Dr. Kathorkian Spotlights JP Morgan

Satire/Humor

by Dr. Kathorkian,

an alter ego of katharineotto.wordpress.com

The Cosmic Improv Group

brings JP Morgan to

Dr. Kathorkian’s Spotlight Therapy*

Chapter Three:  Cosmic Improv Group Series

 

Friday, January 18, 2008 – I assumed a mountain of debt going to medical school and into private practice, then the bottom drops out of my stock equity, and I’m stuck with the debt.  That’s how they do it.  It was a direct economic hit on my financial freedom, engineered by a stockbroker and banker I thought worked for me.  My wrath over the betrayal was like a nuclear reactor in meltdown mode, so the Cosmic Improv Group, that gaggle of personalities inside my imagination and unheard by others, decides to hose me down before I get too hot.

Always eager for good entertainment, the CIG invites JP Morgan to a Spotlight Therapy session, so I can tell him off.   I’ve done my homework.  I’ve read The Creature from Jekyll Island, The Robber Barons, None Dare Call it Conspiracy, Democracy in America, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, the US Constitution, and other tomes of epic wisdom.  I am armed.

My inter-dimensional travels through print media have revealed how JP Morgan and his international banker friends, like Paul Warbucks . . . er . . . Paul Warburg, engineered the federal income tax and the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 to enslave American taxpayers in unrepayable debt.  Congress gave itself the power to obligate present and future taxpayers to the Federal Reserve System for perpetual interest payments, on debt assumed by Congress. Not only are taxpayers expected to pay interest until the sun burns out on money that’s worth nothing, but Congress uses the fake money to lay waste to the nation’s natural resources and neighborhoods, and to create conflict around the world.  It funds its enormous bureaucracy and the pension and benefits plans for all those government employees.  It funds Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security with money stolen in payroll taxes.  These electronic dollars are invested on Wall Street.  Congress also pays the Department of Offense to make life miserable at home and abroad.  Congress further believes it has the right to obligate taxpayers to pay an army of no-bid federal government contractors. Congress sets its own salary, pensions, benefits and other assorted goodies, by obligating unborn taxpayers until the time the country officially declares bankruptcy.

As all this fiat money floods the financial system, the increased money supply causes inflation and higher prices on goods and services, especially indispensable commodities like food and energy.  Those who can least afford it are hardest hit.

So back in 1913, the conspirators used freshman United States President Woodrow Wilson, whom they’d been grooming for years, to do their dirty work.  Ole Woody thought he was the second coming of Christ, so the bankers and other manipulators, like Winston Churchill, played to his ego and got him to go against every campaign promise he made.

This eventually led America into World War I, which was the long-term goal of the bankers.  The Brits owed the bankers a lot of money, and the bankers needed that money to lend to Germany.  So they figured to bleed America, too, to increase profits.  Thus did they conjure up the aforementioned double whammy on American taxpayers, to cover their foreign ass-ets.

Now in the CIG, when JP Morgan starts bragging about how they pulled this off,  I light into him.

“You asshole,” I fume.  “You deserve to have your gold chains tight around your neck.  No wonder you were such a lonely, bitter man, whom everyone was glad to see dead.  You left a legacy alright, dying the year you achieved the income tax and the Federal Reserve Act.  Didn’t even have the balls to go to the 1910 secret planning meeting at Jekyll Island yourself.  That’s how sleazy you were.

“I wouldn’t trade a good knitting needle for the likes of you and all your fawning pawns.  In fact, I would use a knitting needle on you real quick like, and not to make a sweater.  I would go for the balls, just to see if you have any.”

JP sits there grinning, as though he appreciates my standing up to him.  He thinks I’m cute.

He says if I had been at the Jekyll Island meeting, he would have gone.

He achieved his dream, and then he died.  His dream didn’t make him happy.  This is the lesson de Tocqueville anticipated.

If I had been at that meeting, we would have had a different history, I’m sure, because those boys needed to know who really runs things in this country, and it ain’t them.

JP is impressed that I cashed in my IRA.  I’m sending shock waves through the system, with my political statement.  No wonder the Wachovia’s investment advisor was so anxious to get rid of me.

Yeah, right, JP.  Can you do anything useful?  You’re not making much progress on that knitting.

He grins and tries to cast on a stitch, but doesn’t know how.  His hands are clumsy.  I show him how to cast on, but it takes several minutes, because he is not gifted in New Age String Theory and knitting dynamics.

In knitting, every stitch is dependent on every other stitch.  When you make everything and everyone dependent on you, you are the most hog tied of all.

“No preacher told me I would have to knit in hell,” says JP Morgan.  “If they had, I would have owned knitting, because this is a fast growing market with a captive population.”

“For some people, knitting represents a form of heaven, and no one can own that,” I say.  “All it takes is the right attitude and tools.”

 

*Inspired by The Robber Barons, Matthew Josephson, 1934, 1962

The Cosmic Improv Group initiates Dr. Kathorkian’s Robber Baron Knitting School*

Humor/satire:  Cosmic Improv Group Series

by Dr. Kathorkian
an alter ego of katharineotto.planetearth.ind
and katharineotto.wordpress.com

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 – In the Cosmic Commune everyone is just plain folks, so it isn’t unusual for John D. Rockefeller or JP Morgan, Sr. to visit, even though they remain uncomfortable in a place where everyone ignores their pretensions.  People laugh at JP’s temper tantrums, and servants poof out of his employ when he throws food at them.

JP Morgan appreciates my willingness to be seen in public with him, because I am so civilized.  He wants to learn how to knit.

Really?  Go buy your own knitting needles, yarn, book, and other paraphernalia, and I’ll begin to believe you’re serious.

He says he’ll do better than that.  He’ll find a group of investors to buy a knitting needle manufacturer, a couple of sheep farms, and a publishing house.  He’ll get them to buy up all the cotton farms, too, so we can make more cotton yarn.

I say thanks, anyway.  Just learn how to knit, first, and maybe you’ll know something about the businesses you’re investing other people’s money in.

I can hear JD Rockefeller chuckling on the other side of the honeysuckle hedge.  I even get a partial smile from JP, and the hint of a twinkle in his eye.  Andy Carnegie says nothing, but I can feel his intense energy and interest.  He’s seeing a market for steel knitting needles.  JD, of course, sees a future in plastic knitting needles and acrylic, but I tell him up front that plastic and acrylic are low-yield investments for knitters.  I know he wants to sell cheap petroleum products, because no one can afford to drive, but give this knitter natural fibers and metal needles, and you can sell your transparent petroleum scam elsewhere.  Individuals need gas for power tools and other tools of survival, tools they can afford without going into debt.

JP becomes upset when I say this, but I tell him to stuff it.  Debt is what got us into this mess, and it’s your fault.  People can’t be free if they are in debt.  If you’re not free, you can’t have a democracy.

He threatens to leave.  I tell him that’s fine, but I’m not invalidating his job or career.  Banks still have a role to play in the Cosmic Commune, but banks need to reestablish their own credit and credibility.  By helping people learn how to manage money and get out of debt, both banks and taxpayers prosper.  You don’t get value for money with promises, whether from bank notes, insurance, or government, so don’t take it personally.  I’m a “pay as I go” kind of person, as I am immortal and a very lazy, selfish soul who enjoys freedom.

A financial debt is a karmic debt that must be paid sooner or later.  If I pay up front, I keep the books balanced at all times, unless I am tricked or otherwise maneuvered into untenable positions.

Cut losses, say I.  Whoever obtains money from me under false pretenses has his own karmic debt to pay.  Cutting losses buys my freedom from dishonesty.

So, I tell JP he looks good if he comes clean, to a certain extent, and recognizes that a debt-backed currency steals from the present to invest in an unpredictable future.  JP appears to take this in.  He doesn’t respond.  I go back to work.

After awhile, he looks up and asks me to show him how to knit.  I demonstrate the moss stitch, saying the knit and purl stitches are the foundation for all knitting patterns.  The technique is easy, but the strings of possibilities extend in all directions.

He asks if he can try, and I hand him my work. He makes clumsy efforts, drops a needle, then begins to get upset because stitches fall off, and yarn is getting tangled around his feet.

I tell him to sit still.  “Do not move,” I say.  “I’ll rescue my knitting and you in the process.”

So I grab the work before he loses too many stitches, untangle the yarn, and stow it all away for repair later.

I hear Andy chuckling, and even JD has risen and come around the honeysuckle hedge, grinning, to watch JP knit.  JP looks sheepish, but he is also puffing up his chest, as if he has accomplished something significant.

“It takes as much skill to be a good knitter as banker,” I tell him.  “A good banker can’t afford to lose credibility with his customers, because credit is his product line, just as knitters make socks.”

JP lights a cigar, and I poof up some wind to blow smoke away from the table and us.  I make it a light breeze, just enough to rustle leaves on the plants a little, to help them sing.

All three Robber Barons look astounded.  I don’t make a big deal out of asking the wind for help, but they glance at each other and me and begin to wonder what besides knitting I can teach them.

They also begin plotting how they can control the wind for profit.  I see them operating in boardrooms and Congress to build huge wind turbines, manipulating public resources with their misguided motives.

“You don’t control the wind,” I tell them.  “The wind is free.”  I say it will go where it will.  It only does your bidding if you approach it respectfully and in a cooperative spirit.  Ask the leaves on the trees to intercede, better to energize them into a flutter and explore their greater environments.

JP’s eyes begin to glaze over, and I realize I’ve said enough.

Fast forward to next day, and all three Robber Barons have bought expensive knitting needles, yarn – gold yarn by JP – and pattern books galore.  Andy wants to knit an Irish sweater, with complicated cables, and Scottish wool.  JP wants to make a vest out of gold thread.  JD wants a bright red crew neck sweater, simple but big, but he’s having trouble deciding between that and a pair of argyle socks.

While out shopping, they also bought a few knitting stores, textile manufacturers, farms, and other knitting tools.  Andy bought another shipping line.

The knitters are hot to trot, vying with each other to dominate knitting.  I try not to show my amusement, because so far, not one of them knows how to cast on the first stitch.

Meanwhile, they have brought so much stuff to the table that there’s no room to spread out, so I poof us a larger table and conjure up a coffee stand for me, to avoid spilling my coffee and damaging their stuff.

I suggest they start by knitting a swatch, and I try to show them how to cast on.  Andy catches on quicker than the others, because he grew up working with his hands and has more manual dexterity.

JD, who has now joined the table, sits next to JP.  Both have large hands and are clumsy, but JD manages to cast on 20 stitches first, then starts jostling JP’s elbow. This makes JP drop a needle and lose more stitches.  He explodes in rage and tosses everything on the ground.

By now we’ve drawn a crowd, and everyone starts to twitter and point fingers.  JP blushes and poofs himself away, leaving his assets behind.

*Inspired by The Robber Barons, Matthew Josephson, 1934, 1962

 

Dr. Jekyll visits Bethesda

The Creature from Jekyll Island: Notes and Thoughts

The Creature from Jekyll Island:  A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
by G. Edward Griffin, first published 1994.
Notes and Thoughts on the first three chapters.

           The Creature from Jekyll Island is astounding in its implications.  It reveals that the money lending game is essentially between banks, with debt fueling the pump.  Powered by individual as well as government debt taken on in  taxpayers’ names, it makes me wonder whether unborn taxpayers can be obligated by federal debt.  Also, if the Fed were abolished, might all this artificial debt cancel itself out?

The book starts with a cameo of a secret meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1910 that led to the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.  Nelson Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island and father-in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., hosted the private rail trip for six other movers and shakers in the banking and finance industries.  These men were to arrive at the train station separately, go by first names only, and say they were going duck hunting.  The regular staff at JP Morgan’s Jekyll Island Club was given a vacation.  Carefully selected others served the men while they were there.

The men were: 1.  Aldrich, who was also Republican “whip” in the Senate, chair of the National Monetary Commission, and a business associate of J. P. Morgan; 2.  Abraham Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury;  3.  Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, the most powerful bank at the time, and representing William Rockefeller and the international investment banking house of Kuhn, Loeb, and Company;  4.  Henry P. Davison, senior partner at JP Morgan Company;  5.  Charles D. Norton, president of JP Morgan’s First National Bank of New York;  6.  Benjamin Strong, head of JP Morgan’s Trust Company;  7.  Paul M. Warburg, partner in Kuhn Loeb and Company, a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France, and brother of Max Warburg, head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany and the Netherlands.

When Griffin says the Fed creates money out of nothing, he is not entirely accurate.  Rather, the Fed creates debt out of nothing to lend to Congress and calls it money, because it is backed by congressional promises of future taxpayer earnings (through the income tax, established earlier the same year, 1913).  The incredible credit is then passed off as currency, and no one is the wiser.

Until now.  The lie continues that US taxpayers are obligated by congressional guarantees, but we are not morally obligated to pay that debt.  Unfortunately, since their strategy has included putting everyone on the payroll—in one form or another—everyone is implicated in the scam and terrified of its inevitable unraveling.

Obviously the easiest solution is for individuals to get out of debt.  When debts are paid off, the money vanishes into the red hole it came from, the money supply shrinks, and deflation gives everyone except banks, debtors, and governments—the biggest debtors of all–more buying power.

Griffin gives a good summary at the end of each chapter, thereby simplifying this 600 page tome.

Chapter 1:  “The Journey to Jekyll Island” tells how the skeleton of the Federal Reserve System was worked out at Jekyll Island in 1910 by RI Senator Nelson Aldrich and six other men representing the most powerful banking interests in the Western world.  These included US banks under JP Morgan and John D. Rockefeller; English and French banks under Kuhn, Loeb and Company, representing Rothschild interests in Europe; and Germany and Netherlands banks by the powerful Warburg family.

Author Griffin refers to it as a banking cartel, in which powerful competitors align to prevent other competition and use the government’s police power to enforce their monopoly.  Griffin hints without actually saying that descendants of these five banking dynasties still control the Fed.  These are Morgan, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Warburg, and Kuhn-Loeb.

He says the Jekyll Island meeting had five objectives:  1. Stop the growing competition from the nation’s other banks;  2.  Obtain a franchise to create money through debt;  3.  Get control of all the banks’ reserves so the more reckless ones would not be exposed to currency drains and bank runs;  4.  Get taxpayers to cover the cartel’s losses;  5.  Convince Congress the purpose was to protect the public.

Chapter 2:  “The Name of the Game is Bailout.”  The crucial point is that all the money created through the banking system since the Federal Reserve Act is backed only by debt, primarily by Congress’ obligating taxpayers’ future earnings.  A defaulted loan, thereby, costs the bank little in tangible value.  Therefore, the goal is to continue receiving interest on the loan by lending more (future) money to cover it.  This is especially true with large loans.  With extremely large loans the cartel gets the federal government to guarantee the loan, should the borrower default.  If this tactic fails and the bank is forced into insolvency, the FDIC is used to pay off depositors.  Small banks pay disproportionately for this “insurance” and are least likely to be bailed out, should disaster hit.

Because money is created out of nothing for the purpose of lending, huge sums are dispersed through the economy, devaluing the existing currency and causing inflation.

Griffin does not say that the income tax, passed earlier in the same year, 1913, was the funding source by which the federal government would pay perpetual interest to the Fed on the national debt.  This method mirrored the 1790-1791 creation of the whiskey tax and the nation’s first central bank, a double whammy on taxpayers, devised by Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.  (This from Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow, 2004)

Chapter 3:  “Protectors of the Public.”  This chapter gives multiple examples of previous federal bailouts, beginning with Penn Central in 1970, Lockheed in 1970, the Commonwealth Bank of Detroit in 1974, New York City in 1975, Chrysler in 1978, the First Pennsylvania Bank of Philadelphia in 1979, and Chicago’s Continental Illinois in 1982.  Continental was the first electronic bank run.  It was the nation’s seventh largest bank at the time, with $42 billion in assets, with multiple loans out to high-risk business ventures and foreign governments.  Here the Federal Reserve becomes the “lender of last resort,” meaning it creates money out of nothing to cover, in this case, $4.5 billion in bad loans, and passing costs on to taxpayers in the form of inflation.

And this book has 26 chapters.  Stay tuned . . .