Mexico Seeks To Issue SILVER Money
From: Don Stacey
Now Mexico is calling for currency to be backed by silver. Silver has value that survives any effort by the government to depreciate it's currency. Gold and Silver have held value for 5,000 years. Fiat currency has never held value for long. There is not one example of fiat currency surviving over the long term. Not one.
Please read this carefully. And pay attention to the behavior of the Mexican Central Bank. Our Central Bank is called the Federal Reserve. It is the third Central Bank in America. The first two were thrown out.
After this article is a message sent out on November 22, 2002. It cited a speech by a Federal Reserve Governor, Ben Bernanke, about the Fed's unlimited ability to print new dollars. An important article. Please read it again.
Don Stacey
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December 17, 2004.
Silver's Three Flags
by Hugo Salinas Price
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/comHSP51a.htm
Silver as a vehicle for popular savings, has turned out to be a very effective flag that has gathered support amongst the principal Mexican political parties, which in everything else are deeply at odds with one another.
This past 30th of November, the 31 governors of all the states that make up the Mexican Republic sent a communiqué to the "Ways and Means" Committee of the Mexican House of Representatives, in which they expressed their unanimous approval of the monetization of silver and urged the Committee to approve a bill which aims to achieve precisely this objective.
176 Mexican newspaper writers put their signatures to full page declarations by the Journalists’ Club in the main newspapers of Mexico City, also in support of the monetization of the "Libertad" silver ounce.
A permanent organization of ex legislators also expressed their support for the measure in favor of the monetization of silver.
A poll by national T.V. Azteca, revealed that 96% of viewers approved of the monetization of the silver ounce, when asked if they were, or were not, in favor.
The Bank of Mexico, Mexico’s Central Bank, is adamantly opposed to this measure. It does not want the public to have the opportunity of saving in monetized silver. It wants to maintain its unblemished monopoly on the printing of Mexico’s money, which has no intrinsic value, and does not want the public to have any alternative for its savings, other than bills or bank deposits.
The Bank of Mexico sent a group of twelve men to the meeting of the Ways and Means Committee on the 30th of November, in order to confuse and cow the members of this committee, and forestall a favorable vote on the bill to monetize silver.
We do not know how the members of the Committee will cast their decisive vote, when the time comes.
Even in case their vote should be negative, we can predict, by the support given to this reasonable and salutary measure in the interest of Mexico, that the idea of monetizing silver will not die.
The idea of using silver as money that cannot be devalued, for savings by the people, is now firmly rooted in the public conscience of Mexico. An idea on the march is a force that does not die easily. Suppressed, it will only gather more strength. Such is the history of all ideas.
But silver flies another, more important flag.
In the mid-19th Century, when modern Italy had not yet taken shape and was still under the domination of Austria-Hungary, there was sown the idea that Italy should be reborn as a united and self-governed State, and that the domination of Austria-Hungary should be expelled.
Garibaldi came forward as a leader of this "resurgence" of the Italian fatherland.
A young composer, Giuseppe Verdi, composed an opera to symbolize Italy under the heel of Austria-Hungary: Nabuco was its name. The Hebrews captured by Nabuco, the Babilonian king, symbolized the Italians under the rule of Austria-Hungary.
One hymn of this opera was so moving, that it spread like wildfire among the population. It became impossible to frustrate the resurgence of Italy. Verdi’s hymn is, to this day, the national anthem of Italy.
This is silver’s second flag: national union, with a consciousness of our own worth, our own culture and our independence. A national consolidation will take place when we once again take up silver, our ancestral money.
However, there is another still greater flag for silver:
Silver turned into Mexican money, circulating in parallel with paper money, no matter how insignificant the importance of that small amount of silver in the nation’s economy, means that Mexicans will always remember that silver can actually be used as real, honest money. And that as the years pass, it will always be there, inviting us to use it in the most dangerous and dark times that may come.
Silver in circulation will serve to remind us that it is possible for a society to use silver and benefit from the use of real money, honest money.
Otherwise, it is possible that we may forget this, as has happened to many nations in the world.
When Mexico monetizes silver, it will become a lighthouse of hope for the world, a light that shows the way out of the swamp of slavery and perpetual impoverishment that comes with paper money.
Paper money, which is today the only kind of money in the world, ensures economic and therefore political control over the populations that use it. The planet’s banking caste that issues paper money and virtual, electronic money, threatens to become the sovereign power through the fictitious money it issues, and aspires to dominate all humanity.
The outcome of paper money is the dehumanization of the human race.
This is silver’s third and most important flag: the cause of humanity.
Silver’s flags, therefore, are three:
The flag of people’s savings.
The flag of national union.
The flag of the preservation of men, from dehumanization.
The silver coin as money: an idea that has taken life and will not be suppressed.
(This article, translated by the author, appeared in Spanish on the 11th of December, 2004, in "La Jornada", a Mexico City newspaper.)
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Message sent on 11/22/02. Somewhat ironic is the date. It is the 39th anniversary of JFK's murder. You may remember that JFK had begun to issue currency backed by Silver. They were called Silver Cerificates as opposed to the dollars issued by the Federal Reserve called Federal Reserve Notes. Immediately after JFK died, all Silver Certificates were recalled and no more were issued.
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In today's [November 22, 2002] New York Times, an article appeared about a speech made by a governor of the Federal Reserve. Here is an excerpt and the full article follows below:
"...."The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press — or, today, its electronic equivalent — that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost," Ben S. Bernanke, one of the Federal Reserve's seven governors, said in a speech to economists here today...."
Ah, but Mr. Bernanke mispoke. The printing press that allows production of as many dollars as it wishes is not the government's at all ! It is the exclusive property of the Federal Reserve which is a privately owned, for-profit corporation which has a monopoly for the production of U.S.dollars. Just think of that! A business that can produce it's product at "essentially no cost" and deliver it to the U.S. government in return for full-fledged interest bearing instruments.
Wouldn't we all like to own shares in such a business? But we are not allowed that privilege. Even the government has no shares in the Federal Reserve. It is controlled by an elite group of bankers.
Want to know how profitable it is? Sorry, that is a secret, we are told. We can get audited statements of profits from our public corporations but the corporation that has the most effect upon our lives? Nope. No independent audit allowed! We just trust those elite bankers that control so much of what affects our daily lives.
So the massive growth in new dollars results in massive profits for the shareholders of the Federal Reserve. Wouldn't you think that an enterprising reporter somewhere would ask a few pointed questions? But it never happens. The media treats the Federal Reserve like a sacred cow.
What harm does the Federal Reserve do to us, you say? Well think of the ancient practice of coin clipping. In olden times, when money was made of gold, the monarch would collect the many, many coins used to pay taxes. Then each coin would be shaved slightly which, due to the many coins involved, would result in a substantial amount of gold that the monarch would retain. The coins would re-enter circulation. For a while, the people were fooled but eventually they realized that each coin was worth less and adjusted prices accordingly. Look at our quarter. Notice it has a milled edge. That was done back in the times when quarters were made of silver. If anyone tried to clip the quarter, it would be obvious from the change in the milled surface. As the quarter today is not made of valuable metal, it serves no purpose currently. It is just a hang-over from the time it was made of valuable metal. But that is the reason it is milled.
A form of "clipping" is what the Federal Reserve does to us. We don't have gold coins for our currency now, but the paper dollars are depreciated every time the Federal Reserve prints more of them. Think about the effects of this. The older ones of us remember how much money it took to buy basic items in our youth. Now it takes several times that much to buy the same items. The value of the items didn't change. But our currency is worth less, so it takes more of it to purchase the same items.
How does this differ from stealing? The standard of living in this country has dropped significantly. To give this some dimension, the dollar issued in 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created is worth about FIVE CENTS today. The depreciation by the Federal Reserve of our currency has hurt this country massively! And each time the Federal Reserve prints more dollars, it profits from the interest flow it receives from our government. We are now paying a substantial percentage of our annual federal budget in interest expense -- and it is going to the Federal Reserve !
When you think about the reality of the Federal Reserve, you wonder how we can be so taken in by these bankers. They are making huge profits by creating dollars out of thin air and getting huge interest payments in return. They won't let us know how much they are really making out of this. They have caused our national debt to grow from one trillion dollars in 1980 to about six trillion today. [Now 7.2 trilion and going rapidly towards new debt limit of 8 trillion] That is extraordinary growth in debt! And they discourage repayment of debt because it would reduce their interest income.
So how long are we going to be played for suckers???
Don Stacey
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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/22/business/22FED.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
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November 22, 2002
Fed Officials Say Policy Isn't Limited by Low Rates
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
ASHINGTON, Nov. 22 — The Federal Reserve may have lowered interest rates to the once unimaginable level of 1.25 percent, but senior officials insist they can still flood the country with money if they need to.
"The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press — or, today, its electronic equivalent — that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost," Ben S. Bernanke, one of the Federal Reserve's seven governors, said in a speech to economists here today.
In a detailed analysis that tracks fairly closely with more general comments last week by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman, Mr. Bernanke described a the many ways the central bank could inject vast sums of money into the economy to combat deflation, even if interest rates were to drop to zero.
"We can take comfort that the logic of the printing press example must assert itself, and sufficient injections of money will ultimately always reverse a deflation," he said.
Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Greenspan were both seeking to allay fears about what they still view as an extremely remote possibility: that the United States could drift into a period of deflation, or declining prices, in all sectors of the economy.
The issue is not entirely academic. Fed officials are keenly aware that Japan remains stuck with deflation and stagnation even though rates have been near zero since 1995.
American interest rates have been at 40-year lows for most of this year, but business spending and investment have still been stagnant and prices for manufactured products have been declining.
In an indicator of the anxiety, business groups are stepping up their calls for big new measures to stimulate the economy with more tax cuts. The Business Roundtable, an organization of chief executives from large corporations, called today for a $300 billion package of tax cuts to stimulate the economy.
Somewhat in contrast to the Bush administration, where top officials seem most interested in stimulating business spending, the Roundtable pleaded for tax cuts aimed entirely at the individual: a one-year cut in Social Security payroll taxes; accelerating last year's tax cuts; and eliminating the taxes on corporate dividends for individuals.
The Bush administration is considering a package of tax cuts. Although many officials are drawn to the idea of eliminating the so-called double taxation of dividends — which are taxed as corporate profits and as income to shareholders — several top advisers are skeptical about short-term stimulus measures and one-time tax breaks.
In an effort to bolster the economy, the Federal Reserve cut rates 11 times in 2001, bringing them to their lowest level in four decades, but many parts of the economy remain in the doldrums, prompting criticism from some that the Federal Reserve has little room left to prevent deflation.
Mr. Greenspan, in testimony to the Congressional joint economic committee last week, made a point of refuting that criticism. "Our conclusion is that we are not close to a deflationary cliff," Mr. Greenspan said. But if the Fed did reach the point where the federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks dropped to zero, he said, the bank could still buy Treasuries with longer maturities and push down longer-term rates.
"There is virtually no meaningful limit to what we could inject into the system, were that necessary," Mr. Greenspan said.
Federal Reserve officials have looked closely and with concern at the plight of Japan, where the Bank of Japan has held its overnight rates near zero since 1995 and yet has been unable to stimulate demand or break free of deflation.
In September, the Bank of Japan went so far as to say it would start buying up portfolios of depressed stock held by the biggest and most troubled banks.
In June, the Fed published a working paper on whether Japan's problems raised questions about deflationary threats in the United States or the Fed's ability to respond, given that interest rates were already down to 1.75 percent at that time.
The paper concluded that Japan's problems were fundamentally different and that a crucial issue was the failure of Japanese leaders to recognize the deflationary threat or to take action before it got out of hand.
Mr. Bernanke, who found himself peppered by questions about Japan today, added that many of the problems were beyond the control of the Bank of Japan: the mountain of bad loans being carried by commercial banks; the large number of moribund companies being kept alive by banks; and political gridlock in pushing through economic reforms.
"It is not a technical problem," Mr. Bernanke said. "It is a political problem."
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