Analysis Of Zeitgeist : Addendum

“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered. ” (3) Jefferson knows that a national bank that printed its own money backed by coin is the only answer.

Life: Where do we come from? How did we get here? These are questions each one of us eventually asks ourselves and, in so doing, searches for the answers. It is intrinsically woven into us to know the basis of what sustains us. Why is it then, that the general public is satisfied in knowing only about current celebrity gossip and is content to remain ignorant when it comes to where our currency originates and how it is produced? Some may find it too confusing and overwhelming a subject about which to think. Is it possible that its perplexity is not by mistake? James Corbett mentions in his documentary, Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve, “Our monetary ignorance is artificial, a smokescreen that has been erected on purpose and perpetuated with the help of complicated systems and insufferable economic jargon.” (Corbett, J., 2014, July 6.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJeemTQ7Vk)

The penny is not worth as much as it used to be. In the 1940’s, a penny would get you to pieces of candy, but today you cannot buy anything with a single penny. These days, people don’t even take their time to bend down and pick up a penny that is laying on the side walk. In the story we read, the dad offered his shoe box full of pennies to his eight year old son, to wrap up in rolls of 50, but his son told him “Thanks, dad, but it isn’t worth it.” If its not worth the time an 8 year olds to wrap pennies, and put them in the bank, then why is US Government keep making them.

“Oh my god! Pennies should be rid of!” This is around the same quote you will come to realize is stuck in your head. The must get rid of the penny because it is expensive and has almost no value. In addition, it costs more than one penny to create one penny. The penny is also nearly unusable. Besides, all people do with them are keeping them in jars or carrying them around, not being able to use them because they get declined by several types of machines. For these reasons, pennies are worthless pieces of copper we can’t invest on.

Money is the crux of society. Without it, anarchy would break out. Bargaining would fail as people would claim the trade wasn’t fair, thievery would explode across the globe, lazy people would do nothing, and people wouldn’t have motivation to do anything but help their own family and selves. Yet, while everyone knows money is important, is ALL money important? For centuries, the penny has been part of American currency. And back in the day, it served a great purpose. Pennies could buy candies, breads, and many other things all on their own. But as time has changed, so has the value of the penny. As costs went up, the value of the penny went down. And with its lesser value, some people wonder if it’s even worth it to keep the penny around. But the answer to that little puzzle is as easily seen as a jigsaw meant for four years olds is put together. The penny must be kept.

Once off the gold standard, the Federal Reserve became free to engage in such money creation, because the gold standard limited the flexibility of the central banks' monetary policy by limiting their ability to expand the money supply. In the US, the Federal Reserve was required by law to have gold backing 40% of its demand notes. Now free of the gold standards restrictions, all it takes to create money or lend money is typing numbers into a computer. No limit to the creation of currency results in debt that becomes hard to control, and that’s exactly what has happened, and the proof is today’s economy. Right now, the United States’ debt equals approximately $17.075 trillion.

Today, Congress no longer prints money. It has given that power over to the FRB. Whenever Congress needs money, they cannot print up the amount they need. If they could, the national debt would be zero because we cannot owe money to ourselves. Instead, when Congress needs 1 billion dollars, they coordinate with the FRB to print 1 billion dollars out of thin air. Now, what does Congress give the FRB in exchange? The FRB receives 1 billion dollars in “Treasury Bonds” which are, more or less, an IOU. Treasury notes themselves hold no value, just something to say “I’ll pay you back”. Now, this is not necessarily the problem. The problem lies in an aspect of our financial system known as “Fractional Reserve Banking”. The money that is deposited into banks becomes part of the bank’s reserves until transacted again. As stated in Modern Money Mechanics (MMM), when money is deposited, the bank must adhere to the reserve requirements. “It must maintain legally required reserves … equal to a prescribed percentage of its deposits” (MMM). It later states, “Under current regulations, the reserve requirement against most transactions is 10%” (MMM). For example, when $1000 is borrowed from the FRB that means $1100 dollars (initially) must be paid back. The $1000 dollars is deposited into another bank. This bank must adhere to the regulations, and keep 10% on reserves and can only lend out $900 and keep $100 dollars

The political debate over the currency—tight money versus easy money—had equally bewildered early historians. Many Gilded Age farmers favored inflation to counteract the growing value of their debts after wheat and cotton prices nose-dived; some businessmen also liked easy money because low interest rates enabled them to expand operations. This issue tended to pit Westerners and Southerners, who needed cash for economic development, against the East, but it also had a powerful moral component. Those who favored a currency based on some intrinsic value such as gold stood divided from those who saw money as a flexible device for regulating the nation’s economic health. In the broadest sense, the currency debate highlighted the complexity of the national economy and the growing difference of opinion over the role of government in it. In 1964 Irwin Unger elucidated the subject in a Pulitzer Prize-winning analysis, The Greenback

On the off chance that the public does not trust this, simply go out in the city and ask general individuals where cash originates from. This is the reason it is so critical to get individuals taught. Imagine that most Americans would be sickened to discover that the making of more cash in the framework additionally includes the production of more obligation. At the point when the U.S. government concludes that it needs to spend another billion dollars that it doesn't have, it doesn't print up a billion dollars. Or maybe, the U.S. government makes a pack of U.S. Treasury bonds (obligation) and takes them over to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve makes a billion dollars out of nowhere and trades them for the U.S. Treasury bonds. The U.S. Treasury securities that the Federal Reserve gets in return for the cash it has made out of nothing are sold through the Federal Reserve framework. Be that as it may, hold up, there is an issue. Since the U.S. government must pay enthusiasm on the Treasury securities, the measure of obligation that has been made by this exchange is more noteworthy than the measure of cash that has been made (Adrian and Shin

There are people in this world who think that money can give them anything. This can be food to water to ease and joy. Consequently, they comprehend that money will have a life filled with ease and happiness. But what you don’t visualize is that building these thoughts will lead to an obsessive, joyless, person going the extra mile to get that cash. Why this is unacceptable I might add is where is the ease and the joy you endured obsessively to have? Suffering long hours so you have ease but have no time to rest. Tolerating days of labor to find happiness, but find yourself empty when you have nothing to show yourself for it. D.H. Lawrence demonstrates this perfectly in his short story by including foreshadowing and symbolism, “The Rocking

The Zeitgeist approach to history is the “effort to capture the spirit of an age” (p.55). Zeitgeist suggests a common mood during a certain time and place. It emerged as a method in the 19th century as a way for historians to “fathom their feelings and project their own convictions onto the historical characters they wrote about” (p.55).

In Rocking Horse Winner Lawrence brings up some questions about economics. In the story the little boys mother tells her son that they aren’t lucky because they don’t have any money. Even though the family has money they don't have enough for how they are choosing to live. To their family money matters. “Money is essential for living, but insufficient for striving”(Tatzel). This quote states that money indeed is important to survive but you don't need a lot, just enough to get you by. In the story the mom wants more. She is never happy with how much she has, because she doesn't have enough. In the story children hear the house speaking to them saying “there must be more money”(pg.1248). This is proving that there are economic questions a rising. The

happens to be on the screen. We even see them in the millions of ads

In Friedman’s monetarist construct of money has two side that is highly active. One of the side is money is being the cause of all failures and asymmetries in the economy (in the short term). The other side is neutral which money is influencing only the price level (in the long term). The nominal quantity of money is determined by its supply. On the other hand, the real volume of the money stock is expressed in the amount of goods and services that can be acquired for a given nominal amount of money and is conditioned by the demand for money, which is directly related to the price level.

It is effortless to spend a vast amount of currency that was not intended, so, now we try to learn to recognize this impulse. Not an easy task to master, but it is essential for a healthier lifestyle. Therefore, we ask ourselves before the purchase, do I really need this? Is this item going to be used right away or will it collect dust? It is not a profitable item if it becomes stored away in an area taking up space? Americans do not have to pay out what they do not have and end up in debt just, so others profit.