Guardian Issue 62

The Guardian Political Review Produced by the New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit Inc. Issue No.62

Summer 2012

ISSN1176-614X

IN THIS ISSUE

A brighter future using social credit Plus: An honourable cause Ryall's Office of Circumlocution Is monetary reform really that simple?

AND NEWS, REVIEWS, FEATURES & MORE

The Guardian Political Review

Issue 62, Summer 2012

Produced by Guardian Publishing on behalf of the N.Z. Democrats for Social Credit Party, PO Box 5164, Invercargill 9843 Tel: 03 215 7170. 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 A brighter future

In this issue the Democrats for Social Credit leadership team speaks out.

Leader Stephnie de Ruyter says the Government’s promise of a ‘brighter future’ can only be achieved by replacing the present ‘creaking economic system’ with a new model.

Neither of today’s major parties have the answer (a case of the bland leading the bland?).

Is monetary reform that simple? Deputy leader John Pemberton says “yes”, and shows how it would yield freedom from debt. In today’s heavily indebted society that would indeed be a dramatic achievement.

According to vice‐president Katherine Ransom, we have

been sold ‘the Big Lie’ – but we know the truth. By adopting DSC policies the Government will both make money and save money. It’s a win all round.

President David Wilson sums up: “It’s an honourable cause”.

There is no doubt that we are in a period of change and upheaval. In his latest book, respected author Richard Cook says a new kind of economic system is vital. We need to replace service‐to‐self (greed and selfishness) with service‐to‐ others – a move perfectly encapsulated by the DSC logo 'beyond greed'.

A brighter future can, indeed, be a reality.

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 functionality is invited.

CONTENTS

11

1 ‐ Front Cover

15 ‐ Media ‐ Nighy

2 ‐ Editorial

16 ‐ Obituaries

3 ‐ Leader's Message

17 ‐ Dear John

4 ‐ Katherine Ransom

18 ‐ Hydraulic Fracturing

5 ‐ John Pemberton

19 ‐ Comment + World News

6 ‐ Media + Executive List

20 ‐ John Rawson

15

7 ‐ Conference Comments

Nighy fires up on a favourite subject

My name is Callum Findlater and I am going to talk to 8 ‐ Media you about the economy

10 ‐ Media

24 ‐ Whitmill's World (3)

11 ‐ Callum Findlater

25 ‐ News Bites (1)

12 ‐ Letters + Adrian Bayly

26 ‐ News Bites (2)

13 ‐ Reviews Dear John

22 ‐ Whitmill's World (1) 23 ‐ Whitmill's World (2)

9 ‐ David Tranter

17

21 ‐ Richard Cook + Henry Raynel

14 ‐ John Ring + Review

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62 - Page 2

19 The event that saved the President

27 ‐ News Bites (3) 28 ‐ Back cover

By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for Social Credit

‘When ordinary people reject the cultural stories that limit

The PM’s folksy spin is no substitute for a genuine willingness

their possibilities and bind them to servitude, the course of

to take steps to protect New Zealanders from the effects of

history turns.’ – David Korten, environmentalist & author

the global financial crisis. Our situation is not the same as

The National Party’s website carries the slogan: ‘Less debt, more jobs’. Really? Unemployment has risen for the third successive quarter to 7.3%. That’s 175,000 Kiwis out of work.

More out of work in some areas than others: the unemploy‐ ment rate in Auckland is 8%, in Northland it’s 10%, for 15 – 24 year olds it’s 13.4%, 15.1% for Maori, and 15.6% for the

Spain’s, nor Greece’s, nor Italy’s, nor Portugal’s, nor anywhere else’s situation. And anyway, the austerity measures imposed in those countries are nothing more than a recipe for civil unrest and misery. New Zealand’s economy has its own problems and those problems need to be addressed in a way which works for us here.

Pacific community. Times are tough for many Kiwis, but the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance stubbornly assure us that New Zealand is on track.

That must be a difficult line to swallow

A first step along the road to building a

The government may yet be able to honour its election year promise of a 'brighter future' ...but only by using social credit

for all those people struggling to pay their bills.

Despite government statements to the contrary, it is clear

truly independent NZ is for the government to have the humility to accept it doesn’t have answers to the hard economic questions, and to look around for viable alternatives.

Social credit monetary reform is an alternative worthy of serious consideration. It could replace the creaking system

that New Zealand’s economy is in a proper shambles. We’ve

devised in the seventeenth century with a new economic

recorded the highest unemployment rate in 13 years, our

model suited to this century. As a system which elevates the

manufacturing sector is in steady decline, our dollar remains

local above the global, it encourages decentralisation and

overvalued, there’s a housing crisis in Auckland, the

supports dynamic, inclusive, self‐reliant communities. It

Christchurch rebuild programme has stalled, our current

recognises that we can’t borrow from the future, that it is

account deficit has worsened, government borrowing

unacceptable for New Zealand’s financial system to be owned

continues to increase, and there’s no indication that our

by overseas interests, and that the government’s primary

situation will improve in the foreseeable future. The flow‐on

responsibility is to the people of New Zealand.

effects of the global financial crisis will continue for years.

Of major concern is the National‐led government’s apparent blindness to its role in NZ’s economic downturn.

Guardian Political Review - Issue 62, 2012 - Page 3

The government may yet be able to honour its election year promise of a ‘brighter future’ for all New Zealanders….. but only by using social credit.

Spend money to make money ‐ and save money Vice‐President's speech to DSC 2012 Annual Conference

By Katherine Ransom As your Vice President and Social Issues spokes‐ man, I have observed a great deal recently that concerns me.

I continue to work as convener for the Economic Standing Committee of National Council of Women. Due to the choices the NCW Board makes of which Bills to comment on, and to this Government’s fondness for passing financial measures under urgency, my submissions to select committees this year have been practically nil. NCWNZ has also been financially hobbled by a change to the Charities Commission, which has designated not just political parties, but all organized groups deemed to be ‘political’ as not qualifying for charity status.

It’s a neatly orchestrated way to not only reduce tax rebates on charitable donations, but also to knee‐cap non‐government organizations that are too annoyingly critical of government policy. The Government’s paring of funding for social services also continues, as does the economic folly of asset sales in spite of the loud objections from many quarters.

Government agenda cannot be to ‘pay down debt’ or ‘help mom and pop investors’ or even stimulate the economy by increasing trading on our stock exchange. Consider: 1. Paying Down Debt: The Government would lose more income than the amount gained, and still it would be necessary to borrow more.

2. Mom and pop investors would very soon be tempted to on‐sell their shares to overseas corporations. The proposed bribe to keep them would last only a short while, cost the taxpayer a bundle and still the shares would be sold.

3. The NZX: There is something distinctly fishy about basing our country’s economic prosperity on the rate of share trading. The housing bubble didn’t put food on family tables or create more jobs, and nor does activity on the stock exchange.

Selling our assets was a promise made to big corporate interests in exchange for financial support of the ruling political party.

Big John the Money Marketeer is all for helping his friends get richer, by handing them a slice of New Zealand.

Cuts to social services go ahead in spite of good evidence that the fallout will be more expensive than the initial funding. The Ministry for Social Development is run as the Ministry for Social Depression by a woman who should know better. Beneficiary squeezing is the favourite sport of this Ministry, especially our traditional whipping boys, solo parents.

One tactic is making all beneficiaries ‘work ready’, for jobs that don’t exist. Looking after children on the DPB is regarded as ‘bludging on the state’ and if you have another child while on the benefit, you only have a year in fulltime parenting before you must be ‘work Guardian Political Review, Issue 62 - Page 4

(complete and unabridged)

ready’. One wonders if the baby will be work ready.

So much irony is involved here. It is ironic that before starting to seriously squeeze solo parents, the Government cut funding to preschools, adding further cost to getting a job. It is ironic that most of the few jobs available are so poorly paid that family income goes down when a solo parent goes out to work. It is ironic that there has been not a single move to create more jobs, or more importantly to value and reward the unpaid work that many beneficiaries are already doing.

The biggest irony is that due to a market forces economy inflicted on New Zealand last century, we now have a huge problem with youth – crime, violence and substance abuse.

These are children who have grown up not just in households trapped in poverty, but also in more well‐off families where both parents are working full time. Daycare centres and preschools, where no adult has the time or resources to love any one child unconditionally, have produced a cohort of people who at best are ‘me first’ individuals lacking in empathy, and at worst nurse a deep‐seated, unresolved anger at a society that has failed them.

We were sold the Big Lie How much does this cohort we have failed cost the state? The cost to the judicial system alone should give us pause. Youth suicide rates have risen sharply, the tip of a depression iceberg – youth energy and potential undervalued and untapped. Even those who go on to tertiary education may come out with a qualification and a large debt, but not necessarily employment.

Then there is the retirement age, and how expensive we oldies are going to be. The scaremongering about the ‘burden of age’ has got even sensible people worried.

Actually, older people who live longer in good health are a large and growing asset.

They still join things, volunteer in a wide range of services and community activities, and do a huge amount of unpaid work caring for the most vulnerable. As they leave the workforce, more jobs are available for young people. We simply can’t afford to have our elders staying in paid work for longer!

Raising the retirement age will disadvan‐ tage those who work in heavy labouring jobs, and ethnic minorities who don’t live as long as the ‘average’. This is a human rights issue. We are people, not numbers on a graph. We all deserve to be looked after when we need it, at whatever age that might be.

Ironically again, the fallout will be extra costs: the cost of paid staff, when volunteers are not available, the social cost of families without support in times of crisis, the health costs of working longer than is good for some, the cost of our youth’s wasted potential. The retirement age should be returned to 60, to save the taxpayer money.

So I come back to the basic problem: money. People need enough money to live on. Society and the real economy need people who have enough money, because they spend it on the goods and services that sustain life and make it comfortable and safe. They can stop working full time as they get older, and have spare time to devote to their families and communities.

The economic system we are struggling under now allows a small number of people far more money than they will ever need. It allows about half the people a comfortable amount, and anyone else is progressively forced into poverty. The more people fall below a sustainable income level, the worse off everyone is. There is less money for basic necessities, never mind leisure activities such as sport and entertainment. Business suffers, jobs are lost and everything gets worse.

Yet income is still tied to employment, even though with all our modern inventions and technology, there is less actual work.

Last century, we talked about what we would do with our leisure time, since so many machines were doing our work. Neo‐ liberal economics have stolen the leisure time created by the inventiveness of the human intellect. The commercial banks have stolen our future and the futures of our children and grandchildren, and driven us into debt slavery.

We were sold the Big Lie: There Is Not Enough Money. Because of that lie, too many of us were frightened into believing the TINA imperative: There Is No Alternative.

We know the truth: money is not finite.

Therefore, we as a nation must create our own money supply for the public good. One such public good should be a guaranteed basic income. It has the beauty of being immediately effective on an ailing economy.

Spending on goods and services will go up, children will be lifted out of poverty, business will thrive and hire more workers, families can afford to parent their own children, community organizations will find more volunteers, and more people will take holidays.

The whole vexed question of a retirement age would simply go away. So would the perceived need to harass beneficiaries, invade privacy through asset‐testing or run costly welfare fraud investigations.

Alongside a basic income, we need fully funded health and education systems, plus public utilities and transport that are efficiently run, not for private profit, but as essential services accessible to everyone. The Government will find its revenue coffers overflowing, as the real economy trades and pays taxes. It will also see a sharp reduction in size and cost of the lumbering bureaucra‐ cies of Work and Income, and Inland Revenue.

By creating and spending money for the public good, the Government will both make money and save money. It’s a win all round.

Is monetary reform really that simple?

Deputy Leader's Speech to Conference ‐ August 2012 (Extract only ‐ full text available from john.pemberton@democrats.org.nz)

By John Pemberton

Most bank customers will see very little Monetary reform has been spoken about, difference ‐ the necessary changes will occur discussed, argued about and written about by many behind the scenes. in this near‐60‐year‐old political party of ours.

People such Bruce Beetham, Les Hunter, Don The global financial crisis saw banks around the Bethune and Lowell Manning, just to name a few in world collapse. Some received huge bailouts from my 40 years as a member. There is also a huge their governments to enable them to continue amount of monetary reform writing that emanates trading and to protect depositors' money ‐ a huge from the rest of the world. cost to taxpayers for generations to come. To Monetary Reform ‐ how The monetary reform we propose will prevent this happening, or to help minimise the costs simple can it be? It's pretty see a far safer system put in place incurred with a bank simple to me. collapse, our Reserve Bank has been working on a An independent monetary authority will be project called 'Open Bank Resolution'. The established as the only institution with the power monetary reform we propose will see a far safer to create, issue, and cancel New Zealand's money system put in place. supply ‐ it will accept authority from and be The behind‐the‐scene changes will affect the two accountable to parliament. We call it the New main types of accounts that banks offer ‐ Zealand Monetary Authority ‐ NZMA for short.

Transaction Accounts and Investment Accounts Banks will no longer be able to create an ever‐ (which includes savings accounts). increasing money supply, which burdens all of us Transaction Accounts will become ring‐fenced and with debt. It would ensure that other ways to not able to be on‐lent. This money is risk free and increase the nation's money supply became 100% guaranteed. It is not lent out; this money possible. Rather than using debt, new money could only moves from one account to another as people just be spent into the economy. Our debt levels spend money, pay bills or repay debt. could actually reduce overtime, instead of compounding.

Investment Accounts will hold money which is stored for future expenditure or which is invested The NZMA will decide the amount of money, by bank customers who wish to earn an income increase or decrease, each year. from their stored money. Money in this type of This new money is additional to that collected account must be stored or invested for a defined through taxes and would be spent by the term or have a set minimum notice period before government in various ways, as outlined in their money can be withdrawn. Investors must be aware election manifesto ‐ more money for health and that their investment is at risk and is not education, reduce government debt, reduce government guaranteed. taxation rates, increase NZ Superannuation or pay Why do we want to do it? Freedom from debt. out a 'National Dividend' and/or a 'Guaranteed Basic Income' to every New Zealander.

Is monetary reform really that simple? Yes!

NZ Debt ‐ Agriculture $48b, Business $78b, Consumer $12b, Corporate Overseas $68, Government $101b, Housing $176b, Local Government $7.6b, Total this year $492b, last year $449b ‐ an increase of about $42b.

Average debt per person ‐ $111,340, last year $102,000 ‐ an increase of $9,340 (from New Zealand Debt Information Site):

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 5,

MEDIA

21 Oct 2012

So there is a magic wand after all

By Ambrose Evans‐Pritchard

So there is a magic wand after all. A revolutionary paper by the International Monetary Fund claims that one could eliminate the net public debt of the US at a stroke, and by implication do the same for Britain, Germany, Italy, or Japan.

The IMF report says the conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank‐created money.

One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.

The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank‐ created money ‐‐ roughly 97pc of the money supply ‐‐ with state‐ created money. We return to the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.

Specifically, it means an assault on "fractional reserve banking". If lenders are forced to put up 100pc reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air.

The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more banks runs, and fewer boom‐bust credit cycles.

Accounting legerdemain will do the rest.

The IMF paper says total liabilities of the US financial system ‐ including shadow banking ‐ are about 200pc of GDP. The new reserve rule would create a windfall. This would be used for a "potentially a very large, buy‐back of private debt", perhaps 100pc of GDP. The key of the Chicago Plan was to separate the "monetary and credit functions" of the banking system. "The quantity of money and the quantity of credit would become completely independent of each other."

Private lenders would no longer be able to create new deposits "ex nihilo". New bank credit would have to be financed by retained earnings.

"The control of credit growth would become much more straightforward because banks would no longer be able, as they are today, to generate their own funding, deposits, in the act of lending, an extraordinary privilege that is not enjoyed by any other type of business," says the IMF paper.

"Rather, banks would become what many erroneously believe them to be today, pure intermediaries that depend on obtaining outside funding before being able to lend."

The US Federal Reserve would take real control over the money supply for the first time, making it easier to manage inflation.

The switch would engender a 10pc boost to long‐arm economic output. "None of these benefits come at the expense of diminishing the core useful functions of a private financial system."

Extract from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9623863/IMFs‐epic‐plan‐to‐ conjure‐away‐debt‐and‐dethrone‐bankers.html

Democrats for Social Credit Executive Contacts Leadership: Leader Stephnie de Ruyter PO Box 5164, Invercargill 9843 Ph/Fax; 03 215 7170 Mobile 027 442 4434 Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz Email: stephnie.deruyter@democrats.org.nz Deputy Leader John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 021 716 895 Email: iohn.pemberton@democrats.orq.nz Email: pemberi@slinqshot.co.nz Website: http://www.iohnpemberton.co.nz Biog: http://monetarviustice.blogspot.com Executive: Party President David Wilson PO Box 60, Paparoa 0543, Northland Ph 09 431 7004 Fax 09 431 8615 Mobile: 027 494 7862 Email: david.wilson@democrats.org.nz Vice-president Katherine Ransom PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 027 471 6891 Email: katherine.ransom@democrats.orq.nz Email: katransom@siinqshot.co.nz Blog: http://katherineransom.bioqspot.com Northern Region Chris Leitch 42 Reyburn House Lane, Whangarei 0110 Ph 09 430 0089 Mobile: 021 922 098 Emafi: chris.leitch@democrats.org.nz Email: chris@instepdance.co.nz

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, 2012 - Page 6

Auckland Region Neville Aitchison PO Box 113126, Newmarket, Auckland 1149 Mobile: 021 987 338 Email: neville.aitchison@democrats.orq.nz Waikato Region Murray Belchamber 26 Olwyn Tce, Dinsdale, Hamilton 3204 Ph 07 848 1895 Mobile 027 229 7883 Email: murray.belchamber@democrats.org.nz Email: mandej@slingshot.co.nz Eastern Region Barry Pulford 17 Caernarvon Drive, Flaxmere, Hastings 4120 Ph 06 879 9497 Mobile 027 288 5658 Email: barry.pulford@democrats.org.nz Email: brp51@xtra.co.nz Western Region Heather M. Smith 8 Darwin Street, Gisborne 4010 Ph/Fax 06 867 6668 Email: heather.smith@democrats.org. nz Email: hasmith1933@gmail.com Wellington Region Errol Baird 102 Wainuiomata Rd, Lower Hutt 5014 Ph 04 564 4183 Email : errol.baird@democrats.org.nz Email: edbaird@xtra.co.nz Canterbury/West Coast-Tasman Regions Bob Fox 14 Charles St, Rangiora 7400 Ph 03 313 6774 Email: bob.fox@democrats.org.nz Email: foxhole@clear.net.nz

Southern Region Hessel van Wieren PO Box 149, Cromwell 9342 Ph: 03 455 1389 Mobile: 027 441 6089 Email: hessel.vanwieren@democrats.org..nz Email: h.vanwieren@yahoo.co..nz Party Secretary Roxanne Hansen 59-61 Arawa St, Matamata 3400 Email: roxanne.hansen@democrats.org.nz Ex Officio Positions: 'Guardian Political Review' Editor Tony Cardy 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400 Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: editor@guardian.org.nz Email: cardy@callsouth.net.nz Website: http://www.guardian.org.nz Committee Convenors: Finance Committee Ken Goodhue PO Box 6028, Otaika, Whangarei 0147 Ph: 09 430 3826 Email: kenandvalerie@xtra.co.nz Policy Committee (acting/interim) Jenner Lichtwark Email: jenner.lichtwark@democrats.org.na Constitution Committee Neville Aitchison (refer Auckland Region President's entry for details)

CONFERENCE COMMENTS

“An honourable cause”

By DSC President David Wilson

BEYOND GREED

Extract from address to 2012 Conference The main focus last year was, of course, the election and whilst it is disappointing not to be in Government it is really pleasing to have gained some traction. I thank those members who helped Stephnie fight the election. Without you standing up to be candidates and doing the work associated with this, we would be nothing.

As I said last year, our cause is honourable and moral and is the only way forward for humanity.

David at the conference top table

If there was any time that our policies are needed, it is now – and I mean right now ‐ because there is no doubt that in the near future the present economic policies will bring the countries of the world into absolute chaos and some into bankruptcy.

Heather Marion Smith, DSC Advocate for Seniors at 2012 Conference, gave a summary of why and how we opposed the establishment of the N.Z. Superan‐ nuation (Cullen) fund. And how the Retirement Commission has virtually become a tax‐funded agency for the private savings industry. Also why the dependency ratio (i.e. the ratio of those in the workforce to retirees) is a myth and a flawed basis for public policy.

Heather also made a “Soapbox” presentation on Energy, asking why 19th century N.Z. politician,

The backbone of this country

By Ken Goodhue (edited extract from Soapbox presentation.

The backbone of this country is the pastoral industry. Selling it off to overseas interests is taking us backwards. When overseas companies were able to purchase our manufacturing companies, we were told that they would bring their expertise in to make companies more efficient. Yes, they were made more efficient ‐ as many had their plant moved overseas where labour was cheaper.

The last jewel in the crown for

support for social credit monetary reform policies by showing in a practicable way how such policies can translate into changeable savings for the rate and taxpayers.

The plan is to gain support and build profile for the lobby group with the short term goal of at least attaining one seat on council.

The opportunities to offer solutions are obvious. Namely, to minimise the interest component Debt Free Dunedin of the DCC debt by refinancing interest bearing loans through the

By Warren Voight (edited extract from Conference) Reserve Bank under the provisions The fundamental reason for the Public Finance and Local this lobby group is simple: Government Act. namely to gain profile and This would have the effect of Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 7

Frederick Joseph Moss wanted electricity to be available as cheaply as possible to all ‐ and not be allowed to "gorge the few". And that the proposed partial asset sales are not likely to repay SOE debts which are owned by the private financial sector. Also that, contrary to popular belief, Labour did not campaign to save the raising of Lake Manapouri but was pressured into agreeing with the Save Manapouri Campaign shortly before Election Day 1972 as Social Credit had been gathering mounting support as longtime opponent of raising the southern lakes.

overseas investors is Fonterra Co‐ op. The dairy farmers have been lead to believe that Fonterra must have Trading Amongst Farmers (TAF) to survive financially. There are other models that could have been used to keep the Co‐op viable without creating corporate shares.

As an industry of national importan‐ ce, the dairy industry had finance made available from the NZ Reserve Bank up to the 1970’s. There were also special tax rates for Co‐ops. All this was removed during the rush to introduce Rogernomics during the 1980s.

With the sale of large areas of

reducing rates by many millions of dollars annually, with a correspond‐ ing boost to available household incomes and the economy as a whole.

City councils throughout New Zealand have accumulated considerable debt (approaching $8 billion at last count) ‐ a combination of infrastructure expenditure and investment strategies in business and other areas which have in some cases not had any positive returns.

In fact, this Government is actually proposing to worsen the interest on debt burden by forcing councils to pay premium interest rates on anything deemed to be a

farm land to overseas interests since, one is seeing more overseas‐ owned independent processing plants set up, which will mean more profits being transferred overseas.

These companies will be able to exploit New Zealand’s good name but may not maintain it’s reputation.

As more large areas of land are purchased by overseas interests, their influence on Fonterra will increase as their shareholdings grow.

If these shareholders become a major force in Fonterra, it is very real that they could look at corporatizing the Co‐op. high risk venture.

Meanwhile councils struggle to meet commitments and are being encouraged increasingly to look at liquidation of assets to lighten the load.

The pressure upon central government would become irresistible and eventually we would achieve our objectives. That alone would gain DSC significant political leverage and profile and at the end of the day people would realise the benefits of our ideas and policies.

See Warren Voight's 'Dear John' feature elsewhere in this issue.

MEDIA

Otago Daily Times 10/10/12

"...the idea to print money as required is not new. Many years ago a Major C. H. Douglas thought it was such a good idea he called it 'social credit', to legitimise the printing of money if and when needed. One wellknown advocate of this approach is one Robert Mugabe, from Zimbabwe. Increasing the money supply by Government for public benefit...should be illegal."

Gerrard Eckhoff, former Act Member of Parliament

(complete article available at http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/229643/social‐credit‐quantitative‐easing‐its‐all‐licence‐print‐money)

COMMENT Otago Daily Times

17/10/12

Time for Reserve Bank to review interest Democrats for Social Credit leader Stephnie de Ruyter believes the Reserve Bank should issue no-interest credit.

Otago Daily Times contributor Gerrard Eckhoff is not a man to let the facts get in the way of a good story if his opinion piece on social credit is any indication.

Here are a few basic facts to chew on: A mere 2% (on average) of NZ’s money supply is notes and coins which are printed by our Reserve Bank. The remaining 98% is electronically generated credit (money) issued by private banks and overseas financial institutions.

Private banks create credit. Don’t take my word for it: check out the RBNZ bulletin Vol. 71, No. 1, March 2008 for a detailed explanation of the way this is done.

NZ’s money supply increased from $42 billion in June 1988 to $243 billion in June 2012, without printing more money.

The QE measures employed in Europe, the UK, and USA will not work. Their central banks are privately owned businesses; they create & lend interest-bearing credit (money). Think about that…..create money into existence, add interest, lend it out, rub hands with glee as money that didn’t exist before the loan was created is repaid with interest that has not been created. The effect of that is known as cost inflation.

Northern hemisphere QE is a licence for private banks to make money, nothing more than that. Mr Eckhoff is right: it should be illegal.

Our central bank is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. It is publicly owned. It’s ours. The RBNZ can issue credit (money) in the same way private banks do, but without interest. On repayment the money can be re-lent, or cancelled. No exponential expansion of the money supply involved.

Current government policy is to borrow $300 million of magic interest-bearing money each week from overseas financiers. It hasn’t always been that way. Remember when the government owned the BNZ, the Post Office Savings Bank, the Rural Bank? Remember when the state-owned State Advances Corporation lent to first home buyers at 3%? And state housing, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure projects built to lift NZ out of the Great Depression? Yep, that was the RBNZ in action: credit created by our central bank to facilitate direct government investment in infrastructure to serve the public good.

Ignorance is not bliss, it’s just ignorance. Social credit works.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 8

Ryall’s Office of Circumlocution

By David Tranter

B.Ed.(Oxon),B.A. (Canty), DSC Health Spokesperson

Since I first became involved in social issues some 21 years To the third asking of my first question Mr. Ryall replied, ago (Goodness! Is it that long?) I have often felt like the little “Treasury sources the funding from revenue such as income boy in the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes when finding tax and GST and from various forms of commercial borrowing myself surrounded by apparently sensible people who undertaken by the Reserve Bank. Ultimately the funding appeared unable to see through the obvious nonsense being comes from taxpayers”. fed to them by supposed experts.

Well, at least he‘s conceded the poor old taxpayer is on the Someone once defined an expert as rough end of the process but then came the “anyone a hundred miles from home” ‐ and crunch; in answer to my asking why they I think there may be something in that, don‘t legislate to enable loans to be given how much drivel I have heard from provided through the Reserve Bank he officials brought in from distant places to replied, “Because doing so would not align supposedly enlighten the locals. with Government’s fiscal policy”.

These thoughts occurred to me recently I have now written to Mr. Ryall asking when, in my guise as the innocent little boy why their policy shouldn't allow such referred to above, I have been pursuing the loans.

Minister of Health for answers as to where Footnote: the money actually comes from for the In addition to the loans referred to above loans government make to DHBs for PPP (public/private partnership) funding for building new facilities. such building projects as education and Mr. Ryall’s first reply was that the money health facilities is being widely pushed by “It is appropriated from Vote “is appropriated by the Government and government, despite extensive criticism Health: Non-Departmental funded through the New Zealand debt overseas of such funding methods.

Capital Expenditure Management Office” ‐ not exactly the most Provision of new loans to For example, a report in Wikipaedia cites DHBs for the purposes of enlightening answer I have ever received the U.K. experience of public‐private facilities redevelopment and from a Cabinet Minister so, undaunted as funding: “…it has since been found that other purposes agreed by small boys should be when attending many programs ran dramatically over the Crown including balance Emperor’s new clothes parades, I pressed budget and have not presented as value for sheet reconfiguration” on and asked Mr. Ryall where government money for the taxpayer”. “appropriated” the money from.

Wikipaedia cites the Australian Council of Trade Unions He replied, “It is appropriated from Vote Health: Non‐ concerns over PPPs as not being the best means of Departmental Capital Expenditure Provision of new loans to maximising “social and economic value to the Australian DHBs for the purposes of facilities redevelopment and other community”. purposes agreed by the Crown including balance sheet While such evidence is readily available to anyone willing to reconfiguration”, a statement worthy of Charles Dickens' read it, the government’s local bureaucrats display utter Circumlocution Office in the book ‘Little Dorrit’. arrogance in defending their political masters’ PPP agendas.

Wow! I can visualise the West Coast DHB board members For example, when the chairwoman of Canterbury of whom I was twice a colleague nodding as though this was Hospital’s Medical Staff Association, Dr. Ruth Spearing, publicly a satisfactory answer and that they understood what it raised concerns about the problems inherent in PPP funding, meant.

West Coast DHB bureaucrat Wayne Turp appeared in the But, thought the little boy within me, where does this media dismissing her views, thereby typifying the arrogant creature Vote Health get it from, never mind all that twaddle “we‐know‐everything” approach of the corporate regime about redevelopment and balance sheets. What has that got which has taken a stranglehold on the public health system. to do with the price of loans to cash‐strapped DHBs? Mr. Turp’s comments related to the West Coast DHB’s So I tried again and asked where Vote Health gets the considering PPP funding for building new health facilities in money from and ‐ ever‐optimistic ‐ I also put the question as Westport. to why government don’t legislate to arrange DHB loans Between interest‐bearing loans and PPP proposals one has through the Reserve Bank at minimal interest which, to cite to ask why any government would want to burden public proposed re‐building of Grey Hospital will cost the DHB (or, services with unnecessary debt and the dubious dealings of more accurately the taxpayers) approximately $20 million for PPP arrangements. a $50 million loan over ten years.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 9

MEDIA Editorial - NZ Listener 1/9/12

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 10

My name is Callum Findlater, and I am going to talk to you about the economy

Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter”. My name is Callum Findlater, and I am going to talk to you about the economy. The perception is that everything is going to be all right, that the global financial situation will be resolved by politicians and financiers. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth.

taxpayers' money, and gave them government guarantees. Recently we have seen the Barclays bank scandal with Bob Diamond, who colluded with other banks to hold interest on deposits down to gain profit. Things haven’t changed much since Christ’s time and I quote, 'Jesus kicked the money changers out of the temple' in John 2:13‐16.

They are the perpetrators of this deception, not the remedy. I believe politicians and financiers are pulling the wool over our eyes blinding us from the truth. The reason? The truth would cause anger, civil disobedience and the overthrow of the present Keynesian economic order. Fear and public anxiety are great motivators for politicians to hide the truth.

Our country is importing more than we export. Every man woman and child owes $112,000 to date to overseas interests. If we want to change this we need money to go into promoting exports. The Reserve Bank should be able to create credit to loan money for public works and infrastructure to assist councils, and to encourage industry to boost our exports. Michael Joseph Savage did just that in 1935‐38 for the creation of public housing.

Those who have spoken out about these injustices have been silenced by the system. True New Zealand patriots that I respect such as John A. Lee Labour MP, Michael Joseph Savage Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Coates National Prime Minister, and Bruce Beetham Social Credit MP. A great example is Greece which can’t pay the interest on its debt. The European Union’s way to resolve this is to loan Greece’s banks more money. This is the debt finance system. Is the way to pay off debt, more debt? So why can’t Greece just print money.

Many people believe that Governments do this, and that that’s how money enters circulation. The truth is that less than 2% of the money in this country’s economy is in the form of notes and coins.

The bulk of money created is created by banks. For every one dollar deposited in a bank, the bank can lend out in excess of nine dollars. Banks create money and these new dollars enter the economy as debt. In New Zealand the Government doesn’t regulate banks, they regulate themselves.

To review: banks are mainly foreign owned businesses, they took $4.5 billion profit out of the country last year. The banks control the availability of money in our economy, not the Government. Banks create money, you get interest on your one dollar deposit, they get interest at a higher rate on the nine dollars that they create and lend out. Banks lend not on what will help our economy grow but rather what will earn them the most return.

Banks caused the global credit crisis or recession in 2008 and governments all over the world bailed out trading banks with

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 11

If the Reserve Bank lends money in this way any interest the government receives will go towards a public dividend. This would be seen in a reduction in tax, money for the superannuation scheme and payment of national debt. By kick‐starting industry unemploy‐ ment would disappear along with poverty and crime ‐ giving hope for the disenfranchised.

Governments must remember that they are here to serve the people and to look after our interests, and trading banks shouldn’t have the monopoly on the creation of money. We are slaves to the present economic system, and the government must save us from the eternal treadmill of debt and I quote from Bruce Beetham: 'We must be freed from the manipulation, exploitation, control and domination of man by man'. We are being held back from reaching our true potential as human beings.

In conclusion, there have been two Royal Commissions into the banking system initiated by right and left governments, both found the system wanting. However no change has been made. Money, in my opinion, is a means of exchange not a commodity to be bought and sold. When you borrow money you borrow against your own ability to earn. These are my philosophies and I feel that if we are to move forward as a nation and utilise the vast resources we have at our disposal, they must be heard.

Callum is a 14 year‐old student and son of Invercargill Electorate member, Carl Findlater. This item was delivered by Callum at his school speech contest.

DEAR EDITOR A round‐up of items sent by DSC members to the editor of the Guardian Political Review or other media outlets in New Zealand.

DEBACLE The latest Guardian excelled in keeping us up to date with the shameful political scene that is unfolding daily. I cannot recall a worse government than we have today, with Mr Key's lot plumbing the depths of recklessness. The 1958 Nash/Nordmeyer debacle was tame by comparison.

R. Nodwell, Greymouth.

shareholders a premium to sell their shares, and recover their inflated offer price by raising the costs we will have to pay for our power.

We’ve seen it all before, when the majority or our community owned local power retailers were flogged off to overseas owners and the price skyrocketed.

In a masterful piece of political gimmickry the Prime Minister claims that as the asset sale plan was known before the election, and his party won, that gives him a mandate to pursue the sales. Not so. Voters had many other issues on which to weigh up their vote. And anyway, public opinion now is firmly against the sales. Make sure he hears your voice.

Chris Leitch, Whangarei Northern Advocate 26/8/12 (Chris Leitch is DSC Northern Region president)

POLITICAL GIMMICKRY The celebratory clinking of glasses should be heard across the country with the announcement that the Government’s asset sales programme has started to fall apart. It should never have begun.

Taking away from all New Zealanders, assets they all have a part ownership of, and selling them off to only those who have the money to buy shares is another example of the “trickle up” theory – robbing the less well off to benefit those who already have more.

The irony is that we will all be worse off if those assets are sold. The Government’s own figures show that, while the sales will save $266 million in interest payments per year, it will lose $360 million in dividends and retained profits. The country will be worse off by $94 million per year which will have to come out of taxpayer’s pockets. The eventual winners will be the rich overseas corporate raiders who will offer NZ

SHALLOW DEMOCRACY A lack of transparency highlights the growing lack of democracy within New Zealand's agricultural sector.

This trend to having elections decided by supply quantities or for other products stock numbers passes control from individual farmers to Landcorp and the growing number of large corporates.

Although Boards and Fonterra organise a neutral election through a competent and trustworthy company, Election NZ.Com Ltd, they cannot reveal any of the valuable economic data collected without approval of the commissioning client. This allows the same existing controlling board to interpret the election and present the findings.

Rather shallow democracy.

Michael Mellon, Christchurch

OUT OF TUNE The oscillation and orbit of planet Earth around the sun gives us the seasons in which

we conduct our business and livelihoods.

By the end of September, the first light of dawn is approximately 5am and the last light of day is 8pm. Longer days, plenty of time in the morning, plenty of time in the afternoon and plenty of time all day. Why then, do humans change the clock? We trick ourselves into a false reality, getting out of tune with our creation. which has costly side effects: short‐term loss, long‐term loss. The only way to save daylight is with a solar panel and a battery.

The sun is the foundation of our clock, can anyone change it? No. That is why we should not change our clocks.

Peter Clark, Hawarden

PEANUTS The shortfall in Vote Education, claimed to be the result of the naughty public refusing to comply with the so‐called reforms, is peanuts. It is a minor fraction of the government securities sold to the financial sector in one week. Only last week Treasury raised $150 million in 2023 stock with a yield (from taxes) of 3.39%. More than enough to cover the shortfall ‐ besides the Treasury Bills discounted to the banks each week amounting to between $300 to $900 million.

As Bernard Hickey and many others are now urging ‐ isn't it time to finance core public infrastructures and services from our sovereign Reserve Bank at 1% or less? Fiat money it may be but, secured against government revenues, we could save over $3 billion dollars a year in debt servicing.

Imagine even a quarter of that going to education.

Harry Alchin Smith (Gisborne Herald 12/6/12) 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.

21/5/12 Trillion pound debt

The Diary of Adrian Bayly Nelson-based Adrian Bayly keeps a close eye on the political scene in New Zealand and overseas.

15/5/12 Asset Sales Colin Whitmill spent two days in Nelson this week. He gave me several copies of a petition on Asset Sales to collect signatures. The DSC supports this petition. We have had marching in Trafalgar Street by protesters over asset sales and deep sea oil drilling.

My letter printed in the Nelson Mail concluded: “The Prime Minister guesstimates that sales might generate about $6 billion.

Nearly half the profits will go to wealthy foreign buyers. It makes so much more sense to retain full ownership of the assets and the income they generate. The Democrats for Social Credit party supports the referendum and is opposed to further sales of state assets and public utilities.”

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 12

The UK Sunday Times (12/2/12) states that UK debt in 2000 was 290 billion pounds but now – 10 years on – has grown to 1 trillion pounds. The interest payment is estimated at 47.6 billion pounds.

The Bank of International Settlements has suggested that if government, household or corporate debt gets above 90% of GDP economic growth would slow dramatically. The UK is above or close to that level. Instead of borrowing from banks and paying interest, countries could use their central banks to create credit at nil rate of interest. This would reduce their current debt and help financed growth again.

5/7/12 Economic democracy Don Steele had a letter printed in the Nelson Mail (4/7/12). He listed some books on financial reform that highlight the problems of debt. Don drew attention to the fact that it is almost 20 years since CH Douglas pointed out that you cannot have a democracy without an economic democracy.

10/10/12 Manufacturing crisis It’s incredible how John Key can claim there is no crisis in manufacturing. There is a manufacturers’ summit on the jobs crisis in Auckland, and thousands of Kiwis are leaving our shores for Oz – and most of our manufactured goods are being made in China.

Urban Legend:

REVIEWS

Sir Dove‐Myer Robinson

By John Edgar Published by Hodder Moa (2012).$39.99

Robbie, Auckland's longest serving mayor, was certainly a man with bold plans: a revolutionary waste treatment plant, a whole city united under a single authority, efficient city‐wide public transport, a nuclear‐free New Zealand. Some of his plans came to fruition and, sadly, some did not. But just who was this small man with the big plans, big voice and big ego?

Mayor Robbie was a contradiction ‐ a man who cared for his fellow citizens sometimes more than for his family; an environmentalist who made his money as a capitalist manufacturer; and a trail‐blazing green politician who advocated rapid rail but loved luxury cars. He became a remarkable figure, stroppily out of step with his political peers, who were often just as shocked by his private life ‐ which included four wives and many girlfriends ‐ as they were by his politics.

This candid biography, largely based on interviews with Dove‐Myer, his family, supporters and detractors, explores the public and personal lives of one of the most charismatic politicians in New Zealand history.

Sir Dove‐Myer on Liberty Sir Dove‐Myer held strong views on the fluoridation of the water supply. When Papakura City in Greater Auckland was threatened with an injunction after it decided to discontinue fluoridation, he sent a letter (extract below) to the Council (16 February 1987):

"This must be doubly repugnant to Councilors since, whatever the arguments for or against fluoridation, there are alternative methods of using fluoride, which avoid the stigma of compulsory mass medication.

"I am writing as Patron of the New Zealand Pure Water Association. It has come to my notice that the proponents of fluoridation intend seeking a court injunction to compel your Council to rescind its decision to discontinue the fluoridation of the water supplied to the citizens of your city.

"I conclude with a quote from what is probably the greatest essay in the English language: John Stuart Mill's essay, 'On Liberty'":

"The injunction, if successful, will have the effect of destroying a vital democratic principle, and compelling your Council to force your citizens to accept compulsory mass medication .

That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. His independence is, of right, absolute.

Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

(Pure Water Journal 1987/2)

Management Service. Whilst there he wrote a presentation entitled Money, the Treasury and U.S. Economic History, used as a training course for new employees. He then wrote Challenger Revealed, which provided the facts behind the 1986 destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, for which he was awarded the Cavallo Foundation’s Award for Moral Courage in Business and Government.

Richard Cook was for some time involved in the worldwide monetary reform movement and in 2009 wrote a book on the subject entitled, We Hold These Truths: the Hope of Monetary Reform. His 6‐part video series on Credit as a Public Utility can be found on YouTube. He has also served as an adviser to Congressman Dennis Kucinich and the American Monetary Institute and is a member of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network.

Return of the Aeons – the Planetary Spiritual Ascension.

By Richard C. Cook Reviewed by Tony Cardy Richard Cook has an impressive list of qualifications. In 2004 he was employed by the US Treasury as in‐house consultant on special projects for Treasury's Financial

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 13

The Return of the Aeons is very different.

Much of it is about spiritual matters, describing how the earth is going through a period of change or ‘Ascension’ – the creation of a New Earth. He says it is happening now and that it will change everything on our planet – change that is needed to become better, more humane, more intelligent, more holy. But he stresses that we need to change our service‐to‐self (selfishness, greed) to service‐to‐others.

Richard Cook draws our attention to the chapter on Monetary Metaphysics, in which he says we do not know what kind of economic system will prevail when the old world is swept away and a new world of love and compassion comes into being.

The new economics will likely include free energy which would allow for tremendous decentralization of economic productivity to the local and individual levels. Perhaps the New Earth will not require money at all, foreseeing a future where people produce what is needed simply for the love and joy of making quality products and services for their fellow human beings.

In the meantime upheavals are inevitable.

One thing is sure, he says: today’s economy has failed to distribute the bounty of science and technology equitably. The rich get rich, the poor get poorer and the middle class continues to disappear.

The author concludes: the world is at the beginning of a major transformation. It will be a spiritual revolution that will affect every person in the world.

Return of the Aeons is a thought‐ provoking book. It is due for publication on 21 December 2012 which, as many people know, is a significant date on the Mayan calendar. (www.richardcook.com/return‐of‐the‐aeons)

The TPPA: Back to the 19th Century?

Soapbox item by John Ring at 2012 DSC Conference There are now 11 countries participating in the secret talks about the Transpacific Partnership Agreement: New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, the USA Malaysia, Canada, and Mexico.

The last three are particularly interesting.

before being allowed to photocopy them – 20 years longer than at present. When copyrights were first introduced they only applied for 23 years total.

Canada has wanted to be included for a long time, but only on a number of conditions, one of which was that the deal should not cover dairy products. Both the United States and New Zealand refused to accept Canada's terms. Clearly something has changed since then, but it's not clear what.

import them from whatever country is cheapest, and that will stop. Even some National Party members oppose the agreement because of that.

It will affect blind people, because NZ law currently has an There were once negotiations for a trade deal between Australia exemption from copyright law for translating books into Braille, and and Malaysia, but they broke off because Australia wanted their that exemption looks like disappearing. banks to be able to move into Malaysia the same way It will ban parallel importing. The manufacturers of they have in New Zealand, and the Malaysians wouldn't there's dangerous goods sometimes specify what price they are to be sold agree to that. What has changed there? things in there at in which country, but in New Zealand it is legal to

Mexico is better at producing sugar than the United States is, so you might have expected that the North American Free Trade agreement would have resulted in Mexican sugar going northwards.

It didn't, because that agreement didn't include sugar. However it did allow heavily subsidised corn syrup, which has a high sugar content and competes against cane sugar as a sweetener for soft drinks, to cross from the USA to Mexico, competing against Mexican sugar cane growers in their own country.

The New Zealand negotiators have already agreed to Investor – State Dispute Settlement provisions to allow overseas investors to sue the government for law changes that reduce their profits. This part of the agreement includes a proviso that transfers of capital out of the country must be conducted “freely and without delay” ‐ which might cause legal challenges to a Financial Transaction Tax. There has been some talk about subsidies, but only subsidies to state‐owned enterprises are covered. Total subsidies in the USA might actually go up, because when they reduce tariffs they often increase subsidies to their own producers to compensate.

There are a number of issues relating to the TPPA. The ones that have got the most public attention are those relating to intellectual property. This is partly because of leaks, which came in two waves.

The first lot were leaked by free software people, and the second lot by people concerned about health implications.

Apart from the investment rules there have been no leaks relating to the financial sector. Knowledgeable people such as Bill Rosenberg and Jane Kelsey say that there is likely to be dangerous things in there, but in the absence of leaks we don't know what.

It now looks as if the agreement won't abolish Pharmac, but it is almost certain to change the way Pharmac operates and thereby increase the cost of the health system.

DSC POLICY: OVERSEAS TRADE

It will have effects on research, because if books are out of print researchers will have to wait 70 years after the death of the author STOP PRESS

In short, the TPPA is a bad idea and should be opposed.

Policy No. P25.A.02: That we will not allow the implementation of the free market philosophy to limit the full use of New Zealand's productive resources for the benefit of the nation.

Shove it!

Prime Minister John Key said the Trans Pacific Partnership would try and get a deal next year ‐ but they may have "to shove it over the line". NZ Herald 22/11/12

REVIEW

No Ordinary Deal ‐ Unmasking The Trans‐Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement.

Edited by Jane Kelsey. Published by Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2010 Extract from review by Jeremy Agar in Foreign Control Watchdog, December 2010.

"In the later 1970s a self‐proclaimed 'services mafia' of major US services companies, led by the finance industry, foresaw the enormous potential of a global services market. The 'first obstacle they had to overcome was conceptual. The prevailing paradigm of Keynesian welfarism took a holistic and socially oriented approach to policy and regulation of services, not only for health, education and environmental services, but also for banks, telephones, transport and the professions. The creation and growth of a commercial market in which services are traded as a commodity and priced according to supply and demand required a mind‐shift among politicians, regulators and citizen‐ consumers".

This is Jane Kelsey's introduction to this timely collection of essays on something called the Trans‐ Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPPA).

This book could hardly be more important as a tool for assessing our common future. The events of the last two years have meant that most people realise that overseas dairy raiders and the banks and the finance traders should cool it, but the popular wisdom is that otherwise there's no problem. Kelsey's writers show that there is really one big problem, and it's about the loss of New Zealanders' ability to make decisions in their own interests. It's about the threat to democracy.

Recommended reading For a disturbingly frank insight into the cynical world of money traders and financiers, read 'Extreme Money' by Satyajit Das. The author draws on more than 30 years experience in global money markets to 'show you how, little by little, we've all become slaves to financial alchemy'. This book is published by Pearson Books (www.pearson‐books.com), ISBN 978‐0‐273‐72397‐4.

(Stephnie de Ruyter) Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 14

MEDIA

Nighy fires up on a favourite subject

Bill Nighy is unambiguously fierce about the need to change the world's inequalities of opportunity. He has campaigned in support of wealthy countries adopting a financial transactions tax. "I'm not political, not really. I don't operate in public life as political at all. I don't have a 'world view'.

But I have given support to this thing called the Robin Hood tax, because it's a very successful and simple idea."

Nighy believes it would take a lot of the traditional antagonism out of the wealth and tax firmament. The idea is to clip the ticket every time a share or any financial instrument changes hands. This would have but a tiny impact on the finance and banking industry, it is argued, as the tax might only be half of 1%, and would not affect ordinary citizens. The Robin Hood tax movement, active on both sides of the Atlantic, believes this tax would also access the notoriously byzantine derivatives market.

"Here's a statistic: if we had [implemented this tax] 10 years ago, that would have raised 620 trillion ‐ trillion ‐ dollars," Nighy says, abandoning his habitual pleasantly languid manner as he fires up on a favourite subject.

"Thirty thousand children die every 24

hours... and we have everything they need.

We only have to deliver it. That simple. I know that economists would say people like me are terribly well‐meaning but we don't realise how complicated it all is. It isn't complicated!"

The fact that the banks have had to be given billions in governmental bail‐out funding only redoubles the imperative of the Robin Hood tax, Nighy argues.

And hugely grateful as he is for his autumnal career good fortune, you get the impression the performance he would now most like to be known for is the one on the Robin Hood Tax website, in which he plays a patrician banker slowly writhing on the hook of global fiscal orthodoxy (robinhoodtax.org.uk) NZ Listener 16/6/12

By Jamie Ball jamie.ball@ruralpress.com 28/8/12 (extract)

North Canterbury farmer and political activist John McCaskey is a long‐serving advocate for the Democrats for Social Credit, having previously run in the early ‘70s for the Liberal Reform Party while serving on Federated Farmers provincial executive.

“I’ve been farming in Waipara all my life and travelled pretty extensively. As a young fella I worked in Australia a lot and got all my ideas from there, later in Europe, as to what could be done here – if and when.” It is a failing of this country that innovation is met by "why" when I ask, why not?”

So who are the Democrats for Social Credit?

“We’ve been in Parliament back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We had thousands of votes years ago, and a lot of those were rural votes. There are branches of Social Credit all overseas. Of course it was very strong in Canada – they were the ruling party at one stage.

“I think the rural political voice will stay abysmal as long as it’s very fractured. My idea was that if they get behind a party, as

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 15

long as it’s not perceived too much as being rural, which puts a whole lot of people against it for a start, it’s got a chance of getting a good voice in Parliament.”

The political cornerstone of DSC is the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) which would replace GST while scuppering tax havens for the rich.

There is no difference in trading in money than wheat, barley or oats “It’s a tax on every banking transaction.

So any time money passes through a bank account it deducts a couple of cents or one cent or even less than one cent. It captures the trillions of dollars that miss the tax net at a nominal rate.

“Now if you or I try trade anything, whether it’s a sack of wheat or a few gallons of diesel ‐ a tradable commodity ‐ we’re charged GST. So your FTT is deducted at the bank and it captures the cash market too, because sooner or later when somebody has got cash it has to go through a bank account somewhere, even the "crims", otherwise it’s

not a hell of a lot of use to them.

“Another good thing is that it captures all the people who just trade in money. To me, there is no difference in trading in money than wheat, barley or oats – it’s all for money at the end of the day. In actual fact that’s what all these Wall Street protests were about.”

Since the late‐2008 global economic meltdown, the world has sought a more durable, stable, equitable and intelligent way of doing business. Times may be leaner but our minds are at least more open to alternatives than ever before.

“Well that’s what’s always got up my nose,” adds John, “and why I’ve always been a bit of an outcast when it’s come to politics: most farmers go and vote National and go back on the farm. They don’t think any more about it until National does something and they get all grumpy, which is exactly what is happening at the moment.”

For more information on the Democrats for Social Credit see www.democrats.org.nz

OBITUARIES

Don Bethune 1928 ‐ 2012 Donald Raymond Peter Bethune QSM was born in the year of what was to become known as the Great Depression and died in the midst of another global financial crisis.

He was born in Auckland, one of six children; his father was an electrician and small farmer. Don was educated in rural primary schools and Te Awamutu College before taking a one year course at Massey College. As a youngster he was much involved in the small farm operation and become adept at being what he called a multi‐tasker. In those hard times when cows were hand milked, Don learned much about hard work and commitment, assets which were to serve him well for the rest of his life.

Don was also into seeking what was behind things being the way they were and his analytical skills became well honed as he began to question why things were not working in the best interest of the communities in which he lived, worked and played. His practical abilities learned on the farm were enhanced by his early working life when he drove scrapers and bulldozers when our hydro‐electric schemes were being developed and then established a land development business. He later became a school teacher, a medical representative and founder of an egg incubator company, manufacturing his own design of incubator, an international Director of the Jaycee movement and the youngest Councillor elected to the Hamilton City Council.

When his parents had fallen victim to the depression and his father’s electrical business and the family home were lost, Don’s interest in politics and the monetary system was whetted and came to dominate much of his attention over the rest of his life. He

wrote recently of his parents and siblings sitting down to breakfast on the Sunday after the 1935 Election and hearing M J Savage congratulating voters for have the strength to vote Labour, despite scurrilous threats from the finance sector. Savage said he had a message for the foreign bankers in NZ: “It is we who have been elected to govern this country, not you. If you don’t like our programme the sooner you pack your bags and go home the better”. In a letter written in 1934 M J Savage very clearly supported the Social Credit contention that purchasing power (money) had to equate with the production and wrote (about the Douglas Credit Movement): "I am bound to strive for unity with them and not seek their opposition”.

Major C H Douglas had toured NZ and promoted an alternative to the ‘sound money’ orthodox policies that had led to the Great Depression, and the first Labour government saw the merit of a non debt based monetary system to build a progressive, prosperous and peaceful country. Indeed the Nationalisation of the Reserve Bank and the use of its mechanism to create credit at low cost saw the boost needed to employment and production that led NZ out of the depression and laid the foundation for a period of stability and progress that lasted through to the 1960s.

However, and unfortunately, the reform of the debt system didn’t continue and the foreign bankers and financiers quickly returned to ensure the threat represented

by Social Credit was shut down. The Labour Party's financial policies fell back in line with those promoted by National, and so it remains today.

Don applied himself to learning and understanding what C H Douglas’ proposals were about and became absolutely certain that continuing with a money supply that was increasingly based on the creation of debt through the lending activities of the banking sector would lead to a repetition of the financial disaster he had been born into.

He made a commitment to educate people in an alternative to the debt system that

was to drive his reform activism right up to his death. Recent events have absolutely vindicated his stand.

Don Bethune’s contribution to reforming the monetary system has long been recognised, not only in NZ but internationally. That is evidenced by his invitation to be a guest speaker at the American Monetary Institute Conference in September this year.

His involvement with the Social Credit Movement has been long and influential. He was a Dominion Councillor in 1972 when the party split, and was elected as President with Bruce Beetham becoming the Leader.

Over the next decade the party prospered due, no doubt, to Bruce and others having charismatic personalities but in the background was Don Bethune using the skills gained through Jaycees, City Council and other public activities to pull together an exceptional team of high achievers which saw the party go from 7% to 31% in public opinion polls and regain representation in Parliament. Unfortunately the golden period was not to last and Don’s view was that commitment to the CH Douglas Social Credit philosophy and policies were eroded as respective leaderships sought alternative (and hopefully more attractive) ways of rebuilding the party. Rightly or wrongly he felt his considered contribution to the debate around the DSC’s direction was largely ignored as support for the party slide down to less than 1% but he remained committed to the Social Credit cause right to the end and, indeed, just a few days before he passed away was writing page 44 of his final message to the world.

The late Robert F Kennedy must have had people like Don Bethune QSM in mind when he wrote; “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope”.

I believe Don’s ripples of hope are continuing to spread and indeed will grow.

He will be greatly missed.

Trevor Crosbie

Don Bethune was for years President of the NZ Social Credit Institute, a demanding position that required very broad knowledge of Social Credit and also of the banking system. As an academic body that usually had at least two perfectionists at every meeting, few people could have chaired and guided it as Don did.

The Institute was established, on Bruce Beetham’s initiative, at the time when the Party changed its name from Social Credit to Democrats.

Its intended purpose was twofold: to register and protect the name and to provide technical guidance to the Party for policy formation.

In its second task, it did not succeed for as long as it might have, but it remained a fount of wisdom for those interested in consulting it.

I personally owe a debt to Don for the number of times I was saved from hours of searching the literature by a simple question to him on some elusive technical point. On occasion, if my query was not well worded, the answer could be a little abrasive but, at every such time, clarification resulted in clear and sensible reasoning. Don was one of the giants.

John G Rawson

Les Hunter

Jeremy Lee

At the same time as the announcement in the last issue of the Guardian, an obituary appeared in The Bay of Plenty Times, headed "To his credit, Les was passionate about a fair go for all". It continued: "In 1969, Mr Hunter was involved in creating social change by writing articles and pamphlets on industrial relations and monetary reform. He was the first director of the Social Credit Research Unit in Parliament House, researching the world of politics and radical monetary reform. He wrote two books: And Now Social Democracy and Courage to Change. The latter was described as one of the best books on monetary reform published in the world."

Australian monetary reformer Jeremy Lee passed away on 8th May 2012. Jeremy's fame grew when he was not only doing speaking tours all over Australia but aiso in New Zealand, Canada Ireland and the U.K. He combined many meetings with writing articles and books, and was in demand as a speaker at meetings organised by many organisations other than The Australian League of Rights. This led him to becoming involved in political campaigning on many issues. His passing is a great loss. He was an outstanding individual who did more than his fair share of work to try and leave this world a better place in which to live. Donald Martin (extract)

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 16

Dear John Now that your second term as Prime Minister is well and truly under way, we would just like you to know how much New Zealand recognises and acknowledges your achievements.

Such as unprecedented levels of youth and other unemployment.

Allowing New Zealand minimum wages to continue to fall comparatively further behind Australia.

Record government overseas borrowing, much of which could have been avoided through use of Reserve Bank credit lines.

Allowing Local Body Debt to grow to over 8 billion dollars while refusing to allow use of Reserve Bank credit for public works and infrastructure.

Allowing increasing deficits in Health Board budgets, e.g. Otago $10 million. It is noted however that $7.6 million is to be spent relocating the Treaty of Waitangi from its purpose‐built facility to another only a few blocks away.

Ensuring that Local Body compliance costs and regulations regarding permits for even the most basic home renovations are unrealistic for the average home handyman, e.g.$440 to permit a 1m sq wet‐shower floor $3,000 for a conservatory permit and $10,000 for a new house‐building permit etc.

Continuing to allow foreign owned Banks to take billions in profits offshore, gained in usury interest and lost to the New Zealand economy.

Selling profit‐making State Owned Assets under the guise of shares being bought by the very Mum and Dad Kiwis who already own them. Meanwhile many cannot afford to pay the power, rent or grocery bills and increasingly are resorting to using high‐interest credit cards to get by from week to week.

But overall, John, you have ignored the mounting worldwide evidence that untethered Free Market Economics create increasingly disproportionate accumulation of wealth into a decreasing number of hands.

Meanwhile morale and staff numbers among nurses in Public Hospitals continue to lower as aging senior nursing staff are beset by ever‐ increasing and unmanageable patient work loads. The only solutions on offer involve a deluge of new systems based on computer analysis management programs and increasingly complex regulations and criteria for patient care. However, nursing time actually spent with patients is steadily decreasing and the most basic care is often compromised through lack of available staff.

The thousands heading to live in Australia don't thank you.

The levels of third world diseases linked to poverty and substandard housing ‐ not seen for decades ‐ are growing in numbers.

Your country's schools and Teachers don't thank you.

However, we concede that an increasing number of New Zealanders can now live on takeaway food ‐ from food banks, that is.

Ensuring that Charter Schools will effectively lower education standards further by employing unqualified teachers. As if literacy and numeracy levels at Tertiary level aren't already low enough.

Meanwhile the only educational Free‐To‐Air Channel TV 7 is axed without a thought……unbelievable.

Not to mention the cessation of funding for special needs or community education in schools programmes.

The completion of Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement that disadvantages the average New Zealander while complying with conditions set in favour of the USA and China (two of the most protected and subsidised economies in the world).

Meanwhile millions of dollars are wasted on sub‐standard Chinese manufactured rail rolling stock while New Zealand jobs are lost and our skill base is further eroded.

Allowing many families in Christchurch affected by the earth‐ quakes to endure two winters in quake affected dwellings unfit for human habitation, with no end in sight for most due to inaction or procrastination by SERA or foreign owned Insurance companies.

Failing to utilise Reserve Bank funding to replenish our depleted housing stock, further increasing pressure on the cost of housing generally and pushing the affordability of home ownership out of the reach of even more young families.

Adding two further increases to the price of petrol to fund road infrastructure while prices at the pump soar to new all time record highs, further increasing overheads for transport companies and private motorists in an already struggling economy.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 17

Meanwhile the average Kiwi is increasingly burdened with cost of living rises and, as mentioned, having to resort to credit card use to get by ‐ further feeding the Debt Monster.

John, these people don't thank you.

Your increasing numbers of disaffected unemployed youth don't thank you.

Your low paid don't thank you.

Your country's Nurses and skilled workers don't thank you.

Your Christchurch earthquake victims awaiting settlement don't thank you.

Your young families struggling to find affordable housing don't thank you.

Your country's ratepayers don't thank you.

But John don't feel too bad because, after all, you and Bill have looked after the people that really matter.

Yes the foreign‐owned banks thank you.

The Governments of the U.S.A. and China thank you.

The overseas speculative markets thank you for handing them New Zealand on a plate.

The breweries thank you for ensuring they maintain profit margins because of weak legislation ensuring unabated alcohol consumption.

Last, but not least, let's not forget your country's children already born and those yet to be born.

On behalf of them and countless other unsuspecting Kiwis, thank you for ensuring our future is secure ‐ securely under the control of the overseas banksters and oligarchs that is, while New Zealanders live with the shackles of debt.

For all these things John we are deeply (and I mean deeply) and forever in your debt!

And we'll never let you forget it.

Yours faithfully, Mr and Mrs A.Verage ('Mum & Dad’ investors) New Zealanders (a.k.a. Warren Voight, Dunedin)

Hydraulic fracturing

By Jean Anderson Jean Anderson is a writer and researcher living in Tauranga.

This feature was specially prepared for the Guardian Political Review.

Hydraulic fracturing is commonly referred to as fracking. It is a method of obtaining hydrocarbon resources inaccessible by con‐ ventional well‐drilling methods. Fracking is an induced pressurization process aimed at opening up and enlarging fractures in targeted rocks to allow natural resources to flow or migrate to well bores or aquifers. See how it is done on

Hawke's Bay protest against fracking

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB3FOJjpy7s&feature=related

The fluid used in this process principally consists of water, proppants and chemicals. Up to 80 percent of fracking fluid may remain underground and methods of disposing of retrieved fluid include processing through sewage treatment plants, spreading on land, and injecting into disused wells.

Water The source used would relate to volume and quality requirements, and availability. The American Petroleum Institute has suggested non‐potable water be used where practicable. Industry says such sources can contain contaminants.

The amount of water used for fracking is huge. Questions arise over how draw‐off at high volumes may impact on water resources, and what effect trucking such volumes might play on, for example, CO2/greenhouse gas levels, road maintenance, traffic volume and noise, etc.

Proppants Natural pressure would close fractures. Proppants are used to help keep them open; e.g. resin‐coated sand, man‐made ceramics, and/or other particulates. Radioactive isotopes may be used to map fractures and monitor flow rates.

Chemicals Added components and chemicals typically comprise up to 2.5% of the total fracking fluid. In a well’s lifetime, 2.5% may represent hundreds of thousands of litres.

US Congress had tests run on samples of fracking fluids used 2005 to 2009. Components found ranged from salt to instant coffee to 29 known or possible human carcinogens. Some of the chemicals found are regulated under the US Safe Drinking Water Act or the US Clean Air Act. See ttp://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default /files/documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf.

The most widely used chemical in that period was methanol.

BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene) appeared in 60 of the products; these compounds also being regulated under the above Acts. Among others, the tests identified lead, diesel, formaldehyde, napthalene, sulphuric acid and ethylene glycol (antifreeze).

Biocides may be used to inhibit growth of bacteria and microorganisms. Biocides in anti‐fouling paint adversely impacted on marine eco‐systems and relatively low concentrations have been shown to harm juvenile rainbow trout.

In 2005, US Congress modified the Safe Drinking Water Act to exclude “the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities”.

US Federal Law reportedly contains no public disclosure requirements for oil and gas producers or service companies involved in hydraulic fracturing.

It should be noted, not all the toxic chemicals mentioned here are used in all fracking fluids. In essence, no two fracking fluids need be the same.

Human health Fracking fluid remaining underground can migrate and potentially contaminate water resources. Data collected over three years by the US Environmental Protection Agency showed test failures at 7500 wells involved “fluid migration” and “significant leaks”. The New York Times reviewed over 30,000 pages of documents regarding contamination and wastewater obtained “through open records requests of state and federal agencies...” Significant documents can be read on www.nytimes.com/inter active/2011/02/27/us/ natural‐gas‐documents‐ 1.html#document/p416/a9943.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 18

Many fracking chemicals are associated with skin, eye and respiratory problems, harm to the gastrointestinal system, and with affecting the brain and nervous system. Dr Theo Colborn, known for her studies on the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals, talks on www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.video.php, 'What You Need to Know About Natural Gas Production’.

Greenhouse gases In September 2012, it was announced US CO2 levels were at a 20‐ year low and this could relate to increased use of natural gas because it burns more cleanly than oil and coal. In considering the “well‐to‐consumer” lifecycle of fracked gas, Howarth et al found methane leaks from wells and breaks down into CO2, and is also produced by activities associated with well drilling.

Earthquakes The US Geological Survey reports earthquakes caused by fluids injected into deep wells for waste disposal and secondary recovery of oil have been documented. Columbia University seismologists link fracking to earthquakes hitting Youngstown, Ohio, during 2011, including a magnitude 4.0. See ‘An Assessment of the Effects of Hydraulic Fracturing on Seismicity in the Taranaki Region’, GNS Science Consultancy Report 2012/50 February 2012, www.trc.govt.nz/assets/Publications/guidelines‐procedures‐and‐ publications/hydraulic‐fracturing/gns‐seismic‐feb2012.pdf

New Zealand and fracking Primary concerns include the potential depletion and/or contamination of water resources, the effects of fracking fluids left underground, the disposal of retrieved fracking fluids, air quality near wellheads, and how fracking fluid chemicals could affect biota and human health.

A well site pad may measure up to 60,000m2/6ha; just short of nine rugby pitches. There may be up to 16 pads per 2.6 km2 and the associated infrastructure.

NZ’s gas and oil wells currently operating are on‐ and off‐shore in Taranaki. There are a further 75 existing and pending on‐shore drilling licences. Fracking is used in Taranaki and is proposed for on‐ shore wells in Southland and on the East Coast.

Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) researched the effects of fracking wastewater on pastures and biota, concluding further research is needed. Indications suggest changes occur. In September 2012, soil contaminated with hydrocarbons and metals from fracking fluids produced from the Kapuni KA2 well site was removed; some being dumped on local farmland and some trucked to Wellington.

At the Mangahewa well, 1.5 million litres of water was drawn from the Municipal supply for fracking. TRC‐monitored observation bores showed mean groundwater levels for 2005‐2008 at most sites compared to mean historical levels. South Taranaki District Council says water will continue to be scarce in its district and conservation must continue as sources “approach the limits of consents issued” by TRC. Conclusions Well casings can fail. Fracking fluids can migrate and potentially contaminate water resources. Water availability could be impacted.

Handling fracking wastewater could present problems. The New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, is currently conducting an official investigation into hydraulic fracturing for oil or gas. Her report is expected before the end of the year.

This article has been compiled from material published in articles in Organic New Zealand magazine, www.organicnz.org.nz (May/June 2012, Hydraulic fracturing aka fracking, September/October 2012 Fracking and Water, and the upcoming January/February 2013 issue, Chemical cocktails in fracking fluids).

References available from editor@guardian.org.nz:

COMMENT

apply this fundamental truth.

There have been a few exceptions, in 1978 when I watched Rob Muldoon and Bill Rowling give their opening addresses for the General election they had 20 minutes each. Bruce Beetham had about 10 and as a new voter I was impressed ‐ he seemed to say more in that time and have more solutions than the other two combined.

I became an instant believer in the common sense of social credit monetary reform policies and have voted accordingly ever since.

In the last 33 years I have watched New Zealand go through 11 general elections, two recessions and ongoing economic and social reforms initiated by Roger Douglas and implemented by successive left and right wing governments aided by their lesser derivative offspring such as NZ First, New Labour, ACT, Liberals, Kiwi Party, United Future, Maori Party, etc.

By Warren Voight, DSC Dunedin South 2011 candidate.

I'm Dunedin born and raised and I've lived and worked there all my life. I'd like to start with a famous quote: 'The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government but is the Governments greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest.'

Abraham Lincoln understood and fought for the freedom from slavery not only for black slaves but also freedom from financial slavery through usury interest charged by banks to the unsuspecting masses.

Sadly, too few politicians since have been able to understand or

WORLD NEWS

I watched with baited breath when MMP promised to deliver us from the grip of the National/Labour monopoly on power. I hoped that we might develop some political cohesion and maturity, resulting in some real answers to the economic mess. However, the personal indebtedness and disenfranchisement of the average Kiwi has increased and we are losing our sovereignty through asset sales to ‐ and borrowing from ‐ overseas interests.

So what has changed? Instead of going forward as a country we simply continue to flip flop between National and Labour (a.k.a.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum) during successive elections, whilst they continue to dominate and manipulate the political landscape through subversion of the minor parties. Meanwhile, our overall standard of living continues to decline and our indebtedness is skyrocketing.

Our nation is borrowing $300+ million per week from overseas banks (who simply create the money and charge interest). The government has no real growth plan to repay ‐ and I doubt very much that Labour would do any differently.

We used to be called the Funny Money Party ‐ well, the average Kiwi is starting to realise who are the real Funny Money Parties.

from Richard C. Cook

The November 6, 2012, presidential election pitted Democratic incumbent Barack Obama against Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Whatever America’s flaws, the world situation would have become much worse had Romney been elected. Behind Romney were the same forces that helped bring the decline into militarism and financial oppression.

In the last weeks of the election campaign, Romney had pulled ahead in the polls. What his backers could not anticipate was Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane in history. Sandy arrived with devastating force on October 29, slamming into the voter‐rich coastline from Virginia to Massachusetts, also encompass‐ ing Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, all of which voted for Obama on November 6.

Out of nowhere, New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent who had been sitting on the fence, announced that his concerns about the vulnerability of the nation to extreme weather events had caused him to decide to support Obama because he felt the president had shown leadership on climate change.

Bloomberg wrote: "The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast—in lost lives, lost homes and lost business—brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief. Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be—given this week’s devastation—should compel all elected leaders Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 19

(From 'The Day After Tomorrow')

to take immediate action."

Larry Sabato, a well‐known political commentator from the University of Virginia, gave Sandy credit for shifting the odds in Obama’s favor. On November 5 he wrote on his blog: “With a slight, unexpected lift provided by Hurricane Sandy, Mother Nature’s October surprise, President Barack Obama appears poised to win his second term tomorrow.”

Larry Sabato got it right.

This commentary will appear (unabridged) in the last chapter of the book Return of the Aeons: The Planetary Spiritual Ascension (reviewed in this issue)

COMMENT

Social Credit and Debt

by John G. Rawson (expansion of Conference Soapbox item)

In the 1920s and 30s, Social Credit and the economic analysis of its founder, C. H. Douglas, were widely discussed, even in university schools of economics. Since then, along with other forms of monetary reform theory, for example that of nuclear physicist F. P. Soddy, it has been suppressed almost completely by controlled media, and economists and academics trained in bank‐ funded schools. To the uninitiated, this might appear to be an unfounded statement of improbable conspiracy theory, but very obviously it has happened. Let’s see if these ideas were so weird or dangerous that they deserved to be suppressed.

The ideas of Douglas and Soddy are not as different as some think. Both denigrated the fact that a historical accident had resulted in private/corporate commercial organisations (banks) gaining their ability to monopolise the creation of new money in every country.

Both decried the power this gave these private companies to influence government policies. Soddy’s “virtual wealth” and Douglas’ “gap” are comparable, but Douglas saw causes for his “gap” beyond the limits of personal savings as considered by Soddy.

C H Douglas was a world‐renowned engineer who was called in by the British government during World War I to improve the functioning of the aircraft industry at Farnsborough. His personal philosophy of the importance of the individual has flavoured all his work; “systems exist to serve people, not people to serve systems”. In the course of his investigations he noted that none of the industries paid out enough in purchasing power, wages, salaries and dividends to enable people to buy their product. After the war, he studied other industries and found the same applied to them. From this he developed his “A+B Theorem”, where “A” costs represent those paid out in wages etc. and “B” costs are others such as deprecia‐ tion charges. Therefore, the public suffer from an insufficiency of “purchasing power” to buy the goods and services they produce.

“A” incomes can’t meet prices containing “A+B” costs. To paraphrase it loosely, there are costs in industry that push up the prices of goods etc., above the level the housewife (and others) can afford to pay.

Thousands, possibly millions of account‐ ants and others must have had access to data of the type Douglas studied. Only he had the brilliance to see their importance; to think laterally and understand their implications.

His basic data is factual and can’t be denied. Theory comes in when his analysis is applied to the whole economy, where other factors such as the operations of banks and governments come in. Douglas included, quite correctly for the industries he studied, purchase of raw materials and bank interest charges as “B” costs for them. In the total Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 20

economy, there are industries paying out purchasing power to produce raw materials and banks put money into circulation by paying their salaries, running costs and dividends.

Social Crediters have wasted immense time trying to prove this Theorem deductively. This approach has led to interminable discussion, allowing our opponents to nitpick the least fault in reasoning. It has got to the stage where even some of our own supporters react unfavourably to any mention of “A+B”.

Taken as a scientific model A<A+B and tested by scientific inductive reasoning against reality, it outshines the only alternative, the opposite, expressed as Say’s ”law”. This states that industry always does pay out enough money for people to buy its product. Douglas’ theory explains all of the following observed occurrences; the orthodox theory does not: ‐ Why the economy crashes from time to time. ‐ Why there is a need for consumer debt through credit cards etc. ‐ Why countries struggle to export more than they import, which leads to interna‐ tional tension and even war. ‐ Mounting debt. Orthodoxy has no explanation for this except the totally discredited debt‐virus theory based on compounding interest charges. ‐ “Stagflation”, for which orthodoxy has no explanation.

Douglas promoted two remedies, a national dividend and a discount scheme, both aimed at the consumer. The Social Credit movement in New Zealand has never picked up the discount scheme, which appears to be unworkable under modern conditions. For many years we have accepted his national dividend scheme, with adult citizens being paid a dividend on top of other earnings.

We have adopted also policies “frowned on” by Douglas, allowing government to use newly created money, debt free, to replace some taxation particularly for building infrastructure and to repay debt.

Whatever means we intend to employ, I believe debt repayment will be our most important immediate task. Any organization that is in debt has lost some of its autonomy to its creditors. At national level, this control has been evident from time to time with threats by credit‐rating agencies to increase the cost of government borrowing by reducing its credit rating when key decisions were being made. Until we have repaid or at least greatly reduced out indebtedness, our creditors will have, literally, the power to veto progressive legislation. We must first get into a position where we do not need to continue borrowing.

Obviously, we can use our national credit from our Reserve Bank, but there are limits to this. It can be done only to the point where further use would put too much money into circulation and cause demand‐ pull inflation. Despite what our economic masters have told us, it is a corollary of Douglas’ analysis that, under the present system, most inflation of prices has resulted from cost‐push factors such as rising oil prices or even increased interest rates. (The housing market, with desperate demand at the bottom end and rank speculation at the top is an obvious exception to this situation.)

Means of overcoming this problem must be found which do not result in depressing the standard of living of poorer people.

Obviously release of too much new money could cause problems. That is why Douglas advocated an independent Credit Authority to gauge the amount needed and authorise issue of only that amount. This may require new methods of deriving some statistics.

Gross Domestic Product at present is derived from national income and is not an accurate measure of goods produced.

At present, the economy is balanced and “the goods are sold” because of fresh injections of debt‐based money each year.

Data for overall debt increase during the previous year should give us a reasonable idea of the “gap” between basic incomes and prices. There is also the observed fact that, in “good times”, industry increases its output to meet increased spending power.

Following the present downturn, it might be quite reasonable to expect an upturn in production of about ten percent when financial restrictions are removed. Part of this, of course, would be financed by new borrowing by industry and would release some extra wages, etc. As in most aspects of life, it is likely that, no matter what statistics are collected, there will be a place for cautious “trial and error”.

In relation to repayment of debt, perhaps some of that could be accomplished by converting existing loans to Government into reserves at the Reserve Bank. This “base money” would increase their reserves to a great extent, but would not come into circulation in the money supply. A significant amount of our debt is owed to superannua‐ tion schemes or to private individuals. We have a duty to repay that. Funds to repay overseas debt can be obtained only by using some of the returns from our exports.

Another consideration will be one that the first Labour Government faced when it commenced monetary reform measures; the threat of a “flight of capital” organised by the banks. Our proposed tax on purchase of overseas funds may handle this problem, but we may have to institute further controls, as they did.

No business can pay out much of a dividend until it makes a profit. Although governments work under somewhat different rules, any government embracing monetary reform policies will have much more to consider, including debt repayment, than immediately embarking on all its stated policies, some of which may have to remain as long‐term objectives.

(END)

The Major, A+B ‐ and me

By Richard C Cook.

Extract from 'Return of the Aeons' (see review in this issue)

I want to mention an incident that took place while at the Carter White House that would bear fruit much later. It had to do with the nature of the world's monetary systems. In my study the name of Alfred R. Orage was prominent. He had been editor of the New Age, a leading‐edge periodical that covered every type of topic from political to economic to spiritual to literary.

Through the pages of the New Age, Orage was the "discoverer" of a brilliant Scottish engineer/economist named Major C.H. Douglas, who had found through his work with industry that individual firms always paid out less in wages and other expendi‐ tures than the amount charged to consumers to purchase the products which the company manufactured.

This "gap" was endemic across entire national economies, leading to a chronic inability to liquidate a nation's production inventory. The result was that nations had to resort to competition for international trade, leading to the constant state of economic

warfare so evident as the accompaniment to the industrial age.

This was, and still is, a massive macroeconornic problem that economists know of but have never dealt with successfully. John Maynard Keynes' solution, which he formulated during the Great Depression in the 1930s, was eventually adopted by all national governments. It was for governments to commandeer use of the savings through the sale of bonds, hence leading to government deficits for the purpose of "pump priming."

Of course such policies are always inflationary, which governments actually favor because they can pay for their debts with a de facto devalued currency.

But the key to the matter was that the "gap" between production and available consumer income was also the basis for bank lending, because in order for people to be able to buy what they needed to live, and given the fact that net national earnings

were insufficient, it meant that the difference was accounted for by consumer lending on the part of the financial industry.

It was how the banks ruled the economy.

The "gap" was the basis for their profits and their power. They did not want that to change. So C.H. Douglas was their enemy.

The solution, Douglas argued, was a "national dividend" based on the accretion of the net value of the economy that was able to produce the retained earnings that balanced against the "gap."

He called his system "Social Credit." His ideas became popular in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the economic hardships of the 1930s.

I felt I had made a tremendous discovery.

So I invited several men who held responsible government jobs to attend a meeting at the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. I explained to them what National Credit was, how the national dividend would work and the role of A.R. Orage in discovering and publicizing these ideas. To a man, these people were negative and even hostile. Why, I did not know. It was not the only time I ran into a wall of closed minds.

DSC policy embraces the "gap" (A+B theorem) and the national dividend.

Tea with the Doctor To: Henry Raynel As the National MP based in Manurewa I value the opinions of the residents of Manurewa.

With this in mind I am inviting a group of senior residents to come in and meet with me informally over a cup of tea. I hope you can join us. Dr Cam Calder 25/9/12 Thank you for the invitation. I will attend and submit the following adjusted economic strategy for New Zealand. Henry Raynel Society has a consumption problem ‐ not a production problem.

Incomes: Households are losing income because machines are taking away income‐producing jobs; incomes are reducing as compared to prices. As the best brains in the world are producing more and better machines the difference between total incomes and total prices is widening.

Households urgently need to receive a weekly supplementary income which, correctly stated, it is a National Dividend entitlement that must be paid regardless of other earned income.

Machines and nature's raw materials for production are our heritage that every individual is entitled to a share of ‐‐ machines cannot purchase and consume their production. A National Dividend would enable all individuals to buy their heritage share.

Treasury economists' strategy advice to Governments has been to borrow more interest debt money from banks and at the same time encourage more capital and general production growth. New Zealand already has over commercialism and there already exists an absolute abundance of goods and services.

Economists advising politicians could and must establish equilibrium between total prices and total incomes without compounding debt and without destroying individual freedom and responsibility.

Finance: Government and all MPs must already know that about 98% of our New Zealand money supply is credit finance printed by private banks. Cash and coin is printed by the NZ Reserve Bank.

Government urgently needs the assistance of credit printed finance that is not repayable debt to bankers. Our New Zealand central and local government already has approximately $100 billion of debt.

New Zealand must not continue down the same bank debt road ‐ as are Britain, Spain, America and many other countries. Evidence shows these nations are bringing on economic disaster, with increasing debt and unemployment, greater community tension, deeper poverty and loss of individual freedom.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 21

Private Banks are now servicing industry and commerce with finance and are entitled to charge interest and fees for the service they provide and the risk they take.

Lending to Government is very different from the risk lending to Industry and Commerce. There is no risk to supply Government with printed money. This money printing procedure is the same procedure as private banks permanently function.

The only difference is that industry and commerce do have to rightly repay private bank loans.

Banks have proved they will only print and supply interest bearing debt money to government, so I submit that our Government use our New Zealand owned Kiwi Bank or our New Zealand Reserve Bank to print this money for government spending ‐‐ free of cost and without debt.

If you or your minister of finance tell us that no existing bank will print the money Government needs free of cost then I submit our Government establish a “State Finance Department” independent of private banks and independent of politicians ‐ to responsibly print Government‐needed money.

The State Finance Department could operate similar to the government “Weights and Measures Department”, specifically to service Government financial needs. Or, better still, this State Finance Department could be legally established, responsible to scientifically assess, print and manage the total New Zealand money supply. It could issue interest‐free repayable loans to private banks of as much loan money as they need to service all industry and commerce ‐ not too much, not too little. Private Banks would, of course, charge for their services.

It is only mathematics; New Zealand statistics of production and consumption are already available for this assessment.

Government should not pay interest‐bearing debt to a private banking system for the use of Society’s own credit money that it could issue itself without interest‐bearing debt.

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

Not enough money to pay debts According to former American broker Max Keiser, on his Russia Today television programme, on which attorney Ellen Brown often appears, there is insufficient capacity on the planet to pay off financial debt. The only hope, he sees, is that some extra‐ terrestrial planet will buy it.

Derivatives Derivatives are fiendishly complicated and cover everything that isn't tangible, the right to buy raw materials at a future date at a set price, or the underwriting of a risk that someone won't be paid by someone else.

gathered outside the home of Santiago Rodriguez, an unemployed gardener. Their aim: to stop the bank holding a mortgage on the property from evicting Rodrigues, his wife and their two small children.

The anger was understandable. One in four Spanish adults is out of work. The effects of a fierce austerity campaign are acute. Yet the government is offering public [borrowed] money to recapitilise banks teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of the collapse of a property boom that they did so much to fuel.

London Sunday Times 10‐6‐12

Derivatives are a way that corporations could create money outside the usual banking liquidity rules. They are not money but contracts to buy things at different times and prices, but they can be used as money.

This is the introduction to an article by Simon English about "the markets"

Mum and Dad investors beware High frequency trading has been the forefront of a technological arms race in market trading. Computers test prices by issuing buy or sell orders that can be withdrawn in milliseconds, giving traders an idea of the market's willingness to trade at those prices. They can also earn tiny profits millions of times over from rebates provided by exchanges for being a market‐maker, or by being willing to buy and sell when there is a shortage of other traders.

Sydney Morning Herald 5‐7‐12

Money for banks ‐ not for people Even while the Spanish government in June was seeking $125,000 million plus to bail out its banks, dozens of protesters Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 22

Why do these politicians treat us as idiots?

The cost was estimated at £2.4 billion when the bid was won: it now stands at £9.3 billion. To all rational people, this is much closer to £7 billion over budget.

Environmentalist unhappy

The Stock Market ‐computer driven

['I' newspaper 12‐6‐12]

A gold medal for political spin A letter writer to the 'I' newspaper [14‐6‐12] observed that Jeremy Hunt [Minister in charge of the 2012 Olympics arrangements] said it was fantastic news that the Olympics would come in £476 million under budget.

Stock Market trader unhappy

David Boyle Money Matters

The most thoughtful calculations [about how the markets will go] become guesswork in the face of a eurozone crisis being traded by 50,000 super computers.

DSC leaflet Financing a Greener Future ‐ 2011

People have become commodities to be milked by the wealthy 1% [a disillusioned now ex trader speaking with the London Global Table 20‐6‐12].

By 2007, the value of derivatives was $1,032 trillion and the value of global output just $50 trillion.

He comments: what seems a matter of fact is that machines drive most markets.

Human traders simply can't keep up. I asked an experienced market‐maker what was happening that day. He said he had just told his best client. "We are rangebound with a slight bias to the down side" And that means? "I've no idea what's happening".

using finite resources. There is a solution.

We must change the present financial system that demands perpetual economic growth."

Mario Monti

Unelected Italian Prime Minister How many Italian voters in a free election opted for Mario Monti? None. So why was he installed as Prime Minister?

American attorney Ellen Brown is of the opinion that: "there is reason to suspect that “Super Mario” Monti may be representing interests other than those of his country. He rose to power in Italy last November in what critics called a ‘coup d’etat’ engineered by bankers and the European Union.” He was not elected but stepped in after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned under duress.

Where have all the fish gone?

The "megafauna" of the seas ‐ dolphins, whales, turtles, rays and sharks ‐ have seen numbers tumble by 75%. Some species are down by 99%. Overfishing means fish no longer grow to what would once have been regarded as their normal size and weight.

The actions of humans are changing evolution.

London Sunday Times 10‐6‐12

DSC cares "People have to learn to live in harmony with nature and live within ecological limits.

We cannot have perpetual growth when

This week's earth summit in Rio de Janeiro is a ghost of the glad, confident meeting 20 years ago. By now, the leaders who gathered in the same city in 1992 told us, the world's environmental problems were to have been solved. But all they have generated is more meetings, which will continue until the delegates, surrounded by rising waters, have eaten the last rare dove, exquisitely presented with an olive leaf roulade. The biosphere that world leaders promised to protect is in a far worse state than it was 20 years ago. Is it not time to recognise that they have failed ?

These summits have failed for the same reason that banks have failed. Political systems that were supposed to represent everyone now return governments of millionaires, financed by and acting on behalf of billionaires. The past 20 years have been a billionaires' banquet. At the behest of corporations and the ultra‐rich, governments have removed the constraining decencies ‐ the laws and regulations ‐ which prevent one person from destroying another.

George Monbiot The London Guardian 18‐6‐12

Money is not wealth If you look at world economies that are still thriving despite the backwash from the financial meltdown of 2008, they tend to be those where people don't just shunt money around in ever more exotic ways, but where they actually make or develop things.

Matt Symonds 'I' newspaper 28 ‐6‐12

Starvation in Africa/Middle East It is, sadly, one of the regular sights on television. A reporter commenting on a desolate scene of drought, decaying animals, malnourished children and desperate adults pleading for help,with the Red Cross or other charitable organisation shown trying to alleviate the misery.

This news event was shown on Al Jazeera television on 18 June 2012 with a comment: ‐ there's no shortage of food in Burkina Faso, but people can't afford it.

Jay Rayner writing in The Observer [22‐7‐12] about the situation in Yemen said: There is an acute food deficit in Yemen.

People are starving in their millions. Children are dying. The problem is not a lack of food.

There is food in the country. It is that the economy has collapsed to such a degree and food prices have risen so high that people cannot afford to feed themselves.

Sport for the privileged As a direct result of government financial cuts, to help bail out the banks of course, there has been a 60% decrease in the time devoted to sport in schools.

As Terence Blacker in the 'I' newspaper [20‐7‐12] commented: Taking exercise is a habit of mind and body which should be part of any civilised education. For a government, run by the privileged and the privately educated, to deprive the vast majority of children of the chance to play organised sport at school is a matter of national shame.

Private schools have not been affected.

That's why the recent Olympic rowing events were held at Eton Dorney, owned by Eton College.

Don't ask me to pay The UK based Tax Justice Network has worked out that half the minimum estimate of $18.62 trillion (well, how much is that? ‐ the mind boggles) hidden in overseas accounts and tax havens is owned by just 92,000 people. And that does not include the non‐financial assets such as art, yachts, mansions and ludicrously priced property in London.

The world's poorest countries, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa, have fought long and hard in recent years to receive debt forgiveness from the international community. Had their richest citizens not hidden their money away overseas, they would not be in debt.

The end of the Euro currency ‐ good for Britain Terry Smith, chief executive of brokers Tullett Prebon, in an interview with James Quinn in the London Sunday Telegraph [29‐7‐ 12] believes that the end of the euro project would be good for Britain: It will be very positive, very positive. Have a look at Turkey, which failed to join the euro, and how it is prospering. The EU is no longer our biggest trading partner, in any event, even when it was, it was an artificial construct.

People say if we left the EU it would be a disaster. Hang on a minute ‐ the balance of trade is in favour of the EU. Politicians who call for the UK to further integrate with Europe as a result of the crisis have entered a "further stage of madness."

How much?

How much financial credit did it cost our bank, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, to help bail out foreign banks? Financial credit from the Reserve Bank is not available to our local authorities for restructuring. But have they asked?

Every child in need campaign Rev Paul Nicholson

Isn't this the answer?

Free Market Utopia

The Christian Council for Monetary Justice has advocated for the UK: ending usury and fractional reserve banking by getting the Bank of England to take away from commercial banks the creation of most of the money in use.

The rise of the dream of a utopia of a free market probably began in 1971. At that time in the USA there were 175 corporation and group lobbyists trying to influence the Senate and the Congress. Today there are 33,000. The free market utopia is dependent on who controls the laws and politics of various countries and world bodies. In the USA, it is claimed that the Supreme Court is packed with a majority of pro corporate judges ‐ appointed, of course, by presidents on advice.

This can be achieved in a single step when the government instructs the Bank to issue, free of interest, all the money needed for the real economy as repayable debt. Any willing existing agency, such as high street banks, mortgage lenders, or credit unions, could administer the distribution of this interest‐free credit for an administrative fee.

The real economy of goods and services, in this context, is seen to include finance for public infrastructure, industry and business (but not for financial services), for residential property purchase and for affordable short term credit for consumables.

The Tablet [UK] 4‐8‐12

An academic view ...we need to reduce the speculative role of finance, restoring it to its proper role as the conduit for savings to investment. Two measures would help: a government‐ sponsored revival of local banking... and a transactions tax on financial operations.

Lord Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at Warwick University writing in The Observer 19‐8‐12

Having principles tarnishes Green Party reputation

Why carbon credits to control climate change?

A Green Party councillor in Brighton, East Sussex, has been charged by the party with bringing it into disrepute, according to a BBC report (27‐7‐12]. Her alleged crime was, on a matter of principle, to vote against the Green Party's support for "gay marriage".

Bankers proposed creating tradable carbon credits to combat climate change. The credits would give businesses the right to pollute up to a specified level. The real driver was that banks could trade the credits, earning profits.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 23

Deregulated ten commandments?

"We have seen the disaster for the poorest citizens and the economy as a whole when, in the 1980s, central government deregulated lending, abolished rent controls and allowed the free movement of capital in and out of the UK, leaving an ethical vacuum, or black hole, in the financial sector.

It was as if Moses went back up Mount Sinai, deregulated the ten commandments, because they are "red tape", and then wondered why there was so much theft, etc.

Satyajit Das Extreme Money ‐ Pearson Books

Someone wants to know about you!

If you are a facebook or twitter enthusiast, you obviously don't mind making thousands of "friends". But there are some people who don't want to know you, but only about you. Almost 250 British companies work in the communications surveillance industry. The British government has decided to restrict the export of the spyware of one company. The FInFish software by the Gamma International company "can take remote control of a computer, copy its files, intercept Skype calls and log every keystroke."

The Observer 9‐9‐12

Money is all The London Sunday Times [16‐9‐12] reports that the gases introduced to replace the deadly ozone killing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) may in the long term be more dangerous for the climate. Efforts to have the replacement gas (HFC) emissions cut by the European Politburo have been met with opposition by commercial interests. On the EU lobby register, 353 lobbyists have registered to campaign for the retention of allowable HFC.

Who's Stephen O'Connor?

He's some kind of union leader. He's the 50‐year-old chairman, or chief shop steward, of ISDA, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association overseeing the $650, not million, not billion, but trillion global derivatives market. Remember global trade only amounts to $50 trillion.

It is reported [The Times 21‐9‐1] that Mr O'Connor told his union's annual conference in London on 20 September 2012 that he didn't want the Libor interest rate standard to be changed as it could lead to legal disputes over existing (derivative) contracts.

In other words it would cost money. And as managing director of Morgan Stanley in New York, he would know something about that.

In Britain, the Libor Rate, affecting some, if not all, of NZ's overseas borrowings, was regulated by the British Bankers' Association.

A proposal is under consideration that this aspect of the banks regulating themselves should be changed.

Is that the noise of angry bank lobbyists, I hear?

Microsoft calls the tune In the USA state of Washington the authorities are beginning an austerity blitz.

Part of this is to cut the home help the state provides to the disabled. High unemploy‐ ment has reduced the tax take but increased welfare spending. One of the big companies based in the state is Microsoft, and state coffers should be bulging with tax on that company's enormous profits. They aren't.

One reason is the increasingly sharp tactics Microsoft and other multinational companies employ to sidestep the taxman. According to an American Senate report, Microsoft shifted

(legally) US$21 billion of revenue to a network of offshoots, thus avoiding US$ 4.5 billion in taxes.

Microsoft is just one of a growing band of powerful international companies whose global reach allows them to all but dictate how much tax they pay. [article by Simon Duke London Sunday Times 30‐9‐12]

A financial transaction tax might help the state authorities, and the disabled, but vested interests wouldn't like it.

New Zealanders next?

The charity Oxfam has reported that rich investors have bought more than 100 million hectares in land grabs in poor nations over the past decade. Two thirds of investors planned to export everything they grew and have evicted poor people from their homes in the process.

Metro 4‐10‐12

Labour and Green councillors board the financial Titanic It has been reported that the Labour and Green representatives on the Wellington City Council have voted to risk WCC ratepayers losing their homes in return for joining the Local Government Funding Authority. The dangers of this venture have been explained on the DSC website. With average debt per ratepayer in NZ more than doubling from $5113 in 2006, a Gavin Kennedy, in representations to the WCC on the proposal to join the LGFA, warned that "this trend implies greater and greater reliance on the willingness of ratepayers to assume more and more liability for Council debt against the threat of losing their homes."

The application of DSC financial policies would not have created such a threat.

US Quantitative Easing ‐ the real reason for it American attorney, Ellen Brown, in her 3 October 2012 article QE Infinity: What Is It Really About? quotes Catherine Austin Fitts in part explanation:‐ "The challenge for Ben Bernanke and the Fed governors since the 2008 bailouts has been how to deal with the backlog of fraud ‐ not just fraudulent mortgages and fraudulent mortgage securities but the derivatives piled on top and the politics of who owns them, such as sovereign nations with nuclear arsenals, and how they feel about taking massive losses on AAA paper purchased in good faith.

The future for Greece?

Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and Boomerang, in commenting about Greece said "In our societies there is still some sense of a common good. But this just doesn't exist there. Nobody trusts each other. Nobody trusts the government. So, there's nothing really to build on. They shouldn't have come into the Eurozone.

London Sunday Times 7‐10‐12

Debt problems?

Michael Lewis, again, in the London Sunday Times [7‐10‐12] reported that total worldwide debt ‐ private and public ‐ more than doubled between 2002 and 2008 from US$84 trillion to US$195 trillion.

Advice from a Health and Community Guide 2012/2013 edition: ‐ If you're in debt and finding it hard to cope, it's important to deal with the problem straight away. The longer you ignore your debts, the worse the situation becomes. Bill English, please note.

Key to challenging power of banks is regaining control of money supply.

By Michael Meacher MP (UK) 10/7/12 Item supplied by Colin J Whitmill capacity has deteriorated to the point where in The discovery by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that the 2010 the UK balance of payments deficit on financial services industry spent £92m last year lobbying politicians traded goods reached £100bn, 6.8% of GDP, and regulators shows how deeply entrenched the banks have which is utterly unsustainable. become in the UK power structure contrary to the public interest.

The documents show that that lobbying firepower was used to slash Regaining public control over the money UK Corporation Tax (Osborne caving in to them again) as well as to supply, as all successful economies since the de‐rail government plans to set up a new corporate regulator to Second World War have exercised, is absolutely police quoted companies. But there’s a lot more too that they’ve Michael Meacher MP vital to ensure that the nation’s resources are secured which works against the national interest – the cut in 50p primarily channelled into industry and exports rather than property income tax, the soft touch on all the City mis‐selling scandals, the and financial speculation. That is a pre‐condition for any sustainable watering down of the already weak Vickers recommendations, the UK economic recovery. It is also a necessary, and perhaps even a rejection of a financial transactions tax, the wilful blindness over sufficient, condition for reining in the power of the City. massive City‐driven tax avoidance, the continuing failure to regulate Under this ‘window guidance’, which prevailed till the 1970s when complex derivatives that were at the heart of the 2008‐9 crash, and the Tories replaced quantitative ceilings by the price mechanism and many more. So how should they be stopped? variable interest rates, unproductive credit creation like today’s The key to City power is their control over the money supply lending to hedge funds was firmly suppressed. Equally consumer which they use ruthlessly to promote their own interests to the loans on any significant scale, which would trigger inflationary disadvantage of the nation at large. Thatcher’s Big Bang in 1986 demand for consumer goods and draw in increased imports, were abolished all controls over consumer credit as well as de‐regulated discourages and hard to get. Priority was given to productive housing finance. The banks were then able to use the expansion of investment (plant and equipment, key services, enhanced productivity the money supply, 97% of which they are responsible for, mainly for via new technologies and R&D). the purpose of feeding a property boom as well as huge foreign If we want to escape our economy being hollowed out by speculation, whilst only allocating 8% of credit for the purposes of manufacturing deficits of £100bn a year as well to constrain the anti‐ productive investment (manufacturing, construction, business and anti‐UK power of the City, that is the route we must communications, distribution, retail and wholesale). That mere 8% now take. allocated to business is a prime reason why Britain’s manufacturing Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 24

HIDDEN HAVENS

NEWS BITES - hunting through the media jungle!

DEMOCRATIC RIGHT Grey Power is shocked the Government is to spend $120 million of taxpayers' money to sell the proposed asset sales. The money is to be spent on advertising, legal, PR, banking, call centres, and other administra‐ tive charges. But a mere $50,000 is to be allowed for “advertising” the petition – an onerous regulation that controls how we can spend our own money exercising our democratic right to free speech on a controversial issue.

PROMISES, PROMISES I wonder how many anguished Hanover investors took the investment plunge because they believed ex‐TV1 newsreader Richard Long’s authoritative promise that Hanover had “the size and strength to withstand any conditions”. I was head of news and current affairs at the time and should have realized the danger. Investors paid the price.

Bill Ralston, NZ Listener 6/10/12

Roy Reid, President Grey Power Federation, Otago Daily Times 1/6/12

THE BLAND LEADING THE BLAND As the political term heads towards its dreary mid‐point, support for the Govern‐ ment starts to wane, but faith in the opposition remains tepid. People do start to wonder about a politician so careless with the facts. What now goes with "John Key"?

Answer: "brain fade." But at the same time David Shearer has failed to shine. He remains in many ways a bland politician, just as John Key is bland.

Sunday Star‐Times editorial, 4/11/12

DREARY CHOICE Bill English has proved a profoundly disappointing finance minister, hidebound and orthodox and incapable of fresh thought. His policy is dull and his utterances uniformly lifeless. So the choice remains dreary; a fading Nat and a Labour leader who never glowed in the first place.

Sunday Star‐Times editorial, 4/11/12

NASTY Fluorine is the most reactive element on the periodic table. It reacts, often violently, with every other element, except helium and neon, and with essentially all chemical compounds. Sane chemists shun it. As it is so reactive, it must be stored in special steel or nickel cylinders, the insides of which are rendered unreactive by (careful) prior treatment with fluorine. A colleague once told me the story of an unfortunate worker who managed (inadvertently, of course) to get his thumb in a stream of fluorine gas and was aghast to see the thumb catch fire.

It really is that nasty.

Dr Allan Blackman, associate professor of chemistry, University of Otago. Otago Daily Times 15/9/12

MAORI DOTCOM At the Maori Party Conference, co‐leader Pita Sharples lamented the lack of a “Maori Dotcom” to boost party coffers.

Sunday Star‐Times 28/10/12

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 25

A report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, published in the UK Observer, estimates the amount of wealth hidden in tax havens by the super‐rich at a minimum of $US21 trillion, i.e. $21,000,000,000,000. Some of it is the laundered proceeds of crime, and much was stolen from national budgets by corrupt elites. It estimates that almost half is owned by just 92,000 people, some of whom pay no tax at all. The amount of wealth managed by the top 10 private banks, most of it held in secret accounts, has more than doubled in the past five years.

Gwynne Dyer World View, Otago Daily Times 27/7/12

FINANCIAL IDIOT? The Minister of Finance said the Gov‐ ernment is prepared to lend the Interna‐ tional Monetary Fund (IMF) $1.3 billion. He said New Zealand wanted to support the IMF because we are one of the most indebted countries in the world. If we were called on to make this loan to the IMF, he said, we would have to borrow money to do so. That makes no sense to me, which is probably why I'm a financial idiot and he's the Minister of Finance.

John Shrapnell, NZ Listener 30/6/12

SINKING CHICKENS HOME TO ROOST Converting the 2012 Budget into $100 notes stacked one on top of another it would reach 95km high. As this budgetary stack of cash reaches the boundary of space, it rams home how casually we treat the money Government spends. As a fair chunk of Government spending is borrowed, what happens when the chickens come home to roost?

Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers president. Sunday Star‐ Times 3/6/12

VOODOO ECONOMICS There is nothing like an idea whose time has come. Take voodoo economics. The originator of that phrase was George Bush snr but there might conceivably be voodoo in orthodox economics in need of exorcism.

Steadily sinking property prices are exposing a deep Dutch weakness: unpaid mortgages. By next year the debt on one of four mortgaged homes will exceed their value. The Dutch expression is graphic – they say such homes are under water.

Reuters 27/8/12

ASTONISHING The US plans to deploy a new laser‐based molecular scanner fired from 50m away which will instantly reveal an astonishing level of detail not only about your body, clothes and luggage but also about the contents of your wallet and even of your intestines. And all of this information can be collected without even touching you — and without your knowledge.

Guardian News & Media UK 25/10/12

Colin James, Otago Daily Times 21/8/12

PLASTIC OCEAN Plastic pollution of the world's oceans is a more urgent problem than climate change.

French research ship Tara has revealed it found thousands of plastic fragments per square kilometre in the waters surrounding the Antarctic. Captain Charles Moore, said now none of the world's oceans were plastic‐free. The world had produced more plastic in the first decade of the 21st century than the 50 years before it, the equivalent of 300 million tonnes. "We're just in the dawn of the age of plastic," he said. "We're killing more animals, right now, in the ocean with our plastic waste than climate change is killing."

Otago Daily Times 29/9/12

DICKENSIAN INFLATION The purchase power of money was nearly fifteen times as great five hundred years ago as it is at the present time. Should labour go up, or money go down, at the same rate for the next five hundred years, the workman of 2374 will be earning something like five guineas a day; whether he will be any better off only time can decide.

All the Year Round by Charles Dickens 1874

FOLLOW ME CHAPS

GREAT NEWS

Side‐loading, pre‐loading, bingeing and an unshakeable core of heavy boozers: that’s how New Zealand is drinking. If this was any other drug, the prime minister would be on the television saying ‘we have to do something about this drug’; instead, we’ve got the prime minister on telly drinking the drug and saying ‘follow me chaps’.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Councillors voted today to stop fluoridation in their only fluoridated town of Waipukurau. This is great news. An overwhelming majority of residents’ submissions were against fluoridat‐ ion. There are now only 23 councils out of 69 that practice fluoridation in New Zealand

Professor Doug Sellman, National Addictions Centre, Sunday Star‐Times 28/10/12

NOT SURPRISING

Clear as day. Ravensbourne resident Jim La Rooy looks out of a self‐cleaning glass window

CLEAR AS DAY Ravensdown fertilizer works has begun replacing clouded windows in Ravens‐ bourne with self‐cleaning glass as emissions from its plant contribute to glass clouding in the suburb. Replacement windows of normal glass could become clouded again within two to five years.

Since last year Ravensdown had installed glass at about 30 homes.

Otago Daily Times 20/9/12

What fluoride does to steel and glass ‐ $25,000 damage writ Mr Sam Seal had fluoride damage to his new car, which he regularly parked opposite the Dominion Fertilizer Company's works in Ravensbourne Road, Dunedin, also a frosted window pane from his home which is directly opposite the works. Frosted glass is a typical indication of the presence of fluoride‐containing fumes. The damage is the subject of a $25,000 writ against the company, to be heard soon in the High Court, Dunedin.

Pure Water Journal, February 1984:

Pollution by fluoride from Ravensdown Fluoridation began because of law suits over environmental damage by, and exposure of workers to, fluoride. Silicio‐ fluorides used for water fluoridation are obtained from the superphosphate fertiliser industry. The fluoride emissions are toxic and have to be "scrubbed" from the plants' chimney stacks to prevent environmental damage. The resulting acid is too toxic to be disposed of in any other way, so it is disposed of through public water supplies instead, in the name of dental health. www.fannz.org.nz

The commentary about what New Zealand monetary policy should and could be has become near‐deafening in recent times. New Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler is a traditionalist when it comes to setting monetary policy – not surprising for a man who has spent time at the World Bank. Mr Wheeler has reiterated that it is business as usual.

Otago Daily Times editorial 29/10/12

POWER PLAY In 2003 Transpower sold the South Island grid and leased it back. The buyer of the grid was the US‐based Wachovia Bank; The leaseback of the grid runs through the Cayman Islands, a tax haven; The leaseback of the grid runs for about 100 years. That meant that Transpower is the operator (not the owner) of the South Island grid. During the early days of the current global financial crisis, Wachovia was taken over by Wells Fargo, another American bank. The effect of the cross border lease was to duplicate ownership of the grid, so that ownership could be claimed in the United States as well as in New Zealand.

CAFCA 17/10/12

HAVE A NICE DAY There's a new ad designed to calm the nerves of those of us who have seen our bank and its lovely black stallion gobbled up by the ANZ. There is Patrick Jane, smugly making a cup of tea. "The power of two," he says oleaginously. "Kiwis understand that."

If Patrick Jane really knew what we were thinking, the ad might be very different.

Because I'm thinking I would like a bank ad that goes: "I am your bank, I do not care a flying fig about you. I am like a casino, an institution in which the odds are stacked in my favour. I will make an obscene profit.

You will make the miserable term deposit rate while paying too much for your mortgage. Should you fall on hard times I have two words for you: mortgagee sale.

Have a nice day."

Diana Wichtel, NZ Listener 10/11/12

IT FIGURES Reserve Bank figures from May this year showed New Zealanders owed about $3.6 billion in interest‐bearing credit card balances. At as average rate of 17.7%, about $639 million is paid each year in interest.

NZ Herald 4/9/12

Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 26

Graeme Rees, FANNZ 27/9/12

GANGSTERS “We’ve got more to worry about from men is suits than chaps in patches – the international financial crash isn’t because of some gangster walking around a shopping mall.

Black Power member Denis O’Reilly, Otago Daily Times 31/8/12

MEDIASPEAK “We know our readers don’t like change so we describe our changes as part of an 'ongoing evolution'.”

Dominion Post 3/9/12

NZ Listener

FOXED At a time when the Murdoch media empire has been in the spotlight, it is salutary to realise that ‐ quite apart from phone‐hacking scandals and the manipu‐ lation of politicians ‐ a malign influence can be exercised by a Murdoch‐owned Fox News through constantly feeding a distorted view of events to a gullible public.

Bryan Gould, NZ Listener 3/11/12

WINNING HEARTS & MINDS A US Army report: A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility, concluded the Afghan troops see the American soldiers as "a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self‐serving, profane infidel bullies hiding behind high technology". The US troops, in return, generally view their Afghan allies as "a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot‐ smoking, treacherous and murderous radicals".

Gwynne Dyer, Otago Daily Times 31/8/12

JUST IMAGINE “What I was doing was simply making the world a nicer place through the power of imagination.”

Margaret Mahy, NZ Listener 4/8/12

BEST SUPPORTING PM It’s a tough job, but someone has to be Prime Minister. Someone has to get on that plane, fly to Los Angeles and have dinner with James Cameron and all his mates. And then traipse around the Hollywood studios, angling for a nomination for Best Supporting Country in the ongoing dramas otherwise known as the film‐financing industry.

Editorial NZ Listener 13/10/12

TINSLETOWN TAKES HOLD

TV3 reports that the Minister of Maori Affairs, who has just returned from a visit to China with a Maori trade delegation, is hopeful that the China Development Bank will work with Maori on future business projects. With the Marine and Coastal Area Act specifically encouraging tribal owners to "develop" the foreshore and seabed to "derive commercial benefit", it is likely that such joint ventures may focus on coastal development such as mining for iron sands, rare earths, and other minerals, as well as aquaculture.

A Tinsletown giant has taken hold of New Zealand’s 100% Middle‐earth campaign.

Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal the “long‐term strategic relationship” the Government has entered into with Warner Bros. The deal involves $95m of subsidies and grants.

Sunday Star‐Times 11/11/12

JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS Not included in Labour’s “closed list” of asset sales are telecommunications networks and – amazingly – “electricity generators”.

Perhaps opposing the sale of state assets is just (if I may quote the former Labour

cabinet minister, Steve Maharey) “one of those things you say in opposition but forget about in government”.

Chris Trotter, Otago Daily Times

TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY Grey Power and its collaborators will collect enough signatures to trigger their citizens' initiated referendum to stop asset sales. I predict that the vast majority of New Zealanders will say 'no'. But more than $10 million of taxpayer dollars will be wasted if the government of the day is not prepared to listen to the majority of citizens. All we have then is a tyranny of the minority.

Steve Baron (edited extract from the Wanganui Chronicle 25/6/12). Steve Baron is Founder of Better Democracy NZ

THE UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS New Zealand businesses are reporting poor profit performance and the trickle of layoffs and plant closures is becoming a flood. They are not alone. It is happening throughout the world. I am unable to write a column on the unknown unknowns.

‘Economy' by Brian Easton, NZ Listener 29/9/12

NZ Centre for Political Research, 11/6/12 (Item supplied by Henry Raynel)

2,067 YEARS ‐ NOTHING LEARNED

Moreu, Nelson Mail (item supplied by Adrian Bayly)

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."

Cicero ,55 BC (Item supplied by David Tranter)

A PIG IN A POKE Key intends this new policy – a free share‐ reward for long‐term holders of the floated state‐energy companies – to make the unpopular floats less unpopular. It’s hard to resist the motif of lipstick on a pig.

Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 4/8/12

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Guardian Political Review, Issue 62, Page 27

Beyond greed

From cover of 'Return of the Aeons' (reviewed in this issue)

Democrats for Social Credit We stand for social, economic and environmental justice.

At the heart of out vision for New Zealand is a fundamental reform of the money system.

We offer policies to strengthen communities, reward enterprise & safeguard the environment.

www.democrats.org.nz