Posts Tagged ‘credit’

The media and business community has been feverishly hyping and trumpeting the economic crisis that started in September as if they were blindsided by it like a drunk crashing into a crowd full of people on a friday night drive. What God commands Christians regarding alcohol is to avoid drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18). The Bible condemns drunkenness and its effects (Proverbs 23:29-35). While the common person may be fooled by the economists and mainstream media gurus, the knowledgeable person knows that this economic crisis has been a long time in the making.

The reliance on credit, loans, mortgages, and imaginary money was not always so prevalent as it is in today’s society. Back in the day, people actually used to save, nations used to produce and consume at a somewhat level rate, and countries were composed of somewhat homogeneous populations accounting for a relatively stable society and economic system. As it now stands, however, many people are in debt, so there are a few ways for people to try to get out of the hole:

1) Get a consolidation loan

A consolidation loan can do a lot of sense. Getting a loan to repay all your debts and many have only one payment to make. The new loan usually has a smaller payment and lower interest rates.

2) Get a second job

Use the money from this job to pay your debts. List your debts, noting that the interest rate. Pay the debts with the highest rates and the work of your first run of the list.

3) Put your credit cards on hold

One of the best steps to get out of debt is to immediately stop using credit cards. At the very least destroy all your cards keeping only one card for emergencies.

Have your credit analyzed and conclusions derived from the data to obtain an accurate credit history and future potential of getting out of debt by securing lower interest rates.

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4) Set up a repayment plan

Reduce your expenses and / or use free cash to pay your debts, pay debts with the highest rates and the work of your first run of the list.

5) Use your existing assets

If you have assets with some significant equity, such as a house or a car, you May be able to use them to take control of your debt. For example, you can get a loan on your home sufficient to pay your debts. You could save a considerable amount of money on interest if you pay high interest debt credit card in exchange for lower cost debt.

If you have a car, sell, pay debts and buy a cheaper car. You do not want a “cheaper” car that will cost you a fortune in repair costs.

6) Sell your existing assets to lower debt load.

Yes, lowering your debt load will help you considerably in paying off existing loans. In lowering your debt load, you may also be able to bargain with creditors to lower your monthly interest payments to stem the bleeding.

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The day the masses were fearing would never appear seem to have just been hit by the reality of the giant tiger on the other side of the world beginning to awaken. Since 1994 China has pegged its currency to the US dollar in attempts to siphon manufacturing and industrial bases from the United States, where in 2005 it switched to a tightly banded currency regime, but for all intents and purposes, still a currency peg.

Now that China has bought all the US treasuries it can buy without feeling more nervous of not seeing any return on default, they have essentially cancelled their willingness to continue funding the rising United States national debt through the purchase of treasury bonds. The planned deal, according to mainstream economists, was that the economic alignment would be fixed so that China would be the producer of goods for the US, and the US would purchase these goods with investments sold to the Chinese in the form of treasury bills.

This may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but as soon as the US started piling up more debt, and as soon as the mortgage lending and economic crisis took hold, it became less and less palatable for our pending Asian overlords to continue purchasing increasingly worthless US dollars.

Now is your time to purchase Gold and Silver coins at extremely discounted rates to hold value of your precious and hard-earned money.

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China has ‘canceled US credit card’: lawmaker

WASHINGTON (AFP) — China, wary of the troubled US economy, has already “canceled America’s credit card” by cutting down purchases of debt, a US congressman said Thursday.

China has the world’s largest foreign reserves, believed to be mostly in dollars, along with around 800 billion dollars in US Treasury bonds, more than any other country.

But Treasury Department data shows that investors in China have sharply curtailed their purchases of bonds in January and February.

Representative Mark Kirk, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and co-chair of a group of lawmakers promoting relations with Beijing, said China had “very legitimate” concerns about its investments.

“It would appear, quietly and with deference and politeness, that China has canceled America’s credit card,” Kirk told the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American group.

“I’m not sure too many people on Capitol Hill realize that this is now happening,” he said.

The Republican lawmaker said that China was justified in concerns about returns from finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out by the US government due to the financial crisis.

Kirk said he was the first member of Congress to tour the Bureau of Public Debt, which trades bonds, and was alarmed at how much debt was being bought by the US Federal Reserve due to absence of foreign investors.

“There will come a time where the lack of Chinese participation may have a significant impact,” Kirk said.

“We should track that, because up until last month they were the number one provider of currency to the United States and now they’re gone.”

With China’s economy also hit by the global economic crisis, Premier Wen Jiabao has openly voiced concern about the status of his country’s investments in the United States.

China has also floated replacing the dollar as the key international currency with a basket of units bringing in the euro, sterling and yen.

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The media and business community has been feverishly hyping and trumpeting the economic crisis that started in September as if they were blindsided by it like a drunk crashing into a crowd full of people on a friday night drive. What God commands Christians regarding alcohol is to avoid drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18). The Bible condemns drunkenness and its effects (Proverbs 23:29-35). While the common person may be fooled by the economists and mainstream media gurus, the knowledgeable person knows that this economic crisis has been a long time in the making.

The reliance on credit, loans, mortgages, and imaginary money was not always so prevalent as it is in today’s society. Back in the day, people actually used to save, nations used to produce and consume at a somewhat level rate, and countries were composed of somewhat homogeneous populations accounting for a relatively stable society and economic system.
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The problem the world finds itself in now was mainly caused by government intervention in economies through the introduction of central banking in the early 20th century after the tragic “war to end all wars.” These interventions were offbeat solutions proposed by the socialist politicians of the time; many of which were brainwashed by socialist and communist propaganda — remnants from the great World Wars. The common man saw the idea of collectiviziation of resources as a pseudo tribal activity. The problem now is that government has run rampant with power usurped from decentralized actors known as states and provinces.

Most countries in the world now have central banks and heavy hands of federal government where power is wielded by power mad politicians. This power started to really take heed during the crises of wars like Vietnam where President Nixon imposed a totally fiat money, or government issued currency system whereby he took the US dollar completely off of the gold standard based on the Bretton Woods agreement established at the end of World War II. This quickly ended the government limitations to creating money, or credit, without a physical limmitation such as gold. Now all money is basically printed out of thin air from digital computer banks.

Governments are not the only entities issueing and utilizing credit. As you probably guessed, common people are now being suckered into using credit as a day to day living arrangement paying for such things as food, gasoline, and heat and has become increasingly prevalent as such. People have been using the first “plastic money” ever since its introduction in 1951 and it has been increasing ever since then. In a perhaps ironic arrangement, the first credit cards were issued for “Diners club” card holders and was made on February 8, 1949 by Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider, and Matty Simmons at Major’s Cabin Grill, a restaurant adjacent to their offices in the Empire State Building. The very thing that keeps people alive (food; real), has become the very thing that will destroy them (credit; fake).
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Indeed, the current economic crisis has blatantly exposed the weakness of the “In God We Trust” slogan engraved on most of, if not all, American currency in the form of loss of consumer confidence in the economic system caused by engineered financial meltdowns such as the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac loan crisis. “The financial crisis provides our great opportunity to set the world on a new sustainable path, as many sacred cows, which have stood in the path of change, are being slaughtered by the day as the crisis unfolds” (Club of Rome, 2009).

in Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35-36, Deuteronomy 23:19 and other places God’s Law forbids interest on money; “thou shalt not steal” is the Law. “Thou shalt not charge interest of your neighbor,” is the Statute. The Judgment or penalty for charging interest and theft by deception via a debt-usury banking system could be anywhere form making restitution all the way to capitol punishment.

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Once again, it was the Roman soldiers who mocked Jesus in Matthew 27 31 just as they are mocking Mr. Schiff in this video. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The credit crisis is about to expand into other areas of the economy dependent on this imaginary bond and promise of payment: the credit card industry. Since 1951, when the first credit cards were issued, over 6 billion credit card offers were found in our mailboxes, an average of 6 offers per US household per month (2005 statistics). The average American household’s credit card debt in 1990 was $2,966. In 2007 it was $9,840. It is clear that another crisis is emerging; one that could very well be the final nail in the coffin of main street. Indeed, credit cards are shaping up to be the next chapter in the financial meltdown, promising to stymie consumer spending, drag on the economy and force a whole new wave of financial difficulty on Americans.

The US may be moving into the next phase of the mortgage crisis. It’s called the credit card crisis. Which means there may be more defaults, lower spending limits, and perhaps higher interest rates for the 75 percent of Americans who have credit cards.

When times get tough, you do what you have to do to pay your bills. For more people, that means maxing out credit cards to put food on the table and gasoline in the family car, even paying the mortgage. Financial experts say it’s a road to disaster.

Living off credit is not doing a lot of Americans much good as their debt and defaults continue to rise. “Well, this is going to be as bad as the recession of the early 90′s,” said Tom Davidoff, Asst. Professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Davidoff says we’re seeing the next phase of the worsening economy.

“Wages are lower. People make less money. That means, one, they can’t pay the bills they already have and, two, they’re feeling stretched so they’re not going to pay for stuff with cash. They’re going to pay with credit cards. That’s going to raise their credit card balance and make it more attractive to wipe out the debt by default,” said Tom Davidoff (ABC News, 2009).

Absolute Proof The Financial Crisis Was Engineered

Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers’ ability to repay, making loans with deceptive “teaser” rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets (Washington Post, 2005).

“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” author John Perkins argues that the United states has created a modern-day empire through the use of economic blackmail and the undermining of foreign governments. Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world such as Venezuela, Tibet, Iraq, Israel, Vietnam and others and exposes the network of events in each of these countries that have contributed to the creation of the American Empire and international corruption. John Perkins spent three decades as an Economic Hit Man, business executive, author, and lecturer. He lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.
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Then he made a decision: he would use these experiences to make the planet a better place for his daughter’s generation. Today he teaches about the importance of rising to higher levels of consciousness, to waking up – in both spiritual and physical realms – and is a champion for environmental and social causes. He has lectured at universities on four continents, including Harvard, Wharton, and Princeton.

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Written by EconoChristian.com with various sources stated herein.

A personal account of the decline of manufacturing in the Western world is poignantly displayed in the following post. It seems that with the financial manipulation of countries like China, combined with their immense labor market, along with non-existent labor laws and environmental controls, will allow companies to displace middle class Americans and Canadians out of the manufacturing sector. The question is, what will happen when almost nothing is manufactured in America anymore?

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Economists and gullible financial analysts, not to mention mentally disabled laymen touting the end of manufacturing as good thing, miss some central points concerning losing manufacturing:

The key fact is that manufacturing is the back bone of an economy because this sector is the one which actually produces tangible items. Some might say that intangible items like financial services, computer programs, and the like are products, but the reality of the situation is that these activities can be done almost anywhere in the world by anyone. What will stop these industries from fleeing just as manufacturing did? Indeed, they would flee even faster due to their nebulous nature. We have seen are only in the infant stages of the off shoring phemonenon of industries such as financial services and computer programming by large multi national companies.

Some facts and figures:

The US global merchandise trade and current account deficits hit annual rates of $900 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005, which amounted to 7 percent of US GDP, twice the previous record of the mid-1980s (as a result of which the dollar declined by 50 percent over the three-year period 1985–87). The deficits could reach annual rates of $1 trillion within the next year or so.

China’s role in the global imbalances is even greater than these numbers might suggest. A substantial increase in the value of the Chinese currency, the renminbi, is essential to reduce the imbalances, but China has blocked any significant renminbi rise by intervening massively in the foreign exchange markets, buying $15 billion to $20 billion per month for several years to keep market pressures from pushing its currency up. China apparently sees its currency undervaluation policy as an off-budget export and job subsidy that, at least to date, has avoided effective international sanction (Peterson Institute, 2006)

Figure 2. Rising imports fuel trade deficit with China : Canada-China trade, customs basis

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Are the Chinese taking over the world?

I grew up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. I was the son of a steelworker. As a small boy, I watched in disbelief as Americans bought foreign products. Now that all the decent working class jobs have fled the country, people are beginning to wonder why they’re all so poor. As I hear more and more people complaining that they can’t make ends meet, I gloat in their suffering. They know the pain that both my father and myself felt when our jobs went overseas because Americans bought foreign products.

All this bunk about high pay, benefits, and the like is what caused the jobs to leave is complete rubbish. Despite the pay, benefits, and the like, companies of the past still turned a profit. They simply couldn’t compete with the cheap foreign labor (caused by currency manipulation and little or non-existent labor/environmental laws) and America’s myopic lust for cheap foreign goods. Since all the jobs are now gone and all that we’re left with is low paying service jobs, those products are so cheap are they? Why must companies have such huge profit margins? Shirts that cost eight cents to manufacture are sold here for twenty plus dollars. A pair of sneakers that cost a dollar to manufacture are sold for as much as 100 – 200 dollars all so some CEO and a few stock holders can have several million dollar mansions, private jets, and the like…
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“Education is the key,” many cry. The only education that this country ever needed was the one I got from my steel-working father, “buy American!” Not everybody is capable of getting an education. What we need more than education are working class jobs that afford the average person the ability to buy a house and support a family. Until this happens, we’re destined to have a lot of people on the dole.

I’m a prime example of how this country failed. I used to have a very good working class job. For over ten years, I worked this job. I could afford a house, support a child, and a wife. After losing everything to a foreign market, I fell into a very bad depression. It’s now lasted some fourteen years, and for the past six, I’ve been on Social Security Disability.

At one point, I cost my state 10,000 – 12,000 dollars a month for nearly three years as I sat in a state run mental institution. Why should I work for five to seven dollars an hour when I can sit at home and collect 400 tax-free dollars each week? I’ve tried college, but the depression is too great; moreover, if I do finish college, I’ll be a Registered Nurse. Do you really want somebody who’s embittered at the society that bought him out of a job taking care of our nation’s sick? Education…

I can’t wait to see this country completely fail!

Signed,
The Acerbate American

Why is this happening?

5. To bring about the end to all industrialization and the production of nuclear generated electric power in what they call “the post-industrial zero-growth society”. Excepted are the computer- and service industries. US industries that remain will be exported to countries such as Mexico where abundant slave labor is available. As we saw in 1993, this has become a fact through the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA. Unemployables in the US, in the wake of industrial destruction, will either become opium-heroin and/or cocaine addicts, or become statistics in the elimination of the “excess population” process we know of today as Global 2000 (Educate yourself, 2009)

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Written by EconoChristian.com with help from various sources.

Inflation is on its way and we’re not prepared for it, says establishment shill economists and financial analysts Kevin Phillips and Nouriel Roubini, who both published books within the last 2 years predicting the rise of this insidious evil lurking around the corner in economies where government plays a nefarious intrusion in the lives of private citizens.

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For those green to the term, inflation occurs when the money supply is increased and “chases” prices of goods and services; much of which all people in countries use and consume on a daily basis. When this happens, prices often skyrocket but are not matched by increased sums of income for purchasing power. Essentially it hurts the savers, low income people, and those with high debt loads on their backs because these groups of people are not able to comfortably absorb price shocks as those with no debt and/or high incomes and large amount of wealth.

A year ago, Kevin Phillips, an ex advisor to the Nixon administration, warned of a the pending explosion of a 25-year “multibubble” that started in the 1980s, when the financial sector accounted for 10 percent to 12 percent of the U.S. economy had started metastasizing into an “arguably crippling” 20 percent to 21 percent by the middle of this decade (Reuters; Daniel Trotta, 2009).

Indeed, all of the government manipulation of the US economy — not to mention the governments and economies in the rest of the world — is starting to come home to roost. All of the overleveraging and “easy credit” was bound to create a disaster all of which can be blamed on U.S. Treasury Secretaries all the way back to the Nixon administration, but more prevalently during the Clinton and Bush regimes.

The fact is that central bank manipulation — government manipulation — is the prima facie for the financial bubbles which have been plagueing economies of the world for quite some time since the introduction of central banks in the early to mid twentieth century when the Federal Reserve (a quasi-private institution) was established by international bankers in the 1930s in the United States.

The US economy — already suffering from bank failures, insane trade deficits, and astronomical public debt — has not seen the full effect of these facts and is about to encounter further hardship from areas ordinary Americans rely on day to day; that being credit card debt and personal loans. Since the banking sector has essentially restricted loans to those with previously good credit ratings, many businesses relying on cheap credit are being held in the mud. In a corollarily to the housing bust that occured in the past year, the US economy has yet to witness the fruition of other sectors that have relied on previously cheap credit manipulated by the central bank, those being the commercial and industrial real estate markets.

What economists, politicians, and pundits do not mention is the poignant fact that the entire monetary system of the world — having been essentially taken over by the Federal Reserve through the forced creation of central banks in each country around the globe — has enforced the creation of fiat, or government issue money. This fasci of money has throughout history been the target of control and manipulation of all politicians, dictators, and despots. Convincingly, Rome fell mostly because of their issuance and debasement of their currency.

In fact, at the end of the Roman empire, their mercernary legions refused to take Roman currency. “Whenever a nation slips from wealth creation to wealth preservation, it becomes increasingly difficult to sustain the prior level of wealth. As the cost of maintaining the Legions went up, the ROI on having them declined. In order to pay the cost of preservation, Rome debased its currency multiple times. Debasement is a way to pay today’s bills with tomorrows worthless coins. That led to incredibly high rates of inflation. Payment in kind often substituted for worthless currency” (Newsvine.com, 2009). It surely seems the United States economy is on this very same route since the US dollar is bring printed out of existence as we speak to pay for a tripled debt (now currently approximately 15 trillion dollars) — a debt already unsustainable during and previously to the Clinton administration. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” is stated in the Holy Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

With Canada being such a close neighbor with the United States, and sharing such a huge amount of trade volume with its neighbor, it will surely experience a severe bout of inflation to match the economic pain being experienced in the United States. “Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday (April, 2009) the Canadian economy is likely to “accelerate” out of what he deemed a “mild” recession – although warning that the next problem policy-makers may face is inflation” (Financial Post, 2009). The primary problem, however, is not trade issues, but debt incurred by the “financial stimulus” that Canada’s political elite are pushing on the Canadian populous as the economic savior. Keynes himself would be so proud.

The Obama Administration will not save us

For those thinking the Obama regime has the answers the solutions, please think again for the same people who worked for previous administration are working for this administration. At the helm of the newly created “economic recovery board” is Paul Volcker, a Nixon and Carter-era economist who was the former Federal Reserve Chairman at that time. It doesn’t stop there for the Federal Reserve Chairman in this term is Ben Bernanke, a former Bush administration Federal Reserve Chairman. How can things change when things stay the same? Indeed, Einstein told us that insanity is when you do the same things and expect different results.

Government intervention is now in such an elevated state that the entire banking system is at risk of being nationalized. Many major banks have already been taken over by the US government and many more are in danger of being usurped as well. It is obvious the current ‘crisis’ has been engineered to put the economic reins of power into the hands of ‘dear government’ who will guide us toward a socialist paradise with a controlled economy.

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The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order’s plans. and only by exposing the con can we help to save freedom in America. The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right: it’s about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation. Covered in this film: who Obama works for, what lies he has told, and his real agenda, and how his initial appointments and actions prove he serves the corporate oligarchs, not the American people. If you want to know the facts and cut through all the hype, this is the film for you.

Article written by EconoChristian.com with references to various sources stated herein.

The LETS is a cooperative common currency that has been talked about in freedom circles for many, many years, and it appears that something similar to it has been catching new ground as the US dollar begins its slow decline into obliteration and imitation of every currency that has been printed and debased out of existence by a tyranical federal government.

Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) also known as LETSystems are local, non-profit exchange networks in which goods and services can be traded without the need for printed currency. In some places, e.g. Toronto, the scheme has been called the Local Employment and Trading System.

A Brief History Of Currency in Jesus’ Time

In the time of Jesus the coins current in Israel were Roman, Greek, Syrian and Jewish. However, the Jews were allowed to issue coins only in bronze.

Large sums were expressed in talents and mnas. The talent equaled about $2,000 in US currency. The mina was 1/60 of a talent, or about $35.00.

The silver coins mentioned in the NT are: The Syrian stater (about 50 cents), the Roman denarius (about 20 cents), the Greek drachma, equivalent to the denarius. The stater was accepted as equal to the Jewish shekel, 1/50 of a mina (about 65 cents), which was the Temple tax for two persons. The denarius was the usual day’s wage for a laborer in the field, and it was the coin of the tax to the Emperor.

The bronze coins referred to, are the Roman assarion (one cent), and quadrants (1/4 of a cent), the Jewish perutah or lepton, which was worthy only 1/8 of a cent, was the coin of the “widow’s mite.”

Where LETS started

Michael Linton originated the term “Local Exchange Trading System” in 1983 and, for a time ran the Comox Valley LETSystems in Courtenay, British Columbia.[1] The system he designed was intended as an adjunct to the national currency, rather than a replacement for it,[2] although there are examples of individuals who have managed to replace their use of national currency through inventive usage of LETS.[citation needed]

LETS networks use interest-free local credit so direct swaps do not need to be made. For instance, a member may earn credit by doing childcare for one person and spend it later on carpentry with another person in the same network. In LETS, unlike other local currencies, no scrip is issued, but rather transactions are recorded in a central location open to all members. As credit is issued by the network members, for the benefit of the members themselves, LETS are considered mutual credit systems (Wikipedia).
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A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money. Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

“We wanted to make new options available,” says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. “It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace.”
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About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.

Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.

During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.

By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

“We print the real thing,” she says.

The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. “It’s not a way to avoid income taxes, or we’d all be paying in Detroit dollars,” he says.
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Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.

“We’re a wiped-out small town in America,” says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. “This will strengthen the local economy. … The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can’t leave here.”

Brought to you by EconoChristian.com but written by Marisol Bello of USA TODAY.

This week the Federal Reserve responded to the American people’s increased concerns over our monetary policy by presenting new initiatives aimed at enhancing the Fed’s transparency and accountability. As someone who has called for more openness from the Fed for over 30 years, I was pleased to see the Fed acknowledge the legitimacy of this need.

The Federal Reserve controls the flow of money and credit in our economy because Congress has abdicated its responsibility over the nation’s currency. This process therefore occurs centrally, and almost completely outside the system of checks and balances. Because of legal tender laws, people are left with no real choice, except to build their lives and futures around this monopoly currency, vulnerable to powerful central bankers. The Founding Fathers intended only gold and silver to be used as currency; however, inch by inch over the decades, this country has backed away from this important restraint. Our money today has no link whatsoever to gold or silver. For many reasons, this is extremely dangerous, and has a lot to do with the boom and bust cycles that have resulted in the crisis in which we find ourselves today.

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