Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Karl Marx Writes For The New York Tribune



Works of Karl Marx 1856

The Economic Crisis in Europe


Written: c. September 26, 1856;
First published: in the New-York Daily Tribune, October 9, 1856;
Transcribed: from the newspaper by Anthony Brown.

What distinguishes the present period of speculation in Europe is the universality of the rage. There have been gambling manias before corn manias, railway manias, mining manias, banking manias, cotton-spinning manias – in short, manias of every possible description; but at the epochs of the great commercial crises of 1817, 1825, 1836, 1846-’47, although every branch of industrial and commercial enterprise was affected, one leading mania gave to each epoch its distinct tone and character. Every department being invaded by the spirit of speculation, every speculator still confined himself within his department. On the contrary, the ruling principle of the Crédit Mobilier, the representative of the present mania, is not to speculate in a given line, but to speculate in speculation’, and to universalize swindling at the same rate that it centralizes it. There is, besides, this further difference in the origin and growth of the present mania, that it did not begin in England, but in France. The present race of French speculators stand in the same relation to the English speculators of the above-mentioned epochs as the French Deists of the Eighteenth to the English Deists of the Seventeenth Century. The one furnished the materials, while the other produced the generalizing form which enabled deism to be propagated over the whole civilized world of the eighteenth century. The British are prone to congratulate themselves upon the removal of the focus of speculation from their free and sober island to the muddled and despot-ridden Continent; but then they forget the intense anxiety with which they watch the monthly statement of the Bank of France as influencing the heap of bullion in the sanctum of the Bank of England; they forget that it is English capital, to a great extent, which supplies the great arteries of the European Credits Mobiliers with the heavenly moisture; they forget that the “sound” over-trading and over-production in England, which they are now extolling as having reached the figure of nearly £110,000,000 of exports, Is the direct offspring of the “unsound” speculation they denounce on the Continent, as much as their liberal policy of 1854 and 1856 is the offspring of the coup d’état of Bonaparte. Yet it cannot be denied that they are innocent of the breeding of that curious mixture of Imperial Socialism, St. Simonistic stock-jobbing and philosophical swindling which makes up what is called the Crédit Mobilier. In strong contradistinction to this continental refinement, English speculation has gone back to its coarsest and most primitive form of fraud, plain, unvarnished and unmitigated. Fraud was the mystery of Paul, Strahan & Bates; of the Tipperary Bank of Sadleir memory; of the great City operations of Cole, Davidson & Gordon; and fraud is the sad but simple tale of the Royal British Bank of London.
For a set of directors to eat up a company’s capital, while cheering on its shareholders by, high dividends, and inveigling depositors and fresh shareholders by fraudulent accounts, no high degree of refinement is necessary. Nothing is wanted but English law. The case of the Royal British Bank has caused a sensation, not so much on account of the capital as on account of the number of small people involved, both among the shareholders and depositors. The division of labor in this concern appears to have been very simple, indeed. There were two sets of directors, the one content to pocket their salary of £10,000 a year for knowing nothing of the affairs of the Bank and keeping then, consciences clear, the other intent upon the real direction of the Bank, only to be its first customers or rather plunderers. The latter class being dependent for accommodation upon the manager at once begin with letting the manager accommodate himself’. Beside the manager they must take into the secret the auditor and solicitor of the Company, who consequently receive bribes in the shape of advances. In addition to advances made to themselves and relatives in their own names, the directors and manager proceed to set tip a number of men of straw, in whose names they pocket further advances. The whole paid-up capital amounts now to £150,000, of which £121,840 were swallowed directly and indirectly by the directors. The founder of the Company, Mr. McGregor, M.P. for Glasgow, the celebrated statistical writer,” saddled the Company with L7,362; another director and Member of Parliament, Mt.. Humphrey Brown of Tewkesbury, who used the bank to pay his electioneering expenses, incurred at one time a liability to it of £70,000, and appears to be still in its debt to the tune of £50,000. Mr. Cameron, the manager, had advances to the amount of £30,000.
Every Year since the bank went in operation, it had been losing £50,000, and yet the directors came forward every year to congratulate the shareholders upon their prosperity. Dividends of six per cent. were paid quarterly, although by the declaration of the official accountant, Mr. Coleman, the shareholders ought never to have had a dividend at all. Only last Summer, fallacious accounts to the extent of over £370,006 were presented to the shareholders, the advances made to McGregor, Humphrey Brown, Cameron & Co., figuring under the abstract head of Convertible Securities. When the bank was completely insolvent, new shares were issued, amid glowing reports of its progress and a vote of confidence in the directors. This issue of new shares was by, no means contemplated as a desperate means of relieving the position of the bank, but simply to furnish fresh material for directorial fraud. Although it was one of the rules of the charter that the bank was not to traffic in its own shares, it appears to have been the constant practice to saddle it, by way of security’, with its own shares whenever they had become depreciated in the directors’ hands. The way, in which the “honest portion” of the directors pretend to have been duped, was told by one of them, Mr. Owen, at a meeting of’ shareholders, as follows:
“When all arrangements for starting this concern had been made, Mr. Cameron was appointed our manager, and we soon found out the evil of having a manager who had never previously been connected with any, bank in London. By reason of that circumstance arose a number of difficulties. I will state what occurred two years and some months ago when I left the bank. Why, shortly, before that time, I did not know that there was a single shareholder indebted to the bank to the amount of £10,000, either for discount or advances. I at one time heard a whisper of some complaints that there was a large sum due by one of them on account of discounts, and I asked one of the bookkeepers as to the matter. I was told that when I shut the parlor door I had nothing to do with the bank. Mr. Cameron said that no director must bring his own bills to be discounted before the Board. He said that such bills should go to the general manager, for if they were brought before the Board we should never get merchantile men of high character to bank with us. In this ignorance was I until one occasion, when Mr. Cameron was taken so dangerously ill that he not expected to recover. In consequence of his illness, the Chairman and some of the other Directors made some inquiries which disclosed to us that Mr. Cameron had a hook with a private key which we had never seen. When the Chairman opened that book we were all indeed astonished.”
It is due to Mr. Cameron to say that, without waiting for the consequences of these discoveries, he, with great prudence and promptitude, expatriated himself from England.
One of the most extraordinary and characteristic transactions of the Royal British Bank was its connection with some Welsh Iron Works. At a time when the paid-up capital of the Company amounted to but £50,000, the advances made to these Iron Works alone reached the sum of £70,000 to £80,000. When the Company first got possession of this iron establishment it was an unworkable concern. Having become workable after an investment of something like £50,000, we find the property in the hands of a Mr. Clarke, who, after having worked it “for some time,” threw it back upon the bank, while “expressing his conviction that he was throwing up a large fortune,” leaving the bank, however, to bear an additional debt of £20,000 upon the “property.” Thus, this concern kept going out of the hands of the bank whenever profits seemed likely to come in, and kept coming back to the bank when fresh advances were required to go out. This practical joke the Directors were endeavoring to continue even at the last moment of their confession, still holding up the profitable capacities of the works, which they say might yield £16,000 per annum, forgetting that they have cost the shareholders £17,742 during every year of the Company’s existence. The affairs of the Company are now to be wound up in the Court of Chancery.’ Long before that can be done, however, the whole adventures of the Royal British Bank will have been drowned amid the deluge of the general European crisis.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Is The World Overpopulated?

Why is it necessary that you believe that the Earth is overpopulated and that the world which God created is failing?  Is it possible for anything that God has designed to fail?


Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Eleventh Marble


THE ELEVENTH MARBLE

by Michael Rivero
Any five-year old child knows that if you put ten marbles into a tin can, you can only take ten marbles back out. No amount of wishful thinking, dreaming, or praying, will yield that eleventh marble from inside that can. That eleventh marble does not exist. It never did, and it never will. All discussions about the eleventh marble are the product of imagination. The eleventh marble is a fantasy.
Private central bankers issuing the public currency as interest-bearing loans operate on the belief that they can put ten marbles (dollars) into a tin can (the world) and magically get 11 marbles back out. Thus, we may conclude that the bankers are dumber than five-year old children! But unlike five-year old children, the bankers will take your home, your business, and your nation when they don't get that eleventh marble! The spoiled child may cry and throw a tantrum, but that will be the end of their upset. The spoiled banker, however, in his or her arrogant rage that they cannot have the eleventh marble their imagination says must still be in that tin can, may start a war before they will admit that eleventh marble was never really there.
Economies are like tin cans. Before you can take a marble out, you must have put a marble in. Nobody can give you a marble that does not exist, yet this simple reality is lost to the priests of that fantastic religion called banking in that unholiest of temples called the IMF. Their religious doctrine seems to be that there must always be an eleventh marble inside the tin can, and that the tin can unfairly withholds that eleventh marble, indeed cheats them of their right to the eleventh marble, purely out of spite. That faith in the existence of the eleventh marble, unseen and improvable, is the article of faith the religion of banking rests on. It is far easier to burn the heretics than to question the dogma.
Today we see the bankers, having already retrieved their ten marbles from the tin can, flogging the world for that missing eleventh marble. Greece does not have that eleventh marble, so they turn to Germany and ask, "Do you have an eleventh marble", and Germany replies, "Sorry, but the bankers already took the ten marbles they put in our tin can, and we are searching for an eleventh marble ourselves. Try the Americans." The Americans, of course, have only just surrendered the last of their ten marbles back to the bankers and are looking under seat cushions for that missing eleventh marble nobody seems able to find.
But the eleventh marble will never be found. After all that mayhem brought down on the tin can there still will be no eleventh marble. It does not exist. It never did, and it never will.
The problem with all modern reserve banking systems is that the moment the first bank note goes into circulation as the proceed of a loan at interest, more money is owed to the banks than actually exists. Ten marbles have been put into the tin can, but the bankers see 11 marbles owed back to them. Sooner or later the non-existence of that eleventh marble will create a crisis of faith. People will stop believing in the religion called private central banking, and that crisis of faith will bring the system crashing down, as did the Temple of Baal in ancient times when the Syrians saw through the priests' trickery. This evil magic of creating money out of debt was a fraud all along, as fraudulent and silly as the idea that one can put ten marbles into a tin can, and take out eleven.
In ages to come economists will look back at this failed experiment in debt-based currency, and dump it into the same category of human folly as Tulip mania, The Nation of Poyais, Credit Mobilier, the Great South Seas Company, and Mortgage-Backed Securities.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Behold A Pale Horse


Imagine America The Way It Was Meant To Be...



Imagine America the way it was meant to be.  Imagine every man and woman were the boss of his own life;  the authority in his own home.  Imagine schools that taught your kids the facts of our existence on this earth instead of repeating dogma and fairytales.  Imagine news media that had to tell the truth and be factual; where lying was outlawed.  Imagine a country where health was a priority.  Medicines would be supplemental to your health instead of money making schemes that leave you worse after you take them than before.   Imagine a homeland where people were treated like human beings instead of like cattle.  Where the Chief Executive was accountable to the people and not unseen special interests; where the legislature was in counter-balance to the Executive instead of there to rubber stamp his orders.  Our legislators would give a voice to the people not just quietly go along with the power elite.   Imagine if no person were allowed to retain public office for more than 2 years and they were not allowed to become rich at the expense of the country.  Where the Supreme Court acted with the good faith of the people instead of the person that appointed them to the post.

We don't want or need a King, Emperor, dictator or leader.  What most people want is to be left alone.

Wouldn't it be nice if government were not allowed to act or contemplate action in secret.  Where all items were a matter of public record instead of hidden behind closed doors.  Secrets would be illegal.  Every person would have the right to know what is going on in his country.  This nation belongs to the people of America not to the U.N., international organizations or anyone else.  Why?  Because we paid for it with our blood, sweat and tears.

It is we, the people who give the opportunity to serve.  Not, they who we must serve.  If there is a doubt about that read the Declaration of Independence or ask anyone on the street.  Therefore, as long as our servants wish to remain in office they must continue to serve in the people's utmost best interest and no one else'.  And we shall decide what that interest is.

When we vote for a new Chief Executive we have a right to know that that person is qualified to hold office and that who we choose to replace him is a person of our choosing not the choice of foreign organizations or corporations.  Imagine if we could actually, fairly, choose our own leaders and representatives without outside interference.

Imagine a nation where welfare was not used to make people helpless but instead was used to help people get on their feet.  Imagine a military that was highly trained and effective and was used to protect the people from outside enemies instead of the enforcers of corporate interests and private profits.  Imagine where drug addiction was treated like an illness instead of a crime.  Where police and military had better things to do than chasing after phantom criminals and minor infractions of the law.  Imagine a place where business and competition was a good thing and corporations that could not compete were allowed to fail.

Imagine a country where love reigned supreme and love between a man and a woman was considered sacred.  Where children, the product of love, were appreciated and where the family was protected and nurtured not questioned and despised.  Imagine living in a place where the food and the water were not poisoned and you could grow and sell naturally grown things as you liked.  Fast Food places would be outlawed for posing a serious health risk to the population.

Imagine a place where police forces were safety and protection officers not enforcers of arbitrary rules and laws.  Imagine a place where prison was only meant to protect society from those who posed a danger not a source of cheap labor and punishment.

Imagine a country where you could travel cheaply and safely any time you liked without being questioned or harassed.  Imagine you had the God given right to defend yourself without fear of prosecution.  Imagine if we used real money instead of paper notes.  Where banks operated for the people instead of for themselves.  And where banks were not allowed to lend more money than they had.

Imagine a country that did not differentiate its citizens by the color of their skin.   Where people were people and not billboards for racism or any other political agenda.

Long Live America - Forever and ever!