On May 21, 2004, a symposium organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace took place in Rome, with the theme “The Social and Economic Development of Africa in the Era of Globalization”. Here is the speech given on that occasion by Bernard Cardinal Agré, Archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace:

Your Eminence Cardinal Martino, President of the Council, ladies and gentlemen,

Developing Africa, the forgotten continent, a continent saturated with bad news as they say, constitutes a problem of rare complexity. And yet, the natural resources are not lacking: abundant products from the earth and from under the earth, the presence of an intellectual elite, and a noticeable economy...

This elite comes from universities and local high schools, and also from universities and important schools from the West. Many of its members won fame in Europe and America through their abilities and creativity.

These skilled and motivated Africans are ready, very often, to undertake developments in Africa. But, besides marketing problems that often act as a brake on their spirits because of very strong foreign competition, aggravated by the sacrosanct laws of globalization, these African developers usually come up against a banking system that constitutes an impassable barrier. It is customary to accuse the Africans of bad financial management, but there are, as in every continent, encouraging exceptions. Today, in Africa, there are good administrators, good entrepreneurs. However, how can they have access to credits, which are, everywhere in the world, an important lever of entrepreneurship and development? Banks are generally based in Europe, and are primarily at the service of these nations. Even when African entrepreneurs present trustworthy projects to the branches of these banks in our countries, they can still meet with polite or categorical refusal because of priority national interests.

One must also notice that the interest rates in force in Ivory Coast, for instance — to use the example of a country that I know well — are very high. Capital is never loaned below a rate of 17 or 20%. Who can cope with such rates, which cause the principal to double every five years? To force people to borrow credit in such conditions is not at all encouraging. One must also note that most often, banks take no risk at all, for before lending money, they demand such guarantees that cover the capital borrowed. This system must be reviewed and corrected if one wants to give good people the chance of transforming on the spot, in our own country, raw materials that we pride ourselves of being the first or second producers in the world, and give them an increase in value. Africa seems tired of being only a producer of raw materials.

I invite all those who can contribute to bring to this state of affairs a more humane and profitable solution, to give one another a helping hand, to help Africa take charge of itself.

When one talks about Africa, it would be a good thing to go beyond ideological talks, and move to concrete commitments. Talks keep the Africans in underdevelopment, and even make them downgrade. Real commitments free them and make them true partners. This way, western nations and Africa will no longer have the relationship of a horse and a rider — Africa always being the horse — but relationships of mutual respect and effective friendship. Thank you.

This article was published in the May-June-July, 2004 issue of “Michael”.

Africa needs you to explain the true and christian way to organize human life.

How to apply Social Credit locally

A simple system to exchange goods and services
How you can open a local debt-free bank
with the use of simple cards

The following is a lecture given by Mr. François de Siebenthal — an economist and Consul General of the Philippines in Switzerland — at our headquarters in Rougemont, Quebec, Canada, on March 2005. Mr. de Siebenthal demonstrated to those present how easy it is to open a local bank with just the use of simple cards. Mr. de Siebenthal has gone to several countries to explain this system to various interested audiences. In fact, Social Credit is no longer only a theory, but is put into practice in these countries, with local debt-free banks multiplying.

In an age where the use of the microchip is becoming a real threat, this is certainly a way in which one could exchange goods and services without having to bow down to the use of this microchip. Why not read and study what Mr. de Siebenthal has on this subject. It could prove to be very useful in the future!

A simple bank

I will now just to teach you how to open a local bank using Social Credit principles. It is very easy to do and everyone can do it.

Already in past history, small, local banks in Switzerland were established by farmers. The banker is a farmer, the bank is in a farm house, the customers are farmers, and the owners of the bank were and are farmers. These little banks, put together in Switzerland, make up the third largest Swiss bank actually in operation with the best ratio and the best management because the costs are very low. Since the banks are very small and in small houses, and because you do not need big armoured cars and security personal, these banks are very efficient. These little banks can also be found in Austria and some other countries.

The tragedy of debt money

You know that money is created in the form of debts with interest rates, and you know that the theory of Social Credit is true, and that interest kills. The statistics of the International Labor Organization in Geneva state that every day you have 5,000 people dying in work places. That makes more every day than the people who died in the Twin Towers. Every day! That means that because of capitalism and because of exaggeration in productivity, you have every day 5,000 people dying on the work place. And I do not count all the stress, all the psychological problems, suicides, alcoholism, drugs, children at home without the parents because the father and the mother are both working .

Now, with our system, you can imagine that a system without interest rates will save a lot of money. It will save at least three hours every day for each one of you, it will cut the prices by half, and it will give the houses 77% more space because the interest rates are taking a lot of productivity in the whole world.

So now I am teaching you how to found a bank. ...Where to start

How do we make such a bank in a country? What we did first was to listen to the people. What are their real needs? What are the real needs in Madagascar? What are the needs, the real needs, the basic needs just to survive, because in most of those countries the people do not have enough just to live. Then, after listening to them, we also learn the mentality of these people. We have to adapt to the culture and the local mentality.

Social Credit is the answer to the real needs, the basic needs of these poor countries. After having listened to the people, we tell them that we have something that can help them. It is not a magic wand that will give them paradise on earth, but it is a system that will guarantee each individual an access to the basic necessities of life and allow the poorest countries to make use of their resources to help their own population .

The main thing is to look for the Kingdom of Christ and His justice: "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides." (Matthew 6:33.) This is really what we are doing here with this local exchange system; we are dealing with justice, the justice of God. Work for justice, and everything else will follow!

A Christian coin

At this point of my talk, I would like to show the 5-franc coin that is currently in circulation in Switzerland. (See picture above. ) On one side, one can see the Swiss cross, which represents the Kingdom of Christ, and on the other side, social justice is represented by William Tell, the Swiss national hero and liberator of the poor and of the oppressed. On the edge, one can read these Latin words: " Dominus providebit — God will provide", which specifically refers to the verse of the Gospel of Matthew mentioned above.

In all our meetings to organize local debt-free banks, we need to remind people that God does provide, that He is indeed very generous. In the Philippines, for example, they can raise three crops of corn. If you take one seed of corn, this seed will give you three stalks which will give you around 200 seeds. So if one gives you 200, then ten gives you 2,000; one hundred then gives you 20,000. Three crops per year (20,000 X 3) yields 60,000%. And the banker will probably give you 6%. This means that God is indeed generous.

There are fish in the sea you can fish. With the earth, you can till, and the earth is very generous. You know that the earth could feed many times the world's population. It is not a problem of food but a problem of distribution. Then it is important to remember how the earth is generous and that there is enough room for everybody on this earth.

In Switzerland, as I told you, this system of small banks is working. There is also another system in place: a parallel money called "wir", the German noun signifying "we" in English. This involves a notion of community. This money has bee in existence since the 1933, created during the crisis, and it is working very well. It is parallel money. Few know about this money. Switzerland, the poorest country in the world as far as natural resources are concerned, is one of the richest countries in the world because of its organization of small banks and this kind of parallel money.

Usury is condemned by the Church

You know too that the Church, the Catholic Church, has always condemned the charging of interest on the loan of money, calling it usury. As a matter of fact, the social doctrine of the Church, which supplies principles of justice to be applied in human activities, is probably, amongst all the teachings of the Church, the part that is the least known. And the least known part of this social doctrine, the best kept secret, is certainly the encyclical letter Vix Pervenit, issued in 1745 by Pope Benedict XIV, and addressed to the Bishops of Italy, about contracts, and in which usury, or money-lending at interest, is clearly condemned. In 1836, Pope Gregory XVI extended this encyclical to the whole Church. The text of this encyclical was destroyed in many countries of the world just to hide this most well-kept secret of the social doctrine of the Church. It states:

"The kind of sin called usury, which lies in the loan, consists in the fact that someone, using as an excuse the loan itself — which by nature requires one to give back only as much as one has received — demands to receive more than is due to him, and consequently maintains that, besides the capital, a profit is due to him, because of the loan itself. It is for this reason that any profit of this kind that exceeds the capital is illicit and usurious.

"And in order not to bring upon oneself this infamous note, it would be useless to say that this profit is not excessive but moderate; that it is not large, but small... For the object of the law of lending is necessarily the equality between what is lent and what is given back... Consequently, if someone receives more than he lent, he is bound in commutative justice to restitution..."

What you need to start a bank

The following system will therefore allow any community or village to make financially possible what is physically possible in that community, that is to say, to create as much money as they need to exchange goods and services. Just like in the tale of "The Money Myth", you can first use a blackboard and a chalk to explain the system to the people gathered in front of you, who wish to be part of this local bank and exchange system.

Then you distribute to each member of the community a small card, which will be their bank account. (See Figure 1, a blank card.) You can use any bookkeeping card, small enough so it can be put in your pocket, in your purse. This will be the money and, at the same time, the way to create local money without interest. It is very important to state: without interest!

Figure 1 — Blank card

You distribute pens in the poor countries because, many times, they do not even have pens, and you write on the card the basic personal information: your name, your address, your card number (which is the same as your bank account number), your birth date and signature. The signature proves that you are the owner of this card; even if you lose it, nobody else can use it, for as you will see later, your signature is required on the cards — yours and that of the person with whom you are exchanging goods or services — every time you make a transaction.

If they are very poor and illiterate, you can use a piece of tissue with small threads (one for every person of the local community) across small squares drawned on the fabric, representing the names or the professions, threads with same length on each side of the tissue, under are the outs, above are the plusses of money, and they measure the money and keep a trace with a knot on each rope, one above for the seller, one under for the buyer. You can measure with a ruler or the thumb, and you define together the value of the space between the knots. The first plus is the dividend represented by a knot above and equal for each one, since conception.

To be even simplier, you can just put a thread across and in the middle of the debit/credit card for the illiterate, they will do knots according to the value negotiated of their needs ans as soon they have a friend litterate, he will report on the card. To know your credit, you just need to put both end of the thread together and you will see if the knots of the pluses are above or under the knots of tne minuses.

The first thing to do after these cards are distributed is to give numbers to the people. That means that everyone that is in the room should be allocated a number, one after the other. The first row can have the number 1, 2, 3, and so on. Everyone says the next number in sequence and everyone writes his number on his card. One person in charge of the ledger for the community writes all the names in the ledger with the corresponding account number. This will be your bank account number. It is like a football team — you give a number to everyone, and this number matches the name on the card.

Depending of the level of development in the community, you can add your phone number and e-mail address, if applicable. You can also mention your trade (present occupation) and other jobs you could do or services you could offer. This information can be used if one wants to create a catalogue of all the goods and services offered in the community. On the back of the card, there is the address and phone number of the local bank.

Now, in the other columns, you have the date, the reason of the transaction, a column to show the money you spend (money out of your account), the account number and signature of the person with whom you are transacting, and a column for the money coming in to you. You can see that this is very simple .

An illustration

Figure 2 — Tom Smith's card

Now to understand better how it works, we have an example you can look at. (Figure 2, Tom Smith's card.) The first amount written down on your card will be an effective implementation of Social Credit: a social dividend, given periodically (once a month) to every member of the community, representing their common heritage in the wealth of the community (progress, life in society, natural resources). This amount is to be determined by the community, and must cover the basic necessities of life. So, on the first line, you see a date, the reason (a dividend), nothing in the money-out column (you draw a line; it is money that you receive, not money that you spend), the number and signature of the person giving you that money (in this case, the signature of the local bank or its director, and for the sake of the example, the number "0" was allocated to the bank.) And on the last column, money in, $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­100 is inscribed. The bank has given you a dividend of $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­100. This transaction has also been inscribed in the ledger of the bank .

Now on the second line, let us suppose that Tom Smith wants to buy from Paul Jones 50 kilos of apples, for a cost of $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­50. So you have the date of the transaction, the reason (purchase of apples), the amount you spent ($­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­50), the number and signature of Paul Jones who sold you the apples (Paul Jones, for the sake of this example, was allocated account number 2.) Paul Jones signs his name on your card, and you sign your name on his card.

Figure 3 — Paul Jones' card

Every transaction always involves two cards, therefore two signatures. So, a purchase for you on your card, will be a sale for the other person involved in the transaction on the other card. If you look at Paul Jones' card (Figure 3), the reason of the transaction will be "sale of 50 kilos of apples"), and the $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­50 will be written in the column of the money-in, not the money-out. And Tom Smith's signature will appear at the end of the line.

Now, let us suppose Paul Jones has a chair that needs to be fixed. He knows that Tom Smith is a carpenter. He goes to see him, and Tom Smith agrees to do the job for $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­10. So you will have on both cards the reason of the transaction (chair fixed), with the amount ($­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­10) written on each card — as money that comes in, on one card, and money that comes out, on the other. And the examples could go on and on.

This system is presented to the people for the first time during the meeting for the foundation of the local bank. The best thing for you now is to train yourself with such a card. When the cards are distributed, you put your name on the card — you do not need to put all the other details. And you make transactions with your neighbours. You buy and you sell. And you will see that you have now in your hand the same money-creation system that the banks have; they do the same in computers and ledger books in accounts in banks, but it is without interest that you do your transactions.

Now train yourself for a while with your neighbours on how to create local money. This period is very important, and you will need to give at least 15 minutes for this training period, until everyone in the room has understood. It is very important! In the Philippines, the young people went to the old people to teach them, some of them not even being able to read or write. But they were able to understand the system because it is only figures. Even if they do not know how to write letters, they know how to write numbers.

You have a contract every time you create money. You have, at the same time, the proof of a contract, a commitment with the signature, and the number to double check the signature.

You are in control

And you control the system. Money creation is under your control and under that of your local community. You know each other and you can create as much money as it is necessary for your needs. So what is physically possible is now financially possible. Your community will never lack money .

This system you have now used is the same system that the banks use to create money, but you control it! And you control it without interest! It is very cheap. It is efficient. You can create any amount of money according to the available production and services. You can exchange any number or kind of goods and services. And you are in control. You own the money-creation system.

And it is even more efficient than the actual system because it costs a lot to print bank notes. Just one line of printing machines with special ink, special paper, etc. costs $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­100,000,000 US, and you save this amount with this system. And it is even better than a bank note because you have your name on it. If you lose your card, someone will phone you telling you he found your money. And this person who finds your money can do nothing with your money because your signature is needed. It is really your money.

You cannot dispossess someone who has lost his money. If the money (the card) is destroyed by fire or other means, you can reconstruct a card using information from other cards. All cards are consolidated in the local bank ledger. This means that if your bank card is destroyed, you can reconstruct your bank card with the accounts of the others because the other cards have your card number for every operation they did with you. You can rebuild your accounting books and reclaim your assets; an even better method than the actual system with bank notes. And you have, naturally, no interest. This means every transaction will be cheaper in the community because, today, interest rates kill people .

To own a bank

In my presentation to start a new bank, I say to the audience: "So, do you want to be the owner of a bank? Yes? Who does not want to be the owner of a local bank? I assume that everyone wants to be the owner of a bank. You can be the owner of a bank, like we did in the Philippines, Madagascar, Switzerland, and Poland. But to be the owner of a bank, this bank needs to have a management. This banks needs to have auditors. Then we now need to have people who are willing and ready to act as managers, and willing and ready to act as auditors. So now I ask you, who will volunteer to act as managers of the bank and auditors of the bank? I need at least three managers (a director, a secretary, and a treasurer) and two auditors (who verify once in a while the bookkeeping of the bank). Now, th ose who are willing to be and to act as the management of this local bank owned by the local community, please come in front of the room."

It was very interesting to see how many people were willing to act and to take the responsibility of running the bank. In Poland, we had so many people who came on the stage, it was just unbelievable. In the Philippines, too, a lot of people were volunteering to come in front to fill these positions. So be sure you have seats in front of the general assembly so the new managers and auditors will be able to sit down. It is the community that chooses the people who will be on the board of the bank, people they can trust and who have enough skills to do the job.

In Madagascar, we established a bank in one of the poorest villages in the country, and now we are receiving great reports signed by the management of the bank. They understood, and they took the responsibility of their new bank very seriously.

To be the bank manager of the local bank is very easy: your only task is to be in charge of the bank ledger. There is no need for a safe, bullet-proof windows, armoured trucks nor armed bodyguards to carry the money, etc. The only thing you have to keep in your house is the bank ledger.

The prices

Now, at this stage, you have the general management, you have the auditors, and you have the general assembly. It is now important to put in writing equitable prices for basic goods and services of the area. This is to be decided by the general assembly. It is also extremely important to put in writing how the profits will be divided within the community, because this bank can create money as any other bank and will create money to allocate investments for the production of goods. Thus the people, when they have a lot of pluses (money in) on their cards, can invest those pluses in projects, and those projects will give more abundant production. So it must be put in writing how the profits of this abundance will be distributed. This way, the people will be more eager to share.

In the Philippines, for example, a rice producer who understood very well the system signed a contract to share 70% of the profits from his rice production with the general assembly, keeping only 30% of the profits for himself. It was really astonishing for me to see this generosity. A priest explained to me that when there is no interest charged, when there is no usury, the producers are very happy because, in those countries, usury can climb up to 1,000% per year. That makes 20% a week. And because we now have a local banking system without usury, without interest rates, everybody is happy, and everybody can share more. Now all this money will not go to the usurer who was doing nothing except taking 1,000% per year .

A system that works

This system reminds us of the parable of the dishonest steward. You remember in the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 16) the parable of the dishonest steward saying to his master's debtors: "Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write half the sum that you owe to my master." The only difference is that with our local debt-free banks, everything is done honestly. And it is working! In fact, it is working so well in the Philippines that we have now more than 15 local banks ( as of March 2005). And some mass-media people and some people saying they are from the government (from population control agencies) are now already attacking this system. That makes a lot of advertising, a lot of publicity. In fact, those attacks can be good for spreading the system because now everybody is talking about it.

It is the love of money that is the root of all evil, and with this system, there is less the notion of money being in your pocket. This way, you love your money less because it is really just a means to facilitate exchanges. You can exchange any goods, any services. You cannot as easily love a paper which is really just your handwriting and the signatures of the others. It is not as easy to love this piece of paper as bullion of gold or coins or bank notes. It is really a way to avoid this love of money which is the root of all evil s.

A ruler to create money

This card, this system also gives you the ruler to create money. Just as you have a ruler to measure meters or feet, you have a ruler now to create the money necessary for local community life. With this system, you can allocate money for the basic needs of the poorest. The dividend has to be accepted by the general assembly. Normally we recommend giving a dividend at least equal to the amount necessary to cover the basic needs for the life of the poorest, the sick, the old people present.

And it is now working. For example, in the Philippines they have chosen a dividend with the value of $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­100 US. And the local economic system has a boom now because there is enough money in the system.

It is essential to socially define the restoring's periodicals (7 periods) of the economic meters, as asked in Leviticus 25 and thus to repair the error of Charlemagne of March 23, 789 which condemned the interest rate for 1 ' 000 years, but which forgot the questioning of properties, at least every 50 years...

Jubilee rules against odious debts...Lev. 25, the Bible

Spread the news

We are looking for people to go all over the world to spread this good news. This good news makes the poorer richer. This also makes local development possible. This too allows the poor to have as much money as they need for the physical needs of the local community. It is really a tool for liberation .

Naturally, in this process, you need to pray, so we always ask the people to pray together before each meeting. And because of the prayers of the Rosary, because of all the prayers of all the Social Credit ers since the foundation of the Movement, it is really giving a lot of fruit.

We need to work fast. For example: in the Philippines, the development is fast because one local bank alone is a plus, but if this bank is alone, it is not enough. You need to spread on a regional level around a city, for example. This way you can exchange all the goods, the food, services; you can exchange everything necessary for the basic needs of life. And it is now happening in the Philippines that the development is going as fast as possible. We are really astonished that they have understood so well with just one month's teaching. They already opened more banks than we did when we were there. Now we really need people to travel all over the world to spread this idea to others.

François de Siebenthal

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Quotation Sources
in order of appearance in the movie, Money as Debt

'Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.'

-- Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913)

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14811

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson

"Each and every time a bank makes a loan (or purchases securities), new bank credit is created — new deposits — brand new money."

Graham F. Towers, Director, Bank of Canada

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/bios/tower.html

http://www.michaeljournal.org/appenE.htm

"The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled."

John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist

http://www.johnkennethgalbraith.com/index.php?page=homepage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_kenneth_galbraith.html

http://aurora.icaap.org/talks/galbraith.htm

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws."

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, International Banker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Rothschilds

http://www.everything2.com /index.pl?node=ridiculous

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mayeramsch170274.html

"I am afraid that the ordinary citizen
will not like to be told that banks
can and do create money
...And they who control
the credit of the nation
direct the policy of Governments
and hold in the hollow of their hands
the destiny of the people"

Reginald McKenna,
past Chairman of the Board, Midlands Bank of England

http://www.answers.com/topic/reginald-mckenna

"Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess."

Irving Fisher, economist and author

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Fisher.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_1_64/ai_n13798782

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/fisher.htm

"That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any money."

Marriner S. Eccles, Chairman and Governor of the Federal Reserve Board

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriner_Stoddard_Eccles

http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/99-06/martin.cfm

"Everyone sub-consciously knows banks do not lend money. When you draw on your savings account, the bank doesn't tell you you can't do this because it has lent the money to somebody else."

Mark Mansfield

http://dkd.net/davekidd/politics/manmoney.html

"If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash, or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless situation is almost incredible -- but there it is."

Robert Hemphill. Credit Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

http://www.federal-reserve.net/healthemoneysystem.htm

http://www.worldnewsstand.net/today/articles/fedprivatelyowned.htm

http://www.the7thfire.com/SR/mandrake_mechanism.htm

"One thing to realize about our fractional reserve banking system is that, like a child's game of musical chairs, as long as the music is playing, there are no losers."

Andrew Gause, Monetary Historian

http://www.andygause.com

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."

Albert A. Bartlett, physicist

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/bartlett/

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

Kenneth Boulding, economist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_E._Boulding

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/boulding.htm

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Boulding/kboulding-con0.html

"I have never yet had anyone who could, through the use of logic and reason, justify the Federal Government borrowing the use of its own money... I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with the Congress for sitting idly by and permitting such an idiotic system to continue."

Congressman Wright Patman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Patman

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/PP/fpa62.html

http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2000/young.htm

"Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal, that there is no human relation between master and slave."

Leo (Lev)Tolstoy

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tolstoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy

"None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

Goethe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/goethe.htm

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johannwolf134023.html

"'The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented.

Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again...

Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit'."

Sir Josiah Stamp Director, Bank of England 1928-1941
(reputed to be the 2nd richest man in Britain at the time)

Josiah Stamp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Stamp,_1st_Baron_Stamp

http://members.shaw.ca/theultimatescam/index.htm

The inability of the Colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the revolutionary war."

Benjamin Franklin

http://www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/

Presidential Quotes on Banking

"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."

Woodrow Wilson

"All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises, not from the defects of the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation."

John Adams, Founding Father of the American Constitution

"Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce...and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate."

James A. Garfield, assassinated president of the United States

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the
spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity."

Abraham Lincoln, assassinated president of the United States

http://www.themoneymasters.com/presiden.htm

http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/2/bankquotes.htm

"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognised as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."

William Lyon Mackenzie King

http://chatna.com/author/kingmackenzie.htm

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/primeministers/h4-3250-e.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lyon_Mackenzie_King

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great
publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion
for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if
we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more
sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty
of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National autodetermination
practiced in past centuries"

David Rockefeller in an address to a Trilateral Commission meeting in June of 1991

http://www.freedomdomain.com/nwoquote.htm

"Only the small secrets need to be protected.
The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity."

Alternately quoted as:
"Only puny secrets need protection.
Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity."

Marshall McLuhan, media "guru"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

http://www.angelfire.com/ms/MediaLiteracy/McLuhan.html

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mcluhan.htm

Not in the Movie

Misc Quotes on Banking

http://www.freedomdomain.com/bankquot.html

http://www.barefootsworld.net/banking-fed-quotes.html

More Relevant Quotations from

http://www.freedomdomain.com/nwoquote.htm

http://www.svpvril.com/nwo.html

'The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.'

Benjamin Disraeli, first Prime Minister of England, in a novel he published in 1844 called Coningsby, the New Generation "

"Corporations have been enthroned. An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people . . until wealth is aggregated in a few hands . . . and the Republic is destroyed."

Abraham Lincoln

'The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments plans. '

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1876

"In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press....They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers."

U.S. Congressman Oscar Callaway, 1917

'The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen....At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties.'

New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922

'From the days of Sparticus, Wieskhopf, Karl Marx, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemberg, and Emma Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the tragedy of the French revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.'

Winston Churchill, stated to the London Press, in 1922

'The government of the Western nations, whether monarchical or republican, had passed into the invisible hands of a plutocracy, international in power and grasp. It was, I venture to suggest, this semi-occult power which....pushed the mass of the American people into the cauldron of World War I.'

British military historian Major General J.F.C. Fuller, 1941

"For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But, he didn't. Most of his thoughts, his political ammunition, as it were, were carefully manufactured for him in advanced by the Council on Foreign Relations -- One World Money group. Brilliantly, with great gusto, like a fine piece of artillery, he exploded that prepared "ammunition" in the middle of an unsuspecting target, the American people, and thus paid off and returned his internationalist political support.

"The UN is but a long--range, international banking apparatus clearly set up for financial and economic profit by a small group of powerful One--World revolutionaries, hungry for profit and power.

"The depression was the calculated 'shearing' of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of call money in the New York money market....The One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank."

Curtis Dall, FDR's son-in-law as quoted in his book, My Exploited Father-in-Law

'A definite factor in getting a lie believed is the size of the lie. The broad mass of the people, in the simplicity of their hearts, more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.'

Adolf Hitler

'And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing … a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.'

Aldous Huxley, 1959

'I know the secret of making the average American believe anything I want him to. Just let me control television.... You put something on the television and it becomes reality. If the world outside the TV set contradicts the images, people start trying to change the world to make it like the TV set images.....'

Hal Becker, media 'expert' and management consultant, the Futures Group, in an interview in 1981

"Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have."

Richard Salant, former President of CBS News

"The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds' central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups."

Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time (Macmillan Company, 1966) Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown University, highly esteemed by his former student, former US President, Bill Clinton

"There is a small circle of men who control the world's finance. "Each member, before initiation, knows its religion to be reward for friends and extermination of enemies. Once a man is within the magic circle...punishment for disloyalty is sure and terrible, and in no corner of the Earth can he escape it, nor can any power on Earth protect him from it.

" The magic circle is "at the receiving end of the greatest information bureau in the world.""

Thomas Lawson, Everybody's Magazine "Frenzied Finance" 1904

"Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. Our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."

Walter Bernays Propaganda 1928

" I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology....Various results will soon be arrived at: that the influence of home is obstructive....although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen....Educational propaganda, with government help, could achieve this result in a generation. There are, however, two powerful forces opposed to such a policy: one is religion; the other is nationalism....A scientific world society cannot be stable unless there is a world government."

Bertrand Russell 1958

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http://www.moneyasdebt.net/

Contents

PART I— Goods at the service of needs through Social Credit

Social Credit: not  Socialism, not a political party

Chapter 1 — A Few Principles

Chapter 2 — Economics

Chapter 3 — The Consumers

Chapter 4 — Goods

Chapter 5 — Specialization — The Machine

Chapter 6 — Poverty amidst Plenty

Chapter 7 — The Symbol and the Thing

Chapter 8 — The Birth and Death of Money

Chapter 9 — The Monetary Defect

Chapter 10 — Putting the Monetary System Right

Chapter 11 — The Rights of Each One to the Bare Necessities of Life

Chapter 12 — What is a Dividend?

Chapter 13 — Heritage and Heirs

Chapter 14 — The National Dividend

Chapter 15 — Money and Prices

Chapter 16 — Price Adjustment

Chapter 17 — The National Credit

Chapter 18 — The Monetary Mechanism of Social Credit

Part II  — A Few Talks and Articles on Various Aspects of Social Credit

Chapter 19 — Society Exists For All Its Members

Chapter 20 — Minimum Security, Maximum Freedom

Chapter 21 — Politics at the Service of the People

Chapter 22 — A Superpower Dominates Governments

Chapter 23 — The Monetary Power Resides in the Banks

Chapter 24 — Liberal Leader Mackenzie King Said in 1935

Chapter 25 — Money, or Credit, Is a Social Instrument

Chapter 26 — The Goldsmith Who Became a Banker, a True Story

Chapter 27 — A Lesson From a Bank Account

Chapter 28 — What Would Social Credit Do For You?

Chapter 29 — Applied Science, a Common Good

Chapter 30 — A Corrupted Monetary System

Chapter 31 — Social Credit puts money in its proper place

Chapter 32 — Should Money Claim Interest?

Chapter 33 — Interest on Newly-Created Money Is Robbery

Chapter 34 — The Public-Debt Problem

Chapter 35 — The Labour Question, A Money Problem

Chapter 36 — There Is No Unemployment Problem

Chapter 37 — Full Income Instead of Full Employment

Chapter 38 — Equality Between Money-Figures and Price-Figures

Chapter 39 — The Environment — Where Money Is Concerned

Chapter 40 — The Government Must Create Its Own Money

Chapter 41 — To Caesar What Is Caesar's

Chapter 42 — For a Better Understanding of Social Credit

Chapter 43 — Social Credit and Foreign Trade

Chapter 44 — At the Retailer's

Chapter 45 — The Stocker's Lesson

Chapter 46 — The Monetization of Progress

Chapter 47 — 30 Million Capitalists

Chapter 48 — Men of the Right, Empty-Handed

Chapter 49 — The History of Banking Control in the United States

Chapter 50 — Social Credit in the United States in 1932

Chapter 51 — The Aim of the Financiers: a One-World Government

Chapter 52 — Social Credit and the teachings of the Popes

Appendix A — Social Credit and the Catholic doctrine, a study by theologians

Appendix B — The Bank of Canada Must Finance our Country, Debt-Free

Appendix C - Money, Questions and Answers, by Father Charles Coughlin

Appendix D — Words of Thomas Edison

Appendix E — Money Is Created by Banks, Evidence Given by Graham Towers

Louis Even — Biographical notes

About Clifford Hugh Douglas

http://www.michaeljournal.org/myth.htm

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