WisconsinRepublic.org
"The blessings of a free government can only be maintained by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."
-Article 1 Section 22, Wisconsin Constitution.
-Article 1 Section 22, Wisconsin Constitution.
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Part Three: Economic Meltdown
What is money? Throughout history people have used many different things as money: seashells, feathers, stones, metal coins, little sheets of paper and plastic cards. The origin of money is from the marketplace. Long ago in a barter economy, people traded the things that they produced for other things that they needed. People began collecting items that helped them facilitate transactions and store value. The use of durable, compact items like gold or silver coins as money allowed fishermen, for example, to receive payment for their fish in coin. They could then use the coin to purchase shoes or bread without having to trade fish. Society developed as people were able to store the value of their labor and have capital for larger projects. Money is the most marketable commodity.
What is money? Throughout history people have used many different things as money: seashells, feathers, stones, metal coins, little sheets of paper and plastic cards. The origin of money is from the marketplace. Long ago in a barter economy, people traded the things that they produced for other things that they needed. People began collecting items that helped them facilitate transactions and store value. The use of durable, compact items like gold or silver coins as money allowed fishermen, for example, to receive payment for their fish in coin. They could then use the coin to purchase shoes or bread without having to trade fish. Society developed as people were able to store the value of their labor and have capital for larger projects. Money is the most marketable commodity.
This system showed remarkable price stability as the price of gold and the dollar's purchasing power remained relatively unchanged from the founding of our country in the late 1700's until 1913 when the Federal Reserve took over control of the nations money. Gold hovered around $20 an ounce for about 130 years, showing an uptick around the civil war when we temporarily removed gold and silver backing to pay for military expenditures though inflation.
Now take what we call a dollar bill out of your wallet and compare it to what our money used to be. You will notice some interesting differences. The first is that it is not a certificate. It is a Federal Reserve Note (FRN). There is no clause about any amount of money being deposited in the treasury, and there is nothing payable to the bearer upon demand. A FRN is a piece of paper that signifies a debt owed by the federal government to the federal reserve system. This debt paper has been declared "legal tender" by executive fiat of the government, hence the reference to FRNs as "fiat money."
Now take what we call a dollar bill out of your wallet and compare it to what our money used to be. You will notice some interesting differences. The first is that it is not a certificate. It is a Federal Reserve Note (FRN). There is no clause about any amount of money being deposited in the treasury, and there is nothing payable to the bearer upon demand. A FRN is a piece of paper that signifies a debt owed by the federal government to the federal reserve system. This debt paper has been declared "legal tender" by executive fiat of the government, hence the reference to FRNs as "fiat money."
So what is this Federal Reserve System that has destroyed the value of our dollar and replaced our money with unbacked FRNs? For a more detailed analysis please check out the resource page. In brief, the Federal Reserve is a group of private corporations that have formed a banking cartel. They masquerade as a government agency but they are not. They are answerable to their shareholders and hence have a vested interest in continuing to loan greater and greater amounts of money to the US Government. Why would government participate in such a fraud of the people when they could create their own debt free money? The main reason is that this system allows them to spend money without having to directly tax the people. They create treasury bills and give them to the Fed and the Fed gives them the FRNs. This way they can come up with an extra trillion dollars to fight the war in Iraq without having to add an Iraq tax to everyone's paycheck.
This system allows politicians to create lots of programs to please the people and help them get reelected without having to raise taxes to pay for the programs. But the people pay for it none the less. The extra dollars they print up increases the supply of money in the system. More dollars chasing the same amount of goods means the dollars you hold now have lower purchasing power. This is inflation, the hidden tax. The purchasing power of your dollars was taken from you by this stealth mechanism to maintain and expand the empire and to line the pockets of the insiders who control the system. They are able to get away with it because the loss is slow and most people don't realize it.
Some may argue that inflation does not matter because wages will keep up with inflation. However this is not the case. While wages do increase, they do not increase proportionally. On average it now takes two people working full time to achieve the same lifestyle that one person working full time could accomplish only a few decades ago. However the real issue is not with wages. It is with savings. Inflation eats away at savings and siphons off the wealth of the nation.
This system allows politicians to create lots of programs to please the people and help them get reelected without having to raise taxes to pay for the programs. But the people pay for it none the less. The extra dollars they print up increases the supply of money in the system. More dollars chasing the same amount of goods means the dollars you hold now have lower purchasing power. This is inflation, the hidden tax. The purchasing power of your dollars was taken from you by this stealth mechanism to maintain and expand the empire and to line the pockets of the insiders who control the system. They are able to get away with it because the loss is slow and most people don't realize it.
Some may argue that inflation does not matter because wages will keep up with inflation. However this is not the case. While wages do increase, they do not increase proportionally. On average it now takes two people working full time to achieve the same lifestyle that one person working full time could accomplish only a few decades ago. However the real issue is not with wages. It is with savings. Inflation eats away at savings and siphons off the wealth of the nation.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
As if this amount of money was not bad enough, the Federal Reserve System has been spending money far more quickly than the government. This has been done largely out of the eye of public scrutiny. With the Fed's money added in the total was at $12.8 Trillion as of April 1, 2009. A partial audit of the fed that was completed as part of the Dodd-Frank ammendment showed that the fed provided $16 trillion in secret assistance, often to foreign banks and corporations. They even handed out hundreds of millions to their personal friends and spouses. So we will have to make the red circle above over three times bigger...and where is the money going? Is it going to help the American people? No. It is going to private banks and companies! OPEN ROBBERY! If you are not convinced, realize that if what they are telling us is true and the problem is sub-prime mortgages and a lack of credit flowing to the people, they could have paid off everyone in Americas mortgage with this amount of money. It's the people's money after all. But the people do not see a dime.
To put the icing on the cake, the total US debt including unfunded liabilities such as social security and medicare has now reached $63.8 trillion, up from $53 Trillion earlier last year. This is approximately $700,000 per family of four in the US. The number grows larger by the hour. Just refer to the debt clock running on the top of the main page. The implications of this are staggering. We face the collapse of the dollar as well as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid...this system is clearly unsustainable.
Things did not have to be this way. The founding fathers of this nation knew about runaway inflation through their experience with the continental dollar. They also knew about central bankers and wrote the following to prevent precisely what we are experiencing now.
To put the icing on the cake, the total US debt including unfunded liabilities such as social security and medicare has now reached $63.8 trillion, up from $53 Trillion earlier last year. This is approximately $700,000 per family of four in the US. The number grows larger by the hour. Just refer to the debt clock running on the top of the main page. The implications of this are staggering. We face the collapse of the dollar as well as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid...this system is clearly unsustainable.
Things did not have to be this way. The founding fathers of this nation knew about runaway inflation through their experience with the continental dollar. They also knew about central bankers and wrote the following to prevent precisely what we are experiencing now.
"No State shall... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts".
-Article I, Section 10 The United States Constitution
-Article I, Section 10 The United States Constitution
An independent Wisconsin Republic could provide its own currency for its citizens and allow market currency to develop outside of governmental control. This system would have commodity backing, limiting the political corruption that plagues the current monetary order. With Wisconsin citizens in control of their own money, everyone's prosperity would not be threatened by the whims of bureaucrats a thousand miles away. Wisconsin would become known for its economic stability and prosperity.
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Secession, Secession, Secession, Secession, Secession, Secession, Secession, Secession! Wisconsin, Wisconsin!
The Case for Wisconsin Sovereignty:
This is where dollars came from. There were thousands of different banks that each issued their own receipts. People could not take their receipts from one bank and get their money out at another bank. To solve this problem the US Treasury issued certificates that were redeemable in gold and silver. These certificates could be redeemed at any bank for the depositors money and the banks could get their money from the treasury. Here are examples of gold and silver backed US certificates from the 1920's:
Now, the information in the above section is bad. But it is unfortunately mildly bad compared to what has transpired during the recent economic crisis. The talking heads on television are now telling us that the worst is over and we will pull out of the recession soon and be on our way to neverending prosperity.
Unfortunately the more likely scenario is that the Greater Depression is just getting started. The federal government is spending unheard of amounts of money. Between TARP funds and other bailout programs the government had already spent over $4 trillion dollars on the bailouts by the end of 2008.
Unfortunately the more likely scenario is that the Greater Depression is just getting started. The federal government is spending unheard of amounts of money. Between TARP funds and other bailout programs the government had already spent over $4 trillion dollars on the bailouts by the end of 2008.
-Thomas Jefferson
There is no longer any physical backing behind what we now refer to as money. Essentially what has happened is the largest robbery in all of history. The wealth of the nation, its gold and silver money, was confiscated by the fed and the people are left holding a bunch of IOUs. The truth is even worse than that. The IOUs are blank! They are not even IOUs! Look what has happened to the purchasing power of the dollar since the Federal Reserve took control of the nations money in 1913. When you see this graph it is easier to understand why gold costs over $1400 per ounce when it only cost $20/ounce 90 years ago. The dollar is worth less than $.03 of the dollar in 1913! A 97% loss of value!
For most of human history gold and silver or other market items have been considered money. Banking developed as a way for people to safely store their precious commodities. See examples to the left of the gold and silver money that was used in this country less than a hundred years ago.
People could freely purchase goods and services with these coins. Or they could keep them on deposit at a bank. The banks would issue receipts for the materials/metals they were holding and customers of the bank could return with the bank notes and get their money back whenever they wanted.
People could freely purchase goods and services with these coins. Or they could keep them on deposit at a bank. The banks would issue receipts for the materials/metals they were holding and customers of the bank could return with the bank notes and get their money back whenever they wanted.