Money, War, Politics, Oil, Economy and the race to the White House

You to can be a President, Senator or a house Representative if you got
the Money and connected. Am I being cynical I would like to think not but evidence proves otherwise.

By Melvin J. Howard

Yes, you can be. Of course, you can. Perhaps, maybe you are the best person for the job! But under the current system, the way the ‘democracy’ is organized, even if you were the best person for the job you would, statistically speaking, not usually stand a chance unless you could raise at least $1,200,000 in campaign cash to spend in a house election, $6,000,000 for a senate election, and about $100 to $200 million for presidency (that is the same as raising $270,000 to $540,000 per day, everyday, for one year). To get a sense of how much money is involved consider the fact that in 1976 the candidates and parties spent $160 million on the presidential elections, $1.2 billion in the 2000 elections, and $4 billion in the 2004 elections. The only way you can come up with $100 million, better yet $200 million to assure presidency, would be to have the support of wealthy interest groups. Public finance limits you by law, to $45 million if you choose to accept public finance help. So the question then remains what is to happen to the best person for the job if they have no money and don’t see things the way the big corporations, wealthy business owners and lobby groups see them. The current system has proven that the rule of the game, rather than the exception, is that if you don’t have the support of big corporations, wealthy business owners and lobby groups, you will not even have a chance of holding the major public offices. If that, then is the case, why is it still called a democracy, whereby the definition of a democracy is a system where the majority rule (not the ultra-rich and powerful minority as it is now). There are other names for minority rule. And minority rule by any other name is still minority rule – you can dress it up all you want but it is the results of the system that shows what the system really is. It use to be Presidential candidates spend so much time in New York, Los Angeles and Washington because donors from just 10 zip codes in those three cities gave over $122.5 million in the 2000 election. The presidents who raise the most have an advantage, a huge one, almost a guarantee to win. So they are compelled to spend much of their time campaigning and making promises to a very small segment of the population (the ultra-rich) because, for the intent of being elected, the rest of the population just about doesn’t count (they don’t contribute money nor vote – the system doesn’t interest them or involve them at their level). But this is year different it’s the Obama effect Senator Obama has done something new this time he is using the internet. By asking for small donations from ordinary folks he has fostered an excitement that maybe the little guy can make a difference. So it is interesting to see if his campaign can break the hold that has gripped the white house for so long.

Just to show you the extent of influence that the corporations use to have, out of the top 30 most influential entities on this planet, 14 are corporations and 16 are countries. In other words, there are 14 corporations that are more influential globally than about 185 countries. And money isn’t just a tool for buying goods and services. Money, is a communication device. It is used all the time to influence beliefs. Of the roughly $2 trillion of money moving around the world every day, only about 2% is used in the transaction of products and services. The rest, the bulk, is used in transactions where no products or services change hands! It is used in arbitrage, currency exchanges, politics, legal issues, agreements, control issues and so on. A lot of times, the most powerful movements and agreements about money are changed or maintained without your knowing. You would assume that you know about the most significant movements of money, but paradoxically those are the ones that are keep secret. For example, the would be role of the dollar in the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq. The administration had various reasons for invading Iraq, apart from getting Saddam, many of which we may not know of. But one reason that is of use to us here in our example has to do with the U.S. dollar. Ever since the gold reserve was forever abandoned under President Nixon, all oil has been traded in U.S. dollars and the oil price has been in U.S. dollars. This made the U.S. dollar the world currency for energy trading worldwide. Although the U.S. freely prints U.S. dollars, other countries must give the U.S. their goods and services just to get dollars . Because many countries also have debts to the IMF, World Bank, and other countries, they also must get U.S. dollars to pay off their debts. So for debts and energy, all countries must get U.S. dollars from the U.S., in exchange for their goods. Before the Euro, the whole world was practically, whether they liked it or not, hooked onto a currency. Because of this monopoly position, the U.S. has been able to control world trade and world trade prices to its advantage (e.g., it buys its imports at some of the cheapest prices, has veto powers in all world trade bodies, dictates IMF and World Bank policies for other countries, and so on). And then came the Euro, the new universal currency of the European Union. Within a few years, the Euro started to become a competitor to the dollar in some areas. The dollar started losing its monopoly power in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, former Soviet Union, and Central Asia. Then, Iraq became the first OPEC country to start selling oil in Euros instead of dollars. The U.S. dollar began to decline and the Euro gained 17% in value since that Iraqi decision. Then, Iran started to actively consider selling its oil in Euros instead of dollars. Because Iran is the second-largest OPEC oil producer, this would have dealt another blow to the dollar and its control on world activities. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, they changed its oil trade back to the U.S. dollar from the Euro. So now, Iraq is back to the dollar, and Iran has been discouraged from making any switch to the euro. This is a major reason that it is so hard pulling out of Iraq.

The money you use to buy your groceries is part of the same money that makes up all the money in the world. It circulates in that same global ocean of money, just like a water drop is at some point part of the ocean and at another point a drop of rain, then a river, then a shower. The money you use is a tip of a very large iceberg that is mostly hidden from view. You can see the hidden part if you like, but you have to make the choice to look at it. The tip of the iceberg has the same properties as the whole iceberg. A ray of the sun has the same powers and properties as the sun itself, only in a different form and scale. The drop of water has the same properties and powers of the ocean, only in a different form and scale. The money you earn and use possesses the same properties as the money used in the largest international activities (trade, control, politics, etc). You therefore gain much from looking at these big events, because they are reflected in your personal small events. In other words, if you look closely, you will notice that your personal life and the world’s life is closely matched. You will notice that the things you experience in your life are just micro versions, in a different form and context but same essence, of what is going on in the world. You will notice that, in ways you had never seen before, we are One. Inflation and depression is created by varying the amount of money in the system. By simply changing the amount of money in the economy, and the interest rate, one can move the economy around in any direction chosen. The principles of economics are clear and simple, and all it takes is to simply set the interest rate and adjust the amount of money in the system and one can move the economy as they wish. This is the power the Federal Reserve Bank has. The Fed is owned by banks (owned by about 300 financiers), which in turn own vast sections of the economy and bank and give loans to the population. The big banks own the Fed, dictate (“advice on”) a good measure of the economic direction by varying the money supply and interest rate as they deem fit, own a significant portion of the companies in the economy, banking and lending the money for most of the population, and contribute heavily towards their political candidates who usually win. The idea of a free economy, with equal opportunity for all, cannot be realized under such an arrangement. You cannot have the banker printing the money, setting the economy, owning the companies, having a hand at the media, and being the government. This is a recipe for control and misdirection, and gradual ownership of everything by the few.

Look at the recent trend in the national debt (it only ever increases, always, unsustainably):

09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62

09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16

09/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06

09/29/2000	$5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999	$5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998	$5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997	$5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996	$5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995	$4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994	$4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993	$4,411,488,883,139.38
09/30/1992	$4,064,620,655,521.66
09/30/1991	$3,665,303,351,697.03
09/28/1990	$3,233,313,451,777.25
09/29/1989	$2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 09/30/1987	$2,602,337,712,041.16 $2,350,276,890,953.00

Obviously, this cannot go on forever. This is a debt. You cannot run into the minus forever. An individual cannot do that, a company cannot do that, and it is ridiculous to expect that a country can do that. This $7 trillion debt is the U.S. national debt. It is simply unsustainable, concentrated in the hands of the few, and constraining to the masses. The U.S. budget is almost always in deficit. Almost every year, the budget has more costs than income. No individual would ever run their life that way, no corporation could possibly ever run that way, yet the government does this almost every single year. It seems to be able to perpetuate the impossible – forever in debt yet still strong. Do you know how this debt is financed? When the government runs a deficit, the Federal Reserve Bank – a private company - prints dollars (actually just makes up computer money and ‘wires’ it to the appropriate banks), “buys” the debt, and the dollars are circulated into the economy and the government then pays the Fed interest on that money. For example, in 1992, taxpayers paid the Fed $286 billion in interest. That would be all right except for the fact that this debt was “purchased” by printing money cost­ free. This debt is passed on to the taxpayers to pay through real work and sweat. 40% of personal federal income taxes are spent on paying this debt and interest. What is even more interesting, other than the fact that the Fed is a private company that makes profit out printing, the world’s money, it should be noted that the Fed’s books are closed to the public and are not audited by Congress. By the way, wars create the biggest jumps in national debt. For example, before WWI, the national debt was at $1 billion, and after the war, it was at $25 billion. Every war has the same effect. War is a time for great financial profit and increased control for a few people (in truth there are always those who profit most at wartime), while it destroys everything else. Don’t believe me let’s take a look at the 2000 presidential election funding reveals how the system works from a certain perspective. George Bush raised $191 million in campaign funds in his 2000 election, followed by Al Gore with $133 million, with the remaining candidates trailing far behind.

Bush was the major recipient of all campaign funds from the oil and gas industry, receiving more money from that industry in that year alone than any other federal candidate in the last decade. The biggest companies in that industries to contribute in terms of dollar value were Texas-based, the biggest being, yes, Enron. Interestingly, other energy industries also spent heavily on Bush, beating all their election-spending records by huge leaps. The electric and coal industries all spent heavily on the elections and on Bush in particular (the coal industry spent 3 times what it spent the last elections before that). Bush was also the top recipient of the nuclear power industry’s generous contributions. In this same election, as you may expect, the alternative energy industry (wind, geothermal and solar energy) backed Al Gore, although their funds were dwarfed by those of the oil, coal and electricity industries.

Most of Bush’s administration, the people who run America, have three things in common: (1) almost all of them have extensive corporate connections; (2) some are the exact same ones that were there when his father was president, the old group getting back together again; (3) most of them have been friends for a very long time and done business together. Also, a good number of them are ex-intelligence, military or state department (a military slant, if you like, and completely lacking representatives of other occupations and lifestyles that normally compose the public). Out of a population of almost 290 million Americans, in a democratic society where you might expect some randomness is the backgrounds of the top leadership, how ‘coincidental’ is it that only a group of old friends who happen to be well connected in big business and intelligence/military (and hardly from any of the other thousands of lifestyles) has been ‘elected and appointed to represent the people.