The Guardian Political Review Produced by the New Zealand Democratic Party for social credit Inc. Issue No.56
Autumn 2009
ISSN1176-614X
CRASH! JEREMY CLARKSON The government is not telling us the truth
IN THIS ISSUE
We are not amused! Queen asks: "Why did nobody notice it?"
Poisoning Paradise - ecocide in New Zealand
PLUS NEWS, REVIEWS, FEATURES & MORE
The Guardian Political Review
Issue 56, Autumn 2009
Produced by Guardian Publishing on behalf of the N.Z. Democratic Party for social credit, PO Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641 Tel/Fax: 07 829 5157. Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz
Website: www.democrats.org.nz
Editor: Tony Cardy, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: tony.cardy@democrats.org.nz Web: www.guardian.org.nz
EDITORIAL
Change the game
Jeremy Clarkson is in top gear when he says government is not telling us the truth: “Instead of telling us straight, it calls the crisis the ‘credit crunch’ to make it sound like a breakfast cereal... but money could cease to function as a meaningful commodity” (p.5). US Congressman Dennis Kucinich agrees: “The whole thing comes down to a debt-based economic system collapsing. In effect what we have done is to bail out Wall Street and we have got to change the game” (p.9). New Zealander John Rawson, explains that there is nothing natural behind the situation: “No disaster has caused crops to fail, nothing physical has occurred to hinder production of goods or services – what we have is simply a glitch in our financial accounting system, which clearly needs reform” (p.20). Former US government administrator Richard Cook proposes a comprehensive series of measures that would
transform the debt-based monetary system into one based on the productive values of the physical economy. He calls this ‘Dividend Economics’, quoting the example of social credit (p.12). The Archbishop of York says, "When the day of reckoning came, the winds of truth blew away countless houses of cards. We have entangled ourselves in the chains of debt. The economy is our servant and not the master" (p.6). Even former Finance Minister Michael Cullen now admits: "Failure to address the underlying causes of the current crisis will mean the next one will be worse - it is clear the time has arrived for a real change" (p.23). At the 2008 General Election, Democrats for social credit increased its share of the vote by 12%. The tough times ahead will convince many more New Zealanders to “change the game”.
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CONTENTS
5
22 13 Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 2
1 - Front Cover
13 - Poisoning Paradise + Adrian Bayly
2 - Editorial
14 - Newsroom
3 - Leader's Message
15 - Tapping Into Argument
4 - Democrat NewsMedia
16 - World News
5 - Jeremy Clarkson + Executive List
17 - Whitmill's World (1)
6 - BCIR + Archbishop Sentamu
18 - Whitmill's World (2)
7 - Dennis Kucinich
19 - Whitmill's World (3)
8 - Bob Jones
20 - John Rawson + Whitmill Archives
9 - Stephnie de Ruyter Response
21 - News Bites (1)
10 - Obituary - Gordon Greig
22 - News Bites (2)
11 - Have Your Say (1)
23 - News Bites (3)
12 - Have Your Say (2) + Review
24 - Back cover - Beyond Greed
LEADER'S MESSAGE
An Elegant Alternative By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for social credit
New Zealand needs a social credit economy, now more than ever before A depression by any other name still means the misery of long-term unemployment and the struggle against poverty for many, and opportunities rewarded for very few. The full-blown effects of the global economic meltdown, which many international commentators are describing as ‘The Greatest Depression’, have yet to impact here. But already businesses are shutting up shop, unemployment, mortgagee sales and bankruptcies are rapidly increasing, export earnings are reducing, and a prolonged period of economic stagnation is forecast. New Zealand teeters on the brink of economic chaos. The sheer stupidity, the narrow thinking and the yawningly predictable rhetoric of the National Government in the face of the most serious crisis in decades, does not bode well for a happy outcome. At a time when innovation, workable alternatives, creative solutions, and ambitious plans are called for, the Government is promoting an easing of foreign investment rules, a programme of heavy borrowing, privatisation of state assets, and a cycleway. True to form, the National Party is reverting to type under pressure. Unfortunately, the Minister of Finance’s “borrow and spend” recession survival strategy is unlikely to succeed. History teaches that this approach is woefully inadequate, even in the short term. More modern, practical tools are readily available and being tentatively employed elsewhere. For example, earlier this month, the Bank of England announced plans to increase the supply of money by NZ$212 billion during the next three
Guardian Political Review - Issue 56, 2009 - Page 3
months in order to stimulate economic activity. This measure, known as “quantitative easing”, will be implemented by the Bank creating electronic money to buy financial assets from banks and other investors. Other countries, including the United States, are addressing the crisis in similar style. Contrast that with New Zealand, where the National Government has announced plans to spend up large on infrastructure development and maintenance by borrowing billions of dollars. A more responsible, sustainable option is to utilise the provisions of our publicly-owned Reserve Bank of New Zealand by drawing down interest free loans for major capital works. It’s our bank, afterall. Social credit solutions are available to any government which is genuinely willing to act in the public good. The absence of sufficient political will is all that stands between New Zealanders and long term prosperity. Given the choice, it seems logical that New Zealanders would opt for debt-free money from their own bank over lining the pockets of the shareholders of commercial private banks any day. And yes, the choice is that stark, and the alternative to the status quo is that simple. Urgent attention must be given to the introduction of a 21st century financial system to replace the collapsing debt-based system which has failed ordinary people for so long. Social credit monetary reform is an elegant alternative which changes the fundamental workings of the present financial system. New Zealand needs a social credit economy, now more than ever before.
Democrats
for social credit
NEWS
Tranter dumps DHB West Coast DHB elected board member David Tranter has resigned in protest over what he labels board secrecy and anti-health professional agendas which recently culminated in the loss of three top class, long-serving anaesthetists from Grey Hospital within a very short space of time. Mr. Tranter, who is also the Democrats for Social Credit health spokesman has campaigned for rural health services since 1991, said that he has more chance of informing the public on health issues outside the Ministry and corporate management-controlled DHB, and called for an end to the political agenda that has seen all three board chairmen since 2001 appointed from outside the Coast. Resignation letter to Tony Ryall M.P., Minister of Health (extract) As a campaigner for rural health services for 18 years I feel unable to continue my involvement with an organisation which, in my view, displays contempt for the views of experienced health professionals while also being obsessively secretive and dismissive of the concerns of West Coast communities.
The front page of the Greymouth Star (27/1/09) featured three items related to the resignation, including the DHB spending $10,000 a week more on locums while its South African anaesthetists spend time in Christchurch.. David Tranter had criticised the DHB for previously having got rid of three "top-class, long-serving" anaesthetists. West-Coast Tasman MP Clark Auchinvole said the points Mr Tranter made were in keeping with a lot of what the public was telling him. "He's giving voice to widely held concerns. I'm sorry he felt he must leave the system. The points he make warrant the attention of health services". Comment by David Tranter There will be those who say I should have stayed on this board but as a rural health campaigner for 18 years I am no longer willing to lend my name to a process which I believe to be morally and ethically indefensible and about which I can do absolutely nothing.
100 Not Out!
As I have just read in a book (Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend); "He was surprised at how much better he felt; the strain of having to choose his words as carefully as a man carrying an unstable stick of gelignite was gone. His brain cleared, it was like leaving a dark cave and breathing the fresh air of a sunlit meadow".
Ida Langley of Oamaru, recently awarded the Democrats for social credit Silver Medal for long service, being congratulated on her 100th birthday by Waitaki Mayor, Alex Familton - the former Social Credit candidate for Waitaki in 1972.
David breathing the fresh air of a sunlit meadow
A cheerful gathering at the Hamilton East/West Christmas Party. Back row: Don Bethune, Jeffrey Seymour, Tony Templer, Barry Cope, Peter Sims, Murray Gouk, Les Port, Charles Sitwell. Front row: Mary Russell-Bethune, Ron Harsant, Carolyn McKenzie, Margaret Hook.
Guardian Political Review - Issue 56, 2009 - Page 4
Photo by permission of the Waitaki Herald
It is pointless to merely fiddle with this system. In my view it requires a major shift to return health professionals to their rightful place as the experts who should be supported by management, not dictated to by often ill-qualified bureaucratic empire-builders. (David Tranter 27/1/09)
CRASH! JEREMY CLARKSON Sunday Star-Times 14/12/08 I was in Dublin last weekend, and had a very real sense I'd been invited to the last days of the Roman empire. Everyone appeared to be drunk on naked hedonism. Ireland is tiny. Its There will be absolute chaos: riots,
population is smaller than New Zealand's. How,
but to do that, it will have to borrow. And when
now, as they become the first country in
every government is doing the same thing,
lynchings, starvation. It'll be a world without
Europe to go officially into recession, can they
there simply won't be enough cash in the global
power or fuel, and with no fuel there's no way
not see the financial meteorite coming?
pot. I'm told that, in simple terms, money will
the modern agricultural system can be
cease to function as a meaningful commodity.
maintained. Which means there will be no food
The binary dots and dashes that fuel the entire
either.
I think mainly this is because the government is not telling us the truth. I don't think it can. I have spoken to some senior bankers
system will flicker and die.
I believe the government knows this might
and they don't refer to the looming problems as
And without money there will be no
happen next year, and there is absolutely
being like 1992, or even 1929. They talk about
business. No means of selling goods. No
nothing it can do. But instead of telling us
a total financial meltdown. They talk about the
means of transporting them. No means of
straight, it calls the crisis the "credit crunch" to
End of Days.
making them in the first place even.
make it sound like a breakfast cereal. I can't
The job losses will mount. And mount. And mount. And as they climb, the bad debt will put
These, as I see them, are the facts. Planet Earth thought it had £10. But it turns
even more pressure on the banks until every
out we had only £2. Which means everyone
single one of them stutters and fails.
must lose 80% of their wealth. And that's going
Of course, you may imagine the government will simply step in and nationalise everything,
to be a problem if you were living on the
Leadership: Leader Stephnie de Ruyter PO Box 18 907, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641 Ph/Fax 03 352 4588 Mobile 027 442 4434, Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz Deputy Leader John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 021 716 895, Email: john.pemberton@democrats.org.nz Website: www.johnpemberton.co.nz Blog: http://monetaryjustice.blogspot.com Executive: Party President Neville Aitchison Box 105, 2 Ruskin Street, Parnell, Auckland 1052. Ph; 09 909 7493, Email:neville.aitchison@democrats.org.nz Vice-president Katherine Ransom, PO Box 402 Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 027 471 6891 Email: katherine.ransom@democrats.org.nz Blog: http://katherineransom.blogspot.com Northern & North Shore Regions John Rawson Lookout Hill, No. 8 RD, Whangarei 0178 Ph 09 438 9265. Email john.rawson@democrats.org.nz Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 5
was heading our way and the authorities knew it couldn't be stopped or diverted, why bother telling anyone? Best to let us soldier on in the dark until it all goes dark for real.
breadline beforehand.
Democrats for social credit
say I blame it, really. If an enormous meteorite
Executive Contact List
Auckland Regiion C/o Neville Aitchison (refer Party President entry above) Waikato Region Les Port 21a Herschel Street, Ngaruawahia 3720 Ph 07 824 5096 Mobile 021 725 791 Email: ldport@vodafone.net.nz Eastern Region John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 021 716 895 Email: john.pemberton@democrats.org.nz Website: www.johnpemberton.co.nz
Southern Region Tony Cardy 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400 Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: tony.cardy@democrats.org.nz Party Secretary Peter Ferguson 86 Smith Street, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8101 Mobile 027 243 7365 Email: peter_ferguson@xtra.co.nz Ex Officio Positions ‘Guardian’ Editor Tony Cardy (refer Southern Region President entry for details)
Western Region Heather M. Smith 14 Broughton St, Wanganui East 4500 Ph/Fax 06 343 3038 Email: heather.marion.smith@democrats.org.nz
Secretarial Support Margaret Hook 393 Marychurch Rd, No. 4 R.D., Hamilton 3284 Ph 07 829 5157 Email: nzdp.inc@xtra.co.nz
Wellington Region Mary Weddell 57 Shakespeare Ave, Upper Hutt 5018 Ph 04 971 7143 Fax 04 914 2405 Mobile 021 701 598 Email: mary.weddell@democrats.org.nz
Committee Conveners Finance Committee David Wilson PO Box 60 Paparoa 0543 Ph 09 431 7004 Fax 09 431 8615 Email: wilson_df@xtra.co.nz
CanterburyWest Coast/Tasman Region Ray Palmer 57 East Belt, Rangiora 7400 Ph 03 313 8513 Fax 03 313 8583 Email: ray.palmer@democrats.org.nz
Policy Committee Charles Sitwell 26 Hillcrest Road, Hamilton 3216 Ph 07 856 6332 Mobile 021 060 8021 Email: csitwell@xtra.co.nz
BCIR! - an update on Binding Citizens' Initiated Referenda Written for The Guardian Political Review by Steve Baron NZ Herald - “Government passes legislation for Binding Citizens Initiated Referendums”. If only it were true, but at this point in time it is only a figment of my imagination, but a goal New Zealanders will eventually achieve. I'm forever hopeful it will be in my lifetime but it's not a matter of “if”, it's only a matter of “when”. How do I know that? Because there will come a time when New Zealanders say enough is enough, when we are no longer prepared to give our politicians unbridled power. We will demand more say than just once every three years at a general election. We will no longer stand for the continuation of elected dictatorships. Strong words you might say, but that is all we have in reality. Yes New Zealand is a wonderful place and far more democratic than many countries, but it can always become better. So how are we progressing in our crusade? Slowly, but we are progressing. As an example, I was amazed by the number of local body candidates that knew about and supported Binding Referendums at the last election. The election before that, very few even knew what I was talking about when I contacted them. The progress in this area has been enormous thanks in large to Michael Laws the Mayor of Wanganui. His Council has used them extensively to give the public a much bigger say in how Wanganui is run. But it didn't all start in Wanganui. The Swiss
have led the way on Binding Referendums for over 130 years. The USA use it in 23 States. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger gained his Governor's seat through a Referendum. Australia can only make changes to it's Constitution by referendum. In fact Binding Referendums are used by about 160 million people around the world that is a reflection of a well adjusted population, a sign of education and freedom.... could we call it true democracy? Our website www.betterdemocracy.co.nz has been a great success with many visitors each week. Many people use it for our “Email an MP” & “Email an Editor” functions. They are great tools that make life easier and anyone is welcome to use them for any reason. It doesn't just have to be about Binding Referendums. If you can bring yourself to make a donation while you are there it would be much appreciated. We have also just launched our new blogsite as a focal point for Political & Economic Democracy. There are many great topics listed and many comments which stimulate debate. We invite you to join in the debate at www.betterdemocracynz.blogspot.com or from the link via our website.
Steve Baron
faces at every opportunity, face to face and in writing. To those of you who have made the effort of talking to politicians I sincerely thank you. This is not a one man crusade, more and more people are coming on board and making an effort. Eventually momentum will build to a point where it will be unstoppable. I also hope to publish a new book this year to build on the efforts of our first book 'People Power' which Jon Eisen and myself produced. I now have a lot more information to include in the book so plan to make it far more comprehensive. In the meantime I am adopting some advice given to me by my old friend Gary Knapp who said, “Do what you can do at a pace you can sustain”. Rome wasn't built in a day.
I feel our focus must now be to put more pressure on the government to adopt Binding Referendums. But they aren't going to do anything about it unless people continue to press the issue. We have to keep it in their
Committed to democracy through a a policy of Binding Citizens' I Initiated Referenda
Archbishop says issuing private credit is improper We must end the blind pursuit of profit and use our wealth and economic power in the service of a greater social purpose By Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York became a crunch and the crunch became a downturn and the downturn became a crisis. A crisis of faith as the temple of Mammon on which we have all sought to build our economic prosperity was tried in the fire of truth, honesty and reality, and was revealed to have shaky foundations. When the day of reckoning came - and there is always a day of reckoning - the winds of truth blew away the countless houses of cards. Greed, risk-taking, the trading of false rumours and the speculation of the money markets has pulled down banks and businesses overnight. The economy is our servant and not the master.
Archbishop Sentamu
The blind pursuit of profit has to end, with our wealth and economic power used in the service of a greater social purpose It began with a squeeze, then the squeeze Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 6
In my judgment at least it should now be regarded as improper for any private person or corporation to issue new credit; as it was in the Middle Ages for any private person or corporation to mint actual money, for the two are equivalent. And so I should like, I confess, to see the banks limited in their lending power to sums equivalent to that
which depositors have entrusted to them, and all new credit to be issued by some public authority. We have all worshipped at the temple of money and we have all placed beams in our own eyes. In a headlong rush for growth we have lost sight of the moral purpose of money. We have entangled ourselves in the chains of debt, longer than those of Scrooge, or his partner, Marley, with little to show for our enslavement. From peterchallen@googlemail.com 24/12/08 Biography John Sentamu was born in 1949 in a village near Kampala, Uganda, the sixth of thirteen children. He read law at Makerere University, Kampala, and practised as an advocate of the High Court of Uganda. Dr Sentamu practised both Law at the Bar and at the Bench until 1974. He incurred the wrath of dictator Idi Amin because of his judicial independence and was locked up for ninety days, three weeks after his marriage. In 1974 he fled to the United Kingdom.
BAILOUT! By US Republican Congressman Dennis Kucinich Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system: The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them. Confused?
This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis, not a special one designed only for the "$700 billion" transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to. The banks needed Congress' approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long-term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion
with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world. Who could turn down a deal like this? I did. www..kucinich.us
Debt-based economic system collapsing James Naughtie interviewing Dennis Kucinich, congressman from Ohio, on the 'Today' programme 17/12/08 JN Congressman, the truth about the regulatory system now admitted by the head of the NEC is that it has not worked at all. DK That's absolutely correct. As chairman of the domestic policy sub-committee my subcommittee has been looking at this failure of regulatory systems and you have to go back to this bill that was passed, the financial modernisation act which overrode the protections that were trying to stop insurance companies, banks and financial security interests from inter-dealing without transparency. The whole thing has come down and what it comes to is a debt-based economic system collapsing, economies of nations are collapsing. The private sector has failed. The public sector is expected to rescue them. It will and therefore the public sector ought to be in control of the money system to benefit the country and one of the things I am going to be doing in the States is taking steps to make that happen. JN Well I know you are very critical of the bailout, the $700 billion plus bailout and the way that was organised what was the alternative, because at that stage there was an absolute sense of panic. We know that the president was quoted and it has never been denied as saying to the treasury secretary, "This sucker could go down" meaning the whole American financial system. What was the alternative?
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 7
DK The president's manner of expression really didn't reveal any deeper thought structure about what could be done. The fact of the matter is rather than borrowing the $700 billion
(extract)
no interest in that. In effect what we have done is to bail out Wall Street. We have got to change the game and it is about creativity. I think it is time to incorporate the Federal Reserve into the US Treasury where money will be created by the Government as money not as private interest-bearing debt. I think we have to remove the banks' privilege to create money through fractional reserve and we have to spend newly created money into circulation on infrastructure including education and health care. These are the kind of things that will make a difference. JN The president elect was saying yesterday that the Fed was running out of weapons, of instruments to use.
US Congressman Dennis Kucinich and ending up paying about three times the amount after interest charges, the Government could have issued the money the same way the banks do instead of borrowing it from them. You know there was an opportunity which I argued for in the Democratic caucus to buy the pools of mortgage-backed securities so you could go to the root of the problem which is people losing their homes because they can't pay the principle and interest and enable a rescheduling the principle and interest so that you keep people in their homes but there was
DK President Obama, is going to be faced with some dramatic action. We are going to have to rebuild America's infrastructure and the Government ought to be spending the money into circulation rather than borrowing it from the banks. We need to make sure that we have control over our monetary policy. The only way to do that is to incorporate the Federal Reserve Banks into the US Treasury so the money will be created by the Government as money. President Obama is going to have to move dramatically to get control over this economy. (Items supplied by Colin Whitmill)
Bob Jones nationwide column 3-10-08 Lock up your Skoda, the nutters are back Just when we seemed safe, having years ago driven a stake through the deranged beast of New Zealand's postwar politics heart and buried the corpse deep, the earth has shaken and rumbled over the long-forgotten grave and out has clawed the ghoulish corpse of Social Credit to harangue us yet again. For the Opunake and Coastal News (I'm not making this up. There is such a newspaper) reports that a bearded King Country truck driver, lain Parker, is seeking the Taranaki-King Country seat on behalf of the resurrected Social Credit Party. My attention was drawn to the Opunake and Coastal News because in his tirade Mr Parker attributed the destruction of the Social Credit Party after its 1981 20 per cent polling triumph to me. It's true, and it is my proudest achievement. Nevertheless, Mr Parker has now blown the bugle to once more rally the Waynes and Sharleens, the wig-wearers, line-dancers and Skoda drivers, to abandon their checkout counters and lawn-mowing franchises and rise to fight the good fight against the sinister international conspiracists who have us dancing puppet-like on the end of their strings. My God, it's deja vu! There it all is again in Mr Parker's published remarks - "the foreign international financial aristocracy", the "creeping slavery of the modern financial system", the "slave-minded sell-outs within Labour, National and our Central Academic Advisory Agencies" (whatever they are), the "ransom over the Real Sector [whatever that is] by the international financial hyenas" - and the confused gibberish about banks creating free
money, a tricky proposition to advance at a time of worldwide banks' collapses. Truck driving can't be much fun and one readily understands Mr Parker's wish for an outside interest. But why this nonsense? What's wrong with fishing or ping-pong? For two decades, Winston has owned the conspiracy vote - the harmlessly deranged in our midst who attribute all the world's troubles to evil plotting by the ethereal "they". Now, with Winston's demise looming, the nutter vote is up for grabs and it's opportune for a Social Credit comeback. Mind you, I hesitate in saying harmless when I recall Social Credit's peak and journalists justifiably negotiating danger money from editors to attend their conference. Or the 1984 candidates' meeting when a wild-eyed, bearded Social Credit candidate hurled himself at our mild-mannered New Zealand Party chap and began throttling him before a startled audience. Or in their dying days when their last dozen slavering members, including the portaloo they took along as their leader, seized a room at Parliament and refused to vacate till we all saw the light. For days, terrified parliamentary secretaries and visiting school parties scurried hurriedly past their window from which bearded, purple crimplene safari-suited lunatics menacingly peered. Finally, muttering and loping gibbon-like, they emerged, doubtless to find their longsuffering wives had seized the moment to flee forever to the safety of married daughters.
Bob Jones
Now they're back with an unknown housewife as leader and intend to offer a raft of candidates. In their heyday, their members were mostly blue-collar, middle- aged oddballs from small provincial towns. When Bruce Beetham with his good looks took the helm, their support surged. But Beetham's problem was that he was alarmingly dense, as I discovered in the 1984 party leaders' debates. Robert Muldoon was kindly tolerant toward him, but David Lange and I couldn't resist the temptation. Minutes would pass before our barbs sank home. Beetham would suddenly begin to protest, but we'd long since moved on. On the brighter side, they bring levity to the campaign, which has always been part of elections but is now effectively banned by the evil Electoral Finance Act. Now that's a real conspiracy for them to pursue, but it's probably over their heads. Footnote: this opinion piece was syndicated across the Fairfax Group. Subsequently, the papers agreed to print a 'Right of Reply' supplied by Iain Parker and Stephnie de Ruyter' (the latter is reproduced opposite)
The Jones' Party and Social Credit - unkind words, insults and mockery Extract from Colin Whitmill's history of the Social Credit/Democratic Party In 1984, property millionaire Robert Jones was beginning to dominate the news media with a new party he had formed intending to replace the National Party. He called it The New Zealand Party. A new vociferous group, it gained news media attention greater than Social Credit had ever experienced. Jones, with unkind words, insults and mockery of others, drew large audiences to hear his plea for unfettered financial freedom of the “markets” and a floating exchange rate. Extravagant claims drew headlines. The New Zealand Party was a whim, a fleeting escapade of a millionaire trying to have a greater say in a country's affairs, and the dual creation of huge sums of readily available money and a fawning news media. It lasted one election before disintegrating in a mass of personality clashes and disputes.
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 8
Jones continued to make exaggerated statements of intended success of his wealthy fledgling party and the news media publicised it
The New Zealand Party was a whim, a fleeting escapade of a millionaire trying to have a greater say in a country's affairs all. Few new supporters of the right wing group knew what exactly Jones intended for the country. A few slogans, money thrown all over the place, a receptive news media and the Jones bandwagon strode on with its objective to 'destroy’ Social Credit At least Social Credit’s organisation was better than the NZ Party whose founder, financier and leader, Jones, turned up at Kawerau where he waited nearly an hour for someone of his party to arrive. At Mosgiel, no
one met him at all. In Pakuranga, the New Zealand Party candidate Josephine Grierson distributed a pamphlet claiming the Social Credit vote as having collapsed. However, as she was to find out, and admit in the book she wrote of her political experience, “the Social Credit Party understood the street fighting tactics of the electoral system much better than any of the other parties." On election night, Neil Morrison was rewarded for all his years of work for Social Credit with a seat in Parliament. Over in East Coast Bays, Garry Knapp was re-elected. The result was: Social Credit 10,146 votes, National 8,126, Labour 2,081, New Zealand Party 2,055. Labour won 56 seats, National 57 and Social Credit 2. The millions of dollars spent by the New Zealand Party could buy it no seats.
Democrats for social credit
PO Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641 Phone/Fax: 0064 3 352 4588 Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz
Website: www.democrats.org.nz
Friday 3 October, 2008 Response to Opinion Article by Bob Jones by Stephnie de Ruyter, Leader, Democrats for Social Credit Never a man likely to be accused of letting the facts get in the way of a good story, Bob Jones’ latest flight of fancy certainly makes for colourful prose. His insulting rhetoric targets mythical social credit stereotypes whilst assiduously avoiding any hard facts or real issues. Crimpolene safari suits? Bearded lunatics? Oh dear, that’s just so last century. Well, I have bad news for Bob Jones: social credit lives. His cynical attempt to undermine the efforts of social credit advocates has failed. This was always going to be a difficult task for a man of his waning influence, and nigh on impossible in the current climate of economic uncertainty when questions beg answers. Full marks to him for persistent effort though. The facts are at odds with Bob’s insinuations. From the 1930s key aspects of social credit policy have been successfully employed in New Zealand: the state housing building programme (John A. Lee was an enthusiastic proponent of social credit) and transport infrastructure projects were funded using interest-free lines of credit or grants from the Reserve Bank; and farmers enjoyed great prosperity with interest-free overdrafts from the Rural Bank, an arm of the Reserve Bank. Today the global credit crisis and ensuing financial turmoil validate the warnings of social crediters concerned about the inevitable impact of the long-term practice of the commercial banking sector issuing credit as interest-bearing debt. The debt mechanism inherent in the present system results in cost pressure inflation and continually increasing debt. A few people can make a lot of money under this system, but eventually the rest of us pay the price. Even Bob Jones must grudgingly acknowledge that this is not a sustainable proposition. Business owners, workers, young people and superannuitants, the bearded, the bald, the tall and the short, and yes, even the Jones-maligned middle-aged blue collar workers from small provincial towns understand that there is something seriously wrong. The tide is turning. I hope Bob Jones is a good swimmer, for his sake rather than ours. The New Zealand social credit movement has a proud tradition of promoting financial reform, having contested every election since 1954. This election, Democrats for Social Credit candidates will promote the message of new economics on the hustings. They will offer a workable alternative to a system in chaos. Wake up and smell the real world, Bob Jones. Social credit is alive, and kicking.
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 9
OBITUARY
Life's Journey Gordon Alexander Greig 1913 - 2008 It was a pleasure to have known Gordon and to be his friend in the later part of his life in Canterbury. A very loyal social crediter, his life can only be told in his words from the Appendix of his book 'Life's Journey'. Ray Palmer, President Canterbury/West Coast Region, Democrats for social credit.
Extract from the Appendix of 'Life's Journey' by Gordon Greig
In 1934, during my period with the Wallace family in Waimate, I turned 21. This meant that I could vote in the 1935 General Parliamentary election. Forbes Wallace,, for whom I worked, regularly attended Savage Club meetings in Waimate where he was a regular guest speaker. He also wrote articles regularly for a monthly magazine entitled 'The Dairyman'. Forbes was a qualified but non-practising lawyer and was a great raconteur. I discussed the pros and cons of monetary control, social credit and the up-coming election with him. He considered that the Social Credit proposal being espoused by Labour at that time was a sensible approach to the country's economic woes. The Labour platform satisfied me and, like many other New Zealanders, I voted for the Labour Party. Its Leader, Michael Joseph Savage promised, if elected, a Social Credit policy. Given years of conservative Governments and the ongoing hard economic conditions of the 1930s, the country was ready for a change. The Great Depression had heightened interest in monetary systems and monetary control and some commentators had written on the subject. One such person was a Scot, Major C.H. Douglas. His publications including "Economic Democracy', 'Monopoly of Credit' and 'Social Credit' gained international recognition. A Social Credit Association had been formed in New Zealand prior to the 1935 General Election and had generated considerable support, to the extent that the Labour Party used its philosophy as one of its platforms for the 1935 election. The election result was an overwhelming success for the Labour Opposition that had espoused using the Reserve Bank as an agency for social and economic development purposes during the election campaign. Partially as a consequence of this policy, economic conditions improved and New Zealand recovered from the effects of the Great Depression. John A Lee, who was appointed to the Housing Ministry, used this credit policy to build the first State houses using Reserve Bank credit at 3 percent. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Savage died in 1939 before the policy was fully implemented. Subsequent leaders, influenced by conservative Treasury officials, failed to continue its implementation. After the war, it became obvious that the Labour Government was not going to adhere to its formerly enunciated intentions. It was voted out of power in 1949
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 10
largely in response to the National Party's promise to 'make the pound go further'. The National Party resumed political control. Having experienced war and the profligate expenditure on hostilities and mass destruction in Europe, I became more and more cynical regarding political parties and to whom they were beholden. Given my interest in monetary policy and politics, I was attracted increasingly to the Social Credit political philosophy. In 1953, a Social Credit Political League (SCPL) was formed in New Zealand. The Social Credit Association, the driving force behind the move to form the new political party, had some very committed persons of high standing in the community operating in its ranks, including Wilfred Owen of Christchurch and Mary King of Dunedin. By 1954, I was firmly established in a permanent position in the Department of Lands and Survey in Hokitika and I was attracted to participate in the then emerging political organisation that had been formed the previous year. Here was a party prepared to challenge the privately held monetary system and which was prepared to let New Zealanders use their own Reserve Bank in the interest of New Zealanders. I joined the Hokitika branch of the Social Credit Political League and was Secretary during my residency on the West Coast. I was actively involved in the 1955 General Parliamentary election in Hokitika. Following my move to Invercargill in 1961, I continued my involvement with the SCPL and accepted nomination as Dominion Councillor and later Vice President of the party. I was also convener of the Policy Committee for a period. I had worked and achieved success in gaining parliamentary representation for the Social Credit Political League for which I have no regrets. After relocating to Christchurch in 1972, I maintained my membership of the Party but eschewed any administrative involvement. The Social Credit Party changed its name in 1985 to the Democratic Party and merged with some kindred political elements in 1991 to form the Alliance. Subsequently, in 2002, it disassociated itself from the Alliance and has since operated independently as the Democrats. I remain a member of the Democrats. At the Democrat Party Conference in 2003, 1 was honoured as a Life Member of the Party and cut the cake to mark the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Social Credit Political League.
MARK MY WORDS I am grateful that you are carrying on with the task of editorship; it gives the movement some stability.
HAVE YOUR SAY CONGRATULATIONS The London Global Open Table and associates of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice congratulate the NZ Democrats on their trenchant analysis of the financial system; their work for inclusive social and economic justice; and their spirited efforts in NZ politics. On behalf of the world, we thank you. Rev Canon Peter Challen, Chair CCMJ and moderator of the London Global Table
FROM THE UK Thank you so much for the very interesting magazine you sent recently. It does the party credit. I pass on the copy to two friends who used to live in NZ and who still have correspondents there. Here is my recent input on fluoridation of drinking water. Barbara Panvel, U.K. (See News item: “Mass Medication”)
TRAVELLING REFORMER Just a short message to say “Thank You” for publicising Bromsgrove 2008 in the latest issue of The Guardian, just received. That is much appreciated! Jamie Walton, from New Zealand, is going to be there. Alistair McConnachie, Organiser Bromsgrove 2008, U.K. (See World News page)
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT I have just participated in the annual Bromsgrove Group conference here in the U.K. and there are many long-time social credit people in the group. The whole group are all united in making an opportunity out of this financial mess for reform of the system, and there are a number of actions I will be involved with. Take heart, some good things are happening on both sides of the Atlantic. All the best to everyone fighting the good fight in NZ and Australia. Jamie Walton, U.K.
FROM THE USA Thank you for mailing me a copy of the Winter 2008 issue of The Guardian Political Review with the nice review of Dr. Bruce Spittle's new Fluoride Fatigue book on page 17. Those who read this book are bound to appreciate and understand how mistaken water fluoridation has been as a public health policy. Albert W. Burgstahler, Editor Fluoride Journal, www.fluorideresearch.org
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2008 - Page 11
Maybe we have to have this recession to really awaken folk’s eyes. My fear is that this will be far greater than anything we have had before. There will be massive shortages in food – mark my words. I feel so stymied and hog-tied that I cannot do anything about this chaos, while I am so involved with the Nutrition Agency. There is certainly a yearning to see Monetary Reform have its place in New Zealand. My wife and I regularly speak about the ills of the planet. The very best of health to you all. Geoffrey Morell, Washington DC
COMMON SENSE I just wanted to thank you for sending me copy of the latest edition of The Guardian Political Review. May I compliment you on the quality of your publication and the common sense you espouse on so many issues. As with local government, voters tend to be apathetic rather than realise how potent each vote can be, and I am pleased to see that you are beavering away giving voters the options they seek. Anne Hunt, Foxton Beach
50 YEARS CAMPAIGNING In over 50 years of campaigning, nobody has been able to prove Social Credit wrong. The reason we have not yet fully achieved our political goal of putting Social Credit into effect is because those who control the money supply and the media are in a position to manipulate what the people do and think. Dr Goebles, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, was able to show that if a lie is told often enough, the people will believe it. The worst thing we can do is to pack up and go away. Colin Weatherall, Milton
DR ROBERT ANDERSON Some of you may not know that Bob suffered a heart attack a few weeks ago. Sadly, he died yesterday. He had been making such good progress we simply did not anticipate this. I am sure you will understand what a shock it is. I have our three girls with me and they are an enormous help despite this being their loss, too. I would really appreciate it if you could pass this news on to everyone who would want to know Jean Anderson, Tauranga 6/12/08 Editor's reply: So sorry to hear the news. Bob has contributed a number of items to The Guardian Political Review and we have reviewed his books, including 'At What Cost', 'The Final Pollution' and 'The Ultimate War Crime'. Bob's latest, 'You can't die for the life of you!', reviewed in our last issue. is strangely appropriate, with his reassuring comment: "We have reached the stage where science points the way to understanding evidence for the survival of the human personality." Bob has indeed left a significant legacy.
Jean Anderson's response: Thank you all for the email messages and cards. The wonderful tributes to Bob, and the love and support given to our girls and myself, were a great comfort. He had made so many friends through his interests and the issues he tackled and I know it is not only we who will miss him. I will continue with the work we did together and plan in time to make his lectures available on a website. Could you please find a corner in your magazine to print this message? This is the only way I can think of to thank everyone. roberta@clear.net.nz
STRONGEST CASE Stephnie’s reply to the Bob Jones’ article (see this issue) is probably the strongest case to the public. Reserve Bank credit for public funding, State housing, etc., 3% loans to buy the first family home. These were done for many years from the early 1940’s. The arrangement between the Government and the Dairy Board did not cease until the early 80s: 40 years, or so. These things are Social Credit’s strongest arguments for consideration. Not pie in the sky. Ray Lodge, Oxford
GET LUCKY Australia’s ‘socialist’ government has bailed out their economy by putting every man, woman and child in the 'lucky' country into debt to the tune of A$9600. Being that lucky they should all go and buy a lotto ticket. Of course there are other countries that are equally as lucky because a similar story emerges out of Britain, France, China, South America, Japan etc., where people have stopped spending because they can’t access ‘credit’. In ‘Godzone’ our capitalist government is also engaged in a bailout of the money system to mitigate the impact of the downturn on jobs and businesses. In all this it should be noted that the ‘money’ for the bailouts is being borrowed, at the expense of future generations of taxpayers. Both John Key and Bill English are right alongside Kevin Rudd, Gordon Brown and Barrack Obama in using the debt mechanism, which over the past 100 years has left a legacy of failures in providing long-term solutions to the world’s recurrent economic meltdowns. The common denominator in this debacle is the use globally of debt as money and using the same mechanism of debt as money as a solution will simply create the ideal conditions for the next crisis. Trevor Crosbie, Hamilton
TIME FOR CHANGE Daylight Saving is looming so, God willing, the local newspaper will print another scathing assault. What comes to mind is that for young children, changing the clock is much more punishment than smacking. Thank you for connecting me up to the one and only political party. A big tree grows slowly. Charlie Clark, Hawarden, Canterbury. (continued on next page)
REVIEW The literature on economic and monetary reform has been growing in recent years with a particular focus on how to achieve a more equitable and democratic distribution and availability of the bounty of the industrial age. Some of these books have approached the problem through a critique of our monetary system which creates money mainly through bank-generated loans. Other books have criticized the economic inequity deriving from finance capitalism with control of business and resources increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy few who sit at the top of our financial system. Richard C. Cook proposes a comprehensive series of measures that would transform the debt-based monetary system into one based on the productive values of the physical economy. Cook has named this approach: “Dividend Economics” of which Social Credit, founded by British engineer C.H. Douglas (1879-1952) and the Alaska Permanent Fund are examples. Extract from: www.richardcook.com
('Have Your Say' continued)
MONETARY AUTHORITY Bankers' and their economist's management of Society's money supply has failed. It is evolving unnatural monopolies in banking, finance, and industry and commerce. Proof of failure is the New Zealand recession; more poverty and consumers struggle to make ends meet. Modernised economics must place society's money supply in an independent State Money Authority charged with the duty of maintaining a strict relationship between the volume of money supply and the volume of real wealth production, allowing for imports and exports and for capital depreciation and appreciation — thereby ensuring there is always "effective demand" sufficient to clear markets in each productive period. All the statistics necessary are already available. The Monetary Authority must be independent of both bankers and politicians. Money should only be a mechanism by which we deal with things and not for bankers and their agents to gamble with. Private bankers do an essential job excellently keeping the Nation's books etc., and with guidelines, should remain as licensed distributing agents. Private enterprise has proved to be the most efficient producer and distributor, and is entitled to be supplied by bankers with adequate low cost finance. The consumer must be able to democratically dictate to the producer. Henry Raynel, Howick Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 12
We Hold These Truths The Hope of Monetary Reform By Richard C Cook
Published by Tendril Press, 2009. Price $US19.95
This new book is an edited collection of articles by the author, published on websites in the last two years, on the causes of the developing 'credit crunch' and its implications for the future. Each article covers a different aspect of his subject. Cook has a background of service in the US administration, including as a government analyst in the Treasury Department, from which he retired in January 2007; this has given him a valuable 'insider's view' of the economy, but his interest in the money system was started with his reading in 1979-80 of articles on Social Credit, the movement based on the ideas of Maj. C H Douglas, published in the 1920s in The New Age, by its editor, A R Orage. This convinced him of the basic flaw in the money system, of a chronic shortage of purchasing power 'compensated' by mushrooming levels of debt and eased by price-inflation (which reduces the real value of outstanding debts), leading to the multiple problems now climaxing. To remedy this, he identifies the need for National Dividends/Basic Incomes to distribute to everyone entitlement to the abundance now potentially available (and so,
COMPULSION? It’s time we had compulsory voting in this country. We already have compulsory levies, so why not compulsory voting. Australia has. I observed the previous election, in Woolongong. With a voting turnout of 95%, everyone heads towards the polling booths; they were taking an active interest in politics. Keith Clapham, Ruakaka Note: For the 2008 NZ general election, 95.31 of eligible voters enrolled. Of those, 79.46% cast a vote.
THE REAL ALTERNATIVE New purchasing power (money) would best be put in the hands of the ordinary person so he or she can retire debt at their level, as well as having sufficient purchasing power to be an effective consumer. Consumers need to be freer of debt so as to be able to pay the price created by manufacturers when producing and making goods available for sale. This would allow such goods to be better made use of and consumed.
giving them economic security) along with price-subsidies, funded with new money. A valuable addition to the literature on the current 'hot topic'. Extract from a review by Brian Leslie, editor 'Sustainanble Economics', February 2009.
Footnote: If the financial tsunami has not gotten to you yet, you will wake up one day and all is gone just as if a giant wave swept through taking 30, 40, 50 years of your life out to sea. No bailout for you. There is no one to call for help because Washington only hears and grants the requests of large campaign donors, usually organized corporate lobbyists. However, a growing number of citizens do know what is going on, understand and will take corrective action. No more looking out your lace curtains hoping others will take care of a problem for you - - - YOU need to participate this time - - everyone needs to read Richard Cook's book and get involved. Your quality of life depends on it. Marie Gunther, Producer of 'The Power Hour''
economy, which, if it weren't going in to new production or capital goods for the benefit of society, might give the potential for manufacturers to claim more through putting up their prices and so putting inflation into operation. There needs to be much more emphasis on balance in the system, and on available checks and balances, so as to avoid criticism of our Social Credit alternative as being likely to give rise to an increase in the money supply and lead to inflation. However, nothing could be more bizarre than the inverting of the pyramid of financial liquidity over the last 40 years. From just a few percent some 40 years ago, the rampant expansion of debt and derivatives to 88 percent today is perversion of the system of exchange. It is a dilution that has caught most of the world up in its falseness so much that they fail to see the deception and that they are paying the compounding interest cost on debt created out of nothing on a grand scale in every price they pay. Where will it all end?
Paying of the price would enable a manufacturer to repay any overdraft debt created by a bank out of nothing to provide funds for the manufacture of goods, and retired out of existence so as to maintain better balance in this system.
Let’s hope we can all do more to gain wider acceptance of the real alternative that Social Credit provides.
New credits for new production should always allow this cycle to run in an effective way, so long as there is sufficient distribution of purchasing power to consumers.
Letters should be sent to The Guardian Political Review, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, NZ. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: tony.cardy@democrats.org.nz.
Of course, some check may be needed so as to avoid any excess purchasing power in the
Tim Leitch, North Shore City
The editor reserves the right to edit or abridge. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the NZ Democratic Party for social credit.
1080
Poisoning Paradise By David Tranter Health Spokesman, Democrats for social credit
A few years ago I had no idea of the truth about fluoridation simply because the widely-promoted mis-information emanating from supposedly responsible sources ignored the downside of this enforced medication and played fast and loose with statistics which yet again illustrated that old saying; "There are lies, damned lies and statistics". More recently I experienced a similar awakening over 1080 poison, largely thanks to the indomitable West Coasters who have turned out in remarkable numbers in all weathers to protest against its use (including during a fearsome monsoon in Greymouth last year when our placards had to be carefully manoeuvred so as not to disappear into the far distance). Most recently I was fortunate enough to attend the premier in Hokitika of the Graf Boys' latest 1080 documentary "Poisoning Paradise - the Story of Ecocide in New Zealand", and even for someone well accustomed to horrific descriptions of the effects of this poison - which is rated in the United States as a top potential threat for use by terrorists I came away feeling renewed anger at the sheer bloody-mindedness of the authorities who continue to toss 1080 around in huge quantities including in waterways, domestic drinking water catchment areas, in public recreation areas such as picnic locations, on roads, on farmland in fact wherever their obsessive and relentless agenda takes them. Jackie Douglas, who organised the premiere, has been a grand campaigner on health issues for many years and has also led the charge against fluoridation, and folic acid in bread. (I will always remember her placard "HIDE YOUR PARSLEY" when she led a street march in Hokitika opposing government moves to hand control of alternative
The Diary of Adrian Bayly
DOC notice
medicines to an Australian-controlled committee). Perhaps most strikingly the documentary brought home to me the wider threat of permanent damage to the environment from the uptake of 1080 into commonly eaten plants such as watercress, in the litter on the forest floor and by those innumerable tiny creatures which live therein and are a crucial link in the entire wildlife food chain. That the Westland District Council moved in November 2008 to protect the public from aerially discharged 1080 into water catchments supplying drinking water, is a historic NZ precedent - and one that requires repeating throughout the rest of the country. I urge all those with a care for the environment and our future to see this documentary in order to get a counterbalance to the propaganda being spread around by those whose career ambitions predominate over common sense and humanity. 1080 poison is an indiscriminate killer. It's killing our native birds and wildlife, our pets, tourism, international export markets, our freedom to enjoy our great outdoors, and any credibility we ever had as a clean, green 100% pure nation. Paradise lost. Readers can order a copy of "Poisoning Paradise" by emailing the Graf Boys - thegrafboys@xtra.co.nz or by sending a cheque or money order for $45.00, with details to Clyde Graf, 5 Caeser Roose Drive, Glenview, Hamilton.
changes. All they agreed on was to continue growth and the free-market principles. Unless the global credit crisis is addressed, the world economy will collapse – as happened in the 1930s Great Depression.
12 December ’08 – JUST LIKE MULDOON
Nelson-based Adrian Bayly keeps a close eye on the political scene
14 November ’08 – ELECTION ‘08 Well, Election ’08 has come and gone. Seems that the people wanted a change after nine years of a Labour government. Let’s hope it’s not a return to the 1990s National government of Jim Bolger, when we had asset sales, the Employment Contracts Act, Crown Health Enterprises and Regional Health Authorities, the break-up of NZ Electricity into three SOEs, and elimination of Family Benefit. In Nelson the Democrats for social credit maintained its Party vote, receiving the same vote as in ’05.
18 November ’08 – NOTHING NEW
The G10 Summit in Washington DC on the global economic crisis, came up with no new Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 13
Governor General Anand Satyanand’s Speech From The Throne did not mention the high debt problem this country is facing, or any plan as to how to combat it. John Key is prepared to borrow $5 billion towards infrastructure development. This sounds like Rob Muldoon in the 1970s. National has not changed.
29 January '09 – WE HAVE THE ANSWER
The IMF reports that over 50 million people could lose their jobs. Availability of credit is now the problem. Social credit has the answer to debt financing – but will anyone listen to us?
14 February ‘09 - POWERLESS
The NZ Treasury is painting a bleak economic future and the Government is talking down its own economic stimulus plan. It admitted that this week’s major infrastructure package may do little to avert the recession. Finance Minister Bill English has agreed that they are powerless to prevent people losing their
jobs this year. Too many people are in debt and have had to cut their spending to essentials and put off buying new items. Many businesses are struggling to survive, and our farmers, fruit growers and timber merchants are feeling the effects of price drops and lack of demand.
16 February ‘09 – ONCE WERE GODS
On his webpage, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich says: “Once they were as gods, but the
deities of the American banking system are now in ruins, plunged from their pedestals into the maw of taxpayer largesse. Congress voted to give the banks $700 billion, lifting them temporarily out of their sepulchre of debt, while revealing a deep truth about the condition of America’s financial powers. They never had the money they said they had as they constructed the debt-based monetary system which now lies in ruins. Their decisions of behalf of depositors, shareholders and investors were lacking in basic integrity and common sense. Green gods bailing out with their golden parachutes. We have to make it possible to have a new monetary policy so we can show the Government’s role in creating money and spending it, so that we can rebuild America.”
- extracts from the nation's press Dunedin Community Star 29/1/09 Reserve Bank could help In 2007 there was an independent inquiry into local government rates in New Zealand. The Democrats for: Social Credit made a comprehensive submission to this inquiry and sent copies of their submission to all local bodies. I quote from that submission: "We recommend that the independent inquiry into local government rates make urgent requests to Government to source local body capital funding by utilising our own Reserve Bank of New Zealand, instead of borrowing from commercial trading banks. The infrastructure could be completed without the burden of interestbearing debt. “Loans could then be paid for once, not two or three times. And tomorrow's ratepayers would no longer be encumbered by servicing yesterday's debts. "The huge savings made by obtaining interest-free loans from the Reserve Bank will also solve the issue of intergenerational equity. Currently not only do the following generation pay their share of the principal but the interest costs they pay are often compounded into the debt as well. "With the loan-interest factor removed, the flow of funds currently collected by local bodies would go further. In addition, local bodies would be more able to keep pace with infrastructure needs, rather than putting off projects (eg social housing) due to lack of funding. "We of course place a rider on the above, and that is that the capital projects undertaken by local bodies would need ratepayer approval before they went ahead. "A similar approach was practised in New Zealand in the 1930s to fund reforestation, state housing and the roads. The New Zealand Dairy Board also had access to an overdraft facility at the Reserve Bank up until the 1980s. By using this very efficient, low-cost resource, the government laid the foundations of economic prosperity for many generations to follow. "Escape the bondage of the failed old
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 14
ideas that unfairly burden future generations of ratepayers, and use those ideas that have been successful." Bob Warren, Bob Warren Chairman, Democrats for Social Credit, Dunedin South Gisborne Herald. 4/10/08 If Helen Clark and John Key are at all serious about the financial health of our country, they will jointly move to restore the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to perform as intended when it was first nationalized by the first Labour Administration in 1936. Unfortunately I doubt either has the stomach to question the prevailing orthodoxy. Balance of payments, foreign exchange, housing market stability, employment, (apart from its present sole function of setting the base rate of interest) are key areas the bank should have to consider in an expanded role; to which should be added stringent control of credit (money) creation of the trading banks together with all financial institutions & derivative markets. The Reserve Bank can and should be directed to create interest free loans as well as grants, to assist Local Territorial Authorities as many struggle to meet the enormous capital costs of government mandated projects. (i.e. the forty plus million dollars needed to pay for Gisborne’s waste water project.) There is no item in the foregoing list that was not part of the original brief given to the RBNZ. The judicious use of this “Social Credit” was a tool used over the years in various ways. Uses including “monetising” government debt when deemed appropriate. Advocates for a fully functioning Reserve Bank of New Zealand are alive and well in the guise of “Democrats for Social Credit” Harry Alchin Harry Alchin Smith Smith, Gisborne The Nelson Mail 30/1/09 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its forecast for 2009 global growth from 2.2 per cent to 0.5 per cent and predicts that 50 million people will lose their jobs as the financial crisis hits workers and
employers in factories and offices worldwide. What we are witnessing is another great depression like the 1930s where financial collapse led to economic collapse and mass unemployment. The problem today has been too much debt spending and speculation on stockmarkets and property. If the US, UK and Australian governments think that their stimulus packages are going to be a quick fix to the present crisis, then they are kidding themselves. What's needed is a change to the financial system. Democrats for Social Credit have that change. View its webpage www.democrats.org.nz. Adrian Bayly, Nelson Otago Daily Times
Adrian Bayly
14/11/08
Financial crisis About now, and in light of the present global financial meltdown, people of a certain age who are possessed of a memory and the ability to think might be recalling the election slogan of the old Social Credit Party which effectively stated: Where there are the skills, the will, and the need, money should not be a limiting factor. Now there is an "inconvenient truth" for you. But even at that time (the 1970s), those "masters of the universe" who kindly "manage" the world's money for us peasants (and who, with transcendent irony, fell about with laughter at the very idea of Social Credit's "funny money") had already completely divorced money from the real goods and services it is meant to represent. When they went further and did away with the gold standard, the road to the present tragic/comedy farce was wide open. The astronomical sums that magically appear in countless computerised bank accounts — and then magically disappear into some unknown corner of cyber space — bear the same relation to reality as does most economic/financial thinking today. Very real, however, is the terrifying fact that such blind stupidity may have triggered a world economic collapse, which will take what remains of civilisation with it. Not for nothing does the Bible warn against the evils of usury. Colin Rawle, Dunedin
Otago Daily Times
December 6, 2008 (extract)
Tapping into argument A young mother ensconced in an organic farming community north of Dunedin is leading the charge against the city's fluoridated water supply, convinced those who drink it risk exposing themselves to toxic side effects. But why, exactly, should we listen? Chris Morris investigates.
HIDDEN behind the security fences inside Dunedin's Mt Grand water treatment plant, a small piece of metal inside a plastic pipe slowly rotates. The metal device is called an auger, and its job is simple — it chips away tiny pieces of a soft-looking white substance oozing from inside the pipe. The white flakes drop into another pipe and disappear, whisked away to mix with Dunedin's drinking water. The white flakes are bits of sodium silicofluoride - or, simply, fluoride - a chemical added to Dunedin's drinking water since 1966, and now piped to 85% of the city's homes. It is a public health measure credited by health professionals with reducing rates of tooth decay by 15%, and is described by the United States-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century But there is another view - held by some internationally and by a small but committed band of campaigners in Dunedin - that sees fluoridation not as a saviour but as unwanted "mass medication". Put simply, opponents fear all who drink fluoridated water risk being poisoned. It is a bold claim that has sparked heated exchanges, both within the Dunedin City Council's chambers, in email correspondence and through newspapers' letters to the editor sections across the country. It appears a David and Goliath struggle those opposed to fluoride are taking on the weight of Dunedin's medical institutions, including the University of Otago School of Dentistry, Public Health South and the Otago District Health Board, as well as the Ministry of Health, who all support water fluoridation. However, anti-fluoride campaigners can claim some successes, after arguing their case with such vehemence that Dunedin city councillors voted for a "compromise" agreement on the city's fluoridation policy at a meeting on November 3. After weeks of lobbying, many councillors were left admitting they could not decide between the various claims and counter-claims. Instead, they voted to maintain the existing split between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas of the city, and committed to community consultation before any changes. In Dunedin, Olive McRae (26) is one of those leading the charge against fluoride. She is the Dunedin representative of Fluoride Action Network New Zealand (FANNZ), a campaign group and incorporated society that emerged in Wellington in 2003, affiliated to the older international Fluoride Action Network. Ms McRae formed the Dunedin branch last Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 15
Olive McRae: "The risks far exceed any perceived benefit"
year and has since been actively campaigning against water fluoridation across Otago. Her voice has been heard by Dunedin's councillors, health experts and residents across the city. It is also the belief her 3-year-old daughter is at risk, she said. "When I became a mother, I decided to make the choice not to medicate my daughter as the risks far outweigh any perceived benefit. "I am lucky enough to be able to make an informed choice about the medication I expose my daughter to. Unfortunately, many parents do not have the information available to them in order to make an informed choice." She compared her branch, and the national FANNZ movement, to other non-profit community organisations established by concerned citizens. "We are all volunteers with no vested interests other than the health and personal rights of the people in our communities. "We feel strongly about the issue of fluoridation as we believe it is harmful to health and that every citizen should have the right to a public water supply free from medication." Ms McRae conducts her campaign from home, pulling together research by international organisations, such. as the National Academy of Science and American Dental Association, peer-reviewed studies and reviews. A pamphlet, prepared with support by FANNZ, cited the case of a 17-year-old who died from osteosarcoma - bone cancer - and said there was "an 85% chance" the teen's condition was caused by water fluoridation.
opposed fluoridation, but felt their professional reputations were at stake if they spoke publicly, she said. And, nationally, FANNZ's membership included doctors, dentists and other health professionals, PhD research chemists, lawyers, and other professionals, she said. Ms McRae continues to call for a city-wide referendum on the future of fluoridated water, as a step towards achieving a public water supply "free from medication". "We don't believe the Dunedin councillors have a democratic mandate to fluoridate," she said The city's anti-fluoride campaigners do have their supporters - both within the community and among city councillors. Debates within council chambers have, at times, become heated, and some votes have been close. When Cr Guest described anti-fluoride campaigners as "akin to quacks and snake oil merchants" during a committee meeting last month, an angry Cr Fliss Butcher retorted by raising the spectre of thalidomide while arguing against “mass medication”. Another, Cr Paul Hudson, told the Otago Daily Times that he had been researching fluoride and its effects since the 1980s and was opposed to the chemical’s use. He supported calls for a city-wide referendum on fluoride’s continued use. “If we have referendums associated with rubbish and drainage, surely we should be consulting people about what we are compulsorily putting into their drinking water,” he said.
The New Zealand Dental Association complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), alleging the pamphlet's claims were "highly misleading" and amounted to scaremongering. The ASA agreed.
It is a debate that shows no sign of letting up. As Cr Cull explained: "There's no possible compromise that will satisfy both sides. Either the stuff is in our water or it's not.
The national co-ordinator of FANNZ, Wellington-based Mark Atkin, accused the ASA of double standards, saying district health boards were still allowed to publish "factually incorrect information” about fluoride.
Olive McRae is the Democrats for social credit candidate for Dunedin North.
Ms McRae insisted her organisation had the support of "many individuals and organisations throughout Dunedin and Otago" including local iwi, the organic sector and other community groups. There were also "at least four dentists" and "a number of doctors" within Dunedin who
Say NO to Fluoride
WORLD NEWS 2008 Bromsgrove Conference The 2008 Bromsgrove Conference was held on 3rd - 5th October. It was another record-breaker, with the most-ever attendees. The Organiser, Alistair McConnachie opened the Conference, describing the theme: ''We have the Answer to the Crisis'. The evening was devoted to watching several U-Tube videos of US Congressman Dennis Kucinich (see separate article).
On Sunday, New Zealander Jamie Walton presented a report: ‘Around the World Again – Tales Alistair McConnachie of an Amateur Travelling Money Reformer in 200708’, about his money reform-related work, observations and impressions since Bromsgrove 2007, especially his role in organising the 4th American Monetary Institute (AMI) Conference (see below).
The following day, Rev. Canon Peter Challen gave a passionate round-up of the reforming efforts happening throughout the world.
The 2009 Bromsgrove Conference will be held at the same venue from 2nd to 4th October.
2008 American Monetary Institute Conference From a report by New Zealander Jamie Walton The 4th annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference started on Thursday 25 September in Chicago.
included Prof. Nicolaus Tideman, economist and former Senior Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors at the White House in the early 1970s, David Kelley, legal, financial and economic researcher, writer and advisor to Dennis Kucinich, and Stephen Zarlenga.
The conference convener, Stephen Zarlenga, Director and co-founder of the AMI, kicked-off proceedings with an outline of the purpose, objectives and methodology of the AMI.
The feature sessions included speakers Prof. Michael Hudson, economist and wellknown author, columnist and commentator on economics, Dr. George Crowell, theologian, monetary reformer, and lecturer in social ethics, and Geoff Garver, environmental law and policy consultant..
After the opening address, some of the longtime stalwarts of the AMI presented the many ways that the money issue affects every facet of our lives. Speakers included Ken Bohnsack, the founder of the Sovereignty public body financing reform, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who telephoned in to Stephen Zarlenga’s mobile phone, who patched the call in to the P.A. system to the cheers of the audience!
The conference then adjourned for the dinner and awards ceremony. The worthy recipient of the AMI lifetime achievement award was James Robertson, highly respected monetary reformer and distinguished civil servant from the UK. The award was accepted on his behalf by Alistair McConnachie, also from the UK.
Friday speakers included William Bergman, economist and former research analyst with the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, and Dr. Edward Chambers, the former trainer of Barack Obama in community organizing.
On Sunday, all conference participants were encouraged to give their input on the draft legislation of the AMI, and on the way forward with political actions for the following 12 months
Saturday's theme was usury. Speakers
until the next AMI conference in 2009. This was the most successful AMI conference to date. Stephen Zarlenga From a personal perspective, I found it exhilarating and energizing being amongst such a diverse and dedicated group of intelligent and interesting people. In fact, what impressed me most of all was the quality of the audience; the quality of their questions to the speakers and comments on the presentations, the seeking of clarification or more details on important points. For me, this was the defining feature of the whole conference experience. It shows we are in good shape for the times ahead. The Venue for the 2009 AMI Monetary Reform Conference is again at Roosevelt University, Chicago, from Sept. 24-27th. Note: Jamie Walton gave a summary of New Zealand history and history of monetary policy.
The Chinese banking system By Les Hunter Part of an address to the 2008 Democrats for social credit Conference The Chinese banking system is based on the principle that the state should own and control the means of exchange - money. On December 1, 1948 the People's Bank of China was established and in 1949 moved to Beijing, where it remains. The government's aim clearly appeared to be to implement the Marxist maxim of the nationalisation of the means of exchange and, from 1949 to 1978, China had but one bank, which had a monopoly over the issue of all forms of money with cheque money by far the most important. In the 1980s, the commercial banking functions were split off into four independent, but state-owned, banks. The commercial banks were charged with making a profit. They were allowed to create credit (cheque money) and issue it in response to the profit motive. The effect was that industrialists would have undoubted priority of access to available Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 16
Chinese social product. Each of the banks was to specialise in granting credit to industry, agriculture, construction and trade. Most of the money granted was a recycling of savings deposited at interest with the banks. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, founded in 1984, is the largest of China's four state-owned commercial banks and, as its name suggests, specialises in providing industry with credit. Minority private shareholding of 22.14% of free-market capitalisation has been granted in what has become the world's largest bank in terms of market value. The value of loans granted is to the order of 3,500 billion yuan, which have allowed China to industrialise at the greatest and most consistent rate in world history. The figure indicates the extent to which Chinese social product has been made available and consumed by those specializing
in the great number and range of tasks associated with Chinese industrialisation.
Les Hunter
The Chinese as yet do not use social credit as the means of funding the creation of social assets designed to cater for need. This might come once it is decided, as a matter of policy, that a greater amount of available social product can be diverted to sustain those engaged in improving the quality of life. Les Hunter is the author of the book 'Courage to Change - A case for monetary reform', available from the author at 31 Pacific Cove Drive, Papamoa, Mount Maunganui 3118, email: les.hunter @clear.net.nz. Special price to Guardian readers: $10.00 post paid.
Whitmill's World Colin J Whitmill reports from the U.K.
Why do you want that degree? A Kent University research team has found that a third of graduates are receiving no financial benefit from their degrees. Among male graduates, 33.2% end up in non-graduate jobs five years after leaving university and it was similar for young women. (Sunday Times 31-8-08 ) The ones who benefit are the banks. They have another commodity - education - by which they can create more money and profit from the interest imposed. But Vanessa, 25, has a debt of about $50,000 and said But you are under the impression that if you have a degree, you’re really employable. Graduates now earn 40% less than if they had found a job where a degree was necessary.
Profit first - customers last A teacher, who sought a £50 note from his local Lloyds TSB bank to give as a special present, offered two £20 notes and one £10 note in exchange. The bank staff were quite willing to make this exchange provided he paid an administration fee of £5. I suppose the bank has to get as much cash as possible as LloydsTSB recently paid a $350 million penalty to the United States authorities after admitting falsifying records to enable unacceptable clients in Iran, Libya and Sudan to do business with US banks. Lloyds TSB used to own NZ’s National Bank.
Thinking and Common Sense When we think naturally and use common sense to address problems we will be able to arrive at simple solutions. But our education system tortures us mentally and forces us to think in complicated ways. Our teachers, economists, politicians and so-called experts in God and religion make mountains out of mole-hills, turning simple truths to complex arguments and "scientific theories and equations". These experts need to make things look difficult to survive and to make sure that we have to rely upon them for solutions. It is often said that, "in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the King".
failed. To the defence came the Sunday Times columnist David Smith who, in an article [11-109] explained that “Printing money“, to be clear, is not the same as printing money. This is not a cash economy. The value of notes and coin in circulation is £51.6 billion, less than 3% of £1.9 trillion of “broad” money in Britain, M4, consisting of bank deposits and the corresponding lending. Printing money means getting broad money growing faster through so called quantitative easing. The effect is to boost broad money, M4. Or, if none of this works, the central bank can lend directly into the economy, using the banks as its agents. [my emphasis - CJW]
Too much money sloshing around A leading economist, Tim Congdon, in The Sunday Times [3-8-08] said I told you so. In 2007, he had warned the House of Commons that he was worried. The problem he saw was that the Bank of England from mid 2004 to 2007 had allowed too rapid a growth in the quantity of money. In his article he said that he was not claiming that money numbers were easy to interpret or that inflation risks of high money growth were obvious,
Thinking used to be a pleasure and so very invigorating. But now experts have ensured that thinking is difficult and tiring, so burdensome, that we don't think at all.
Most money consists nowadays of bank deposits, but a deduction is necessary for artificial deposit creation between financial institutions and within banking groups.
The result is that common sense is thrown out of the window, and we have been conditioned to rely on our mental crutch, the so-called experts to think for us. [Matthias Chang, a prominent barrister and author based in Malaysia. His website is www.FutureFastForward.com]
By mid 2006, the Bank of England ought to have realised something was wrong. As the Bank itself publishes enough information for an analyst to identify the scale of artificial deposit creation, it ought to have known the underlying money growth had accelerated to double-digit rate and posed an inflationary threat.
They wouldn’t tell us this before The British Conservative Party, which has exposed itself for having absolutely no idea how to overcome the present man made financial depression, revealed its views when its financially wealthy economic spokesman blasted proposed plans for quantitative easing . [creating money] George Osborne said the very fact that the Treasury is speculating about printing money shows that Gordon Brown has led Britain to the brink of bankruptcy. Printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 17
Even with artificial deposit creation between financial institutions deducted from the money measure M4 (consisting of notes and coin, and nearly all bank and building society deposits), money growth was still above 10% in 2005, 2006 and early 2007. Whitmill’s World asks whether it is time politicians realised that the proper control of the money supply, and of inflation, can only be undertaken by other than privately owned institutions and that the money supply cannot be properly curbed by inflation generating interest rates?
Prior to 1995, a British committee of enquiry was told that tens of thousands of qualified students faced being turned away from university because the Tory (i.e. Conservative not Labour) government thought it would not be profitable to spend public money on educating them for dead-end jobs or relatively low careers. Then came the idea that as long as tertiary education wasn’t funded by taxpayers - higher taxpayers especially - but the cost could be lumbered on to the students by way of bank debts, then all would be well. The rich would keep more of their money not salted away in tax havens, the banks could profit by creating more money and the poor could be kept in their place.
Crash course in understanding banking wanted The news media do not want to let people think that the financial system is faulty - after all they, and politicians, depend upon the largesse of the banking fraternity to keep them in their positions. However when individuals in the news media are affected, they sometimes start to question things. Jeremy Clarkson, a BBC employee involved in car programmes, in his column for The Sunday Times [28-9-08] reported that at a dinner he overheard a banker mention that the Union Bank of Switzerland was in trouble. As his life savings were held by that institution, he switched them to a company he had never heard of - AIG (American International Group) When AIG revealed its financial problems, he tried to retrieve his savings from them, but was told that the fund was shut and would remain closed for three months while it tried to sell assets. Clarkson said he decided to try a two-week course in understanding banking. His conclusion There isn’t a single person in the entire world who has the first idea how the system works. [His reading must be limited] He quoted a letter he received from AIG which may have lead to this conclusion. Perhaps members or supporters of the National, Labour, ACT, Green and other parties favouring the privately owned financial services industry they worship could explain it. I am sure Mr Clarkson would appreciate their advice. AIG, which was saved by the American taxpayer, wrote Approximately $307 billion…..of the $441 billion in notional exposure of AIGFP’s super senior credit default swap portfolio represented (continued on next page)
(Whitmill's World continued)
derivatives written for financial institutions, principally in Europe, for the purpose of providing regulatory capital relief rather than risk mitigation. In exchange for a guaranteed fee, the counterparties Jeremy Clarkson receive credit protection with respect to diversified loan portfolios they own, thus improving their regulatory capital position. (See Jeremy Clarkson feature item 'Crash')
Big Brother to get more powers I have outlined in previous WWs how civil liberties and freedoms have been severely eroded under Labour. Now they want more. 35,000 emails are sent every second in Britain. Now Labour want access to every single one and information as to what web sites each person visits. The public are told it is essential in order that the security authorities and the Police can trace terrorist activity. It probably is, but what about the billions of emails and web site visits that have nothing to do with terrorism? With this interception modernisation programme, all emails are to be analysed, a computer will sift through them and interesting emails and web sites visited will be placed on a data base operated by the private sector - and costing the taxpayer $33,000,000 million to operate. No one knows exactly how to ensure police and intelligence agencies do not abuse their access to the database. The opportunity for corruption and suppression of liberty and free thought is enhanced in the name of anti terrorism. The financial collapse of Icelandic banks indicates, actually once again, how anti-terrorist measures are used other than that for which they were introduced. Gordon Brown froze Icelandic assets under anti-terrorist legislation; a local council monitored, through CCTV and other anti criminal and terrorist tools available to them, some parents to see where they went and whether they did live where they said they did, all to see if their child qualified to be in a school catchment area; and some councils use the anti terrorist surveillance equipment to check to see if residents are abiding by council rubbish disposal directions. Labour still plans that everybody in Britain have an identity card with all their personal information embodied in it and details maintained on a giant data base. And the system has just begun. As Simon Jenkins in his final Sunday Times column [26-10-08] commented The war on terror has been a wretched blind alley in British political history. It has revealed all that is worst in British government - its authoritarianism, its sloppiness and its unaccountability. Yet restoring the status quo ante will be phenomenally hard. In all my years of writing this column, I have been amazed at the spinelessness of Britain’s elected representatives in defending liberty and protesting against state arrogance. Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 18
Well, why not? So what about a few strokes of the pen to get New Zealand moving again; our own money, to do our own things, in our own way? Without any help from multi-national corporations or international money lenders? Why won’t they? Because they’re wedded to a system of money-creation that was invented in the fourteenth century, never worked well for ordinary people, and is now more than five hundred years more out-of-date than the first motor car. (Advertisement NZ Herald 16/9/80)
National Dividend the public can’t be trusted Simon Jenkins in a lengthy article [Guardian 31-12-08] said Early this month, I suggested simply giving the lavish sums, being expended on banks, to consumers in the form of a three month spending coupon, say, £300 [$750] a month. It puts money into the economy rather than taking it out as do banking subsidies. The proposals critics fell back on Britain’s patrician traditional economic control. Giving people (their own) was vulgar. It should be laundered through those who know about such things , such as bankers.
Got it in one Sixteen market economists wrote to the Sunday Telegraph arguing that higher public spending risks seriously misallocating resources. The leader writer in the New Statesman [311-08] observed It is not the government, but the privately owned financial services industry that has been misallocating resources on a grand scale. The surprise is that these economists have the audacity to make public statements at all, instead of going away for a few years to rework their discredited theories.
Discredited theories, the cause of the financial collapse, are trotted out again as the answer Commenting on the November 2008 G8 leaders’ summit, Ann Pettifor writing in the New Statesman 24-11-08 said Even more questionable is the call for continued economic growth. In a world of finite resources on a planet with limited capacity to absorb toxic emissions, we would have hoped that world leaders had some awareness of the threat of climate change and of the limits to economic growth. But no. The gravest threat to global security our rapacious attitude to the earth’s resources - is once again whipped up with talk of ‘market principles, open trade and economic growth'.
The free market must be defended - someone asks why In response to a Financial Times article why free markets must be defended, a letter writer to the FT [31-12-08] commented that large numbers of people in the financial sector have made huge amounts of money while acting irresponsibly, recklessly, incompetently, or dishonestly, is beyond doubt. That huge
numbers of “little people” are now going to pay the price for this is also beyond doubt. ……….. to suggest this was a complex and unforeseen failure of the market is a gross and self-serving distortion of the facts.
I come cheaper and better value too Ex Us President Bill Clinton on 16 November 2008 gave a speech in Kuwait on the world financial crisis for which he was paid $500,000 by the National Bank of Kuwait. It was Clinton who signed the US Financial Services Modernisation Act 1999 which revoked regulatory restraints on Wall Street bankers leading eventually to the financial debt time bomb which exploded last year. Was his address a confession of his part in the free market greed bandwagon? I doubt it.
Too late, they’ve gone Today, unscrupulous moneychangers like the head of Lehman Brothers stand condemned by millions - robbed of their money, their pensions, their homes and their futures. Too late, the moneychangers have taken their gains and fled, leaving bankruptcy, losses and a systemic global financial crisis behind. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money, Roosevelt said of other unscrupulous moneychangers in 1933. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of selfseekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The moneychangers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilisation. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. ( Ann Pettifor )
Don’t even think about it For a massive majority of people, monetary justice is not very much a topic to speak, or even, think about. That’s why we’re in the mess we are. (Mortimer Russell)
The State Bank Option Ellen Brown in a December 2008 article advises that the states of the USA could charter their own state-owned banks that issue low-interest credit on the fractional reserve model. Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution says that states shall not "emit bills of credit," which has been interpreted to mean they cannot issue their own paper currency. But there is no rule against a state owning or chartering a bank that issues ten times its deposit base in loans, using standard fractional reserve principles. (continued on next page)
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Precedent for this approach is found in the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation's only state-owned bank. BND was formed in 1919 to encourage and promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. Its primary deposit base is the State of North Dakota, and state law requires that all state funds and funds of state institutions be deposited with the bank. The bank's earnings belong to the state, and their use is at the discretion of the state legislature. As an agent of the state, BND can make subsidized loans to spur economic and agricultural development, and it is more lenient than other banks in pressing foreclosures. Under a program called Ag PACE (Agriculture Partnership in Assisting Community Expansion), the interest on loans made by BND and local lenders may be reduced to as low as 1 percent. North Dakota remains fiscally sound at a time when other state governments swim in red ink, and its educational system is particularly strong. While disruptions in capital markets have hampered student loan operations elsewhere, BND continues to operate a robust student loan business and is one of the nation's leading banks in the number of student loans issued. North Dakota's fiscal track record is particularly impressive considering that its economy consists largely of isolated farms in an inhospitable climate. Ready low-interest credit from its own state-owned bank may help explain this unusual success.
The European State won’t take “no” for an answer It was announced in early December 2008 that the Irish, who voted the previous June to reject the new European State constitution, will be forced to vote again, and presumably again and again, until they give the correct answer. At least the Irish were allowed to vote. The British weren’t. As it was reported in the Sunday Times [14-12-08] everyone knows Labour promised at the 2005 general election to hold a referendum on the proposed EU constitution. Everyone knows that Blair and Brown broke that promise. Brown then sneakily signed the Lisbon treaty, knowing full well that most British voters would have said no. But Brown wasn’t having no. He wasn’t having democracy.
Perhaps anyone could do the job Rod Liddle [Sunday Times 14-12-08] wrote To raise money for charity, Prince Harry took to the floor as a dealer for Icap, the brokers, and while working overnight, secured a £10 billion deal through something called a sterling overnight index swap (or “Sonia“). It leaves an important question. Is Harry with his two A-levels [art and geography] really a genius? Or is it the case that “ the masters of the universe” in the City are dependent upon sheer, blind luck and anyone could do the job?
“Made-off with ya money“ One of Britain’s allegedly brightest super fund money managers in May 2008 is said to have described Bernard Madoff, a prominent well respected Wall Street money trader, as being very, very good at calling the US equity market…. This guy has managed to return 1% Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 19
to 1.2% per month, year after year after year. All he was doing. apparently, was running a pyramid scheme, paying “earnings” less a management fee with money from new investors and from investors’ own funds. The mighty and the famous, hedge fund Bernard Madoff operators, banks, pension funds etc., willingly poured their funds, and those of its investors, into this Ponzi scheme and lost $50 billion. In a BBC radio programme, some so-called expert was asked why nobody suspected that something was wrong and why did people continue to pour money into the venture. The answer was given that no one suspected anything as Madoff was a well respected financier, and such people aren’t questioned. This answer was reminiscent of a Yes Prime Minister television episode when a banker was said to be corrupt, but was recommended for a high profile job because he was a good chap, one of us.
compared their economic forecasts with what actually happened in regards to growth, inflation, unemployment, bank rate etc. The organisations could score a maximum of 10. Topping the lists were two banks, Standard Chartered and HSBC with 5 points only. The OECD was in place 28 with 2 points, the European Commission in place 32 also with 2 points, the UK Treasury in 37th place with 1 point and the IMF in last place with no points at all. Simon Jenkins writing in the Guardian [3112-08] commented This is the mob that brought us City [financial] deregulation and the house price bubble. Yet I doubt if a single one has been upbraided, let alone sacked. This is not some City luncheon parlour game. As a result of the arrogance of these economic managers, a million people [in Britain] will lose their jobs next year and tens of thousands their houses, yet all they think to do is take more money from spending and give it to savers, to their beloved City banks.
Money to automobile manufacturers going the wrong way Why tax people to build cars they do not want, rather than giving them money to buy cars they do. [Simon Jenkins 31-12-08]
World War I debt not yet paid off Report from The Sunday Times Money Section [21-12-08] The events are driving asset managers into unusual investments in a dash for income and high returns. For example, Hugh Hendry of Eclectica Asset management is buying first world war debt on the bet that Britain is due for its worst round of deflation since the 1930’s Depression.
We could have done with that money Labour introduced a $50 billion fiscal stimulation package - such as one off payment of $150 for pensioners - and will meet the shortfall by borrowing , from the banks of course, to be repaid with interest by taxpayers. However, Britain’s top companies avoid paying $87 billion in tax a year through the use of tax havens - some of which like the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man - are closer to England than Picton is to Wellington. Wealthy individuals - sorry, doesn’t include me - avoid $20 billion in tax a year. [Guardian 31 -12-08]
Who rescues economies? Banking is a profession that excels at making money for itself. For ten years it mesmerised Blair and Brown who showered it with tax loopholes, offshore profits, PFI contracts and vacuous consultancies. Frustrated ministers seem unaware that banking does not rescues economies. They rescue banks. [Simon Jenkins]
Expert economic forecasters a failure The Sunday Times [28-12-08] compiled a list of 42 public and private organisations and
Fluoride problems lead to purchase of donkeys Jill Peeters and a news crew of VTM, a Belgian television station, have a project in Kenya to help the El Molo tribe that live and fish by Lake Turkana. They have bought 35 donkeys for the villagers. Climate change has meant the level of the lake, from which the tribe used to obtain their water, is falling by 60 centimetres a year. The concentration of minerals - so reports Francis Wilson in The Sunday Times [5-10-08] especially fluorides, is increasing causing rotting teeth, spongy bones and cancer. The donkeys are used to transport cleaner water from an oasis 8 kilometres. With the new donkey run, the children’s teeth are turning from black to white again and life expectancy is looking up.
Rights and Humanity The international group, the Rights and Humanity Global Leaders Emergency Congress, whose patron is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. met in London from 23-25 February 2009, the venue having been transferred from South Africa because of the financial situation. Its main purpose was to discuss and agree a communiqué which was to be delivered to the G20 summit gathering on 3 April 2009. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to attend the congress, engagements permitting, or send a ministerial representative. At the specific request of the organisers, the chairman of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice, Rev Peter Challen was asked to participate in a planning group drafting a communique for consideration by the Congress because the organisers wanted the monetary issue introduced. (END)
Understanding Credit Problems By John G. Rawson President Northern Region Democrats for social credit
In view of the confusing and sometimes downright misleading statements made about the present crisis, a factual statement to explain the situation is overdue. Approximately ninety seven percent of our money supply consists of electronic money created by the banking system. With some seasonal fluctuations, particularly over the Christmas period, notes and coins issued by the Reserve Bank and belonging to the nation form only about three percent of it. The commercial banking system, worldwide, is known as “fractional reserve banking”. This means that banks can create and lend money many times the value of their financial reserves. Their deposits, money owed to customers, may build up to a similar proportion. When a bank provides a customer with an overdraft authority to borrow up to, say, ten thousand dollars, that amount of credit is created. When the customer draws on this credit and makes payments to other accounts, at the same or another bank, the deposits created become, by definition, part of the money supply (M1 or higher). As well as reserves, banks have assets resulting from the loans they have made, i.e. money owed to them by borrowers. Normally they are secured by pledged assets that can be taken and sold if the
borrower defaults, although the recent housing “bubble” in the USA appears to have been financed largely without adequate securities. No bank has sufficient reserves to pay out more than a small fraction of its depositors at once and it takes time to sell a property, which also may have lost value in a crisis. If the public suddenly loses confidence in any bank, it faces failure. The system survives only because this seldom happens, because public faith prevents such a “run” on any bank. In the USA, despite massive Government borrowing and spending on production for war, outsourcing of jobs overseas and other factors have led to increased unemployment. This in turn has led to defaults on home mortgages, placing institutions specialising in this field at risk. It is attempts by the banks to prevent “crashes” becoming more general, that have led to the so-called “credit crunch”. Banks are still able to manufacture money and lend it as before, but lack of public confidence makes it no longer safe for them to do so. Except, of course, for very safe loans of hundreds of billions of dollars to governments to pay back to some banks to “rescue” them. In the early history of modern banking, it was not unusual for a “strong” bank to undermine public faith in a competitor and use the resulting run on it to put it
John G Rawson
out of business or to take it over. It may be significant that the present crisis has led to takeovers occurring on grand scale overseas, particularly in America, where some appear to have been financed by Government “bailouts”. What this crisis has shown, not for the first time, is that when the banks get into trouble, Governments have to step in, at considerable cost, to restore faith. This is part of the reason why immense sums have been borrowed from the banking system and then lent back to them to “build up their reserves”. Calling these sums “taxpayer funds”, despite the fact no nation has spare tax funds of this magnitude, perhaps adds to the mystique. The same result could, of course, have been achieved by the central banks providing the money without forcing the nations further into debt in the process. What should be kept clearly in mind is that there is nothing natural or climatic behind the situation. No disaster has caused crops to fail; nothing physical has occurred to hinder production of goods or services. What we have is simply a glitch in our financial accounting system, which clearly needs reform. J.G.R Dec. 08
From the Whitmill archives Some more personal photos of 1981 from Colin Whitmill's album
Bobbie Smith campaigning in Horowhenua. Anyone for a dip? Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 20
Even garages were put to good use, by Eric Elliott and Rod Carlisle.
WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?
NEWS BITES - hunting through the media jungle! THE BIGGEST ISSUE
MASS MEDICATION
Just in case politicians have not realised that the economy is a big issue, a survey by UMR Research shows that forty-three percent of New Zealanders have nominated the economy as the biggest issue. This is the highest for all issues in the history of the survey.
An amendment to a EU directive would affect six million people in the UK who drink, cook with and bathe in fluoridated water. It means that, when fluoride is added to water with the intent to medicate, the water becomes a medicine and must comply with the regulations relating to the registration, licensing, sale and administration of medicines. Professor Vyvyan Howard, Toxico-Pathologist in the Centre for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Ulster welcomed this: “I am glad that there now appears to be a legal framework to test the dubious practice of mass medication via the water supply.”
NZPA 19/12/08
MAJOR SPIRITUAL CRISIS Let us make no bones about it. This financial crisis is a major spiritual crisis. It is the crisis of a society that worships at the temples of consumption, and that has isolated and often abandoned millions of consumers now trapped on a treadmill of debt. It is the crisis of a society that values the capital gains of the rentier more highly than the rights of people to a home, or an education or health. It is the crisis of a society that idolises money above love, community, wellbeing and the sustainability of our planet. And it is a crisis, in my view, for faith organisations that have effectively colluded in this idolatry, by tolerating the sin of usury Ann Pettifor, Guardian (UK)11/10/08 (Item supplied by Colin Whitmill)
BEYOND GREED! BEYOND GREED Perhaps it is time for a democratic debate about the effect of greed on our society. Greed exists when anyone puts their wants over someone else’s needs and seeks to establish and maintain advantage at all costs. Fay Lambert, Sunday Star-Times 17/8/08
PETITION TO PARLIAMENT "Petitioners request that the House of Commons urges the Government to bring forward legislation to enable the Bank of England to issue interest-free loans for public, environmental and clean electricity capital projects such loans to be repaid and, on repayment, cancelled thereby halving or more the usual cost in a non-inflationary way." Presented to Parliament (11/11/08) by Norman Baker MP on behalf of the London Global Table. (Item supplied by Barbara Panvel)
BUSY DOING NOTHING The mood in 2008 was for a change of government. To win, all National had to do was nothing. This, of course, played to National’s greatest strength and natural inclinations. Michael Cullen, NZ Listener 24/1/09
Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 2`
From Barbara Panvel, U.K.
B.C.I.R. “The political system has so dissolved that all the public can do is shout, ‘No’. If we had a full, functioning democracy, the public would do more than just scream, ‘No’. They would have proposals and would insist that their representatives act on those proposals.” Noam Chomsky, NZ Listener 13/12/08 (See feature BCIR in this issue)
CURRENCIES CONFERENCE The 2009 Communities Currencies Conference will be held in Wanganui on April 17-19. The theme is ‘Trading through troubled waters – creating resilient communities’. It will “explore the how and why to building viable working systems of trade and barter that respect and nourish wellbeing”. The keynote speaker is author and international monetary expert Thomas H. Greco, Jr., whose soon-tobe-released book is entitled ‘The End of Money and the Future of Civilization’. Other speakers include Bryan Innes – speaking on interest-free money – and Deidre Kent, author of ‘Healthy Money Healthy Planet’. Registration details available from PO Box 7327, Wanganui 4500, Tel: 06 3455 048. Website: www.sustainablewhanganui.org.nz.
NO CHANGE? Obama claims that his vast campaign wealth comes from small individual donors, yet he has also received funds from some of the most notorious looters on Wall Street. Moreover, the dove and candidate of change has voted repeatedly to fund George W Bush’s rapacious wars, and now demands more war in Afghanistan while he threatens to bomb Pakistan. The lesson learned is that no presidential candidate, least of all a Democrat awash with money from America’s “banksters”, as Franklin Roosevelt called them, can or will challenge a militarised system that controls and rewards him. Obama’s job is to present a benign, even progressive face that will revive America’s democratic pretensions, internationally and domestically, while ensuring nothing of substance changes. John Pilger, Otago Daily Times 3/11/08
The big question of 2008 is “Where is the money?” It just keeps disappearing. There was $4 trillion plus that disappeared from the US government between 1998 and 2002 along with the pump-and-dump of the Internet and telecom stocks and Enron. Since then and into 2008, funds keep disappearing into the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. Now we have $700 billion in bailouts and $7 trillion plus in loans by the Fed, not to mention the $5 trillion in mortgage market liabilities assumed by the Federal government with the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The fraud in the US mortgage bubble was clearly enormous. But, where did all the money go? Catherine Austin Fitts, Scoop 23/12/08 Item supplied by Doug Lever. See ‘Bailout’ feature in this issue
CITY IN HOCK Interest on the $92.8 million the Dunedin City Council plans to borrow this year is set to cost the city $9.5 million a year for the next 20 years (totalling $190 million). More is expected to be borrowed next year. The capital value of Dunedin city will be used as security for the loans, effectively meaning banks could place a claim on rates income if the city was unable to meet its repayments. The council will borrow $45.8 million to be repaid over 20 years at 7.5%, and $46.9 million at 9% on an interestonly basis. The gross interest expense will represent 14.4% of total rates revenues. Otago Daily Times 7/11/08.
Footnote: The Dunedin City Council has approved plans to build a new multi-million dollar stadium, involving additional debt, despite a recent poll showing that a majority of residents oppose the cost to ratepayers. It would carry a debt of $108 million from July 2011. In return for sponsorship, it is to be called the Forsyth Barr Stadium News item: New Zealand investors are currently facing losses of $65 million on a complex bond issue promoted by broker Forsyth Barr. Sunday Star-Times 1/2/09
GONE TO ‘MONEY HEAVEN’ Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, has been accused of masterminding a fraud of epic proportions in which investors may lose $50 billion. A hedge fund manager said “It appears that billions of dollars have gone to ‘money heaven’". Reuters 15/12/08 See 'Whitmill's World' item
NOT GOOD PRACTICE The ‘Cullen Fund’ has lost $2.8 billion in the past few months. University of Auckland Retirement Policy and Research Centre codirector Michael Littlewood says “Why on earth are New Zealand taxpayers directly exposed to the sharemarket? There can be no possible justification for that. We’re borrowing to put money into the sharemarket and that’s not good practice.” NZ Listener 14/2/09
We have lost sight of the moral purpose of money. We have entangled ourselves in the chains of debt, longer than those of Scrooge, or his partner, Marley, with little to show for our enslavement. Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York (see feature article)
BORROWING TO SPEND The Government intends borrowing and spending its way out of the current recession, finance minister Bill English indicated. By 2013, gross debt is forecast to increase by $40.3 billion to $71.6 billion - 33.1%, of GDP. Otago Daily Times 19/12/08
QUOTE: “Accumulating debt places a burden on future generations and this is inequitable when not matched by an equivalent increase in productive assets.” Finance Minister Bill English 18/12/08
YEAH, RIGHT! A leaked police email last year suggested that officers should be “turned loose” in blitzes to meet ticket targets. More than half a million speeding tickets were issued nationally in the 9 months up to September – 16,000 up on the corresponding period in 2007. Police collect about $50 million a year from speeding fines. National road policing manager Superintendent Paula Rose said issuing tickets had nothing to do with the money. NZ Herald 3/1/09
SHADOWY SERVICE The release of Security Intelligence Service (SIS) files on individuals has revealed for the first time how far the shadowy service reached into the lives of New Zealanders. When Murray Horton applied for the file on the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, an organisation he helped found, he received 400 documents. The file presented a ‘‘fascinating and disturbing pattern of systematic covert state surveillance of many,
WE ARE NOT AMUSED! The Queen, whose personal fortune is estimated to have fallen £25 million in the credit crunch, has demanded to know why no one saw the financial crisis coming. During a briefing by academics at the London School of Economics on the turmoil on the international markets the Queen asked: "Why did nobody notice it? If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?" The Queen, who studiously avoids controversy and never gives away her opinions, described the turbulence on the markets as "awful". In April, Her Majesty's private wealth was estimated to be £320million, which included a personal investment portfolio valued at £100 million. But since then, London's Stock market has lost almost 25 per cent in value. The Queen's investments, largely in British blue chip companies, have broadly tracked the market, resulting in a 25 per cent fall in her portfolio's value. Telegraph.co.uk Guardian Political Review, Issue 56, 2009 - Page 22
many organisations and many hundreds, if not thousands, of people over decades’’, Horton said. "So much for democracy." The Christchurch Press 28/1/09
Webb, Otago Daily Times
CHAINS OF DEBT
APPEASING GREED? What the Prime Minister must not do is seek to appease the greed of those who financially backed his party’s election victory. Any attempt to shift the whole burden of New Zealand’s economic recovery on to the backs of its longsuffering citizens will merely guarantee that John Key leads his one-term National-ActMaori Party Government to electoral oblivion. Chris Trotter, Otago Daily Times 16/1/09
HUGE SHIFT IN POWER The manipulation of public opinion through sophisticated public relations techniques poses a threat to New Zealand democracy, journalist Nicky Hagar warned at a keynote lecture titled “Imagining a world where the PR people had won”. Since the 1970s the number of public relations people had greatly magnified and the techniques used had become more advanced and effective. “There has been a huge shift in power”, enabling public opinion to be influenced by corporate interests, often covertly, on a host of issues. Otago Daily Times 29/11/08
THE “FIX” Here is my “translation” from the recent official G-20 communiqué. “We will use this period of consolidation to further centralise the global financial system by enforcing greater centralisation of the standards, practices and control of enforcement and regulatory bureaucracies. This increased governmental centralisation will be presented as the 'fix' for our 'problems'. We will continue to move toward one world government and one world currency." Catherine Austin Fitts, Scoop News 21/11/08 (Item supplied by Doug Lever)
CORRUPTED PROFESSION Award-winning UK Guardian reporter Nick Davies says that much of what appears in several of the most respected newspapers is distortion, propaganda and worse – plain wrong. “Finally,” he says, “I was forced to admit that I work in a corrupted profession.” NZ Listener 2/8/08
My surest prediction is that during the year the Government’s most effective critic will be Sir Roger Douglas. I am looking forward to that explosion of exciting new ideas: a Roger Douglas alternative budget. Richard Prebble, NZ Listener 24/1/09
WHY NOT? The MMP system’s thresholds are now on the block for beady-eyed reassessment. The constituency vote in a few select electorates made an enormous difference to the outcome of the election. Can anyone remember why we decided that a party must reach the arbitrary and really rather ambitious total of 5% of the vote in order to get any MPs into Parliament? Why not 4%? Or 1%? Or just enough of a share of the vote to equal one MP? Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 22/11/08
FLUORIDE NEXT? The Federal Drug Association has been successfully sued by Consumers for Dental Choice, forcing them to reclassify mercury amalgam fillings by June 2009. This is the beginning of the end for the decades-long conspiracy between the American Dental Association and FDA to protect the mercury fillings racket and implant neurotoxic chemicals into the mouth of children, teens and pregnant women. We are about to win the war against mercury in dental care! Natural News, 6/6/08 (Item supplied by Erwin Alber)
MOTIVATED BY GREED The market cannot be trusted. It is impure because it is operated by impure humans with impure principles. It is motivated by greed and it is always self-interested. There is no concept of service nor altruism allowed to flourish within its ranks. Its sole driver is the bottom line. It fails often and it never self-corrects without carnage and calumny. Michael Laws, Sunday Star-Times 19/10/08
MUMBO JUMBO 'Any organisation which boasts one Statement of Purpose, one Vision, five Values, six Goals, seven Strategic Priorities and eight Key Performance Indicators without any clear correlation between them is producing a recipe for total confusion and exasperation' " How Mumbo-Jumbo Took Over the World, by Francis Wheen.
Comment by David Tranter (8/1/09): That will sound all too familiar to the innumerable New Zealand professionals in a variety of organisations which have changed from being public services to empire-building gravy trains where the supposed answer to any problem is to create ever more bureaucratic/management positions.
Democrats for social credit beyond greed
Democrats stand for social and economic justice. At the heart of our vision for New Zealand is a fundamental reform of the monetary system. We propose establishing a more democratic control of money supply, whereby the Governmentowned Reserve Bank would create a greater share of the money needed, without the burden of private interest charges. We offer policies to strengthen communities, reward enterprise and safeguard the environment. They are policies for today - relevant, forward-looking, and unique. We stand for: A social credit economy Community credit: grants & interest-free loans for public works and community projects A first class public health system: without DHB debt & top-down administration A fairer tax system: no GST A fully publicly-funded education: scrap the student loan scheme Public ownership of New Zealand's strategic assets Affordable home ownership: with low interest state loans for firsthome buyers. Investment in sustainable energy generation. A secure, prosperous, independent New Zealand
www.democrats.org.nz