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Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part V
By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 3 of 4 page(s)
Economic analyst Al Martin cites a 2001 US Treasury study showing that US debt service may force the government to raise the personal income tax to 65% by 2013, and if interest can't be paid, bankruptcy and economic collapse will follow as well as for global economies within five days. The only alternative at that point would be "through currency (and) military might, or internal military power...."
However, two centuries ago, Alexander Hamilton showed "that Congress could dispose of the federal debt by 'monetizing' it, but Congress made the mistake of delegating that function to a private banking system." It can fix it by "buying back its own bonds with newly-issued US Notes" it can print in limitless amounts - debt and interest free.
It's being done now - "not by the government but by the private Federal Reserve." However, doing it leaves the bonds in circulation, with two sets of securities (bonds and cash) instead of one. "This highly inflationary (scheme) could be avoided" if the government just bought back its own bonds and voided them out - a win-win arrangement for the nation and public with only bankers losing out as they should.
It's simple to do and would be able to "extinguish the national debt with the click of a mouse." In January 2004, the Treasury did it when it "called" (paid off) a 30-year bond issue prior to its due date. Paying "in book-entry form" eliminated doing it with paper currencies or checks and turned securities from interest-bearing to non-interest bearing ones. Bondholders had a choice. They could take their redemption amount in cash or not sell and get no interest.
By this method, the Treasury "can pay off the entire federal debt....It just has to announce that it is calling its bonds and other securities, and that they will be paid 'in book-entry form.' " No cash is involved and funds received can be otherwise reinvested. The process can be accomplished gradually as securities come due. It's just a matter of doing it along with restoring money creation power to the government and making America democratic again, unbeholden to bankers.
Federal Debt Liquidation without Inflation
"Inflation results when the money supply increases faster than goods and services, and replacing government securities with cash would not change the size of the money supply." If government buys its own bonds, they simply convert from interest-bearing notes into non-interest-bearing legal tender (cash). The money supply remains unchanged, and there's no inflationary impact.
That's "very different from what happens today" with the Fed buying bonds, not voiding them out, and creating "reserves" for issuing "many times their value in new loans." It adds new cash to the money supply - a "highly inflationary (scheme simply avoided by having) the government buy back its own bonds and (take) them out of circulation."
It's also a way to solve the "Social Security crisis." Resolve it by "simply cashing out (of) federal bond holdings (in exchange for) newly-issued US notes" with no inflationary effect because no new money would be created. Bonds would become cash, remain in the fund, and be used for future pay-outs.
Fed-held securities could be cashed out the same way and just as benignly. Cash would replace bonds. They'd be voided out. The money supply would be unchanged, and inflation would be avoided. It would work no differently for foreign central bank held debt since bonds and cash are the same thing and either can be held in reserve to support their own currencies or to buy oil per the 1974 OPEC agreement.
Already sovereign debt holders are cutting back, reducing their US securities reserves but doing it discretely so as not to be disruptive. However, "the tide is rolling out, and US bonds will be coming back to (our) shores whether we like it or not." At issue is who'll buy them and whether an inflationary or non-inflationary path will be taken. So far it's the former with all the dangers involved.
Federal Reserve-Issued "Helicopter" Money
Early in the new millennium, deflationary concerns were great enough for Ben Bernanke to deliver a Washington 2002 speech titled: "Deflation: Making Sure 'It' Doesn't Happen Here." He explained that lowering interest rates isn't the sole way to inject new money into the economy. The "US government has a new technology, called a printing press (an electronic one), that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost." The government could reflate the economy and buy hard assets at the same time. At issue again is whether government or private bankers do it (or local communities acting independently) and the positive or negative effects of each choice.
Today we're banking cartel controlled, and it's "brought the system to the brink of collapse. The privately-controlled Federal Reserve, which was chartered specifically to 'maintain a stable currency,' has allowed the money supply to balloon out of control. The Fed manipulates the money supply and regulates its value behind closed doors, in blatant violation of the Constitution and the antitrust laws" with the full faith and blessing of the administration, Congress and courts. It "can't be held to account; it doesn't even have to explain its rationale or reveal what is going on."
Imagine the difference if the "banking spider....could be decapitated, returning national (money creation) sovereignty to the people themselves." In other words, the rightful owner.
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