I'm still learning about the monetary system and ways to fix it, but I'd start by turning back time and separating investing from commercial banking. Then let investors sink or swim on their own merits. That means they don't get bailed out, doesn't give them access to the discount window and they are not permitted to restructure to eliminate 'toxic' debt. To prevent them from getting too big and having such great potential to devastate economies, limit their leverage to something like 20 instead of the 30-50+ that they had done in 2007.

Bob
Not referring to my own personal money. Aware of how much we U.S. citizens pay each year in interest to private banks (i.e. Federal Reserve) on the national debt? This is the "our money" I am talking about. Why should we pay billions of dollars in interest when we (we = all of us, Bob) can just issue the money ourselves. This is the goal of OWS - change our economic paradigm. The goal has been achieved to the extent that more people are becoming aware of what a fundamentally corrupt and dishonest monetary system we have. I will leave you with a quote from Andrew Skurka, which I think sums things up nicely:
"I’ve becoming very pessimistic that humans have the capacity to make the long-term decisions to sustain our well being. The writing is on the wall, yet no one wants to do anything about it — our fate really is an inconvenient truth. The American economy is going to be severely punished by our debt, which will have worldwide repercussions; and the entire human race is going to be punished by what we are doing to the environment. I’m very disappointed in myself for thinking that we are fundamentally incompetent of fixing either problem, but I can’t seem to arrive at a different conclusion. I feel like the previous generation has maxed out my credit card and left me holding the bill, and they’re not apologetic for it. In light of that, I’m focused on doing what makes me happiest and on how I can make real improvements and contributions to my immediate niche, i.e. my family, friends, and local community."

Really, James, you ought to study economics sometime.

Besides, we aren't all U.S. citizens, are we?

--B.G.--

"I’ve becoming very pessimistic that humans have the capacity to make the long-term decisions to sustain our well being..."


Combine an oversized adrenal gland with a delicate frontal lobe, mix in an inextinguishable desire to reproduce (or at least play at it), a penchant for violence, a healthy dose of ethnocentrism...

What do you expect?

James, you sound like more of a Paulite than an OWS demonstrator. Maybe you are involved in the wrong movement. That is absolutely not the goal of OWS. It's the goal of a minority hanging around OWS who seem to confuse the ignorant sheeple lefties and anger the well informed lefties who consider them infiltrators.
Most of the OWS demonstrators are pinkos who want to nationalize banks and give the government more power to ensure our personal economic well being.

I'm with no movements, except the Critical Thinking movement and Pursuit of the Truth movement.

Then why are you here defending ows and making it look like some movement to end the federal reserve when it's clearly not? The ows idea of ending the debt is taxing the rich and corporations to the point of reverse economic growth.

Justin, I do not know where you get your info (CNN?FOX?) about OWS but you are WAY off. I ve been involved with the one in NYC and Boston and I can tell you its not all ant-capitalist, its FULL of libertarians and the main goals are to end government/industry collusion and corruption and all that entails ( end imperialism, end the drug war). The fact that its open and public does mean it attracts fools and mentally ill but they in no way represent the ideas of OWS. Every public gathering attracts vagrants and homeless hippies. Its just part of being open and public. Only the corporate pwned media want to put these people on tv maliciously misrepresenting the movements message. It called propaganda.

I have studied some economics. I don't claim to "know it all." Here are key texts that I have read and that have influenced my thinking:
Piece of Eight - Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the U.S. Constitution by Dr. Edwin Vierra
The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money, The Story of Power by Stephen Zarlinga
Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein

Moyer interview on PBS of authors of "Winner Take All Politics":

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2012/01/14

or review of book at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winner-Take-All_Politics_(book)

According to Bloomberg and other sources:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html

The federal reserve loaned $13 trillion to big banks. The federal reserve just creates the money out of thin air - entry into an account on some computer.

Those banks made a profit of $13 billion off these loans according to Bloomberg estimate, but they said it's impossible to accurately calculate.

The bank executives then got huge bonuses for making huge profits.

This is a good example of how the "one percent" have rigged the game.

I can't believe it, but that walk I mentioned starts in a few short weeks. February 11th. I'm sure this is going to be much more challenging than trying to do the same distance on the PCT. For those that wish to follow along, check out www.occupywalk.org. Even for those of you don't agree with this, I'd still love to walk a bit with a fellow BPL'r if we happen to be in your neck of the woods.

"I can't believe it, but that walk I mentioned starts in a few short weeks. February 11th. I'm sure this is going to be much more challenging than trying to do the same distance on the PCT. For those that wish to follow along, check out www.occupywalk.org. Even for those of you don't agree with this, I'd still love to walk a bit with a fellow BPL'r if we happen to be in your neck of the woods."

You, sir... you're a full-on Patriot in the most modern sense. Thank you

I'll email the Rick guy and see what I do when you hit Hemet and again when you get near Palm Springs.

The Raw Story

Tea Party ‘founder’: Palin, Gingrich a ‘joke’

"A financial blogger and ex-CEO credited with being one of the original “founders” of the Tea Party has come out against the movement, saying it has been hijacked by the very people it was protesting and is now obsessed with “guns, gays and God.”

Karl Denninger:

"The Tea Party was initiated as a political protest against the unlawful and in fact unconstitutional usurpation of power from the Congress and The People in the form of extortion-led bailouts of enterprises that had engaged in acts that I, and many others, believe were at least civilly actionable and in many cases crossed the line into criminal activity.


This indictment is not limited to the nation’s large banks, although it certainly starts there. The corruption of our economic and monetary systems runs the gamut from Fannie and Freddie through their ties to Congress (including literal sexual encounters in some cases), banking interests selling trash securities to everyone from pension funds on down, judges who don’t judge but rather protect monied interests on Wall Street, The Federal Reserve intentionally debasing our currency and monetizing government debt, government spending that is running 40% above revenues and much more.

In short, The Tea Party was and is about the the corruption of American Politics and the blatant and outrageous theft from all Americans that has resulted. It is about personal responsibility and enforcement of the law against those who have robbed, financially ****d and pillaged the nation.

Yet today we hear literally nothing about these issues among the so-called “Tea Party” candidates and their backers. Sarah Palin has not said one word about locking up the banksters that brought up on the housing bubble and economic collapse. Not one word about Bernanke’s out-of-control Fed and the arguably unlawful monetization of Fannie and Freddie paper, not to mention the monetization of the Federal Debt."

He continues:

"“Tea Party my ass. This was nothing other than the Republican Party stealing the anger of a population that was fed up with the Republican Party’s own theft of their tax money at gunpoint to bail out the robbers of Wall Street and fraudulently redirecting it back toward electing the very people who stole all the ****ing money!”

"banking interests selling trash securities to everyone from pension funds on down,"

What puzzles me is that no one seems to have thought of calling them "bankstas". :(

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfpO-WBz_mw