A Fascinating Article: Gold, Silver, and the Last American Hero
September 24, 2008
– Comments (1)
From way back in March, when the financial world was a very different place... but still a very interesting commentary in my opinion. Thoughts?
http://www.kitco.com/ind/schoon/mar312008.html
[Broken into 2 parts because of length]
Like everything in our past, the late American president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, exists as a memory. Struck down by an assassin in a decade where bullets - democracy’s deadly equalizer - quieted those brave enough to champion change, e.g. JFK, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a true American hero; and heroes, while a champion to many are, by definition, a threat to some.
In How To Survive The Crisis And Prosper In The Process, I detailed how America’s problems after 1950 mirrored England’s descent from power one century before. America’s problems did not go unnoticed by those who then led the US, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and his successor, John F. Kennedy. The reaction of each, however, is a chilling reminder of the dangers facing those who rule.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces that defeated the fascist powers in World War II; and, as a war hero, he was believed to be an ideal candidate for the Republican Party in the 1952 presidential elections.
Eisenhower was elected but while serving as president, Eisenhower clearly saw the forces that would someday be responsible for America’s loss of power; for it was during Eisenhower’s presidency that the erosion of America’s economic wealth began.
Prior to Eisenhower’s presidency in 1952, the US was the wealthiest nation in the world. As the largest industrial power, the US enjoyed a positive balance of trade with its partners. Before Eisenhower assumed office, the US had gold reserves totaling almost 22,000 tons, the most gold any nation had ever possessed.
When Eisenhower left office, however, it is uncertain how much gold remained; because after 1954, the US never allowed a public audit of its gold reserves. As the US then sold more goods abroad than it bought, US gold reserves should have increased. Instead, they declined. In one year alone, 1958, US gold reserves were reduced by 10 %.
The powerful forces that controlled America were spending so much of America’s wealth on overseas military and corporate expansion that gold was flowing out faster than trade could bring it in. Indeed, the profligate spending responsible for America’s loss of gold and consequent debt began during Eisenhower’s presidency.
I place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
President Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826
Only days before leaving office, in his Farewell Speech Eisenhower named those he believed responsible for the policies that would someday endanger America’s liberties and render this once wealthy nation financially insolvent.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
…We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
Less than fifty years after Eisenhower uttered those prophetic words, America’s patrimony is gone and its future mortgaged beyond its ability to repay. His words were heard but not heeded - not then or since. It cannot be said that America wasn’t warned. It can and will be said that America didn’t listen.
WHO RULES AMERICA
It is no coincidence that Eisenhower waited until three days before leaving office to warn America about the US military-industrial complex. A military man himself, Eisenhower felt it necessary to warn the country of the unwarranted influence and intrusion of military and industrial [sic business] interests that were then colluding to hijack the future liberties and prosperity of America.
Eisenhower’s warnings were not conclusions he had reached just before his presidency ended. They were conclusions Eisenhower had reached during his eight years as president, years spent observing how the business of government was conducted and who profited by its activities.
Eisenhower knew that even as President of the US, he did not possess the requisite power to openly oppose the powerful interests that were even then spending the US into insolvency. So President Eisenhower waited until the very end of his last term to warn America of the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
Eisenhower was right not to openly challenge the military-industrial complex. The man who succeeded Eisenhower as president, John F. Kennedy, did. But those who wield the real power behind the government’s facade of democratic fair and equal rule were not to be trifled with then. They are not to be trifled with now.
REAL RULERS REAL POLOTIK
The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.
US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
US President Woodrow Wilson also spoke of the real rulers in Washington DC decades before Eisenhower and Kennedy were to encounter them. In his preface to The New Freedom: A Call For The Emancipation Of The Generous Energies Of A People, Wilson wrote:
Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.
These are not words of an imprudent man. They are the words of a US President who cared enough about his country to warn of the dangers lurking behind its illusory façade of law, liberty, justice and equality for all. Dangers of which Americans were unaware of then—and of which the vast majority are still unaware of now.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 1110 AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
Change is no more welcome in Washington DC than it was in Galilee
John F. Kennedy was not to live out his first term as President. Three years into his presidency, JFK was felled by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas. While there is much controversy surrounding his death, it is clear that whatever the theory, it was no accident.
The assassination of a standing president is not undertaken lightly. The public killing of a highly popular political figure such as JFK is decided upon and agreed to only when sufficient amounts of money or power are at stake.
Previous theories have revolved around issues of power. Dissident and/or dissatisfied rogue CIA agents and/or right-wing Washington DC power brokers and/or the mafia conspiring separately or together in a mutual hatred for the upstart Kennedy have been the favored theories. Another, simpler theory, however, should also be considered - money.
On June 4, 1963, Executive Order 1110 was signed by President Kennedy directing the US Treasury to issue a new US currency. This new US currency was to be backed by a precious metal - silver, unlike the credit-backed money issued by the Federal Reserve since 1913.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 1110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO, 10289 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows: (Y)
SECTIOIN 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended is hereby further amended- (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 therefore the following subparagraph (j): n" (j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933 as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b), to issue silver certificates against silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption (X) of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars (Z) and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption, and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof. SECTION 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suite or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.
John F. Kennedy, The White House. June 4, 1963
By the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy’s signing of Executive Order 1110 returned the power to issue currency back to the US Treasury thereby ending the fifty year monopoly of private bankers and the Federal Reserve Bank over US currency. Six months later, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed.
In 1913, as a result of intense lobbying by business and banking interests, the US government had turned over the power to issue US currency to a group of private bankers - the Federal Reserve Bank. Many believe this transfer was unconstitutional. US presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul (ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy) has stated:
The United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency. The Constitution does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank. Furthermore, the Constitution certainly does not empower the federal government to erode the American standard of living via an inflationary monetary policy.
The power to coin money and regulate the value of the currency is among the most important responsibilities and functions of government. That the US government in 1913 turned over this public function to a group of private bankers is astounding.
As a consequence, almost one hundred later, the US and its citizens are now on the edge of bankruptcy, indebted up to their eyeballs to the very bankers they gave the power to coin their money and regulate their currency, private bankers who are even now being bailed out by America taxpayers with money made available to them by their fellow-bankers at the Federal Reserve. HELLO AMERICA, ARE YOU THERE? CAN YOU HEAR? ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?
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