Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth about Our Money System and How We Can Break Free Paperback – Illustrated, January 1, 2012

In short, READ WEB OF DEBT. Sorry for the long-winded review but I love this topic and this book. Web of Debt is an excellent, clearly written, compelling, and eminently readable work. Author Ellen Hodgson Brown, who has plenty of personal experience seeing how the web of debt has destroyed the so-called Third World, presents us with a broad ranging discussion of monetary history and policy and how we got where we are today. In a gripping and engaging fashion, using The Wizard of Oz as the parable, and a blood-sucking spider as metaphor, with Rockefeller as current Master Spider, Brown has simplified a topic considered dry, confusing and until now, beyond human ken by most of us. I could not put this book down, and I have the bags under my eyes to prove it! Web of Debt almost reads like a novel because of the colorful characters and plots that make up the account. Interestingly, I never realized L. Frank Baum's masterpiece was really a populist economic and political parable. Each chapter, each story, each statistic is more jaw-dropping, more eye-popping than the last. At times I felt like I was developing some sort of palsy, constantly shaking my head. I knew some things about the Fed, fiat currency and the shady history and dealings of Wall Street, but this book put so much more into perspective for me, and provides the background from which we can understand and explore further the evolution and practices of the U.S. banking and finance system. This is a fascinating subject and I urge all of you to not only read this book, but anything on the subject, such as Zarlenga's The Lost Science of Money, which I have just ordered, and Shock Doctrine and Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Also, watch "America: Freedom to Fascism" and "Money Masters." Forewarned is forearmed. As Brown shares, this was once a topic that engaged Americans from all walks of life. Whole political parties once formed around the issue of monetary reform. Money touches us all, and you need to understand how it works, and more importantly, who CONTROLS it. Learn why the moneychangers have been reviled and exiled throughout history and how insidious, parasitic, and manipulative this sector of society, essentially a mafia, with the IRS as its "muscle," has become at the expense of common, uninformed people. We need to realize a few things; first, the Federal Reserve System is scamus ultimatus, b/c is it not Federal and there are little if no reserves. All money issued by the Fed is money that is loaned into existence, with the interest payable to a private banking cartel. Therefore there is never enough money in the system to pay the interest. It is known as the "impossible contract." The Federal Reserve Act was deceptively approved and signed by Woodrow Wilson in 1913. It illegally abdicates Congress's sole responsibility to coin and regulate the money supply to a private banking cartel owned by the largest member banks (and families) in the country and the world. It operates in secrecy, has never been thoroughly audited, answers to no one, and is owned by the richest of the rich, and that includes foreign investors! There is a very useful chart on who owns the Fed (a little outdated but enlightening nonetheless)[...]. Ellen Brown also recently posted an article here: [...]%3F.html. Understand that there is, nor has there ever been such thing as a "free market," unless you want to argue for whom it is free. The boom and bust cycles the corporate owned media like to attribute to the ever mysterious "business cycle" are really orchestrated, perhaps loosely but nevertheless planned events designed to transfer massive amounts of wealth from a country's economy into the hands of the wealthiest 1% or less (who own 50% of all the wealth!); inflation is another method (read: tax) they use to accomplish the same feat. These gigantic institutional investment funds can destroy entire countries by blowing up their currency, or target an industry or corporation for takeover in a heartbeat by dumping stock and short-selling enormously leveraged positions. Ma and Pa Investor is mere flotsam and jetsam. Brown uses the analog of the dog with fleas. Guess who are the parasites? It's time to apply our Constitutional "Advantage." How interesting is it that each President that has tried to stand up to the Banking Cartel has been assassinated (i.e., Lincoln, Garfield, Kennedy)? Americans are always being counted among the most productive and hard working people on Earth. So why is it we are the most debt-ridden, suffering the largest income gaps, the most foreclosed on, the most bankrupt and taking the entire world with us, have the least savings, the worst education and health care system, and, thank you very much, are the most militaristic society in modern times? It can all, one way or another, be traced to the banking cartel's private issuance of our money supply and their kleptocratic system known as fractional reserve banking. If we expect to survive as a society, we must act now to take back the power of the coin, which is Congress' Constitutional mandate (Art. I, Section 8).Brown has done America a huge service in adding clarity and timeliness to the much needed and current hot topic of our economic well-being. I'm not sure, but I think this book went to press about a year ago, and feels as fresh as if it was written last month because everything is happening as feared. The economy is sinking quickly into a black hole. The new administration is making no noise about true banking reform. In fact, the Fed appears to have controlled the discussion by having its own leadership joining the administration, such as the head of the NY Fed Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secty. Nice going, Obama, there's some change Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan can believe in! Give the junkies the keys to the medicine cabinet. They are just going to pump more debt upon us while saving their own skins. This time I think even they are scared that they may have slaughtered the goose and we're all going down the rathole together, but you know they will survive unless we change the rules. It seems clear that the banking elites would rather take us all down with them then relinquish their death grip on our world economy. We have some alternatives to debt money but we need a national currency backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Govt (people). As Glenda the Good Witch says to Dorothy, you've had the power all along, you just didn't know it. We have the power, and we can turn this thing around in short order if we a) hold Congress accountable, and b) make them phase out Federal Reserve DEBT dollars and replace them with good old Greenbacks. I agree with those that believe specie-backed currency is a blind alley which can only lead to further ruin. Gold is a commodity and can be easily manipulated. If payments are to be made in gold, what happens when we have to make our foreign obligations in gold, what happens when we run out of it? If interest is paid in gold, eventually the lender gets all the gold. Under the Greenback system, the government spends money into circulation, debt free. Interest is paid back into the Treasury, reducing the need for taxes. The argument that the government will just flood the economy with paper is as worthless as Fed notes. What has the FED been doing for 100 years? Leave Austrian economics to the Austrians. Ron Paul, while I respect him for some things, has it wrong. Most of his followers blindly accept this "sound money" gold backed currency concept without investigation. And laissez faire doesn't work; banks and capitalism need regulation, and a pen to play in (some of these bankers need a penitentiary!).Anyway, read the book, it's great!

This is a great book I would encourage anyone to read. I liked it for the history of money, recognizing the criminal nature of our money system, relating money to Wizard of Oz, examples of working fiat money systems and a collection of proposed solutions. It is a combination of research with selected analysis. Others have already outlined the contents, so I will just comment on areas I think the book could be improved upon.It is useful to read the one-star criticisms but one needs to realize how incompetent most of their criticism is. Yet it is also important to see their valid points as well. It is important to grasp that a fiat system CAN work. But it can also fail with massive inflation unless rules are followed that prohibit the kind of reckless money expansion that we now have. I feel that point was not stressed enough.The criticism that the author is a socialist is unfounded, but a fair concern. After all, if a government can freely finance roads and bridges, it can also build auto factories, electric utilities, etc. and hence produce a socialist state and eliminate free enterprise. There is certainly a fine line to walk once you presume funding is limitless. But I never got the impression that this was being advocated. The required rules to prevent inflation were mentioned, but could be easily overlooked with all the info provided in the book.I used to be a "gold bug", thinking that the only stable money was gold/silver. While I would still argue emitting bills of credit should require a constitutional amendment, there is no doubt that our current legal system accepts fiat currency as legal tender. As an advocate of voluntary consent, I feel gold and silver are the only money that would be voluntarily accepted. Fiat currency requires force which is in opposition to my opinion that the greatest liberty we have lost is voluntary consent. Thus I think there must be money of substance used along side money of credit/trust. I didn't feel this was addressed well enough in the book.So one of the biggest points must begin with the definition of money. Is it credit (requiring trust or force) or is it commodity (having intrinsic value.) I think the book makes a good case for the benefit of money that is credit. My first introduction to money as credit was from reading articles by Richard C Cook. I think this book would have equally opened my eyes. Yet it will not for die-hard gold bugs.The topic of usury/interest is not addressed very well. I would point to S.C. Mooney's book Usury, Destroyer of Nations (no longer in print). The author seems to claim that only Islam had moral objections. In fact Christianity did (which also led to the expulsion of the money changers - aka the Jews - in most of Europe.) But with the Protestant Reformation, the understanding of the evils of interest were forgotten. (The word 'interest' was added to the English language to avoid the biblical condemnation of 'usury'. Noah Webster argued one should recognize the two words as the same.) But mathematically, any perpetual interest ultimately causes collapse (actually just a transfer of wealth) - unless the rate is never greater than the growth rate of population and productivity. I would argue all debt is fundamentally immoral and destructive and should not be part of a solution. But that certainly makes aggressive growth difficult. But is that a bad thing? Still, the point is to have all debt extinguishable. Currently in our system, no debt = no money.One basic flaw in a gold/silver only money position is the fact that both labor and commodity money are not completely fluid. This is required if one is to postulate that prices will always find their level. It is obvious this has not happened even with the very fluid debt money that we have, as was pointed out in the book. After acknowledging that, some of my still gold-bug friends simply say, that's life, too bad. Even if it means families starve. There's always private charity. Therein lies my biggest complaint with gold-bugs - an absence of compassion with the desire to be free. On the flip side is the threat of tyranny. Lincoln, Hitler and others that have used fiat money successfully are also known for their tyrannical dispositions. Therein lies my biggest criticism of the book. It fails to recognize the good and bad in both positions to assist readers in properly evaluating proposed solutions. But then the biggest point is the crime of our debt money system which must be replaced. Either gold or debt free fiat money could solve a lot of problems.Nevertheless, this is an excellent book to begin one's study of viable solutions to the criminal money industry that now exists.

Arrived early, thank you seller!!! The book is in perfect condition. It's also an excellent work by Ms. Brown! A REAL EYEOPENER!!! It's an education, that's for sure! Thank you Ms. Brown for you work!

The Web of Debt by Ellen Hodgson BrownReview: WmsThe author here recounts the economic history of the U.S. It is straightforward. No deep insights are offered. It is surprising how Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Fed, is almost missing from the litany. He was arguably the second most powerful man in Washington for 19 years. He expounded the wisdom of Ayn Rand that some people take seriously.Alan always appeared on television as running with a sheaf of papers under his arm. He looked always serious as if he were running to an earth-shattering meeting. It was an illusion, a PR move. The web of debt appeared after about 1980 showing a high correlation to his being in town. He certainly shared a great deal of responsibility for the fiasco.I particularly liked the author's use of the Wizard of Oz metaphor. Dorothy's team pulled back the screen and there stood Hollywood's old Frank Morgan pulling levers. He was only an engineer making the world seem magical. His levers and meters were the technology of Oz. It determined the wealth of Oz and the Emerald City.The technology of Oz produced wealth and determined the standard of living just as it does in our time. Wall Street does not produce wealth and it now fails its fundamental objective to allocate resources in a rational manner.This is a well written, thoughtful book. It is well worth reading. I recommend it.