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Go To The Mattresses
by Andrew G. Eggleston Sr.
whitesage12 -+at+- hotmail -=dot=- com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933—meant to prevent major stock market speculation by the banks that take deposits and extend loans (Commercial Banks)—mandated separation of Commercial Banks (insured by the FDIC) from Investment Banks. Originally intended to prevent another Crash of '29 and the subsequent Banking collapses that began in December of 1930, this Act was systematically dissected by the Boot-On-Your-Neck Party. First came The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, a United States federal financial statute law passed in 1980 by then President James Carter, preventing private banks (read non-members of the FED conglomeration of Banks) from taking deposits and making loans without strict adherence to FED rules. This precipitated the Recession of 1981. Finally the Glass-Steagall Act was subsequently (all-but) repealed by then President William Clinton in 1999 with the signing of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which allowed Commercial Banks to again speculate in the stock market via the ownership of Investment Banks.

Reacting to trends in the stock market alongside slides in the real property market the Federal Reserve Bank, also known as the United States Central Bank, responsible for the creation of money for the United States Government—and by extension each and every person living within the United States, has become vested in the failing Investment Bank AIG.

For those of you who don't understand economics, this is a bad thing, very similar to the bad things that happened just before the Great Depression.

Inflation is an imaginary construct made real by the creation of wealth where none previously existed—e.g. doubling the price for a barrel of oil despite a lack of demand for said commodity. Leaving your monies in an account that gains interest at less than half the speed with which your monies are devaluing, because of inflation, to pad the pockets of rich speculators seems silly. Now with Investment Banks becoming the property of Commercial Banks again, don't expect the FDIC to protect your existing deposits—if the FDIC even truly still exists! The FDIC was created under the Glass-Steagall Act, I don't know if I would trust that that little piece of the Act was still afloat. With the repeal of the meat of the Glass-Steagall Act, the US economy has finally shown its inability to keep itself alive, as conservative economists reported would happen after the turn of the 21st century.

Today's out of control inflation coupled with the run on precious metals and other easily tradable commodities has created a system that is harmful to the American wage earner. Not that I recommend drastic action now, however now would seem like an appropriate time to (as Mario Puzo put it) "go to the mattresses" with your earned income. Basically its time to stuff what money you have into a mattress, like Great-Grandma did during the first Great Depression. Other ideas include; coffee-can bank, Mr. Peanut bank, and piggy bank.

Welcome to the Great Depression II—The Sequel.

The writer does realize that the vagaries of economics and speculation along with Uncle Sugar's hand in your pocket makes much of what has happened and what will happen unpredictable, I do however reserve the right to say "I told you so".

Watching hard working Americans lose their life-savings for a second time in the history of our country sickens me. I may joke and seem to take things lightly but our economy has faltered just as it did eighty years ago.

I don't have any real answers but I'd like to hope that we could figure out that an hour of work is worth more than a gallon of gas, that our parents and grandparents are going to look to us because they can no longer work, and that we could accomplish a meaningful solution before we all become "The Waltons" again with three or four generations of family living in the same house. Finally, let us find the solution before we must resort to actions that may again be considered "noteworthy in the annals of history" as Thomas Jefferson sought to do.

This and all previous articles of mine may be freely copied and distributed, please be responsible and give credit to the author, thank you.

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