The Bush Legacy

   As I watch intently, almost obsessively, the current world events; chaos in the middle east spawned by fallen dictators, a nuclear Iran hell bent on destroying its neighbor Israel, and economic catastrophe that has swept western civilization up in waves of fear and paranoia, a globe that is becoming increasingly hotter and an over reliance on a finite energy source that is drying up, I cannot help but feel a sense of impending doom. Perhaps I am not alone. Is it just me, or has the world taken on an almost conspiratorial overtone? One cannot actually believe that all these world events are working independently of each other without any common interest. Overwhelmingly, the argument can be made that it all can be traced to the gradual decline of American influence. In other words: America, the modern empire, is falling. Our military might is present but it lacks fortitude. Our economy is still the largest but it lacks manufacturing. Our education is renown but quickly falling. Our government is democratic but it is controlled by the Federal Reserve. There is a proverbial saying: "Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master over all industry and commerce... when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or the other, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." -James Garfield, 20th US President
                                             Assassinated 1881

   Those words are not only true, they are haunting for the same can be said about debt. No empire or world power has remained in power without a strong economy. I point to the Soviet Union; Great Britain, France and even Rome whose inflation was documented by the fact that their coins were so full of worthless metal that their monetary system collapsed. Does this system of worthless currency sound hauntingly familiar? The fall of every empire can be traced back to the empire's ailing economic state. If history is accurate then, we are led to believe that the great United States of America, the sole superpower of the world is receding from decades of dominance, retreating from the amber waves of power and greatness no other nation has ever known. And this is all happening because we are running out of money here at home. Our debt has finally overrun our ability to create revenue domestically, as in our GNP is consumed by our debt. The fact of the matter is that this nation is over $16T dollars in debt. And the only reason we as a nation are able to continue operating is because investors, both foreign and domestic to include nations like China and India, are holding the debt for us. These are loans that cannot be defaulted on. The Chinese will not allow it. The system will not allow it. For if we fail to repay our debt with interest, our nation's credit rating will fall yet again as it already did last year in July and we will be exposed to the world as a nation with worthless currency incapable of stabilizing our finances. There will be nowhere to hide Yet these are loans that will not be paid off by continuing our current trajectory as a nation. These are loans that may very well triple within the next ten years. This truth should cause every American great consternation; now and for the lives of future American generations. For given our current stagnant GDP and no relief in sight, the only way for America to continue operations as a nation is to continue to accrue more debt, which means the lives of American citizens are already monetarily red before they are even born. U.S. debtclock.org states that every American is $185,788 in debt because of the national debt owed by the federal government. And every family $700,649 in debt by comparison.
  By contrast, according to CNBC, our debt holders are listed as follows: Taiwan, $184.4B, Caribbean Banking Centers, $224.8B, Brazil, $237.4B, Insurance companies, $253.7B, Oil exporters, $254.5B, Depository institutions, $286.3B, Medicare Trust Funds, $324.57B, state and local governments, $444.6B, Mutual funds, $797.9B, Pension funds, $903.4B, Japan, 1.083T, Savings bonds, $1.102T, China $1.169T, Federal Reserve, $1.659T, Social security trust funds, $2.67T. Might I suggest that these numbers are slightly as cued. For if you understand the nature of the Federal Reserve, you understand that U.S. debt held by domestic entities are also controlled by the Fed. Therefore you must understand that it is not China who controls our debt, rather a select few individuals we have given authority to monopolize the counterfeiting of US currency. In other words the Fed does not actually lend any money to anyone, it simply counterfeits currency into thin air. To speak plainly, this is $1.659T that will never be paid for. Understand that because of this power to print money, the US no longer has a permanent money supply, meaning that the stock market, lending rates, banks, and every company in America has money that is in fact, worthless because what ever money we claim to have is no longer based on a gold or even oil standard, but a debt standard. And that debt is currently hovering around $16T. This is the state of our economy. This is the reality of America's post modern era.
   So the question is: How does America stay in business? How can our country afford to operate even on a basic level? The answer is a startling one. Debt. Puzzled? I refer to my friend John Wagner: in USA Today's January issue Wagner states that: "The last time the nation's debt was this big compared with gross domestic product — 70.4% of GDP — was immediately following World War II." In fact the number was actually 121.7% of GDP. Before the war, may I remind you this nation was delirious with the Great Depression. Yet after the war, the United States' economy flourished and manufacturing jobs exploded so that the debt percentage reached a low of 24.6% by 1974. The cause of America's massive debt as well as it's massive wealth was the war. For in entering World War 2 and rescuing Europe from Nazi Germany, we held the debt of these nations and profited from it's rebuilding. If it wasn't for the war, America would not be the wealthy superpower it is today. I will not enter the conspiracy theories that allege that we helped sponsor the Third Reich any more than I will indulge in the theories that the US sponsors terrorism. But I must point out that America has a history of getting involved in wars because, to our credit, we understand the true nature of warfare perhaps better than anyone else. I think the movie "The International" stated it best: "Whoever controls the debt controls everything" While other nations go to war over religion, territory and generational feuds, the US has continuously sought to control the debt.
   Understand that the Federal Reserve System was established in 1913. It's foundation was an admission that humanity had outgrown its vast natural resources. This calculated move was a preemptive graduation from wars for the sake of land and resources. For democracy had established a new modern justification for conflict just as it had justified a new era of currency. The most powerful people on earth were to be the people who controlled the greatest amount of debt. Not gold, not oil, not produce, not territory. These people are not China. These people are not India. These people are not the US anymore. These people are the Federal Reserve.
   Bill Clinton realized this when he signed NAFTA, the death certificate for American manufacturing jobs. But what choice did he have? He realized that American manufacturing jobs had slowed down and would get only slower. He understood that free trade would keep the manufacturing industry from imploding completely. It is why he also signed the affordable housing act, a bill that consequently produced the great recession. Understand the President Clinton presided over the accumulation of fraudulent wealth; there was nothing legitimate about it. Manufacturing jobs disappeared after Europe was rebuilt, the unions were threatening to bankrupt what was left and therefore, in order to keep US businesses alive they had to be allowed to move overseas. So how do you replace this all important source of economic growth? You cannot. So he did the next best thing. He lied; he created an environment to engineer false wealth. He lowered Wall Street regulations, signed the Fair Housing Act and created Fannie and Freddie to cover it all up and allowed people with no money access to homes they could not pay for but could refinance two to three times over to access even more credit they could never pay back. But how else was he going to convince the citizens and the world that America was still the wealthiest nation on the planet? What one president signed into law, another president paid for and I contend this is why George W. Bush went to war in the middle east. It is ok if it does not make sense, for it will in ten years. Iraq will begin to rebuild its nation into a modern civilization and it will be Iraq that plays the greatest role in building and modernizing the rest of war torn middle east including Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and all the surrounding Muslim nations that hate America. For you are missing the important key component in all of this; the Federal Reserve does not care if a nation hates this country, nor should they. Their hatred has nothing to do with profit. Creating infrastructure costs money and will require manufacturing. The money will come from America which is backed by the Fed. So will the Muslim world's industries as they are built and modernized. So will their militaries as they swell and are weaponized. Much like World War 2, the jobs will be created here in the United States of America because war is an institution not just a state of aggression and the debt that we now owe will be offset by the debt which we hold. The well kept secret is that it already is. Make no mistake about it, it is why Saddam Husein had to die and Iraq was invaded. It is why Khaddafi fell and Libya was "liberated" it is why Hosni Mubarak was killed. It is why bin Laden was exalted to defeat the Soviet Union by Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush Senior and then executed decades later by the same people who gave him power.
   How do I know that these middle eastern wars were created for profit? Because America has never entered any war without a plan for profit. It is the way of capitalism, it is our nature and nature does not change. Was George W. Bush a bumbling fool like he was depicted? In a word, no. His father was the head of the CIA. Do you think he entered war idiotically? Heck, the man was from Texas, he is a cowboy and acted as such. Could we expect any less? But he was no fool. He could not help the  fact that he had to deal with the fraudulent behaviour of Bill Clinton. The bumbling fool will be the president who happens to be in office when the modernization of the middle east begins. He will have to deal with the duplicity of a middle east that hates us but is also our greatest source of wealth. This "bumbling fool", as it were, is Barack Obama who will be elected to a second term and under his presidency will begin the process of exporting goods and products to rebuild the middle east, thereby boosting America's stagnant economy once more. It is why he appears to now be taking a conciliatory role towards the Muslim world and a passive role towards Israel. It is why we have not yet become energy independent because we as a nation consume 26% of the worlds oil supply, by far the greatest percentage of every other nation on earth. Our government, controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank, understands that in order for true profit to be earned from our wars in the Muslim world, the middle east must remain wealthy. It is the only way we can control their debt and profit without fear of default. For it is the only part of the world with true wealth that has not been financially destroyed by the greed of capitalism. We never went over there for the oil. Oil is a finite resource that keeps the middle east wealthy so that they can afford to by our products, goods and services when it is time to begin building a modern middle east. We went over there to control the debt of the nations that own the oil. This was the greater ambition than oil itself and will soon be known as: The Bush Legacy.