Homework Due:
- Reading: Web of Debt, Chapters 11, 12 & 13
- Video: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger or the audio: Redefining Poverty: Needs and the Spirit Level.
- Audio: Wizards of Money 6: Democratizing the Monetary System. Write down two criticisms of the San Francisco Breadshares local currency.
- For extra credit, here is an article called The Wikileaks of Money on the alternative currency Bitcoin.
Chapter 11: No Place Like Home: Fighting for the Family Farm:
- What organizations were represented by the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman of the Oz tale? What two tactics did the Banker’s Manifesto recommend to Congress to neutralize them?
- What did Arundhati Roy and Howard Zinn advise to combat these tactics? What was the precedent of this strategy in 1894?
- What was the gist of Jacob Coxey’s speech on the White House lawn? How did Coxey’s solution differ for the farmers and the city dwellers?
- Who were the real “Hogan’s Heroes?”
- Name the two major principles that the Populist Party represented. What book, selling a million copies, aroused popular interest in their cause?
- What was the Crime of ’73? What damage had it caused?
- Who was the “Cowardly Lion” who delivered the “Cross of Gold” speech?
- Who was his opponent? Who was he funded by, and who was he backed by – the person called the Wizard of the Gold Oz? What did the opponent favor despite his pro-business backers? Who did he appoint as Vice-President and what were his leanings? How did this open the door to financiers on both sides of the Atlantic?
- What two competing banking giants have been the puppeteers behind all US politics since then, according to Murray Rothbard?
Chapter 12: Talking Heads and Invisible Hands: The Secret Government
- Name some of the Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, Congressmen, Senators, and Mayors who referred to the shadow figures or “giant octopus” controlling the US government.
- What was the popular book written about the bankers in 1934 by Matthew Josephson?
- What is a trust? How did they monopolize industry even after the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed? By 1904, what percentage of American businesses controlled 57% of American industry? What number of firms dominated 60% of production in 50 different industries?
- The monopoly trusts became the strongest advocates of federal regulation because it protected them against competition. Does this relate to “food safety” laws today?
- Who were the three kings of the Robber Barons? What businesses did they represent? How did they differ?
- What technique enabled them to collaborate without appearing to be a ruling class?
- What was the first nexus of financial power and where did it move to after it was bombed? What was “the money trust” another name for, according to the Wall St. Journal? Which Chairman of the Federal Reserve worked for “the money trust?”
- Was Nathan Rothschild “not well liked” because of anti-Semitism, or were Jews not well liked because of Nathan Rothschild? What do you think?
- What’s the legal definition of conspiracy? What’s the etymology of the word? How was the Standard Oil conspiracy broken up and how did Rockefeller thwart the Supreme Court’s intention?
Chapter 13: Witches’ Coven: The Jekyll Island Affair and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913
- Who owned Jekyll Island and what was the cover for the secret meeting there in 1910? How did its host, Senator Aldrich, link the Rockefellers and the Morgans? Who was the mastermind of the meeting?
- What prompted passage of this bill, which William Jennings Bryan and Charles Lindbergh Sr. were against? How did the scheme work?
- What was Bryan’s objection to the Aldrich Bill? Describe the shenanigans of the Presidential elections of 1912 in regards to Morgan and Rockefeller. Has this strategy been used today?
- How did the Federal Reserve Act dupe Bryan, Congress, and Woodrow Wilson? Why did Bryan resign as Secretary of State? Why did Paul Warburg resign as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Reserve?
- What is Fedspeak? Give two examples.
- How many Federal Reserve banks are there? What is the guaranteed dividend on investment?
- What are the leading banks that own the Fed? Whose financial cornerstones are they?
- How does “spider-webbing” work? Is it possible that one man exercises control over the entire web? Who could this be?
- What is the Council on Foreign Relations? What four centers of power are consolidated in the Trilateral Commission? Do these surprise you?
- What’s the Bank for International Settlement? Where is it located and which six, out of the 55 countries involved, does it really represent? What does this force onto nations?
- Who are the Bilderbergers? How have the Morgans and Rockefellers bought secrecy and compliance?
- How many newspapers were bought up? What sections were controlled? How many corporations owned half or more of the media business by 2000? What did John Taylor Gatto’s expose reveal in his foundational work, An Underground History of American Education?