Trump Triumph to Dream the Impossible Dream

By Dr. Robert R. Owens —— Bio and Archives November 5, 2016

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According to Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." If We the People want to restore the Republic we will have to rise above the shop worn politics presented by the two-headed party of power and as described by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media.

We cannot be diverted into the channels of thought and discussion that inevitably lead to the same conclusions. We debate where and when we should intervene in overseas adventures not if we should intervene. We debate how much money the Fed should create not if the Fed should create money or if there should be a central bank at all. We debate how big the deficit should be instead of should we run deficits at all. As long as we allow the advocates of big government to dictate the debate we lose before the first words are spoken because the answers are prescribed by the questions. In an article as short as this I cannot cover all the many schemes, swindles, and boondoggles that have led us to the precipice. Let me examine one that is rarely thought about, barely understood, and never mentioned in political campaigns. Fractional Reserve Banking is the prescription that causes the disease. The attempt to create prosperity by inflating bubbles leads inevitably to the bursting of bubbles. This bubble blowing is a result of the so-called "multiplier effect. According to Investopedia: The multiplier effect is the expansion of a country's money supply that results from banks being able to lend. The size of the multiplier effect depends on the percentage of deposits that banks are required to hold as reserves. In other words, it is the money used to create more money and is calculated by dividing total bank deposits by the reserve requirement.

BREAKING DOWN 'Multiplier Effect'

To calculate the effect of the multiplier effect on the money supply, start with the amount banks initially take in through deposits, and divide this by the reserve ratio. If, for example, the reserve requirement is 20%, for every $100 a customer deposits into a bank, $20 must be kept in reserve. However, the remaining $80 can be loaned out to other bank customers. This $80 is then deposited by these customers into another bank, which in turn must also keep 20%, or $16, in reserve but can lend out the remaining $64. This cycle continues as more people deposit money and more banks continue lending it until finally the $100 initially deposited creates a total of $500 ($100/0.2) in deposits. This creation of deposits is the multiplier effect.

Required Reserves

The reserve requirement is set by the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, and it varies based on the total amount of liabilities held by a particular depository institution. For example, as of 2016, institutions with more than $110.2 million in deposits are required to hold 10% of their total liabilities in reserve. Ten percent! That is all the banks are required to keep out of every dollar deposited. No wonder there are so many balls in the air at once, and no wonder they periodically come crashing down. For every one hundred dollars deposited the banks make another 609 dollars appear as if by magic. How could this ever go wrong? When the music stops there never seems to be a chair for everyone, and as the dominos tumble they always take down the next in line. Enter the government which legalized Fractional Reserve Banking to begin with to solve the problems caused by Fractional Reserve Banking. After George Bush II declared, "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system" and went on to bail out the main perpetrators of the government mandated sub-prime loans, for some reason the 99% became upset. All the little people who pay the bills burned out on bail outs. It was time for the next dog and pony show, so the government steps in to fix the situation they caused by passing the Dodd-Frank Bill. In classic government cure the disease by amplifying the infection mode Dodd-Frank actually enshrines too big to fail and sets the stage for the next big bail out of the crony capitalists who are one of the three legs of the Washington fascist economy. A classic case of doing what feels good instead of doing what is good. Some may think that my use of the word fascist to describe the current American economy is hyperbole. It is not. A fascist economic system, also known as Corporatism, is a union of the government, crony capitalists, and big unions. Sound familiar?