Readers' corner

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Do like the Romans

Sir-- In 'The bankers' 9/11' ( Al-Ahram Weekly 9-15 October) you called for more regulation by the government of the financial system. I don't have much faith in government, and I certainly don't want to increase governmental spending to this extent, especially after examining the bloody calamities of the past hundred years brought on by ever-expanding governments. I don't believe the government is capable of enforcing the monstrous complex of laws required to bring the present fiat system into even a semblance of control. Fractional reserve banking based on a fiat currency is inherently fraudulent. Outlaw it and return to banking principles known in depth to the ancient Romans (who unfortunately abandoned their correct understanding in order to finance their imperial ambitions through debasement of their currency). Our constitution makes it the federal government's sole monetary responsibility to enforce laws protecting against fraud in the issuance of gold and silver coinage. Money substitutes, such as paper money and credit cards, could still be used, of course, but only if backed up by 100 per cent reserves of gold and silver. People are fond of claiming that gold and silver money are an anachronism. I see gold and silver as mankind's archetypal solution to the problem of payments and rewards in a division of a labour economic system. This anachronism is looking pretty good to me at the moment. We abandon archetypes at our own peril.

Dennis Jinner
Madrid
Spain

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Federal creations

Sir-- Re the American "bailout" fraud, I agree with nearly everything you have said, but one item puts you at odds with our federal constitution and myself. Increasing federal taxes on the poor and what's left of the middle class is unthinkable. Originally the 13 colonies (read sovereign nations) came together to create our federal government and ceded it with very limited and tightly defined powers (enumerations) and authority via a constitution (read contract). How is it that the created (federal government) can become greater than the creator (states and ultimately "we the people")? Are you greater than your creator? This was one of the most important aspects of our constitutional republic (not some vague concept of democracy) which the banker wolves destroyed after the first two stabs at "national banks" failed (thank you Andrew Jackson) in our fraudulent "war between the states". This war which trotted out slavery as a secondary issue was all about financial control by the very few. The answer is not taxation in a free society at liberty. The answer is and always has been to hunt the international banker and money changer to extinction including to that little place in London called "the city". Lest you think I refer to violence, by hunt to extinction I mean, rounding up, jailing and seizing all assets of this despicable group anywhere in the world they can be found. We did it after World War II with the Nazis; we can do it again. Reinstate lawful money backed by real value and abolish the federal reserve in all portions of the globe should be the first order of business. All countries must be sovereign in this respect.

Robert Graham
Michigan
USA