Posts Tagged ‘economic-hit-men’

Western nations are extremely generous in assisting the development of the Third World, and they are never shy of giving vast sums to poorer nations in times of need. But what if much of this aid is not charitable, but selfish? What if it isn’t actually giving, but taking? What if most of the generosity has serious strings attached – strings designed to fleece vulnerable nations? We ask these questions, and more, in our new release book BANKRUPTING THE THIRD WORLD: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt.

Africa’s poor…drowning in a sea of debt.

The following excerpt from Bankrupting the Third World  examines the motives behind the “generosity” extended to Third World nations:

Few would argue that Third World countries get a raw deal. To highlight just one industry on one continent, blockbuster movies like the Leonardo DiCaprio-headlined ‘Blood Diamond’ have spotlighted the corruption that flourishes in Africa’s multi-trillion dollar diamond industry.

However, we are aware that to suggest the likes of the IMF and the World Bank are scams designed to subjugate Third World countries may sound ridiculous. Right? Well, do the research and you’ll find, as we did, that many globalization commentators concur the suggestion is not remotely ridiculous…

Our alternative version of international aid suggests that money given or loaned by international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank is no different to banks dolling out credit cards to individual customers. And just as banks offer credit to customers so that they (the banks) can make money, this theory also suggests these big, so-called aid organizations are purely profit-motivated and not remotely charitable.

Let’s explore this comparison a little deeper…

Banks know that some customers will pay off their credit cards quickly without incurring much interest. They also know a small percentage will have to be written off as bad debts, and they allow for this in their profit forecasts.

However, the vast majority of customers who take on new credit cards will be indebted to the bank for months, years or even for the rest of their lives. Some of these customers will manage, barely, while some will be completely snowed under and one step away from bankruptcy.

Banks make the bulk of their profits by keeping most of their customers in this perpetual cycle of paying off interest, and that’s why they regularly offer customers more credit – even, or especially, customers who are already having trouble getting themselves out of the debt cycle and who can least afford it.

Following this analogy, on the international stage the World Bank, the IMF and First World governments are the equivalent of smaller, personal banks, and impoverished Third World nations are the equivalent of customers accepting and using credit cards.

Overall, the rules are virtually identical: foster a reliance on credit amongst those you lend to then ensure the interest rates are so extreme the debt can never be paid off.

Once impoverished Third World nations are beholden to lenders, First World governments and their allied corporations regularly demand favors in return. Those favors include relinquishing political control or simply turning a blind eye to the plunder of natural resources, or both.

Manipulating the power structure of countries is done in a multitude of ways, including rigging elections, making under-the-table payments and organizing political assassinations.

When these nations are crushed, enslaved even, beneath mountains of debt, this creates enormous ongoing revenues for the lenders through high interest rates. It also allows for untold injustices to be perpetrated by major multinational corporations – injustices such as oil companies pumping toxins into rivers, logging companies destroying entire forests, pharmaceutical giants performing illegal human experimentation, manufacturers hiring people to work in inhumane conditions in sweat shops, and in some cases employing child labor.

 

BANKRUPTING THE THIRD WORLD: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt (The Underground Knowledge Series Book 6)

Bankrupting the Third World  is exclusively available via Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/BANKRUPTING-THE-THIRD-WORLD-Underground-ebook/dp/B0176UHWH0/  

 

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In a revealing interview John Perkins, bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, published in 2004, has divulged he began writing the book in the 1980’s, but “threats or bribes” always convinced him to stop.

John Perkins

Economic hit man Perkins.

The interview, part of a short documentary, is featured in our ‘Underground Knowledge’ discussion group on the popular literary site Goodreads.com – and it’s well worth a look.

In it, Perkins maintains his function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run.

His definition of economic hit men (EHMs), incidentally, is highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

To view the interview in full go to: https://www.goodreads.com/videos/80849-confessions-of-an-economic-hitman—john-perkins-short-documentary

The interview is compelling viewing and the book (below) is compelling reading.

 

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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Membership of our ‘Underground Knowledge’ group has now topped 650, making it one of the fastest growing groups on Goodreads; it’s also one of the most, if not the most, active. To check it out go to: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/142309-29-conspiracy-theories—a-discussion-group

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banksters-of-america

Since the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, many around the world have been questioning whether there are certain figures and groups manipulating financial markets behind the scenes. This speculation intensified with the ensuing government bailouts of privately owned banking institutions ahead of the millions of citizens facing bankruptcy.

There has been a growing awareness in the masses of large-scale financial corruption by the elite – or the 1%, if you will.

The public are not stupid. What the average person lacks in specific knowledge of money markets, they make up for in spades with street smarts and life experience. And the masses have now caught on to what has been going on for decades, if not centuries, with the bankers of the world.

 

Fletcher Von Pein was one of the twelve founders of the Omega Agency. He was also a powerful banker and a majority shareholder in the US Federal Reserve which, despite its misleading name, had zero government ownership and was actually a private corporation owned by the global elite. The Orphan Factory

 

In The Orphan Factory, one of the founding members of the Omega Agency – the shadowy organization that created the orphans – is a senior banker of the US Federal Reserve, aka the Fed. We made this character choice as we believe the banking elite are some of the most powerful and influential people around. They shape the world far more than politicians do. After all, money can buy administrations. Some would even argue money can buy elections as well.

The Fed

If one day proven to be correct, the conspiracy theory surrounding the Federal Reserve is one that may explain a variety of unusual occurrences in financial markets over the years.

In a nutshell, this theory contends that the Fed is an institution that acts independent of the US Congress, has zero transparency or accountability, and even determines its own monetary policy.

 

Bankster definition: A portmanteau or blend word derived from combining “banker” and “gangster”. Usually referred to in the plural form “banksters” to refer to a predatory element within the financial industry.

 

What is a central bank?

A central bank is a financial organizationresponsible for overseeing the monetary system of a nation. It manages a country’s currency, sets interest rates and steers an economy toward inflation targets.

If a nation’s central bank is managed without corruption or interference from foreign countries, it should be a stabilizing force. In theory, a central bank can shield an economy from volatility in financial markets.

But the operative word is corruption.

Ron Paul, official Congressional photo portrait, 2007.jpg  Jesse Ventura.jpg

Senator Paul and Governor Ventura targeted the global elite.

Numerous economists and historians, and vociferous politicians like Senator Ron Paul and Governor Jesse Ventura, have opined that the global elite had been aiming to control the resources of the US for centuries. Creating an American central bank privately owned by an international banking cartel seemed to be the most efficient way to achieve this aim.

 A short history of central banking in the US

In 1791, the First Bank of the United States was set up apparently because the Government had a massive debt left over from the Revolutionary War known as the American Revolution. Many researchers say this was the earliest attempt by banking families of the global elite to create a privately-owned US central bank, masquerading as a federally-owned entity.

Although the bank had numerous opponents in the political arena, it only controlled 20% of the nation’s money supply – unlike the Fed today which manages 100% of the nation’s money supply and not a ‘penny’ less.

American Founding Father and the nation’s third President, Thomas Jefferson, was one of the most vocal critics of the First Bank of the United States. He argued the bank was unconstitutional, citing the 10th Amendment. 

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale.

President Jefferson (above) and the First Bank of the US he so detested (below).

firstbank

Jefferson also hinted that a central bank would lead to a monopoly instead of a free market. He said, “The existing banks will, without a doubt, enter into arrangements for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a competition among them for it; whereas the bill delivers us up bound to the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangement, but on their own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal, to employ any other bank.”

This experiment in US banking ended in 1811 when the bank’s charter expired. Because of the institution’s many critics, Congress decided not to renew its charter.

Six years later, in 1817, the Second Bank of the United States was brought into being as major international banking families continued to push for an American central bank. This bank was also quite temporary, with President Andrew Jackson ending its existence only 15 years later.

However, the global elite’s bankers did not give up and in the early 20th Century started formulating ideas to create the US Federal Reserve System as we know it. One of the group’s breakthrough ideas came during a secretive meeting at a hunting lodge on Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, when they decided not call the new bank a central bank. History had shown America did not want a central bank.

After much brainstorming, the deceptive Federal Reserve name was agreed upon – presumably because it was assumed this name would fool the public into thinking it was a government-owned bank.

Although representatives of this shadowy banking cartel were open to co-managing this new central bank with Congress, all agreed the bank’s members had to be private banks that would own all of its stock.

 

Von Pein’s family was a little known, but highly influential entity within American banking circles. Banking Royalty, some called it. His grandfather had been one of the chief orchestrators of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which effectively took ownership of the bank from the American people. The Orphan Factory

 

Federal Reserve Act of 1913

In 1913, the banksters finally succeeded in creating a US central bank with the passing of the Federal Reserve Act. This bill, which had already been soundly defeated several times, appears to have come to fruition only because of well-orchestrated timing: the Federal Reserve Act was slipped through a skeleton Congress on December 23, 1913 when most of the bill’s opponents had already left Congress for the holidays.

The Federal Reserve System, which was first devised in that secret meeting on Jekyll Island, was now codified by Congress and remains in effect to this day.

Fact: The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States, though not a part of the US Government.

Say what?

It’s not a part of the government, at all.

But it says Federal! Surely it cannot be a privately owned organization?

The Fed is not a part of the government, at all.

Critics of the Federal Reserve say its sole purpose is to strip wealth from honest, hardworking American citizens and make the world’s leading banking clans even richer.

Hylan.gif

Former NYC Mayor John Hylan…no fan of bankers.

John Hylan, Mayor of New York City from 1917 until 1925, made some extraordinary statements in a speech he delivered in 1922. What Mayor Hylan said seems to confirm a grand conspiracy was indeed devised for the American banking system by the global elite.

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation,” said Mayor Hyland. “To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business.”

Only nine years after the Federal Reserve System was created, Mayor Hylan already seemed to be aware that this “invisible government” of “powerful international bankers” was controlling the US Government.

 JFK vs. the Fed

Less than six months before he was assassinated, President Kennedy had begun formulating a new Federal Reserve Act, which many say would have restored the Fed to a fully-fledged US Government bank.

John F. Kennedy, White House photo portrait, looking up.jpg

President Kennedy went after the Fed.

A little-known Presidential decree – Executive Order 11110 – was signed by Kennedy on June 4, 1963. It would have deprived the Federal Reserve of its ability to loan money to the US Government at interest. By signing the document, President Kennedy was attempting to put an end to the Fed – or at least the Fed as we know it.

Without going into the specifics of Executive Order 11110, it arguably could have stopped the US from reaching its record-level national debt.

Seven theses on the present crisis - João Bernardo

As of the time of writing, the country’s national debt is a crippling 17 trillion dollars – that’s US$17,000,000,000,000 – and has increased at approximately 2 billion per day for the last 18 months.

Instead, JFK was assassinated as we all know. But what is less known is the United States Notes the President had issued as part of the executive order – notes which were designed to replace the Federal Reserve Notes – were immediately taken out of circulation.

To this very day, the Federal Reserve Notes remain in circulation as the currency all Americans use.

And, of course, what also remained post JFK was a central bank only nominally under the Government’s control.

 

Von Pein understood the entire monetary system was a gigantic Ponzi scheme and could be tampered with accordingly. He and his Federal Reserve cronies controlled interest rates, inflation and the printing of paper money. Thanks to him, funds from the Fed could be consistently funnelled into the Omega Agency via a multitude of offshore bank accounts.The Orphan Factory

 

The Fed in the 21st Century

It has been estimated by independent researchers that eight banking families, including the Rockefeller family, own 75% to 85% of the shares in the Federal Reserve Bank. Many of the individuals in those families are also politicians. They include Republicans and Democrats, so clearly political allegiances make no difference. That’s no surprise as its almost common knowledge that the same financiers bankroll the campaigns of the two dominant parties in American politics.

   Republican Party            Democratic Party logo

Republican or Democrat…makes no difference.

Interestingly, most of the shareholders of the Fed are also members of the Bilderberg Group and/or the Council on Foreign Relations.

After more than a century of these elite banksters having their way with little opposition, there has in recent times been a groundswell of resistance against the Fed. This resistance began as a grassroots movement early in the 21st Century and has really caught on in the last few years.

Two of the main reasons for the Federal Reserve conspiracy theory reaching popular consciousness were Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns and the Occupy movement, that protest movement against economic and social inequality.

Congressman Ron Paul, a long-time critic of the Fed, said the following at the Republican GOP debate in Dearborn, Michigan, on October 9, 2007:

“What’s happening is, there’s transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy. This comes about because of the monetary system that we have. When you inflate a currency or destroy a currency, the middle class gets wiped out… which is created by the Federal Reserve system benefit. So the money gravitates to the banks and to Wall Street.”

And even more to the point, in a CNBC debate with Faiz Shakir on March 20, 2008, Ron Paul was asked to explain why he believes the Federal Reserve should not exist. Paul answered as follows:

“First reason is, it’s not authorized in the Constitution, it’s an illegal institution. The second reason, it’s an immoral institution, because we have delivered to a secretive body the privilege of creating money out of thin air; if you or I did it, we’d be called counterfeiters, so why have we legalized counterfeiting? But the economic reasons are overwhelming: the Federal Reserve is the creature that destroys value. This station talks about free market capitalism, and you can’t have free market capitalism if you have a secret bank creating money and credit out of thin air. They become the central planners, they decide what interest rates should be, what the supply of money should be.”

Only a few years later, the Occupy Movement became headline news around the world after a series of dramatic protests. To paraphrase, the international protest organization’s mission statement is to rally against inequality in all forms, especially economic inequalities. The Occupy Movement also aims to make the spread of wealth more evenly distributed amongst all sectors of society.

Occupy Ballerina Poster

Occupy Wall Street struck a chord with the 99%.

View image on Twitter

2011’s Occupy Wall Street struck a chord with the masses, and the movement’s ideals spread like wildfire from there. Less than a month after the Wall Street occupation began in New York City, there were protests all across America, and even more impressively in 82 countries worldwide.

During Occupy Wall Street, End the Fed and Audit the Fed were popular slogans used by protestors, and the mainstream media reported on these. We are the 99% proved to be an even more popular Occupy slogan – so much so that it soon became a worldwide catchphrase used by charities, television advertisers and common citizens.

Primarily off the back of the awareness gained from the Occupy Wall Street movement and Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, campaigners’ desire that the Federal Reserve System be audited sparked nationwide interest.

In 2012, a bill inspired by this movement was passed through the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support. Called ‘Audit the Fed’, the bill was introduced into the House by Ron Paul.

However, in late 2013, Paul’s son Rand Paul launched an initiative to pass the same bill into the Senate. This debate is still ongoing as of writing, but it does not look likely to become law. Although the bill has some support in the Senate, Rand Paul currently faces stiff opposition from the likes of recently instated Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and President Obama, to name but two.

Why are leaders so scared of having an audit of a supposedly federal organization?

Perhaps it’s because there has never been a true, comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve since the institution began in 1913…

 

We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government board, has cheated the Government of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. –Congressman Louis T. McFadden. 10 June, 1932

 

What do all these quotes, facts, opinions, rumors and conjecture mean regarding the financial system?

Admittedly, the points raised in this chapter simply lead to more questions than answers – that’s always the hallmark of a good conspiracy theory!

Questions such as:

Is the Federal Reserve designed to be the biggest money laundering institution in the world?

Are there really powerful groups operating behind the scenes who manipulate governments, economies, journalism and elections with effortless ease? If so, how are they able to hide their deceitful activities?

Do journalists purposefully obscure the truths surrounding the Fed in order not to upset the powers that be? Or is the average journalist simply unaware of the history of the Fed?

And finally, remember that we could be totally wrong about everything we wrote on the Federal Reserve here and in The Orphan Trilogy. In which case you should probably bank all that cash you keep under your mattress and let it start earning interest!

 

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy – available now via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

A book that’s for the common people.

 

Happy reading! –James & Lance

 

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