Letter from New Zealand
5: U.C.S. Spokesman Blames World Bank
Don Bethune
A letter in Bay of Plenty Times from a spokesman for the U.C.S. (Union of Concerned Scientists), Dr Robert Anderson, attributes the backward slide of Godzone, including negative items like the Student Loan Scheme, to joining the World Bank (and I.M.F.). His letter runs as follows: MP Jeanette Fitzsimons’ recent comment that “New Zealanders should be outraged that the future of an entire generation of students has been saddled with a debt of $7 billion” is bad enough. I am far more outraged that no minister has the courage to tell the NZ public that all of these ‘social woes’ can be placed squarely at the feet of a corrupt banking system. Most solutions used to alleviate these tragedies are of little avail. They are merely elastoplasts for a growing cancerous state of indebtedness generated by a fractional reserve banking system. Several letters to the Minister of Finance, Dr Cullen, have been met with silence.
In some ways, he can be forgiven. He must realize that, having joined the World Bank, we are now up to our waist in the quicksand of loan repayments. Unless we work to free ourselves of this burden New Zealand, like most of the Western world, will only sink deeper into the morass of debt dependency. Over forty years ago, Nordmeyer seriously warned New Zealand to stay well away from the World Bank. One of our top economists, Wilf Rosenburg, said much the same. At the time these ominous warnings were given out we had 98% employment in our country and a “staggering” three hundred thousand dollar debt. What an appalling change.
Our comment: the term “fractional reserve banking” is now so unrelated to the actual mechanics of credit creation that it should be recognized and taught in schools as a charade. Like other banking myths, they perpetuate it to hide from the public what is actually happening. The then Deputy Editor White, of National Geographic, explained in a major article on “Money” about 30 years back, that the banking claim of actually lending the deposits a single time rather than many times, was not only an impossibility, but was a carefully nurtured ploy to mislead the dumb public, while their credit creating racket rolled on without missing a beat. This clarification of what is really happening under the very noses of politicians, academics and voters, is even more of an indictment when the indicators in Dr Anderson’s letter are viewed now.
Living standards based on per capita GDP have gone backwards about 18 places: the 98% employment, despite changing the criteria to brighten the picture, is still only around 95%; the completely state-funded tertiary education is now back to around 50% being charged against the students or added on to their debts to the foreign banks; the 0.3 Billion of Public Debt, when added on to the SOE (State Owned Enterprises) Debts, is over $100 Billion, and so on....
Don Bethune
(From www.electronz.cjb.net,
Electronz issue 419)