(Melchizedek Communique, MC122809) A report from one Mike Whitney at smirkingchimp.com indicates the so-called "Federal" Reserve will be "tightening the noose" in March 2010. "By March 31, 2010, the mortgage monetization program will end, long-term interest rates will rise and housing prices will fall. When the Fed withdraws its support, liquidity will drain from the system, stocks will slide, and the economy will head back into recession." [1]

Meanwhile, Smoot-Hawley keeps being blamed for the 1930s Great Depression. Smoot-Hawley is the Lee Harvey Oswald. When Al Gore debated Ross Perot on the Larry King show in the 1990s, Gore handed Perot a photo of Smoot-Hawley. "It was Smoot-Hawley," said Gore.

Perot was against NAFTA, the Bill Clinton "Free Trade" plan. There was "pent up demand" of Mexican consumers to purchase American-made products, we were told.

But Smoot-Hawley is just the patsy. The 1930s "Radio priest," Rev. Charles Coughlin, explained, in 1932, what had happened. (Unfortunately, Coughlin later deteriorated into anti-Semitism.)

At the time, the ordinary American was rightfully curious. "What brought about this situation where our currency money has disappeared from the purses and the pockets and the cash registers of our citizens?" [2]

Coughlin explained that a "group of men who unwisely or unjustly accumulate unreasonable or unpayable debts is simply ruining their nation's spending money. They invite disaster. They breed depression." [2]

Insuperable debts, impossible to pay, were piled up. After the First World War, "the great International Bankers of America commissioned agents to go abroad to Europe, to foreign governments and to foreign industrialists literally begging them to accept loans. The financial rule of the centuries was ignored. It had been the custom for the borrower to seek out the lender. They originated the idea of the lender seeking out the borrower." [2]

(After the NAFTA was enacted, a usury bonanza covered up the "giant sucking sound" of factories leaving the United States. As in the 1920s, the lender aggressively sought borrowers. E-Z credit for "sub prime" borrowers was pushed.)

European governments in the 1920s had a horde of American bankers sitting on their doorsteps offering them money. [2]

And what happened to those loans? Did the bankers hang on to them? No, they were "sliced and diced" and sold to John Q. Public.

The bonds were acquired by Morgan Company and other big bankers at 90 cents on the dollar. Those bonds were sold to local bankers at 93 cents on the dollar. "And these bankers in turn peddled these bonds to the unsophisticated American public at 100c on the dollar." [2]

So John Q. Public was left holding the bag for immense "sub-prime" loans.

The loans had been extended to Germany and other European countries in spite of Europe being mostly bankrupt. With the money, factories were built which competed with American factories. [2]

But why did the House of Morgan, Kuhn Loeb, and their ilk dupe the American public into buying questionable bonds? "The answer is simple. Profits! Greed! Exploitation! The banker made his profit in the same manner as the trick magazine salesman makes his. Mr. John Public holds the bond. Mr. Banker has cashed in on his gullibility."

And remember this: Just as in the 1930s, the news media keeps promising, "Prosperity is just around the corner." There! Do you see it? Yes, I think I do! I think I see that "corner" they keep talking about, the one which prosperity is just around it! [3]

------- Notes -------
[1] "'Hard Landing, here we come'; Bernanke Tightens the Noose", by Mike Whitney. December 18, 2009
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/25583
[2] "The New Herod: The International Banker", by Rev. Charles Coughlin, Dec. 11, 1932
[3] "Prosperity is just around the corner." See movie from 1935, "My Man Godfrey",
starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, for "Prosperity is just around the corner" sneers.