VIDEO: "Debt Bomb" : Dominic Frisby explains the global financial crisis

Dominic Frisby is a good name for a stand-up comedian (I guess), but an unlikely name for someone who wishes to be taken seriously as a "fiancial bod" (whatever that is) and "voice of many things". A quick look at his website shows that "many things" includes geopolitics and economics in general, and in particular the debt trap with which the banks enslave individuals and nations alike.

Dominic Frisby thus has joined the ranks of those who, like Walt's buddy Ron McPherson, creator of "Facilitism", believe it's high time the world's financial "system" was reformed, or scrapped altogether!

Thanks to Agent 6 for making us aware of Mr. Frisby, and providing the link to this short but powerful argument that the system has to be changed, if we are to avoid worldwide financial ruin.



Further reading (and viewing) on WWW:
"Book review: 'A Better World for All'"
"VIDEO: Enslaved by our banks: 12-year-old Canuck explains"

Book review: "A Better World for All"

"A Better World for All" -- great title for the Christmas season, even better as a resolution for the New Year. But how to achieve a better world for all? Is the power of prayer our only hope? NO! says Ron McPherson, the author of a new book (or booklet -- just 64 pages) bearing the aforementioned title.

A Better World for All is the "Reader's Digest version" of Mr. McPherson's first opus, Freedom's Dawning, reviewed by Walt way back in 2010. See "'Facilitism': a better answer?"

What Mr. McPherson articulates in these books is a modern version of the Utopian ideal propounded nearly five centuries ago by St. Thomas More. Mr. McPherson argues that his system, Facilitism, can deliver to us a world without poverty, with far less stress, free healthcare, free education and... wait for it... no taxes! It will be, he tells us, a healthier world, a friendlier world, a happier world.

Skeptical? Sure. But we've tried everything else -- capitalism, socialism, communism and every combination and variant of those "isms" -- and nothing has worked. But, you may say, isn't capitalism working? Even in one of the few remaining Communist countries, China, they're now practising "capitalism with Chinese characteristics". Whereas in the United States it's socialism with Democratic characteristics. How's that working out?

The root of the problem, Mr. McPherson argues -- indeed, the root of all evil -- is money! [Haven't we seen this movie before? Ed.] Yes, others have said that if there were only more money, everyone would be fat and happy. Major C.H. Douglas, the pioneer of the British "Social Credit" economic reform movement, proposed a "National Dividend" to distribute more money (in the form of debt-free credit) equally to all citizens, to help bridge the gap between purchasing power and prices. This would be coupled with a price adjustment mechanism, which he called the "Just Price", which would forestall any possibility of inflation.

Printing more money turned out to be the wrong answer. In 1936, the Social Credit government of the Canadian province of Alberta, printed "prosperity certificates" in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression. The federal government took umbrage, saying only it had the right to print (and thus create) money. Canada's Supreme Court agreed and that was that.

But printing money is not Mr. McPherson proposes in A Better World for All. Think about it. Who uses cash money nowadays? The world runs on credit, which is to say, bookkeeping entries made by the banks. The "dollars" created by the Fed, for instance, don't really exist in the form of cash. Can you imagine how many dollar bills it would take to stand for the trillions of dollars in the USA's national debt?

Nor are US dollars back by anything. Once upon a time you could exchange a paper dollar for a silver dollar, or even a (very small) piece of gold. Not any more. It's all credit -- more accurately, debits and credits on bank computers all over the world.

So, Mr. McPherson asks, why don't we just do away with money? It's the kind of question that might provoke a certain amount of skepticism, not to say laughter, but the author thoughtfully provides a methodology for doing just that.

When I say "thoughtfully", I mean that literally. Facilitism is a system that Mr. McPherson has been thinking about and writing about for years. It deserves consideration. Walt recommends that you get A Better World for All -- click here to explore the Facilitism website -- and give it yours.

"You have two cows..." (latest version)

Ron McPherson, the father of Facilitism, has passed along an updated version of "You have two cows", a tongue-in-cheek explanation of various economic "systems" which has been floating around the internet for years. Here's the latest take on how modern economics works (?) in different parts of the world.

SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRACY: You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the USA, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION: You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds, dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds. You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the crap out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

FACILITISM: You have two cows. You, the cows, and everyone else is contented.

Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? Seriously, facilitism is a fascinating -- if utopian -- concept. If you'd like to learn more about how it would work (!), buy Ron's book, Freedom's Dawning. Click here and tell him Walt sent you.

Bible Bill's brillliant idea to get the economy moving

Ed., who monitors WWW's stats, tells me there's been some interest in my review of James H. Gray's book, The Winter Years. And so there should be, as it appears we are headed for another depression. Perhaps it won't be of the same depth or duration as the Great Depression of the 30s, but even now people are crying, shouting [demonstrating, too. Ed.] for solutions. It's time to revisit some of the ideas that were tried 80 years ago.

In the penultimate [would that be the second-last? Ed.] chapter of The Winter Years, Gray tells the story of "Bible Bill" Aberhart, a hellfire-and-damnation prairie preacher who got politicized by the poverty and despair he saw around him, and ultimately became premier of the province of Alberta.

Mr. Aberhart was an early convert to the economic theories of Major C.H. Douglas, the British engineer who founded the Social Credit economic reform movement. The Social Credit solution to the depression was, at its simplest, to print more money. Putting more money in circulation, Aberhart said, would stimulate the economy and all would be well again.

Does any of this sound familiar? Check out Gray's summary of one of Aberhart's stump speeches:

Aberhart was at his best in resorting to allegory, and he heavily favoured such parables as the one about the counterfeit dollar bill.... It concerned a man who found a dollar bill on the street, and promptly spent it for groceries. The grocer bought some eggs from a farmer with it. The farmer paid the blacksmith, who spent it for a shirt.

Mr. Aberhart chased the dollar all over town, out into the country and back, over the next town, up to the city. Wherever it went, it got business going again to everybody's profit. Only when the banker discovered it was counterfeit was it retired from circulation.

If a single counterfeit dollar could accomplish so much, why would social Credit not be able to do infinitely more?

Now does it sound familiar? Compare Bible Bill's story with "How a government stimulus package works", contributed by Agent 6 on November 4th.

When Aberhart's Social Credit party swept the Alberta elections in 1935, he set about keeping his campaign promise to give every man, woman and child in Alberta $25 per month. (Obviously not your typical politician.) He had "prosperity certificates" in that amount printed, only to be told by the federal government that he couldn't do that, the creation of money being within their sole jurisdiction. And so the Bill's economic stimulus plan came to naught.

Imagine Bible Bill's surprise when, a mere seven years later, the Liberal federal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King (who loved his mother like anything) introduced what came to be known as "the baby bonus", a payment to Canadian mothers of a paltry $6 per month per child. If anyone can tell me the difference between Aberhart's "prosperity certificates" and the baby bonus -- other than $19 per head, I mean -- I'd like to hear their explanation.

So would Ron McPherson. He's the author of Freedom's Dawning, which propounds the theory he calls "Facilitism". In a very small nutshell, Mr. McPherson says that credit and debt are merely bookkeeping entries. (Hardly surprising, given that he's an accountant by profession.) Thus wealth can be created by the stroke of a pen. Joe Average only has $10 in the bank? Let the government add three zeros and he's got $10,000, which should take care of the mortgage for this year.

Of course I'm oversimplifying [hardly surprising. Ed.] and there would be enormous "collateral damage" (forgive the pun) were this idea to be implemented. But who would bear the brunt? The banks and mortgage companies -- the same friendly folks who opposed Social Credit and took Joe Average's farm or home when he couldn't pay interest.

Those would be the same banks and financial houses which make obscene profits of billions of dollars a year, pay millions in salaries and bonuses to their fat cat directors, and give us a mere 1/2 of 1% on our savings, yet charge us almost 20% on our credit cards.

If I owe the bank money, the manager enquires about my health every time I come in the door. "By the way, Mr. Whiteman, do you have insurance?" Otherwise, he couldn't care less about me. Why should I care about him? Answers on the back of a postage stamp, please, to the usual address.

"Facilitism": a better answer?

The posts on "How to fix the economy" -- my adaptation of an essay by Stephen Leacock -- elicited a lengthy response from Ron McPherson, an accountant and present-day resident of Leacock's hometown, Orillia, Ontario.

Ron agrees that the world's economy is broken, but doesn't think laissez-faire capitalism is the answer. He puts the blame on governments, banks, and the whole concept of debt and the charging of interest. The fix, according to his book Freedom's Dawning, is a new economic system which he calls Facilitism.

Here's what Ron has to say about Leacock's idea...

I’ve never appreciated Stephen Leacock's writings anywhere near the extent to which they're promoted. We do, however, have a few things in common: living in Orillia, awareness of excessive government and taxes, idle industry and workers, and recognition that people seem to believe their government should look after them.

The latter belief, in my opinion, is impossible to achieve. However, no-one should be without the basics for living. Our planet has far more than enough for all of us to have great lives without the stress imposed by our present enslaving structures.

Capitalism has proven over and over again throughout the last 300 years or so that it doesn’t work, except for the benefit of a few. Even Leacock admits this when he suggests that although we need these few profiteers to get things turned around that when the profiteer has finished his work; “We can always put him back into the penitentiary if we like”.

Communism, of course, also functions with an elite class ruling over their oppressed masses.

The farce of democracy, with its supposed representatives of the people voting in Parliament as demanded by party leaders, who in turn impose the dictums they themselves receive from the controllers of the money supply, progressively advance the enslavement of the people while expanding the confiscation of the peoples’ earnings through taxes and fees to pay for wars and interest charges on government borrowings. Absolutely disgusting! And the people have accepted these shenanigans. Ugh! But they are waking up.

The world needs a better system, one that can eliminate taxes and poverty, one that allows those who desire more than the basics to earn more, one that provides incentives for all people to contribute. One that also provides free heath care and education. Such a system exists. It is called Facilitism. Its time has come.

Our politicians here in Canada, or any other country that has sufficient resources to function independently until other countries come on stream, if they had the gumption and daring, could quickly implement Facilitism’s funding methodology and eliminate taxes by modifying the country’s computerized tax and benefit data base of their residents.

Click on the link to Ron's book to have a look at the Facilitism website. You can contact Ron at ron@facilitism.com.