22. The Creation of Bank Debt-Money as Deposits Debt Money Mortgage note Banks create money in the form of “deposits” or account balances when a “loan” is granted. As interest accrues, the supply of money available for repayment becomes deficient. 04/13/2011 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Bank Mortgage Note (asset) Account Deposit (liability)
25. Growth of One Dollar at Compound Interest 07/12/11 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 6% 10% 50 years $18.42 $117.39 100 years $339.30 $13,780.65 200 years $115,124. $189,906,200.
27. United States National Government Debt $14.3 trillion as of April 1, 2011 (not including guarantees) 04/13/2011 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
28. U.S Government Revenues minus Spending 07/12/11 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
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31. The Credit Commons Central Government Private sector “loans” The credit commons is the virtual pool of credit that enables economic exchange. In the current system, it can be accessed only by “ borrowing” from banks! Public sector “loans” “ loans” Banks
32. Parasitic Drains Finance War and Enrich a Few 07/12/11 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Interest Inflation Taxes The Economy
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34. Building the Butterfly Economy Toward Sustainability, Relocalization, and a Dignified Life for All
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36. Relocalization - Building Safe Harbors A rising tide may lift all boats, but the tidal wave of globalization smashes all but the biggest.
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41. Mutual Credit Issuance and Circulation 07/12/11 Prepared by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Give each other credit Participants utilize their own credit directly within a network of trust. They allow one another to draw upon the common credit pool. Member - Issuers Member - Non-Issuers
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. This is a subject I’ve been contemplating for a long time and I’m ever more convinced that societal metamorphosis is not only necessary but is well underway.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
There are three levels that need to be examined, the personal, the interpersonal and the structural. March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Our political leaders have been prating about a “new world order” off and on for almost a century. But the people have been told very little about what that new world order might look like when it is delivered. However, we can discern it by simply looking at our recent history and the dominant trends. The elite’s own think tanks and advisory groups generally conduct studies and publish papers from which the discerning reader can learn their intentions and plans. [e.g. CFR studies on NA integration and NA currency. Global currency consolidation (Ben Steil paper). Why and how do we allow the most acquisitive and domineering people to rise to the top? Politicians invariably promise change, or a new beginning, or a major departure from the policies of the incumbent administration, but things typically end up looking much as they did before, or they get even worse.
This is not the ranting of some paranoid idiot, but comes from the pen of an influential insider – a respected historian, government consultant, and advisor to Presidents. March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. A human unity based on core principles applied by sovereign individuals within the context of autonomous local affinity groups. Victory will come to all or it will come to none. From Declaration of Ind.: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We hold this truth to be self-evident, that we are one human family abiding in the realm of life, light and love. c.f. Illich. Tools for Conviviality, Deschooling Society. Kohr. The Breakdown of Nations. Sale. Human Scale. Other descriptors: spiritual, transformative, harmonious, Buddhist, win-win, universal. Schumacher, Wendell Berry.
Compassionate competition & cooperation.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. We need to get more value out of less “stuff.” In order to achieve that, the economic and financial structures must be in harmony with that objective, not in opposition to it, as they are now. The monopolization of credit (money) and it’s artificial scarcity make it possible to charge interest on money and capital. This plus the market dominance of large corporations lead to the discounting of future benefits and an over emphasis on short-term profits. When economists speak of gains in productivity, they are generally talking about “labor productivity,” i.e., greater output per unit of labor input. Gains in labor productivity makes sense from the standpoint of corporations for whom labor is cost factor that limits profits, but from the standpoint of earth and society, the reductions of labor input beyond the point of eliminating drudgery is not a reasonable objective. What we need to focus on now is resource productivity, i.e., greater value output per unit of material resources consumed. That is what is required to stop the despoliation of the earth, to create productive and satisfying employment, and to enable a dignified and fulfilling life for everyone.
The crisis of world civilization is multi-faceted. It is at once Environmental, Economic, Political, and Social. “ We are in a crisis in the evolution of human society. It's unique to both human and geologic history. It has never happened before and it can't possibly happen again. You can only use oil once. You can only use metals once. Soon all the oil is going to be burned and all the metals mined and scattered.” -- Dr. M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist Failing systems: Health, education, transportation, food.
The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it . Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder in Recession The number of millionaires in the U.S. rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009. More than 40 million Americans are on food stamps. For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together. The bottom 80 percent of American households held only about 7% of the liquid financial assets (2007). March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
How do we get there from here? What can we do to help the metamorphic process along? What needs to happen next? We have the choice between a hellish decline or “heaven on earth.” Which shall it be? March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. As my research progressed, I quickly came to realize that the key structural element that is driving the caterpillar economy is the system of money and banking. It’s a matter not only of who has the most money and how money is used, it’s more a matter of how money is created in the first place.
Give me the power to create a nation’s money, and I care not who makes the laws. -- Mayer Amschel Rothschild “ The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it.” - John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, in his book, Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went, 1975
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. Socially and Environmentally Destructive Centralize power and wealth Forces artificial growth Erodes the social fabric Generates conflict Thwarts government of the people, BY THE PEOPLE, and for the people Throughout the world, money and banking have been politicized making money an instrument of political power that adversely impacts society, the economy, and the environment. Money today exists mainly as bank credit that must be borrowed into circulation at interest. The growth imperative results form the imposition of interest on the money creation process. The continual expansion of debt simply with the passage of time forces us into an ever more wasteful, destructive and unjust consumerist rat-race.
Part of what the government borrows and spends goes into redistributing purchasing power; most goes into producing waste. When government borrows, it squanders people’s savings that it can never repay except by imposing higher taxes later.
The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled. -- John Kenneth Galbraith We trust conventional money because we are habituated to its use -- we know of no other kind, and because others accept it as payment.
Any cash (Federal Reserve notes) drawn out from banks is charged against your account balance, so cash is merely a physical representation of bank credit money.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. George Soros projects total debt will reach 500% of GDP within the next few years.
US Debt Clock http://www.usdebtclock.org/. From 9 to 14.3; that’s an increase of almost 59 % in less than 3 ½ years.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
Small perturbations are being amplified at each cycle. Enormous amounts of effort and resources are being applied in a vain attempt to put the system back together. What is it costing us?
Privatization of the commons. Banks throttle the credit allocation process and exploit users of credit by charging interest for its use. Central governments spend as much as they wish without regard to the amount of their tax or other revues. This is called “deficit spending” and its result is debasement of its currency unit, a phenomenon commonly referred to as inflation.
What we have now is worse than “taxation without representation.” It is taxation by fraud and dishonesty. March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
The good news is that we have the power in our own hands to transcend this destructive system. We need only the knowledge and the will to exercise it.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
Waianea, Hawaii small boat harbor.
Behavior is determined by the situations and systems in which we are embedded, as well as our individual predispositions. [c.f., Zimbardo , The Lucifer Effect ] Which institutions are most urgently in need of restructuring? March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
It is crucial to monetize the local value-added
The standards applied in granting credits were often far too lenient.
This currency can arise when one of the members makes a purchase from a local non-member who agrees to accept the currency as payment for their goods or services. Local currency favors local providers over outside providers because it must return to the region to be redeemed (for goods and services provided) by the association members thereby providing a built-in buy local bias.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr. These can take any of these various forms: Ledger account credits, Paper notes, Smart card & stored value card balances, Web accounts with credits downloaded from, and uploaded through, the internet
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
And so dear friends, the challenge before us is NOT a military battle. There is no need to fight anybody or take down the banking system. We need not win any elections or get any new laws through Congress. Our task is to take responsibility for ourselves and our communities, to find common ground with our friends and neighbors, and even our adversaries, and to turn our efforts toward the common good. We need only to exercise the power that is already ours—what E.C. Riegel calls our money power —which is simply our power to give each other credit. As we build our networks of trust and cooperation, we will at last have peace in the world, and a world that works for all. Butterfly photos from Jay Cossey, http://www.images.on.ca/JayC/jc_g1index.htm March 24, 2005 Thomas H. Greco, Jr.