inspector in oz

Crow here. Ahh, back on the branch and ready to relate recent discoveries. There were a few close calls but I still have enough quills in my quiver to jot down a few notes and maybe give you a couple of surprises. Most of the following comes from a book called 'Web of Debt" by Ellen Hodgson Brown. Crows are smart but not known for economic literacy.

You've all heard of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Now I've never read it, since having eyes on the sides of my head doesn't make reading easy, but I have seen the movie. What I learned this week is that L. Frank Baum wrote the book as a parable of Populism and an economic allegory way back in 1900:

"The Wizard of Oz" . . . was written at a time when American society was consumed by the debate over the "financial question," that is, the creation and circulation of money. . . . The characters of "The Wizard of Oz" represented those deeply involved in the debate: the Scarecrow as the farmers, the Tin Woodman as the industrial workers, the Lion as silver advocate William Jennings Bryan and Dorothy as the archetypal American girl.

"The 1890s were plagued by an economic depression that was nearly as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. The farmers lived like serfs to the bankers, having mortgaged their farms, their equipment, and sometimes even the seeds they needed for planting. They were charged so much by a railroad cartel for shipping their products to market that they could have more costs and debts than profits. The farmers were as ignorant as the Scarecrow of banking policies; while in the cities, unemployed factory workers were as frozen as the Tin Woodman from the lack of a free-flowing supply of money to "oil" the wheels of industry. In the early 1890s, unemployment had reached 20 percent. The crime rate soared, families were torn apart, racial tensions boiled. The nation was in chaos. Radical party politics thrived.

"In every presidential election between 1872 and 1896, there was a third national party running on a platform of financial reform. Typically organized under the auspices of labor or farmer organizations, these were parties of the people rather than the banks. They advocated expanding the national currency to meet the needs of trade, reform of the banking system, and democratic control of the financial system."

Does this sound similar to the problems current in our time? It just goes to show that the international bankers managed to find (fund?) deep cover for themselves in the past hundred years but they're still very much here.

The Yellow Brick Road represented the gold standard which was a severely restricted commodity held by the international banks. The gold standard was what was used by them to keep money in short supply. The Populists preferred the idea of a silver standard since that metal was much easier to obtain and in the book Dorothy's shoes were silver (ruby was for the first movie in color). The Emerald City was green because it related to green paper money shackled to the gold standard. Overall, what the Populists wanted was that the government take back the right to issue the country's money supply. Nowadays only the coins we carry are public currency. The dollar bills, bank balances, and credit debt are all created by private banks writing in figures on their screens or in their ledgers. Every time a new loan is issued what they do is add a number to your account. The money doesn't come from anywhere else nor is it backed by anything visible in the real world. This is true everywhere.

Being a birdbrain means that although I'm quite capable of counting the eggs in my nest and knowing when one's missing, it's difficult to keep a count of everyone else's eggs and sparkly bits. I will keep up the investigations on your behalf as well as my own.