The Financial Repression Authority is joined by Ellen Brown, a well renown
author and advocate of financial reforms. FRA Co-founder, Gordon T. Long sits
with Ellen to discuss a myriad of topics including the TTIP, Monsanto,
Blockchain Technology, and bank bail-in's.
Ellen Brown is an American author, political candidate, attorney, public
speaker, and advocate of alternative medicine and financial reform, most
prominently public banking. Brown is the founder and president of the Public
Banking Institute, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to the creation of
publicly run banks. She is also the president of Third Millennium Press, and
is the author of twelve books, including Web of Debt and The Public Bank
Solution, as well as over 200 published articles. She has appeared on cable
and network television, radio, and internet podcasts, including a discussion
on the Fox Business Network concerning student loan debt with the Cato
Institute's Neil McCluskey, a feature story on derivatives and debt on the
Russian network RT,[6] and the Thom Hartmann Show's "Conversations with
Great Minds." Ellen Brown ran for California Treasurer in the California
June 2014 Statewide Primary election.
Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed
trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the
aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth. The American
government considers the TTIP a companion agreement to the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP). The agreement is under ongoing negotiations and its main
three broad areas are: market access; specific regulation; and broader rules
and principles and modes of co-operation
The controversial agreement has been criticized and opposed by unions,
charities, NGOs and environmentalists, particularly in Europe. The
Independent describes the range of negative impacts as "reducing the
regulatory barriers to trade for big business, things like food safety law,
environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of
individual nations", or more critically as an "assault on European
and US societies by transnational corporations"; and The Guardian noted
the criticism of TTIP's "undemocratic nature of the closed-door talks",
"influence of powerful lobbyists", and TTIP's potential ability to
"undermine the democratic authority of local government"
Kangaroo Court
A weaker element of this trade agreement is the ISDS, an investor dispute
which is a 'guaranteed kangaroo court.' Corporations whose profits have been
hurt by some actions of government can take these local governments to court.
But it is not a true court; moreover it's a panel of 3 lawyers who are paid
by the corporations. The issue is that these corporations can sue the
government but the government cannot sue the corporations. It is a one way
street, in which these corporations do not have to pay attention to legal
authorities. It is a court set up for the betterment of the corporations.
Furthermore they can not only sue for their lost profits, but they can also
sue for lost projected future profits.
"This is not government by the people for the people; rather it is
government by the corporations and for the corporations."
Monsanto and the TTIP
"Monsanto can now start a factory in Europe, which goes completely
against what Europeans have been fighting for years. This agreement squanders
everything Europeans have achieved in this sort of protection."
One of the goals of these agreements is to enforce the world to use our
rules rather than the rules of the BRICS. As soon as Gaddafi started talking
about his gold backed banking system for northern Africa he became a target.
Saddam Hussein did the same thing that was going to take euros for oil which
is counter to the whole petro dollar. History shows that anybody who steers
away from this system becomes a target. If you go through the banking, the
ones that control their own creation, Venezuela, Brazil, and Russia etc. are
facing high waters. Furthermore there is not enough money in the system
because of the nature of the system, where banks create the money and charge
interest. But ideally you need a central authority that can put some money
out there. I think the national dividend is a great idea, the Swiss just had
a referendum but it didn't pass. Nonetheless it's great for them to consider
this at all.
"The money shouldn't be coming from us, from our elected
representatives, or from our central banks which should be representing us,
but they don't; they only represent themselves. The Federal Reserve isn't
there to serve our interest; they are there to serve the banks."
Blockchain Technology
The blockchain is seen as the main technological innovation of Bitcoin,
since it stands as proof of all the transactions on the network. A block is
the 'current' part of a blockchain which records some or all of the recent
transactions, and once completed goes into the blockchain as permanent
database. Each time a block gets completed, a new block is generated. There
is a countless number of such blocks in the blockchain. Blocks are linked to
each other in proper linear, chronological order with every block containing
a hash of the previous block. To use conventional banking as an analogy, the
blockchain is like a full history of banking transactions. Bitcoin
transactions are entered chronologically in a blockchain just the way bank
transactions are. Blocks, meanwhile, are like individual bank statements.
Based on the Bitcoin protocol, the blockchain database is shared by all nodes
participating in a system. The full copy of the blockchain has records of
every Bitcoin transaction ever executed. It can thus provide insight about
facts like how much value belonged a particular address at any point in the
past.
Block chain technology can definitely revolutionize the banking system. It
is important to understand that at this point, nearly all alternatives are
better than what we currently have in place. The banks haven't been able to
come up with a valid plan because they don't have the money; they are
creating lots of money only to give off the appearance.
"Banks create money on their books in response to our request for
a loan."
We now know that we basically create the money. When we take out a loan,
the bank takes your IOU and turns it into money, and that's where money comes
from. We, the borrower are the ones monetizing our own IOU; the bank merely
just makes it official.
Bank Bail-In
"We are moving towards a cashless society."
The argument for going cashless is this whole monetarist theory that there
is specific amount of money in the system, and the central banks control the
money that's out there by playing with interest rates. They lowered the
interest rate to zero and still we have deflation, and now the theory is to
lower it below zero which clearly makes it worse. That means you're paying
money to keep your own money in the bank.
The reason people are waking up now is because they have been screwed. The
balance is tipping; the people who are suffering are beginning to wake up to
the reasons why.
Abstract Writer: Karan Singh
