Follow the Money

bw asks a good question

On the conspiracy thing - would you consider the "money situation", about which you are quite obviously knowledgable, a conspiracy?

"A" conspiracy? No. But there are many smaller conspiracies within it.

One could argue, for example, that the Creature from Jekyll Island was formed by a conspiracy. It's simply a fact of history that certain bankers met in 1910 on a small private island off the coast of Georgia and plotted out the Federal Reserve, that the bank was pushed thru a Congress that was not fully informed of its implications, and that the American public, if it had truly understood those implications, would never have supported it.

One could also argue that the modifications to government jobs numbers, GDP, and inflation figures are a conspiracy. Someone or sometwo had to think them up, promote them, implement them, and they worked in secret to do so. Perhaps they understood the implications (which was why they were doing it) and perhaps others went along because it was in their interest to do so. Most people don't realize that just by living in their houses they contribute to GDP - they are counted as having rented their houses from themselves - and such a unique accounting is done mostly for the purpose of making our economic numbers look better and therefore helping politicians get re-elected.

One could also argue that currency and gold markets are, if not controlled, at least influenced by conspiracy. When governments buy and sell currency and metals to affect exchange rates or perceptions, they are acting secretly in a way that certainly affects the fortunes of others in the markets, and since they are the biggest players they effectively control the market while at the same time making plenty of free-market noises. The Working Group on Financial Markets (a.k.a. the "Plunge Protection Team) is a team of government employees who are designated to prevent market crashes. By intruding in the market, they enrich some at the expense of others. They do not report their activities to the public.

The groups and individuals who carry out the above act secretly, but for the most part they do not act unlawfully. They act in their own interest, but they do so using (or abusing) lawful power. So are they conspiracies? Sure, let's assume they are.

Now, are they part of the same conspiracy? There may very well be individuals who understand the implications of all of the above (I am not among them) and who act in concert with what they expect those conspiracies will do -- and I have no doubt certain well-heeled individuals or companies receive advance notice before they do it. There are certainly companies - especially money center banks - that profit immensely from the financial shenanigans of the above three. But I do not believe they are part of one grand, clean conspiracy to enslave Americans. I do not believe that there is a multi-generational, transnational, Rothschild-driven plan to undermine baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet, or to turn America into a modern-day medieval duchy.

People in government act in their own interest (rationally) even if to do such a thing is immoral. So when people look at those things and see that they are all taking one direction - that of turning America into a modern-day medieval duchy - they understandably assume that it is part of one grand plan.

"They all have the same effect, that of enslaving people," is the accusation. The question one has to ask, however, is whether enslaving people is the goal, or whether it is simply a consequence of acting rationally but immorally in the short term. For example, if I rob you, am I trying to take your money or am I trying to make you poor? If I want to make you poor, taking your money is a good way to accomplish that, and one could plausibly argue that I'm trying to make you poor when I rob your house. But in reality, as soon you as another. The thief generally does not have it in for you personally, he just wants some money. It's very easy to create fancilful scenarios to illustrate grand conspiracies, but reality tends to be more mundane than that. They just want some money.

So are there conspiracies involved in the money situation? Absolutely. A few are illegal, most are immoral. But are they all part of one? Speaking just for me, I don't think people are smart enough to organize such a thing.