Quote from: GideonGono on July 25, 2011, 09:07:39 AM

Quote from: niemivh on July 22, 2011, 12:00:10 AM

Since we are still in a Global Economic World Wide Depression I'm wondering what the general consensus is out there regarding:

1) What caused it (primarily)
2) What is your plan to get out of it (includes any laws or programs you would add or repeal)

I'll post my program after I put some finishing touches on it.

Fractional Reserve Banking is the main culprit IMO, together with assorted laws like legal tender and such. They have enabled the US & other govts to drown themselves in debt. You cannot fix anything without abolishing this system. It is designed to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few and this will continue no matter what policies are implemented. Millions may die due to the ensuing political and economic chaos, but this is largely unavoidable. You simply cannot run an entire planet on a flawed monetary system for decades and expect to fix things without pain.

I think you are mistaken about your overall premise:

1) The primacy of debt in our system is obviously overpowered the rest of the political process, but most of this debt was private bank (excluding the Federal Reserve) issued for things like: leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, massively leveraged stock traders, credit card debt, soaring mortgage debt, etc. As you can see from this list these are all examples of where by and large most of the newly issued debt went in the past many decades. How many of those things sound productive? How many of those things lead to legitimate economic growth? How many of those things improve the lot of mankind?
2) The problem of perpetual debt is not a main cause of our present problem. I think it comes from the position of trying to see the economy as a state-based construct rather than a dynamic flow of ideas, productivity, research and human progress that can continue essentially in our present paradigm forever. Reason is there is always wealth to be created and always new people being born and always new and better things to develop and better ways to develop them, hence the fact that there is always more debt (future value) than money (present value); consider that what the debt represents is embryonic growth of a future but when that future arrives there is a more valuable and better future right up ahead hence a never ending upwards trend. The problem is the fact that all this debt was allowed to sweep up the economy in a tidal wave without adding to the overall value of the system as would research, infrastructure or something worth a damn. So the overall burden of the actual productive economy has been beaten and bloodied by all what I'd refer to as "phony (non productive) debt".
3) Thomas Jefferson knew what the central bank was capable of and was opposed to it for a variety of reasons. Some of them, I would argue, were completely in a self interested nature but the primary other to which he is quoted is that:

"If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."

Notice that he isn't so much worried about the nature of printing money ad infinitum, as prices would remain somewhat stable on an upward trend if inflation remained somewhat low (depends to where the money is introduced into the system). He is realizing with brilliant accuracy that it is the process of inflation (housing bubble, student loan prices ballooning, credit cards with easy terms) and then a deflationary crash (2008, stock market plunge, foreclosures, businesses going bust, depressed wages) helped along by the central bank to which Greenspan and Bernanke did nothing to stop is the worst engine of looting the populace.

The problem here is obviously the malfeasance of the Federal Reserve. If we had a Central Bank much more along the lines of the 1st and 2nd Central Banks of the USA we could invest Trillions in rail and infrastructure projects, Trillions in research and be having 9% levels of economic growth like other countries who actually control their monetary policy in their own national interest.