| The economic drum I have been beating for a while | | | | shuttle Challenger, the flaws that led to the explosion |
| now has gone mainstream as the "R" word, | | | | in January 1986 which killed seven astronauts and |
| recession, rolls off the tongues of almost every | | | | changed the U.S. space program forever. In January |
| news broadcaster. Suddenly, or so it seems, the | | | | 2007 Cook published Challenger Revealed: An Insider's |
| economy is tanking. Sure the housing market was | | | | Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused |
| already sliding but Christmas season provided a | | | | the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age. (Thunder's |
| pregnant pause in hopes that increased consumer | | | | Mouth Press, New York) |
| consumption might save the day. | | | | In December, he invited me to write the introduction |
| But those kinder and gentler days are over. Right out | | | | to his first economic book soon to be published; a |
| of the 2008 gate, the "R" word came roaring | | | | compilation of 22 essays written over the course of |
| shamelessly into our living rooms with major Wall | | | | 2007 titled: We Hold These Truths: the Hope of |
| Street sell-offs catching everyone's attention. | | | | Monetary Reform. In it the author exposes the |
| Yet, as I mentioned in the beginning, many writers | | | | fatal-design flaw of a monetary system that is |
| and thinkers including myself have seen the writing on | | | | debt-based and privately owned. More importantly, |
| the wall and this day coming down the pike since the | | | | he provides a new economic vision and practical |
| good-old dot com bubble of 10 years ago. How could | | | | model that benefits all concerned and not only for an |
| that be? | | | | elite group of shareholders. |
| There's no crystal ball and it's not rocket science | | | | After Cook read my own book, The Quality Life Plan: |
| once a person wraps their mind around how money | | | | 7 Steps to Uncommon Financial Security,he endorsed |
| works in the context of a monetary system. James | | | | my off-the grid personal finance approach as some |
| Carville, Bill Clinton's political strategist in the 1992 | | | | of the best stop-gap measures individuals and families |
| election, placed a sign over his desk in the Little Rock | | | | can apply right now to reduce the impact of a |
| headquarters: 'It's the economy, Stupid!' The sign | | | | debt-based monetary system: A system that |
| answered the often asked question: What is the | | | | ultimately leads to debt-slavery. Similar to the fact |
| campaign about? Though a catchy slogan, our current | | | | that until recently most doctors did not have nutrition |
| economic state of affairs would be more aptly put | | | | as part of their pre-med curriculum, nor have most |
| as: It's the system, stupid! | | | | traditional financial planners ever heard of or learned |
| The Bush administration's proposed economic stimulus | | | | about the link between personal finance and the |
| package will be a short-term fix at best on an | | | | implications of a debt-based monetary system. The |
| unrecoverable monetary system; the blueprint of | | | | result? Conventional wisdom has not stopped the |
| which was designed to obscenely benefit a few while | | | | bleeding and life on the edge has become the new |
| extracting wealth from everyone else. In addition, | | | | norm. Until Cook's vision of genuine economic |
| none of the mainstream presidential candidates have | | | | democracy becomes reality, we are left on our own |
| more than some new version of the same-old tax | | | | to empower ourselves with personal finance |
| and entitlement-type reforms to offer, that is except | | | | strategies and tactics that can reverse negative |
| for Ron Paul who has recently lost visibility. | | | | trends. |
| You might want to read my colleague Richard C. | | | | If the time has truly come to transform the |
| Cook's articles at Global As far as I'm concerned, | | | | monetary system, it's up to the grassroots of |
| Cook is the man with the big-picture-economic plan. | | | | America, not the powers that be, to make it happen. |
| It's a plan informed by 32 years of practical | | | | The journey begins as each of us wake up and smell |
| experience with US public finance including his 21 | | | | the deception of the system we already have. |
| years in the Treasury Department and based on | | | | Charles Mackey 19th century Scottish journalist said, |
| knowing how a debt-based monetary system has | | | | "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be |
| wrecked the US producing economy and threatens | | | | seen that they go mad in herds, while they only |
| to destroy the world and mankind. Plus, he has | | | | recover their senses slowly, and one by one." To this |
| already won his stripes as a whistleblower given his | | | | end, Paul Grignon's excellent 47-minute animated film, |
| career as the analyst who back in 1986 blew the | | | | Money as Debt is an enjoyable crash course on the |
| whistle on NASA for having known for years about | | | | truth about money. I highly recommend it. Let the |
| the flaws in the O-ring joint that doomed the space | | | | revolution begin! |