Most people are unaware that almost everything that is happening in the world is based on economics. Most wars are fought for economic reasons, not the reasons given to the public. If people understood economics, the reasons given to them for sending their sons off to war would not work.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve was established–a central bank in the United States. Thomas Jefferson, years before, had warned that “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

And yet, President Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and the Federal Reserve was born. The people now had the very central bank that Jefferson had warned us against. They deceived us by calling it “Federal” and it took some of us a long time to realize that it is not federal at all but is a cartel of private bankers who saw a chance to profit..

A few years later President Wilson wrote: I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most  completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a  Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.

Because we lacked an education in economic history, the wool was pulled right over our eyes. As a result, the United States dollar has lost 97%  of its purchasing power since 1913. Prior to that there was no real inflation except during war. Otherwise the currency was stable throughout U.S. history.

We were marketed to think that debt is good. Thereby, most of us ended up unwitting slaves to the bankers, going to work every day to pay the principal and interest for our house, our car, our furniture, our clothes, our boats, and whatever else for which we could be enticed to borrow money. Little did most of us realize, for many years, that the “money” we borrowed to buy those big houses never existed except as ink on the paper on which the contract was written. But we have had to pay back, with the sweat and blood of real labor, both principal and interest that cost the banker nothing.

If you are unaware of these facts, we suggest that you read, The Creature from Jekyll Island – A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin, available at Amazon.  Or you can read it for free or download in PDF HERE. Or if you like audio better, you can hear a very interesting address on this subject by the author by clicking HERE.

The big bankers had made several previous attempts to get control of the money in the U.S.  Abraham Lincoln fought the cartel in his lifetime and some think he was murdered over his opposition to establishing a central bank. Attempts were made on the life of President Andrew Jackson. In one case the thing that saved him was that the assassin’s pistol misfired. Jackson made the statement that the bank was trying to kill him, but that he would kill the bank. And when asked what he believed to be his greatest accomplishment as President he replied, “I killed the bank.” He did, in fact, protect the American people at that time from the establishment of a central bank.

Other presidents opposed a central bank. But the further we got from the admonitions of the founders, the more faint became those warnings in our heads. Somewhere along the way we lost touch with our heritage and the cartel of bankers gained the power that they had long sought. Little did we realize what this would mean.

Not only do our schools give us no economic education–we believe this is by design–they are all about grooming us to work, not for ourselves, but for a corporation. When the teenage son of this writer was nearing graduation from high school, we took him to the local college counselor to ask about tests that would suggest occupations for him to consider. The counselor asked him, “What do you want to do?” He said without hesitation, “I want to be an entrepreneur.” To which she replied, “Then we can’t help you. College  prepares you to work for a corporation, not for yourself.”

And that’s the truth.

Here at FFJ we think that the freest individual is the entrepreneur. Even the tax laws are written to benefit him. This is why you hear of huge corporations paying little to no tax. Robert Kiyosaki. real estate mogul, claims to pay no taxes at all though he is wealthy beyond the imagination of most of us. In fact, Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad is an excellent introduction to basic entrepreneurial economics in very readable form, though I would not want to stop there. We make sure the young people in our family who show any interest in economics at all (and sometimes even some that do not) have a copy of this book. Even teenagers can understand it. Also, if you are home schooling, it is a good introduction to helping your son or daughter–or grandchild or niece or nephew–get an early start with a small business as part of their curriculum. You can buy Rich Dad Poor Dad HERE. Almost everything in their education and culture will encourage them to look for some corporation to give them a job.  But we have noticed that you can set an entrepreneur down almost anywhere and he will see a way to make income. He has a lot more independence. But seeing opportunity is often a developed skill and it can take time and practice to be able to see it. So we suggest to start them young with more independent and innovative thinking.

However, we think there are many courses offered by universities that can benefit everyone—accounting is one example. Even a homemaker managing money for the household can benefit from training in accounting. This is not to rule out university education if it will get you to your goal. But even if we take that route, we need a good economic education, and there is only one way to get that—on your own.

The point is that our entire culture is slanted toward making us slaves of the bankers, the corporations, the medical industry through our poor health practices and consumption of chemical-laden packaged products that result  in our need for prescriptions and surgery. There is a reason that the cancer rate has gone from 1 in 30 in the last century to 1 in 2 today. The cancer industry is a profitable one.

The good news is that in all these things we can take charge of our lives and make the  judgments and take action that will be to our benefit and that of our families rather than to these cartels. But in order to do that we need knowledge that is based in reality rather than marketing.

In the first personal finance course I ever took I sat amazed to learn that the average American at that time was paying $3,000 a year in interest alone to the banks. And that was 20 years ago! There is good debt and there is bad debt. Good debt is debt to buy an asset that will pay its own interest and put money in your pocket. Debt to expand a business or to buy rental property are both examples of good debt (if done with prudence). Bad debt is debt that we undertake to be consumers.

Also, when we have knowledge about how things really work, it becomes a lot harder to deceive us–economically and politically–since politics is joined to economics. We have already suggested one book to explain the banking system and another as an introduction to operating a business. The classic economics book of all time is An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith, which is now free on the internet, in both text format and audiobook form, whichever you prefer. We own it in hard copy as well.  There is another book that we think you will find interesting. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley.  It is a bit dated, but the information is still just as good. You can listen to it in audio book at YOU TUBE click HERE.

Arlean Kelley
info@fourflagsjournal.com