I saw a report today that a company importing bananas has been fined over £7million because it was involved in a price-fixing cartel.

Such cartels are of course illegal, and are rightly punished by anti-trust authorities (in this case, the European Union). However, there is another, long-established cartel which operates quite freely and with the co-operation of the government with which is it partnered: the US Federal Reserve.

A little background on how the Fed came into being, for which I am indebted to G. Edward Griffin (The Creature from Jekyll Island, ISBN 978-0912986456).

The Fed is not, as many believe, a US government agency. It is no more 'Federal' than Federal Express! It came into being in 1910, at a highly-secret meeting between leading bankers at a place called Jekyll Island, Georgia. The banks were concerned because whenever there was a run on a bank, and people wanted their money but could not pay (a consequence of Fractional Reserve banking, a subject which is for another blog), the banks went bust. So several of these banks met up, in total secrecy, and got together and agreed to set up the cartel.

Now as I said before, cartels are illegal. The reason this one is not, is because they actually went into partnership with the US government and had their agreement passed into law by Congress. And so, by 1913, the Federal Reserve Act came into being. It was sold to the people as a way of actually protecting them against the large banks and their grip on the economy - but it was actually created by the same large banks!

So we have the situation whereby it is not the government who controls the money supply of the United States, it is the banks in a cosy cartel. Understand that and it begins to become clear why there is always a 'bailout' or 'stimulus package', whenever one of these banks gets into trouble. The cost is always placed on the taxpayer, i.e. the ordinary person, however.

Of course, whoever controls the supply of money is effectively in charge of the country, no matter who is elected as 'President'.

Back to our banana cartel: it was exposed because one company blew the whistle to the authorities. That's never going to happen with the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve though: it is in partnership with the government, therefore all parties are committed to the system.

Besides, if a fine was imposed, given what we know - who would pay? The taxpayer, of course!

Mr Griffin's book is still available and is recommended reading, but you can hear much of what he says at a speech he gave in 1994. This was several years before the crisis which is now upon us, and it was entirely predictable.

Put simply: There is a conspiracy against your money. It is better to be educated about the financial reality than not, and for more about this please either put in your details in the box to the right (on ronniesoo.com), or click this link:

The Conspiracy Against Your Money

Image: Keattikorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today confirmed that they would, as reported, print more money to 'inject into the economy'. The reports were that £50 billion of 'new money' would come into the system, but it will actually be £75 billion. £75 billion 'new' pounds created from thin air.

I found this explanatory video from the Bank of England themselves which purports to show how QE works. Before even watching it, on the popular video-sharing site it is hosted on, I noticed that comments had been disabled. Watching it, it soon became clear why. Here is the video:

For a start, the 2 percent inflation target they mention is further away than ever; it is currently 5 percent. Now I do not claim to be an economics expert, but a child can see that to print a stack of new banknotes (£75 billion in this case, remember) merely devalues the money already in circulation. The video claims that there is "not enough" money in circulation - which begs the question: what is that money backed by? If you think it's gold or silver - it isn't. The pound hasn't been on the gold standard since 1931. You cannot create gold or silver out of thin air, therefore you cannot print more money if it is backed by a finite amount of precious metal.

The pound, like most currencies, is a 'fiat currency'. That means it only has any value at all because the government says so. But what about the promise on the notes? It says and I quote:

"I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of - pounds", and it is signed by the Bank's chief cashier. That once meant that you could go and exchange your note for the banknote's value in sterling silver, but try that today and the chances are you would simply get another banknote.

A banknote is merely an IOU, and the law as it stands says you cannot pay a debt with another debt. However, because the government says that the note itself is legal tender, they get around this rather niggling inconvenience. That's why they can print all the banknotes they want, but if you or I decided to try that we'd be carted off to jail before you can say "economic collapse".

Therefore all banknotes are debt notes; what you think is your money is just debt.

So, when the Bank of England announces it is "injecting £75 billion into the economy", it has just saddled the whole country with another load of debt.

Slowly but surely, people are starting to wake up to what is a coming global crash. When I first attended a very eye-opening conference two years ago, that was when I first woke up to what was going on myself. The main question asked of attendees there was simply this: you can choose to be either financially educated or uneducated. The vast majority are uneducated; they have been deliberately kept in the dark about the dire situation, or their attention is diverted by television, celebrities, showbiz or even sport.

The point that was stressed to us was as follows: if you do not take action you have still made a choice - a choice not to be educated. When the crash comes I intend to be financially educated - what about you?

There is a Conspiracy Against Your Money - please click the link to access a vitally important documentary.