Developing Economic Reforms

13 Comments

1. Corporate personhood benefits without the detriments is what led American companies into their failures, but now they want bail outs they have always been unwilling to give consumers. In fact, the bankruptcy bill that was strengthened to prevent abusers of the system, supposedly, was aimed exactly at this kind of problem they now want taxpayers to fix for them – as abusers.

   It’s obvious they want, and get it both ways.

   American taxpayers don’t.

   Either they are corporate citizens, or not. In claiming to have only responsibilty to make profits for shareholders, they have denied other obligations of citizenship – like saving American jobs or paying taxes.

   It’s obvious they want, and get it both ways.

   Fixing the corporate personhood dilemma is way overdue. When FDR brought America back from the depression, companies were partners, not predators. Now, as predators, they want bail outs!

   America should not be bailing out its predators.
   They found a way around Sarbanes Oxley by having attorneys lie for them rather than lying for themselves. Now, they want bail outs – to reward themselves for their own skilfulness in lying and to affirm their own irresponsibility.

   Maybe it’s time for the corporations to pay the piper – as the American taxpayers have had to do for now 10 years.

2. I suggest that those of us retired or soon to be, possessing skills our children did not inherit, begin by holding our own communities accountable. I would truly like to see a corps of retired book-keepers, lawyers, accountants, math, and business teachers, entrepreneurs, etc. take our local communities to task by performing our own audit of their books. Not for pay, but for civic duty. After all, those records are public… and for the most part are not scrutinized.

   Can’t you just see their faces when a group of us citizens in suits and proper business attire show ourselves at their doorsteps wanting to perform this daunting task for them?

   Change is only going to happen at the root level of our own communities, including DC. “Sign me up” !!!

   I will soon be retiring from ownership of a small media company, and would love nothing better than to help get this ball rolling. My company has been taxed out of existence, and not by the feds, but by an ever increasing tax burden from our… you guessed it!!! state, city and county governments that now pay salaries, retirement, and medical benefits my company has never been able to match. They are free to audit my books… I’ve got news for them. I want to audit theirs. If there is enough of us we can move on the banking industry as well. Maybe we can earn our retirement instead of our children footing the bill.

3. Epochal Transformation Accelerates
   As Global Financial Matrix Disintegrates

   Now that the genie is out of the bottle, worldwide economic, political and social events will proceed with the inexorable force of destiny. The forthcoming changes, shifts and breaks with the past that are delineated below do concern the unsavory business of WHAT, positively, will not be brought into the future. This is of critical importance. Why? Because those who do not know, and understand, and heed history, are always, always forced to repeat it.

   I. As we all sat back and waited for this year’s October Surprise, please know that it came a little bit early this year on September 15th which will forever be known as PITCH BLACK MONDAY. Actually, the entire month of October was set up to be a series of Black Monday’s, as well as every other day of the week shaped up to be. It’s really a good time to brace your self since this year’s election cycle, and beyond, will bring with it a whole new season of surprises. Things like the beginning of the end of FIAT money – the real root cause of all our financial problems and economic ills. This foundational flaw, together with all of the multi-layered financial/economic/accounting mechanisms and schemes that have insidiously crept into the system, are the ‘not talked about’ institutionalized culprits and structural deformities that really need to go. Without them, the perps wouldn’t be so tempted to stack the deck against us all the time.
   The only legitimate currency is that which is backed by GOLD, or some other precious commodity that is universally valued, and issued directly by the US Government, not a privately owned, organized crime syndicate like the FED. Debt driven, fractional-reserve banking – the real bane of global finance – will then be banished from the planet forever, along with the overlords of disaster capitalism, institutionalized usury & loan-sharking (e.g. World Bank & International Monetary Fund), as well as their economic hitmen. Finally, the central organizing principle of modern society, and especially Western Civilization, will no longer be: maximizing shareholders’ wealth.
   The writing is on the wall: THE FED IS DEAD. And so is the Fed’s collection agency – the IRS. The FED has obviously been on extreme life support since September ’08, and the only compassionate response is to let it go peacefully into the sunset. Perhaps we should organize a simple taxpayers’ revolt, not too unlike those that occurred prior to the American Revolution, to bury this beast forever. When the people do wake up, and realize that the Federal Reserve Note that they carry in their pocket is exactly that – a note (i.e. debt, obligation, debit, commitment, instrument of indebtedness), things will start to get REEEEAL interesting !

   II. Another little surprise will come in the form of an announcement that goes something like this: The USA was conceived to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a democracy by plutocracy. Or corpocacy, or oligarchy/synarchy, or crony capitalism or any other ism/cracy/archy they have tried to foist upon US. The founding fathers would be absolutely horrified to see the “mob rule by the privileged elites” into which this once great nation has degenerated. Every political philosopher knows that democracy, when sufficiently dumbed down and unduly influenced by the moneyed ruling class, will always devolve into a despotic tyranny. Therefore, the wholesale exportation of our fraudulent notion of democracy, and its supposed freedoms (to buy, buy, buy after watching the boob tube hucksters), by the political and corporate classes must be reconsidered. And it will be soon, on a new channel during this “Fall” season’s new lineup! Stay tuned —
   The recent presidential election, incidentally, is perhaps the most flagrant example of how the US constitutional republic has been repeatedly suspended (at the very least, once every 4 years, right?). Just as much as the voting populace has been suspended in the state of perpetual ignorance is bliss for generations. Can you imagine – the winner having raised close to $700 MILLION in campaign contributions – just how many debts the president-select (Demoplican or Republocrat – either way they are still both sides of the same coin. The coin of the realm which excludes We The People.) has incurred?! How, pray tell, do you think these debts will be paid back in light of the trillions that are already owed across the world by the US Treasury, US corporations, US citizens, etc. They won’t be paid, because they can’t be paid. The US Corporation is, and has been, bankrupt for quite some time now. It’s stone cold broke and plum busted. And We The People are thoroughly disgusted. Therefore, this fraudulent corporate entity can now be trotted off the global stage, so that the REAL Constitutional Republic can be resurrected to its proper place in the nation’s governmental and political life.

   III. Another announcement will be made, in the not too distant future, about the business entity commonly known as the CORPORATION – the main huckster of this ‘brand’ of faux democracy. Surely, if the devil were to ever choose the perfect form in which to enter in order to carry out his nefarious designs, Inc. is it. Is there any other entity on earth – person or party, organization or association, government or institution, jurisdiction or bureaucracy, club or group, fraternity or sorority, etc. that can function with such impunity, as it hides behind the shield of LIMITED LIABILITY. Those two words have given complete cover for the flagrant and wanton destruction of planet Earth.
   You name it – oil slicked coastlines, razed rainforests, beaches strewn with dead dolphins and whales. Not to mention the complete erosion of human, civil and national rights, wherever INC decides to set up shop.
   Let’s pick a country. Let’s go to India and visit Bhopal of Union Carbide fame. Close to 8000 people died within two weeks of that December day in 1984 in what is known as the worst industrial disaster of the last century. Now that Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, you can only imagine the veritable phalanx of attorneys who are paid unconscionable fees to ensure proper responsibility and accountability will never be assumed by their master.
   Or let’s visit the Punjab and talk to the thousands of widows of farmers who committed suicide because of Monsanto’s “seedless seeds”. Or go to just about anywhere on that subcontinent where a Walmart is being protested for land theft, encroachment and despoilation. Let’s not forget about all the Coca Cola bottling plants that have become notorious for stealing the most precious commodity that every Indian cherishes and covets – WATER. Well, that takes care of land, water, air … and blood. What else in heaven’s name do these stakeholders want?!
   We all know the deal. It’s the one where the individual, and his/her environment, is always trampled in favor of the corporate interest. Isn’t it time to really take stock of what our current predicament has left us with? Perhaps it’s also time to seriously think about actually re-ordering the ORDER, instead of once again rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Like we’ve said, “optimizing stockholder profit” will soon be history, as the cease and desist orders are not far from being issued to Corporate America. Might as well get a head start on dissolving (or re-chartering) that corporation.

   IV. Termination of Globalization: The dominating and predatory form, that is. No other global initiative has been more unsuccessful at creating a framework for a more efficient transfer of goods and services around the planet. Truly, every aspect of this corporate inspired policy has failed miserably. Wherever it promoters trumpet its stated intention to make markets more streamlined, effective and resilient, it has done quite the opposite.
   One only needs to look at the current debacle within the European Union concerning the banking, credit, and stock market breakdowns. Never has a response from the appropriate governing bodies been more disorganized, full of mixed messages and working at cross purposes with the member states. It’s like watching The Three Stooges (France, Germany & Italy) play musical chairs blindfolded with no clothes on. What an unprecedented spectacle, and in plain view for the entire world to watch! This will undoubtedly put the brakes on the concretizing of a North American Union and their planned currency – the Amero. Praise the Lord!
   As a matter of fact, all of the financial unions and economic superstates (e.g. European Union; Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation; Union of South American Nations) that have been created over the past many years will, by sheer necessity and desperation, be forced to re–organize themselves in the coming months and years. Even South America, which has two distinct camps that are constantly gummin’ up the works for each other, will abandon their current emerging model in favor of one that enjoys complete freedom from its North American taskmaster. To their credit, they have set the bar higher than it has ever been set concerning their strongly stated desire to be free of IMF and World Bank control. Only Russia has exceeded their standards, as they had already been fleeced by the Oligarchs in what may very well be the grandest larceny of national wealth/resources in history. This, of course, was preceded by a 75 year scourge of incessant rape, pillaging and plundering by the Bolsheviks and their Western financiers & handlers. Clearly Mr. Putin will not allow a repeat of any such conduct within his borders, and the international persecution that he has suffered certainly reflects their displeasure and frustration with him. No wonder Vladimir Putin is now considered a “reincarnation” of Peter the Great by his own people.
   The ruinous influence of these two globalization thugs (IMF & WB) can be instantly assessed by looking at the economic calamities they caused in Argentina (1999-2002), as well as in Thailand, South Korea & Indonesia during the 1997 Asian currency crisis. Likewise, every nation in Africa that has chosen to take on their monetary yoke has only misery and war and financial oppression to show for it. Wherever these 2 scrooges show their faces, it’s quite like Ebenezer himself showing up to make a house call. You know the patient will soon find himself in a pine box after all the gold fillings and rings have been removed.
   We have seen this globalization scam unfold in country after country, as a ruse to steal a nation’s resources, always taking from those who have, and giving to those who want it. In fact, an objective assessment of all the world’s current conflicts would reveal that the vast majority are directly the result of this geo-political/commercial dynamic. The privatization of water sources/bodies/supplies/rights is perhaps the most provocative and glaring, and can be found at the root of a number of these resource wars.
   Clearly the verdict has been delivered: Economies are much less vulnerable, the more locally they are positioned and the less centralized their decision-making process. This arrangement affords much greater resiliency when dealing with the vicissitudes of the marketplace. And it takes the power away from those who are insulated in ivory towers, and far from the plight of the common man. It is time for everyone on the planet to “think globally; act locally”.

   V. Stock market will become extinct. There is no greater tool at the disposal of those who can, and do, manipulate the various markets than the charade of “setting up” a formal system of trading, buying and selling of anything, as exemplified by the NYSE. This is where it all happens. From devastating whole national (and regional) economies, to toppling uncooperative corporate execs, to bringing 150 year old multi-billion $$$ companies to their knees within a week’s time. From triggering stockholder revolts, to propping up corporate raiders, to extorting billions from national and/or corporate treasuries. They can, and do, do it all right there on the floor.
   Really, the very best example of what occurs in these speculative market exchanges is the gambling casino. In Vegas, everyone knows that the house ALWAYS wins. It never loses. Even when there is the appearance of losing, it still wins. Go figure, but it’s true. Your stockbroker is not too unlike the blackjack dealer. And your financial planner is often a croupier in disguise. So, the question remains, do you honestly know what your hard earned retirement money is invested in? If not, this is a very good time to find out!!!
   For those of us who have been there, we know that whether you call it an oil bourse, a commodity exchange, or a bond market, you’re still playing in a game that can go against you at any time. Wipe out your earnings in a heartbeat; devour your principal in a flash. It’s often been said that when he comes, “he comes like a thief in the night”. Do you still feel you know where your entire life savings is currently residing?
   The derivatives market represents the single greatest threat to worldwide economic stability and financial security. It poses such great potential for financial abuse and economic devastation that the current institutional arrangements of this commercial realm have become completely unacceptable. The alarming proliferation of hedge funds, as well as the growing number and variety of derivative instruments, has reached a critical mass that is incompatible with living a financially sound life on planet Earth. Simply put, some of these instruments are so far from the street – economic reality – that they put into jeopardy all the hard work, which appears in the form of real goods and services, that is produced by any economy at any given time. This predicament signifies a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to us all.
   Remember – DERIVATIVES are the real megilla. Derivatives, by their very nature, can be highly radioactive, and can go nuclear any time circumstances conspire in just the right, or wrong, way. Those who control their destiny can, likewise, utilize their inherent threat as a means of conducting financial and economic terrorism anytime, anywhere completely under the radar screen. It’s time for them to go. And we trust it’s just a matter of execution at this point.

   VI. Mass Consumerism & Perpetual Economic Growth – the Fric & Frac of our Age – are history. One need not look any further than the inside of one’s own home to see the ravages of these adopted twins. They own the bedroom, the living room, the family room and all the closets. They’ve taken over the kitchen, the den and the garage, as well. Since their middle names are Amass and Accumulate, we can only imagine what might lay hidden in the attic, the basement and the shed.
   Ever since they became the twin pillars of Kali Yuga’s overarching philosophy of life, things started to really go to hell in a handbasket … or rather gilded cage. How so? What else could one expect from a political economy that demands growth, necessitates growth and extols the virtues of growth at every turn (and on every other commercial and newscast). Growth, at the expense of WHAT!! We’ll tell you what – Life!
   One of the most tragic parts of this ever-unfolding tragedy has been the dramatic change in the spirit of the people with whom these twins associate. The very society loses its refinement, as the culture becomes debased. Aren’t so many things associated with Americana experienced as coarse, and crude, and crass? Likewise, the nation, which was once known as the “land of the free; home of the brave”, morphs into a country reviled for its unkindness, lack of compassion and cruelty. Before anyone realizes, the citizenry is easily being herded, and then stampeded, into wars and conflict of every sort and kind.
   What else could be expected when the meme of consumerism is subliminally implanted at such a young and tender age, and relentlessly reinforced from cradle to grave? And, what does it really say about a society when all who belong to it are known as consumers. Kind of like little pac-men (and pac-women) gobbling up everything in sight. Starts out with BIG Macs and 24 oz cokes, then super-sized HUMMERS, then oil fields and gold mines and precious rainforests, and then whole countries.
   Likewise, in the corporate realm, any board director, company officer, division president, regional director, department manager, production supervisor, etc. will candidly speak to the greatest pressure in their lives. More income, more sales, more profit, more production, more revenue – anything that will show an increase in year over year growth. Always gotta GROW, even though yuv been out of puberty for 20 or 30 years!?
   Well, you can imagine that this state of affairs can only go on for so long. As a matter of fact, this party’s now over. And the hangover is about to begin. Perhaps it’s time to send these twins on a permanent vacation to the waterless region.

   VII. War, as a means of wealth creation, is now bankrupt. War, as a means of conflict resolution, is over. As a means to any end whatsoever, war is finished. You get the picture, don’t you? War has outlived its usefulness, and has become as obsolete as the derivatives hawker. There is simply no more place for it in civil society. It’s time for the curtain to fall on this show for the last time, and for all of its bad actors to hit the stage exit.
   It never was a legitimate policy for conflict resolution, as we know. Virtually all conflicts and wars were manufactured in the boardrooms of the world. And impeccably stage managed by the directors of the war studios. Isn’t the Iraq war a perfect example of this kind of terrible and awful-to-watch “B” movie?
   Any deliberate, probing and unprejudiced analysis of all the major wars going back to the French Revolution will reveal an extraordinary degree of carefully calculated and coordinated events leading up to the actual conflagrations we call war. Just read the actual history that is only now beginning to surface, and you will reach this very same conclusion.
   War has consistently served its masters in three ways which no longer have relevance in an enlightened civilization: (i) population control (ii) artificial creation of wealth for the plutocracy (iii) imposition of a tyrannical order in the wake of the chaos that always results from war. Population control in this context has different meanings. The number of people who are systematically genocided, wantonly annihilated and deliberately infected with disease agents serve the purpose of population reduction. Then there is the sheer terror of war and its effects on whole populations (see how easily controlled both the Germans and Japanese were after WWII). “Order out of chaos” is made easy when all concerned parties have been faced with the extraordinary distraction, mayhem and pandemonium that war always brings.
   There are, of course, many other declared wars whose battlegrounds are far from the traditional battlefields of armed conflict. The WAR on Drugs. The WAR on Poverty. The WAR on Crime. The WAR on AIDS. Just like the WAR on TERROR, all of these so called wars are entirely bogus and fabricated, as they all have consistently produced outcomes that are completely contrary to their stated purposes. How so? Because each of them has been designed, and engineered, to perpetuate and expand the status quo. The War on Drugs, for instance, was designed in part to ensure that the opium (and all of its profitable derivatives) flows freely and efficiently from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the targeted markets in America and elsewhere. In this way, all clandestine US and foreign intelligence agencies/secrets services are able to fund their innumerable black operations without any congressional oversight or public scrutiny from the massive revenues generated that this perfectly controlled black market provides. Oh, yes, did we forget to mention that most of these black ops are actually wars as well. What a Racket?! As Major General Smedley Butler once proclaimed to the world in his book: “WAR IS A RACKET.”
   May the shadow governments of the warmongering and real Axis of Evil – the USA, the UK and Israel – truly imbibe the message contained in this ongoing proclamation: WAR is no longer an option. For each of these nations is facing an economic armegeddon of staggering and unprecedented proportions. When confronted with such an incapacitating monetary meltdown, the impulse (and subsequent orchestrated plan), historically, has been to provoke wars through false flag attacks/operations. This knee-jerk, and carefully calculated, reaction will no longer work. The consequential global financial apocalypse this time around will simply be too demanding and debilitating, especially for those who would attempt to plunge the planet into a WWIII scenario.
   The 4th Reich has completely run its course. This last covert phase of the “Holy Roman Empire” is finally over. And it’s now imperative that Her controllers in ‘Rome’ get over it. Let us once again proclaim, here and now, that: WAR HAS COME TO AN END.

   VIII. There is a very profound and significant connection between the US Government sponsored and staged terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and the PRE-PLANNED Financial & Economic 9/11 of 2008 that may be difficult for many to fully embrace. But here it goes:
   The OMEN that 911 truly was, looks a little bit like THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
   Remember the Twin Towers? When they came down in NYC, it was a message to humankind that the reign of the Almighty Dollar was coming to an end. As a nation’s currency goes, so goes its destiny. Her financial strength and economic prowess were on the wane, and soon to be greatly diminished. Just as the WTC (financial capital of the world) was pulverized into dust, the US Dollar would be swept into the ash heap of history. Just as we see it collapsing all around us, exactly 7 years after the original 911 apocalyptic events.
   When the Ring of Power was finally destroyed, like the Pentagon (ring-shaped command center of the military-industrial complex) was mortally wounded and damaged, the message was equally clear. Her military might and superior force would be reduced to rubble in the twinkling of an eye. She would, likewise, soon see the demise of Her all-pervasive state sponsored terrorism. This, because She had lost all moral ascendancy. Besides, the empire could no longer be sustained politically, financially, practically or ethically, as the seeds of its own destruction had fully sprouted. The most fatal seed grew into that extremely corrupt and predatory form of corporate, crony capitalism which was so socially unconscious, and so environmentally unaware, it was quite doomed from the very beginning.

   The GOOD NEWS is that this nation – its people – will now be compelled to beat their “swords into plowshares” and their “spears into pruning hooks”.
   Just as the Phoenix rose from its ashes, so too will America ascend to even greater heights. As long as She ascends with the guidance of the highest of ideals, loftiest of principles and noblest of intentions. And She reforms, and transforms Herself, in good faith, in earnest and with haste.
   As a modern day prophet said in the days immediately following September 11, 2001:
   “America, Wake up ! ! ! Seize this God-given opportunity. There is no more time to dally in fear and ignorance and greed. For yours is a destiny that must serve as a beacon of Light and Hope and Peace to the world. Make haste, the time is drawing nigh!”

   T. Anthony Michael
   11/12/08

   Publication, posting and printing of this article is expressly authorized.

4. In reference to #16 and nonviolent drug users, in my community the drug of choice is no longer crack/cocaine. It is now crystal meth. This is domestically produced, not imported, so I don’t see how multinational corporations can capitalize. However, I do see the effects that drugs have in destroying the family-centered and culture of a community. The rise in nonviolent crimes is still not desirable in terms of burgleries and such. This is what is now a problem in our local and state jail system.

5. We need to legalize so-called drugs to stop hundreds of billions from flowing through the hands of criminals every year. Money buys influence.

   We need more localized and diversified economies so that more accountability is built into our everyday decisions and production methods, and externalities are lessened. Everything that a community uses, from an individual level, needs to be looked at in terms of alternative sources and means of production and whether or not they can be done locally. Locally grown hemp instead of Egyptian child-labour cotton. Local honey instead of Cuban sugar. Local firewood instead of natural gas from 300 miles away. And so on. Perhaps taxes on anything procured from outside a community, on a sliding scale based on how far away it’s from and the labour and environmental practices involved. The proceeds of the tax could be used to fund local slternatives.

   We need to take back honesty and clarity in our lives. I remember reading a centuries old inscription that read something like, “May God protect us from famine, war, and lies”. It struck me how “lies” was included in such a dire list. Today we accept being lied to as a persistent part of our daily lives. So I think advertising that is not permission-based, must be banned. It is mental abuse. We are not immune to it’s toxins any more than we are immune to physical toxins. It’s strange to me that we appreciate the value of parks and greenery and yet allow ads throughout our public spaces.

   We need legal limits on the movement of goods and in particular, the investment of money. As long as people can buy things made anywhere, and invest money in business almost anywhere in the world, then we’ll have a system with virtually no accountability, no humanity, many externailities, and little rule of law. People don’t want to be “the only one” doing what they believe is right. Someone defended shopping at Walmart to me by saying “I look out for me because nobody else will.” Countless people who fight for her came to mind, but anyways. People might support laws because they could affect the whole of society rather than just a few sacrificing individuals. And the whole of society could then benefit, rather than a few paying for everyone else.

   The only thing globalization is good at is taking power and concentrating it into a few hands. Everything else suffers. We’re pitched a simple straightforward example of allocative efficiency. But what we get is something very different. Sure it makes sense for Brazil to grow the coffee and Canada to make the steel. But this example leaves out the defrauding of investors, and the gouging of ‘consumers’ through layers of monopolies and oligopolies. It leaves out the working conditions, the pollution, the errosion of law, and so on. When I can invest in a mine in China with a few keyboard strokes from here in Canada, I don’t have to think about the workers, or the townsfolk. I couldn’t even tell you what the workers make at Silvercorp Metals mines. I couldn’t tell you who if anyone is affected by the water that leaves the mine, or how. If it were a local business I invested in, I’d presumably know some of the people who worked there. I’d likely have to face some of the pollution personally. Makes it a lot easier to care. So I think investment needs to be scaled back over time until people and organizations (corporate, gov’t etc) can only lawfully invest locally, with few exceptions.

   Corporate personhood must be revoked and a corporation needs to be understood in law, as a collection of people responsible for all of their actions. There is no corporation taking actions. Just people. People who can be sued. People who can be charged with crimes.

   bah, I’ve written too much again.

6. TEN-POINT PROGRAM FOR SYSTEMIC ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

   1. Nonviolent secession of North American bioregions from the American empire, breaking the power of its criminal federal government that has seceded from the American people, and is actively violating human and natural rights throughout the planet.

   2. Consensus-based constitutional conventions devolved to the bioregional level, rewriting the constitution to reflect a directly democratic, bioregionally-based confederation, with a central coordinating function for common defense and some trade, and including economic and cultural, as well political rights. Such direct democracy could be assisted by the right use of publicly-owned and operated media and electronic communications technologies, rather than their current use as illegitimately privatized monopolies taking away these rights.

   3. Transformation of the present corporate-controlled capitalist economy to one based on human and natural rights rather than profit, cooperation rather than competition, abundance rather than scarcity and the principle that that which gives value should receive value. This includes a) respect for the commons as belonging to all life and the source of all wealth belonging equally to all, b) worker-owned and -managed workplaces, as well as c) locally-originated and ordered monetary systems reflecting the particular needs of each bioregion.

   4. Abolition of corporate personhood and the corporate charters of all corporations that have engaged in capital offenses.

   5. Abolition of the Federal Reserve, the Internal Revenue Service, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and all of their related organizations and subsidiaries as illegitimate institutions secretly and criminally manipulating global financial systems and resources for the benefit of the few to the detriment of all life on earth.

   6. Reversal of all inappropriate privatization of public functions and resources rightfully belonging to the commons.

   7. Institution of taxation based on public land, energy and natural resource usage rather than personal income, property and consumption.

   8. Government financial accounting systems based on emphasis and open discussion of comprehensive annual financial reports reflecting actual government income — rather than budgets designed to conceal actual government income used or invested for the benefit of the few — with all government surpluses being given back to the people or used for public benefit.

   9. Institution of a Guaranteed Annual Income covering the fundamental human rights of access to potable water, food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, legal counsel and public transportation, releasing the time and energy of the human race to engage in public-spirited creative activity rather than in seeking mere personal survival.

   10. The declassification of non-polluting, no-cost zero-point energy and its technologies from being top-secret militarized assets to being public assets freely available to all, without government control or harassment, for the betterment of all life on earth.

7. Vigorously prosecute liars and deceivers and cheaters and thieves within
   corporations, banks, other financial institutions, and government agencies.
   Sentence them to live with pigs in troughs for 15 years or so and show video
   of the day-to-day goings on, on a well-publicized site.

8. I would require as a condition to most federal and state contracts that the contractors:
   (1) be required to be formed in the US and pay US taxes
   (2) get very significant extra credit in the awarding process for supporting the employment of US citizens and legal residents
   (3) be required to support energy conservation and green policies, or get extra credit in the award process for doing so
   (4) have limits on executive pay (e.g., maybe only 50 times the average worker salary) and stock options

   I would get the federal government out of the business of exercising state powers, e.g., in laws dealing with usury and many criminal offenses (e.g., hate crimes, murder), abortion, marriage, etc.

   In general, I would restore civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution, particularly rights to be free from intrusion of the government in private affairs, and require that all publicly-funded high schools and grade schools spend serious time in teaching civics, Constitutional issues and community responsibility. I would dismantle the spy programs for collecting private data on Americans and greatly limit what databases US government contractors can keep.

   I would encourage states to revoke the corporate charters of corporations that are not good citizens and I would severely limit the circumstances under which corporations enjoy rights of personhood. Death penalty to corporate murderers and thieves.

   I would change SEC disclosure requirements for public companies so that they quantify the damage they do to the enviroment, health, employment and other sectors of the economy and society so that we can tax them for the costs the taxpayers have to bear to clean up after them and stop subsidizing anti-environmental and community-damaging behavior.

   I would have the US government make low-interest student loans directly (and not through financial institutions) and limit how much of college endowments can accumulated in a tax-advantaged manner if they do not pass through significant benefits in the form of lower tuition to students.

   I would divert enforcement personel at DOJ and other enforcement agencies from war on drugs and war on terror to interagency task forces charged with getting back the taxpayers’ money from corporatist (particularly Wall Street) thieves and market manipulators. Get back the “unaccounted for” adjustments against Treasury at HUD and DOD/Pentagon.

   I would impose regulations under the Bail-Out legislation (1) restricting executive pay, bonuses and golden parachutes at any corporation receiving benefits, (2) requiring banks to use bail-out money for loans to worthy individuals and businesses instead of to acquire smaller banks, (3) eliminating tax benefits that encourage small bank take-overs, (4) allocating significant funding for purposes that promote creation or safeguard jobs, including “green” energy and environmentally friendly projects and public works projects for the restoration of infrastructure and (5) funding and supporting trickle-up measures to reduce the number of home foreclosures and the number of foreclosed families who lose their housing, including measures that would make mortgage holder “rescues” contingent upon renegotiation of predatory loan terms, imposition of fixed rates of interest and credit towards loan principal in the amount of excessive and predatory fees paid by the borrowers for their loans.

   I would impose a tax on companies to the extent they employ offshore employees rather than US citizens/legal residents and provide deep tax incentives for worker training and re-training programs.

   I would impose an alternative minimum tax on corporations so that there is no such thing as a multibillion-dollar corporation that pays multimillion-dollar benefits to senior executives and pay no federal taxes.

9. Catherine,

   I am listening to you on Coast to Coast on Nov 4th. Honestly, I would love to see Obama listen to you and bring you into his circle of advisers somehow. May be that is pushing it, since I know he owes a lot to the powers that backed him, but I also know that is a good man and has a genuine heart to want to help the people.

   I am bringing this desire in to my meditation time. I hope that is okay with you! I have started doing Heart Rhythm Meditation (actually originally first taught by an Apostle!). I have been able to bring myself back into a place of gaining energy and being stronger then my 94 yr old mom’s energy drain, so I am inspired now. The science of the heart through Heartmath has shown how the heart is strongest energetic oscillator in the body and there are more connections between the heart and brain then visa versa. Whatever else Obama may or may not be, he is man that has a strong heart.

   I have learned a lot recently how life is just not black and white and people aren’t either. We don’t know everything and we can’t see everything. Quoting a friend: It’s the heart that creates harmony, even between predator and prey.

   Back in 2004, there was man who was as far as I was far left. We worked together, and major battles about the Iraqi etc. To make a long story short, we grew to be like brother and sister. Because there was a deeper truth that we found. He died a few years later and we had a tremendous spiritual bond. I learned that I could love someone who held opposite views and that understanding him and why could take us deeper than the differences.

   I feel it is this kind of “beingness” that can change enemies into friends. I feel it is this kind of energy that we need more of and I feel that it is this kind of energy that has a power to work in ways that the mind of men/women can’t. It is this energy that I saw for a short time on Nov 4th. It was electric, and even if it doesn’t last, something happened as Americans came together. I will pray for Obama, that he follow is heart. It will be tough in his shoes, but I feel better trusting his heart and trusting my heart. The heart is now being brought into business more and more. Doesn’t mean we become stupid or uninformed.

   Catherine has the heart, experience and intelligence to help us through these times.

10. Could you give an example or two of #11 debt swaps

11. I have two suggestions — the first is my “20 tasks now that the election is over” — which focuses on individual actions, http://www.bobwaldrop.net/?p=91 . These tasks are within the ability of most people, and don’t depend upon government action. If somehow as a miracle, the government were to “get a clue” and decide to do something actually useful, I think the place to start is this http://www.denninger.net/letters/genesis.pdf plan which gets at the systemic risks and deals with the big issue of transparency and accurate market knowledge, which I think is at the root of the credit problems.

12. That is the right question. If sufficient Americans would decentralize our household deposits, purchases, donations, investments and other cash flows, we could begin to create political leverage in Congress and organize to shift the center of gravity to regional and smaller banks. This would give us an economic foundation to organize greater local economic self sufficiency and from that platform we could begin to litigate a series of key issues…keep going we could work our way to abolishing the Fed. It would require regular organization and action that would sequence and build toward it. It is possible.

13. Let’s start with your first suggestion:

    1. Return the issuance of currency to the US Treasury and create an alternative depository function rather than using the NY Fed

    It’s a fine idea, but they won’t give this up without a fight. Given that the NY Fed and friends own all the key political figures in Washington (that means Obama AND McCain, Pelosi, Paulson … pretty much everybody), how can this fight be won?

    — JB

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