Crosstalk: February 24, 2017

Is an economic crisis of historic proportions looming on the horizon for the United States?

Joining Jim to discuss this issue was Alex Newman. Alex is an international freelance journalist, educator and consultant. As a freelance journalist he writes for the New American. He is the co-author of the book, 'Crimes of the Educators'.

Alex believes that under normal circumstances, any society facing what the U.S is right now should have alarm bells blaring. We're facing 20 trillion dollars of debt, which is more than what we produce in a year. Add to that the 200 trillion that's estimated in unfunded liabilities such as pensions, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security obligations and you can see that we're in trouble.

Then there's the Federal Reserve factor. According to the two estimates that Alex saw during the last economic crisis, they printed between 16 trillion and 27 trillion dollars so he feels that the economic effects of this eventually will come back to bite us.

Is the establishment setting up President Trump and other anti-globalist forces to take the blame for a future economic collapse? First of all, Alex views the Council on Foreign Relations, the officials who run the Federal Reserve System, the Chatham House and the Trilateral Commission as the people and organizations that comprise the 'establishment'. The individuals involved in these groups are in positions of power in many places including the media, academia and government but less so in the Trump administration.

Alex described how during the last economic crisis, the Federal Reserve was printing large amounts of money and was handing it out to bankers, foreign central banks and dictators. In response, Bloomberg News sued the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They wanted to know what the Federal Reserve was doing so they took advantage of the Freedom of Information Act and other transparency laws. The Federal Reserve lawyers claimed they are a private corporation with private shareholders with officials elected by those shareholders. So they felt they were exempt from certain laws that are in place for government agencies only.

Having said that in official court documents proves the myth that the Federal Reserve is a government agency. True, the president does pick some of its officials from a list provided by the bankers, but that's the limit to its involvement with the U.S. government. Nonetheless, the government has given them a monopoly to print federal reserve notes (dollars) out of thin air and to centrally plan interest rates. They are accountable to no one. In fact, Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve has actually confirmed that.

Alex believes the seeds for an economic crisis were sown back as far as 1913 when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. Late in George Bush's term and early in Barack Obama's term we were going through the 2007-2008 economic crisis. Things were looking so bad that members of Congress were actually threatened with marital law if they refused to approve an 800 billion dollar tax funded bailout.

The Federal Reserve responded by printing (most of it not literally printed but in digital form) trillions of dollars and showered it on anyone who wanted it; U.S. banks, foreign countries and private companies. They even bought mortgage backed securities to help keep the market going smoothly.

This never solved the actual problem. It merely 'kicked the can' down the road. Hence, all the problems that existed in 2007-2008 are still with us. The difference is that they are much worse.

What's the solution? We could 'print' even more money. They could do nothing or possibly even contract the money supply and cause a 'Great Depression' scenario. The problem is, either choice ends up in tragedy. Just look at Venezuela or Zimbabwe.

Some globalist institutions say that opposition to their globalist economic plans would lead to economic problems. Can we take them seriously? Is the stock market overvalued? Is there any amount of 'belt tightening' that can alleviate this dilemma? These questions and more are addressed on this edition of Crosstalk.