-- Posted Monday, 15 December 2008 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
By James West
In the United States, the FBI defines criminal enterprise as “a group of individuals with an identified hierarchy, or comparable structure, engaged in significant criminal activity.”
Meanwhile, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, or Title 18 of the United States Code, defines an enterprise as "any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity."
The question is this: If a government body knowingly enacts or influences the enactment of certain legislative items that will be known to facilitate acts that cause financial harm a citizen or citizens of the United States for no other reason than the enrichment of the enterprise acting thusly, would that not constitute a corrupt and immoral act, and should not that government body and its membership be indicted and tried for such crimes under the above mentioned statutes?
At the very least, should not such allegations be investigate by an independent congressional committee if sufficient evidence is presented to support such allegations?
That is one of the primary purposes of the documentary feature film now in development entitled Crime of the Century. (www.CrimeoftheCenturyMovie.com)
Our position is that the United States Federal Reserve and the United States Treasury have repeatedly acted in a manner that puts the interests of certain corporations and their shareholders above and beyond those of the United States public interest. We contend that this activity has been ongoing since the establishment of the United States Federal Reserve and the United States Banking Act in 1913, and furthermore contend that this activity constitutes violations of the RICO statute.
The historical manipulation of the price of gold is the fundamental crime in American monetary policy that promotes and obscures the U.S. Federal Reserve’s practice of issuing excessive amounts of dollars that are required to overcapitalize the economy – the inciting event that exacerbates exponentially the growth phase of normal business cycles.
When the environment of cheap credit that is the natural result of excessive liquidity encourages banks and other financial institutions to over-leverage themselves (the result of which is vast sums being wagered in the futures and derivatives markets, driving up commodity prices), the growth phase becomes exhausted. Consumers who are maxed out on credit and have two of everything stop buying, tripping the economy into a contraction phase, the duration of which will ultimately be equal to the time it takes to first de-leverage the financial institutions, re-value the offending nation’s currency, and then re-invigorate the now paralyzed economy with programs to inspire confidence and investment.
In the current crisis, and because the U.S. dollar has become the international reserve currency, this now applies to the international economy, and not just the United States, though the U.S. economy seems to represent the leading edge of these cycles.
The question as to whether the policy cycles that create abundant and easy credit at the beginning of the growth phase and consolidation of assets under banking interests in the middle of the contraction phase are criminal or merely incompetent requires the identification of motive, damage, and knowledge/intent. In the case of institutions who by their very existence are originated in the service of the American public, confirmation of any of these aspects could arguably constitute breach of the fiduciary responsibility by those who occupy top positions within those institutions.
The motive is easily seen through a historical examination of the benefits that accrue to the elite banking layer that exists above government and all other layers of the international financial system. With each and every major economic contraction that is typically associated with financial panic, major choice assets of the industrial complex undergo a shift in major ownership, with increasing proportions accruing to the banking and industrial elite.
The elimination of capacity across various industry segments results in serious benefits in the form of competition elimination for the surviving corporate entities, which in and of itself increases the value of the enhanced shareholdings. So the motive is profit of the criminal enterprise at the top of the food chain.
The question of the damage caused by this criminal enterprise is almost too obvious to warrant discussion, however, a brief summary of those would be diminished employment capacity across economic segments, heightened ratios of profit being directed to smaller portions of the population, diminished pricing efficiency, destruction of living standards across broad geographic areas as a result of plant closures, inflation and deflation, economic uncertainty and heightened public anxiety.
The question of knowledge and/or intent is similarly not in great need of discussion since its existence is so obvious. Considering the financial institutions implicated are the very entities that facilitate the movement of capital throughout the system, and provide the mechanisms by which the markets for almost everything of value is traded, it is impossible to infer that they can’t be fully cognizant of both the damage these policies cause, and the enrichment they provide to themselves.
Through investigative documenting of the numerous financial panics since the mid-1800’s, we plan to reveal a pattern of reckless disregard for the general economic welfare of the citizens of the United States in favor of the pursuit of self-enrichment of those behind both these financial and industrial institutions and the government offices they influence through sheer economic might.
Visit us at http://www.CrimeoftheCenturyMovie.com to learn more.
-- Posted Monday, 15 December 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
