USURY – THE ULTIMATE FORM OF TERRORISM

by Jeremy Lee
The apparent rise in the Australian dollar by 15% in the last two months is, in reality, the slide in the $US, the world's last remaining reserve currency. Suddenly, there is a panic about the $US's future, with a rush into other investments – chiefly gold. Gold has climbed 20% in a short time, and is still climbing. Every indication is that there may be a collapse in the $US in the very near future, bringing worldwide catastrophe.

In our May issue of The New Times Survey we presented evidence that there are up to 40 Enrons waiting in the wings, totally and illegally overextended. Enron was the biggest corporate collapse in the last 200 years. We also provided the figures for the massive increases in household debt in America, Britain, Germany and Australia – bigger than anything in recent history. There is a tangible feeling everywhere, not of anticipation, but of apprehension, for which there are realistic grounds. For almost 100 years a small number able to look further than immediate events to the longer term current of history has known such a moment was eventually coming. The most important of these was Clifford Hugh Douglas, whose predictions were uncannily accurate, and whose alternatives were so clear as to be self-evident to those who bothered to study them. With this picture in mind it may be of value to reconsider the nuts-and-bolts of usury – what it is and what it has done. This précis is from a paper the author recently gave to a meeting on Queensland's Sunshine Coast:

USURY – DESTROYER OF SOCIETIES
The dictionary definition of 'usury' (Concise Oxford) is "The practice of lending money at exorbitant interest". In fact, this is a woefully inadequate definition. Various expansions have stressed that any form of lending which unfairly disadvantages the borrower is 'usury'. All three major religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – condemn the practice. Various biblical examples can be found. The patriarch Joseph as Pharaoh's servant, used the method to dispossess the farmers of Egypt. During seven good seasons he bought and stored all the grain from the farmers. In the following seven bad seasons he sold it back to them, finally dispossessing them of their flocks and lands. Genesis 47:18 records the sad finale, when the farmers pleaded: "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves for Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die and that our land may not be desolate...."

The same thing happened much later in the time of Nehemiah (470 BC), but with a different result. Again, the people were being financially oppressed: "We, our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore, let us get grain that we may eat and live. .... We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine. "Then I was very angry .... And contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them: 'You are exacting usury ...Give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain ....'" (Nehemiah 5:1-2). This time the money-lenders wrote off the debts!

GREECE AND ROME
Only a little earlier (594 BC) the Greek civilization was experiencing the same disasters. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol 27, 11th edition) recorded: "The bulk of the population, who had originally been small proprietors, or metayers, became gradually indebted to the rich to such an extent that they were practically slaves. Usury had given all the power of the State to a small plutocracy ...." On the advice of the Greek philosopher Solon, debt was written off and property returned. So Greece survived.
Encyclopaedia Britannica continued: "When we turn to Rome at the same period, we find exactly the same difficulties arising. ... Unfortunately, however, no alteration was made to the law of debt. In the course of two or three centuries the small free, farmers were utterly destroyed. By the pressure of war and taxes they were all driven into debt and debt ended practically, if not technically, in slavery. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the influence of usury on the social and economic history of the Roman Republic ...."

MORE MODERN TIMES
The usury of ancient times is nothing compared to that of the last 300 years. With the rise of the great banking dynasties, nations have been throttled by debt, often forced to re-borrow to repay old loans. It was Meyer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the most famous banking dynasty, N.M. Rothschild & Sons, who issued the famous statement: "Permit me to issue a nation's money and I care not who makes its laws."
Many leaders in the past have recorded the great power of the money barons. Benjamin Franklin, who started local money known as "Colonial Script" in the American colonies, which produced great prosperity, was forced by the British Government, under pressure from the Bank of England, to abolish his system and rely on borrowed British money. The Resumption Act denied the colonies the right to issue their own money, which impoverished them in a few months. Abraham Lincoln recorded during the American Civil War that the bankers were a greater danger than the Southerners. They offered him war loans at between 24% and 36% interest. Lincoln responded by issuing his own money, the famous Lincoln Greenbacks. Many suggest that this was the reason for his subsequent assassination.

THE AUSTRALIAN STORY
Federation in Australia in 1901 heralded an attempt by one of our first federal politicians, King O'Malley, to safeguard the nation against the predations of usury. He campaigned vigorously for the establishment of a 'peoples' bank' which eventuated under the name The Commonwealth Bank in 1911. Speaking in support of the project in Parliament in September 1909, O'Malley said: "We have before us the greatest question that has yet been submitted for our consideration. It involves Australia's national supremacy in finance, and the peace, good government and prosperity of generations as yet unborn. I have laid down my scheme because I am a banker. If I did not understand it, and if I had not had experience among some of the cleverest financial men that America has ever produced, I should not have presumed to submit it to the House. This is no party matter. I am not speaking as a Labor man, or as a Government man, but as an Australian for the whole Commonwealth, in order to see if we cannot devise some scheme that will overcome the complexity of modern finance with benefit to the people ...."

The Commonwealth Bank opened for business in 1913 and was immediately of immense benefit. It created $700 million for wartime expenditure in 1914, at a charge of five-eighths of one percent interest, thus saving Australia the huge war debts still plaguing other nations. The story of how the Bank was strangled in 1924, placing it under the directorship of the private money-lenders is one of the most tragic episodes in Australia's history. It has now been completely "privatized", by the same Labor Party which originally created it. In the same year the Commonwealth Bank opened for business – 1913 – the US Federal Reserve, a privately-owned Central Bank, was enacted in the US, establishing the pattern of Central Banking now operating across the world. Central Banks now operate under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund, set up at Bretton Woods in 1944.

Of the IMF and its partners-in-crime, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, the courageous director of the Transnational Institute, Dr. Susan George, said on the ABC in 1992: "All these institutions are centralized, hierarchical, completely undemocratic and working with a lot of money contributed by their members, mostly their richer members. What do they do with that money? Well, in many ways they are helping to subjugate all the economies of the world. ... The World Bank is in charge of imposing this economic doctrine, the International Monetary Fund is in charge of imposing structural adjustment and GATT (now the World Trade Organisation) is involved with reducing not only barriers to trade, but any standards – environmental, health standards, high wages – that could be considered impediments to trade. I feel very much that the undemocratic nature of these institutions will mean that a whole new world order is put into place and that it is an anti-democratic, authoritarian order run by the elites of the world on their own behalf ...."

GLOBAL MONOPOLY
That the planned centralization of money control into a global monopoly is not accidental was exposed by probably America's most distinguished historian, the late Dr. Carroll Quigley, in his now-famous "Tragedy and Hope – A History Of The World In Our Time" (MacMillans, 1966). Quigley recorded that a network established between bankers was working towards an international order in which a financial directorate would control governments, production, distribution and trade. This was no mere speculation. Quigley wrote: " ... I know of the operation of this network because I have studied it for 20 years and was permitted for two years in the early sixties to examine its papers and records .... I have objected, both in the past and recently to a few of its policies .... But in general my chief difference is that it wishes to remain unknown. ... The names of some of these other banking families are familiar to all of us and should be more so. They include Baring, Lazard, Erlanger, Warburg, Schroeder, Seligman, Speyers, Mirabaud, Mallet, Fauld and, above all, Rothschild and Morgan ...."

Now, at the start of the 21st Century, power has been centralized on a scale never experienced in world history. Nations have been forced into trading blocs completely dominated by Central Banks. Under Clause 107 of the Maastricht Treaty, Europe's Central Bank may not be challenged, nor is it beholden to any Member State of the European Parliament. Members have been coerced, against the wishes of their own people, into abandoning their own currencies in favour of the new European Currency Unit. Multinationals, themselves the creatures of the Banks which finance them, dominate world trade, forcing governments and industries alike to bend to their will. Global Governance – a euphemism for World Government – is on every trade agenda and behind each international treaty.

THE DEBT MOUNTAIN
It is estimated the combined debts of the world now exceed $400 trillion. At a modest interest rate of 5%, this amounts to an annual figure of $20 trillion – over $3,300 for every living person on earth. And it is compounding. The result is an impassable chasm between the providence of God, which has provided abundance for all, and the whims of "The Lords of Poverty", who seek universal serfdom for all in their new global order. Their ambitions may be greater than their ability and resources, great as they are. Anarchy, war and famine are more likely than slavery and obedience. It doesn't seem long before we will find out.

THE MAGIC PRONOUN

by Joseph Sobran taken from 'Friends of Freedom' newsletter, June 2002
"Albert Jay Nock, once wrote a little book titled, Our Enemy, The State. I still read it when I'm groggy from absorption in the daily events of politics. It revives me like a slap in the face. If I were a pagan, I might fancy I heard the Olympian laughter of the gods when modern men think of their rulers as their friends. Common sense would suggest that those who have power over you, or can use it to kill or enslave you, are, more properly speaking, your masters and enemies. We're supposed to think that the system that can extort half of our earnings from us is benevolent?..."

The State is a parasite
"The state is a parasite on its subjects, but in America its subjects have acquired the habit of speaking of the state as 'we'. As in: "We are fighting a war on terrorism." There can be no greater triumph for the parasite than for the host to think of it and itself as a single unit. It's as if a man were to refer to himself and a blood-bloated leech under his skin as 'we'... The Soviet Union crushed every freedom worth having, but it assured the 'proletariat' that it was only exterminating their 'class enemies'. Hitler imposed tyranny on ordinary Germans, but he was even crueller to Jews, so Germans figured he was on their side... What a blessing 'terrorism' is for the state! It's the ideal distraction from the day-to-day reality of the state's chief activity: wringing from its subjects the wealth they produce... Orwell, with his Olympian humour, summed up this eerie state of affairs in two words: Big Brother. The all-powerful master feigning blood kinship with his feckless subjects. 'We.' Always.

Tyranny and freedom are equally nonpartisan." (emphasis added).

ENQUIRY INTO FEDERAL ELECTION? WHAT NEXT?

by Betty Luks
A Parliamentary enquiry into the 2001 Federal Election, with plans to look "at all aspects of the conduct of the Election and any related matters"? I thought – what next?. www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em

Then in my mail came a "Downer Update", from that so-busy, jet-setting, world-problem-solving, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer; not only listing the largesse the Liberals have dispensed (from the people's own moneys of course) to groups within his electorate, but a reply-paid survey looking to identify the four most important issues of concern for the voters. The prepared list did not include controversial issues such as the draconian Anti-Terrorism legislation, the traitorous GATS Treaty, nor the planned International Criminal Court! What next? I wondered.

Could we expect public meetings convened by the politicians whereupon they will announce they await instructions from their electors as to how they will vote on issues in Parliament? Don't hold your breath! Not likely! It might have more to do with their strategy and tactics for the next federal election. After all, they have to keep up the pretence they 'have a mandate' from their electors and the ticks on the ballot papers prove that this is so.

Twenty-five percent of South Australians preferred the minor parties or independents
At the last state elections, twenty-five percent of South Australia's voters gave their first preference to either minor party candidates or independents – and many put the sitting member last on the ballot paper! Methinks the 'numbers game' is of more concern to these self-serving politicians than the interests of the Australian people.

LETTER TO EDITOR

INTRODUCING SOCIAL CREDIT SERIES

This little series is proving of value to those who have set aside the time and made the effort to study at their own pace. Others have joined in home-study fellowships. What the series cannot do for the reader is instil the determination to make the effort; strengthen the resolve to understand the concepts; come to the realization of knowing and understanding the truths. Social Credit is not just 'monetary reform' as too many believe, and it is certainly not a cult based on the writings of C.H. Douglas. It is the resolution of the wholly artificial left/right 'conflict' raging in the world; a conflict deliberately intended to lead on to a world tyranny.

In the introduction, the reader is advised not to "attempt to review individual Social Credit proposals in the light of present-day political, economic and financial orthodoxy, as that is counter-productive. Each theme exists within the framework of an alternative economic theory and social philosophy". A social philosophy, which, if applied, would lead to freedom not to tyranny.

Effort is needed
However, potential students must understand it will take mental effort on their part to grasp, to come to the realization of, the truths of social credit. Philologist, Owen Barfield, in "History in English Words" explained how important was the process of thinking and reasoning whereby "a vague feeling, with much intellectual effort, is turned into clear thought."

In the common words we use every day the souls of past races, the thoughts and feelings of individual men stand around us, not dead, but frozen into their attitudes like the courtiers in the garden of the Sleeping beauty. The more common a word is and the simpler its meaning, the bolder very likely is the original thought which it contains and the more intense the intellectual or poetic effort which went into its making. Thus, the word quality is used by most educated people every day of their lives, yet in order that we should have this simple word Plato had to make the tremendous effort (it is one of the most exhausting which man is called on to exert) of turning a vague feeling into a clear thought.

Financial adviser, Grant Bird, speaking of the plight of the dispossessed farmers, made the observation (CSC Adelaide): They know they have been 'had' (by the banks, the system) but they don't know 'how'.Quite. But neither would they make the effort to understand how the systems are so weighted against them! They were quite content to put their trust in the very groups who sold them out.

"Introducing Social Credit" series:
Part 1: "What is Social Credit?";
Part 2: Economics; Three Allied Activities;
Part 3: Constitutions/Governments/Politics.
Available from all League Book Services. Single copy $6.50 posted within Australia..

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