Guardian Issue 57

The Guardian Political Review Produced by the New Zealand Democratic Party for social credit Inc. Issue No.57

Spring 2009

ISSN1176-614X

IN THIS ISSUE

The Guardian Political Review

Issue 57, Spring 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: editor@guardian.org.nz Web: www.guardian.org.nz

EDITORIAL

The future beckons

“In this dynamic creation, our beautiful blue/green planet of gift and ceaseless creativity, there are no orthodoxies; differences of approach are to be embraced and encouraged. May bright ideas and persistent commitment affect all the deliberations.” (p24)

causing poverty, famine and continuous war. We are the guardians of a truth so profound it is not an option to back down under threat or ridicule.” The next step “is for us to share our vision with coming generations.

The future beckons.”(p6)

This greeting from Rev Canon Peter Challen set the scene for the recent DSC Conference. Vice president Katherine Ransom reports: “Delegates worked hard at deliberation, discussion and decision‐making, accepting the challenge of looking forward.” (p4)

The world is experiencing a period of deep social, environmental and economic change, says leader Stephnie de Ruyter: “This is an exciting time of transition during which the structural flaws inherent in our century‐old industrial society have become blatantly apparent.”

In the words of Party president Neville Aitchison: “We are engaged in a struggle that can free the world of senseless debt. These are extraordinary times, and we face an extraordinary challenge.”(p5) Deputy leader John Pemberton agrees: “The whole world is heavily burdened with compounding debt,

It is a time that offers the opportunity to “lead the way towards the establishment of a vibrant, diverse,

dynamic, robustly democratic society.”(p3) The future beckons.

The Guardian Political Review is available on-line at www.guardian.org.nz Visitors to the site will be able to browse through this and previous issues of our frontline publication. Your feedback on presentation, ease of navigation and functionality is invited.

CONTENTS

7

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 2

1 - Front Cover

13 - Health - Fluoridation

2 - Editorial

14 - Comment - Dairy Industry

3 - Leader's Message

15 - Media (3) + Adrian Bayly

4 - Conference Report

16 - Newsroom

5 - President's Speech

17 - How To Be A Billionaire

6 - Deputy Leader's Speech

18 - Reviews

7 - DSC News

19 - Whitmill's World (1)

8 - Guardian Website

20 - Whitmill's World (2)

9 - Media (1)

21 - News Bites (1)

10 - Letters

22 - News Bites (2)

11 - Time For Tobin

23 - DSC Membership

12 - Media (2)

24 - Back cover - Rev Canon Peter Challen

LEADER'S MESSAGE

The Future Is Ours

By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for social credit

The establishment of a vibrant, diverse, dynamic, robustly democratic society

‘The agony of letting go of the past is outweighed by the promise of the future’ – Alvin Toffler The world is experiencing a period of deep social, environmental and economic change. This is an exciting time of transition during which the structural flaws inherent in our century‐old industrial society have become blatantly apparent.

Contrary to recent claims that the recession is over, the Bank of International Settlements, which is the central bank for the world’s central banks, issued a warning in its quarterly statement released last month that the economic recovery is an illusion and we can expect future crises. No surprises there.

Ultimately, efforts to restore and preserve an unworkable past represent a rear‐guard action which will only serve to postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable system.

New Zealand is not immune to these changes, displaying evidence of significant shifts in family life, in business, in technology, culture and values. We The global financial crisis offers a real opportunity are experiencing a major transformation in the way for creative restructuring. The case for introducing we work, play, think, and live. monetary reform has never been stronger because it is increasingly understood, worldwide, that New Zealand’s, and the world’s, leaders are nothing can truly change until the financial system grappling and fumbling with the issues thrown up is changed. There exists an understanding that it is by such fundamental shifts, and many nations are socially and morally unacceptable for any sovereign looking to the United States to show the vision and nation’s financial system to be owned and operated leadership essential to making a smooth transition by overseas interests. Democrats for Social Credit to a 21st century society. Unfortunately, the actions advocates public ownership of the institution with taken by the US in response to the crisis of the the power to create, issue and cancel New financial system on which last century’s “prosperity” Zealand’s money supply, in the public interest, to was based, indicate a lack of vision and leadership serve the public good, as the only sustainable way by that country’s leaders. Instead of rising to meet to deliver economic democracy, and social and the challenge with imagination and courage, the US environmental justice. government has fought tooth and nail to prop up the failing debt‐based financial system. After all, it Social credit monetary reformers in New Zealand is a system which has generated unimaginable can, and must, lead the way towards the wealth for a lucky few. By 25 September 2009, establishment of a vibrant, diverse, dynamic, stimulus pledges amounted to a terrifying US$11.6 robustly democratic society. The DSC is a distinctive trillion. The injection of such vast sums over a 19 political presence with recognisable alternatives and month period must surely be the most rapid clearly‐expressed solutions. expansion of debt ever. This course of action will not prove to have been a recipe for success.

New Zealand’s future is ours to invent.

Guardian Political Review - Issue 57, 2009 - Page 3

Looking forward DSC Annual Conference, Christchurch, 4th - 6th September 2009 A report by Katherine Ransom, DSC Vice-President Photos Stephnie de Ruyter

The DSC Annual Conference, planned as a ‘policy conference’, ran a bit longer this year. There were policy remits in plenty, covering areas including finance, disability, research and leisure. As a break from the dutiful discussion of remits, we had two fascinating guest speakers and numerous items for soapbox.

Region and supported by Disability Spokesman Ron Harsant were also passed.

Ron called for a new Disability section to be added to the policy register, similar to sections for Youth and Women’s Affairs.

Some existing policy was deleted as redundant due to existing legislation.

Other policy remits were not carried by conference, some from being overtaken President Neville by previous remits Aitchison, Leader passed. Two remits Stephnie de Ruyter on gambling met with and Deputy Leader DSC president, Neville Aitchison, congratulates John Pemberton set Margaret Hook on her Life Membershhip award practical objections, although conference the tone for the appreciated the intent and acknowledged the conference by calling for fresh ideas and a serious problem gambling represents. focus on the future. As Finance Spokesman,

John Pemberton continued that tone by proposing finance policy remits which called for a deconstruction and renaming of the Reserve Bank into three independent bodies: the New Zealand Monetary Authority (NZMA), Infrastructure New Zealand (INZ) and the Prudential Regulation Authority of New Zealand (PRANZ). Conference passed these finance remits with comfortable majorities.

Policy remits proposed by the Northern

Economic researcher Lowell Manning gave an address to conference titled ‘The Ripple Starts Here’. He compared the narrow focussed, greedbased doctrines of orthodox economists to the symptoms of autism. This keeps ordinary people, who are able to empathise and communicate with others, from understanding economic theories.

Lowell warned of the negative, fear generating messages that came from media such as newspapers and television. He urged

listeners to access alternative forms of media via the internet to find positive reports. He added that an overload of information does not improve decision making, and can have the opposite effect.

Webmaster Martyn Cook, who is responsible for designing the DSC website and the newly launched Guardian website, gave a fascinating talk on new information technology. He was impressed by the ‘connectedness’ of conference delegates, a high proportion of whom are internet savvy and using broadband. Martyn spoke of ‘Web

Mary Acheson (right) and Dawn McIntosh enjoy a light moment in the proceedings

2.0’, the latest, interactive phase of communication. He showed how the DSC website largely provided information, acting as a oneway, firstphase portal, although it was fully capable of being interactive and only needed someone to manage discussions.

A special event enlivened conference dinner: the awarding of Life Membership to Margaret Hook, who has had a long history of service and involvement with DSC, including work with Bruce Beetham, Vern Cracknel, and other illustrious past leaders.

Margaret, who is currently party membership secretary, accepted the Life Membership pin from President Neville Aitchison, and told the story of her career in DSC in an after‐ dinner talk.

Decisions, decisions! Waitaki candidate Hessel van Wieren compares thoughts with Margaret Cook (centre), Carl Payne (right) and Colin Weatherall (left) Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 4

Conference comprised many regulars, a few who had not appeared for a while, and a handful of new faces. All the delegates worked hard at deliberation, discussion and decision‐making, accepting the challenge of looking forward.

The tramp of marching feet

By Neville Aitchison President Democrats for social credit Extract from speech to 2009 Conference

We are engaged in a struggle that can free the world of senseless debt.

These are extraordinary times, and we face an extraordinary challenge.

If ever there was a need for the economic solutions that social credit presages, then it is now. No role in history could be more difficult or more important. We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves, and one we seek to bring to others. No‐one should think otherwise.

We stand for social, economic and environmental justice. This Party was born of economic revolution and remains committed to ensuring the road is closed to economic despotism. As a nation we persist with strategies that were considered flawed even in the lifetime of those who developed them 300 years ago.

What is the point of persisting with a money mechanism that had its origins in a period of time that predates electricity, the motor‐car, aeroplanes, penicillin, the steam engine or gun powder? In an era where technology has enhanced our ability to produce more than we need or can use, we stick like lemmings to the concept of periodically throwing ourselves over the economic cliff.

There is no single simple policy which meets this challenge. Experience has taught us that no one change, or series of changes, resolves the puzzle.

It is time for us to change up a gear, concentrate our powers and go for the prize.

Napoleon Bonaparte said, “When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your forces. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day.”

Let me tell you about two battles in the same week with vastly different outcomes.

The first is the battle of Isandlwana.

The British Expeditionary Force under Lord Chelmsford advanced into Zululand in January 1879 with banners flying, completely confident of their ability to defeat the armies of the Zulu Chief, King Cetewayo. After three days of marching Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 5

the army stopped to rest.

Violating one of the first principles of warfare “Never divide your forces in the face of the enemy”. Lord Chelmsford took 1600 men with him on a day's march from the main camp in response to a report of an encounter by British troops with a large Zulu force. Zulu spies had been watching the British army from the hills and "Mass together and concentrate your fire" relaying observations back then did what? He ordered his fleet to the King. The Zulus attacked. burned in the harbour so there could be The British force of 1800 men at no turning back. To convey to his men Isandlwana was quickly overwhelmed that this was literally all or nothing! and wiped out. Only 55 men survived.

I am asking the Party to accept a firm They had dispersed their forces, commitment to a united course of spreading them over a wide area, action. A course that will last for a completely giving up their ability to concentrate and counter the Zulu forces. number of years and have a significant It was the worst defeat ever inflicted on cost. But will have significant payback at the next election. If we are to go an army of the British Army of the only half way, or reduce our sights in British Empire by indigenous forces. the face of difficulty, in my judgement it A week later, the Zulu army, would be better not to embark at all. emboldened by the victory, set out to There is no point in awaiting the rainy wipe out the mission station and trading day; the storm is upon us and the rain post at Rorke’s Drift. The Battle of has come. There will never be a greater Rorke’s Drift lasted two days. The 140 opportunity in our lifetimes. enlisted men and officers held off wave after wave of attack by more than 4000 We must take some risks. Better to Zulu warriors. At the end of the battle, attempt the perfect swan dive, even if the Zulus retreated back into their that delivers a monumental belly flop, homeland. than to step timidly off the diving board holding our noses.

What was the difference between these two battles that took place in the We have significant assets. Our policy same week? The soldiers at Rorke’s is an asset. Democrats for social credit Drift were able to mass together and are committed to recovering effective concentrate their fire throughout the control of New Zealand’s economic two days. At Isandlwana, the Zulus affairs and establishing greater economic were able to defeat the British using the independence. Our Leader is an asset. power of concentration.

A significant one.

In 1519, Capitan Hernando Cortes and Our greatest asset in this struggle is a small army left the Spanish held island you, the members of the Democrats for of Cuba and set out on one of the social credit. Your willingness to pay greatest conquests in the history of the the price for these programmes – to world. Cortes was going to accomplish understand and accept a long struggle. his goals no matter the consequences.

To fight for what we know to be right.

He put to death some of those who This fight for freedom marches in the opposed him, got himself appointed name of all who have gone before us.

Capitan‐General in order to get out from The famous tramp of marching feet. under Diego Velazquez's authority, and

The future beckons

By John Pemberton Deputy leader Democrats for social credit Extract from speech to 2009 Conference The basic global problem is that the world’s money supply is created, owned and controlled by commercial financial institutions and lent into the system at interest. The interest is not created, requiring more borrowing, resulting in ever increasing, compounding debt.

The whole world is heavily burdened with compounding debt. It causes deepening poverty, famine and in the last few decades, continuous war. Compounding debt is the underlying cause of regular and more frequent boom/bust cycles, increasingly severe recessions and the misery and loss suffered by business and small investors.

In Western countries, compounding debt causes ‘deindustrialisation’ the shifting of the manufacturing sector off shore to countries with few labour laws and no environmental compliances. It leaves behind unstable economies, and a growing, lowskilled work force.

Compounding debt takes the wealth created by people’s work and delivers it into the hands of nonproductive bank sharehold‐ ers and speculators. It widens the gap between the rich and the rest of us.

Compounding debt causes stagnant wage levels, rising prices and failing business. It contributes to family breakdown, community dysfunction and national unease.

Compounding debt causes poverty, inflation and unemployment. It promotes poor nutrition, poor health and inadequate housing. Compounding debt fosters racism, sexism and other forms of exclusion. It breeds a savage, dog‐eat‐dog society.

Compounding debt drives people to gambling, drug abuse, crime and violence. It is a recipe for depression, despair and suicide.

Compounding debt deflects business income from sustainable production methods. It pollutes our water, air and earth through poorly regulated, profit‐driven activities. It destroys rainforest and other fragile ecosystems, for the increasing production and unstable prices of cash crops.

Compounding debt forces cashstrapped governments, local bodies and individuals to treat urgent environmental problems as unaffordable ‘side issues’.

Compounding debt causes commoditisa‐ tion of resources that were once public utilities: power, water, and especially money.

It causes commoditisation of social essentials that were once investments in the well being

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 6

and future of the people: housing, health, public transport and education.

This is the state of New Zealand in the 21st Century. As fast as the ice caps melt, the debt mountain grows faster. What are we going to do about it?

This party has a proud history of pushing ideas well ahead of their time.

The tools we have developed to reform the economy are more relevant in the 21st Century than ever before.

Using an economic tool box for New Zealand, we can provide a basic Kiwi income for every resident in the country. An income that is not tied to working hours, or to a dole for not working, or to a handout for being a solo parent. An income for every person that derives from ownership, inheritance and residency, as of right.

"share our vision" This toolbox of reform mechanisms can transfer the wealth out of the pockets of the moneylenders and back to the families and businesses of New Zealand. Why would we want to hide the strengths and convictions that have helped us survive for so long?

We work for environmental, social and economic justice. We work for quality of life and a standard of living that is shared by all, including those who come after us.

We are the guardians of a truth so profound it is not an option to back down under threat or ridicule. It is not an option to compromise with injustice. It is not an option to give up.

There are five basic monetary reform tools that we can utilise to transform New Zealand into a showcase of sustainable prosperity that will be the envy of the world.

The first tool is interest‐free lending, set up as a revolving credit facility or overdraft through a public utility. This tool has been employed successfully in the past, but never in a modern New Zealand economic environment. It is designed to replace the current inefficient sources of money with a cheaper, more efficient source.

The second tool is the creation of new money debt‐free. This money will be spent into the system, increasing the money supply without increasing the debt. This tool is designed to help fund social investment such as a free health system, free education and a basic income programme.

The third tool is a Financial Transactions Tax, known as FTT. The primary function of this tax is to discourage speculation. FTT will also remove compliance costs for business, and could help to balance the government budget.

As a first step FTT will gradually replace GST. Any further replacements to the tax system will be done progressively and with due caution.

The fourth tool is the Foreign Transfer Surcharge FTS. Again, this tax is primarily to stop speculative currency trading. Any revenue gathered by FTS will go toward retiring overseas debt, restoring the balance of trade or reducing domestic taxes.

The fifth tool is the use of a repayment term instead of an interest rate to control demand inflation. The commercial banks will be required to manage the average repayment term of their loan portfolios, as directed by the central bank public utility, for the good of the people of New Zealand.

Unlike the current debt‐based financial system, these tools are not designed to ‘run the country’. They are designed to manage a money supply so that people can own and run the country. These tools are designed to empower people through income, health, skills and opportunity.

They will free people from the tyranny of compounding debt and give them an economy that works for them instead of the system we have now that makes us tenants in our own land.

The toolbox is designed to be utilised in the 21st Century. Technologies exist that make these tools easy to implement and difficult to evade or defraud. And it is through these new technologies ‐ internet, mobile phones and other global communica‐ tions ‐ that we will reach a younger audience.

These are the business people of the future, who need to know that there exists an alternative financial system that allows the economy to work for them. This younger generation surrounds itself with constantly emerging technology and electronics communication systems.

With a toolbox well suited for the electronic age, the next step is for us to embrace modern communications, ourselves, in order to share our vision with coming generations.

The future beckons.

DSC NEWS Democrats for social credit

Democrats for Social Credit leader, Stephnie de Ruyter, and southern region chairman Bob Warren at the opening this week of the party's new regional office, information centre and book exchange, in Moray Place, Dunedin Caption and photo The Otago Daily Times 11/9/09

"A great day" The Official Opening of the Dunedin DSC information centre and book exchange took place on the 10th September 2009.

Bob Warren as Chairperson for the Southern Region, welcomed all attending. These included Party Leader, Stephnie de Ruyter, members of the Press, and special guest, Joe Radich from Invercargill.

In his welcome speech, Bob referred to this as a great day for DSC in Dunedin as "this enterprise is all about education, awareness, and raising the profile of the party in Dunedin".

Leader Stephnie gave a heartening address, thanking the local members for their initiative in helping the Party with this activity.

Yes, it's our financial system that is used to help New Zealanders go through their days, their weeks, their years, their lives, learning and living, playing and resting, buying and selling, working and saving, spending and enjoying, loving and grieving.

It's there to help us all.

It should belong to us all.

From a colour leaflet produced by the Democrats for social credit. Copies available from PO Box 18 907 Christchurch 8641 email democrats@democrats.org.nz

"Share our expertise" Presentation to Wanganui DC on Draft 1O‐year Plan by Heather Marion Smith, B.A., Dip. Soc.Sci.(Econ), DSC Western Region president, 26/5/09 "A diet of debt is not sustainable" ‐ Rt Hon John Key, P.M. A change of government and the appointment of a new Minister for Local Government prompt us to challenge some of the assumptions in your draft plan: A. That borrowing for public capital works must must be funded by private investors. Servicing

Heather Marion Smith leaving the Council building after presenting her submission, accompanied

by Lowell Manning.

Photo by Colin Whitmill, who also attended

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 7

debt at compound interest is in direct conflict with The Hon Rodney Hide's rate‐capping Bill will do the requirement in the Local Government Act nothing to reduce the rising debt servicing and (20O2) that the four well‐beings (i.e. social, proportionate increases in the GST facing your economic, environmental, cultural) be sustainable.

Council. Councillors are urged to consider other Attached is an extract from the Public Finance Act points of view before arriving at any decision (1989) which permits Crown borrowing from any We in Democrats for social credit are pleased source, therefore including our sovereign Bank, the to have this opportunity to share our expertise Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The RBNZ has with you. proven its capacity for issuing credit‐lines by coming to the aid of the major banks when their liquidity was endangered, so is fully able to open credit‐lines at nil or very low interest to local bodies.

Recycle ‐ with a message B. That intergenerational equity is achieved by loading debt servicing onto future generations. Spreading the payment of the principal over a medium to long‐term period is accept‐able but the compound interest component of rates is both unethical and unnecessary.

It amounts to stealing from the future as a way of providing steady returns to private brokers and bank shareholders.

Self‐adhesive labels, allowing envelopes to be re‐used (as this) are now available from the addresses below: Actual size 5½" x 3½" (14 x 9 cms)

Price per pkt (250) $25 + $5 post Order from DSC Invercargill Branch, c/o M. Cook, 230 Crawford Street, Invercargill 021 022 12120 or C. Payne, 76 Paterson Street, Invercargill 03 215 7664

www.guardian.org.nz on line now - check it out!

The site has already had thousands of hits worldwide - including from the UK, USA, Canada & Australia

DSC

Democrats for social credit 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 Suite 321, 63 Remuera Road, Newmarket, Auckland 1050. Ph 09 522 1300, Mobile 027 522 2743 Email: neville.aitchison@democrats.org.nz

Executive Contact List

Auckland Regiion C/o Neville Aitchison (refer Party President entry above)

Southern Region Bob Warren, 1 Highcliff Road, Andersons Bay, Dunedin 9013. Ph: 03 454 3235 Email: pabo@paradise.net.nz

Waikato Region

Party Secretary Peter Ferguson 7 Totara Psrk, Whakatane 3210 Mobile 027 243 7365 Email: peter_ferguson@xtra.co.nz

Ron Harsant 1 Carey Street, Hamilton 3200 Ph 07 847 8041 Email: ron.harsant@democrats.org.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 Blog: http://monetaryjustice.blogspot.com Western Region Heather M. Smith 14 Broughton St, Wanganui East 4500 Ph/Fax 06 343 3038 Email: heather.smith@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

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

Northern & North Shore Regions John Rawson Lookout Hill, No. 8 RD, Whangarei 0178 Ph 09 438 9265. Email john.rawson@democrats.org.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

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 8

Ex Officio Positions ‘Guardian’ Editor Tony Cardy, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400.

Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: editor@guardian.org.nz Website: http://www,guardian.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 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 Policy Committee Allen Cookson 230 Glentui-Bennetts Road, Oxford 7471 Ph 03 312 4057 Email asimco@actrix.co.nz Constitution Committee Neville Aitchison (refer President's entry for details)

MEDIA

Come back, men in cardies - what is wrong with the electricity industry

By Katherine Ransom (DSC vice‐president) From NZ Listener 27/6/09

Clearly what is wrong with the electricity industry and indeed the economy (is) enormous financial power propped up by wrong‐ headed political ideology.

In the old days, there were public utilities, maintained by government departments for the benefit of all. Even some of our money supply (Housing Corporation, Rural Bank) was created by the Reserve Bank as a public utility. Prosperity ensued, as most individuals and levels of the productive sector could own property and carry on business supported by the affordable and reliable essential infrastructure.

Since the neoliberal economic revolution that claimed to herald an age of individual prosperity, the notion of essential infrastructure has been discredited. Everything, including labour, is now regarded as a commodity, exploitable for private profit.

However, under the new god, Market Forces, only a few individuals have benefited. Cycles of boom and bust happen more frequently and more severely, the productive sector has been gutted or moved offshore, individual debt level is at an all‐time high, wages have stagnated, prices keep rising and fully a quarter of our children live below the poverty line, innocent victims of a commoditised economy.

The fundamental difference between the old Electricity Department and the "electricity as commodity" model is clear: on the one hand, Geoff Robinson writes of a mandate to supply a

public utility at a cost that funded forward planning and mainte‐ nance of infrastructure but not bloated executive salaries, advertising campaigns or rebranding exercises; on the other, Professor Andy Philpott uses economic double‐speak and personal put‐downs to defend an unjust, inefficient, profit‐driven industry, while politicians continue to talk and prices continue to rise.

Come back, men in cardies.

Policy R 0996‐7; The wholesale energy market will be managed through a single selling desk operated by the Ministry of Energy under a national sustainable energy plan. It will buy all energy entering the national grid at a uniform rate adjusted for scheduled factors relating to resource sustainability and pollution created in the generation process.

Cardinal says credit crisis has killed capitalism The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has declared that capitalism is dead because of the credit crunch The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has declared that capitalism is dead because of the credit crunch.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor made the claim at a fund-raising dinner.

The Cardinal's remarks will be interpreted as a signal that the entire economic order has collapsed. He said it in a room packed with some of the richest and most influential Catholics in the land.

Last month the Cardinal issued a statement on the economic crisis which said: "Religious leaders are not normally economists, however, they cannot ignore the damaging human consequences of the rise and fall of economic indicators. Behind the gloomy headlines are cities, neighbourhoods, families, individuals deeply affected by the economic breakdown; and the hardest hit will be the poor: those already struggling to survive. Christians have a paramount concern for the poor. This "preferential option for the poor" is a constant theme in Catholic social teaching".

Leading bishops in the Church of England have launched a withering attack on the Government, questioning the morality of its policies. Five of the Church’s most senior figures said the Government now presided over a country suffering from family breakdown, an unhealthy reliance on debt and a growing divide between rich and poor. The Rt Rev Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 9

Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, said: “The Government believes that money can answer all of the problems and has encouraged greed and a love of money that the Bible says is the root of all evil. It is morally corrupt because it encourages people to get into a lifestyle of believing they can always get what they want.’’

Daily Telegraph (UK) 5/1/09

"The Government believes that money can answer all of the problems and has encouraged greed and a love of money that the Bible says is the root of all evil"

BEYOND GREED!

WE HAVE MAIL FUNNY, PECULIAR Everyone(?) believes that the present financial system is the 'best' and has to be preserved at all costs. It is funny (peculiar) how many people have been duped into believing this, even the poor on the street.

At all costs this attitude must be preserved. So politicians are encouraged to believe in the system, as they are the first line of defence in the preservation of the public and ordinary people's belief in a system which is out of date and totally open to fraud.

The things that have happened over the last 12 ‐ 18 months have shown this, and yet Obama and all the other leaders believe that bailing out the various institutions instead of letting them go bankrupt is best.

The tiny island of Guernsey* shows otherwise, since 1817 ‐ yes 1817 ‐ and no one takes any notice.

Ray Lodge, Oxford * See the booklet: 'The Guernsey Experiment', available from Guardian Publishing (c/o DSC).

GREETINGS FROM THE OUTBACK The age‐old debate amongst DSC members as to whether we should concentrate entirely on matters economic misses a major point, in my humble opinion.

Let us, for discussion's sake, envisage a scenario whereby a DSC‐type economic system was installed world‐wide. Sure, it would solve a lot of problems but, consider as one example, the post‐1993 corporatisa‐ tion of health management in New Zealand whereby legions of fools in suits now impose absurd management agendas on a generation of lifelong health professionals.

This has alienated innumerable previously dedicated professionals many of whom have gone private or entirely abandoned health as their career. How will the transformation of the economic system as we wish it change that scenario?

After 18 years of immersing myself in health issues I cannot see how fixing the money system will turn around the huge disillusionment amongst the real health workers who are, on a massive scale, being ruled by ill‐qualified, incompetent, career ladder climbers whose ignorance is only exceeded by their arrogance.

Similarly in areas like education. A very thoughtful book discussion on Ozzie national radio recently summed up much of what is happening world‐wide. The book is called, 'This little kiddy went to market; The corporate capture of childhood'.

It seems to me the human values essential to a civilised society are being corporatised out of existence for the benefit of those at the top of the heap. Sure, we must sort out the money system ‐ but without equally massive changes in society's attitudes in many other areas that won't solve our problems.

For any political party to make a significant impact on the public ‐ and the polls ‐ they should put forward a range of policies to cover the public's main interests.

David Tranter, Queensland (Edited extract from message to DSC Conference)

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS Many thanks for sending me your great magazine as well as the gratifying review.

Please check out my new website at http://www.richardccook.com/ and my new book from Tendril Press, We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.

Richard C. Cook, U.S.A. See Review page in this issue

VERY REVEALING I must thank you for kindly sending me a complimentary copy of your "Autumn" (our "springtime" here) 2009 issue of The Guardian Political Review.

The article about the fight over fluoridation featuring Olive McRae was very revealing‐‐‐probably more than the editors of the Otago Daily Times realize. Thank you, too, for publishing the letter I sent to you last year.

Your comments and articles in this issue on the economic mess much of the world is in struck a vibrant chord with me.

Albert W. Burgstahler, U.S.A. Editor, Fluoride Journal www.fluorideresearch.org http://www.fluorideresearch

DAYLIGHT SAVING Once again, we have had to put the clocks forward one hour. In West Australia the government has just banned daylight saving, following a state‐wide referendum which showed a majority opposed the practice.

New Zealand already has an additional half‐hour added permanently, in addition to the alteration imposed by Daylight Saving.

So why not compromise by advancing the clocks a further half‐hour ‐ and then leave the time changing alone for ever and ever?

On September 27, aged‐care home residents all around the country were woken up an hour earlier to have their breakfast ‐ and they’re not ready. How ridiculous is that? My mother, being one of them, is nearly 90 and it makes a long day.

So let’s add half an hour on a permanent basis and stop the time changing once and for all.

Keith Clapham, Ruakaka

MAD TRADE With the demise of NZ First, New Zealand now has no real opposition Party. Labour supports the same disastrous economic ideology as National, and the Greens prefer sucking up to the main Parties to fighting them. However, to command some public attention, Democrats for social credit would have to start thinking like an alternative government and talk about more than just money.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 10

In The Press (11/3/09), under the heading "Mad Trade", I said: "Nobody is saying that loans to finance worsening trade deficits are essentially unrepayable and therefore bad loans. It follows that free trade agreement may be a cause of the crisis. They promote uncontrolled and unbalanced trade, what I call mad trade."

An article in The Guardian Weekly (1/05/09) also sees "big trade deficits" as being part of the problem. It is basic common sense that only balanced trade, with the controls needed to achieve it, is sustainable in the long run. New Zealand's crisis results from the fact that most local production has been closed down by the mad pursuit of "uncontrolled & unbalanced trade".

We need to advocate a return to balanced trade, keeping out non‐essential imports and reviving local industry. Social credit could help in re‐financing local production.

Mark Sadler, Christchurch

WHO'S IN CHARGE? Just a note to thank you for another issue of the "Guardian". It always has interesting stuff in it. I rather liked the Queen's comments on the current financial crisis. Makes you wonder who's in charge here!

I had an article published recently in MC2, organ of Mensa Canada Society, please feel free to make use of it.

Martin Hattersley, Edmonton, Canada. jmartinh@shaw.ca Editor's note: The article, “Myths we can do without”, commences: "Sing a song of plenty, a planet full of fools, Everybody starving by sound financial rules; The shops were full of good things, the factories likewise ‐ The Banker shut his books and said 'We must economize'."

CAUGHT IN A SCAM Over my lifetime, the purchasing power of the dollar (formerly 10 shillings) has deteriorated from 100 cents to about half a cent.

Now, who do you think was responsible for the deteriorating value of our money?

We've had about 40 years of National government and 35 years of Labour government. They will each point a finger at the other ‐ and they'll both be right. They have been caught in a scam they don't understand: debt and credit.

Geoff Church, Kerikeri See feature 'Inflation is out of control' in Issue 54.

Letters or emails should be sent to The Guardian Political Review, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, NZ. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: editor@guardian.org.nz 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.

Stop speculation

A tax on financial speculation could help stabilize global markets and capture much-needed funds for global development

to stabilize exchange rates. Wildly Fast‐moving, unregulated investment fluctuating rates p!ay havoc with has turned the global economy into a businesses dependent on foreign casino where big‐money speculators exchange as prices and profits move up search for instant profits. And damn and down, depending on the relative the consequences. A speculation tax value of the currencies being used. that would put people ahead of profits Reduced exchange‐rate volatility means is urgently needed. that businesses would need to spend So what is currency speculation and less money 'hedging' (buying currencies why is it a problem? in anticipation of future price changes), The world of international finance has thus freeing up capital for investment in become a global casino where investors new production. seeking quick profits bet huge sums around the clock. Unlike investments in The Tobin Tax deserves a fair hearing goods or services, speculators make Only widespread popular support and money from money alone. No jobs are public pressure can ensure it created, no services provided, no factories built and no widgets produced.

How would the Tobin Tax benefit Investors play the bond and currency national governments? markets profiting from the minute‐to‐ It is designed to reduce the power minute, hourly or daily fluctuations in financial markets have to determine the prices around the world. And the game economic policies of national is big ‐ $1.5 trillion ($1,500,000,000,000) governments. Speculators now have is traded every day, 95 per cent of more cash than all the world's central which is bet on whether currency values banks put together. Official global and interest rates will rise or fall. reserves are less than half the value of Traders make money either way and one day of global foreign‐exchange they thrive when markets are highly turnover. Many countries are simply unstable. unable to protect their currencies from As national economies become more speculative attack. liberalized and integrated, future By cutting down on the overall financial crises are inevitable unless volume of foreign‐exchange transactions, changes are made. a Tobin Tax would mean that central What is the Tobin Tax? banks would not need as much reserve money to defend their currency. The tax In 1978 Nobe! Prize‐winning would allow governments the freedom economist James Tobin proposed that a to act in the best interests of their own small worldwide tariff (less than half of economic development, rather than one per cent) be levied by all major being forced to shape fiscal and countries on foreign‐exchange monetary policies according to demands transactions in order to 'throw some sand in the wheels' of speculative flows. of fickle financial markets.

The tax is designed to help stabilize How would the Tobin Tax benefit exchange rates by reducing the volume people? of speculation. And it is set deliberately By making crises less likely, the tax low so as not to have an adverse effect would help avoid the social devastation on trade in goods and services or long‐ that occurs in the wake of a financial term investments. crisis. It could also be a significant How would a Tobin Tax benefit the source of global revenue. The Tobin Tax global economy? represents a rare opportunity to capture the enormous wealth of an untaxed It could boost world trade by helping Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 11

James Tobin

sector and redirect it towards the public good.

Won't speculators find ways to evade the tax?

A Tobin Tax could be difficult to evade, because currency transactions are tracked electronically. The tax would be easy to collect through the computer systems that record each trade.

What is the biggest barrier to the Tobin Tax? It's not technical or administrative.

It's political. The tax is seen as a threat by the financial community and has met with stiff resistance by a sector with massive political clout. The very idea of putting people ahead of markets challenges the foundations of the current global economic model and those who control it.

Who supports the Tobin Tax? The international trade union movement, the Canadian Parliament, the Finnish Government and a growing number of academics and elected representatives. !n Brazil politicians recently launched the 'Parliamentary Front for the Tobin Tax'. And citizens' movements for a Tobin Tax are active around the world, including CIDSE in Europe, Attac in France, the Halifax Initiative in Canada, KEPA in Finland and War on Want in Britain. These and other groups have established the Interna‐ tional Tobin Tax Network to share information and co‐ordinate actions as they work to build public and political support for the tax.

The Tobin Tax deserves a fair hearing.

Only widespread popular support and public pressure can ensure it.

By Robin Round (extract from New Internationalist Jan/Feb 2000)

A ''Tobin' type tax is covered by the DSC Foreign Transfer Surcharge policy.

MEDIA

Interest‐free loans could dam civic 'money leakage' The interest repayments on core Dunedin City Council debt over the next 10 years amount to $46 million, writes Cr LEAH MCBEY. This set her to wondering about the power of the Reserve Bank to offer interest‐free loans to local authorities.

Leah McBey

I

t came as news to me that the Reserve Bank had the power to offer interest‐ free loans to local authorities.

Nothing new in this, I was assured.

The Labour government of 1935 offered low‐interest loans, through the Reserve Bank for state housing and the Dairy Board.

The Reserve Bank source said, under the current legislation, the Government could not direct the hank to lend to anyone, including the Government itself, nor could it specify the terms at which it should lend.

That would be entirely a mat‐ter for the governor.

The same source said the Minister of Finance could have consider‐able influence with the governor if he were sympathetic to the suggestion of interest‐free loans to local authorities, or they might legislate to give the Government more power in this matter.

That led me to muse on the Crown’s willingness to encourage the Reserve Bank to offer interest‐free loans to local authorities, as part of its regional develop‐ ment drive.

Could such a scheme be prefer‐able to the Government handing out grants to communities for regional development? Or could it be part of a range of supports for local authorities? Since the bank can lend the money at a cheaper rate than the local body can borrow on its own account, rates would go down.

Dunedin is planning to borrow a further $47.5 million in the next 10 years and intends to repay $68.5 million.

However, the interest repayments on core council debt over 10 years amount to S46

million. Replacing existing and new debt with interest‐free loans would cut that to near zero, relieving the citizens of a very significant rates burden. Averaged over that decade, using this year's rates as a guide, that would mean rates could be cut up to 7% a year.

To get an idea of the potential sums involved for the local body sector, I looked at the most recent annual plans of nine local authorities. I added up their next 10 years' worth of borrowing, their repayment programmes and their interest payments.

The result was a shock.

The fresh borrowing of these nine local bodies totalled $897.3 million, and their repayments over the next 10 years totalled $656 million.

But the aggregate interest paid over the next 10 years was projected at $751.4 million. That was, of course, for their total debt, not just for the new borrowings.

And that excluded local authorities such as the Tauranga District Council, which has an unusually heavy borrowing programme of $330 million and an equally onerous debt repayment plan of $128 million.

Given that these figures represent only nine of over 70 local bodies in New Zealand, I can only wonder as to the interest being paid by the whole local‐body sector in New Zealand.

Are we talking $1 billion to S2 billion over 10 years? That is a very large amount of money passing from the citizens of New Zealand to money‐lenders, most of whom are based overseas.

It is a generally accepted fact that retaining money in the community allows that community to thrive economically. Most economic development initiatives are designed either to attract more money into the area, or to retain it by preventing businesses from leaving and taking their payrolls with them.

"Money leakage" is a major threat to the economic viability of communities.

Servicing debt is an invisible, but significant, form of money leakage.

If the Government has not seriously considered interest‐free loans to local bodies, now is surely the time, given the heavy burden of infrastructure upgrades and the requirements to raise depreciation year after year on expanding assets.

Orthodoxy argues that interest‐free loans would be inflationary, Given that, across the planet, there is 15 times more debt than there is money in circulation to repay it, there is an extremely strong argument to suggest that interest‐bearing debt is far more inflationary.

The drive to repay debt and interest is also a key factor in environmental degradation. The health of the environment is one of the most pressing concerns of citizens around the world, and is now accepted as basic to the very survival of human beings.

Interest‐free money should be seriously considered. It would ease the rates burden, retain money in communities, support regional development and send a signal to local bodies the Crown is willing to be a practical partner.

The above feature was published in the Otago Daily Times on 17 May 2001 The following Media statement was released on 5 November 2008 by DSC leader Stephnie de Ruyter

Reserve Bank funding the only sustainable option The Otago Daily Times (4.11.08) reports that ‘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 interest‐only basis. The gross interest expense will represent 14.4% of total rates revenues.’

“This indicates that funding issues are driving high percentage rates increases, causing hardship to many ratepayers and stalling Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 12

necessary infrastructure upgrades. It reflects the folly of the present narrow funding mechanisms” Ms de Ruyter stated.

“Reserve Bank grants, interest‐free loans and low interest loans should be available to local bodies to fund infrastructure projects.

By utilising our publicly‐owned Reserve Bank of New Zealand, instead of borrowing from commercial trading banks, our country’s infrastructure and community project needs could be met without the burden of interest‐bearing debt. We would then pay for these projects once, not two or three times over. And tomorrow’s ratepayers would no longer be encumbered with servicing yesterday’s debts” she said.

Ms de Ruyter noted that this was an example of applied social credit.

HEALTH Skeletal fluorosis "The build‐up of fluoride in bone leads to a well‐defined disorder called skeletal fluorosis." (2) "The very first stages of skeletal fluorosis involves the laying down of bone, bony tissue, in tendons and ligaments . The crystal appetite which makes up bone can irritate tendons and ligament sheaths." (2) "The earliest signs of skeletal fluorosis are vague pains in the small joints of the hands and feet, the knee joints and spine. In more advanced cases there are severe pains in the joints and back and difficulty in walking." (1) "Skeletal Fluorosis is caused by ingesting excessive amounts of fluoride through potable water. The major clinical manifestations are severe pain in the back bone (vertebral column), joints and pelvic girdle, leading to stiffness of the vertebral column, immobile joints, terminating in a gripping condition." (3) "Muscular weakness, extreme tiredness, joint and back pains , stiffness . . . are characteristic of the more acute type of fluoride toxcicity but are bound to affect some people, even with the 1 p.p.m. in fluoridated water." (4) "Levels as low as 1 p.p.m. are producing arthritic, crippling, debilitating symptoms in persons. I am talking about osteoporosis, bone stiffness, back joint pain and stiffening in the joints." (4) "Recent studies show that fluoride at levels as low as 1 p.p.m. in the drinking water give rise to an increase in the urine concentration of certain biological chemicals that signal the breakdown of collagen.

Collagen serves as a major structural component of skin, ligaments, tendons, muscles, cartilage, bones and teeth. Fluoride‐induced collagen damage results in the weakening of ligaments, tendons and muscles. Irreversible arthritis and stiffness of the joints be expected."

(5} "Side‐effects that can result from the daily ingestion of the amount of fluoride found in 1 to 2 pints of artificially fluoridated water are (amongst others) pain and aching of bones, weakness and stiffness." (6) "When fluoridation lasted longer, other complaints became more conspicuous. They were arthritis‐like pains, especially in the lower spine. One woman became more‐or‐less crippled and, as non‐

Oh, my aching back! fluoridated water was hard to come by, she had to move house to a non‐fluoridated area and was healed within a month." (7) "There is definite evidence that fluoride supplementation creates a greater metabolic requirement for calcium in humans. If fluoride administration continues, the nett result will be osteomalacia." {8} "Fluorides are violent poisons to all living tissue because of their precipitation of calcium. Bones become hard and fragile." (9) References.

1) Professor Douw Stein. 2} Dr. Geoffrey Smith IDS,RCS. 3) Professor A.K. Sushsela. 4) Professor A. Burgstahler. 5) Dr. Yiainouyiannis. 6) U.S. Pharmacopeia. 7) Dr. B.C. Moolenburgh (Holland). 8) National Research Council of Canada. 9) U.S. Dispensary 24th Edn. (Information from the Pure Water Journal)

Fluoridation contributes to $2 billion annual New Zealand health cost A new study shows that “arthritis” alone costs the health system (i.e. taxpayer) $2 billion per year (1.2% GDP). And it will keep increasing unless something is done, according to the authors.

“But much ‘arthritis’ is actually misdiag‐ nosed skeletal fluorosis, caused by over‐ exposure to fluoride – the toxin put in many of NZ’s water supplies ‐ according to the World Health Organisation. Doctors are not trained to diagnose this in NZ” advises Mark Atkin, Fluoride Action Network NZ’s co‐ representative on the Fluoridation‐free NZ Coalition.

The first sign of fluoride poisoning is dental fluorosis – an opacity in the teeth ranging from white to dark brown. It is caused by fluoride toxicity during childhood.

It affects twice as many children in fluoridated communities according to two recent NZ studies – around 30%, instead of the 10% considered acceptable collateral damage when fluoridation was introduced.

The musculoskeletal study’s authors point Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 13

out that arthritis is considered a natural consequence of ageing, hence will increase as NZ’s population ages. But skeletal fluorosis results from accumulated exposure to fluoride throughout life. Half of all fluoride swallowed accumulates in the bones.

Half of all fluoride swallowed accumulates in the bones “NZ has been fluoridated for 40 years now – about the time projected for developing first signs of skeletal fluorosis at the level of exposure in fluoridated communities (about 3 mg/day)” points out Mr Atkin, adding “while water fluoridation was introduced in the belief it would reduce tooth decay, we now know fluoride only works by applying it to the surface, such as with fluoride toothpaste. The latest large scale study in Australia (in 2004) showed no lasting benefit from fluoridation. Conversely, the health risks, come from swallowing it.”

In 2006 the US National Research Council

published its comprehensive report, identifying significant health risks from fluoride, especially to certain population groups. Risks began at the level of exposure in fluoridated communities.

“Class action law suits are currently being prepared in the USA and Australia, based on current scientific knowledge of fluoridation’s harmful effects on health” advises Mr Atkin.

“Meanwhile, like the band playing on the Titanic as it sank, the Ministry of Health keeps pushing its fluoridation agenda in the false belief it saves half a filling per person."

Fluoridation Action Network NZ 26/8/09

"We oppose compulsory preventative medication where it can produce undesirable side effects or where the long‐term benefit is or becomes uncertain (Policy P14.C03.2.1). The individual's right to refuse medication takes precedence over the health care workers obligation to give it (Policy P14.A.05)."

COMMENT

What is happening to the farming industry of New Zealand?

by Ken Goodhue

W

hen I was a young man in New Zealand some fifty years ago, it was accepted that a young person could aspire to eventually own his own farm one day. if he set his mind to it. True, he would have had to work hard, and save capital for some time, but it was considered a very feasible aspiration to have. I would now ask, is this as real an aspiration to have in today's farming industry? Do the people working in the farming industry today, believe they have the same opportunities to own a farm in their lifetime. I would very much doubt it, and these are some of my reasons.

In days past, the educational institutes mainly trained people to manage farms that belonged to them, or those that wanted to do agriculture research. Today, I notice the emphasis is on being trained to manage a farm. This has come about thorough the development of the corporate farm, which I believe has been driven by the banking industry in New Zealand. This new direction can have major effects on the farming industry in New Zealand, and could eventually put the control of New Zealand land in the hands of large overseas companies. At present overseas nationals must get permission to purchase agricultural land as individuals, but there is no restriction on them owning shares in a land owning company.

This can affect the New Zealand economy in various ways as has happened in other countries throughout the world. The local government can lose control on what is produced. Much of the the profits can be taken at the point of sale, and therefore deny the country of origin, of the taxes for infrastructure used at point of production.

Also the local labour is often forced to accept a very low wage, which further impacts on the local economy.

The forests of New Zealand are being

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 14

bought up by overseas interests, and much of the produce is being shipped out of this country as logs. I believe that many of these companies are not interested in further processing these logs in New Zealand, when it is possible. This denies the local labour of income, and the government of extra revenue. As the shift of ownership has been taking place, there has been the gradual decline of research in forestry, which at the beginning of the 1980s, New Zealand was up with world leaders.

There is at present a strong move in the sheep industry to resume the export of live sheep to the Middle East; it is being driven by the owners of a large property where Saudi Arabian Awassi sheep are reared in the Hawkes Bay. It is interesting that the owners of this property should happen to be Saudi Arabians. If they are successful in getting the local sheep farmer's support, and this venture goes ahead, how long will the good prices last, and how long before they buy up more land and it becomes a closed shop. At the end of the day, all that New Zealand may get out of the exercise, is the wages for the employees that are required to attend to the sheep before they are shipped. Because, rest assured, the real profits will be taken at the point of sale, Saudi Arabia.

The biggest prize at present in New Zealand's primary industry, is the dairy industry. The grand prize of the dairy industry, is the last major cooperative company left in New Zealand, Fonterra.

I sometimes think that the dairy farmers of New Zealand do not always appreciate what a priceless asset they possess. If the farmers of New Zealand allow any form of corporate structure to creep into this company, I believe they will lose the engine of the dairy industry in this country. If anyone doubts these words, I would suggest they look south to what has happened to farmers who broke away from Fonterra to set up their own

plant. The Russian company Nutrilek is in the process of making a complete take‐over of the South Canterbury‐based New Zealand Dairies Ltd. The other company that is making strides in Canterbury is the dairy processor Synlait, of which a Japanese shareholder, Mitsui, holds a 23 per cent shareholding. It has been recorded that of the 80,000 cows which supply the company, 15,000 are owned by the company. As the company consolidates at a latter stage, will some of the present independent suppliers be squeezed out?

It is also interesting that another dairy company, Waikato‐based Open Country Cheese Company, has been taken over Open Country Dairy Limited, of which Affco New Zealand is a major shareholder. It has also been recorded that Olan International, a large multinational company based in Singapore, has purchased a shareholding of at least 24.75 per cent of Open Country Dairy Limited. Olan International is a global trader in a wide variety of food products world‐wide.

It should be noted, that most of the dairy companies that have been set up to compete with Fonterra, since the deregula‐ tion of the dairy industry, are in areas that have a high concentration of dairy cows. This means that the cost of milk collection is low. compared with a more extended area of collection, such as Fonterra has in the northern parts of the North Island. The Westland Dairy Co‐op would have the same problems on the west coast of the South Island.

The dairy farmers are also now coming under financial pressure due to the world wide recession. This is now putting further pressure on Fonterra as farmers are withdrawing their milk supply to capitalize on their Fonterra shareholding. And, even if the return on their milk supply is not as high from the independent manufacturers, they can use the money they get for their Fonterra shares to pay down debt. This has two downsides for Fonterra. It causes a drop in their throughput, and puts pressure on the capital structure of the cooperative. I believe all pastoral farmers of New Zealand should take time to consider what is happening to their industry, and take action before it is too late.

E K Goodhue, P O Box 6028, Otaika, Whangarei 0147. Email: kenandvalerie@xtra.co.nz (09)430.826 Ken Goodhue was DSC 2008 Whangarei candidate.

Policy R0473: That we will promote private individual, family or co‐operative ownership of New Zealand agricultural land, and (R0448): That mar‐ keting will be done by the most efficient means available to New Zealanders.

MEDIA

Economic Moonwalking

For all the free market make-overs, asset sales and privatisation.

Reserve Bank and Fiscal Responsibility Acts, tax cuts, laissez-faire monetary strategy and financial deregulation, we have gone backwards

By Finlay Macdonald (extract from Sunday Star-Times 19/7/09)

F

or those readers who missed John Key's speech last week about New Zealand's economy, here's a quick summary: Blah blah blah productivity blah blah blah growth blah blah blah internationally competitive blah blah blah OECD blah blah blah business environment blah blah blah create the right conditions blah blah blah...

Actually, this precis gives the impression of greater substance than the speech deserves. It was another party political broadcast on behalf of economic orthodoxy, laden with the usual jeremiads about our woeful economic performance and bullet point platitudes masquerading as policy initiatives.

Nine months into this government's first

The Diary of Adrian Bayly Nelson-based Adrian Bayly keeps a close eye on the political scene

30 May 2009 ‐ WHOPPING DEFICIT

The current National government has posted a whopping $9.3 billion deficit – and it will be 2016, two elections from now, before it posts another surplus – depending on when the Global Recession ends.

Finance Minister, Hon Bill English, said the country was grappling with the need to rein in debt. He has suspended payments to the NZ Super Fund for ten years and is going to borrow $34 billion over the next 4 years to help cushion the blow for the 70,000 workers about to join the dole queue.

The fact is that the government debt is still being forced up to levels not seen since the 1990s. The government would do better to issue Reserve Bank credit at nil rate of interest into circulation, rather than borrow it from banks and pay interest.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 15

term we might be forgiven for expecting a little more. But it is all we'll ever get from politicians who are capable of identifying the problems but prevented by ideology and intellectual timidity from offering honest analysis of the causes and therefore real solutions.

The trouble is, without meaningful reform of the fundamental economic conditions that have created and sustained this fantasy, New Zealanders can only ever be expected to behave in predictable ways.

We can't save because we're already borrowing just to maintain a static standard of living.

John Key isn't a financial illiterate...but he can't keep waffling about the effects of fundamental economic failure without at least opening up for discussion their fundamental causes.

The silence is deafening.

Our foreign‐owned banks have used the hot money gushing through their coffers.

But for all the free market make‐overs, asset sales and privatisation. Reserve Bank and Fiscal Responsibility Acts, tax cuts, laissez‐faire monetary strategy and financial deregulation, we have gone backwards.

17 June 2009 – WHAT IS NEEDED

8 September 2009 ‐ A CHALLENGE

Nelson City Council’s debt of $85.7 million will rise to $169 million in 2013‐4,

In a letter printed in The Nelson Mail (31.8.09), Don Steele wrote:

The Council raised a loan of $25 million in the early 2000s to fund a water filtration plant – to be paid back over the next 40 years. Now the new Council wants to build a performing arts centre and a millennium conference centre in Nelson. They want to borrow $32 million to fund it, paid back over another 40 years – and suspend loan repayments over the next 5 years in order to keep rate rises down.

In the Sunday Star‐Times (23/8/09): "Addicted to healthcare ‐ could alarming costs bankrupt us?" is the heading over the reports; "Health: New Zealand's untreated addiction" ‐ capital investment specialists who claim the cost of health is "taking over".

What is needed is DSC’s ‘Community Credit’? policy – Reserve Bank credit at nil to low interest rates to replace the Council’s interest‐bearing debt issue by banks. This would ease the burden on ratepayers with projects being paid for once only, rather than several times over by current and future ratepayers.

3 September 2009 – DEBT BONDAGE

Student tertiary education debt has now reached $10.5 billion and is forecast to climb to $14 billion by 2015.

National and Labour are still committed to putting tertiary students into debt bondage for the foreseeable future, rather than go back to bursaries and taxpayer funding.

It warns that the Government's $12 billion a year health budget, at the current rate of growth, will blow out to $45 billion by 2026.

Don Steele added: "I would challenge any capital investments specialists, economists, accountants, or government economic advisers to solve the problem without the election of a financial reform government."

9 September 2009 – BIG COMEDOWN

Will Jim Anderton stand again in 2011?

My guess is that he will finish his current term and retire at the 2011 election. His Progressive Party is now being merged with the Labour Party, so he can exit it.

There is no reason to hang around in Opposition as he is no longer in government and Labour leaders Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have quit parliament ‐ it’?s too big a comedown after years in power.

- extracts from the nation's press

same time as the last Election, and the politicians are able to ignore its result.

I suggest electors watch very carefully any Bill “to prevent confusing referenda”. My bet is that it will contain a further attack on what democracy remains in the system.

Meanwhile, let’s push hard for binding referendums, at both central and local government level.

John G Rawson, Northern Advocate 20/6/09

GIANT LEAP BACKWARDS Turkeys don't vote for an early Christmas.

So why would Kiwis? Because Christmas it will most assuredly be if National's promised referendum on the electoral system sees the ditching of MMP. Christmas that is for the two major parties.

No longer shackled by coalitions or minority government, National and Labour will struggle to suppress their glee at being gifted a return to the good old days (for them) of first‐past‐the‐post manufactured, revolving‐door elected dictatorships.

No doubt those wanting a return to those dark ages will seductively offer up the supplementary member system. It might look like a compromise. It is not a compromise. It is nothing short of snake oil elixir.

Had last year's election been fought under that system with a Parliament made up of 90 constituency seats and 30 list seats, National would have won 67 of them, compared with its current 58. That party would have had an absolute majority of 14 seats with just under 45% of the vote. The Greens' current entitlement of nine seats, would have been slashed to just two. So much for proportionality.

Losing MMP would be a giant leap backwards.

John Armstrong, NZ Herald 12/9/09

BINDING REFERENDUMS How interesting is the wave of propa‐ ganda relating to the coming referendum, with the two old Parties acting in the same accord they normally reserve for increases in Members’ salaries. Not even any sham debate and personalities in this one.

Obviously, they are scared stiff of the growing demand for binding citizen‐initiated referendums.

The tight two‐party state is not an essential part of the Westminster democratic system. In fact, it is corrupt, allowing policies to be decided behind closed doors in Caucus rather than on the floor of the debating chamber. It allows, for example, for influence by outside organisations that supply Party funds.

This referendum is perfectly clear. The law allows for criminalisation of good people. It relies on police interpretation to function properly, which is a most dangerous precedent. If it has done anything at all to provide its avowed intent, little evidence is visible.

Any “waste of money” is occasioned by two factors: it could have been held at the

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 16

THE PLAIN FACT The plain fact is that Private Banks create credit out of nothing, charge interest on it, and pocket the profits; $11.7B last year.

Mr Anderton claims he championed the ‘People’s Bank’ i.e. Kiwi Bank. The real ‘People’s’ Bank is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Kiwi Bank operates exactly the same way as the big four Australian owned banks.

It does NOT lend its customer’s deposits; it creates all loans and overdrafts out of nothing, but does charge fractionally less interest. Its profits do stop here in New Zealand. That is the only difference.

To stop this nonsense of obscene profit making by the Australian Private Banks, the Government of the day needs to change the 1989 Reserve Bank Act and return the ownership of the money creation system back to the people of New Zealand. Only then can we start to enjoy a debt‐free economy.

Bob Warren, Chairman, Southern Region Democrats for Social Credit.

Otago Daily Times 17/8/09

DEBT FINANCING One thing that has become very clear in the Nelson city and Tasman district councils' recently completed 10‐year planning exercise is "debt financing" of infrastructure projects.

My rates and valuations have doubled in the 10 years since I've been back in Nelson.

Nelson's debt is expected to triple from $56.8 million this year to $170.5 million in 2013‐14. The Tasman District Council's debt is expected to increase two‐and‐a‐half times between now and 2019 (from $108.5 million to $276.4 million).

The councils think this debt is low, when expressed as a debt‐equity ratio (liabilities v assets). Well, the Nelson City Council wants to help us by suspending principal repayments for the next five years to ease the burden on ratepayers, while going on a big spend‐up on borrowed money.

When the world's economies are facing a recession, huge debts, bankruptcies and rising unemployment, the councils should be biting the bullet and exercising restraint, like others.

A Social Credit government could help local bodies with Reserve Bank credit at 0‐3 per cent interest. View their webpage www.democrats.org.nz and their policy on community credit and local government.

Adrian Bayly, Nelson Mail 3/7/09

ANTI‐FLUORIDE ACTION GROWS Campaigners signalled the start of a renewed bid to rid Hamilton of water fluoridation yesterday by hanging a banner from the Totara Dr overbridge in Te Rapa.

The banner visible to thousands of Wairere Dr motorists was hung by members of a group called Health Freedom New Zealand.

A Waikato branch spokeswoman, Robyn Hembry, acknowledged it was the start of a co‐ordinated campaign.

"Health Freedom New Zealand is the philosophy for us to choose what we eat ourselves. Fluoride is not a choice issue. We are being medicated through our water supply."

Mrs Hembry said the opposition was more organised than three years ago when the city voted in a referendum on the issue.

She cited a 2006 American Dental Association warning that babies' formula should not be made up with fluoridated water. "In the light of this, is Hamilton City Council prepared to offer water that is not fluoridated?"

Mrs Hembry also raised a European Court ruling a few years ago which she said stated that fluoridated water must be treated as a medicine and cannot be used to prepare foods.

She said it was relevant because British local authorities had started trying to enforce this ruling and were putting money into the cause.

"If this gets ratified more widely then New Zealand exporters would have to look very seriously at it."

The issue arose earlier this month when city councillor Dave Macpherson led an effort to get water fluoridation debated by the council. He failed in his attempt but six of the 13 members of council were supportive of his views.

If in the next few months he can get support from one more councillor he could get rid of water fluoridation.

Geoff Taylor, Waikato Times 23/06/2009

REFRESHING READING In a speech in 1945, General Douglas MacArthur said, "If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door." This aptly describes the financial crisis today.

At the moment, the people do not seem to want to know what the real cause of the money system's failure is ‐ and certainly the overseas‐controlled media do not want us to find out ‐ but thankfully we still have one independent major newspaper left in New Zealand — the Otago Daily Times.

It made refreshing reading to see your unbiased comments on the financial alternatives put forward by the Democrats for Social Credit in your editorial .

Colin Weatherall, Otago Daily Times 10/12/08

How to be a Billionaire

By Stan Fitchett This article originally appeared in The Guardian Political Review, Issue 45, 2004.

It remains extremely relevant today.

Creating money is a respectable and legal way to get very wealthy.

All you need is a bank ‐ and four million Kiwis silly enough to let you do it.

Up to about 20 years ago ‐ except for the home mortgage ‐ we tended to save the money we needed before we spent it. But Roger Douglas removed controls over the banking industry in the 1980s, and as a result, we are racking up debt like there is no tomorrow.

In 1982 New Zealand households owed an average of half their yearly after‐tax income ‐ and that debt included their home mortgage.

But in the 20 years since Roger Douglas removed controls on the banking industry, household indebtedness has risen to 130 per cent of net annual income. In the 12 months to last November our average debt increased by an additional $11,000 for a four‐person family "Debt is fantastic" enthused Westpac's chief economist Brendan O'Donovan (The Press, 24/1/04). Working for one of Australasia's biggest debt merchants, he would say that, wouldn't he?

And he appears to believe the old fairy tale that banks only lend the money other people have in their deposits and saving accounts. What is surprising is that most people haven't figured out for themselves that this is nonsense.

In the 12 months to May 2002, for example, the Reserve Bank's statistics reveal that New Zealand's total money supply increased by $18,527 million dollars. That was an average of fifty million dollars a day ‐ seven days a week.

And where did all this new money come from?

I wrote to the Reserve Bank and asked, "Is it correct that the Reserve Bank creates only notes and coins which comprise about three per cent of the total M3 money supply while commercial banks create the other 97 per cent?"

Isabelle Sin, the Reserve Bank's Economic Analyst, replied; "Basically you are quite correct ...97 per cent of money is credit, created by the banking system."

This meant 97 per cent of the $18,527 million increase in New Zealand's money supply in just 12 months was created by the commercial banks ‐ mainly foreign‐owned.

A lot of that bank‐created credit was borrowed by a Government that already has a bank of its own, which could create money in exactly the same way as the foreign‐ owned banks do ‐ and save millions of your dollars in interest.

Suggest that today and you are iikely to Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 17

be ridiculed and told it would cause runaway inflation.

But a lot of people don't know their own history, and don't know how New Zealand recovered from the Great Depression of the 1930s faster than other country in the World.

We achieved that because a group of people with little formal education but a lot of common sense won the 1935 Election.

During that campaign, Labour leader M.J. Savage said in Christchurch: 'Today, when money had to be obtained for public works, it was borrowed, and interest was paid on it for ever. The ideal was that people should be,able to utilise their own credit system and complete public works without incurring public debt. " The book 'State Housing in New Zealand' published by the Ministry of Works in 1949, (p.7), explains how we did it ‐ without causing runaway inflation.

"Reserve Bank Credit: To finance its comprehensive proposals, the Government adopted the somewhat unusual course of using Reserve Bank credit, thus recognizing that the most important factor in housing costs is the price of money ‐ interest is the heaviest portion in the composition of rent.... This action showed... it was possible for the State to use the country's credit in creating new assets for the country."

The first 22 State houses were finished in 1937. By 1949 ‐ when that book was published ‐ 33,768 had been built. A Sot of those over‐educated experts who now ridicuie the suggestion that the government could create money, grew up in houses thaf were paid for with money created by the New Zealand Reserve Bank.

In December 2002 I went to see Wolfgang Rosenberg who was formerly Reader of Economics at University of Canterbury, I read to him the section in 'State Housing in New Zealand' which explained how the First Labour Government used Reserve Bank credit to finance the programme. And then I asked him if there is any reason why we can't do the same thing today, instead of borrowing at high interest for community assets and public works.

"There is no reason whatever," he replied.

"No, I'm quite sure. As long as you keep it within reason. For important public works such as sewage and housing, there is no reason why it cannot be done by the Reserve Bank."

I also quoted the statistics which showed that in the 12 months to May 2002 the amount of money in circulation grew by 18.527 billion dollars ‐ an increase of 16.8 per cent ‐ while average wages rose by just two per cent.

As the Reserve Bank explained in its letter, "... 97 per cent of money is credit, created by the banking system," so I asked Mr Rosenberg, " Why can't the government create money like the private banks do and save all the interest?"

"That's quite right", he said, "If the Reserve Bank created $100 million for new houses it wouid result in $100 million in new deposits in banks, (Bank credit) is simply new!y created money.

Next I asked Mr Rosenberg if the Govern‐ ment created money, would it cause inflation?

"Now," he replied, '"you say ‐ quite rightly ‐there was an 18 billion dollar increase in the money supply in one year, so why do you think your 100 million dollars (of Reserve Bank credit) would make any difference?"

Of course it wouldn't make any difference to inflation but it would make a lot difference to all those people who have to rent because they can't save enough for the deposit to buy their own homes.

And it would make a lot of difference to the average New Zealand household whose "... debt‐to‐income ratio has doubled since 1990." ('Daze of Debt', The Press, 24/1/34).

It would also make a difference to the profits of the commercial banks which now have a monopoly over the creation and issue of money. But as none of the major political parties show any interest in the rocketing debt problem, banking is still the easiest way to become a billionaire.

(End)

DSC believes unequivocally in the need to recover effective control of New Zealand's economic affairs and establish greater political independence; the need to secure the beneficial use of credit and currency to each citizen.

It promotes a process to regain New Zealand's financial sovereignty by gradually reducing the use of private interest‐bearing debt as a means of funding economic activity.

REVIEWS

We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform

By Richard C Cook

Reviewed by Mike Whitney (USA)

Richard Cook’s new book, We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform is a book for people who want to understand the current crisis without getting bogged down in hand‐wringing and negativity. It’s a blueprint for removing the gangrenous parts of the financial system and for establishing a dividend‐based system that better serves the public interest.

Cook cuts through the nonsense and reveals the root cause of today’s economic crisis: a privatized credit system gone haywire. This is first‐class analysis from a prescient reformer whose message is just now catching fire. While the pundits are still hung up on subprime mortgages and toxic assets, Cook has peeled the cover off our deeply‐flawed monetary system and exposed the rot within. This is where the change needs to begin.

We Hold These Truths is a timely book that challenges conventional thinking about credit and the role of banks. As the author points out, “In a system where the banks have a monopoly on the issuance of credit, they inevitably become the most powerful entity in the economy and therefore the most powerful politically as well.” Cook’s observations are particularly relevant today, now that many of the same people who pushed for deregulation during the Clinton and Bush administrations have been appointed as key members of Obama’s economics team. It’s clear that Wall Street has further tightened its grip on Washington even while it continues to wreak havoc on the financial system. It’s no wonder Thomas Jefferson concluded that, “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

Cook’s strong suit is taking complex economic ideas and breaking them down for his readers; he writes for the non‐economists as well as the experts. He devotes a fair bit of the book to explaining the fundamental mismatch between what the country produces and its net earnings. This gap between GDP and purchasing power can only be filled through the issuance of credit. The problem is, that as borrowing increases, the ballooning debt becomes more unmanage‐ able and the system begins to teeter. Wall Street’s reckless expansion of credit simulated prosperity (and a credit‐stimulated false prosperity) for nearly a decade; but when the bubble burst, the financial system collapsed, creating the present meltdown.

Cook believes that a National Dividend – which would come in the form of a check from the government to every man, woman and child in America – could make up for the loss in purchasing power and maintain economic stability. This is not “pie‐in‐the‐ sky” liberalism, but a reasonable proposal designed to stimulate business activity and avoid disruptive recessions. He also advocates public control of credit: community‐run investment banks which operate as public utilities and provide low interest loans to consumers and businesses.

These ideas were implemented during the Great Depression via the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) and the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) They were successful programs that helped build America’s middle class while seizing control of the mortgage industry from Wall Street speculators.

Cook also supports a basic income guarantee for every American regardless of whether they work or not. This is a defining issue that should be debated in terms of the value we place on human dignity. Doesn’t everyone deserves a minimal standard of living? The last time Congress considered such an initiative was Nixon’s Family Assistance Act of 1970. The “reverse income

Putting An Old Head on Young Shoulders

By Steve Baron Introduction by Steve Baron: As our children grow up and venture out in to the big wide world, we often wonder if they are fully equipped to cope.

They think they are six feet tall and bullet proof, but the trouble is they don't even know what they don't know.

Of course they rarely take advice from their parents. We are just silly old buggers who aren't with it, if you know what I mean.

There is an old saying, "You can't put an old head on young shoulders".

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 18

tax” was voted down by a coalition of southern Democrats who opposed it mainly on racial grounds. Senator George McGovern who supported the bill said that “it would have provided a basic underpinning of income for all Americans.” Income guarantees are stimulative and help maintain demand. They are good for the economy and demonstrate the nation’s commitment to provide for those who are most in need.

We Hold These Truths is a book for people who want to understand the current crisis without getting bogged down in hand‐ wringing and negativity. It’s a blueprint for removing the gangrenous parts of the financial system and for establishing a dividend‐based system that better serves the public interest. Richard Cook has presented the ideas that are likely to shape the national debate on monetary reform for years to come. They are certainly worth our consideration.

It’s a great read.

Published by Tendril Press. Copies available from www.richardccook.com/ Price $US19.95+ post.

Richard C. Cook was a NASA analyst who testified before the Presidential Commission on the demise of the Challenger shuttle disaster. His career included stints with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, and NASA, followed by 21 years with the U.S. Treasury Department. Now retired from government work, Cook has renewed his interest in monetary system reform.

I got to thinking one day that I should put my thoughts and experiences in writing, so maybe one day my children have something to refer to which might help them in their journey.

This book is the result of that idea along with feedback, comments and ideas from dozens of people I spoke to, friends, government Ministers and MPs. Sometimes it's easier for your children to take advice from other people, rather than their own parents. I hope this book helps.

Published by Born To Win Publishing. Download from www.betterdemocracy.co.nz/studies.php Steve Baron is also author of 'People Power', which promotes Binding Citizens' Initiated Referenda ‐ a DSC policy.

Whitmill's World Colin J Whitmill reports from the U.K.

She or her advisers could have found out had they subscribed to the NZ Guardian Political Review.

A quick scan through past issues of the NZ Guardian Political Review shows warnings given.

June 1996 Root cause The root cause of this depression is our defective financial system which causes debt and interest on debt to grow faster than income and output.

The economics profession is especially at fault. Instead of championing the necessary reforms ‘to make the world work for everyone with no one left out’ they chant the mindless mantra: “Trust the magic of the market and all will be well.”

MAKING BANKS SERVE MAJORITY NEEDS A paper has been written by a proponent of Social Capitalism, Robert Corfe, in which he outlines financial problems and suggests that events in history call for unimaginable change.

The following are extracts from his proposals:Governments fearful of banks The complex economic system for sustaining the spheres of domestic life and work has hit the buffers, and there is no glib remedy for resolving the situation, although many may be obsessed by favourite panaceas which, whilst settling one problem, too often lead to the compounding of others.

But governments are loathed to assume control of banks – and rightly so, for they have no expertise to propose desirable reform.

They remain fearful and paralysed, and blinded by the mystique of the banks. They remain in awe of their power and so submissive to their will. It is not desirable that governments should own or control the central banks, or that they be "nationalised," but that instead they should be subjected to dirigiste authority, i.e. to an over-arching state authority as to their remit and constitution, and to intervention as need demands.

Destructive policies The truth, of course, was that Thatcherism, shortly to be followed by Reaganism, set in motion – or at least, accelerated – policies which were to destroy the economic prospects of the Anglo-Saxon world.

Those who praised the new politicoeconomic thinking were living in a fools' paradise, doomed eventually to inevitable destruction.

Although the words of the powerful have always carried authority with the majority, we now live in an age when politicians have lost all credibility in their analysis of our present condition. But until yesterday, the very rich – and in particular, bankers and financiers succeeded in maintaining our trust – and this has included the trust of our politicians. Yet any analysis of the objective facts could have revealed to the intelligence of a child that our monetary system was hurtling towards a selfdestructive course.

Banking system - its purpose If the banking system is to be reformed – or rather reconstituted, it is first necessary to look into the essence of its purpose. The underlying social function of banking is quite different from Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 19

that of any other business. It may even be questioned as to whether banking should properly be regarded as a business. Perhaps it should be regarded as a utility as gas, electricity, or water, and as these are no less essential than money, then why should the managers of the latter be granted the privilege of extortionate profits?

The purpose of banking, on the other hand, is to facilitate the existence of a monetary system which assists the security, smooth efficiency, and profitability of the above. Its purpose should extend no further than that.

Banking as a service not a business In transforming banking from a business into a service, to which all should have the right of access in the same way as water or electricity, the entire philosophy of its approach may be changed into that of a socially essential benefit.

In this light the practicalities of setting aside the fractional reserve system, with its debt-fuelling manifestations, may be investigated with the aim of issuing interest free loans for public works and services, and possibly other projects, as currently advocated by the forwardlooking Ohio Congressman, Dennis Kucinich.

The savings to the taxpayer through such a banking system would not only be enormous, but more significantly, would enable the muchneeded capitalisation of huge projects such as hospitals, old people's homes, medical research, schools, quality social housing, wind and tidal power plants, and dykes in protecting land masses from higher sea levels. The issue of interest free loans would be undertaken through necessary safeguards in ensuring that inflation could not follow in its wake.

For these reasons it is therefore vital for the survival of all peoples on our planet, that banking systems be reconstituted in serving, firstly, home-based industries (irrespective of whether they be primary, secondary, or tertiary); and secondly, the mutual (i.e. the nonexploitative) needs of international trade.

WHY DID NO ONE SEE THE CRASH COMING? Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the end of 2008 expressed shock and was mystified as to why no one saw coming the recession/depression causing havoc in Britain, the USA and in some other countries.

The ‘powers that be’ are making the age-old mistake of attempting to defend the indefensible and contemptible instead of aiding humane adjustment. They may end up the biggest losers because of their folly.

The late Professor John Hotson November 1995

April 1999 Unrepayable debt The world escaped from the throes of the depression as Keynesian deficit financing was adopted. But in choosing Keynesian, the world chose yet more debt and more banking.

An economy’s tendency to recession would be countered by recourse to the national debt, the process by which governments supply money to the economy by creating it themselves - by allowing banks to create credit against the sale of government debt bonds.

- the debt would be run up during a slump and paid back during a boom. Half a century of deficit financing, during which national debts around the globe have continually escalated, has shown the terror of Keynes’s monetary analysis . National debts are not cyclical - they are unrepayable.

Michael Rowbotham The Independent newspaper London 12 February 1999

October 2000 Asset inflation The banks have a virtual monopoly over the creation of credit. Unless restricted in some way, they will create huge quantities of new money in the form of new lending, thereby creating money which does not really exist money which then feeds through into asset inflation, whereupon the inflated value of the assets becomes the justification for a new round of lending, credit creation and monetary expansion.

Bryan Gould, then a British Labour MP, in a paper presented to a British employment forum in the early 1990’s.

Summer 2002 Bunch of dominoes US Corporate debt nearly doubled in the past five years [1997-2002] to $3.9 trillion. The burden threatens to send the nation into a prolonged recession. Moody’s Investor Research now says the nation is in worst credit stress since the Great Depression of the 1930’s . It’s a bunch of dominoes that could collapse says Mike Gasior, president of American Financial Services.

Australian Economic Reform newsletter Nov-Dec 2002 (continued on next page)

(Whitmill's World continued)

as the common ground for their deliberations.

Spring 2003

Rodney has been extremely busy with various activities and demands upon his time.

For a week prior to the Iranian election, Rodney was a guest of the Iranian state owned PressTV in Iran and made 16 broadcasts on economic matters.

Collapsing Credit Bubble The recently released Real World Economic Outlook released by the [London based] New Economics Foundation predicts that a giant credit bubble, created by central bankers and finance ministers, has now reached a “tipping point”.

This point - at which the “bubble” of financial assets exceeds GDP by nine times - has triggered financial crisis elsewhere. On a global level, there is $100 trillion of debt outstanding, but only $33 trillion of income with which to pay those debts. When this credit bubble bursts, it will be middle class consumers that will first bear the brunt of the financial crash, because they have been actively encouraged in their borrowing by the financial deregulation policies of both central bankers and governments.

Bankruptcy, losses, liabilities and personal anguish will extend some time into the future.

The impact of a collapsing credit bubble will reverberate around the world From The coming first world debt crisis by Ann Pettifor 2003

CCMJ Christian Council for Monetary Justice members have been active in dialogue with Muslim moderates as they seek to discover how best they can make a contribution to the world crisis, which is increasingly understood to be a systemic dysfunction.

Regular three day conferences have been held by Muslim scholars and business participants from 21 countries trying to bring together the Shia and Sunni factions in a new sense of common purpose. The first two days are for Muslim participants only, but on the third day, a Christian influence is added through CCMJ members.

Chairman Canon Peter Challen, Professor Rodney Shakespeare and CCMJ vice chairman Simon Mouatt, lecturer in economics at Southampton University, usually attend for the CCMJ, and the set theme of response to the human condition, rather than of the defence of religious traditions.

It was proposed and agreed at the June gathering that The Modern Universal Paradigm

by Rodney be translated into Arabic and participants in the next such conference read it LONDON GLOBAL TABLE MOVES The London Global Table has moved its weekly venue for locals and international visitors to discuss monetary justice and associated matters.

Starting off at the Global Cafe in Soho, it moved to the Friends Meeting House restaurant in Euston, but soon grew too big, with disadvantages for the caterers trying to fit in all patrons. The Friends provided alternative accommodation which was helpful, but not adequate for full exchanges of views. Early this year- 2009- a generous invitation to meet in the library of the London School of Economic Science was readily accepted and has proved to be more than adequate. It provides comfortable facilities and a freedom to talk and exchange news with no reservations about being overheard by or annoying others.

The illustrations show the facade of the building and a few of the LGT participants in a committee room discussing relevant topics.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 20

For those who have not yet read The Modern Universal Paradigm, obtain a copy* and don't miss out on the positive message it brings. * See Review in Issue 53. Copies available as a special offer to Guardian readers in New Zealand for a donation of $15 to Democrats for social credit, P.O. Box 18.907, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641

It pays to invest - in politicians The American Center for Responsive Politics has compiled some facts. Some twelve financial groups contributed $28.79 million to politicians' campaign expenses. They also spent $41,012,000 on lobbying US politicians.

The return on this investment was that they received $230.8 BILLION from President Obama's bailout scheme.

I wonder how much money banks in New Zealand paid the country's political parties.

The Greens are wrong Vinod Khosla, one of the biggest investors in green technology in America has boldly, and perhaps logically, said The environmentalists are wrong. We don't need to use less energy.

We need to find new solutions. [Sunday Times 30-3-09] Ownership of water brings record profits The Aussie banker, Macquarie, must be rubbing their hands with their Thames Water investment. Thames Water, despite the economic crisis, has announced record profits for the past year of $1,570 million and plans to increase water bills by 10.5% for this. After this year, prices are set to rise over the following four years by at least the inflation rate plus 7%.

Yes, we have no bananas A letter writer to the Sunday Daily Telegraph [28-6-09] wrote Britain is now virtually bankrupt, swamped by immigration, dominated by the EU, education and health are choked with bureaucracy, and Parliament, gripped by greed, has lost control and is despised by the general public. Britain has become a banana republic without bananas.

EVER PUNCHED A LEMON JELLY? If you have ever punched a lemon jelly, you will realise that it will wobble in response.

However anyone punching a pot of porridge will receive little or no response.

It was like that for me when I attended a session led by the Rev Canon Peter Challen at the Southern Regional conference of the British United Nations Association in late August 2009.

His was a masterly exposition of threading facts and fears together before coming to a pivotal conclusion which could overcome them all. It was not the convincing way with words or the pleasant relaxing challenging way he put his case that left me admiring his effort. It was a combination of these and his self taught mastery of pertinent power presentation which provided, for me, a difficult to attain bench mark of cogent argument before a middle class audience of high average age seemingly comfortable in their own situation.

Peter's address concentrated on enormous structural problems in the environment, corporation power and land and asset ownership and how were all interdependent.

He condemned usury as in its basic term of using others. If one loved God and their neighbour, using others did not occur. He exemplified countries buying up/leasing land in the Ukraine, Cambodia, Africa and elsewhere (New Zealand?) as a new form of economic imperialism to ensure their own future food supply. It was a fundamental principle of being fully human that there should be a basic income for all.

His illustrations of graphs showed how exponential growth was totally at odds with natural law. He warned that with such growth we were near the end of the earth's habitation it was a crisis of an order never known before.

Vested interests were eroding our lives, but appreciation of the fierce urgency of now [Martin Luther King] was vital.

Social disorder, environmental and structural problems required remedies. Effects had causes. And it was at the close of the address that Peter pointed to the cause - the debt based privately owned financial system.

Leading into receiving questions, Peter asked how many knew how money was created. The porridge never moved.

The first question, or rather statement, was that the system could not be changed as private pensions had to be generated out of the economy by the share market and by usury.

Peter soon exposed the shallow thinking in the assertion by suggesting the proposal of Richard Murphy [see Guardian Political Review issue 53] that pension income could be achieved other than through the share market or the money-making money system of today.

A bold enquirer asked what they could do to effect change. Peter's response was for people to keep asking questions and tell others that enough was enough. Mine would have been support or join the DSC! It was pleasing however to find someone paying to buy a copy of The Modern Universal Paradigm by Rodney Shakespeare for me to realise that perhaps some of those who had been silent had had their minds prised open a just a little bit.

This brilliant talk was worthy of a far better response.

[Colin J Whitmill]

ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE

NEWS BITES - hunting through the media jungle!

BUMBLE, STUMBLE & MUMBLE Labour, Greens and Jim Anderton form a new monetary investigation unit – bumble, stumble and mumble. It is now acknowledged by most experts that the driver of the global economic crisis was the ever expanding use of debt as money. Unfortunately, virtually all money in the world today is based on a mechanism of debt creation. Until that mechanism is changed or an alternative mechanism put in place, the debt based solutions being developed are ensuring another crisis will happen within the next decade. The opposition parties engaged in looking at the foundation of the NZ economy will find nothing because they are looking for solutions in the same environment that created the problems they seek to address. Ironically the only party who saw the crisis coming and are proposing an alternative to debt as money (Democrats for Social Credit) is having its annual conference in Christchurch on September 5-6th .

Scoop 2/9/09 See Conference report in this issue

BAIL-OUT FRAUD The (US) government’s bail-out cash is giving rise to an astonishing number of new fraud and money laundering accusations. The complex nature of the bail-out program makes it “inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, including significant issues relating to conflicts of interest facing fund managers, collusion between participants, and vulnerabilities to money laundering,” says an internal government report.

The Daily Reckoning website 6/5/09

TIME FOR TOBIN In 1978 James Tobin, one of America's most celebrated economists, wrote an oft-cited paper advocating an international transfer tax on foreign-exchange transactions. Such a tax, he argued, could be designed to make short-term currency speculation less attractive without doing much harm to long-term international investment - in Keynes' words, to "mitigate the predominance of speculation over enterprise".

The Economist, Nov.'93 See feature 'Time for Tobin' in this issue

THE FATAL ILLUSION Most of the people who produce the real wealth in the world are in debt and risk losing everything they have worked for to bankers who fabricate money out of mere promises to pay. The real economy is limited by the capacity of the planet. It cannot grow exponentially using debt to force it to. It is a fatal and unnatural illusion. It is systemically inevitable that the financial system will fail before the planet fails yet not without devastating consequences economically and environmentally.

Rev Canon Peter Challen peterchallen@googlemail.com

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 21

NEVER ANY COMMITMENT The provisions of s264 of the 1993 Electoral Act are very clear: Parliament was required to appoint a select committee after the second MMP election to…"consider whether there should be a further referendum on changes to the electoral system". There was never any commitment - formal, informal or implied - that a further referendum would be held. This review was undertaken in 2000; it failed to reach a consensus.

China’s economic policies are described as a curious mix of both Karl Marx and Adam Smith.

And there remains the biggest contradiction of all: a relatively poor nation with an annual per capita income of just $US6000 (compared with $39,000 in the US) has for years allowed Americans to live well beyond their means by using its export earnings to buy US Treasury bonds. The International Monetary Fund forecasts in the three years from 2008 to 2010 China will, almost unbelievably, account for almost three-quarters of the world's economic growth.

NZ Listener 3/10/09

Alan McRobie, NZ Listener 3/10/09

MISLEADING & UNTRUE? Fluoride Action Network Dunedin representative Olive McRae warned mothers in the Blueskin Bay area not to use the area's new fluoridated tap water to mix infant formula.

"This is due to medication of the new water supply with silico-fluoride, a dangerous neurotoxin. Babies are at extreme risk of fluoride poisoning when they are exposed to fluoridated tap water". Public Health South medical officer, John Holmes, said there was no evidence fluoridated water used to reconstitute the formula has any harmful effects. Ministry of Health chief dental officer Robin Whyman said that infant formula is able to be reconstituted with fluoridated water.

Otago Daily Times 6/6/09 Olive McRae was Democrats for social credit 2008 Dunedin South candidate .

YUAN WORLD CURRENCY? Chinese officials are preparing for the yuan to eventually become the world's dominant currency. Since last December, China has signed deals with six countries, including South Korea, Malaysia and most recently Argentina, for currency swaps that would inject Chinese money into foreign banking systems.That would allow foreign companies to make payments for Chinese exports in yuan, bypassing the dollar.

Chinese and Western analysts say they can envision the yuan becoming the dominant currency by 2020.

Los Angeles Times 13/4/09

WAGE SLAVES?

Footnote: In November 2006, the American Dental Association recommended that infant formula NOT be made with fluoridated water. www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm

WHEN - NOT IF A group of Hamilton city councillors are pushing for the removal of fluoride from the city's water Cr Dave Macpherson told councillors that even "blind Freddy" recognised it was a matter of when, not if, and he felt the time had come: "We know quite enough to make a decision now. It's an issue that isn't going to go away."

Waikato Times 5/6/09

THE $57 BILLION QUESTION After the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, the Bush administration pledged $57 billion to keep the nation safe from bioterror. The FBI has now found that the anthrax letters that killed five Americans came from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Los Angeles Times 3/8/09

FARMERS ON ' LIFE SUPPORT' A report by banker Macquarie Group says NZ agriculture “is on financial life support to cover debt servicing, operating and living expenses” as it grappled with the effects of $44 billion of compounding interest-bearing debt.

Otago Daily Times 2/6/09

A recent media report that Chinese interests were doing due diligence on a number of dairy farms owned by the Crafar family should concern all of us. Our most valuable wealth generator is our dairy industry. If that gets sold off piecemeal, we will be little more than wage slaves in our own country - a nation of people living in very expensive houses, earning low wages and working for overseas owners.

Economics lecturer Peter Lyons, Otago Daily Times 23/9/09

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID Be afraid...be very afraid. The National/Act Government's moves to trample all over democracy by creating their own version of a Super City in Auckland have, rightly, caused alarm up and down the country. But much worse could still be to come. The Minister of Local Government, Rodney Hide, is proposing an even more radical shake-up which would see councils everywhere having their powers stripped back to the provision of core services only. One only has to go to the Act New Zealand website to see what they have planned for local government. Privatisation.

Clearly, the agenda to corporatise local government in this country is well under way. Mr Hide slid into Parliament with barely 4% of the vote, and is now intent on forcing his will on us all.

Penny Hulse, deputy mayor of Waitakere City, Otago Daily Times 16/6/09

IMPOTENT The most important issue concerning not only the Auckland area but New Zealand-wide has been overlooked by the government. Dr Michael Bassett's reforms of 1989 gave control of councils to the CEO and staffers. This was a deliberate shift by a Labour government and has caused mayhem ever since. The elected members are impotent as they do not have control.

Ray Clarke, Sunday Star-Times 19/4/09

country derives from the production and exchange of goods and services. The buying and selling of existing houses adds little to this measure of national prosperity. It represents a transfer of wealth. Some of the country's future income will be given to the overseas lender in the form of interest and debt repayments. A country should pride itself on the affordability of houses for its citizens. They can then invest their savings in ventures that enhance the prosperity of the country through the production of saleable goods and services.

Peter Lyons, Otago Daily Times 15/4/09 Peter Lyons teaches economics at St. Peters College in Epsom and has written several economics texts.

THE SWISS WAY

THE CRIPPLING BURDEN A new study shows New Zealand’s health sector is being crippled by a multi-billion dollar problem – muscle and joint (musculoskeletal) conditions – and the situation will worsen over the next 20 to 40 years. The study, Musculoskeletal Conditions in New Zealand, “The Crippling Burden” shows that musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of disability, affect one in four New Zealanders and are estimated to cost the country over $5.5 billion per year. Co-author, Kim Miles, comments: “With an ageing population, New Zealand is facing a crippling and increasing burden of musculoskeletal disorders.

See feature article “Oh, my aching back!” in this issue

WISHFUL THINKING A group of “eminent economists” has written to Queen Elizabeth II in answer to her question “Why did nobody see it coming?" In it, they blame “financial wizards” who were guilty of “wishful thinking”, and that it was “principally a failure of the collective imagination to understand the risks to the system”.

NZ Listener 22/8/09 See item in Whitmill’s World.

In referendums, Swiss voters favour basic health insurance covering complementary medicine Alternative treatments like homeopathy, psychotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine will in future be offered alongside conventional treatments, after 67 percent of those voting backed their use.

Switzerland, made up of 26 cantons, has a long history of direct rule, with referendums taking place typically around three or four times a year at federal, cantonal and local level. They can be forced by citizens' or cantonal government petition and are also needed for changes to the constitution or to join crossborder organisations and communities.

Better Democracy NZ 24/5/09

CLINICIANS NOT BUREAUCRATS The ministerial review of health, Meeting the Challenge, is a great dlsappointment. The review's top-down approach is a major limitation. How can we tackle any real health problem unless the clinicians own it? Far more important than having committees hidden in the bowels of hospital bureaucracies, or in Wellington, is that those who deal directly with patients work in and promote a safe environment. I trust our clinicians to supply good health care far more than I trust bureaucrats and managers.

Brian Easton, NZ Listener 26/9/09 DON'T WASTE A GOOD CRISIS

THE WEALTH OF NATIONS Adam Smith highlighted what makes countries wealthy in his book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. He stated the wealth of a

questions about governments and markets provides us with an opportunity that must be taken. It is surely now clear that it is governments, not banks, that underpin our financial systems and our currencies; and if that is so, should we not recognise that banking and the creation of money and credit are public functions for which public accountability should be demanded? And should not the management of the economy be the first function of democratically accountable government and not subcontracted out to unaccountable bankers and officials?

From The State Is Back. Back In Fashion, Back In Business, Back In Charge, by Bryan Gould. Foreign Control Watchdog, August 2009

JUST LIKE PARLIAMENT "There were motions, amendments, countermotions and amendments, squabbling, cackling, grinning, fooling, jeering and sundry other manifestations of vulgarity, stupidity, and mental imbecility, and the whole vanished like smoke, without leaving a trace behind."

Report on the proceedings of the Presbyterian Synod of Otago, The Otago Daily Times 24/1/1872

ON COMEBACK TRAIL

Karearea, the native falcon, one of the world's fastest birds, has returned to Christchurch. "It's fantastic to see them," said Christchurch City Council Port Hills ranger Andrew Crossland.

"They add a bit of class to the area. Everything is coming to life."

Extract and photo from The Christchurch Press

Appropriately, this was published in the same period as the DSC Conference in Christchurch

As President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, remarked, a good crisis should never be wasted. The fact that 30 years of global “free market” economics have not only culminated in recessionary crisis but have raised a wide range of yet more fundamental

ANDERTON "RETURNS TO THE FOLD" PROGRESSIVE PARTY "STANDING ASIDE" AT THE NEXT ELECTION

Twenty years after he split with Labour, Jim Anderton has all but returned to the fold, with a deal allowing his activists to stand as Labour candidates and a promise to campaign "party vote Labour" in 2011.

The Progressive Party is effectively standing aside at the next election and its members have been told they are free to join Labour.

A spokesman said the Progressive Party would not run a candidate list at the 2011 election and would not campaign for the party vote.

Democrat delegates celebrate the Party's 2002 Conference decision to break away from the Progressive Party coalition and reclaim its identity under Stephnie de Ruyter's leadership.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 22

In another signal his Progressive Party and Labour have all but merged, his key adviser, John Pagani has thrown his hat in the ring to replace Mike Smith as Labour Party secretary.

Mr Anderton, who will be 73 by the next election, had not yet decided if he would stand in his Christchurch stronghold of Wigram, the seat he has held since 1984.

Sources: The Nelson Mail and NZPA 25/7/09

Democrats for social credit

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP BUILD A WORLD-CLASS ECONOMY? Group vacancies

New Zealand based

Vacancies exist in all areas for those willing to join a dedicated team of people on a non-remunerative basis.

The DSC aims to help ambitious businesses, and individual enterprises, in the fields of agriculture, industry, service and leisure to grow and become successful. We aim to help build a world class economy by moving from a debt based to a credit based financial system owned and operated by New Zealanders for New Zeaianders.

The DSC intends to encourage innovation, to help people achieve their full potential, and to provide economic security for all throughout their lives.

This is an opportunity at a time of great financial stress and challenge to help transform our economy, becoming the standard for others to follow.

Successful applicants will have:   Conviction that fundamental change is necessary    Drive and ability to work with others to bring about change    Willingness to promote conceptual ideas & to think outside the box    Determination to succeed & confidence to see any perceived setbacks as surmountable challenges    Acceptance that the DSC is the only vehicle to provide for such structural financial change 

For further information visit:

www.democrats.org.nz

Democrats for social credit I/We wish to join or renew my/our membership of the Democrats for social credit, which is an independent political party committed to the economic transformation of New Zealand.

Please return this coupon with payment to: DEMOCRATS FOR SOCIAL CREDIT, P.O. BOX 18-907, NEW BRIGHTON, CHRISTCHURCH 8641 I/We enclose $10.00 (per person) to cover annual membership Cheques payable to Democrats for social credit

N.B. Membership includes all issues of The Guardian Political Review (Non members may obtain the Guardian for $8.00 p.a., including p & p. Send to Guardian Publishing, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400)

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Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 23

Greetings

A message to Conference

and

from Rev Canon Peter Challen

encouragement

UK Christian Council for Monetary Justice

Fellow pilgrims here in London, far off in miles, close on fellowship, and on the same trail of radical financial sanity, send our greetings and encouragement for that day.

The small, brave enclaves of monetary reformers around the world value awareness of both each others' successes and of resilience in the face of so many obstacles.

May bright ideas and persistent commitment affect all the deliberations and inspire the participants.

A thought occurs to me that in this dynamic creation, our beautiful blue/green planet of gift and ceaseless creativity, there are no orthodoxies; differences of approach are to be embraced and encouraged, even if thought to be mistaken - as long as the underlying premise remains that we seek a medium of exchange in global housekeeping that works for everyone and protects the earth.

Nothing less than such inclusive justice can keep us from the cliff's edge.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 24