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Dan Maiullo's avatar

Very good overview. But it wasn't Nixon in 1971 that caused this. You need to go back to the creation of the Fed in 1913, which was modeled on the Bank of England, 1694, which was modeled on the Bank of Amsterdam (tulip mania, anyone?) by William of Orange. The science of fiat money, and the theft that is inherent in fiat money, has been finely tuned over centuries of plunder by criminal cartels that we call "banks". We need not only to outlaw fiat currency, but also the practice of fractional reserve lending, which, since 2020, has become no reserve lending.

Here's a brief economics lesson: If you want to borrow my car (maybe a 1973 Pinto), I have to actually have a physical car to lend you. But let's say you want to borrow money from me to buy your own 1973 Pinto. I would need to have actual money, in the form of cash or bank deposits, to lend you. But let's say you go to a bank to borrow money. The bank does not need to have any actual money to lend you. The bank can just create the money out of thin air, and with a few computer clicks, you now have "money" in your account which you can use to buy the coveted Pinto. After you buy the Pinto, you then need to pay back to the bank the money that was created out of nothing plus interest. Imagine the power that you would have if you were a bank (I mean, bankster)!

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Vincent Vaiano's avatar

Excellent. Have you read G. Edward Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island explaining & sharing the details of how the Fed was created & how the Fed is NOT a part of the US gov't, but made to look as if it is? Also included was the 60 year plan to get off the Gold Standard and exactly what that means in terms of what you just explained. Mind boggling.

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

Yes. I'm a big fan of Griffin. Another good book to read is the Tower of Basel, the history of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Both before and during WWII, the BIS, operating out of Basel, Switzerland, helped to finance the Nazi war machine. The president of the BIS at the time was an American.

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Vincent Vaiano's avatar

When I originally tried to find this book online in 2001, it wsa censored. It took a bit of searching over a number of days to find it. That's how I knew it contained something good. I have not read The Tower of Basel, but it is on my list to read. TY for sharing.

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Guess Who's avatar

"That book is highly dangerous for it completely misrepresents the facts and fails to understand that elastic money began in the 1850s and was created privately by clearing houses. It worked perfectly fine and it was not economically disastrous but BENEFICIAL!"

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/central-banks/the-creature-from-jekyll-island-unprofessional-book/

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

To say that a book is "highly dangerous" is a transparent scare tactic and contrary to the spirit of free expression and open debate. Elastic money did indeed begin long before the Fed, but it did not work perfectly fine, except for the banksters. Elastic money is fundamentally fraudulent. It is a mechanism of surreptitious theft. It allows the parasitic banksters to suck the value out of people's productive efforts. It is essentially legalized counterfeiting.

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Vincent Vaiano's avatar

This guy was raised and groomed by the same entities who we commonly called "the globalists, the Bilderberg Group, the Illuminati, the Counsel on Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum, etc". Don't pay him any mind.

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Castigator's avatar

Armstrong does have some interesting points, e. g.: "It was not that the Fed was evil, it was that the Fed was usurped by Congress during World War I and directed to buy only the paper of the government. It was that aspect that has altered the role of the central bank and is demonstrated why the ECB in Europe now own 40% of all government debt and they cannot stop without creating a crisis."

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Vincent Vaiano's avatar

TY for sharing that 🙏

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

My guess is that Guess Who is a troll.

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Jessica Rose's avatar

thanks!

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Guess Who's avatar

"Fractional banking absolutely does NOT create money out of thin air. If you deposit $100 and leave that in a savings account, the bank is paying you interest and it lends 90% of that money to another person. It is not that they are really printing money out of thin air for that would mean it does not need a deposit to begin with. That is just a gross misrepresentation. The money on deposit is LEVERAGED but not created without some monetary base."

The rest can be read here: https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/fractional-banking-myth-giro-banking/

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

Your description of how banks lend money is not actually correct, although it is the understanding of most people. Get this publication from the Chicago Fed. It describes in detail how money is created through the issuance of debt. https://www.fclpo.org/modern-money-mechanics-pdf-download/

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Guess Who's avatar

I mentioned fractional banking as commercial banks use. You bring in the central bank which create elastic money through, indeed, issuing debt (bonds). Two different topics.

More info on how it functions:

https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/banks-do-not-create-money-out-thin-air

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

You are correct in saying that they are two different topics. But the commercial banks (retail banks) also create "money" through the issuance of debt.

Even after editing your comment your English grammar is still faulty. I will upgrade my guess to say that you are not just a troll, but a Chinese troll. Maybe even an AI bot Chinese troll. In any case, you continue to make inaccurate and misleading statements. This latest mix of truth and lies is classic. Banks DO create money out of thin air; they have been doing it for centuries. It is why they own everything. It is why you will own nothing and be happy.

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Dan Maiullo's avatar

In 2020 the Fed reduced reserve requirements to zero. So, yes, in effect, the banks can now create money out of thin air.

"In light of the shift to an ample reserves regime, the Board has reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective on March 26, the beginning of the next reserve maintenance period. This action eliminates reserve requirements for thousands of depository institutions and will help to support lending to households and businesses."

https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200315b.htm

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Sumotoad's avatar

And don’t forget to get Firestone Radial 500’s for the Pinto!

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Guess Who's avatar

Fun fact.: The Pinto above has a Dutch license plate.

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Sy's avatar

Surely you jest. LOL!

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Unapologetically Me's avatar

That's what I thought too... 😀

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Anne Grimm's avatar

My eyes glaze over when talk turns to economy. It's over my head. How the world is run and the grift and corruption is a learning curve. I am astounded, not astounded at how much of it happens. Blackrock is awful. Apparently they have had their hands in a lot of this woke nonsense too. Making sure boxes are checked. Centralized banking is worrisome. Do we really want to be having social credit scoring. Of course debanking is already happening. It's all out of our control. Many young people have probably never seen cash. God I feel old at 62. "back in MY time when this is what I could get with a quarter" I live in financial poverty so I'm not sure it can get worse for me. Sorry for rambling. You sparked thoughts.

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Unapologetically Me's avatar

In my day? Oh the candy which this 7 year old could buy if I found an intact glass coke or 7-Up bottle on route to the corner store 6 blocks away.

I always volunteered to go buy some bananas for mum or... "Export A" smokes for my dad.

"Good times." 😉

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Frank Wolstencroft's avatar

Blackrock is not a bank, it is a financial corporation that invests other people's money in the stock market and makes a profit if the market goes up and a loss if the market goes down.

By the way Federal Reserve Notes, aka US dollars, are not a fiat currency, they are debt based, created by private banks ex nihilo every time they make a loan. As the principal of the loans are paid back to the bank, they are obliged to delete it back out of existence, but they get to keep the interest.

Member banks of the Federal Reserve are required to deposit 10% of their reserves with the privately owned Federal reserve bank on which they receive 10% per annum interest.

The Federal Reserve is the lender of last resort and can actually create digital money on their computer as required. The balance sheet of the Federal Reserve now has approximately $7 trillion on its balance sheet.

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AussieManDust's avatar

Now imagine that that emerald was an ounce of physical G.O.L.D. in your hand, the size of a pinky nail. So TINY! Yet currently valued at $3020 US Fiat (toiletxxxx) paper money... And banks get Bail-Outs, do you know what a Bail-In is? 🤔 That is when your bank takes your debt certificates (called gov't money,) off YOU to pay off Bank debt! And they say it is legal 🤷

Why are ALL BRICS Central Banks buying gold? UH ohhh...

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Dražen's avatar

They are buying gold because they are preparing for war. Governments default in times of war and if you hold their debt you end up with nothing.

Gold doesn't pay interest, but it's far better than nothing.

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Trevor's avatar

Would they flood the market with gold or silver? That may have been tried already with paper contracts.

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Sumotoad's avatar

JPMorgan does this whenever they want to play with the spot price. They hold an estimated 200 million ounces

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Rob V..'s avatar

considering that Blackrock manages our so called pensions (401K, IRA, RRSP (Canada)) and take our money to buy stock in their names and they own everything, why don't we just liquidate them and pay off the government debt. Your amethyst / wealth is an illusion and when the system collapses you are not too big to fail. Be your own central bank. Hold some wealth outside the banking system.

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AussieManDust's avatar

It is called Gold. AND Silver! The ratio is insane at prez (80-100:1), get some silver. 1 ounce = a days wages... or will 👏

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Klaus Hubbertz's avatar

BINGO !!! 👍👍👍

Silver is massively UNDER-valued !!!

High-time to jump in ...

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God Bless America's avatar

Bitcoin… watch the 4 year bear/bull year cycle… volatility is how you can make some money. It’s a learning curve also…

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Franklin O'Kanu's avatar

I think most people have that idea that that is how corporations operate, but after working for major corporations, I'd like to think there's more to the story here. For one, they have a LOT of power in influencing the affairs of the state. Ford was mentioned, but let's look at Carnegie and Rockefeller as well: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/donating-to-a-good-cause-how-billionaires

Two, once public (where you can buy stocks and invest), the corporation no longer has a duty to its customers. It has a duty to its shareholders. Essentially, it puts profits over people: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/profits-over-people

Love your comment on money and the crystals and this is where people lose the connection. Money is a representation of time -- the closest we have. There is some truth to the phrase "time is money."

In a world where corporations control our states and give the majority of citizens income, who is really in control here? And are we all simply "freed slaves" feeding the corporation: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-comfortable-cage-of-our-modern

Thanks for this post! Definitely can go alot of ways but gives readers something to think about.

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Michael J Setter's avatar

Money = energy, the power to do work. In economics, Energy is a commodity. Time is a dimension.

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Frank Wolstencroft's avatar

Time does not exist, it is always the moment of now. Albert Einstein conflated time with the velocity of light. Nikola Tesla thought he was a moron.

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Michael J Setter's avatar

Amusing enough 🙂

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Frank Wolstencroft's avatar

Clocks do not measure time, they merely mimic the daily rotation of the earth relative to the sun.

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Michael J Setter's avatar

Not quite amusing?

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Frank Wolstencroft's avatar

I am quite serious that time is a just product of the human mind to keep track of entropy and events. It is not an entity that actually exists, but it is also useful to measure the rate of change of distances between objects moving relative to one another in space.

Consider also the following: photons have mass, otherwise they could not be deflected by gravitational fields. This also agrees with the idea that black holes at the center of galaxies are concentrations of suns, whose collective gravitational fields prevent the escape of photons.

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Dan...'s avatar

The only way to ensure long-term economic stability and full product liability (= strategic security of the state) is to bind each company with ONE named individual. Old school sole proprietorship. No empty supervisory boards, no indemnified boards of directors, no loyal legal departments.

No stock or share trading. ALL companies in the world originated from this model. None of them needed to empty your pockets (aka stock issues) to inflate their “value” and be quoted in stock exchanges, effectively departing from their core activity into the realm of vapourware cashflow business.

Imagine how wealthy the whole world would be if big conglomerates were split into sole-owner companies. Sure, some more paperwork would be needed - in the age of computers, a breeze. Sure, legislation would have to be adapted - not a problem, these regulations already exist, the only thing needed is to scratch “corporate companies” out from the law.

Strangely enough, high-income healthcare workers (specialists in their fields employed in hospitals, their directors) have always appreciated this model much more than a regular employment contract... Same with all cash-loaded industries...

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Michael J Setter's avatar

Jessica your instincts are right on the money (oops) but you are indeed a beginner at the economics game (no praise, no blame - you are a superstar at other stuff). First things first. The Fed does not print money. It lends money to banks which then lend to customers based on the fractional reserve system - i.e. the banks are not required to actually own the money they lend, only a small fraction of it. These partially backed loans create new money literally at the push of a button. For a great background film on the FED and fractional reserve lending see my friend Bill Still's award winning documentary called "The Secret of OZ" - it is a real eye opener and window into how things really work. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI (turn off subtitles unless you speak Swedish). Bill is a former libertarian candidate for US President and a highly regarded and controversial political commentator.

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Jessica Rose's avatar

thank you Michael!

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John Day MD's avatar

Yes, Blackrock is the core globalist action-entity, and a member of the US Federal Government since September 2019 or so, when they were tasked with managing the "Going Direct Bailout", that largely went down during COVID lockdowns in the spring of 2020.

Blackrock is a good focus for watching the enemy, as good as any, and not too hard to watch.

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Terry silk's avatar

It’s all a pyramid scheme with us at the bottom of the pyramid

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arrotsevni's avatar

Good start but Bank of Am bought Merrill Lynch. This subject is a very important topic that most eyes glaze over as if being spoken to in a foreign language. With an unfortunate 40yrs+ of experience I can say confidently it is a hell-hole of psychopaths trying to one-up each other to climb to the top of the heap by deception, manipulation and sabotage of coworkers. Further, none have a clue to understanding finance or markets. You just saw that with Goldman Sachs declaring a recession and 73min later reversing that all based on a market correction. Net/net today Wall Street is Momentum driven, meaning that price trends dictate what they think. They have no underlying understanding of economics. This used to be different 40yrs ago, but what has emerged is a mindless Borg-mentality trying to sound relevant by using jargon few outsiders can understand. Larry Fink simply makes money by following and promoting social trends like DEI, ESG and then dictating than companies follow the cultural trend at the time. Blackrock does this by controlling the market indices and which companies get featured. They also get hefty fees for bringing companies public and then adding them to these indices by controlling the mix of companies in the particular index. Then they use something called Modern Portfolio Theory to recommend the mix to pensions and afterwards publish studies that chastise pensions and endowments for not following "scientific advice" when nothing about it is scientific. A major scam!!

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Jessica Rose's avatar

thank you for these clarifications!

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arrotsevni's avatar

The problem with Wall Street is that they forced out anyone whose work was based on fundamentals and went with price trends. The issue with fundamentals are that they can take a couple of years to emerge even with a very good management. Analysts or inv. bankers who don't produce results quickly enough are fired, deemed ineffective. What is left are hypers boosting prices with sensational stories for relatively quick trades while smaller investors are stuck in long-term poorly managed companies having missed 'the move'. Wall Street now creates ETF that focus on fast moving industries usually near the top of their storyline and then markets these to individuals while the institutions are selling. I believe Cramer helps to push this along with his "buy, buy, buy" whenever there is small dip to help institutional sellers. It is a vile work environment and very unfriendly to individuals. Very friendly to sociopaths who get promoted for performance.

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Drummermanpaul's avatar

Blackrock bought Merrill Lynch Investment Management (MLIM) in 2006. MLIM had been created back in 1997 when ML bought a British investment manager, Mercury Asset Management (MAM), in 1997, and rebranded it (to MLIM). MAM had previously been a division of the merchant bank SG Warburg (SGW) and had become fully independent from SGW a couple of years before. In its day, MAM was the leading British asset manager (both in terms of assets under management and reputation).

Your comments about Blackrock using MPT are true, but I would disagree with you painting this as a scam. MPT is a quantitative method of managing money (so, data and model driven, rather than stock picking). There are many opinions about MPT and, like many of these things, there are supporters and detractors. The entry in Wikipedia for MPT is worth reading (I am not in the habit of recommending Wikipedia, but in this case I think it is detailed and balanced).

Blackrock always had an angle as a quant investor - Aladdin started life as their own investment platform, which they commercialised, i.e. made it non-Blackrock specific - and from which they built first a risk measurement and management system (known, I think, as the 'Green Package'), which they sold to a wide range of investors; and then a fully-integrated suite of investment management tools which they sold as an outsourcing solution to other managers.

They really took on quant techniques when they bought Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in 2009. BGI were all quant (managing something like $2 trillion when acquired). They had a huge index management business and a growing suite of active products. They also created iShares, in 1999/2000, which many people will have heard of ...

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arrotsevni's avatar

BAC acquired ML in 2009 https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/case-studies/bank-of-americas-takeover-of-merrill-lynch/

MPT is a statistical approach to investment using price history. It is a scam from a fundamentalist perspective, fundamental economics, business return valuations are ignored. Quant analysis is a subset of MPT. All of Personal Financial Planning is based on MPT. Basically, the math reflects observations that smaller grows faster and has greater volatility. Ignoring fundamentals, Emerging Markets(EEM) are recommended at a mix of 40% position today. The problem is while they have volatility that can be traded bey MPT, the long-term growth since 2009 has been less than 1% annually. EEM is comprised of mostly non-democracies without free speech or property protections i.e., China, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela and etc. Fundamentals lay the dismal performance to governance which MPT ignores.

The world changes if one looks deep enough to what produces business returns which in turn produce investment returns over time. Management needs to be competent in meeting customer needs and the governance of the country in which the HQ resides are key.

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AlexC's avatar

I would argue that amethysts don't really have much inherent value either, they're made out of one of the most abundant elements on the planet and you can't eat them. Even if you take something scarce like gold, with some intrinsic value due to it's specific properties - most of it's value will still come just from how much people are willing to pay for it. If our economic system comes crashing all the way down, gold won't be worth much either. Bitcoin even less.

There's a big thing that people miss when it comes to the US dollar. The US is in a very uniquely privileged position where it can keep borrowing in its own currency. This creates a strong incentive to borrow as much as possible since the US can print dollars indefinitely and there's zero risk of default. Hard to say how this will play out in the long run but it won't be pretty.

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Star Ibis's avatar

This is why teaching shop and home economics was and still are important with the young. When a person has a trade that can produce a product he or she can trade or barter within their communities. This is how it was for thousands of years until coins came on the scene. Charles Eisenstein wrote a wonderful book called Sacred Economics. It is an excellent read. Unfortunately shop, home economics, and music ( except for band) were eliminated from most public schools in our country.

Another factor to remember is that in the late 80's the Supreme Court ruled that a corporation could be looked upon as an entity..which started the horrific lobbying within the Senate and Congress. This has turned into a catastrophic corrupted

situation. Even though a corporation is made up of humans, each one is different and votes differently. It was totally an unfair law motivated by money. This was a conservative court who voted for it, which was very disappointing. They should review and reverse it.

The human slavery system has existed for centuries upon centuries. Humans still have not learned to self govern. Always looking on the outside for directions and then becoming vulnerable to bad actors who use them. We want to trust that leadership will make the best decisions for the good of the whole. And in some places that still rings true, yet when the illusionary bling & glitter of a fanciful lifestyle is seen..poof, common sense disappears and people with deep holes in their pockets get themselves voted in to whatever office it is and creates a dam big mess. Will AI fix this? I doubt it. Another war may start as that is how bad actors cover their trails. This is what that Ukraine war is truly about. Europe has had a lot of bad actors for centuries. We should never have been involved in their wars. Ugh!

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Unapologetically Me's avatar

In Greece, bartering for nearly EVERYTHING (for EVERYONE) became the norm after their economy crashed.

The Greeks know how to survive.

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Brandon is not your bro's avatar

Baddies

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The BarefootHealer's avatar

😉🎯 Yeah but actually errand boys FOR the real baddies.😉

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Brandon is not your bro's avatar

😉… like George Carlin said .. “we ain’t in it “

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Jacqueline + Syra (echo)'s avatar

I screamed yes before getting past the title… okay going back to it now. lol

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Lisa Novakowski's avatar

I, agree. The whole thing is sinister.

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Paul Black's avatar

Check out David Rogers Webb and the Great Taking

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BAwls's avatar

Book is also available free:

https://thegreattaking.com/read-online-or-download

Excellent but do watch video first to understand where David Rogers Webb is coming from, what shaped him,, what drove him.. etc.

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Luc Lelievre's avatar

At 71, I still recall owning a Pinto Runabout back in the 1970s. Looking back, did I truly realize? Those were challenging times, yet we had a remarkable figure—Ralph Nader—someone we would now recognize as a true whistleblower.

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Steve's avatar

His last good idea was the seatbelt.

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Garry's avatar

That's a good money maker for the government

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Steve's avatar

They are a good idea.

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