CALIFORNIA: THE STATE COULD WALK AWAY AND CREATE ITS OWN CREDIT MACHINE

Since Wall Street has failed to provide a functioning credit system, California would be totally justified in providing its own. The other choice is to accept debt peonage.

Read more here-
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/sunshine_state.php

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: HOW THE STATE CAN BEAT ITS BUDGET WOES

“As goes California,” says the adage, “so goes the nation.” All eyes are therefore on the Golden State as it attempts to solve its $26 billion budget deficit. The world’s eighth largest economy is not going quietly into that pit of debt and devastation that has devoured Third World countries whole. The State’s voters have drawn a line in the sand against further tax hikes, while Democratic leaders have drawn a line at further cuts in services or selloff of public assets. State legislators are deadlocked, caught between the rock of tax ceilings and the hard place of debt limits.

Read more here:
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/california_dreamin.php

CALIFORNIA’S EMPTY WALLET: TURNING CRISIS INTO OPPORTUNITY

On June 25, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a plan that would save the state $3 billion by cutting school spending, saying he would rather see the state issue IOUs than delay the funding problem with a piecemeal approach. The state’s total budget deficit is $24.3 billion. Meanwhile, other funding doors are slamming closed. The Obama administration has said it will not use federal stimulus money to prop up California; and Fitch Ratings, a bond rating agency, announced that it was downgrading the credit rating of the state, which already has the lowest in the nation. What to do? Perhaps California could take a lesson from the island state of Guernsey . . . .

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/california_wallet.php

BIG BROTHER IN BASEL: ARE WE TRADING OUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY FOR FINANCIAL STABILITY?

Buried on page 83 of the 89-page Report on Financial Regulatory Reform issued by the U.S. Administration on June 17 is a recommendation that the new Financial Stability Board strengthen and institutionalize its mandate to promote global financial stability. Financial stability is a worthy goal, but the devil is in the details. The new global Big Brother is based in the Bank for International Settlements, a controversial institution that raises red flags among the wary . . . .

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/big_brother_basel.php

THE RETREAT OF THE SHADOW LENDERS: WHY DEFLATION, NOT INFLATION, IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY

While contrarians are screaming “hyperinflation!”, the money supply is actually shrinking. This is because most money today comes into existence as bank loans, and lending has shrunk substantially. That means the Fed needs to “monetize” debt just to fill the breach.

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/quantitative_easing.php

Omitted attribution

Ralph Foster, author of “Fiat Paper Currency — The History and Evolution of Our Money,” points out that the quote opening my article of May 19, 2009 on the Weimar inflation came from his book. (“It was horrible. Horrible! Like lightning it struck. No one was prepared. The shelves in the grocery store were empty. You could buy nothing with your paper money.”) My source was a secondary one that omitted that attribution, so I’ll make it here with apologies. Here is an endorsement of Foster’s groundbreaking book by Ruth Hanham, Ph.D., of Harvard University:

“[Foster] states his case clearly, drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, touching upon many diverse cultures, from the Chinese to the European to the North American. His professional familiarity with all types of currency and coinage grounds the book, making it refreshingly free of airy theories and complicated jargon, accessible to any intelligent reader. I highly recommend it.”
Ruth S. Arnon Hanham
Ph.D. History
Harvard University 1978

Ralph Foster’s book is available at home.pacbell.net/tfdf.

OUT OF THE ASHES OF GM: THE PHOENIX OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

Prophetically, GM named one of its now-extinct brands the Firebird. Like the fabled Firebird, GM could be reborn as something else. We now own a car company. To finance its transformation into something better, we just need to own a bank.

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/gm.php

Entry for the President’s Brainstorm Page: TAKE BACK THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY FROM THE PRIVATE BANKING INDUSTRY

Today was the last day to submit entries to the President’s Open Government Brainstorm page. I submitted the one below. The website has a place to vote (“Looks Promising!” “Not So Sure.”) If you feel like voting, the link is here —

http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/3648-4049

The Constitution states, “Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof.” This power has been abdicated to private bankers. Today, 99.99% of our money is created by private banks when they make loans. This includes the Federal Reserve, a private banking corporation, which orders Federal Reserve Notes to be printed, and then lends them to the U.S. government. Only coins are actually created by the government itself. Coins compose only about 1-10,000th of the M3 money supply, and Federal Reserve Notes compose about 3% of it. All of the rest is created by banks as loans, something they do by simply writing numbers into accounts.

Congress could take back the power to create the national money supply by:
(a) Nationalizing the Federal Reserve.
(b) Reviving the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a government-owned lending facility used by Roosevelt to fund the New Deal. Rather than merely recycling borrowed money as Roosevelt did, however, the RFC could actually create credit on its books, in the same way that banks do it today, by fanning its capital base into many times that sum in loans. Assuming $300 billion is left of the TARP money approved by Congress last fall, this money could be deposited into the RFC and leveraged into $3 trillion in loans. That’s based on a 10% reserve requirement. If the money were counted as capital, at an 8% capital requirement it could be leveraged into 12.5 times the original sum. That would be enough to fund not only President Obama’s stimulus package but many other programs that are desperately short of funding now.

Many references are available which will be furnished on request. See generally http://www.webofdebt.com/articles.

BUT GOVERNOR, YOU CAN CREATE MONEY! JUST FORM YOUR OWN BANK.

Christmas comes early, Governor. You CAN print your own money. Fiscally solvent North Dakota is doing it . . . and so can California. Now!!! Here’s how . . . .

Read more here –
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/but_governor.php