A
SIMPLE EXPLANATION
I
have certainly never thought of myself as intelligent, and if I can
understand this stuff anyone can. But I realise that some of the
things I rant about may sound complicated and difficult to people who
haven't either the time or the facilities to do the their own
research. So I thought I would put together a concise outline of the
reasons behind what has been called the 'credit crunch' by our
government and other interested parties who profit directly from
keeping YOU from the truth. I have no party political leanings and I
offer this only because it is so very important and is affecting
people who do not deserve to be treated in this way. Only when we
understand the problems, can we begin to build a better future.
After
what has been called the 'great depression' in 1930's America, the
American government quite rightly decided to restrict the damaging
behaviour of the banks as this was seen as the cause of the problems.
They did this by bringing in strict new laws. Incidentally these
measures were very similar to those which our government is now
proposing since the 'credit crunch' began to badly affect our
economy.
Because
this heavily restricted the banking industry at the time and the way
it was allowed to make money, they fought long and hard to get the
laws changed. They eventually succeeded in the mid 1990's by putting
people who agreed with them in positions of power in the government.
These people could then keep a close eye on anything the banks didn't
agree with and could change or resist them accordingly.
Since
then it has been perfectly legal for the banks to invent money. I
know this might seem wrong, but this is absolutely true. Most people
have only a rough idea how banks work, thinking they lend you their
own money or money they are looking after for us, in the form of our
wages and savings etc. This is completely wrong. If you ask your bank
for a loan they do not look in some big concrete vault to see if they
have 'enough left' out of all the money they're looking after for us.
What they actually do is just write the number/amount into your bank
account, if they think you can pay it back. And so, they 'invent
money'.
Unfortunately,
because the government should be the only people who can create our
'money' or currency, this has a very bad effect on anything they try
to do to control the costs of running the country, as it leads
directly to inflation (which is when our money loses its value). In
fact every time the banks invent money, the value of all the other
money in existence must drop to even things out.
Of
course, the banks don't just lend out money for our benefit, they add
'interest' which is their profit on the deal. Now the thing is, they
have invented so much of this money that there is not enough 'real'
money to pay back all the loans that they have created. Not least
because, as the creation of money causes inflation, the value of the
money we earn is worth less. So we have a kind of vicious circle.
Obviously there's a little more to it than that, but bear with me.
This
has made it very difficult for businesses and the government, and
consequently us, to prosper leading directly to the situation we are
now in. Where businesses go bust because they cant keep up with the
increasing costs of just doing business or their customers cant
afford to pay them for the work they've done. Which wouldn't be so
bad if it just stopped there, but due to the ever increasing amount
of workers losing their jobs the government does not receive enough
in taxes to pay for the running of the country. Things like building
roads and running the health service etc. This is what the government
calls 'the budget deficit'. A situation where they have to borrow
money just to pay the bills, and who do they borrow it from? Yep you
guessed it, the banks. Money which, as I have shown, can only lose
value leading to, as I said earlier, a very vicious circle indeed.
Now
this is where it all gets a bit naughty, if it wasn't naughty enough
already. Because the government has to borrow money with interest to
pay the bills and the value of money can only decrease, the budget
deficit can only increase. So the only action they can take is
drastically cutting the amount they spend. Which they call austerity
measures and is where you and I come in. We are being asked to accept
without question or comment cuts to any benefits we receive (and I
don't just mean social support as in unemployment benefit and
welfare.) so that the government can afford to support the system the
banks have created which in their opinion must not be allowed to
collapse, as it would if it was a normal business (I will leave you
to imagine why that might be).
As
you may have noticed, and this is not just scaremongering, everything
around us has gone a bit wrong. We are seeing cuts in welfare and
services that often we have paid for, and increases in council tax
and everything we buy. All caused because basically the banks were
greedy. Not only that, but our government can't do anything about it
because, as I have tried to show, they're not in charge of the money
supply, the banks are. To add insult to injury some of them are not
even aware of this.
So
when you are now asked by your government to help get your country
back on its feet, by working harder and longer for less wages, or
told that due to 'the markets' you will not be getting the pension
you were promised, you will hopefully understand why. And its worth
remembering that this is not politics, its economics run by the
banks. So whoever you vote for, whatever they may tell you, they are
going to find it very difficult to do anything about these problems,
apart from asking you to pay more to support the illegal,
self-serving, and cynically destructive actions of a small number of
banking corporations.
Its
up to you now, what are you going to do about it?
Reverend
Launceston P. Holsworthy (retired)
