Some subjects, at first glance, can be so overly daunting that even bright minds will, with glazed eyes, decide richer intellects are more capable and shrug the issue off into apathy.

For example, the Higgs boson, discovered back in 1964, is a subatomic particle so significant it may explain the very nature of existence itself, a penultimate ambition if ever there was one, yet its existence remains widely unknown nearly 5 decades later, because to fully understand the ramifications requires at minimum the knowledge gained through a PhD in theoretical physics. Also, binaural beats, discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove in 1839, are sounds that, when heard, can literally induce nearly any state of human consciousness, including theta meditation, tryptamine psychedelia, and even localized paralysis with no anesthesia.

The debate on topics of this magnitude are fiercely heated, yet, unfortunately, they are held in arenas sparsely populated by a scant collection of fringe scientists and an infinitesimal handful of scholarly spectators, well outside the realms of normal societal debate. This, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is the state of most key intellectual issues: Only the highly versed may stake a claim, and the general public offhandedly writes them off as overindulgent lunatics. However, with the massive popularity Ron Paul sparked these last 2 election cycles and the thriving Occupy Wall Street paradigm, one such momentous issue has moved from the relative obscurity of the PhD economist realm to the forefront of societal debate. This monumental issue is the abolishment of the United States Federal Reserve and, moreover, the ubiquitous zeitgeist that allows economic establishments of that nature to flourish as an international norm. Setting aside faith and politics from the holy triumvirate of taboo discussion topics, we can take a comprehensive look into money and the colossal flaw in the supposed root of evil that makes the world go round.

According to some of the forefront theorists in economics, the core issue of central banking’s nature lies in three highly interwoven rudiments: the United States runs on a fiat currency, the Federal Reserve is a private institution, and the national debt compiles interest.

Great, why do I care about the Federal Reserve?

Firstly, the massive and seemingly high-brow topic of international finance, with its overwhelming abstruse jargon, appears to be a megalithic realm of study to digest, however, when the terms are properly defined, the ideas are quite clear; of all the technical terms flippantly bandied, “fiat” is arguably the most important. A fiat currency is the antithesis of monetary stability, because all substantial elements have been removed.

This means there is no gold standard to back a fiat bill’s worth, nor silver, crops, textiles, stocks, bonds, futures, or any other physical medium whatsoever. In our current fiat system, money is valued exclusively by the faith of the public that the money has value, meaning dollars are worth something only because people accept them as an exchange medium through ignorance of its insubstantiality or by force through legal tender laws, and, therefore, it is subject to the whims of public opinion for its foundation of stability. With nefarious intentions or not, in 1913 Congress repealed the gold standard, leaving the fate of the forefront global empire at the whims of an elite troupe of financiers to dictate.  To this day, a contemporary aristocracy of money changers governs humanity’s prosperity through sheer managing of the supply of fiat currency, thus directing the fluctuations in cycles of the species, and this raw colossal power is motivated by several individual’s personal agendas. I say several individuals because, contrary to popular belief, the Federal Reserve Bank is not a government agency.

Wait, doesn’t the government make my money?

Nope. Much like Best Buy or Microsoft, the Federal Reserve is a privately owned system with shareholders spanning the globe and a foremost vector at profit. It is not, in fact, a part of the government, as the name implies. While the private Federal Reserve System operates utterly fiat, the epitome of disastrous fiscal policy, and being above state legislation, it pulls the strings of D.C. with a singular colossal unregulated power.

Let’s take a look at a simplified example: The government needs to fund a war. Instead of raising taxes, jeopardizing reelection, congress turns to the Federal Reserve central bank – the privately owned company operating outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law – requesting a loan of, let’s say, three hundred billion dollars. As Federal Reserve notes are simply printed sans backing, as we’ve already seen, the lower classes are left paying for this new money’s manifestation through a hidden unregulated tax. Most know this tax as inflation. When more currency is printed, the current money loses value to compensate for the unaltered total substance on the market.Now the security that the government supplies on these loans is nothing less than the future taxable effort of the citizenry, indebting future generations into an unsanctified bondage for the sake of instant gratification. This is a hierarchical manifestation of our current credit card culture (link NSFW). Furthermore, notice the inscription at the top of any bill, “Federal Reserve Note,” detailing how that dollar actually denotes a liability, because in truth, every bill circulating is a promissory note to the overarching Federal Reserve, so every bill is worth less than worthless – negative value – and this amassing of loans is the national debt.

Okay, then what’s the National Debt?

this is the last point, and arguably the most outrageous. As opposed to being wealthier, the possessor of U.S. currency of any denomination is indebted to the Fed, lien-holder over every last cent, for the stated value, and this circulating supply of paper constitutes the national debt. The national debt and the currency we trade at market are one in the same, because the national debt is our currency.

Furthermore, the paramount issue is in the interest the Federal Reserve charges on this unsecured debt; this is the supreme crux of the matter: the Federal Reserve charges interest.

The initial loan the state takes out is the entirety of the circulating money supply, so imagine this parallel situation: A man loans a friend his car but decides to charge interest and demands an extra ten percent of his car as payment. Clearly, that would be obtuse nonsense as only the totality of the car, or money supply, exists. That means the interest can absolutely never be paid, because it is not real. Inflation only occurs when central banks increase the money supply, thus the interest can only be discharged by securing yet another loan ad infinitum. Let me see if I have this right: The only way interest can be paid on the national debt is by borrowing more money from the Federal Reserve, but that further increases the national debt, and that new money will also have interest that can only be paid by borrowing even more.

When will it end?

Never. It can’t. Worse still, in this paradigm, repossessions, foreclosures, and mass-joblessness are not only likely, they are completely inevitable. Forefront fiscal thinkers have predicted many of the economic problems of the day, sometimes years before they are widely obvious because once the mechanics are understood, the endgame is clear. With a substance-backed money system, as commerce runs, dollars change hands but the same core amount of money is always at play. Contrarily, with the interest-bearing fiat currency being embraced by the majority of the industrialized world, money is continually siphoned out to pay an interest that can never be paid. Today, if one man works hard and successfully discharges his mortgage, another man, somewhere, absolutely could not have. It is a zero-sum game that only the central bank can win.

In any socio-economic climate a natural ebb and flow carries every individual into their rightful spot in civilizations’ hierarchy, but in a privatized interest-yielding fiat system, this order is dismantled. The committee that decides the rates holds every card, fixing the deck to whatever devices it sees fit. This methodology supersedes the democratic republic our forefathers envisioned when, as farmers and peasants, they undertook to sever the lecherous ties of the mightiest empire in the world, Great Britain. In a time of such surplus that every man woman and child could be fed clothed and housed ten times over, it is not a matter of greed or redistributing wealth, it is a question of structure.

The ideal of America, the Dream, is that anyone, anywhere, can pick themselves up by the bootstraps and be a success if they have the gall, the tenacity, the die-hard spirit to see that ambition through, but so long as we have a central bank, there will always be a destitute serfdom, dreaming of one day owning a home, retirement, or passing on a legacy to their descendants, ultimately, by the sweat of their labor, only to spoon-feed that dream directly to the Fed.

Sources:

Higgs Boson

Binaural Beats

Campaign for Liberty: Ron Paul

Huffington Post: Occupy Wall Street

Forbes: Fiat Money

Library of Economics: Gold Standard

Ron Paul on Legal Tender Laws

Who Owns The Federal Reserve?

Alan Greenspan: Federal Reserve is Above The Law

Inflation Tax

George Carlin: Credit Cards

Promissory Note