Zeitgeist: Addendum

"The old appeals to racial, sexual or religious chauvinism,

to rabid nationalist fervor are

beginning not to work." - Carl Sagan

"The business of who I am, or whether

I'm good or bad, or achieving or not,

all that's learned along the way." - Dr. Richard Albert

"It's just a ride,

we can change it anytime.

It's only the choice. No effort, no work,

no job, no savings of money." - Bill Hicks

"I realised I had the game wrong.

The game was to find out what

I already was." - Dr. Richard Albert

We will see how very important it is

to bring about, in the human mind,

the radical revolution.

The crisis, is a crisis of consciousness.

A crisis that cannot anymore,

accept the old norms,

the old patterns,

the ancient traditions.

And, considering what the world is now,

with all the misery,

conflict,

destructive brutality,

aggression,

and so on...

Man

is still as he was.

Is still brutal,

violent,

aggressive,

acquisitive,

competitive.

And, he's built a society

along these lines. - J. Krishnamurti

- Zeitgeist -

- Zeitgeist -

- Addendum -

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted

to a profoundly sick society. - J. Krishnamurti

Society today,

is composed of a series of institutions.

From political institutions,

legal institutions,

religious institutions.

To institutions of social class,

familiar values,

and occupational specialization.

It is obvious, the profound influence

these traditionalized structures have

in shaping our understandings and perspectives.

Yet, of all the social institutions, we are born into,

directed by, and conditioned upon..

There seems to be no system as taken for granted,

and misunderstood,

as the monetary system.

Taking on nearly religious proportions,

the established monetary institution exists

as one of the most unquestioned forms of faith there is.

How money is created,

the policies by which it is governed,

and how it truly affects society,

are unregistered interests of

the great majority of the population.

In a world where 1% of the population

owns 40% of the planets wealth.

In a world where 34.000 children die every single day

from poverty and preventable diseases,

and, where 50% of the world's population

lives on less than 2 dollars a day...

One thing is clear.

Something is very wrong.

And, whether we are aware of it or not,

the lifeblood of all of our established institutions,

and thus society itself,

is money.

Therefore, understanding this

institution of monetary policy

is critical to understanding why

our lives are the way they are.

Unfortunately, economics is often

viewed with confusion and boredom

Endless streams of financial jargon,

coupled with intimidating mathematics,

quickly deters people from attempts at understanding it.

However, the fact is:

The complexity associated with the

financial system is a mere mask.

Designed to conceal one of the

most socially paralyzing structures,

humanity has ever endured.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than

those who falsely believe they are free.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe- 1749-1832

A number of years ago, the central bank

of the United States, the Federal Reserve,

produced a document entitled

"Modern Money Mechanics".

This publication detailed the

institutionalized practice of money creation

as utilized by the federal reserve and the

web of global commercial banks it supports.

On the opening page the document states its objective.

The purpose of this booklet is to describe

the basic process of money creation

in a fractional reserve banking system.

It then precedes to describe this fractional reserve process

through various banking terminology.

A translation of which goes something like this.

The united states government decides it needs some money.

So it calls up the federal reserve

and requests say 10 billion dollars.

The FED replies saying: "sure, we'll buy ten

billion in government bonds from you".

So the government takes some pieces of paper,

paints some official looking designs on them,

and calls them treasury bonds.

Then it puts a value on these bonds

to the sum of 10 billion dollars

and sends them over to the FED.

In turn the people of the FED drop a bunch

of impressive pieces of papers themselves.

Only this time, calling them federal reserve notes.

Also designating a value of ten billion dollars to the set

The FED than takes these notes and

trades them for the bonds.

Once this exchange is complete,

the government than takes the

ten billion in federal reserve notes,

and deposits it into an bank account.

And, upon this deposit the paper notes

officially become legal tender money.

Adding ten billion to the US money supply.

And there it is!

Ten billion in new money has been created.

Of course, this example is a generalization.

For, in reality, this transaction would occur electronically.

With no paper used at all.

In fact, only three percent of US

money supply exists in physical currency.

The other 97 percent essentially exists in computers alone.

Now, government bonds are

by design instruments of debt.

And when the FED purchases these bonds

with money it essentially created out of thin air,

the government is actually promising to pay back

that money to the FED.

In other words, the money was created out of debt.

This mind numbing paradox,

of how money or value

can be created out of debt,

or a liability, will become more clear

as we further this exercise.

So, the exchange has been made.

And now, ten billion dollars sits

in a commercial bank account.

Here is where it gets really interesting.

For, as based on the fractional reserve practice,

that ten billion dollar deposit

instantly becomes part of the banks reserves.

Just as all deposits do.

And, regarding reserve requirements

as stated in " Modern Money Mechanics":

"A bank must maintain legally required reserves

equal to a prescribed percentage of its deposits".

It then quantifies this by stating:

"Under current regulations,

the reserve requirement against most

transaction accounts is ten percent.

This means that with a ten billion dollar deposit,

ten percent, or one billion,

is held as the required reserve.

While the other nine billion is

considered an excessive reserve,

and can be used as the basis

for new loans.

Now, it is logical to assume, that this nine billion

is literally coming out of the

existing ten billion dollar deposit.

However, this is actually not the case.

What really happens, is that the nine billion

is simply created out of thin air

on top of the existing 10 billion dollar deposit.

This is how the money supply is expanded.

As stated in "Modern Money Mechanics":

"Of course they" the banks,

"do not really pay out loans for the money, they receive as deposits.

If they did this, no additional money would be created.

What they do when they make loans

is to accept promissory notes

- loan contracts

in exchange for credits - money

to the borrowers transaction accounts.

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