The Nature of the Current Financial Crisis: The System is designed to exert Total Control over the Lives of Individuals

Richard C. Cook
Global Research,
Sunday, May 10, 2009

What impresses me in the current financial crisis is the near-total failure of so-called progressives to appreciate the magnitude of what is going on or the level of intelligence behind it. How many will say, for instance, that the crash was deliberately engineered by the creation, then destruction, of the investment bubbles of the last decade?

When the financial system creates bubbles it drives up the cost of assets far beyond their true value in producing or storing wealth. When the bubbles burst the value of the assets plummets. Those with ready cash then buy them up on the cheap. When the dust settles more wealth has been concentrated in fewer hands. The rich get richer, and ordinary people are left in a deeper condition of indebtedness, poverty, and pressure to perform to the liking of the financial masters.

Progressives think the system needs to be “reformed.” Maybe the banking system needs to be re-regulated or even nationalized. Maybe it should be possible for families facing loss of their homes to get a lower monthly payment from a bankruptcy court. Maybe the government instead of the private sector should administer student loans.

What we fail to acknowledge is that the system itself is totalitarian. This means that it is designed to exert total control over the lives of individuals. We are accustomed to use this label when thinking of anachronisms of history like communism or fascism. We do not understand that globalist finance capitalism and the government which protects, enables, or even regulates it are also totalitarian.

What has happened in the last year as the financial system has seemingly gone belly-up, and is coming back only through massive government bailouts, is part of a pattern that has been around for decades if not centuries. How the controllers work was laid out in 1967 when Dial Press published a leaked copy of The Report from Iron Mountain. This was a study put together by a team of academics and analysts who met at the underground facility in New York that was home to the Hudson Institute.

The report began by identifying war as the central organizing principle of society. It stated, “War itself is the basic social system, within which other secondary modes of social organization conflict or conspire. It is the system which has governed most human societies of record, as it is today.”

The report said that, “The basic authority of a modern state over its people resides in its war powers.” It said that any failure of will by the ruling class could lead to “actual disestablishment of military institutions.” The effect on the system would be, the report said, “catastrophic.”

The appearance of the report caused a sensation when it came out at the onset of the Vietnam War. Officials within the government had no comment, and the report faded into history. But certain of its sections fit the situation in 2009 precisely.

This is because the report outlined the ways the civilian population of a developed nation could be controlled even in the absence of a large-scale war that disrupted their daily lives. One of these ways was defined as follows: “A…possible surrogate for the control of potential enemies of society is the reintroduction, in some form consistent with modern technology and political process, of slavery….The development of a sophisticated form of slavery may be an absolute prerequisite for social control….” (Cited in Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs, 2000.)

We see the development of such a “sophisticated form of slavery” today. What else can a system be called that subjects the population to skyrocketing personal and household debt, a widening gap between the rich and everyone else, constant warfare justified as necessary to fight “terrorism,” erosion of personal freedoms, constantly expanding power allocated to the military and police, pervasive electronic eavesdropping, complete lack of accountability by politicians for their dishonesty and crimes, a mass media devoted solely to establishment propaganda, etc.

None of this seems to be diminishing under the Barack Obama administration. Even the economic recovery Obama is attempting to engineer through massive Keynesian deficit spending is expected by economists to be another “jobless” one like that of 2002-2005. Of course the unemployed or those who fear unemployment are easy to control. And the permanent series of Asian land wars George W. Bush instigated for control of resources and geopolitical leverage against Russia and China continue unabated.

None of this is accidental. As The Report from Iron Mountain made clear four decades ago, it’s what has been planned all along.

carpet your house now

get new furniture now

now payments for 12 months


not only do they want yer money yer making now they want you to commit the money you might be making later

no wonder the economy is a mess

who would of thought that 4-5$ a gallon fuel would have created such havoc

yes i give at least 75% of the economy being as it is to record oil company profits (greed) sure barrel of oil went up but the cost of getting it to the pump did not go up at the same rate -- but they raised it enough for record profits

and those that could not afford to pay their bills and go to work and eat lost a lot due to the cost of going to work

if they spent 20$ a week to go to work that cost went up to 60$ a week thus ther disposable income was gone (if they had any)

thus they quit buying everything from a few beers at the bar to new tv, furniture, houses, and those people that bought now to pay later got put in the thumb screws

just a thought

but hey

what do i know

Wouldn't that require the Republicans and Democrats to work together? How likely it that?

they work together every day

what they let us see is slight of hand

both parties have the same agenda just slightly different ways of getting there

say it isn't so adj

i can say it isn't so

but that would not make it so

They are one and the same, can't you see that? They make you say slightly different things, but they both lead you to slavery.

Republican party never had any reason to exist, but now, it is found itself to have the same goals with Democratic party.

They are the two cops (good cop, bad cop), both of them have inextinguishable hate for you and are trying to destroy you.

As for the slavery, I realize this too. The modern slavery chains aren't made out of iron, but out of you beliefs that it is due to the goodness of your owner (government) that you even exist yourself.

Your slavery is that you are not allowed to make any more choices. Everything is decided for you. All you have is an illusion of choice, which is at first predetermined by the propaganda you believe, and secondly is limited by legal framework secondly, and thirdly, anything you do is dried down by extorting everything you possess or earn, except the liabilities, which your dimmer brothers mistake for assets.

Unlike the slaves of the past, today, they don't even raise their heads. There is no fire of freedom in their hearts. They are humans only by a biological similarity. Modern slaves are completely deserving of their situation.

Nogames states...



How so?

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

we will never learn... banks make most of their money now from lending it to people that can't afford to pay it back... get them into the system... what with the changes in bankcruptacy laws... who says slavery is dead...

How do they make money? Why would it be beneficial to do that? The only thing I can think of is as a way to keep their thumb on poor. Dangle carrot, tighten noose, emphasize bad credit, freeze ability to spend, cause fear and panic. Is there that much money at the top to have such power?

What makes one use credit card?

Because everyone wants to have the best life possible. Even the very poor. Status has become so important that those who couldn't earn it, borrowed it. And, the credit companies were more than willing to tell us that we could do it. Now that that has become apparent, they are using devious practices to milk those who do pay for all they can get.
True, the "f@ck it" attitude has become the norm. Defaulting has become the practice. But those who at less try to make amends are treated like crap by the credit companies. A total about face whether deserved or not.
This may not have been your experience, but it was the experience of many. Using credit is nothing new. People have successfully used it for decades. It got out of control. But you can't spend what you don't have. Is that good for the economy?
Gee, it felt good to get that off my chest!

So, they should not have extended the credit to the poor? Only to the rich?

that is how it used to work... although I think the words 'based on suitability' were used...

they make most of their money from individuals just maintaining their debt levels (repayment of interest component) with only small amounts usually repaying the loan itself etc..

Oh, yeah! I get that! Not so sure about the suitability thing. I think that some poor people are more suitable than some rich people, but, the expectations and ramifications should have been more clear. Poor people can't afford to get expert advice.
And, no, Nogames, it was not clear. I am a pretty responsible person, I bought into it. That's why I'm trying to learn more. Still, everybody wants to have the best they can get.

Thanks, HappyFella!