Inflation and Loss of Freedom

By Elder George

The Federal Reserve has a primary responsibility to maintain stable purchasing power by fighting inflation. When inflation goes up the FR tightens credit by raising interest rates, when inflation goes down, the FR loosens credit by lowering interest rates.

Now the Federal Reserve has changed direction and lowered interest rates while inflation has increased. Factories hiked prices on wholesale goods in January at an annualized rate of 12%. The people who live on fixed income retirement are seeing the value of their incomes diluted by inflation. The stock market on the other hand, which Mr. Bernanke seems so concerned about, witnessed a rise in the Dow-Jones average from 3,000 during the middle of the housing slump of 15 years ago to an average of more than 12,000 today. That’s a four-fold increase for the investor. No job classification increased in salary four-fold since then; not even baseball players have seen incomes increase at that rate. Whose interests does Fed Chief Ben Bernanke serve?

Mr. Bernanke’s discount rates are designed to help the bankers, those same bankers who engineered and supported the high-risk real estate boom that has collapsed everywhere. He is doing this at the expense of the populace, especially those on fixed incomes.

Before Mr. Bernanke took over his job as Fed Chairman I read an assessment of him that indicated he would favor inflation over recession, and he is indeed doing just that. Lowering interest rates as inflation climbs reduces the purchasing power of people and makes them increasingly dependent upon government largesse. Whether thorough intent or ignorance, inflation serves as vehicle to take away from people what they earned. It is an evil practice that those who believe in a one-world government have no difficulty in supporting.

Inflation results from an uncontrollable desire to accumulate material possessions, whether through capitalism or socialism. When people work solely for the purpose of making money greed and evil are bound to ensue. The purpose of employment is to provide a means for the propagation and preservation of the race. When it becomes an action for personal gain and aggrandizement excess cannot be avoided and booms and busts in the economy will occur. Also fraud, cheating, misrepresentations, and theft will follow. We have seen during the past few years CEOs of various companies imprisoned for their greed. We are in the process of seeing that happen to sports figures. It happens on a frequent basis to our politicians. Since ethics do not exist in a materialistic society to guide people in their conduct, the government enacts increasing numbers of laws to regulate the making of money. These laws in conjunction with the inflation that eradicates the purchasing power of people and makes them increasingly dependent upon the state, serves to enslave them further.

There is no way to “fix” a materially oriented society to make it work better. Materialism is unnatural, and always destroys itself. Only the spirit is eternal. Western society is in the midst of its collapse; however, before the collapse finalizes there will be a continued infringement on our liberties through economic and legal means. Be prepared for the worst, but live secure in the knowledge that spirit will prevail.

I had originally concluded this article with a request that you contact your congressmen about inflation, but I realized that would be asking you to take steps to “fix” what I said was unfixable. Better to use that same amount of time to read Surat Baqara (2), and meditate on the words concerning usury.

Elder George’s website is www.mensaction.net and he can be reached at 212-874-7900 ext. 1329.

10-11