You’re on the right track but actually it’s about de-financializing the economy and once we’ve dramatically restructured the debt and wiped out the obligations owed to major classes of creditors NOT pouring money into the top of other economies through government aid, NGOs, etc.
The right path to robust economic growth combined with widespread wellbeing across society is well documented. Look up Ludwig Erhard who was the architect of the German “Wirtschaftwunder” (Economic Miracle) which resulted in Germany becoming a powerful economy with generous social programs after it’s industrial base, infrastructure and housing stock was literally bombed flat in WWII, some of which was arguably crimes against humanity by the Allies—except they won.
Erhard’s books are out of print. He is never studied and his ideas are never taught in the world’s business schools. Why? Because he dismantled the financial class in Germany, enforced free competition with no protection for big corporations by the German government, and eliminated the vast upper middle class of consultants, senior government bureaucrats, regulators, lawyers , lobbyists and financiers who have captured the American economy for themselves.
His economic record is the best the world has ever seen and it also funded generous German social programs but once German wealth was rebuilt the parasite class reasserted itself to grab their traditional slabs of the economic cake and Erhard was forced out in 1966.
A great man betrayed by a country that was not worthy of him. And his spectacular success—which is 💯 relevant to today’s growing crisis—is a carefully kept secret because it would authorize the destruction of the current oligarchs and their several million Ivy League educated, highly paid minions, the write down of the oppressive debt incurred in our names but without our knowledge or approval, and a newly vibrant American economy operating on behalf of the other 80% of Americans, not the parasite class who have woven their web of debt around the American public for their illegitimate private benefit.
Thank you for the additional details. You’re obviously well-informed and perhaps a trained economist. We seem to be in agreement on the big picture, although I value Erhard more than you do.
His most important policy legacy is competition—which is essential for dismantling the literally fascist coalition of big corporations and government. The parasite class of professionals and bureaucrats flourishes on the waste of the fascist system, like worms in a mound of manure.
The Americans have rebuilt the fascist system in America and I invoke Erhard in the hope that if American citizens wake up there will be bottom up political support for dismantling fascism and restoring a competitive market economy, which is also the material context for a republic.
I think you get carried away crediting Erhard a bit too much for the German Wirtschaftswunder here.
Even among Germans, he is primarily only credited with the successful introduction of the DM in 1948, after which the shops were immediately full of goods again.
He did not dismantle the parasite and civil service classes, there simply was no money to pay them anymore and simply no possibility to borrow to pay them after the war, so the and their (among them my civil servant grandfather) focus to make ends meet had to be somewhere else, in the productive private sectors, where the many real needs were then addressed and fulfilled.
But even that would not have been sufficient. A huge role played and benefit was the export of those products, initially in particular to the USA and the UK. This was primarily enabled not by the superior quality of German products, but by the fixed exchange rates those 2 countries introduced and then maintained for far too long. This is a point most Germans do not know about and/or do not like to acknowledge.
They do know and acknowledge another major help and reason for the Wirtschaftswunder though, the Marshal Plan and the need and funding to turn West Germany into a bulwark and main battleground for a war against Russia.
Of course, the absence of a welfare net in conjunction with the back then still prevalent positive work related character traits and attitudes of Germans was still a if not even the major driver of the Wirtschaftswunder. My grandfathers started again with nothing after the war and they had to give many ventures a try before they found one which could (barely) support their families. My father did not like the building trade he learned, so he went on collecting clothes to be dry cleaned on his bicycle after work.
After a few years, he had his own machines etc. (all debt financed at well over 10% interest) and later employed well over 200 people.
In a nutshell, it was a bit more complicated and had more fathers than you infer here.
Hi JayBee, we have some similarities in our family backgrounds. I'm half German, and I have both Prussian civil servants and Swabian entrepreneurs in my family who owned substantial Mittelstand companies.
You're being a little ungenerous in nit-picking the details of what I wrote--it was a quick comment on Substack, not a prepared lecture. Your comments nevertheless prove the case I made. We agree the parasite and civil service classes were obliterated. Obviously World War II was the major factor, but it's also the case that Erhard postponed their resurgence by forbidding large corporations from lobbying the government and he rejected the subsidies and protective legislation they were constantly asking for from the government. These Erhard policies blighted the recovery of the civil servants, the lobbyists, the lawyers, and the unnecessary financiers by taking away the game--the (literally Fascist) cooperation and coordination between large corporations and the German State, the very structural relationship that has come to dominate the American economy in the 21st century.
So we actually agree on that point.
You described your grandfather's heroic and astute climb out of post-war poverty by first learning the building trade and then starting a substantial dry cleaning business, which he financed by borrowing money. His own financial acumen and hard work were the key factors in his success, but he also benefited from Erhard's policies. You mentioned the currency reform, but your grandfather also benefited from Erhard's dramatic lowering of income taxes, which allowed your grandfather to accumulate capital, and Erhard's lowering of interest rates, so that loans weren't rationed only to the huge corporations, which was the effect until Erhard came to power.
The other element in your grandfather's business success was perhaps Erhard's most important policy: he encouraged competition at every level of the German economy and rejected the idea of picking "winners" who would receive subsidies and protective legislation. We've seen what that does to an economy as it is exactly what has happened in the US in the last 30 years. Your grandfather could build his business without having to worry about one or two huge dry cleaning businesses that had been picked out by his city as the preferred beneficiaries of government-provided special advantages in regulations and subsidies.
My relatives benefited in exactly the same way from Erhard's policies. Erhard converted a traumatized, destroyed nation with a large number of its adult men killed, imprisoned as POWs, or badly wounded and most suffering from PTSD before the term was invented, and using his policies turned it into the second largest economy in the free world.
It's absolutely astounding that knowledge of Erhard and his Wirstschaftwunder is now an arcane and esoteric subject known only to specialists--who make sure it's not taught in the great universities of America.
It's astounding, that is, until you realise what interests have flourished because of this general ignorance at a time of a growing global economic debt crisis.
Good for Dr. Setty for opening up this issue by asking, as an intelligent person, some basic, directly relevant questions!
It's the old first step that is the beginning of wisdom, to ask, "Cui bono?"
It was my father who rode the WW, not my grandfathers.
They struggled and were financially supported by my parents until their deaths in the 1970s.
I don't argue with your general idea but still think you give Erhard way too much credit for them and the WW. And if you google a bit, Wiki, econlib etc. agree with me here. Personal top tax rates were lowered from the occupation forces introduced 95% to 62% but primarily by Adenauer and Schaefer, not Erhard, and they remained far too high until Stoltenberg's mini reform and Schroeder's later one.
Corporate taxes were also mostly in the 60%s and, idiotically, distributed gains were taxed far higher than retained ones (leading to the chronic undercapitalisation of the Mittelstand companies and hedonistic spending and lifestyles of most of their owners instead) well into the 1970s.
Erhard was actually in favour of raising taxes even more in the late 60s in response to the recession.
I agree with his role regarding enabling more competition and he was also against Adenauer's catastrophic Rentengesetz.
But as the name implies, his ideologies of ordoliberalism and social market economy imply a much stronger role for the state than what you and I would like to see.
As soon as the money was there, welfare programs were introduced and more civil servants were hired under Adenauer and Erhard (at still low salaries though until Kluncker came) but it is true, that the real excesses in that regard were introduced by the SPD chancellors and reinforced instead of pruned by Kohl/Bluem later.
It was, before the money changers took over! Now it is only debt, and worth whatever some unelected and invisible people, decide on our behalf.
Your proposal to end central banks is the only logical solution - if you stop the leeches, people will be healthier and live better. I can only hope, though...
It's very timely too, as I just finished listening to an interview with economist Richard Werner which addressed the Japanese decades of stagnation and why it occurred, money creation, central banks, the fallacy of using interest rates to control the economy and more.
FWIW, my thinking regarding central banking, interest rates and money creation is going down very similar pathways to the ones you are exploring.
For anyone that may be interested, you can find the interview with Richard Werner at the following link:
“In other words, it’s all based on modeling, imperfect data and uncertainty.”
WOW, where did we hear this before? Ahh yes, lockdowns and the Covid-Fraud and the psychological warfare mind-virus I called “F.U.D.”
Sounds so similar, I wonder what took them so long to lock us all down?
Is it any wonder why, these Monetary overlords and their 2% modeling schemes, always provide a “Win-Win” for themselves, each and every time some major event occurs. Hmmm I wonder why?
Ahh yes but of course, Madhava Setty, MD, another grift to enrich and ensnare, to frighten, to scare, not ever enlighten, especially our youth, for they know not what’s true, so much is wrong, if only they knew.
This constant bombardment stokes fear and confusion, this perpetual barrage it’s not an illusion, deliberate they distract and deflect what’s true, we must learn from each or else we’re through.
There’s no doubt the earths climate changes, to what end nobody truly knows. Nature has a way of righting itself. We must be cognizant of our planets frailties and be respectful and responsible, there’s know doubt about that.
My problem rests with those who seek to “enrich” themselves off the backs of other’s fears, especially our younger generations.
When those who seek to exploit others through “fear” others are easily persuaded. Some will become extremist, others will contribute monetarily, while this “perpetual-barrage” of endless grifting continues, such “schemes” prey on weak, easily manipulated individuals, solely for the grifters own, monetary enrichment.
There are great people no doubt, doing great things. Then there’s “good people vs bad people” battling to expose the truth.
However we slice it, this “covid-fraud” lockstep in many ways with the climate hustlers, opened up millions of people’s eyes.
While millions were killed and injured worldwide, millions,
if not billions more worldwide, may or may not wake up for work or school tomorrow! I have a huge problem with this, as all mankind should as well!
My concern is why has our president been silent? Silence from our ‘Commander in Chief’ while claiming “victory” “His-OWS” saved millions of lives is a complete fallacy! Untrue! But why?
Why I ask? Why? When 600 thousand Americans are dead from the mRNA-Bioweapon alone and nobody seems to care or express concern, should concern everyone! This is extremely worrying! Why has our president been silent? Why are all world leaders silent too?
Upwards of $35 trillion dollars of wealth, transferred from middle class and poorer classes of society to rich and ultra rich! Need I say more? Where’s the outrage? Why are people silent? Why?
Fear and Fear alone!
I could go on about this as I’ve written hundreds of replies, if not more. We must
all realize and strongly think about, how wrong all these various “schemes” as I call them, have been! We must work to discredit or credit, where credit or discrediting is due.
So far I haven’t found anything to credit this ongoing, deadly and destructive “Covid-Fraud” and certainly not very much to credit the “Climate-Scheme.”
Thank you Madhava Setty, MD. for your added thoughts. What amounts to an absolute disaster of overwhelming levels “Us vs Them” battle, is directly impacting and is a huge part of an ongoing agenda to reconstruct America while “Fundamentally Transforming
America.”
Certainly the statement made by past President Obama, during his first term, correlates directly with everything we see happening today.
I’m just a dude, but these are exactly the kinds of questions I’ve been asking myself. Thank you for exploring them. I have the same issue with the sense of inevitability that’s been tattooed onto the discourse around AI.
Wouldn’t it be a national security concern if driverless vehicles took over trucking? What if we don’t want AI to take over that industry? Why is it considered inevitable? Why can’t we just say no to some of the displacing aspects of AI?
Thank you for this essay! It forces us to pull off the rose-colored spectacles which keep us from noticing that the Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve.
My favorite 2 sentences in this post are:
• “If this country alone decided to pay all our creditors except The Federal Reserve, a private institution created by an act of Congress in 1913, we could meet the basic needs of every person on this planet for almost seven years.”
• “Imagine how much the two-thirds of the people on Earth would eventually contribute to global prosperity if they had what they needed.”
There’s just one small problem: the U.S.A. hasn’t been a representative democracy for at least a hundred years, probably longer.
No fussing around the edges can fix Washington DC. We must start over, almost from scratch.
Thank goodness, there’s a book that shows step by step how to fix our government: THE MECHANICS OF CHANGING THE WORLD.
The subtitle: POLITICAL ARCHITECTURE TO ROLL BACK STATE AND CORPORATE POWER.
Lucky us, we only have to read 400 pages, instead of the 1300+ sources John Macgregor cites. For 8 years, he immersed himself in the history of democracy, going all the way back to prehistoric hunter gatherers’ egalitarian self-governance, then that amazing first edition – the 65 years of Athens’ Golden Age – followed a mere 2400 years later by the second flowering of democracy at a closed-door meeting during May and June, 1787, in Philadelphia, which produced a constitution adopted a year later.
In the ensuing 237 years, although we haven’t yet reached our Golden Age, we did end slavery, reduced oppression of first nations, and extricated ourselves from wars that the majority didn’t want. Women got the vote, Jim Crow was made illegal, hungry children were fed.
Currently, we are struggling with corporate capture of regulatory agencies, the revolving door, oligarchs’ foundations, astroturfing, etc. It’s time for the third iteration of democracy that works.
Macgregor demonstrates that once we clearly see the interconnected flaws our nation has fallen into since 1788, various paths to correct them, from the grassroots up, become obvious. He supplies examples that have already been tested on the local, national and even international scale, so we have good maps for the “Third Draft of Democracy.”
The Founding Parents couldn’t have foreseen the 4 modern obstacles to a well-functioning constitutional republic. Here’s the list (read the book to see how to achieve the 4 solutions):
• How to get corporate money out of DC and state capitals
• Set constitutional limits that end the centralization of media
• Form Citizens Assemblies (which already work well for many nations, such as the Swiss) and convert to the parliamentary system (which is more balanced than presidential systems)
• Raise civic consciousness from kindergarten to senior citizens
Circling back to national debt and the central banks that charge us interest on money they create out of thin air, this book is a practical guide for getting rid of them.
Here are 4 ways to get more info, from short to the whole enchilada:
1. Mike Muntisov provides an excellent overview of Changing the World here:
3. In Chapter 10, Macgregor demonstrates how our government can fool most of the people most of the time, with the COVID “Scamdemic” as the example. He gave me permission to share that chapter, if you’re curious:
4. Macgregor kindly sent a URL for the whole book so I could share the digital version with friends, and since Dr. Setty and his readers are Friends I Haven't Met in Person, I'm confident it's OK to post that link here:
Like so many of us, John Macgregor isn't in this for the money; he set the price of the book (available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon) as low as possible, thus earning the high return of 28¢ per hard copy that's sold (probably about the same for the digital version).
To sum up, we CAN escape the National Debt Trap and it’s free or very cheap to find out how.
And it’s worse than that, because you have to consider whom you owe the debt to, and what you give back to clear the debt.
Let’s look on one hand at an old-fashioned IOU. I promise a pair of shoes in the future if you give me some bread now. Later, when I give you the shoes I promised, you give me back the IOU and my debt is cleared. The IOU represents a temporary debt. So, I have taken bread and given shoes to be debt free.
But on the other hand, consider centrally-issued currency. Instead of my issuing an IOU putting me in temporary debt, a central entity issues the debt. I have to work to supply shoes to that central issuer in exchange for their currency. When I have the currency in my possession, then I no longer have that debt. If I later use that currency to buy bread then I am again in debt. So, I have given shoes and taken bread, but in this case I am NOT debt free.
I may think I’m debt free when I am penniless, but in fact I am only debt free when I have a pile of cash. Who benefited? … it was the central issuer who got shoes for nothing.
I have long been fascinated by questions of debt and money and economic growth. It can all be rendered (explained) in a disciplined way, but this is one thing that the people running things didn't want out there. It may all be figured out. Thanks for trying. What Setty is trying to do here is definitely workable. Our "great genius intellectuals" have chosen not to do so. I think several individuals could work up their own versions of the sorts of things that are in the relevant article (Setty, AUG 3, "We could ea..."). A person could just pick the one they like to read. Then I suppose a journal would need to be started, maybe on paper media to contain the resulting literature.
Selling it would not be so easy. Everybody would be conditioned to shun the argument. They would run like hell.
Once upon a time, there was a country in Europe that will remain unnamed that fit rid of her ethnic central banker and issued currency only to an amount that was backed by units of labor and production. It was Ann economic success unmatched at the time but unfortunately the country and its system were devastated by a war. Real shame
Many thanks Madhava for sharing this insight with this level of precision. Many of us probably have this intuition that what you propose to "Imagine" could be doable if we collectively elevate our level of consciousness and make abundant use of the most powerful source of energy: LOVE! At that level of consciousness, we could gradually erase the mentality of penury that possess the people that accumulated all the wealth, because there is never enough!
You’re on the right track but actually it’s about de-financializing the economy and once we’ve dramatically restructured the debt and wiped out the obligations owed to major classes of creditors NOT pouring money into the top of other economies through government aid, NGOs, etc.
The right path to robust economic growth combined with widespread wellbeing across society is well documented. Look up Ludwig Erhard who was the architect of the German “Wirtschaftwunder” (Economic Miracle) which resulted in Germany becoming a powerful economy with generous social programs after it’s industrial base, infrastructure and housing stock was literally bombed flat in WWII, some of which was arguably crimes against humanity by the Allies—except they won.
Erhard’s books are out of print. He is never studied and his ideas are never taught in the world’s business schools. Why? Because he dismantled the financial class in Germany, enforced free competition with no protection for big corporations by the German government, and eliminated the vast upper middle class of consultants, senior government bureaucrats, regulators, lawyers , lobbyists and financiers who have captured the American economy for themselves.
His economic record is the best the world has ever seen and it also funded generous German social programs but once German wealth was rebuilt the parasite class reasserted itself to grab their traditional slabs of the economic cake and Erhard was forced out in 1966.
A great man betrayed by a country that was not worthy of him. And his spectacular success—which is 💯 relevant to today’s growing crisis—is a carefully kept secret because it would authorize the destruction of the current oligarchs and their several million Ivy League educated, highly paid minions, the write down of the oppressive debt incurred in our names but without our knowledge or approval, and a newly vibrant American economy operating on behalf of the other 80% of Americans, not the parasite class who have woven their web of debt around the American public for their illegitimate private benefit.
Will check it out.
BTW I’ll reply to JayBee’s post a little later this morning.
Thank you for the additional details. You’re obviously well-informed and perhaps a trained economist. We seem to be in agreement on the big picture, although I value Erhard more than you do.
His most important policy legacy is competition—which is essential for dismantling the literally fascist coalition of big corporations and government. The parasite class of professionals and bureaucrats flourishes on the waste of the fascist system, like worms in a mound of manure.
The Americans have rebuilt the fascist system in America and I invoke Erhard in the hope that if American citizens wake up there will be bottom up political support for dismantling fascism and restoring a competitive market economy, which is also the material context for a republic.
I think you get carried away crediting Erhard a bit too much for the German Wirtschaftswunder here.
Even among Germans, he is primarily only credited with the successful introduction of the DM in 1948, after which the shops were immediately full of goods again.
He did not dismantle the parasite and civil service classes, there simply was no money to pay them anymore and simply no possibility to borrow to pay them after the war, so the and their (among them my civil servant grandfather) focus to make ends meet had to be somewhere else, in the productive private sectors, where the many real needs were then addressed and fulfilled.
But even that would not have been sufficient. A huge role played and benefit was the export of those products, initially in particular to the USA and the UK. This was primarily enabled not by the superior quality of German products, but by the fixed exchange rates those 2 countries introduced and then maintained for far too long. This is a point most Germans do not know about and/or do not like to acknowledge.
They do know and acknowledge another major help and reason for the Wirtschaftswunder though, the Marshal Plan and the need and funding to turn West Germany into a bulwark and main battleground for a war against Russia.
Of course, the absence of a welfare net in conjunction with the back then still prevalent positive work related character traits and attitudes of Germans was still a if not even the major driver of the Wirtschaftswunder. My grandfathers started again with nothing after the war and they had to give many ventures a try before they found one which could (barely) support their families. My father did not like the building trade he learned, so he went on collecting clothes to be dry cleaned on his bicycle after work.
After a few years, he had his own machines etc. (all debt financed at well over 10% interest) and later employed well over 200 people.
In a nutshell, it was a bit more complicated and had more fathers than you infer here.
Hi JayBee, we have some similarities in our family backgrounds. I'm half German, and I have both Prussian civil servants and Swabian entrepreneurs in my family who owned substantial Mittelstand companies.
You're being a little ungenerous in nit-picking the details of what I wrote--it was a quick comment on Substack, not a prepared lecture. Your comments nevertheless prove the case I made. We agree the parasite and civil service classes were obliterated. Obviously World War II was the major factor, but it's also the case that Erhard postponed their resurgence by forbidding large corporations from lobbying the government and he rejected the subsidies and protective legislation they were constantly asking for from the government. These Erhard policies blighted the recovery of the civil servants, the lobbyists, the lawyers, and the unnecessary financiers by taking away the game--the (literally Fascist) cooperation and coordination between large corporations and the German State, the very structural relationship that has come to dominate the American economy in the 21st century.
So we actually agree on that point.
You described your grandfather's heroic and astute climb out of post-war poverty by first learning the building trade and then starting a substantial dry cleaning business, which he financed by borrowing money. His own financial acumen and hard work were the key factors in his success, but he also benefited from Erhard's policies. You mentioned the currency reform, but your grandfather also benefited from Erhard's dramatic lowering of income taxes, which allowed your grandfather to accumulate capital, and Erhard's lowering of interest rates, so that loans weren't rationed only to the huge corporations, which was the effect until Erhard came to power.
The other element in your grandfather's business success was perhaps Erhard's most important policy: he encouraged competition at every level of the German economy and rejected the idea of picking "winners" who would receive subsidies and protective legislation. We've seen what that does to an economy as it is exactly what has happened in the US in the last 30 years. Your grandfather could build his business without having to worry about one or two huge dry cleaning businesses that had been picked out by his city as the preferred beneficiaries of government-provided special advantages in regulations and subsidies.
My relatives benefited in exactly the same way from Erhard's policies. Erhard converted a traumatized, destroyed nation with a large number of its adult men killed, imprisoned as POWs, or badly wounded and most suffering from PTSD before the term was invented, and using his policies turned it into the second largest economy in the free world.
It's absolutely astounding that knowledge of Erhard and his Wirstschaftwunder is now an arcane and esoteric subject known only to specialists--who make sure it's not taught in the great universities of America.
It's astounding, that is, until you realise what interests have flourished because of this general ignorance at a time of a growing global economic debt crisis.
Good for Dr. Setty for opening up this issue by asking, as an intelligent person, some basic, directly relevant questions!
It's the old first step that is the beginning of wisdom, to ask, "Cui bono?"
It was my father who rode the WW, not my grandfathers.
They struggled and were financially supported by my parents until their deaths in the 1970s.
I don't argue with your general idea but still think you give Erhard way too much credit for them and the WW. And if you google a bit, Wiki, econlib etc. agree with me here. Personal top tax rates were lowered from the occupation forces introduced 95% to 62% but primarily by Adenauer and Schaefer, not Erhard, and they remained far too high until Stoltenberg's mini reform and Schroeder's later one.
Corporate taxes were also mostly in the 60%s and, idiotically, distributed gains were taxed far higher than retained ones (leading to the chronic undercapitalisation of the Mittelstand companies and hedonistic spending and lifestyles of most of their owners instead) well into the 1970s.
Erhard was actually in favour of raising taxes even more in the late 60s in response to the recession.
I agree with his role regarding enabling more competition and he was also against Adenauer's catastrophic Rentengesetz.
But as the name implies, his ideologies of ordoliberalism and social market economy imply a much stronger role for the state than what you and I would like to see.
As soon as the money was there, welfare programs were introduced and more civil servants were hired under Adenauer and Erhard (at still low salaries though until Kluncker came) but it is true, that the real excesses in that regard were introduced by the SPD chancellors and reinforced instead of pruned by Kohl/Bluem later.
Great article!
If only money was based on tangible values...
It was, before the money changers took over! Now it is only debt, and worth whatever some unelected and invisible people, decide on our behalf.
Your proposal to end central banks is the only logical solution - if you stop the leeches, people will be healthier and live better. I can only hope, though...
Very interesting and though-provoking article!
It's very timely too, as I just finished listening to an interview with economist Richard Werner which addressed the Japanese decades of stagnation and why it occurred, money creation, central banks, the fallacy of using interest rates to control the economy and more.
FWIW, my thinking regarding central banking, interest rates and money creation is going down very similar pathways to the ones you are exploring.
For anyone that may be interested, you can find the interview with Richard Werner at the following link:
https://youtu.be/StTKHskg5Tg
“In other words, it’s all based on modeling, imperfect data and uncertainty.”
WOW, where did we hear this before? Ahh yes, lockdowns and the Covid-Fraud and the psychological warfare mind-virus I called “F.U.D.”
Sounds so similar, I wonder what took them so long to lock us all down?
Is it any wonder why, these Monetary overlords and their 2% modeling schemes, always provide a “Win-Win” for themselves, each and every time some major event occurs. Hmmm I wonder why?
The incredibly complicated climate models as well.
Ahh yes but of course, Madhava Setty, MD, another grift to enrich and ensnare, to frighten, to scare, not ever enlighten, especially our youth, for they know not what’s true, so much is wrong, if only they knew.
This constant bombardment stokes fear and confusion, this perpetual barrage it’s not an illusion, deliberate they distract and deflect what’s true, we must learn from each or else we’re through.
There’s no doubt the earths climate changes, to what end nobody truly knows. Nature has a way of righting itself. We must be cognizant of our planets frailties and be respectful and responsible, there’s know doubt about that.
My problem rests with those who seek to “enrich” themselves off the backs of other’s fears, especially our younger generations.
When those who seek to exploit others through “fear” others are easily persuaded. Some will become extremist, others will contribute monetarily, while this “perpetual-barrage” of endless grifting continues, such “schemes” prey on weak, easily manipulated individuals, solely for the grifters own, monetary enrichment.
There are great people no doubt, doing great things. Then there’s “good people vs bad people” battling to expose the truth.
However we slice it, this “covid-fraud” lockstep in many ways with the climate hustlers, opened up millions of people’s eyes.
While millions were killed and injured worldwide, millions,
if not billions more worldwide, may or may not wake up for work or school tomorrow! I have a huge problem with this, as all mankind should as well!
My concern is why has our president been silent? Silence from our ‘Commander in Chief’ while claiming “victory” “His-OWS” saved millions of lives is a complete fallacy! Untrue! But why?
Why I ask? Why? When 600 thousand Americans are dead from the mRNA-Bioweapon alone and nobody seems to care or express concern, should concern everyone! This is extremely worrying! Why has our president been silent? Why are all world leaders silent too?
Upwards of $35 trillion dollars of wealth, transferred from middle class and poorer classes of society to rich and ultra rich! Need I say more? Where’s the outrage? Why are people silent? Why?
Fear and Fear alone!
I could go on about this as I’ve written hundreds of replies, if not more. We must
all realize and strongly think about, how wrong all these various “schemes” as I call them, have been! We must work to discredit or credit, where credit or discrediting is due.
So far I haven’t found anything to credit this ongoing, deadly and destructive “Covid-Fraud” and certainly not very much to credit the “Climate-Scheme.”
Thank you Madhava Setty, MD. for your added thoughts. What amounts to an absolute disaster of overwhelming levels “Us vs Them” battle, is directly impacting and is a huge part of an ongoing agenda to reconstruct America while “Fundamentally Transforming
America.”
Certainly the statement made by past President Obama, during his first term, correlates directly with everything we see happening today.
AJR
All roads lead to more inflation/currency debasement.
Yes. It's an insidious form of slavery.
i am imagining it!
Great, Madhava
I’m just a dude, but these are exactly the kinds of questions I’ve been asking myself. Thank you for exploring them. I have the same issue with the sense of inevitability that’s been tattooed onto the discourse around AI.
Wouldn’t it be a national security concern if driverless vehicles took over trucking? What if we don’t want AI to take over that industry? Why is it considered inevitable? Why can’t we just say no to some of the displacing aspects of AI?
Thank you for this essay! It forces us to pull off the rose-colored spectacles which keep us from noticing that the Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve.
My favorite 2 sentences in this post are:
• “If this country alone decided to pay all our creditors except The Federal Reserve, a private institution created by an act of Congress in 1913, we could meet the basic needs of every person on this planet for almost seven years.”
• “Imagine how much the two-thirds of the people on Earth would eventually contribute to global prosperity if they had what they needed.”
There’s just one small problem: the U.S.A. hasn’t been a representative democracy for at least a hundred years, probably longer.
No fussing around the edges can fix Washington DC. We must start over, almost from scratch.
Thank goodness, there’s a book that shows step by step how to fix our government: THE MECHANICS OF CHANGING THE WORLD.
The subtitle: POLITICAL ARCHITECTURE TO ROLL BACK STATE AND CORPORATE POWER.
Lucky us, we only have to read 400 pages, instead of the 1300+ sources John Macgregor cites. For 8 years, he immersed himself in the history of democracy, going all the way back to prehistoric hunter gatherers’ egalitarian self-governance, then that amazing first edition – the 65 years of Athens’ Golden Age – followed a mere 2400 years later by the second flowering of democracy at a closed-door meeting during May and June, 1787, in Philadelphia, which produced a constitution adopted a year later.
In the ensuing 237 years, although we haven’t yet reached our Golden Age, we did end slavery, reduced oppression of first nations, and extricated ourselves from wars that the majority didn’t want. Women got the vote, Jim Crow was made illegal, hungry children were fed.
Currently, we are struggling with corporate capture of regulatory agencies, the revolving door, oligarchs’ foundations, astroturfing, etc. It’s time for the third iteration of democracy that works.
Macgregor demonstrates that once we clearly see the interconnected flaws our nation has fallen into since 1788, various paths to correct them, from the grassroots up, become obvious. He supplies examples that have already been tested on the local, national and even international scale, so we have good maps for the “Third Draft of Democracy.”
The Founding Parents couldn’t have foreseen the 4 modern obstacles to a well-functioning constitutional republic. Here’s the list (read the book to see how to achieve the 4 solutions):
• How to get corporate money out of DC and state capitals
• Set constitutional limits that end the centralization of media
• Form Citizens Assemblies (which already work well for many nations, such as the Swiss) and convert to the parliamentary system (which is more balanced than presidential systems)
• Raise civic consciousness from kindergarten to senior citizens
Circling back to national debt and the central banks that charge us interest on money they create out of thin air, this book is a practical guide for getting rid of them.
Here are 4 ways to get more info, from short to the whole enchilada:
1. Mike Muntisov provides an excellent overview of Changing the World here:
https://courtofthegrandchildren.com/democracy-3-0/
2. Or read Macgregor’s more detailed introduction – and subscribe to his Substack – here:
https://johnmacgregor.substack.com/p/introduction-to-the-mechanics-of
3. In Chapter 10, Macgregor demonstrates how our government can fool most of the people most of the time, with the COVID “Scamdemic” as the example. He gave me permission to share that chapter, if you’re curious:
https://laurenayers.substack.com/p/the-federal-government-doesnt-represent
4. Macgregor kindly sent a URL for the whole book so I could share the digital version with friends, and since Dr. Setty and his readers are Friends I Haven't Met in Person, I'm confident it's OK to post that link here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Q_nr0y9P1X0XZ8rb8td05DTDc-oT6zr/view
Like so many of us, John Macgregor isn't in this for the money; he set the price of the book (available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon) as low as possible, thus earning the high return of 28¢ per hard copy that's sold (probably about the same for the digital version).
To sum up, we CAN escape the National Debt Trap and it’s free or very cheap to find out how.
Bottom line "money", currency is BASED ON DEBT!
Yes I agree, money is debt.
And it’s worse than that, because you have to consider whom you owe the debt to, and what you give back to clear the debt.
Let’s look on one hand at an old-fashioned IOU. I promise a pair of shoes in the future if you give me some bread now. Later, when I give you the shoes I promised, you give me back the IOU and my debt is cleared. The IOU represents a temporary debt. So, I have taken bread and given shoes to be debt free.
But on the other hand, consider centrally-issued currency. Instead of my issuing an IOU putting me in temporary debt, a central entity issues the debt. I have to work to supply shoes to that central issuer in exchange for their currency. When I have the currency in my possession, then I no longer have that debt. If I later use that currency to buy bread then I am again in debt. So, I have given shoes and taken bread, but in this case I am NOT debt free.
I may think I’m debt free when I am penniless, but in fact I am only debt free when I have a pile of cash. Who benefited? … it was the central issuer who got shoes for nothing.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301514344_Serfdom_today_the_value_of_money_and_its_relation_to_hidden_debt
I have long been fascinated by questions of debt and money and economic growth. It can all be rendered (explained) in a disciplined way, but this is one thing that the people running things didn't want out there. It may all be figured out. Thanks for trying. What Setty is trying to do here is definitely workable. Our "great genius intellectuals" have chosen not to do so. I think several individuals could work up their own versions of the sorts of things that are in the relevant article (Setty, AUG 3, "We could ea..."). A person could just pick the one they like to read. Then I suppose a journal would need to be started, maybe on paper media to contain the resulting literature.
Selling it would not be so easy. Everybody would be conditioned to shun the argument. They would run like hell.
“(Inflation) gives central banks more room to cut rates during economic downturns.”
Sounds just like stores that purposely inflate their prices so they can offer sales to attract customers.
I was in Boston Sunday morning. Too bad I didn’t call you to join you for coffee. Could have used my points ☕️
This is in some way related to your commentary. The scam that keeps those trillions in debt flowing toward us must be defended and fought for at all costs. This includes using war, famine, plague and depopulation against all the useless eaters - https://rumble.com/v6x4qs4-operation-gladio-is-alive-and-well-natos-secret-terrorist.html
Once upon a time, there was a country in Europe that will remain unnamed that fit rid of her ethnic central banker and issued currency only to an amount that was backed by units of labor and production. It was Ann economic success unmatched at the time but unfortunately the country and its system were devastated by a war. Real shame
I'd try talking with these folks instead of ChatGPT.
Warren Mosler
L Randal Wray
William Mitchell
Stephanie Kelton
Michael Hudson
Ellis Winningham
Steven Hail
Scott Fullwiler
James Galbraith
William K Black
Joseph Firestone
Steve Keen
Raul Carrillo
Rohan Grey
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
JD Alt
... and Pavlina Tcherneva (federal job guarantee vs. inflation/unemployment target)
Many thanks Madhava for sharing this insight with this level of precision. Many of us probably have this intuition that what you propose to "Imagine" could be doable if we collectively elevate our level of consciousness and make abundant use of the most powerful source of energy: LOVE! At that level of consciousness, we could gradually erase the mentality of penury that possess the people that accumulated all the wealth, because there is never enough!