DID YOU KNOW

LAWYERS ADVICE NO CHARGE

(UNITED STATES)

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday.
Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday.

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company. Maybe we should all take some of his advice!

1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.

2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.

3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed onyour checks (DUH!). You can add it if it is necessary but, if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had inyour wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name,address, Social Security number, credit cards, etc..

Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have first-hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know.

5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll-free numbers and your card numbers handy soyou know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc. Were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an nvestigation (if there ever is one).

But here’s what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.).

7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company thatchecks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks nitiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in).It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc, has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

3.) Trans Union : 1- 800-680-7289

4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything.

If you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone.

It never hurts to be reminded of these!
This is for you, and for you to share with everyone you know…

1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do: The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!

2. Learned this from a tourist guide in New Orleans. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you….chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won’t see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.

4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc. DON’T DO THIS!) The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.
a. If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF! Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it. As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.

5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
A.) Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat.
B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
C.) Look at the car parked on the driver’s side of your vehicle, and the passenger side. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out.

IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)

6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. (Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!)

7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; And even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably ! in a zig -zag pattern!

8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP. It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked “for help” into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim.

************* Here it is *******

9. Another Safety Point: Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird. The police told her “Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.”

The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, “We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.” He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby’s cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby. his is easy as playing pokies games through free online pokies games website where you can learn about how pokies games work. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby’s cries outside their doors when they’re home alone at night.

Please pass this on and DO NOT open the door for a crying baby —-This e-mail should probably be taken seriously because the Crying Baby theory was mentioned on America’s Most Wanted this past Saturday when they profiled the serial killer in Louisiana.

I’d like you to forward this to all the women you know. It may save a life. A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle. I was going to send this to the ladies only, but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc., you may want to pass it onto them, as well.

Send this to any woman you know that may need to be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in it and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

IN THE USA

Millions of U.S. workers joined unions in the 30s and 40s through strikes, rallies and marches. That is why the United Nations recognized the right to organize a union as a human right in 1948

BUT. . .

40 million people want to form unions, but cannot, because companies *fire activists *close plants *threaten employees * and worse

The National Labor Relations Board, which was formed to help workers form unions, now helps bosses fight us.

FACTS ABOUT THE 1500’S

The next time you’re washing your hands and complain about the water temperature isn’t just how you like, look about how things used to be.

Here are some…..

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell o brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

* * * * * *

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the old saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

* * * * * *

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

* * * * * *

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

* * * * * *

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “dirt poor.”

* * * * * *

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet,so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying, a “thresh hold.”

* * * * * *
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been

there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, ” Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

* * * * * *

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man “could bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

* * * * * *

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

* * * * * *

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or “upper crust.”

* * * * * *

Lead cups were used to drinking whisky. That combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a “wake.”
* * * * * *

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a “bone-house” and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the “graveyard shift”) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be “saved by the bell”, or maybe considered a “dead ringer.”

* * * * * *
And that’s the truth…

Now , whoever said that History was boring ! ! ! ! !

Educate someone…… Share these facts with a friend

That Tobacco was brought to Spain for the first time in 1555.

Christopher Columbus was christened Cristofro Colombo and that he was not the first to discover The Americas? Also that Columbus’s arrival marked the beginning of one of the cruelest episodes in Human history. That under Columbus and other Spanish adventures,as well as later European colonizers, an era of genocide was opened that ravaged the native American population through warfare, forced labor,draconian punishments and European disease to which the Indians had no natural immunities.

The Pyramids in Egypt contain enough stone and mortar to construct a wall 10 feet high and 5 feet wide running from New York City to Los Angeles.

There are over 100 different types of Arthritis.

In the city of Washington, D.C., no buiding may be built taller than the Capitol.

Americans spend more than $125 billion a year on sneakers. One hundred million pairs were sold in 1975.

There are more people in New York City, than there are in the states of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, North Dakota, Delaware, and New Mexico combined.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, more Italians than in Rome, and more Jews than in Tel Aviv in New York City.

New York City has the Largest Black population of any city in The United States. It is followed by Chicago and Philadelphia.

That there are ten million bricks in The Empire State Building.

Patato chips were invented by a Black chef in Louisiana in 1865.

Milk is heavier than cream.

Americans spend $600 million a year on hot dogs. They consume enouth of them each year to form a chain stretching from Earth to the Moon.

The Black Plague destroyed half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century.

The mortality rate for infectious diseases is lowest between the ages of 5 and 15. After 25 the body is much more susceptible to disease.

The primary source of physical discomfort among Americans is back pain.

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year.

More than 71 million gallons of water pass over Victoria Falls in Africa every minute.

There is no documented proof that Betsy Ross designed the American flag.

The Roman Catholic population of the world is larger than that of all other Christian sects combined.

Christianity has a billion followers. Islam is next in representation.

The average person can live for 11 days without water, assuming a mean temperature of 60f.

1. The first couple to be shown in bed together on
TV; Fred and Wilma
Flintstone.

2. Coca-Cola was originally green.

3. Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

4. Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

5. The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

6. The percentage of Africa that is wilderness:28% now get this…

7. The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

8. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

9. The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour:61,000

10. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

11. The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

12. The youngest pope was 11 years old.

13. The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

14. Those San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

15. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades – King David, Hearts – Charlemagne, Clubs-Alexander the Great, Diamonds – Julius Caesar

16. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 =12,345,678,987,654,321

17. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

18. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn’t added until 5 years later.

19. “I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

20. Hershey’s Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it’s kissing the conveyor belt.21. No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Super bowl.

22. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

23. How about this…. The nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosy” is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores (“Ring around the rosy…”), these,sores would smell very bad, so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously) so that they would cover the smell of the sores(“…a pocket full of posies…”). People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease (“…ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”).

24. What occurs more often in December than any other month? Conception.

25. What separates “60 Minutes,” on CBS from every other TV show? No theme song.

26. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? Their birthplace.

27. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? Obsession

28. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter “A”? One thousand

29. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?. All invented by women.

30. What is the only food that doesn’t spoil?. Honey

31. There are more collect calls on this day than any other day of the
year? Father’s Day

32. What trivia fact about Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) is the most ironic? He was allergic to carrots.

33. What is an activity performed by 40% of all people at a party? Snoop in your medicine cabinet.

34. In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase “goodnight, sleep tight.”

35. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month or what we know today as the honeymoon.

36. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s.”

37. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice.

38. In ancient England a person could not have sex unless you had consent of the King (unless you were in the Royal Family). When anyone wanted to have a baby, they got consent of the King, the King gave them a placard that they hung on their door while they were having sex. The placard had F.*.*.*. (Fornication Under Consent of the King) on it. Now you know where that came from.

39. In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden…. And thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

THE HIDDEN TRUTH BEHIND GLOBAL DEBT .

1) What is money… how is it created and who creates it?

2) Why is almost everyone up to their eyeballs in debt… individuals, businesses and whole nations?

3) Why can’t we provide for our daily needs – homes, furnishings cars etc. without borrowing?

4) How much could prices fall and wages increase if businesses did not have to pay huge sums in interest payments which have to be added to the cost of goods and services they supply…?

5) How much could taxes be reduced and spending on public services such as health and education be increased if governments created money themselves instead of borrowing it at interest from private banks.?

“If you want to be the slaves of banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the banks create money.” Josiah Stamp, Governor of the Bank of England 1920.

WHAT IS MONEY….?

It is simply the medium we use to exchange goods and services.

a.. Without it, buying and selling would be impossible except by direct exchange.
b.. Notes and coins are virtually worthless in their own right. They take on value as money because we all accept them when we buy and sell.
c.. To keep trade and economic activity going, there has to be enough of this medium of exchange called money in existence to allow it all to take place.
d.. When there is plenty, the economy booms. When there is a shortage, there is a slump.
e.. In the Great Depression, people wanted to work, they wanted goods and services, all the raw materials for industry were available etc. yet national economies collapsed because there was far too little money in existence.
f.. The only difference between boom and bust, growth and recession is money supply.
g.. Someone has to be responsible for making sure that there is enough money in existence to cover all the buying and selling that people want to engage in.
h.. Each nation has a Central Bank to do this – in Britain, it is the Bank of England, in the United States, the Federal Reserve.
i.. Central Banks act as banker for commercial banks and the government – just as individuals and businesses in Britain keep accounts at commercial banks, so commercial banks and government keep accounts at the Bank of England.

TODAY’S “MONEY”… CREATED BY PRIVATE INTERESTS FOR PRIVATE PROFIT.

“Let me issue and control a nation’s money, and I care not who writes it’s laws.” Mayer Amschel Rothschild (Banker) 1790

1.. Central banks are controlled not by elected governments but largely by PRIVATE INTERESTS from the world of commercial banking.
2.. In Britain today, notes and coins now account for only 3% of our total money supply, down from 50% in 1948.
3.. The remaining 97% is supplied and regulated as credit – personal and business loans, mortgages, overdrafts etc. provided by commercial banks and financial institutions – on which INTEREST is payable. This pattern is repeated across the globe.
4.. Banks are businesses out to make profits from the interest on the loans they make. Since they alone decide to whom they will lend, they effectively decide what is produced, where it is produced and who produces it, all on the basis of profitability to the bank, rather than what is beneficial to the community.
5.. With bank created credit now at 97% of money supply, entire economies are run for the profit of financial institutions. This is the real power, rarely recognised or acknowledged, to which all of us including governments the world over are subject.
6.. Our money, instead of being supplied interest free as a means of exchange, now comes as a debt owed to bankers providing them with vast profits, power and control, as the rest of us struggle with an increasing burden of debt….
7.. By supplying credit to those of whom they approve and denying it to those of whom they disapprove international bankers can create boom or bust and support or undermine governments.
8.. There is much less risk to making loans than investing in a business. Interest is payable regardless of the success of the venture. If it fails or cannot meet the interest payments, the bank seizes the borrower’s property.
9.. Borrowing is extremely costly to borrowers who may end up paying back 2 or 3 times the sum lent.
10.. The money loaned by banks is created by them out of nothing – the concept that all a bank does is to lend out money deposited by other people is very misleading.
MONEY CREATED AS A DEBT

a.. We don’t distinguish between the £25 billion in circulation as notes and coins (issued by the government) and £680 billion in the form of loan accounts, overdrafts etc. (created by banks etc,).
b.. £100 cash in your wallet is treated no differently from £100 in your current account, or an overdraft facility allowing you to spend £100. You can still buy goods with it.
c.. In 1948 we had £1.1 billion of notes and coins and £1.2 billion of loans etc. created by banks – by 1963 it was £3 billion in cash and £14 billion bank created loans etc.
d.. The government has simply issued more notes and coins over the years to cover inflation, but today’s £680 billion of bank created loans etc. represents an enormous increase, even allowing for inflation.
e.. This new “money” in the form of loans etc, which ranks equally with notes and coins – how has it come into existence?
“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.” Professor. J. K. Galbraith

This is how it’s done.. a simplified example…

a.. Let’s take a small hypothetical bank. It has ten depositors/savers who have just deposited £500 each.
b.. The bank owes them £5000 and it has £5000 to pay out what it owes. (It will keep that £5000 in an account at the Bank of England – what it has in this account are called its liquid assets).
c.. Sid, an entrepreneur, now approaches the bank for a £5000 loan to help him to set up a business.
d.. This is granted on the basis of repayment in 12 months – plus 10% interest – more on that later.
e.. A new account is opened in Sid’s name. It has nothing in it, nevertheless the bank allows Sid to withdraw and spend £5000.
f.. The depositors are not consulted about the loan. They are not told that their money is no longer available to them- The amounts shown in their accounts are not reduced and transferred to Sid’s account.
g.. In granting this loan, the bank has increased its obligations to £10,000. Sid is entitled to £5000, but the depositors can still claim their £5000.
h.. If the bank now has obligations of £10,000, then isn’t it insolvent, because it only had £5000 of deposits in the first place? Not exactly..
i.. The bank treats the loan to Sid as an ASSET, not a liability, on the basis that Sid now owes the bank £5000.
j.. The bank’s balance sheet will show that it owes its depositors £5000, and it is now owed £5000 by Sid. It has created for itself a new asset of £5000 in the form of a debt owed by Sid where nothing existed before – this on top of any of the original deposits still in its account at the Bank of England. – it is solvent – at least for accounting purposes!
k.. (At this stage the bank is gambling that as Sid is spending his loan, the depositors won’t all want to withdraw their deposits!)
l.. The bank had a completely free hand in the creation of this £5000 loan which, as we shall see, represents new “money”, where nothing existed before. It was done at the stroke of a pen or the pressing of a computer key.
m.. The idea that banks create something out of nothing and then charge interest on it for private profit might seem pretty repellent. Anyone else doing it would be guilty of fraud or counterfeiting!
New “money” into the economy…

a.. Sid’s loan effectively becomes new “money” as it is spent by him to pay for equipment, rent and wages etc. in connection with his new business.
b.. This new “money” is thus distributed to other people, who will in turn use it to pay for goods and services – soon it will be circulating throughout the economy.
c.. As it circulates, it inevitably ends up in other people’s bank accounts.
d.. When it is paid into someone’s account which is not overdrawn, it is a further deposit – Sid pays his secretary £100 and she opens an account at our hypothetical bank – it now has £5100 of deposits.
a.. If we assume for a moment that the remaining £4900 ends up in the accounts of the original depositors of our hypothetical bank, it now has another £4900 in deposits – £10000 in total if the depositors have not touched their original deposits. In practice much of it would end up in depositors accounts at other banks, but either way there is now £5000 of new “money” in circulation.
a.. Thus in reality, all deposits with banks and elsewhere actually come from “money” originally created as loans – (except where the deposits are made in cash – more on cash very shortly).
a.. If you have £500 in your bank account, the fact is someone else like Sid went into debt to provide it.
The key to the whole thing is the fact that :-

a.. Cash withdrawals account for only a tiny percentage of a bank’s business.
2.. Bank customers today make almost all payments between themselves by cheque, switch, direct debit or electronic transfer etc. Their individual accounts are adjusted accordingly by changing a few figures in computer databases – just book keeping entries. No actual money/cash changes hands. The whole thing is basically an accounting process that takes place within the banking system.

THE ROLE OF CASH

a.. The state is responsible for the production of cash in the form of notes and coins.
b.. These are then issued by the Bank of England to the high street banks – the banks buy them at face value from the government to meet their customers’ demands for cash.
c.. The banks must pay for this cash and they do so out of what they have in the accounts which they hold at the Bank of England – their liquid assets. Their accounts are debited accordingly.
d.. The state (through the Treasury) also keeps an account at the Bank of England which is credited with the face value of the notes and coins as they are paid for by the banks. (This is now money in the public purse available for spending on public services etc.)
e.. This is how all banks acquire their stocks of notes and coins, but the cash a bank can buy is limited to the amount it holds in its account at the Bank of England – its liquid assets.
f.. As this cash is withdrawn by banks’ customers, it enters circulation in the economy.
a.. Unlike bank created loans etc, cash is interest free and can circulate indefinitely.

NON CASH PAYMENTS – Book keeping entries

a.. With so little cash being withdrawn, and from experience knowing that large amounts of deposits remain untouched by depositors for reasonable periods of time, banks just hope that their liquid assets will be sufficient to enable them to buy up the cash necessary to meet the relatively very small amounts of cash that are normally withdrawn.
a.. A bank has serious problems if demands for cash withdrawals by depositors, and indeed borrowers who want to draw some of their loans in cash, exceed what the bank holds in its account at the Bank of England.
b.. In practice it would probably try to get a loan itself from the Bank of England or another bank, to tide itself over. Failing that it would have to call in some loans and seize the property of borrowers unable to pay.

DEPOSITORS’ CLAIMS AGAINST BANKS .

a.. Once you have made a deposit at the bank (in cash or by cheque), all you then have is a claim against the bank for the amount in your account. You are simply an unsecured creditor. Your bank statement is a record of how much the bank owes you. (If you are overdrawn, it is a record of what you owe the bank). It will pay you what it owes you by allowing you to withdraw cash, provided it has sufficient cash to do so.
b.. If customers are trying to withdraw too much cash, this is a run on the bank, which will soon refuse further withdrawals. So it’s first come first served!
c.. Should you want to make a payment by cheque, this is less likely to be a problem – you are simply transferring part of your claim against the bank to someone else – the person to whom your cheque is payable – just a book keeping entry.
d.. If the person to whom your cheque is payable has an account at the same bank as you do, the deposit stays with that bank – overall the bank is in exactly the same position as it was before.
e.. I give you a cheque for £50 – we both have accounts in credit at Barclays – what Barclays owes me is reduced by £50, what Barclays owes you increases by £50 – but nothing has left Barclays – the total deposits or claims against Barclays remain the same…

BANKS’ CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER

a.. ..BUT if you keep your account at Lloyds, deposits at Barclays are reduced by £50, whilst deposits at Lloyds increase by £50.
b.. Millions of transactions like this take place every day between customers of the various banks, using switch cards, direct debits, electronic transfers as well as cheques – deposits are therefore constantly moving between the banks.
c.. All these cheques and electronic transfers pass through a central clearing house (which is why we refer to a cheque being “cleared”).
d.. The transactions are set off against one another, but at the end of each day, a relatively small balance will always be owed by one bank to another.
e.. A bank must always be ready to settle such debts.
f.. To do this, it makes a payment from its account at the Bank of England to the creditor bank’s account at the Bank of England.
Thus a bank faces claims from two sources (which it meets out of its liquid assets) – its customers wanting cash, and other banks when it has a clearing house debt to settle.

Unless all the banks are faced with big demands for cash at the same time, the banking system as a whole is safe, although an individual bank is vulnerable, should a large number of depositors for some reason withdraw their deposits in cash or transfer their deposits to other banks.

a.. We now see how today the whole system is basically a book keeping exercise where millions of claims pass between the banks and their borrowers and depositors every day with relatively very little real money or cash changing hands – backed by tiny reserves of liquid assets.
b.. The system is known as FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKNG and banks are sometimes accurately referred to as dealers in debts.
c.. Barclays Bank’s 1999 accounts illustrate the whole thing very well – it had loans owing to it of £217 billion, it owed £191 billion to its depositors – backed by just £2.2 billion in liquid assets!
d.. A bank’s level of lending is geared to the amount of cash it has or can buy up – its liquid assets – rather than the amount of its customers’ deposits.
e.. But if a bank can attract customers deposits from other banks, it will add to its liquid assets, as other banks settle the resulting clearing house debts in its favour – hence there is tremendous competition between banks to attract deposits.
Interest .. Big Profits for the bank…

a.. Let’s now return to Sid – he has to pay our bank 10% interest on his loan – £500. These interest payments are money coming into the bank, they are profits and they end up in its account at the Bank of England – additional liquid assets for the bank.
b.. It now has an extra £500 to meet its depositors’ withdrawals. If Sid manages to repay the original loan as well, it will have an extra £5500.
c.. Our bank created for itself out of nothing an asset of £5000 in the form of a loan to Sid. It is no longer owed anything by Sid, but in repaying his loan with interest, Sid turned a mere debt into £5500 of liquid assets for the bank – a tidy profit for the bank.. and the basis on which more loans can be made.
d.. Banks today risk creating loans 100 times or more in excess of their liquid assets as Barclays Bank’s 1999 accounts show – (see above).
e.. Thus our bank will soon be making many more loans. Thus, the deposits it receives back will increase and so will interest payments and therefore profits.
f.. With more loans and more deposits, there will be a greater demand to withdraw cash – but increasing profits means more cash can bought by the bank. (This is how the amount of cash in circulation has been increasing to reach £25 billion by 1997.)
a.. It is a myth to think that when you borrow money from a bank, you are borrowing money that other people have deposited – you are not – you are borrowing the bank’s money which it created and made available to you in the form of a loan.
More debt for the rest of us….

a.. Sid’s interest payments and any repayment of the loan itself to the bank means however that this “money” is no longer circulating in the economy.
b.. Any payment into an overdrawn account reduces that overdraft. It operates as a repayment to the bank and the “money” is lost to the economy.
c.. More money must be lent out to keep the economy going. If people don’t borrow or banks don’t lend, there will be a fall in the amount of money circulating, resulting in a reduction in buying and selling – a recession, slump or total collapse will follow depending on how severe the shortage is.
d.. The increase in bank created loans over the years is additional conclusive proof that banks do create “money” out of nothing – £1.2 billion in 1948 up to £14 billion by 1963 up to £680 billion by 1997.
e.. Today’s supply of notes and coins after taking inflation into account, has similar buying power to the supply in 1948 (£1.1 billion) but since then, there has been a ten fold plus increase in real terms in money supply made up of credit created by banks.
f.. This has enabled the economy to expand enormously, and as a result living standards for many people have improved substantially…. but it has been done on borrowed money! What is credit to the bank is debt to the rest of us.
g.. The banks are acquiring an ever increasing stake in our land, housing and other assets through the indebtedness of individuals, industry, agriculture, services and government – to the extent that Britain and the world are today effectively owned by them.
THE REPERCUSSIONS OF OUR DEBT BASED MONEY SYSTEM…

1) Goods and services are much more expensive…

The cost of borrowing by producers, manufacturers, transporters, retailers etc. all has to be added to the price of the final product.

2) Consumers’ have much less money to spend…

They are burdened by the cost of mortgages, overdrafts, credit cards, personal loans etc. As a result of 1) and 2) there is…

3) A surplus of goods and services…

…because the population overall can’t afford to buy up all the goods and services being produced. This in turn creates…..

4) Cut throat competition…

Businesses try to cut prices and costs to grab a share of this limited purchasing power in the economy, as illustrated by:

(i) Wages being held down as much as possible.

(ii) Shedding of jobs.

(These both reduce people’s spending power

even more.)

(iii) Retailers importing cheap products from

abroad where wages are much lower.

(iv) Production of cheaper goods that don’t last

as long.

(v) Protection of the environment a low priority.

(vi) Mergers and take-overs – corporations get

bigger and bigger, driven to search out new

markets.

(vii) Big companies shifting production to

poorer countries which have cheap non-

unionised labour and the least stringent

safety and environmental laws or….

(viii) Demanding large government subsidies and

tax free incentives as the price for setting up

new production or not relocating abroad.

5) Ever increasing indebtedness.

a.. When a bank creates money by making a loan, it does not create the money needed to pay the interest on that loan.
b.. The bank lent Sid £5000, but it demands £5500 back. Sid has to go out into the business world and compete and sell to get that extra £500 from his customers. It can only come from money already circulating in the economy – made up of loans other people have taken out – so soon someone will be left short of money and have to borrow more.
c.. Thus the only way for interest payments to be kept up is for more loans to be taken out.
d.. Although a few individuals and businesses may pay off their debts or get by without additional borrowing, OVERALL people and industry must keep borrowing MORE AND MORE to provide the money in the economy needed to keep up interest payments on the overall volume of debt.
e.. The present level of debt at £680 billion means we are borrowing about £60 billion of new “money” into existence each year to pay the interest on it.
f.. But people and industry can’t go on borrowing indefinitely – they will no longer be able to afford to, and will gradually stop borrowing more money into existence. When this happens, the economy will go into decline. The system thus contains the seeds of its own destruction.
g.. When loan repayments and interest payments are made to banks, this is money taken out of circulation. If it went on indefinitely, in an economy where the money supply is largely made up of loans etc. created by banks, there would eventually be almost no “money” left in circulation and with it no economy.
h.. Under the present system, if the economy is to be kept going, money must be constantly lent out again. It would be possible simply re-circulate the existing money supply without creating new money were it not for the fact that extra money is needed to cover interest payments and also to enable the economy to grow.
6) Inflation….

is guaranteed because producers constantly have to borrow more, and must add the cost of that increased borrowing to the price of the goods produced.

a.. Why is it that when the moneylenders hike their prices (i.e. put up interest rates) this is supposed to reduce inflation?
b.. It doesn’t….
c.. It’s just that there is a delay in industry putting up prices.
d.. Initially industry is forced to hold or even reduce its prices with profits down, or even sustaining losses in a desperate bid to sell its products in an economy where money available for spending is reduced because of higher interest payments being made to the banks.
e.. Inflation may be held in check or even reduced temporarily, but eventually industry must put its prices up in order to recover these higher costs.
f.. This most readily happens when interest rates come down, more people borrow, and money supply and consumer spending increases. Inflation then races ahead.
g.. The fact that levels of borrowing/money creation have to keep on rising as already explained, adding to the overall burden of interest payments, guarantees that inflation will be present as long as we have an economy based on an increasing burden of debt.
EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE

a.. Surplus goods in the national economy have to be disposed of somehow. The obvious way to do this is to try to export them!
b.. The absurdity is that every nation is trying to do this, because of the same fundamental problem at home.
c.. This creates frenzied competition in world markets and masses of near identical goods madly criss-crossing the globe in search of an outlet.
d.. Instead of international trade being based on reciprocal mutually beneficial arrangements where nations supply each others’ genuine needs and wants, the whole thing becomes a cut-throat competition to grab market share in order to stay solvent in a debt based economy.
e.. Big corporations demand unrestricted access to every nation’s market – so called “free” trade.
f.. The European Union “single market”, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organisation are the best examples of the drive to open up all national markets.
Exporting is good for a nation’s economy…

because when exported goods are paid for, this brings money into the exporting nation’s economy free of debt.

a.. The money to pay for them was borrowed from banks in the importing nation.
b.. That money is lost to the importing nation’s economy, but the debt that created that money still has to be repaid by the importer out of the remaining money in the importing nation’s economy.
c.. If a nation can become a big net exporter, for a time it’s economy will boom with all the interest free money coming in – a trade surplus will exist.
Importing is not so good for a nation’s economy…

a.. If some nations are building up trade surpluses in this way, others must be net importers and building up trade deficits.
a.. Ultimately, those with big deficits can no longer afford to import, since so much money is sucked out of their economies leaving a proportionally increasing burden of debt behind.
THIRD WORLD DEBT AND THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)

a.. The IMF was set up to provide an international reserve of money supposedly to help nations with big deficits.
b.. In practice it makes matters worse.
c.. A nation with a big deficit has to seek a bail out from the IMF.
d.. BUT this comes in the form of a loan, repayable with interest.
e.. Like loans from a commercial bank, IMF loans are money created out of nothing, based on a cash reserve pool, which is provided by western nations who go into debt to provide it (see National Debt).
f.. The nation with the deficit goes even more heavily into debt.
g.. It will however be able to carry on trading and importing goods from the wealthier nations.
h.. As a result, much of this borrowed IMF loan money flows into the economies of wealthier western nations.
i.. However, the repayment obligation including the interest payments remains with the debtor nation.
j.. This is the true horror of third world debt – the poorest nations borrow money to bolster the money supply of the richer nations.
k.. In order to secure income to pay the interest, and redress the trade balance, these poorest nations must export whatever they can produce. Thus they exploit every possible resource – stripping forests for timber, mining, giving over their best agricultural land to providing luxury foodstuffs for the west, rather than providing for local needs.
l.. Today, for nations in Africa, Central and South America and elsewhere, the revenue from their exports does not even meet the interest payments on these IMF loans (and other loans from western banks).
m.. The sums paid in interest over the years far exceed the amounts of the original loans themselves.
n.. The result is a desperate shortage of money in their economies – resulting in cutbacks in basic health and education programmes etc.
o.. Grinding poverty exists in nations with great wealth in terms of natural resources.
p.. Structural Adjustment Programmes – these are now attached to IMF loans and include conditions that recipient countries will reduce or remove tariff barriers and “open up their markets to foreign competition” – in other words take surplus goods off another country that can’t be sold at home.
NATIONAL DEBT

British national debt now stands at £400 billion – the annual interest on that debt is around £25 -30 billion. The government can only pay it by taxing the population as a whole, so we pay! National debt is up from £26 billion in 1960 and £90 billion in 1980.

a.. Successive governments have borrowed this money into existence over the years.
b.. Instead of creating it themselves and spending it into the economy on public services and projects boosting the economy and providing jobs, they get banks to create it for them and then borrow it at interest.
c.. It all started in 1694 when King William needed money to fight a war against France.
d.. He borrowed £1.2 million from a group of London bankers and goldsmiths.
e.. In return for the loan, they were incorporated by royal charter as the Bank of England which became the government’s banker.
f.. Interest at 8% was payable on the loan and immediately taxes were imposed on a whole range of goods to pay the interest.
g.. This marked the birth of national debt.
h.. Ever since then the world over, governments have borrowed money from private banking interests and taxed the population as a whole to pay the interest.
How the Government Borrows Money

a.. When governments borrow money, in return they issue to the lender, exchequer or treasury bonds – otherwise known as government stocks or securities.
b.. These are basically IOU’s – promises by government to repay the loan by a particular date, and to pay interest in the meantime.
c.. They are taken up chiefly by banks, but also by individuals with money to spare including very wealthy ones in the banking fraternity and, in more recent years, pension and other investment funds.
d.. When government securities are taken up by banks, this is money creation at the stroke of a pen by the banks out of nothing.
e.. Banks are creating money as loans out of nothing by lending it into existence to the government in very much the same way as they do to individuals and companies.
f.. The government now has new money in the form of loans to spend on public services etc.
g.. If this money was not borrowed into existence in this way, there would be that much less economic activity as a result.
h.. Under this system NATIONAL DEBT IS CREDIT ISSUED TO THE GOVERNMENT AND AS SUCH HAS BECOME A VITAL PART OF THE TOTAL MONEY SUPPLY OF ANY MODERN NATION.
i.. The government constantly tells us that there isn’t enough money for this that and the other, because it knows that the cost of borrowing any money it needs has to be passed on to the taxpayer.
j.. Instead, it sells off state assets and now gets the private sector to fund public services instead.
War….

enormous increases in national debt…

enormous profits for the banks…

a.. Massive government borrowing and money creation by banks is required to fund a war effort.
a.. The same international bankers have covertly funded both sides in both world wars and many other conflicts before and since.
a.. Having profited from war leaving nations with massive debts and more beholden than ever to them, the banks then fund reconstruction.
b.. Bankers have even helped bring wars about. The calling in of loans to the German Weimar republic largely created the conditions for the rise of Hitler.
c.. The pattern was well established by the mid 19th. century – by then international banker and speculator Nathan Rothschild could boast a personal fortune of £50 million.
The Constant Increase in National Debt

a.. In the same way that under the present system, industry and individuals must keep borrowing more and more to enable interest payments to be kept up on their existing loans, so government must constantly borrow more and more to keep up interest payments on its existing loans.
b.. Furthermore, when a particular government stock is due for repayment, the government simply borrows more by issuing new government stocks.
Phasing out of National Debt.

“If the government can issue a dollar bond, it can just as easily issue a dollar bill.” Thomas Edison.

a.. Government could stop borrowing money at interest, and start creating it itself by spending it into the economy on public projects and services, at the same time creating jobs and stimulating the economy.
b.. It already does this to a very limited extent – the amount it receives from the banks when it sells cash to them is added to the public purse and is available for spending on public services and projects.
FINAL REMARKS…

Seeking to redistribute what money there is by taxing the rich to pay for services for the less well off does nothing to solve the problem of the overall shortage of money in the economy caused by interest payments on a debt based money supply – a problem which most socialists have yet to recognise.

The world’s economies are our economies. We create the real wealth through our ingenuity, enterprise and hard work. The current banking system operates as a massive drain on that wealth as well as concentrating power and control in the hands of a tiny minority.

Money is the means of facilitating the exchange of goods and services . There is nothing wrong with creating it out of nothing, because this is the only way to provide the means of exchange. The amount that is printed or created simply needs to be matched to the amount of economic activity that is taking place. What is wrong is that the right to do this has been allowed to pass to private interests who create it as loans for private profit.

a.. U. S. President Abraham Lincoln considered it a primary duty of the government to provide a nation with the medium of exchange to enable the economy to function.
TO CONCLUDE….

a.. Can we not ultimately incorporate the humanitarian principles of a fair distribution of wealth that underlies socialism with the dynamic benefits of a free enterprise economy that lies at the heart of capitalism?
b.. For so long as the power to create money is in the hands of private interests who do it for profit and control, we can never say that we live in a democracy.
POST SCRIPT…

The European Union single currency gives the power to regulate the money supply of all those states that join up, to the European Central Bank. The Maastricht Treaty (article 107) forbids national governments and all other EU institutions to seek to influence the bankers who make up the ECB. For the first time this puts the creators of money totally beyond any form of democratic control or accountability.

ALTERNATIVES – see below

____________________________________________________________

THIS HAS BEEN A VERY BRIEF INTRODUCTION.. I go into more detail with fuller explanations including how creating money as a debt produces the cycles of growth and recession and how banks profit from both. Also housing and mortgages and a little bit of history showing how the present system developed. All contained in a 20 page A4 sized resume available for 10 second class stamps from my address below. I also have a 4 page introduction to the alternatives available for 3 second class stamps (this includes state owned banks lending money interest free, a national credit office, local currencies operating alongside national currencies, a citizens dividend etc.) Both available for 11 second class stamps.

Book: “The Grip of Death” – a study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics.. by Michael Rowbotham – 326 pages £15 Jon Carpenter ISBN 1-897766-40-8. Highly recommended for the most detailed examination of the problem and how the current system could be phased out over a period of time.

News sheet: “Prosperity” – Freedom from Debt Slavery – monthly from 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR.

Contacts: The British Association for Monetary Reform, 27 Imberhorne Lane, Felbridge, West Sussex, RH19 1QX..

E-mail: BAMR@bamr.fsnet.co.uk

Campaign for Interest Free Money, Global Cafe, 15 Golden Square, London W1R 3AG. Tel. 020 7328 3701.

E-mail: courtj@globalnet.co.uk

Richard Greaves – member of the Bromsgrove Group of monetary reformers and contributor to “Prosperity” “The Old Stables”, Cusop, Herefordshire, HR3 5RQ. E-mail: rgreaves@supanet.com Tel: 01497 821406. Revised – September 2001.

DID YOU KNOW PART 2

That you can clean almost anything in your household with ammonia and bleach. Ammonia is a good glass

cleaner and can be used to clean counters, floors, stoves, etc. and bleach will kill midew in the bath as well as

to keep your drains unclogged. Never mix ammonia and bleach ,the fumes are toxic.