I've seen Freedom to Fascism and I liked it. It's main point is that the IRS's claims on peoples income is simply illegal - since there is no law to enforce it.

When talking about central banking, it provides some clues but on the whole it is not very informative. A far better film on the subject of central banking is "Money, banking and the Federal Reserve" by the Mises Institute.

This documentary (42min.) has been posted on youtube recently, in three parts: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uEn4gK_j1CY

cheers,

Tuur

Here we go again, the conspiracy theories never end.
Just leave the economy to economists.

Perhaps the author should read wikipedia (Tax_protestors):

These arguments generally contain logical fallacies, selective interpretation of perceived syntactic ambiguity in statutes and cases, and convey a general misconception about the structure of the legal system and the operations of the government.

In another Seventh Circuit case, the Court observed:

Some people believe with great fervor preposterous things that just happen to coincide with their self-interest. 'Tax protesters' have convinced themselves that wages are not income, that only gold is money, that the Sixteenth Amendment is unconstitutional, and so on. These beliefs all lead — so tax protesters think — to the elimination of their obligation to pay taxes."

contrary to the beliefs of the uneducated, many credible and well-informed individuals have spoken about the danger of the federal reserve. this would include congressman ron paul (link) and congressman louis mcfadden (link).

freedom to fascism also warns about world government and the threat that it poses. that is a very real threat and the people of north america and europe really need to wake up to it.

i have faith though that at least in the united states, people are going to start waking up. the big wakeup call is going to be when there is another false flag attack used as a pretext to attack iran and take away more liberties. the pieces are all in place to declare martial law -- all that is needed is the right crisis, which, as history as shown us, can be manufactured.

kudos to you aaron for using your influence to help protect our liberties! lord knows mainstream media isn't going to do it for us.

I was not aware of the Freedom to Fascism and now after reading about it, I'm a bit curious to know more about it.
After going through all the information I'll be back and again share my views on it.

i watched it, it was interesting. i'm canadian, so none of it applies to me, but you gotta wonder about these things.

this is a great movie. i saw this for the first time about 2 weeks ago when a friend brought it over. he also recommended http://teamlaw.org/ a site that i have grown to enjoy.

"Here we go again, the conspiracy theories never end.
Just leave the economy to economists."

you just love labels, don't you. link me to your movie/documents/counter claims, please.

Aaron Russo certainly has a lot of interesting things to say.

There is a seperate video named "Aaron Russo Unplugged" where Aaron reveals a private conversion he had with David Rockefeller. David reveals that he funded the women's lib movement, and reveals the REAL reasons behind the elite sponsored movement.

Take a look at http://www.thevideosense.com/video/Aaron-Russo-Unplugged/

I'm always shocked by the number of economists reading your SEO blog, Aaron. Talk about diversifying your reader-base.

Hehe. This whole riff of yours cracks me up. I'm gonna watch it just to try and understand why you are into it. I'll get back to you when I finish.

saying brave things in the anonymity of the internet while surrendering your constitutional right with regards to the federal income tax is one thing having guts to stand up for your rights is another. So how many people here have the guts?:) or know someone that does?

Yes, some economists are into SEO too. But that doesn't mean we beleive that collecting taxes is fascism :O

Collecting taxes is not fascist, but collecting them and then doling them out to a private for profit corporation which is not audited, a monopoly, and does not even disclose who owns it...well that can be described as nothing but fascist.

I was in Europe earlier this decade and the Euro was worth less than 90 cents. That same Euro now trades at over $1.30. Try to tell me that is natural ebb and flow of value with a straight face.

Collecting taxes and doling them to monopolies is a regular practice here in Europe. It is not good for the economy but we also don't consider ourselves faschists.

The fluctiation of exchange rates is also nothing to worry about. Find me an economist who doesn't agree.

Why do people like to argue about economy so much.. I never argue about chemistry with chemists etc..

read this page: http://www.teamlaw.org/HistoryOutline.htm

the us goverment operates under a corporation of the same name that adopted our constitution as its "business plan" you could say

since the United States Government the corporation is not the government but instead a business, it can operate under contract law when it wants.

Excellent Post Aaron. I could go on and on about how this is right on the money, but you already get it. Your eyes are open.

Happy New Year!

Hi Economist
Drug companies sponsor medical text books, and certain bankers probably influence the text in your economics books. The following quote would be worth noting, in regard to your education...

Education is a system of imposed ignorance.

Bloomberg is trickling out the news... UAE will be dropping the dollar over the next 6 months. Nothing new to those who have been tuned in.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aaRvXaDjYX3U

Maybe Bloomberg is in on the Conspiracy also. Nah, they are just breaking the news gently.

Hi Aaron,

Look at http://www.ByeByeMissAmericanPie.com

Oh my, these movies and books are funny. I once saw a movie about a guy who claimed to be able to prove who killed JFK and that aliens were running the government and that there are "7 Banking Familys" that control all the money in the world. I am sure most peopole dont know it though because the government is keeping him silent - oh I mean the aliens... and the bankers.... one of which now works on Deal or No Deal.

This video could only be described as humorous in a limited number of scenarios

• you did not watch it, and are a comment troll
• your intelligence level is too low or attention span is too short to comprehend the information
• you are in one of those banking families, have virtually no morals, and realize how much you are screwing people over

Well, I did watch it. I just realize that sometimes the details get glossed over to make something seem like more of a big deal. Such as the video said that the US is forcing its citizens to have a national ID card - which 95% of the population already has (a state drivers license) and it also said that all newborn babies will be implanted with a tracking device.... I mean come on, thats just silly!

As far as banking goes, I do have a degree in Economics so I guess I just understand how our financial systems work and how important the Fed Reserve is to manaing a stable economny.

And for screwing people over - I dont know how my money in the bank hurts anyone. If it does, I am sure that you have more in the bank than I do (you already have $80 from me for this book) so are you not hurting people more than me?

If the federal reserve makes the economy more stable, then why were there 3 depressions (including the great depression) within the first 20 years of its existance? And all 3 depressions were associated with contractions in the money supply.

And while our country was suffering and many people were starving to death why was the fed sending money off to rebuild Germany?

I think the Money Masters is a better film than this Freedom to Fascism, but the guys who made the Money Masters were not as aggressive in marketing as they should be, and I should try to help them with that.

a *state* issued driver's license is extraordinarily different from a *national* ID card.

here's a bit about what's going to be stored on the card:

*****

At a minimum: name, birth date, sex, ID number, a digital photograph, address, and a "common machine-readable technology" that Homeland Security will decide on. The card must also sport "physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes."

Homeland Security is permitted to add additional requirements--such as a fingerprint or retinal scan--on top of those. We won't know for a while what these additional requirements will be.

*****

I am pretty sure the role of the Federal Reserve has evolved over the years - and I think there was a pretty big change after the Great Depression. Not sure though, I sold all my old econ textbooks.

You should realize that the Federal Reserve is independent of all other governemnt functions. So all they do is control the supply of money - they dont decide how to spend the governemnt's tax revenue such as sending it to Germany or spending it on social programs in the US.

If you are really interested in this topic, may I suggest the textbook: The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets. You can pick it up for $0.95 used on Amazon. I must warn you though- brew a pot of coffee because it is very boring.

the real issue is that when the US govt wants to borrow money they need to pay interest on their borrowings to the federal reserve. since the government is currently in a lot of debt (see the debt clock) this means that the US govt must pay interest on that debt to the bankers. this means that tax dollars go to the bankers.

if the US govt exercised the right to print currency backed by something (i.e. gold, silver, or some other asset owned by the country) then it might not have to borrow money, but rather could print additional money backed by its own assets, and thus would not have to "borrow" money from banks and pay debt on it with collected income tax. many suspect this was what president kennedy was trying to do with executive order 11110. this is also why many government officials with integrity have expressed disdain for the federal reserve, and for privately owned central (here are some quotes).

also worth noting in the "is federal income tax in the United States legal" debate is that there is already a judicial precedent established in which the courts have upheld that individuals do not have to pay federal income tax. see the IRS vs Kuglin case; here's a writeup on it.

remember the issue is is *federal* income tax legal -- this does not apply to corporate tax or state/local tax, which most everyone agrees is fully legal and necessary.

>As far as banking goes, I do have a degree in Economics so I guess I just understand how our financial systems work and how important the Fed Reserve is to managing a stable economy.

and there in lies the problem. By controlling the interest rates they determine how much the government needs to collect or how reliant the government is on their arbitrary debt based value system.

And as far as economic stability and inflation goes...the thing that controls inflation is the amount of currency in circulation. Since the government has to print currency to pay interest on debt to the federal reserve it means that the very existence of the federal reserve undermines the value of the currency they are allegedly protecting the value of.

Since people inside the federal reserve are generally already quite wealthy and tied to quite wealthy people they can also leverage their assets to bet on which way they predict markets will go based on insider information they have.

When the market grows or shrinks wealth is neither created or destroyed, merely transfered or consolidated.

> wealth is neither created or destroyed, merely transfered or consolidated.

Dont mistake wealth for money. When you created this website with your spare time and you made money and created wealth - how was wealth destroyed, transfered or consolidated? You tradded your knowledge with another person for their money. They now know how to do SEO and you now have money. Is one person worse off now?

> Since people inside the federal reserve are generally already quite wealthy and tied to quite wealthy people

You know enough people in the federal reserve to say "in general" they are all rich? Most people that study the economy are quite poor - and most of the people that work at the fed do this. I know because I interviewed there after I got my Econ Degree and my god is it a boring place. Its not like the bankers on the WaMU commercials eating shrimp cocktail for lunch.

> the real issue is that when the US govt wants to borrow money they need to pay interest on their borrowings to the federal reserve.

Wrong, the Federal Reserve does not own the debt - people who buy the bonds do. Even heard of a US Savings Bond? You loan the US Government money and get a bond and they US government pays the interest to you the owner of the bond, not the federal reserve.

> if the US govt exercised the right to print currency backed by something like gold

If this were true - as it was prior to 1970 - everytime someone found some gold in the ground, the wealth of the world went up. This is silly. Wealth was restricted by the amount of minerals in the ground - and not by the quality of goods and services and knowledge created.

Hi Brad
If my clients learned SEO and started ranking well then they displaced competing sites in the search results. Thus wealth was transfered.

Wrong, the Federal Reserve does not own the debt - people who buy the bonds do.

Why must the government issue bonds instead of currency? Where is the value add?

i do not necessarily think a currency needs to be backed by a physical asset, for reasons similar to what you suggested. when you allow someone else to print your economy's currency, though, you are putting yourself into debt (because you have to pay interest) rather than printing it yourself.

you are correct in the sense that the debt is "owned" by the bond owners, but as aaron suggested, the debt economy is fuelled greatly by the artifical cost of printing money.

for anyone interested in exploring the connection between the national public debt and the federal reserve, wikipedia actually has a nice section on it (at the time of this writing at least) which you can read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._public_debt#The_mechanics_of_US_Govern...

It's obvious the federal tax is a scam on the American people, but when we were duped into getting a Social Security number didn't we give up all our rights as state citizens and automatically become a citizen of Washington D.C.??
If that is true and we have a Social Security number, don't we HAVE to do what they say and in essence have no rights?
If that truly is the case, how can we possilbly stand up for what is constitutionally right without suffering dire consequences?
I'm still not clear if we have any rights left to fight for.

> If my clients learned SEO and started ranking well then they displaced competing sites in the search results. Thus wealth was transfered.

In this statement there are two things happening:

1. You taught someone how to do SEO and you were paid for it. Both parties in the transaction benefited. No one that took part in the transaction was hurt. No one was made poor. This is similer to a baseball coach teaching a player how to hit a ball. You just transformed your non-monetary wealth into monetary wealth.

2. There is a zero-sum game being played in google ranking. Meaning, one person must win and one person must lose. There is only a single Position 1. This is similer to a baseball game in which one team must lose and one must win (or a tie, but there is no tie in ranking on google). The person you showed how to do seo still knows how to do it - even if they didnt use the skill or didnt use the skill properly. They still know the skill and you, the coach, still got paid for teaching it.

In the economy and in society wealth is not a zero-sum game. When a person wins the lottery, they did not make someone else poor. When Warren Buffet got rich, he did not make other people poor. When I get paid, a poor person does not get screwed over.

This conversation is starting to be fun! ;-)

How can you say search is a zero sum game but other forms of wealth are not? Many content pages make people curious and make them want to search again to learn more. Will people who are uncertain of trusting you or I read this and yet do no more research on the topic?

Back to the Federal Reserve...

When you create an arbitrary value system, enforce it via taxes, jail people who do not comply, and charge interest for printing up your own value system then surely there are many externalities bearing the cost. One obvious example would be tax payers. Another example would be those reliant on social programs that were cut to make up for paying interest on a ballooning national debt. Many others exist as well, including some of the people in jail.

Surely you have heard of the term externality if you got a degree in economics.

And then there is the whole supply and demand aspect. As more money is printed, the relative value of each unit of currency is diminished. How else would you explain the differences between the value of different types of metal chunks or pieces of paper? Why does De Beers need to have a monopoly market position to maintain the perceived value of diamonds?

If the Federal Reserve is vital to economic stability then why did the great depression occur within 20 years of its formation? If the Federal Reserve causes such great stability then why has the exchange rate between the Dollar and the Euro went from under 90 cents to over $1.32 in the last 5 years?

I remember when I was telling friends years ago about federal wiretapping.

"Impossible! No way that's true!"

And now years later the cat's out of the bag.

How can one doubt there are more cats?