*Ed. note: what follows is a commissioned, feature piece on a subject that is key to a true understanding of what exactly is the REAL Story as it applies to...almost everything related to D.C., banking, foreign policy & the military. It is a critical analysis of how the two gravest threats to the endurance of the Republic - the Fed & the MIC/War Machine - work in concert & feed off of one another to continue to erode our national sovereignty & enrichen the power elite. Now, add to that, the current phenomenon of an attempt at a "great reset" & one can safely assume that those of us who prefer Freedom & Liberty have a lot to be concerned about; however, like any true threat, one must know the full backstory. This is a piece that I've had in the mental backburner for years but could never really get any traction on -- Perrin the Pro knocked it out in less than a week. A slightly longer read, but a necessary one. As always, we appreciate you reading. -- MBM
By Perrin Lovett
During the same week, news broke that former Fed Chairman Janet Yellen was under consideration for Treasury Secretary in a putative Biden administration and that the current President had explored the option of bombing Iran. Debt and bombs, together, and not for the first time. These two topics in American history and geopolitical policy are intrinsically, intricately related and intertwined, one dependent on the other in a strange dual parasitic relationship. You, dear American, are the host.
The Federal Reserve sprang forth from the aptly-named Federal Reserve Act of 1913. United States foreign policy, post-WWI, unsurprisingly started in or after 1918, though the foundations were laid well before the War to End All Wars (that didn’t) began in 1914. Again the astute reader might notice close temporal proximity. That is no coincidence.
However, outside of an American connection, these twin matters are near-eternal in nature. Long has the world hosted and suffered international meddling, for good or ill, and usurious, nefarious lending schemes, always for ill.
Show Me The Coin
Some 2,000 years ago, a certain itinerant street preacher conversed with the leading client-state religious leaders of His day:
“‘Show Me the money you pay the tax with.' They handed Him a denarius, and He said, 'Whose portrait is this? Whose title?' They replied, 'Caesar's.' Then He said to them, 'Very well, pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar - and God what belongs to God.' When they heard this they were amazed; they left Him alone and went away.”
-Matthew 22:19-22 (KJV)
We’re not so lucky; if only they would leave us alone. Of course, not long after that meeting and following a lecture on their paternity, these wayward leaders delivered the Son up for Imperial judgment. There is, in this short passage, a lesson and a warning. Contrary to popular belief (or lack thereof), this dialogue is in no way an endorsement of taxation. Rather, Jesus exposed the Pharisees as blasphemous hypocrites. The coin in question was not a standard Imperial Roman model. It was a newly devised silver piece, especially for use by Tiberious and the elites of his day, and which bore allegiant inscriptions to both Athena and to Augustus, the “living god.” To bring such money into the Temple - for any purpose - was a direct affront to Our Heavenly Father. Thus, Christ instructed that it stay with its proper debased and debasing owners.
This was but one of the examples innumerable of coin shaving, coin substitution, and numismatic treachery throughout history. And again, it was no coincidence that this particular example happened concurrently with Roman expansion into the Levant, Gaul, Britannia, and other foreign spheres. It is unusual in that the replacement metal was of greater value than the bronze denarius, a distinction erased as years slipped by. Our own experience these past 107 years has been a steady devaluation, from valuable metal-based currency to metal-linked paper, to paper, attractive yet worthless, and now, to ones and zeros in computers.
“Money,” like all other words, has a definition. What has been historically traded as currency, in lieu of bartering, has been: portable, fungible, scarce, and intrinsically valuable. Gold - rare, uniform, and useful in its own right - meets the definition nicely. By itself, how much value is held in a line of code? What is the literal measure and value of the thing itself, the screen of binary characters? These questions and these contrasts matter. And, they are not unique to the last century in American history.
Vipers and Thieves
Given enough time and enough exposure to human reality, any monetary system will evolve or devolve the same as any other custom or practice. Yet, for truly exceptional malfeasance, one needs a centralized banking system. “Free” banking, or national banking, or even state or private banking, even if they are chaotic, with their structural de-linking are somewhat immune to total debasement due to forces of competition; if Bank X’s currency or the currency of North Carolina goes bad, then a user may always resort to the money of Texas or of Bank Y. A mandatory monopoly presents a more dire environment.
The Federal Reserve is the fourth central bank foisted upon the nation and the people. The first three were ill-fated and short-lived. They were the Bank of North America (effective 1782 - 1791), the First Bank of the United States (1791 - 1811-ish), and the Second Bank of the United States (1816 - 1836 (or 1841)). Yes, somehow America existed, grew, and prospered in the absence of a central bank for some 70 years.
Most famous in the telling of these former institutions was the demise of the Second Bank, at the capable hands of Andrew Jackson who declared unto the speculators and grifters of his day, “You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, I will rout you out!” He did.
No character of the magnitude of Jesus has been seen since His Ascension. Sadly, later-day America lacked and lacks even a man the likes of Jackson. What was once routed managed to creep back, its malice all the greater and its plan the vaster.
