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Title: Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free
ISBN: 0979560829
Author:
Ellen Hodgson Brown
Publicate Date: 2008-10-29
Publish: 2008-10-29
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $24.95
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $37.00
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1: Quest for a truly international currency
This is an outstanding book, both in scope and detail. I regret only that the book was not available years ago so that my generation of World War II and the crucial years thereafter could get a proper education about economics in general and our U.S. money system in particular. There are several ways to summarize the patient and courageous work which the author, Ellen Brown, devoted to this book. It could be called a history of money and associated politics from just before the establishment of the Bank of England until recent events in the U.S. and abroad. It could be called an elaboration of a moral fable about what is usually taken to be a story for children, namely the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. It could be called a penetrating expos?? of human greed on a vast scale involving the Federal Reserve and national (but privately owned) banks of other countries. It could be described in many other ways. I prefer however to view it as a successful quest for an international currency that could foster and sustain a democratic system that recycles interest or surplus in an ecological manner so as to preclude the tendency for wealth to accumulate on behalf of just a few people at the expense of everyone else.
The author provides an extensive glossary with definitions of key financial terms like bear raid, cartel, central bank, derivatives, Federal Reserve banks, fiat money, leveraging, money supply, moral hazard, Ponzi scheme, privatization, proprietary trading, reserve requirement, short sale, specie, structural adjustment, tight money, uptick rule and so forth. The bibliographic notes and reading list alone are worth many times the price of the book. Best of all is the final chapter which recaps the previously discussed features of money systems and from this reassembly proposes a 12-point platform for any political party (whatever it calls itself) with intent to genuinely resolve our present disaster. The platform is focused around this project: "Either repeal of the Federal Reserve Act as in violation of the Constitution, or amendment of the act to make the Federal Reserve a truly federal agency, administered by the U.S. Treasury."
I can hardly overstate my conviction that this is a must-read book for all Americans who still read books and who still care actively about the future of our beloved country.
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2: Greenbacks make a comeback!
In short, READ WEB OF DEBT. Sorry for the long-winded review but I love this topic and this book. Web of Debt is an excellent, clearly written, compelling, and eminently readable work. Author Ellen Hodgson Brown, who has plenty of personal experience seeing how the web of debt has destroyed the so-called Third World, presents us with a broad ranging discussion of monetary history and policy and how we got where we are today. In a gripping and engaging fashion, using The Wizard of Oz as the parable, and a blood-sucking spider as metaphor, with Rockefeller as current Master Spider, Brown has simplified a topic considered dry, confusing and until now, beyond human ken by most of us. I could not put this book down, and I have the bags under my eyes to prove it! Web of Debt almost reads like a novel because of the colorful characters and plots that make up the account. Interestingly, I never realized L. Frank Baum's masterpiece was really a populist economic and political parable. Each chapter, each story, each statistic is more jaw-dropping, more eye-popping than the last. At times I felt like I was developing some sort of palsy, constantly shaking my head. I knew some things about the Fed, fiat currency and the shady history and dealings of Wall Street, but this book put so much more into perspective for me, and provides the background from which we can understand and explore further the evolution and practices of the U.S. banking and finance system. This is a fascinating subject and I urge all of you to not only read this book, but anything on the subject, such as Zarlenga's The Lost Science of Money, which I have just ordered, and Shock Doctrine and Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Also, watch "America: Freedom to Fascism" and "Money Masters." Forewarned is forearmed. As Brown shares, this was once a topic that engaged Americans from all walks of life. Whole political parties once formed around the issue of monetary reform. Money touches us all, and you need to understand how it works, and more importantly, who CONTROLS it. Learn why the moneychangers have been reviled and exiled throughout history and how insidious, parasitic, and manipulative this sector of society, essentially a mafia, with the IRS as its "muscle," has become at the expense of common, uninformed people. We need to realize a few things; first, the Federal Reserve System is scamus ultimatus, b/c is it not Federal and there are little if no reserves. All money issued by the Fed is money that is loaned into existence, with the interest payable to a private banking cartel. Therefore there is never enough money in the system to pay the interest. It is known as the "impossible contract." The Federal Reserve Act was deceptively approved and signed by Woodrow Wilson in 1913. It illegally abdicates Congress's sole responsibility to coin and regulate the money supply to a private banking cartel owned by the largest member banks (and families) in the country and the world. It operates in secrecy, has never been thoroughly audited, answers to no one, and is owned by the richest of the rich, and that includes foreign investors! There is a very useful chart on who owns the Fed (a little outdated but enlightening nonetheless)[...]. Ellen Brown also recently posted an article here: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Banks/Who_Owns_Federal_Reserve%3F.html. Understand that there is, nor has there ever been such thing as a "free market," unless you want to argue for whom it is free. The boom and bust cycles the corporate owned media like to attribute to the ever mysterious "business cycle" are really orchestrated, perhaps loosely but nevertheless planned events designed to transfer massive amounts of wealth from a country's economy into the hands of the wealthiest 1% or less (who own 50% of all the wealth!); inflation is another method (read: tax) they use to accomplish the same feat. These gigantic institutional investment funds can destroy entire countries by blowing up their currency, or target an industry or corporation for takeover in a heartbeat by dumping stock and short-selling enormously leveraged positions. Ma and Pa Investor is mere flotsam and jetsam. Brown uses the analog of the dog with fleas. Guess who are the parasites? It's time to apply our Constitutional "Advantage." How interesting is it that each President that has tried to stand up to the Banking Cartel has been assassinated (i.e., Lincoln, Garfield, Kennedy)? Americans are always being counted among the most productive and hard working people on Earth. So why is it we are the most debt-ridden, suffering the largest income gaps, the most foreclosed on, the most bankrupt and taking the entire world with us, have the least savings, the worst education and health care system, and, thank you very much, are the most militaristic society in modern times? It can all, one way or another, be traced to the banking cartel's private issuance of our money supply and their kleptocratic system known as fractional reserve banking. If we expect to survive as a society, we must act now to take back the power of the coin, which is Congress' Constitutional mandate (Art. I, Section 8).
Brown has done America a huge service in adding clarity and timeliness to the much needed and current hot topic of our economic well-being. I'm not sure, but I think this book went to press about a year ago, and feels as fresh as if it was written last month because everything is happening as feared. The economy is sinking quickly into a black hole. The new administration is making no noise about true banking reform. In fact, the Fed appears to have controlled the discussion by having its own leadership joining the administration, such as the head of the NY Fed Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secty. Nice going, Obama, there's some change Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan can believe in! Give the junkies the keys to the medicine cabinet. They are just going to pump more debt upon us while saving their own skins. This time I think even they are scared that they may have slaughtered the goose and we're all going down the rathole together, but you know they will survive unless we change the rules. It seems clear that the banking elites would rather take us all down with them then relinquish their death grip on our world economy. We have some alternatives to debt money but we need a national currency backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Govt (people). As Glenda the Good Witch says to Dorothy, you've had the power all along, you just didn't know it. We have the power, and we can turn this thing around in short order if we a) hold Congress accountable, and b) make them phase out Federal Reserve DEBT dollars and replace them with good old Greenbacks. I agree with those that believe specie-backed currency is a blind alley which can only lead to further ruin. Gold is a commodity and can be easily manipulated. If payments are to be made in gold, what happens when we have to make our foreign obligations in gold, what happens when we run out of it? If interest is paid in gold, eventually the lender gets all the gold. Under the Greenback system, the government spends money into circulation, debt free. Interest is paid back into the Treasury, reducing the need for taxes. The argument that the government will just flood the economy with paper is as worthless as Fed notes. What has the FED been doing for 100 years? Leave Austrian economics to the Austrians. Ron Paul, while I respect him for some things, has it wrong. Most of his followers blindly accept this "sound money" gold backed currency concept without investigation. And laissez faire doesn't work; banks and capitalism need regulation, and a pen to play in (some of these bankers need a penitentiary!).
Anyway, read the book, it's great!
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3: It's painfully simple to understand
I never knew how money was made, but now it's crystal clear both how it's made and why we're never taught this in school. We've all been duped and this is undoubtedly the biggest crime in history - yes it is! Want to know how we can reclaim our freedom? Buy this book and study it, then share about it far and wide. May the farce be over soon and may we all live free from the shackles of debt.
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4: Absolutely astounding
As another reviewer stated, this may be the most important book you will ever read. Ms. Hodgson, you are to be profoundly congratulated for pulling this information together into a readable form and I hope that your sales are rewarding you appropriately. I have done my best to get the word out and have purchased multiple copies as gifts to friends.
I will take my recommendation of this book even a step further and say that anyone who manages to get the information contained in this book into the mainstream dialogue, and force both politicians and big business/banking to explain how continuing business as usual is a viable blueprint for the future, deserves a Noble Prize in conjnction with Ms. Hodgson. Read this book, talk about it with friends, and recommend it to everyone. In my opinion, any chance at a sustainable future depends on it.
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5: THE best financial book on the financial situation in the US today
I have read many books concerning the state of the US economy and this is the best. She expounds on positions touched on by Ron Paul, Bill Bonner and Edward Griffin so that you have a much better understanding of what they mean. Some books like this can be a chore to get through. I could barely put this down. You need to read this.
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