Simon Black, a usually astute advisor offering internationalisation advice (mainly to his USA audience) makes more observations on BITcoin and Ether and in the process shows those of us who actually understand the nature of money what’s wrong. Viewing money as a commodity, when it’s not – it is only ever truly a measurement.

Simon needs to read my book Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers. I’ve said it repeatedly from its outset . . . BITcoin = Tulips. Period. Add in Ether as well, now that he’s started talking about that one too.

Let’s dive into Simon’s wisdom then:

June 23, 2017

Lugano, Switzerland

This morning I had the pleasure of spending an hour of my life tracking down a missing wire transfer that had been sent to a large, multinational bank more than two weeks ago.

I’m sure you’ve been there, being passed around various departments like the village bicycle, each time having to re-explain the entire situation to someone brand new.

Finally someone found the missing funds, and the person told me me they would release the money later today. But that it would still take 3-5 business days for the funds to hit the recipient’s account.

This is infuriating. It’s 2017. Seriously. It’s not like they have to load a pallet full of cash onto a cargo ship and float it across the ocean.

Banking is completely digital now, and transfers should be instantaneous. At most it shouldn’t take longer than a few hours.

They say that time is money! More time, more money! Crazy, I know but that’s what interest does – twist reality.

As we hung up the phone I thought, “I can [he means “can’t”] wait for cryptofinance to put you guys out of business.”

It’s true. There’s going to come a day when financial technology eradicates the entire banking system and renders it as obsolete as blacksmiths pounding on horseshoes.

No Simon – this will never happen. Let me explain why . . .

The core of the banking system is controlled. It is a system established for and manipulated by TPTB. When you control things the first thing you do is ensure that your control is secure, for lack of control means eventually loss of control. The people who have control of the money systems use it to buy the loyalty of the people with political power who legislate that very control to remain. Yes there will be cosmetic changes to how we do things – like online as opposed to a physical bank but the core system will always remain structurally the same until it implodes globally.

Now you are right that technology has affected every other aspect of life and business but this is bar one – finance, and it is for the reason I have just explained. Cryptofinance will NOT put TPTB out of business. Cryptofinance can and will be used BY TPTB. It will be, if it is not already controlled BY TPTB. BITcoins can be bought and sold, therefore it is entirely possible that BITcoins are already being manipulated for profit by TPTB. Can anyone prove that BITcoin is not a creation OF TPTB? No.

Sending money overseas through the banking system can take several days and cost $20, $50, even $200 or more.

And while cryptocurrency transfers over the blockchain are taking longer today than they used it, transactions are still settled in a few hours, sometimes just a few minutes.

Transfer costs across the blockchain have increased as well. But you’re still talking about a dollar or less.

Compared to the conventional banking system, transferring funds via the blockchain is much more efficient.

The same goes with savings; it’s possible to deposit money directly within the blockchain instead of the banking system. No more fees, no more hassles.

Yes, the Blockchain is a technology that can be used as an alternative, alongside and potentially replacing some aspects of the monetary system but the technology per se doesn’t change the fundamental point that the global financial system is fully controlled.

And as long as you take the proper safeguards (just as you would take safeguards to protect your online bank account), holding funds in the blockchain is perfectly safe.

Nonsense, if Simon is talking about BITcoin or BITcoin clones. It was perfectly safe to hold funds in tulips too at one stage! Now the same rules apply to USD or Yen or Euros too – safety and holding funds do not go together.

But… it’s not all rainbows and buttercups in the world of cryptofinance. This is a nascent concept, and plenty of unresolved challenges remain.

For starters– complexity.

Bitcoin has clearly become more user-friendly in its eight years of existence, and the other cryptocurrencies and blockchains will certainly follow that trend.

But if you look at Ethereum, right now the world’s second biggest blockchain platform, you need to be a HIGHLY experienced software developer in order to create one of its ‘smart contracts’.

This is a peripheral issue. The backing of the currency is the critical thing, not ease of use. Ease of use relates to takeup not the nature of the core currency. Governments legislate the use of [say] the USD for taxation which ensures widespread takeup of Legal Tender. It is only easier to use cash by way of [say] the USD because everybody uses it – they HAVE to. If governments legislated gumboots as a currency required to pay taxes, then no matter how complex it was to manufacture them, keep them and use them, the people would. This is a peripheral issue.

Then there’s the issue of volatility… which may be the single biggest impediment to cryptocurrency adoption.

Again, look at the Ether token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain; on January 1st of this year the Ether price was less than $10. Today it’s nearly $350.

That’s a 35x jump in just over six months.

It’s hard to find another asset with that sort of performance. Ever.

Even John Law’s doomed Mississippi Company stock in the 1700s only increased 20x in a year.

In fact, Ether has outperformed the 17th century Dutch tulip bubble, the 18th century South Sea Bubble, and the 20th century dot-com bubble.

With cryptocurrency, the swings are violent in both directions. It’s NOTHING for Bitcoin or Ether to move up/down 10% in a single week. That level of volatility is almost expected now.

Again, this is a problem– volatility is a major hurdle to adoption.

Simon is like a man with his pants on fire, screaming, “Fire, fire, fire!” and then pointing at somebody else. The volatility that he reports here is proof positive that there is tulip mania based on hot air! The expectation of volatility is the very thing that drives human behaviour to move in the wrong direction, viewing the currency as a commodity, something that has value in and of itself. It (money or a currency) is viewed like a potato, that is grown and then dug up. This is insane.

Cryptocurrencies (BITcoin or Ether or any of them) not only cause us to believe that their “something” has real value when it is only perceived value (all based on the bigger sucker theory, that some bigger sucker will come along and pay more for it) but they cause us to totally miss the point, that a currency is a measurement system. Nothing more. Nothing less.

There is no volatility in a litre, although the volatility in the price of milk can go up or down as it goes from fresh, creamy and drinkable to rancid or cheese.

There is no volatility in a kilogram, although the volatility in the price of a kg of iron, lead or silver can go up or down as it is used or needed in different circumstances.

The only reason that there is volatility in a unit of currency is that it isn’t real money (a measurement), it is a derivative of the real money, where there is an associated [hidden] debt to it. We are deliberately deceived into believing that money is a commodity (thus in limited supply) when it is not. It is only ever a measurement, literally and technically a record of a half completed transaction.

This is the core message of my book Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers.

As an example, big retailers (like Wal Mart) have razor-thin profit margins of less than 3%.

So if Wal Mart were to accept Bitcoin, it’s entirely possible that the Bitcoin price could drop more than 3% before Wal Mart converts the Bitcoin to US dollars… meaning Wal Mart would either lose money or pass the excess cost onto the consumer.

Either way, someone’s paying for the volatility.

Long-term, these challenges are likely going to be solved. Cryptocurrency has only been around for a few years– it needs more time.

Wrong. The fundamentals of money will not change over time. A litre in 100 years will still be a litre. A kilogram of salt will still weigh the same as a kilogram of butter, steel, iron or lead in 100 years. A BITcoin will always be nothing but a digital [something] that only has as much value as the suckers of the day believe it will.

I look at something like the Swiss franc, which is 167 years old and used by roughly 8.5 million people within a very tiny geography.

The total market size of the Swiss franc is about $1 trillion based on the central bank’s most recent statement of M3 money supply.

By contrast, the combined market size of Ether and Bitcoin (the two largest cryptocurrencies), is about $75 billion.

Yet their user bases already exceed 15 million with absolutely no geographic limitations. And they’re growing every day.

So what? The USD is worthless on paper, backed by Uncle Sam’s word which is somewhere between 99% and 100% BS . . . so?

Usage or no usage does not change the fundamentals.

The Swiss franc, of course, has minimal volatility and zero complexity.

This is why economists don’t agree – they can never agree because it’s like arguing which colour is bigger. Colours don’t have a size! Likewise with digital bits and bytes – they cannot have a value unless somebody misconstrues reality, and then of course you have perceived value, volatility and so on.

So it stands to reason that when these remaining challenges for cryptocurrency are solved, their supply/demand fundamentals could support prices that are far higher than today’s.

The first assumption is rubbish. Simon is a fool to worship the cryptocurrency thing. Unless he takes his blinkers off, in a hundred years he will still be making excuses and trying to work out why the cryptocurrencies of the day keep inflating and booming and busting all over the place. It’s because they are not real money. They are just tulips.

But not yet. There’s still plenty of uncertainty, and a ton of work to do.

Yes, trying to educate financial fools like Simon Black (or whatever his real name is) to understand the reality of what money actually is . . . and he of all people, a real thought leader in the industry, out there making things happen for others, should grapple with the basics related to money, ASAP.

For now try to ignore the hype… and the spiraling prices.

What a snakeoil salesman he is with this nonsense. “It doesn’t work for everyone I know, you know, but here, it is SURE to work for you . . . take a bottle of this magic oil today and all your problems will . . . ” You know the rest!

Don’t feel like you’re going to ‘miss out’ if you don’t buy crypto today.

And another tulip bulb and another one . . .

A lot of people thought the same thing in the late 90s, that they didn’t want to miss the chance to make money in tech stocks.

Bear in mind the market crashed in 2000, and some of the top performing tech companies like Google and Facebook didn’t IPO until years later.

That’s right Simon . . . the market crashed didn’t it? And SOME people made a killing, riding the market at the right time. Cool for them, but where did that value come from? Ah yes, that’s right, the 99% who lost all. Hmmmm!

Right now the most important thing to do is UNDERSTAND cryptocurrency– how it works, the possibilities and challenges, applications and risks.

Finally I can agree. We need to understand things. What we need to understand FIRST is that any cryptocurrency is not real currency nor money. It is simply something generated by a formula that people perceive to have increasing value. People perceive its value to go up and down (naturally) as market forces influence it’s perceived value. I’ve yet to see any market that is not manipulated by TPTB. Gold goes up then down. Later on we find out that the 1% bought at the right time and then sold at the right time – for them! This is a fully manipulated commodity. Same thing with interest rates, forex, all commodity markets I can think of and this includes Lotto – all stacked against the 99%.

Then having understood that BITcoin = tulips, we should be understanding what real money is – simply a record of a half-completed transaction. Period.

The same rule applies with any investment– don’t buy anything unless you really understand it, whether it’s a stock, bond, apartment building, or cryptocurrency.

And here we have the nub of the whole thing revealed in the man’s own words. BITcoin is an investment! Forget currency Simon. For you it is an investment. You can’t have it both ways. Make up your mind!

The right education can open the door to new, lucrative investment opportunities. And it can make the difference between a great decision and a terrible one.

So don’t worry about the bitcoin and ether prices right now. There will be more opportunity to make money in crypto.

Instead, focus on the best investment you can possibly make: the one you make in yourself and your own education.

Yes. By reading my book Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers.

I like Simon’s writing. It is witty, has great case studies and he is an astute and successful man in many ways but he, like most, have more to learn about the true nature of money. Simon is right that there is change in the winds, but it will not come the way he wants, thinks, and predicts. Cryptocurrencies will neither cause nor influence the coming changes. This change will come from collapse and necessity. Remember that while TPTB doesn’t have total control over all world events (but oh, how they would like this!) they DO have control of the financial systems and most of the political systems. They are currently mopping up the last remaining independent ones now by force and deception as we speak. Business of course is all firmly tucked in under the financial systems label.

The global financial/political structure based on the charging of interest will collapse, rendering TPTB powerless as greed (at its pinnacle best exemplified by the charging of compounding interest) has no internal restraining force and thus no throttle. This inevitable end is not only a mathematical certainty; it is not only predicted in scripture, it is perfectly logical. The history of mankind is recorded in biblical light as one of human excesses attempting to leverage the Creator’s plans and purposes, yet failing. As technology has developed, particularly communications technology, mankind has had the power to build human systems internationally, thus the same forces that God records He diffused in the Tower of Babel are having their way internationally again – this time without His intervention.

The way that God deals with this is to let them have their way, and self destruction occurs, rendering the people powerless and in open need of wisdom. As the spirit of God works (in a Christian sense this is the Holy Spirit; in a New Age thinking this is more of a global consciousness change) He allows things to go wrong so that as a result, the people learn, turn to Him and get things right. This coming crash will be more akin to an implosion where evil culminates in the inevitable. Literally the forces of darkness currently using democracy and usury to control are exposed.

This event alone, predicted by many belief systems including now many secular economists, will bring about the removal of the currency financial systems that required Simon Black to invest an hour of his time into chasing down his missing international payment, and then probably another hour or more of his precious time (and a couple of mine now too) into writing about it.

The people will work it all out Simon and the 1% crooks (actually a minute percentage of 1%) will be held to account, of that you can be assured, but it won’t be for quite a long time and it certainly won’t be as a result of your beloved cryptocurrencies, sorry to burst your bubble on that one.

Simon Black (Sovereign Man) has nailed it, yet again, with a simple summary of the Nature of Money and the significance of this proper understanding. I consider it fantastic to see accurate descriptions like this coming out more and more in human consciousness. I give him a mark of A++ (100%) for accuracy but only a B for application and a D for full disclosure. Enjoy his words of wisdom and my commentary.

Simon Black runs a business called Sovereign Man that targets primarily the USA market for people wanting to protect their assets from Uncle Sam and the controls/enslavement of the global elite. He provides second passport and offshore investment advice and support services.

He deliberately avoids such as alternative currencies (there’s no money in it for him I guess) and detailing the identities and exact nature of the elite (again this would be detrimental to his business as his clients are probably not ones to discuss conspiratorial matters with).

December 17, 2015

Byron Bay, Australia

When you think of the word ‘money’, the first thing to come to mind is probably those pieces of paper in your pocket.

Yes, this is the core deception – that money is ‘something’ – commodity money. The paper (or digital representation of it) is not something in itself as it represents something – a debt from somebody else – in this case a debt from the government to the Central bankers who issued it.

High school economics textbooks teach students that ‘money’ is a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a measure of account.

This is a deliberate obfuscation. The elite know and understand this VERY well and it is in their interests to perpetuate foolishness as it increases their capacity to control and enslave.

And while all that fancy-sounding language may appropriately describe the ways in which we use money, they do not define what money actually is.

This is the critical difference – a logical fallacy of the first order to confuse function for substance. What it does is not what it is. Confuse the two and you can never understand money and set yourself up for manipulation and enslavement.

Money is not a medium of exchange. Nor is it the paper in your wallet.

In actuality money is a unit of measurement.

This is so right. Understanding this is critical for people interested in avoiding enslavement. Money is literally only a record (unit of measure) of a half completed transaction (debt).

Just as a kilogram represents a unit of measurement for mass, or a mile represents a unit to measure distance, money is a vastly important measure of economic value.

Very nicely put. “Economic value” are pretty words to describe debt, money is literally only ever a record of a half completed transaction.

I feed my excess bananas to the pigs because I don’t sell produce at the markets but if I did then they only have “economic value” when I trade them. On the tree, rotting on the ground, in the pigs’ bellies they have no “economic value” but when I exchange them for a favour or coconuts or pineapples THEN they do have value. $20.00 could be a measurement of that value so that when a friend takes them and “owes me $20.00” then that debt is measured in money – the “economic value” that Simon talks about.

This idea of measuring economic value was something passed down from the ancient Greeks thousands of years ago.

Well actually it goes back a long way further than that but the story is good!

They minted coins to define units of measurement for economic value, and they developed the concept of the marketplace as a way for the public to fairly and efficiently determine the economic value of a particular good or service.

There was no more guesswork; the value of a quart of olives, or a single sheep, could be quickly assessed and easily communicated across an entire society.

And this idea of measuring economic value became just as important to the development of civilization as standard measurements for mass and length.

True.

It would be next to impossible for a team of carpenters to build a house or bridge without first agreeing on standards of measurement.

If I defined distance based on the width of my thumb, and you defined it using the length of your cat, we’d hardly be able to communicate professionally.

Similarly, we could never expect the modern economy to develop and flourish without first agreeing how to measure economic value.

Yes.

In Samoa we have multiple units of measure. There is the formal WST the legal tender currency, but there are also fine mats and boxes of tinned fish which are both used in formal ceremonies such as weddings, funerals and church openings and so on.

IOUs, shells, tally sticks and other items can all be used as a unit of measure. The important thing is that there is social acceptance of this unit of measure.

And this is what’s so terribly wrong with our modern financial system.

We have ceded control of this definition of economic value to an unelected committee of bureaucrats.

Here Simon has moved into the second issue. His sentence could better have been phrased starting, “What is wrong is that . . .” rather than a slightly confusing two sentences. What Simon is saying here is that the elite (the private interests who own and/or control the Central banks) have the capacity to issue money on their terms.

I’ve long been critical of this, and I’m convinced that if benevolent space aliens visited our planet, they would be utterly bewildered at our financial system.

Unless they saw through it all and laughed, as I do along with the elite, and those who understand the way the world works, at how the enslavement works. For the record, I cannot believe that Simon doesn’t know and understand that this is a deliberate enslavement, the consolidation of power and wealth through the mechanism of charging interest, nor that he knows full well their identity and ruses.

Now, in fairness, the same thing has happened with other units of measurement.

The International Bureau for Weights and Measures has given us a very clear definition for a meter and kilogram.

But it’s different with money.

We have to be careful here now because the CONCEPT is the same – a centrally agreed measurement system. The IMPLEMENTATION however is where it gets different of course – the essence of the post.

In the United States, for example, the Mint and Coinage Act of 1792 very precisely defined the unit of economic value in America: 371.25 grains of pure silver.

And this definition lasted from the birth of the nation all the way up through it becoming the largest economy in the world.

But today it is no longer the same. The dollars you have in your pocket have nothing to do with silver anymore.

This is true but it misses the point – it’s not that silver means anything material. You can still have a stable and agreed currency without using silver, as Samoan mats and boxes of canned fish tell us, it’s the stability of the unit of measure that matters. Without interest there is no reason for it to change – ever!

Americans’ standard measurement of economic value is now exclusively controlled by the Federal Reserve. And they are not shy about changing it.

Now that’s a key point – changing the standard. Simon is perfectly right that this is A key point but it is not THE key point. The key point is that ANY interest devalues/debases a given currency. A mat of a certain size in Samoa 200 years ago has the same value in a social sense as a mat of the same size today, perhaps valued at 500 hours of human labour, so without a Central Bank, and without any interest being charged you have currency stability, no enrichment of the elite and no enslavement. The monetary system (currency) is always stable.

Yesterday the Fed unsurprisingly announced that they were going to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

In doing so, they have effectively changed the value of money and hence adjusted the unit of measurement for economic value.

Yes!

Strangely, the Fed views this as one of its missions; they openly acknowledge that they strive for an annual inflation rate of 2%.

Inflation results from the charging of interest on the money used. No interest = no inflation. Period. The charging of interest on money is immoral and contrary to explicit unambiguous biblical instruction as well as most mainstream religions.

2% might not sound like much, but over the course of time it really adds up. It means that within a single lifetime, your unit of economic value will be reduced by more than 75%.

This is a distraction because the rate (high or low) is immaterial at a conceptual level. As long as I earn more than the interest rate at the time I benefit (get ahead) so a 75% loss means nothing to me if I earn 500% in that time using the system. ‘The ends justifies the means’, is the concept being used here.

Simon runs a business so he’s working with [legitimately of course] a business mindset. The principle is more important though to people not driven by selfish ends.

Just imagine if a committee of unelected bureaucrats periodically made significant changes to the value of a gallon.

Or if their stated goal was to reduce the value of a kilometer by 2% per year.

Good analogies.

It would be utterly ridiculous, affecting the lives of just about everyone. Some would be better off, some would be worse off.

Taxi drivers, for example, would make a lot more money at the expense of their passengers if the value of a kilometer were debased.

The distance between Point A and Point B would increase when expressed in kilometers, so you’d be paying more every time you jumped in an Uber.

Similarly, shipping companies would make more money at the expense of producers who have to transport their products.

In a dog-eat-dog capitalistic environment this though is simply good business is it not? Fairness or principle get watered down by situational ethics. Stocks are good if they go up and bad if they go down – that’s situational ethics. That the stock market is where you can make profits at the expense of others is bad per se – that is a different principled approach.

Money is no exception. Whenever central bankers adjust the unit of measurement for economic value, there are winners and losers.

Banks and governments tend to do very well when their friends at the central bank manipulate the value of money.

And as you can imagine, the average guy on the street is not the winner.

Now we move into the realm of intent. What Simon can never go into deeply to his demographic is that this is deliberate and that the whole idea of a free market is totally false when you look at the evidence that he alludes to here. The more I live, the more I see and learn, the more I can see the way that the elite deliberately establish, manage and manipulate to first gain, then retain and then increase their power and wealth.

So it’s no surprise that the middle class in the Land of the Free is no longer the largest segment of the population, according to a recent report by Pew Research.

Or that more than 50% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings.

Or that the birthrate in the Land of the Free is nearing an all-time low, due in large part to the rising costs of having a child.

And it will get worse, by design, as long as there are Central Banks issuing money at interest to the governments of the world that enforce this monopoly by law.

That’s our financial system. It’s is based on unaccountable, unelected committees deciding who wins, and who loses.

And they’ve decided that you’re going to be a loser.

Yes. When you invert this statement from Simon you can ‘get’ the conspiracy. Try doing that exercise now, and rephrasing it the reverse way. See? That’s a conspiracy!

Once you understand this simple truth, you have a very important choice to make: let them continue to determine your economic future, or take charge of it yourself.

Simon, I’ve never met you, nor even spoken to you but you are soooo right! I wish that the entire world could read these words and wake-up to the truths contained. I understand well that your business is built around offering alternatives WITHIN the system which is essentially helping yourself and your clients to be the winners at the expense of losers.

There are other options though that involve total freedom and escape from the system that lift all participants in win-win scenarios. The Good Book has this all down-pat long before you or me graced this planet with our presence. I’ve also shared many aspects of this previously:

1. Get out of debt immediately;
2. Avoid the use of interest-bearing currencies;
3. Invest into intangible assets and systems that help people . . .

There’s much more as well, especially along the lines of the focus of our personal energies and security, but . . .

Until tomorrow,

Simon Black

Founder, SovereignMan.com

Yes, until tomorrow . . . thank you for your post today.

It’s accurate.

It’s important.

In this Sermon from Samoa, I explain that despite the rhetoric, Monetary Reform is NO ANSWER to the ills of the world. I use a recent communication from a passionate Philippino author and Social Credit activist as the basis for this post. Enjoy.

The Monetary Reformers are on a roll. More and more people are starting to realise that something is not quite right with the global monetary system.

Many Christians too are waking up to the fact that the system is not really working. Poverty; the rich getting richer; obvious debt enslavement; government and national bankruptcies and more paint a sorry picture.

Yet catching this bandwagon of Monetary Reform is NOT the answer prescribed by the Master.

Central to the Monetary Reformers’ approach is top-down thinking. This is where systems are designed to counter human failings. This is a logical fallacy of the first order for addressing a human failing (pride, manifested through greed and self-interest in the elite) with a system, is like trying to fight an illness with a colour; or to deal with a disobedient child by introducing a Capital Gains Tax.

It’s why Jesus pretty much ignored the political and financial systems of the day. Seemingly almost uncaring about the poor or the political/commercial world around Him, He did though narrow right on down to the individual in front of Him – day after day – and it’s why the people loved Him.

It’s also why the people loved Mother Teresa – she did a lot the same – working at the coalface so-to-speak.

The Good Book says that the people get the leadership they deserve. This is a vitally important observation as well-meaning people seek to change leadership in order to impose a new, better system which (in the case of monetary reformers) will supposedly rid the world of the evil of usury, greed, and a million other evils.

This is utter nonsense!

Jesus knew this all too well and preferred to live and minister to the real people at the bottom of His society who knew and understood who He was instinctively. To those who wanted to change the world and busied themselves He had short words, like, “Shut Up!”, “Go Away!” and worse!

The global economic system is working exactly as planned. It is a system based upon usury whereby the elite consolidate their wealth and power to enslave the majority through monopolised money supplies the world over, privately owned [or at least controlled] Central Banks, settling with the privately owned BIS, legitimised through the complicit politicians of the day and assisted by big-business and the forces of globalisation.

The phrase New World Order encapsulates it well.

The only way the system will be [and I posit, CAN ever be] replaced is with its implosion. Monetary reformers are simply a minor itch on the surface of a huge Beast – and are easily squashed or swished away like a fly on an elephant’s behind.

Does this mean that Monetary Reformers should give up and go away? Not at all, on the contrary . . . there is huge opportunity to do good; to help others and to achieve lasting change BUT it must be in the context that there is an entrenched system, a legalised monopoly with phenomenally successful marketing and defence systems – literally THE most effective business in the history of mankind!

The prescription then, for those wanting to affect meaningful change is to work within the current system, identifying opportunities to glean the pickings and build meaningful relationships and systems in and around what cannot be changed.

In a Christian context there is too a prerequisite, that of hearing and doing what God calls us to do. Let’s start with that one:

1. Hear and Obey

A Christian’s first challenge after accepting that there is a God, that His name is Jesus and that He’s alive and well and now in charge of our life, is just that . . . to let Him take over. Most of us fail that first test right at the outset. WE want what WE think is right, good and how WE think the world should be. A basic error. Jesus’ secret was that He did what His Father wanted. Period.

Activists, people who think and who care, are prime targets for doing our own thing. I know this well for I am in the same category. The more you care; the more that you speak, act and stand up for what you KNOW is right. But in trying to change the world, we often miss the little things; the people and opportunities that Jesus and perhaps Mother Theresa didn’t.

For those Christians caught up in social change – stop! Go back to the calling; to the last time that you heard His voice specifically calling you or telling you what He wanted.

Park your own agendas and soapbox for a minute . . . now just DO what He asked, nothing more!

2. Proving Integrity

The first thing I always do when talking to theorists or activists in the Monetary Reform movement, is ask them whether they have a mortgage, credit card or any debt themselves. If they do then I know that they have yet to walk the talk. Making steps to get out of debt is a proof of belief and THAT carries weight – it is integrity at work.

Even if they are not in debt (most are or won’t answer the question) they will still usually seek cash as their preferred form of income. This can be valid to a point but when alternative forms of income are not an active option, I know that these people don’t yet truly understand the ‘business’ that they are in. This lack of integrity isn’t the kind of lack of integrity that puts them into the category of a con-artist, it’s more a ‘well-meaning-but-young-at-the-game’ category.

I have a friend in the Alternative Currency movement who walks the talk and like me, doesn’t have a bank account; will trade with anything for anything that you have and sets his prices by donation and agreement. That’s integrity and I listen to him when he talks. Others do the same with this guy too and this is similar to the audience that Jesus gained because He walked the talk. The people knew it!

3. Get Practical

The third step in this game is to do something practical in our own lives, today, here and now.

There’s a lot to this subject so I’ll just go through it briefly here:

• God blesses the steps we take and opens the doors from the little steps of faith we take. How many times do you see and hear of the little people doing great things when to them it was just a simple thing to do open the door to opportunity when it knocked?
• Using what we have, rather then borrowing or trying to get things from others is a biblical principle. Moses and Aaron used what they had against the Pharaoh’s magicians and their evil snakes – simply a shepherd’s rod. They didn’t go out and mortgage their country to buy the best army in the region. They simply heard, obeyed and used what they had. This point is vital because when we understand this, we immediately understand that we already HAVE everything we need! This is a profound change from the deception that we need money or to borrow in order to [whatever].
• Little steps of faith and obedience build over time. It’s far better to have a small wall built with a few bricks at a time, than a lifetime of dreaming and planning and talking about the big one. We learn so much and build so many friends and relationships by working with what is in front of us day by day.
• There are constant opportunities to do things the godly way, with people around us – all of us. We just need eyes to see and ears to hear. Saving one person one dollar a day for a year reduces the individual’s and the nation’s debt by $365.00pa. Sure I know that all nations are bankrupt and will be bankrupted anyway but that’s now two people who will be less affected – you and them! This is REAL, meaningful and can be lasting change.

4. Big Picture

Last of all, NOT first of all, is the theory. Getting deceived by the power of the enemy is a trap.

My bible tells me that Jesus nailed it on the cross. When He rose from the grave and knocked on the door of my heart, He told me that He’d stuck it to the evil one once and for all. He sealed those words with the Holy Spirit and He has the power to deal with anything, anywhere, anytime – literally.

You can talk to me about the Illuminati and the global Central Banking cartel and the evils of this or that as much as you want but it still doesn’t stop me helping the people I know, in person or online in the ways that I can. At the moment I’ve got pineapples coming out of my ears. After weeding the things for what seemed like an eternity they’re all sprouting fruit like crazy now. Great – my mates and friends and so on can help themselves. No Central Bank or crooked politician can intercept my business when I throw a few into a bag and drop them off to my High Chief friend in town. I’m totally in control of that transaction and it will remain that way until the day I dare to start to sell them for money.

This is the power of deception, you see. If I submit to the belief that money is more important than giving what I have away to others then my world will be controlled by the current monetary system, and ultimately the evil behind it.

On the other hand I am NOT deceived so even while living within that system that my Monetary Reformer friends so desperately want to change, I literally bypass it and depower it totally. But you say, that’s all very well for you and your produce but what about  [enter your perceived problem here]?

If you retain that negative attitude then you are right . . . the world is a dead and dying place – there is no hope.

The big picture for me is that for every problem; every challenge; every command to live a certain way, God created a solution; an opportunity and the power and wisdom for us to actually live the way that He intended it.

I have to guests arriving tomorrow night. My backpackers has formally closed, but they want a place to stay and I’m happy to help them enjoy Samoa – the shopping list is ready for them, a couple of four foot lightbulbs, flour, yeast, sugar, onions, eggs and carrots will help us live nicely for a week or so thank you boys!

Another guest coming in December asked me if there was anything that she could bring over – “Yup! A few little things from Gilmours would be just great thanks, Honey!” She won’t be paying cash to me when she stays here, that’s for sure.

A Monetary Reformer asked me for help – literally. I sent it to him in person, a lovingly forged set of words designed to correct him, teach him and help him. I did that then have posted this here to share with the world. If he listens he will be richer, and the system he has fought to desperately for decades will be one person weaker as a result of his increased wisdom.

You don’t need to change the system to escape the system.

I haven’t given you specifics here, but the principles above are vital for Monetary Reformers to understand, particularly in this post, written for Christians seeking a better way.

Thanks for swinging by today!

In this post I explain the supreme importance of understanding the true nature of money, which is, literally simply a record of half-completed transaction. A correct understanding of money enables us to avoid risk, helps us avoid enslavement and gives us an incredible freedom, literally opening the doors for us as others around us fall. I consider it the second most important aspect of life.

Money & Accounting Basics

The basic [double entry] accounting rule is that if you have an asset then there is always an equal and opposite liability.

When I have money (a coin, a note, an IOU, stock or bond) there is ALWAYS a corresponding DEBT – the liability from the person or entity that issued that money – no exceptions are possible.

Thus . . . money is only ever A RECORD OF A HALF COMPLETED TRANSACTION. When the money is eventually returned to the issuer, then the liability is discharged, the transaction is complete.

This is a vitally important consideration – its significance is often overlooked.

The best way to understand this concept is to ask why the Reserve Banks of the world can burn their old worn-out paper money. One day a $100.00 note is ‘worth’ a dozen McDonalds burgers, but the next day it is worthless and they burn it. What happened to change money into paper?

They ‘issued’ it then ‘redeemed’ it. It = the liability, the debt associated with that note. The liability had been discharged thus the largely hidden and rarely considered aspect of money is revealed. Note though, that the one dollar note WITH a liability looks exactly like a dollar note WITHOUT liability.

If you helped yourself to a whole bunch of genuine but old, worn-out dollar notes on your way out of visiting the Reserve Bank, you could easily fool others into accepting them because they LOOK the same. Ditto counterfeit money, it looks the same but when you come to cash it with the Reserve Bank (completing the transaction) they will quite rightly reject the redemption.

The Deception

DECEPTION occurs when we treat money as a COMMODITY (i.e. something that has a life and existence of its own, i.e. separated from that DEBT (liability).

The natural way of the world is that traders determine (at the point of trade) what they will trust as the tool by which they will record their assets and liabilities. Bankers, with active cooperation from governments attempt to deceive us that a dollar, stock, bond, coin or other forms of money are REAL money however their trick is to confuse us with economics and economic theories that encourage us to view money as a commodity, something that we own which they then say should be monopolised, issued, controlled, charged for etc etc.

This deception paralyzes many.

Removing the liability from our thinking processes permits deception to occur for an asset is only as good as the capacity of the issuer to pay it back. Thus to measure our true risk when using their money we must know what that liability is and how ‘good for it’ the issuer truly is.

Thinking of money in ANY other terms opens us to deception, manipulation, risk and eventually enslavement. The common phrase that we use to describe this phenomenon is that, “The love of money is the root of all evil!” but the METHOD that this comes to us is through the treating of money as a commodity, something tangible like a bicycle, pound of butter or a coconut which it never is.

Imagine that I ‘sell’ 100 coconuts to my friends for an IOU from them all – paper IOUs. The subtle change comes when my IOUs are viewed as something of value in themselves, rather than what they represent (which is debt). This is a slippery slide and different people understand money to different degrees BUT imagine that I take my IOUs into town and convince others to exchange them for items from a shopkeeper who then uses them to buy from an importer from the island next to mine. We may call each IOU a DOLLAR and subtely we start to count our Dollars which in due course became well recognised as a currency. After a while nobody even bats an eyelid at accepting our DOLLARS even though the people who signed the IOUs might have died, left the island or forgotten about them.

A manipulator or controller will never refer to the debt (the second part of the money) instead constantly talk about and around the commodity. Politicians do this all the time quickly referring to “our capacity to service the debt” without noting that debt is DEBT and that a sovereign nation (like in my case Samoa to the tune of a billion WST) has no need to be in debt to anyone! The morality of borrowing ignored for the moment.

No matter how we treat those IOUs the nature of the money however has not changed – it is still a piece of paper that represents the original debt, yes passed on through others possibly many times but it is still nothing more than a record of a half completed transaction at heart.

The further that the IOUs are extended, into derivatives, loaned out used as equity for more borrowing, leveraged through all manner of digital trading and banking tricks the less obvious that we’re simply dealing with an IOU, a DEBT.

I’ve been analysing the Bartercard Trade Dollar for a while now and it is losing trust within the Bartercard economy – that’s called inflation – as the members are losing confidence that they will be able to spend it as easily as before, and therefore they hike the price of their goods when they sell and they want cash in part trade as often as possible. The reason is that Bartercard principals have been stripping the currency (debasing it) and concealing their debt. They’ve done it very well for decades but the point is that every Bartercard Trade Dollar has an equivalent DEBT behind it which balances the asset. Too many Trade Dollars in members hands and that means HUGE debt!

One day it will all go pear-shaped for them – promise! People using Bartercard Trade Dollars need to know and understand this well – a Credit Balance is not an asset, it is a RISK and the risk is that they, Bartercard, the issuers of that currency will not be ‘good for it’ when push comes to shove.

Ditto with currencies from the nations of the world!

It gets more complicated when the government and Central Banks get involved because again like Bartercard the true debt is deliberately disguised and concealed. Yes I DO mean that! Do you really think that a politician would tell you ALL the debt he’s racked up while in power?

Off Balance Sheet liabilities not only exist but are likely huge, and that’s on top of government bankruptcies – which most of them are.

When I exchange my labour for wages and I receive a piece of paper (hopefully lots of them) that gives me an asset in my mind, BUT this only represents what who ever issued that piece of paper OWES ME! Great if they are good for it but I can assure you that for yonks there are serious questions over the systemic and deliberate hiding of debt by swathes of the leaders in the banking/political space.

Give a man a pile of USD notes today and his face will usually smile because he thinks he has money. He actually only has pieces of paper that represent debt from the US government. Stocks, bonds, investments and all financial and economic theories and assumptions are based upon the one-sided view that we have an asset, a commodity and that we can therefore control it and issue it.

This is the deception that has enabled the elite to profit by consolidating power and wealth for eons.

A coin or a dollar is widely recognised as money and asset, a commodity like a pineapple or a pound of butter but it’s not. This has huge ramifications for the discerning – currency designers, traders, investors and all who touch money. My advice is to get rid of the ones based on hidden debt and convert it into something of real value – and fast!

An online friend has recently taken issue with my harping on about this saying:

I’ve read much of your work and I can’t see what is necessary to your overall thesis that a transaction is something “half completed”. I think you could usefully drop that baggage.

No way! This is THE definition of money and so important to understand!

The commonly used definition of money is that it is simultaneously a unit of measure, a means of trading and a measurement of value. Logically it cannot be all three the same as a litre is not a jug, nor is it water. Money cannot be all three at the same time.

In fact money is only ever a UNIT OF MEASURE – a dollar note can be used to measure credit/debt but the dollar notes are just the equivalent of a measuring jugs. The WATER is the tangible debt and the LITRE is the unit of measure.

Not even gold changes this factor – it is trust in gold or the dollar that gives it its value. Trust that someone somewhere will return value equal to what we invested to get it in the first place – and THAT is the second part of the transaction, the part that is missing from most discussions about economics and economies – the debt.

Mutual Credit

A simple example of natural money is if I trade my coconuts for IOUs to help my friends and neighbours. When I give them my excess coconuts I receive a credit with my friends. They have a debt to me, so that when I’m short sometime in the future they will (hopefully) pay me back. They then have a liability and I have an asset – a pile of 100x IOUs – my “money”.

Those IOUs are the equivalent of cash issued by the government. The difference between the dollars issued by the Central Banks and monopolised by the governments of the world is that my IOUs will still be the same value in 10 years – theirs won’t because of inflation – caused by the charging of interest.

I can easily exchange one of my IOUs with a neighbour and take one of his pineapples on the basis that he can get a coconut back in due course from the person who issued the IOU. This is basic Mutual Credit – perfectly natural trading and natural money.

In my IOU system (all things being equal) a coconut will still be worth a coconut in a year, or two or ten because it is a Mutual Credit system that is perfectly balanced – each party agrees to extend credit and we carry the risk of default among ourselves.

The important thing to note before we move on is that for one IOU there is an equal and opposite DEBT. This IOU, my money is literally THE RECORD OF A HALF COMPLETED TRANSACTION because when the coconut is repaid to the holder of the IOU (probably me but it could have been transferred) the IOU is ripped up.

When the second half of the transaction is completed the IOU (i.e. my money) disappears. The English phrase commonly used in this situation is, “We’re all square!” That’s basic accounting.

People are VERY cautious about accepting new money (for example like my IOUs) checking the likelihood of redemption before accepting them but they very rarely consider the second aspect of measuring money when it comes to legal tender currencies. This is foolishness and simply conditioning from decades of slick marketing and political compliance with T [real] PTB.

Backing

The backing of a currency, the aspect that ensures that the money is respected, accepted and widely used is only ever trust. Some people consider the good name of the US Government to be sufficient backing. Others think that gold or land are good reference points, however while there are merits to these, they all, at the end of the day come down to TRUST – trust that the issuer of the money will be ‘good for it’.

I know this sounds weird in a world of greed, liars, cheats and thieves but the only really sound reliable backing is human relationships. Think about this – by their own figures the US Government is insolvent and debt is in the stratosphere and getting worse. Virtually every government on the planet is in varying degrees of debt [to the Central Bankers of course].

Gold value is grossly manipulated – just ask who owns the world’s goldmines and you can easily work out the real situation – it’s the same people who own [in a few cases control, not own] the Central Banks – duh!

In peacetime land can be a better backing of a currency but a gun devalues land in a jiffy! Ask any indigenous person what happened to their economy when war occurred. And remember that lawyers and guns fit together like a hand and glove. Most of the 20th Century land confiscation has been done legally behind the scenes with sovereignty wrested from people-groups by willing compliance with United Nations treaties and agreements.

All this reliance on commodities erodes the true backing of a currency which is only ever at the end of the day two people trusting each other to make-good on their transaction. Contiguous lines of trust in a physical (or digital) community are the safest, most natural form of backing that can exist. Not even World War 3 and confiscation of my land and even all land around me can change the fact that I have 100 people who each owe me a coconut from my helping them one, two or ten years ago. That trust in humans is the ONLY true form of backing that a currency can ever have.

Monetary Reformers and currency designers should be looking at ways to build systems around the real building blocks of money, rather than basing their designs on theories that start half-way up the chain of monetary study.

Valuation

The ONLY people who can ever truly value money [a currency] are the traders and this is only ever done at the point of a trade/transaction. I’ve explained this more in my book Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers when I discuss the folly of attempting to force a centrally managed economy down the line of command to users.

Bartercard, for example, is desperate that their members continue to value their currency 1:1 but are fighting a losing battle. Likewise with the USD. Uncle Sam is desperate to keep people believing that they are ‘good for it’ with the USD but no centralised system can ever fool a trader who truly understands money.

So let’s wrap-up then . . .

Wrap Up

The Deception is that money is a commodity, when it’s NOT – it’s simply . . and yes you’ve surely got it by now . . . a record of a half completed transaction!

The Consequences of this are that if money is viewed as a commodity then it is something that has a limited supply, must cost and can therefore be controlled. These all empower the elite, who have refined their system of power and wealth consolidation almost to perfection. True money, pure money is NOT limited; is interest free and can never be managed and controlled. Systems can, not true money which of course, is only ever . . . say it after me . . . “a record of a half completed transaction!”

The Dangers from this incorrectly viewed situation are that we succumb to control systems, pay interest unnecessarily and lose the natural relationships and creativity that enable us to prosper. We take risk chasing the rainbow only to find that the gold was an empty promise of the Wizard’s making!

The Solutions require us to take personal responsibility for our financial affairs, removing debt, especially that to the elite that enslave us, then to build our own personal trading capacity, credibility and to build real assets with and from those around us. We need to develop our own currencies and credit lines independent of the centralised systems of control and to base them on Mutual Credit.

All of us from the leaders of a nation to the lowliest worker will need to do this in our own centres of influence as the squeeze comes on.

Oh and my teaching here also aligns with that of the Master – in principle and in practice. I like it when God agrees with me [This is humour humor, for the Americans who don’t ‘get’ British jest].

BTW Jesus wasn’t interested in gold, because He understood the true nature of money, that basing ones trust in THINGS is simply putting ones trust in what other [fickle] people consider valuable which can then be manipulated and is therefore ultimately an exercise in futility. His advice was to trust Him (as a true representative of His Father of course).

In this Sermon from Samoa I explain how the Parable of the Talents is a biblical story where Jesus is teaching AGAINST usury (the charging of interest) not an endorsement of it. It is a misconstruing of the nature of the Creator and His Son, AND runs totally contrary to the rest of scripture to believe that the profiting by money loaned at interest is good, rather than the evil it actually is. Enjoy.  

There are only two direct references in the New Testament relating to the charging of interest – the first is Jesus’ direct instruction NOT to loan at interest, and the second, the Parable of the Talents.

A Direct Prohibition

In Luke 6, Jesus is quite clear that lending for gain is ungodly.

Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away. Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:30-36*

Nothing could be so clear as this.

Those that DO lend at interest (directly or indirectly through systems that include interest) simply do not consider this instruction worthy of obedience.

Christians who receive interest (or pay interest) have cognitive dissonance on this matter, having to explain away or justify their conduct with some form of contrary beliefs/teaching.

Parable of the Talents

The primary justification used in Christian circles is Jesus’ Parable in which it seems at first glance that He endorses lending at interest.

“For it is like a man going on a journey, who summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The one who had received five talents went off right away and put his money to work and gained five more. In the same way, the one who had two gained two more. But the one who had received one talent went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money in it. After a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled his accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came and brought five more, saying, ‘Sir, you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The one with the two talents also came and said, ‘Sir, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more.’ His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered, ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter? Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 25:14-30*

At first read, the Parable of the Talents certainly looks like an endorsement, especially if taken literally. Put into context however this interpretation is the total polar opposite of the point that Jesus was making . . . that the master in the Parable was a hard and brutal man, and not like Him.

Just pause and deprogram yourself from all a priori assumptions and Capitalistic Churchianity indoctrination and re-read the highlighted pieces of the story . . . the slave risked nothing and actually returned what was his to the Master after holding it safe for him [how many people can you trust to do that, and especially in Jesus’ town and country?] . . . the slave was fearful of the master [how many of Jesus’ ‘slaves’ are fearful of Him like this slave was of his master?] . . . the slave knew that the master was a hard man [essentially a thief] . . . the master didn’t argue at this claim [Don’t you think Jesus would have objected if He was the object of such a claim? I do!] . . . and then he advised the slave to deal with the bankers [since when did Jesus ever endorse the bankers?] . . . then to receive interest [which He had taught against directly in accordance with Old Testament teaching in Luke 6] . . . and then he called the slave worthless [according to biblical teaching or according to greed?] . . . and threw him out . . . [why?] . . . simply because he didn’t aid and abet a crime against anything good, right and proper!

All of Jesus’ followers would have known immediately that the amazing, loving Preacher that they were listening to telling this story was the antithesis of the hard and brutal master in the parable. They would have instantly identified the master in the Parable as one of the hated Jewish money lenders – NOT the story teller!

The nature of Jesus, who demonstrated the nature of His Heavenly Father, is nowhere in Scripture seen to be a hard and brutal man. Not even His detractors even claim that of Him, so why would He talk of the master in his Parable in such a way that people would identify with Him, then instruct His followers to do something He elsewhere teaches directly against, based on the clear Old Testament guidelines?

The answer is that Jesus explained that only a hard and brutal master expects a Return On Investment. The way of the Kingdom (His way) is different – to lend in LOVE and not for a return, which is essentially GREED.

This Parable demonstrates the ways of the world and scoffs at it – it is not direct teaching that justifies something prohibited by a loving God!

The story must be read:

a) in the light of all other scripture;

b) Jesus direct teaching and

c) a sound understanding the world around us.

In this regard, (a) usury, the charging of interest on money, is prohibited in Scripture; (b) usury is taught against directly by the Master and (c) it is not a natural occurrence and is a tool of enslavement, consolidating wealth and power to those who profit at others’ expense.

Responding

When reading Scripture, we must interpret within proper context.

The Parable of the Talents should be read with the question in mind, “Who was Jesus referencing the master to – Himself or another?” Our interpretation of this Parable is conditional on our answer to this question.

If you believe that Jesus is a hard and brutal master, then by all means take this Parable of the Talents literally and profit from others by way of interest on your investments and feel free to submit to those who are hard and brutal masters and loan to you at interest. The West is awash with worship of the Capitalism Cult that encourages financial benefit to the elite, at the expense of others and you will then fit firmly within the mould of Western society.

I on the other hand, believe that Jesus spoke a direct instruction in Luke 6 that contains wisdom and truth. I have and encourage other ‘thinkers’ to deprogram themselves and choose to be obedient. There are far better alternatives than lending and borrowing at interest and when we extract ourselves from the interest-bearing systems foist upon us by way of deception, we receive a richness of life that exceeds that of the ways of the world.

As I have said previously, this is not always easy to achieve ‘cold turkey’ in a society where our lifestyle is largely managed for us, but obedience to God’s guidelines MUST bring blessing. Some areas to consider are:

• Mortgages are normally charged at interest. There a far better ways to secure housing and to live than enslavement to a bank. Just do the maths for a start!
• Attempting to secure profit from the stock markets which in the main are based on interest-bearing monetary systems is the same – an activity that in the end brings more pain than blessing. Just ask who pays at the end of the day.
• Personal loans, overdrafts and credit cards are all normally interest-based. Just face the facts – these are in direct conflict with Jesus’ commands.
• All Legal tender currencies are interest-bearing monetary systems. It’s a hard thing to digest but I’ve blogged about this reality extensively.

It’s a big subject with an ugly face and tentacles that reach into every conceivable corner of our lives but the repentance that Jesus sought from us wasn’t an option that included convenience – it was a demand that He knew and told us that it would cost us.

I believe that at some point, all genuine believers will have no choice but to face this reality, that the global monetary systems are created by the banking/business interests in tandem with the political leaders and that their nature is not the one of the Master.

I’ll repeat this for it is vital – if you receive or pay interest in any way shape or form you are living contrary to direct biblical teaching – mortgage, overdrafts, debt or investments at interest are all prohibited. Period.**

Most responses I get to this teaching is that, “We have no choice!”

Most of the time I reply, “Oh yes you do!” and then explain that we always have a choice to be obedient or not – it is whether we are prepared to pay the price or not . . . THAT is the real question most of us are dealing with!

Talk to me or leave a comment if you wish to engage on this matter.

* NET Bible®

** The oft-quoted Old Testament exception was for Israelites to use the charging of interest as an enslavement technique upon their enemies – that’s the correct context and should always be remembered when false preachers justify the charging of interest.

In this post I share my recent experiences using Bartercard, explaining how the value of a currency is always determined by the traders, not the issuers of a currency. This has ramifications all round but directly affects traders using the Bartercard currency system, and currency owners/designers who think that they can set the value of a currency ‘from above’. They can’t!

In a previous post I detailed some of the sales and marketing errors that I highlighted in Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers, my free eBook. I explained how when traders are given real motivation to use a particular currency (in my example I used the payment of commissions as a ‘carrot’) then the promotional activity moves away from the system owners to the traders. This inverts the Alternative Currency business model which is currently based along the lines, “build, then sell it” – a very hard task!

The closer a currency can reproduce the real world, the more likely it is to be used. I’ve explained this along the lines that if you’ve got what people want then they’ll use it, or buy it. Just as ‘available’ girls have no need to sell themselves when a shipload of sailors arrives in port, likewise when a currency meets the needs of the traders, it’s the traders who will make it happen.

The same thing occurs in nature when a flower has pollen and honey in season, it simply makes it available and the bees tell the bees. In marketing this is called viral replication – it’s a multiplication process, where one becomes ten then ten becomes a hundred and a hundred becomes a thousand. Active selling on the other hand is much harder work and is an addition process, where one becomes two, and two becomes three, four, five and so on.

Most Alternative Currencies do not provide what people want, thus they all struggle to gain traction.

The way the business (in this case a currency) is structured determines it’s success. The key point here is that in a well-structured business/currency it is the people who make it happen NOT the leaders.

This also applies with valuing a currency, the point of this post – it is ALWAYS the traders who value a currency, no matter what the currency owners may think or say. Here’s a recent example of how this works in the real world from my engagements with Bartercard in New Zealand. By way of a background, I live in Samoa; I had transferred funds from Universal Currency to Bartercard New Zealand and sought to use those funds. New Zealand is my country of birth, and it is Samoa’s closest trading partner so while Australia is bigger and could offer more opportunity for spending the Bartercard credits, New Zealand is easier.

I slipped an email to a senior account manager listing the items that I was interested in and followed his instructions. You’ll note that at the outset, I warned him that I could be a little prickly if things go wrong and suggested that he appoint one person to look after my requirements (I hate getting bumped around juniors, especially with international communications). He chose to look after me himself, clearly a wise man!

I said:

I actually need two sets of business cards and some signwriting vinyl. Can you arrange for a trade coordinator to contact me? I’ve a few other requisites that we could put your way. If I have one point of reference this will help me and not bury you with minor stuff, but that’s up to you.

I can be a little prickly if things go sour so it might pay to put someone who has had a bit of experience onto the case I think!

Business cards – on going
Signwriting vinyl – all colours on going
Mens shaver – one off immediate
Sugar cane press/roller – one off immediate
Small electric solar fence set – less than 1km

4″ single rubber mattresses – multiple immediate

Sheet steel, galvanised 1.15mm – a decent quantity on going

Storage and shipping of all sorts of things to Samoa – on going

Business cards – on going – yes we have BC options here and I will look into this and come back to you
Signwriting vinyl – all colours on going – yes we might have BC options here, could you please give me some more specs?
Mens shaver – one off immediate – this is not something we can get on BC
Sugar cane press/roller – one off immediate – this is not something we can get on BC
Small electric solar fence set – less than 1km – this is not something we can get on BC

4″ single rubber mattresses – multiple immediate – yes we have BC options here and I will look into this and come back to you

Sheet steel, galvanised 1.15mm – a decent quantity on going – this is not something we can get on BC

Storage and shipping of all sorts of things to Samoa – on going – this is not something we can get on BC

In this post I address the subject of effectiveness of a currency, considering their purpose and design. The creation of a currency, be it a crypto-currency, a barter currency, or community currency is always for a purpose – form follows function. I explain that the traditional ‘build it-sell it’ business model is broken and show how a well-designed currency should invert this process. It neutralises the purpose-driven currencies but gives the people what they want.

A participant in an online forum specialising in Alternative Currencies shone a light onto the subject of the purpose of establishing a Community Currency. He also observed that most community currencies don’t have any major contribution to the national economy. A large percentage of Community Currencies (many were established in the 1980’s and 1990’s) failed to survive, and those that did were not entirely a rip-roaring success.

His comments:

Wouldn’t it be true that when you have to buy into a CC [Community Currency], or earn a few “Hours” in your spare time, then it is an honourable “hobby”, like trying to be a “green conscious” person, recycling, separate waste or turn off extra lights. It might promote friendship or community action, but not change the economy in a measurable way.

He’s picked up here on the fact that some users of Alternative Currencies [ACs] use them for philosophical reasons. Indeed a high proportion of AC users are passionate and strongly believe that they are helping make the world a better place. There is another aspect to this though – the primary motivation for the vast bulk of the world is self-interest. People generally use a particularly currency because it suits THEM to use it – personal profit or gain; ease of use; ignorance of alternatives are all valid reasons outside of the ‘feel-good-factor’.

He continues:

To really make a difference a CC has to put people to work who have no other option. It has to be spent into the economy by hiring new people who are unemployed, and not just by paying CC bonuses to existing government employees. This could be difficult in societies where unions, or minimum wage laws don’t smile upon hiring for scrip.   It might be looked at as further gouging the worker.

Now I respect the words of the writer – he simply wants to make a point and raise questions, so I don’t want to attack him but he shows his bias in regards to his purpose. His worldview is that a desirable currency should affect EMPLOYMENT positively, and a few secondary issues as well. A true currency does not have a social purpose. Of course it can be designed in ways that can help encourage employment but so too can Legal Tender currencies as well as other non-monetary factors such as global consciousness changes; natural or political events and more.

This would seem to mean that southern Europe and Greece would have a high need and adaptability to utilise a CC to really make a difference. But also when you look into a country with low unemployment you find that just like wealth that concentrates, poverty concentrate.   Therefore there probably are US inner city areas with above 40% non-working. Can CC systems make a difference in these situations?

He asks a good question, for if a Community Currency (CC) does encourage greater employment this is clearly a good thing and CCs should surely be promoted to the hilt.

I agree with his observation that “poverty concentrate[s]”. I’ve mentioned this many times and while it is well accepted that the rich get richer and the poor poorer, many do not realise that it is compounding interest that enslaves. Usury (the charging of interest on money) is the tool that the elite use to enslave.

Most CCs are not interest-bearing currencies and thus have the potential to level the playing field and to help us escape the clutches of interest-based currencies but there’s a real problem with the CC business model. I’ll come to this and the solution shortly.

Our ‘friend’ continues with some observations:

My reflection is that in countries where there are no active community markets, people are not used to tak[ing] small steps to find some minimum commercial activity. There people are more proficient in adapting a profile to receive government assistance. Would they be able to take advantage of mutual credits to build something for themselves? Are there any people in such a community that would build an enterprise on the back of mutual credit loans?

Right . . . so he’s saying that bludgers on the system abound and he wonders whether they’d bother getting of their big fat a*** and avail themselves of an interest-free loan to take responsibility for themselves and contribute to society. Sure, he used less direct words than that but that’s the essence of his question.

My answer, sure, maybe a few might. But I’ll tell you what, that few will be a LOT when or if the government fails to spit out the readies on demand and they’re hungry and worried!

Form Follows Function

It’s not commonly realised but currencies are always consciously designed and their design relates back to their purpose.

In architecture and industrial design we say that Form Follows Function, in other words if we want a device to transport goods on the road, it will probably have wheels, a motor and a tray or box for putting stuff in. If we want to transfer food from a plate to our mouth the form [design] will probably make it small enough to fit in our mouth and not made of asbestos! Likewise with a currency, if we want to build community with our currency we will probably make our currency attractive to locals, not foreigners or multi-national businesses who tend to suck value OUT of a community. If we want to profit from the currency we will probably include some form of remuneration mechanism within the currency. The banks do this nicely by charging interest – at both the Central banking issuance level AND the retail lending level. There are other ways as well but charging interest is the most efficient way of profiting from a currency.

Those with social objectives (our friend above desired increased employment) will seek currencies that have a social benefit. Those with ecological interests will tend towards green projects and technologies. Those of a religious persuasion (The Islamic faith amongst others have an aversion to usury/interest) will structure their currencies in certain ways to comply with their rules/beliefs. Crypto-currencies also have specific design characteristics – while not Mutual Credit currencies, their claim to fame is that they are designed to be secure from Big Brother interception and safe from manipulation at a structural level because they are built on strong algorithms. There are now a wide variety of alternatives in this space and each of them too have their own designers, focusing on their own objectives.

The bottom line is that Form (the design, in this case of a currency) Follows (it is designed according to) the Function (the purposes for which the owner/founders established it). All currencies without exception are consciously designed (and of course tweaked, managed, changed and redesigned too), by someone, somewhere at some point in time.

An interesting thing occurs when you put Alternative Currencies alongside of each other . . . most agree in a common enemy (the Central Bankers, the Illuminati, the system or whatever) but you’ll never get agreement on what the goal is nor how to get there! This is a RED FLAG for truthseekers and thinkers [like me] and alerts us to dig deeper on the subject.

Inverting the Alternative Currency Model

In my book Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers I identify some twenty common errors this industry makes. I’ll focus here on only some of these, looking at what I consider to be a faulty design from a sales and marketing perspective. Summarised it is that the selling of a product (in this case we’re talking about a [new] currency) requires a sales and marketing effort. The harder the ‘sell’ required is then the poorer the design, or the salesmanship, or the marketing message, or the timing of the presentation is. The more that customers ‘buy’ though, then the less sales effort required for something to gain traction.

All Community Currencies require an enormous PUSH in order to gain traction and to be perfectly frank, most in the business know and realise that it’s a ‘hard sell’ – in fact a VERY hard sell indeed. Something then must be terribly wrong for this to be the case, and that is one of the reasons why I wrote the book.

Now a true currency is socially neutral; it has no agenda, nor any purpose other than to record the transactions that its users want it to. Many community currencies push the community aspect of their currency, which is fine, but sports groups or churches or business groups can all achieve those same objectives with the existing currencies. They’ve obviously gotta do better, but how?

I have the answers.

Now the key to understanding this sell/buy dynamic is to ask yourself what’s the first question that a potential user of a new currency will ask . . . it doesn’t matter if it is at the time of implementing the Euro; or in relation to Bitcoin; or a commercial Barter Exchange; or the local TimeBank, Community Currency or Green Dollar co-operative . . . the first question is always, “Where can I spend it?” Putting this another way, “What can I get if I use it?” This is logical, and perfectly natural but we don’t have that question with cash, or Legal Tender, for we have total confidence that it can be used in due course for getting what we want.

Alternative Currencies are not so lucky though. All models that I am aware of work the same as each other . . . somebody creates a currency and then attempts to build a community of users to use it – this builds up the credibility of their currency. They HAVE to, for their currency will never be effective unless they do this. In a recent post from Kenya where a young alternative currency is apparently doing well, this subject is addressed indirectly. The writer talks a lot about the ways that the members can spend the currency, even testing the future suppliers whether they are genuine in the network:

… some of her costumers, non members have expressed their desire to join the network. “They come and ask if they can pay in Kangemi Pesa to test me and to see if the network is serious before they join”.

This is the build it-sell it model. Perfectly valid, but hard work:

the network is still in its stabilizing stage and some of the members don’t know where are located the others . . . but the committee is busy working on solutions to these issues . . . A business directory is currently being created and will be given to each member, allowing him/her to know where are located the others and what they are selling.

There is another way to structure a currency, and that is to invert the business model, so that it is the user of the currency who promotes the currency, NOT the system owners, designers or managers. To do this requires an inversion of the business model. Instead of its purpose being external to the currency (like making the world a better place), if the purpose is intrinsic (people WANT to use it because the currency is actually what they WANT) then guess what, the users will use it!

Putting it crudely, if it’s in their interest to use it, then they will.

Getting it right

How then to get it right?

The solution is multifaceted as I have explained previously in my description of a Perfect Traders’ Currency, but in a marketing sense the first thing to do is to give people a better reason to use the new currency than the old one. Self-interest is the strongest motivator for most people – we ALL do what we think is best for ourselves.

The way to structure a currency to capture self-interest is to pay commissions on usage of it. Visa, Paypal and others all charge fees to us when we their services. Governments charge consumption or value -added sales tax. Banks and most lenders charge interest and it is considered normal to pay people for services rendered.

The idea that individuals (as well as the aforementioned examples) can also profit from the use of a currency (or a payment method) requires a mindset change, but so too did changing from taking a piece of gold, in our pocket to handling paper notes, to writing cheques, zapping a plastic card, to popping onto the Internet to ‘make a payment’, to tapping into our smart-phones, to waving our RFID chip embedded hand at a scanner.

Each of these technologies at the time had costs associated with them – double pockets to ward off pick-pockets from our gold, seigniorage, cheque or credit card fees and so on.

Paying commissions (or royalties) is a standard accepted business practice. Paying the fees back to the person who introduced the business to the system is simply a choice of the owner of the currency. Paypal, eBay, Commercial trade exchanges could easily share their fees with others if they so chose. Some currencies do this by way of referral or reward systems of various sorts.

The mindset change

Alternative Currency designers haven’t yet connected the dots in this area.

The banking community, the politicians and the vast majority of businesses all want the status-quo. Purists want free money, but this is a pipe-dream. Bitcoin is speculative – you have to mine the coins or buy them to be able to trade and most will use them to speculate. Crypto-currencies are a totally different beast.

Some commercial barter organisations do share profits and operate in a co-operative ownership model, which is moving in the direction I mention here but the mindset change from inverting the traditional fee structure to paying commissions for the use of a currency, has yet to occur at a design level*.

The Consequences

The new currency must overcome doubt, inertia, the power of precedence (habits) and also any defensive acts that TPTB may exercise. When people realise that they can profit from their trading partners’ use of a certain currency though, a paradigm shift happens and the problems that Alternative Currencies have in their sales and marketing dissolve.

In a practical sense with an inverted system we now have people actively promoting their preferred currency and helping their trading partners to spend and introduce others to the new, preferred currency. If I profit from my customers’ trading with others, then I will of course do everything I can to help them find and trade with others using the preferred currency. This is just human nature.

A direct consequence of this inversion is that many of the various roles have moved onto the traders themselves. We have essentially empowered people to do what they have always done, traded with those that they want to trade with, it’s just that we’re paying them to use our currency. There’s no need for trade co-ordinators for the users of the currency will find the people that they want to trade with and will trade with the new currency. A closed membership system with a list of members who will accept the currency (like the Kenyan example above) is no longer required because anyone, anywhere who wants to benefit from the new currency can trade with it- if someone introduces them and wants to trade with them.

So if the inversion is done right (there’s a lot more than just paying commissions BTW) and it HAS to be 100% right in the design to gain traction, then the challenges for an Alternative Currency owner/designer change from area of sales and marketing into those of fulfillment, and that’s a LOT easier to deal with** than sales & marketing!

A word of warning: Legal Tender money has the approach ‘build it – then get the government to enforce widespread usage’ but no other currencies have this privilege. Attempting to take on the current financial system is almost futile, for it has the power and motivation (legal, financial and social) to enforce its monopoly position. I do not believe that Alternative Currencies (even the inverted model I have just described) will ever make a meaningful impact upon the status quo UNTIL it implodes. At that point the widespread trust that it has will be destroyed. Many (including me) believe that this implosion will happen. I think it’s a lot further away than the doomsdayers fear, but it will happen for sure. At THAT point there will be a sea of buyers looking for alternatives, and may the best man ‘win’!

The Purpose – Revisited

There are a dozen factors or more that go into designing a perfect currency – ownership issues, technology, credit issuance and management, strategic issues and of course it’s purpose.

The comments from our friend above implied that a currency should have a social impact i.e. a purpose. I don’t believe that this is what the people want. A perfect currency for a trader will be something that they trust, be simple enough to trade with, and as I have suggested here, return a benefit to the trader.

This though, is a trade-off between a well-designed currency and a purpose, because most of the time, traders in Zimbabwe have no interest in the community benefit of a currency to Chile, New York or a community in rural Samoa. They MAY do of course but this is where the gain to a currencies flexibility and attractiveness is a loss to those with an agenda.

I posit that it is far better to have a currency that’s sole purpose is to be a perfect currency for traders, than it is to achieve any social, political ecological or ANY other purpose.

I’d like to thank the writer of these comments for triggering this post. I trust that you’ve enjoyed thinking this all through with me. I’ve enjoyed it and there’s a lot more on this subject too!

In a previous post I shared how Christians should and can conduct their lives in accordance with the clear biblical instruction to avoid usury (interest). This necessitates removing our trading, buying and selling from the world’s usurious financial systems. Surprise, surprise, there is great blessing and opportunity when we do this! In this post I demonstrate in practical terms what this means as people move into a future without usury.

First, a quick note on the reference to Christian matters . . . this post is written to and for Christians but it can be applied without these foundations of the Christian faith – it’s just that the basis upon my advice is biblical instruction.

Extricating Ourselves

Only hard-core fanatics can likely fully extricate themselves from the current entrenched usurious financial systems. You’d need to be in unique circumstances and have a lot of faith and/or specific calling.

I’m close to this hard-core cash-free living as I live on a tropical plantation in a third-world Pacific Island Paradise; I’m highly experienced in trading outside of the cash economy (for decades actually); I’m highly creative in business and highly committed to compliance in biblical standards, but it has taken me years of deliberate planning, sacrifice and hard work to get as close as I have to the ideal.

But, the more one commits to this aspect of obedience, the easier it becomes; the more natural it becomes and the more blessing that comes.

I have previously advised that those recognising that there is something wrong with the usurious monetary practices of the current banking system; and specifically the accursed nature of all Legal Tender money, should be working their way deliberately out of the entrapment that exists. Starting small, getting used to different ways of trading, buying and selling is best. With confidence increasing within a family unit; husband and wife growing in faith and an understanding of HOW the Lord blesses our obedience the doors of opportunity DO open.

I know, for I have been there and done that too. It has been my journey to deliberately determine to be obedient to God’s word, then struggle with HOW to do this, then watch as several things happen:

1. My cash reserves have reduced – to virtually NIL
2. My reliance upon cash has also reduced – to quite minimal levels
3. My capital assets have reduced – to that which I actually only need
4. My ‘soft’ assets have blossomed – things like social goodwill, deeper friendships, greater use of the gift economy, smarter trading practices, IOUs that represent real tangible value to me and my family in the future.
5. My understanding of God’s purposes (globally and specifically me) have increased
6. My capacity to help, bless and teach others has also grown enormously

Extrication for most will be a process, not an event, but it must start with a specific step of obedience – a decision to act in accordance with the biblical teaching that usury is prohibited.

The Mark of the Beast

There is a common thought that a computer technology i.e. an RFID or similar will be the Mark of the Beast, and that we as Christians should refuse this technology. This is a false belief for we are all under the Mark at present when we use Legal Tender currencies.

To understand this situation, it is necessary to travel back in time to the Roman republic, a unique form of democratic government that existed for a short few hundred years before the Caesars killed it off. The dramatic rise in popularity of democracy in the last 100 years is a revival of a system of man-centric government that lived once, but has come alive again. The remarkable thing about this second instance of democracy is that virtually the entire world is in agreement with Winston Churchill that democracy is the best form of government available to us. Many have died in the wars supposedly in the name of democracy. Speak the truth that democracy is evil and you will be considered a social outcast in a split second. This is willing global idolatry, for the scriptures paint democracy in a very poor light – from the outset where Adam and Eve conspired and voted against God’s word through to the end of the book of Revelation, there is not one (I repeat, not one) instance where God approves of democratic systems, and ALL instances lead to disaster.

This is the context in which the Beast appears and receives our worship. Compliance with (which is our idolatry) the democratic political systems and the usurious financial systems is the Mark. It is not a physical thing, it is a spiritual thing – a worship of “man” and his systems.

Now removing our allegiance to both of these bondages (in this case we are simply talking the monetary allegiance) is a simple and clear choice – a decision of the mind, and something that any Christian can do at any time. This is the nature of God – to make things very simple, and to provide blessing to those who hear and obey.

The Costs

Making a decision to obey the Lord in financial matters is a costly decision in many cases because it means change. One probably has to choose to avoid a mortgage; to avoid easy credit and material possessions that we would have otherwise enjoyed.

Here are some areas in which costs can occur. I highlight benefits as well as the costs for there is always a trade-off.

The mortgage. Removing a mortgage can be done by selling down and using equity to buy something mortgage free. Selling other assets to clear a relatively small mortgage is another option. In both situations our standard of living reduces by comparison with others or what we are used to but the removal of interest gains God’s blessing and either increases our cash availability (no more interest payments) or gives us a better standard of living in other areas apart from the “big house”.

Credit Card debt. For many, this will mean not having the latest and greatest THING. Passing up on easy access to credit forces a realism in our financial affairs. This realism brings blessing as God always works with facts and reality. It is only the devil who wants us to live in a dream world.

Trading without reliance on Legal tender cash. I’ve previously mentioned ways to do this. The cost to do this is increased complexity in conducting trade – it is harder work to engage with real people where they are at, rather than to systemise business and suffer from depersonalisation. Engaging in real relationships takes us back a hundred years or more into the era of the corner store where our grandparents knew the shopkeeper and he knew the entire community (good and bad). It is an incredibly liberating and exciting thing to begin engaging with real people rather than just dealing with digits and numbers.

Coming Adversity

Thus far, I’ve approached this subject from a relatively positive angle. Sadly though, most will not jump for joy at such changes, no matter how much they accept the theory that participating in usurious practices is accursed.

Worry not, for the change will be enforced on us whether we like it or not. The book of Daniel and Revelation both talk of a time, many believe rapidly approaching too, when the economic and political systems will implode. According to scripture, so catastrophic will the turmoil be that the politicians will be running into the hills to hide. I can’t wait for that one! Incidentally, the principalities and powers behind the [democratic] political powers will be decimated also and revealed for the fraudsters that they really are, for their power is amplified through the authority that political power gives them. Removal of that political power and they will be reduced to virtually nothing.

For the carnal Christians with mortgages and blasé ignorant use of interest-based Legal Tender currencies this will be a traumatic event as they will be forced, cold-turkey to rationalise their lifestyles and find ways to live within their means. My words will be along the lines of. “Welcome to the real world in a thump, bother!” While these events are feared by many Christians they need not be. For those who work in the power of the Holy Spirit, in obedience to the Word of God, avoiding the use of immoral currencies; trading amongst themselves with real people and within their means, such depressions, recessions and trauma will only be opportunity.

Rest assured that when the majority of a community loses their primary form of income and their capacity to trade dissolves in front of their eyes, they will be VERY receptive to learning about alternatives. The greater their trauma, the greater their desire to learn will be!

Getting to Extremes

This leads onto the predicted persecution, and to the extremes that, quite honestly, puts the fear of God into most of us. What will it really be like when we, as Christians are persecuted, hounded out of our homes, towns and perhaps even targeted for extermination?

I’m fortunate that I have seen this process in a controlled manner as I have engaged with Samoa over the last five years, and I can extrapolate this into the big-picture.

The first thing is that we often fear sudden, traumatic events that appear to hit us from behind unawares. Sure this can happen but most of my learning has come from gradual step-by-step teaching events as I have stepped out increasingly confidently, dealing with challenges.

I view the extreme events (such as Stephen’s stoning and vision), or Jesus’ death on the cross; or the Apostles martyrdom as the culmination of a long series of preparatory events. They generally didn’t come out of the blue. Likewise with adverse financial and political events that we expect and fear. Already we can see an increase in an armed police in the United States. Many can see the Police State developing – increased false-flag events, the Patriot Act, FEMA Camps, loss of privacy and more – and this the same with financial matters. Things will get tougher year after year and people will be more ready to downsize, rationalise and seek alternatives as the money supply is tightened and the squeeze goes on.

So that doesn’t change the future, but it does help us realise that we can grow into the extreme situations naturally. Those who understand the basics and act pro-actively and voluntarily of course will be in a far better position to cope, and lead others through their times of crisis.

I would counsel all Christians to consciously prepare for three lifestyle things:

1. a homeless,
2. a cashless, and
3. a giving lifestyle.

1. Ownership of a home (even a debt free home) is generally considered an asset. In the coming times of trauma, this will become a liability. Sure it’s hard to see this at present, but I know from personal experience the freedom that removing home ownership from a lifestyle gives. Sprinkle in a little anti-Christian persecution and things will change in a hurry!

You say, but that’s extreme. I say yes, but it’s a preparation exercise and once thinking in this way, we start to live it, buying less stuff, thinking of other options than what is currently our normal.

2. The cashless operation is a blessing in disguise. Being able to trade, and live with less and less requirements for the Legal Tender money, that will be getting harder and harder to get our hands on each year now, is a blessing! One of the things that’s hard to understand is that it is BETTER financially to avoid the use of cash, especially when people have less and less of it. So many times I’ve witnessed MORE benefit by trading outside of the cash economy than in it. The skills, wisdom and understanding that one gains from doing this will be INVALUABLE when real trauma strikes.

Trust me!

3. Lastly in an environment of extreme oppression, persecution and suchlike, the carnal mind wants to defend; to retain what we have (be that possessions, power, social standing or whatever) but this is a trap. It is God’s way that when we are at our lowest, that we are in the best position to give. This is SO hard for me to explain convincingly unless you’ve been there already, but it is through giving that we activate the grace of God to have our own needs met. This is NOT just a wishy-washy, give it all away and trust God as you go broke and get desperate pleading, it is a logical, very practical attitude that actively seeks ways to help and bless others while at the same time as getting our own needs met.

I’ll give you one example I use to show HOW this can occur. It is a mixture of a real-life scenario with a bit of embellishment as well but I trust it will motivate you to see that it is possible to live richly in the power and purposes of God under persecution.

A missionary couple approached me and shared their problems; they wanted to stay longer in Samoa but they had some serious opposition and they couldn’t afford it – they were paying rent and it was hurting them. They couldn’t afford to buy a house and weren’t allowed to buy land not being Samoan citizens. Major vocal sectors of the village didn’t like them or their denomination. I advised them to find a way to give a house away, literally. They were incredulous but I explained that when in a traumatic situation like that, God can work miracles if we only understand HOW he wants us to think. He knows all about our needs and wants even before we ask. Find a person in the village who needs/wants a house and give it to him – literally. Explain that you are seeking accommodation but you can’t afford rent anymore, but you would be delighted to help him build a house if you can only stay in one half of it when you are in Samoa. What High Chief would not offer his lands for such as purpose – a true win-win – half a house given to a local leader (who needed it) and the other half for their own needs – rent free living and forever! And the opposition is neutralised to boot because they now live with a High Chief and has his blessing and protection.

The key was the thinking process that was to find ways to give when things were going bad.

The process of discovery continued with these missionaries as the subject turned to food. Being low on money they worried about food. Simple I said again – offer the High Chief food every week. They travelled to other villages on occasion and had the opportunity to buy young pigs. For half of their food budget they could bring a steady supply of young pigs to the High Chief who would keep them, feed them and look powerful in the community. The missionaries could double or even quadruple their investment by doing a deal with their neighbour and friend. We’ll bring you the pigs and you share with us the meals each night. Once again avoiding (or minimising) the use of cash, learning to give when in need, and understanding the needs of those around them created opportunity, and everybody won.

I commenced this post explaining that extricating ourselves from the clutches of usurious Legal tender moneys and systems was desirable. I finished by explaining that there is far greater opportunity for sound, healthy, profitable, blessed Christian living OUTSIDE of the Beastly political and financial systems of the world. Is that not the way of the Lord, and all we have to do is hear and obey?

Thanks for swinging by again today. I’ve enjoyed sharing and there’s a lot more to come as well!

In this Sermon from Samoa I explain the nature of [Legal Tender] money as inherently evil as it based on usury, a totally prohibited practice. I explain the significance of this understanding then share the appropriate actions Christians should be taking. This is especially significant in the light of increasing belief that with exponential debt increases, there will be a coming global financial meltdown. It’s a vital subject, one that I believe is second in importance only to the identity of Christ.

In previous posts I have detailed aspects of the true nature of money.

I’ve identified that all Legal Tender money is accursed, for it is based on usury, an abomination before the Lord – clearly & strictly prohibited in Scripture.

I’ve explained in my eBook Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers how alternative currency advocates fail to address the key issues, as well as discussing their individual mistakes

I’ve also proposed a practical solution to ALL these problems with a solution that I call the Perfect Traders’ Currency.

I’ve also shown how Pope Leo X first legitimised the practice of Usury within Christendom, a slippery slide that has led to widespread usurious conduct within the global Christian community.

In this post I get specific with Christians explaining how they have a unique set of challenges in the light of the words of the bible. Ignorance of scriptural instruction is no excuse. While I accept that many do not subscribe to Christian teaching it is arrogance and foolishness for Christians to rant, preach and proselytize claiming variously that God loves us; Jesus saves us; we’re all going to heaven if we only but believe . . . and then live under a curse because we ignore something so simple as avoiding participation in usury.

Usury (Interest) is Prohibited

The scriptures are very clear that usury (the charging of interest on money) is prohibited, wrong and simply evil. Many references in the Old Testament make this clear. The only one authorisation of usury was for God’s people to use it as a form of enslavement of their enemies. In the New Testament Jesus explicity condemns the practice of making profit on lending. He does appear to endorse the charging of interest in one parable but this is widely misinterpreted with a shallow read by many commentators with an agenda to maintain the excessively-Capitalist status quo. The entire body of Christian thought for the first fifteen hundred years was unanimous that usury was condemned in Scripture – and this is both the act of lending AND borrowing at interest!

Legal Tender Money is Usurious

All Legal Tender monies the world over are now issued in interest-bearing circumstances. Our current norms were first established in 1694 when private individuals (the Bank of England) usurped the King’s perogative to issue coinage and began lending to him at interest. This privatisation gained serious traction in 1913 when US President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve into being (a privately owned institution), and the majority of the world followed suit in the next decade. Central banks the world over are also privately owned (the few that are not actually privately owned are privately ‘controlled’) and they all settle with the Bank of International Settlements (again all privately owned) all issuing their monies ‘at interest’. This arrangement is legitimised by governments who ensure a monopoly situation continues to exist. All countries by law prohibit the creation of competing currencies and we are all forced to use this ‘Legal Tender’ money to pay taxes. In a practical sense we are also bound to use this money for the buying and selling of goods and services, as using alternatives for private trading are less convenient.

Christians by and large go with the flow, participating in the corrupted system, mainly because they never think about it and if they do because they don’t want to ‘rock the boat’ or ‘pay the price’.

The situation then is that since 1694 in England (and all her children countries that based their monetary systems on the British Pound), and since 1913 in the USA (and again all the countries that based their monetary systems on the USD) a politically enforced financial system has been the default – one that does not comply with biblical instruction. The consequences of privately issued interest-bearing monies has been consolidation of wealth and power, aka “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer”. There are other side-effects such as the normalisation of ungodly practices – greed and insensitivity through rampant capitalism; widespread acceptance and indeed worship of the democratic political system that empowers the elite more than any other known political system and an ungodly focus (indeed worship) of economic matters over and at the expense of other ‘quality of life issues’.

The Process of Revelation

When dealing with this subject, the process that most Christians will go through (as I too have had to go) in this revelation is:

1. Become aware of the usury issues. Most have never considered these matters. There is good reason for that and it is no accident. We are being deliberately deceived to avoid discussing usury, biblical instruction in the subject, and to consider alternatives. You do NOT see alternative positions discussed in schools, universities, the media OR indeed most bible schools!

2. Accept that the bible is totally clear on the matter of usury. This is a hard one to accept because it is a paradigm changer. We know instinctively that if we accept this fact (that usury is wrong) that everything we do such as getting a mortgage, receiving interest on investments, or even using a credit card is accursed. Most of us do not want to alter our status quo, thus will ignore such challenges and defend ourselves. We turn a blind eye to it or justify our deliberate ignorance by looking at social norms etc.

3. It seems too hard to escape the trap we are all in. The issue appears too big, too enormous a challenge to deal with at an individual level, therefore we avoid it altogether.

In response to these points, I say . . .

1. Becoming aware. My blogging and writing is raising the issue. I do not pretend to be one attempting to change the world but my words are out there and those that read them have the opportunity to learn, grow and be leaders in their centres of influence. Jesus didn’t speak to all the world when He conducted His Ministry on earth, but He did speak the truth to His audience of the day and the world eventually heard Him as others took them up.

2. Accepting usury as prohibited. Only fools and those with an agenda can argue against the clear teaching of scripture. People who do not accept this are not the leaders God will use to influence His people in the coming days. Let them go their own way in ignorance. They will pay the price.

3. Dealing with big issues. Jesus stunned His audience time after time when confronted with big issues. Always, without exception He brought the issue back to individuals. He gave example after example where one individual’s act of faith was worthy of merit. He cast away the entire issue of regional poverty and focussed on one woman’s gift of faith to Him. He nailed a rich man’s folly in trusting money more than God. He identified individual sinful conduct one by one and spoke of individuals’ faith in glowing terms even if at a distance, or even if such small amounts. This is the way that He tackled global issues – at an individual level. Thus too, with a global monetary system that is based on evil. Our job as Christians is NOT to fix the global problem . . . it is to be obedient ourselves, today, here, now, in what we know and have the faith to do.

The Solutions

Moving into the solution now, it is essential for a Christian to recognise that the use of interest-bearing money (Legal Tender) is a strictly prohibited evil. When you receive income by way of the USD, Yen, Euro or similar, (forget whether this is necessary, practical or not for the moment), you are financially supporting those who thumb their noses at God. If you do not abhor this reality then you simply do not love the Truth.

Determining that something is wrong and that it must change on your watch, in your life, and in your circle of influence is the starting point.

Cold turkey extraction is unrealistic for most of us. God knows full well the circumstances we are all in BUT when we turn to Him and seek solutions, He is always gracious to show us ways out of the pickle we find ourselves in. If you are a Christian saved from your previous blindness and pride and perhaps have grown to love Him then is that not enough proof that He can probably deal with other lesser things like monetary issues as well?

Here then are the steps that I recommend for Christians attempting to deal with the issues:

1. Identify all financial events in which you are participating in interest/usury. Look at mortgages, credit cards, overdrafts and loans. These are the obvious ones. Also consider interest-bearing bonds and investments too for the biblical prohibition is on usurious practices, regardless of which end of the evil you are on!

2. Determine the passive participation in usurious practices. This is usually the times that we use the Legal Tender currencies for trading – wages or salary is the most common form of passive participation, but the buying and selling of goods is another.

3. Seek simple practical ways to avoid the identified areas of failing (sin) and start small. There are literally millions of ways to avoid the use of Legal Tender money for a million circumstances. For example, if you know the owner/manager of the local cinema and you frequent it paying with interest-based Legal Tender cash, speak to him about what you can do to get given gift vouchers in return for goods, services or favours you can offer. Mow his lawns. Take him cakes. Feed his children. Whatever . . . that’s just ONE simple example! Perhaps instead of taking cash from a customer who is clearly struggling financially, seek ways to trade with them what they DO have in abundance – products or services perhaps. You’ll avoid participating in usurious conduct AND make a friend out of it. Instead of seeking a raise from your employer in cash, offer instead to take things that your employer has in excess rather than cash. In all of these examples there are opportunities to INCREASE the value you receive, and that is aside from the biblical blessing that comes by recognising that there is something seriously wrong with the cash issued by the banking cartel.

4. Decide to consciously extricate yourself from the biggies such as debt or a mortgage WITHOUT a time/date specified. The reason I say this is that it is not possible for someone yet in the state of blessing to be able to understand the way things work when we are. If a Christian is wanting to move out of debt (say to clear a mortgage) they are naturally limited to planning and measuring how long it will take in their current circumstances, with their current financial income. What they cannot measure is the future world where financial blessing is the norm, so for example the mere decision to quit a mortgage for a biblically sound reason (an act of obedience in faith) unlocks the closed door of curse and enables blessing to flow. How is a struggling Christian family to ever know that there is say, a brother who is about to take his family overseas for say three years and would really love to have a trustworthy family (like his) to look after his ten-acre lifestyle block while he was away – rent free? These are the ways that the Lord rewards those who hear Him and obey.

The Future

Now in looking at the future, there is widespread agreement that serious financial trouble is around the corner. This trouble is recognised and spoken of in scriptures (Daniel & Revelation) and comes in the form of an implosion of the global political/financial systems. In economic circles this is seen more as simply an economic meltdown/depression, increasingly viewed as something many times worse than the Great Depression. Personally I think that this event is a lot further off than many predict and that war will be associated with it, probably preceding it, for this is the historical method of the elite to further profit and consolidate their power.

What is clear though to people who do understand the power of trading outside of the economic system is that a shortage of money (Legal Tender money) will occur. For Christians (and others as well) who understand that the Legal Tender monetary systems are inherently evil, this will matter little . . . in fact it will be the greatest opportunity in the history of the planet to share the wisdom of God, practically as they know how to trade; operate debt and interest free; have systems of trading, building relationships, support structures and are able to share their assets, their wisdom and their techniques with others in various states of crisis.

And the beginning of all of this wisdom/revelation is to simply read the bible; understand that usury is prohibited; be obedient and creative to find ways to live outside of the evil ways of the world.

Now there are costs as well as benefits to this obedience of course but the truth contained in this post remains – usury is wrong; all Legal Tender moneys the world over are usury-based; it behoves us as believers to act in accordance with clear teaching of scripture.

My Personal Commitment

I finish this Sermon from Samoa with practical things that I do to comply with my understanding of scripture.

1. I seek to trade in the gift economy rather than to trade with cash. This extends to EVERY interaction I have with others, personally and in business. Camp Samoa is a developing community that is in transition from a backpackers. I am very happy for people to ‘work off’ their camp fees and to bring soap, chicken, peanut butter or toilet paper as a contribution to the running costs. Yes, of course THEY used cash to buy those things but I DIDN’T and this is the commitment to God’s word that matters to Him. I have never sold my bananas, coconuts or produce in the four years I have been farming this land – not one cent. I have always given it away. In return others will help me with welding, timber, transport, vehicle repairs, favouritism in a village or political situation, friendship and more. Sometimes I win. Other times I lose. It matters not to me for I wish to avoid the use of cash.

2. I avoid borrowing at interest. I have no mortgage and never will again. Clearing my mortgage in New Zealand when I sold to emmigrate to Samoa was an enormously liberating act. I would prefer to live in a cave a mile away from civilisation rather than to incur debt such as a mortgage – seriously!

3. I ‘work’ third parties for win-win situations in trade. Knowing that others have cash and are happy to use it if it benefits them, I engineer circumstances between two third parties to get mutual benefit. Someone in New Zealand for example who owes me a favour or wants something from me will pay credit onto someone’s mobile phone in Samoa so that I can benefit for what I need. It could be a taxi driver, shopkeeper, the local bus service, a friend who needs help or whatever. Doing this helps two people as well as myself. It is also amazing at what relationships develop as a result of creative trading.

4. I give. Much of my written words are free. This is not just charity or me simply being generous . . . it is that I know and understand that when you give, and do not seek financial reward, that every now and then somebody says, “Thank you” and has the potential to be another kindred spirit, regardless of where they are on the globe. The reason I give is because I can. When we remove the focus on cash, money, business we have less need for the interest-bearing stuff that the bankers create. This depowers evil and opens the doors to His blessing, something that I’ve been appreciating more and more as each year passes. I’m still as broke as I was thirty years ago, but a lot wiser!

Thanks for reading this post today . . . there are other posts on this website too relating to money, a true understanding of which I believe is the second most important question of life.

Five hundred years ago, Pope Leo X, authorised usury (the charging of interest), terminating 1500 years of Catholic/Christian prohibition. This single act opened the gates of usury hell, from which the flood has since never abated. In this post I explain the event, give background information putting the decision into proper political context, and make comment on the “slippery slide” in which the Catholic church (and most of Christendom) and in due course the entire Western world has found itself.

Usury [1] is the practice of charging interest . . . essentially making money off money based on the passage of time.[2]

Interest compounds (it is exponential by nature) and is therefore an unsustainable practice.

It is the mechanism by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and enslavement can occur.

Biblical teaching back to the Old Testament is solid with the Torah specifically prohibiting the practice[3], except as a tool in which to enslave God’s enemies[4]. Of course Jesus too clearly denounced usury[5].

For fifteen hundred years the leaders of the Christian church had unanimously condemned usury as evil[6]. Participating in the practice (either as a lender or a borrower) was considered a mortal sin and had very serious consequences.[7]

On the 4th May, 1515, Pope Leo X for the first time in the history of the Catholic church, approved the charging of interest for the Montes Pietatis. This Catholic social service was essentially a pawn shop in competition with the primarily Jewish money-lenders and following Leo’s endorsement it flourished, particularly in Italy as a direct result of the Papal Bull giving moral approval to the practice.

With this one act, usury as an immoral concept per se, was now formally redefined into a matter of degree. Usury thus became viewed as excessive interest and usurers as those who charged interest at excessive rates. No-one can ever define “excessive” of course!

Except for very small pockets of enlightenment, and the Islaamic banking world, the charging (and receiving) of interest is now normal across the globe.

The Papal bull, issued 500 years ago, 4 May 1515, which sanctioned the charging of “moderate” interest for the Monti di Pietà, stands condemned as a ‘red letter’ document in history, the point at which mankind consciously stepped on the ‘slippery slope’. The influence of the Catholic church, and then the majority of the Protestant church[8] of course has been profound.

The Context

Pope Leo X could be considered a ‘playboy’ pope. His lifestyle appears to have been loose. Responsibility with money was not his strong suit, having squandered substantial resources prior to the Fifth Lateran Council. As Michael Hoffman pointed out to me, not exactly a “pious” pope due to his:

“[His] nullification of immutable divine law on interest on loans and used the Fugger banking dynasty to collect his despicable indulgence revenues, which amounted to simony. He was a Medici, intimately connected to the Florentine bankers, and to the occult through his connections with leading Neoplatonists and Hermeticists of the Church of Rome.”

He ruled as Pope from 1513 until his death in 1521 (45yo), and had the ignominy of being at the helm, perhaps even the one who generated the ire of Martin Luther when Luther took the Catholic church on and thereby started the Protestant Revolution. One of the key concerns Luther had was the practice of indulgences introduced by Leo X.

For eons the big names of the Catholic church had denounced usury as outright evil – viewed unanimously as an immoral and accursed conduct. The Money Power however exerted various forms of pressure on the church to authorise usury, but she resisted . . . until 500 years ago.

The politics surrounding this Papal bull are well detailed in Michael Hoffman’s Usury in Christendom – The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not, but in essence there was extreme pressure on the Catholic church to deal with high interest rates from the Florentine bankers and others where interest rates of 45% were normal and 60% quite common.

With short monetary supply at the time the ‘nod’ given to the church’s own pawn shop to charge “moderate” interest (and only for the purposes of cost-recovery) must have seemed very reasonable to those involved.

The Decision

The question of usury as an immoral, scripturally prohibited act in itself was not addressed specifically.

The question however applied to the purpose for which the usury was applied. Leo’s words are quite clear that the reason for charging interest was well intended therefore it was moral. This is the key factor in the decision and to many a serious investigator, a fundamental flaw in biblical exegesis.

Excommunication was threatened against anyone who spoke against the decree of May 1515.

In the 500 years since, no pope has done anything to change the status quo [that usury was now defined as excessive interest, rather than any interest], although many have spoken out against the social consequences of the practice of charging interest.

The background:

… there has recently broken out again a particular controversy … with regard to the relief of the poor by means of loans made to them by public authorities. … the said credit organisations are not out of harmony with Christian dogma, even though there is controversy and different opinions regarding the question [relating to the desire to charge usury in the social service organisations or not].

On usury:

… the crime of usury or injustice, that is to say a clearly defined evil, since our Lord, according to Luke the evangelist, has bound us by a clear command that we ought not to expect any addition to the capital sum when we grant a loan.

The Purpose:

… they argue, for the compensation of the organisations … to defray the expenses … they may lawfully ask and receive, in addition to the capital, a moderate and necessary sum from those deriving benefit from the loan, provided that no profit is made therefrom.

The decision:

… we declare … that the above-mentioned credit organisations, … do not introduce any kind of evil … if they receive, in addition to the capital, a moderate sum for their expenses and by way of compensation … They ought not, indeed, to be condemned in any way. Rather, such a type of lending is meritorious and should be praised and approved. It certainly should not be considered as usurious;

Excommunication:

… all … persons who henceforth dare to preach or argue otherwise by word or in writing, contrary to the sense of the present declaration and sanction, incur the punishment of immediate excommunication …

Source [9 Full text]

The Consequences

Once no longer a mortal sin, the door was opened and all hell broke loose within the church, literally.

It’s easy to look back now and see the resultant damage to mankind . . . first the Catholic church ramped up it’s own lending services; then it worked with others in private enterprise through business partnerships supporting all manner of usurious practices.

Although there were pockets of ‘resistance’, the bulk of the Protestant churches also took over the same practices of accepting it by assessing usury as a matter of degree, rather than as an absolute.

Defining excessive interest rates is impossible; for example justifying a 20% interest rate is easy in the context of others charging 45%, but even 0.25% interest compounding still enslaves totally eventually.

The Catholic church today is a major player on the international monetary scene and the charging and receiving of interest is now ‘normal’ throughout the Western world.

Commentary

I find the decision of the Fifth Lateran Council and ratified by Pope Leo X to be contrary to the clear teaching of scripture and the date 4 May 1515 to be a significant one in the history of mankind.[10]

While currently widespread, usury, the practice of charging interest, is not NORMAL, nor is NECESSARY, nor is it NICE. It enslaves; runs contrary to clear biblical teaching and everything I know about the heart of God which is to LOVE & GIVE and to do so freely in the light of His Word and His example – Jesus.

The decision itself is akin to that of saying, it’s now OK to poison your children, but just do it if there’s too many of them to feed easily – essentially justifying evil as a means for an end, a concept that only ever comes from the pit of hell.

Those who claim to love God should study the events of 500 years ago, and revisit their perception of usury, what is in my opinion an immoral and according to scripture, an outright evil practice. [11]

The book of Daniel; the book of Revelation to John; the growing recognition that something is seriously wrong with the global economy; the power of precedent by way of individually collapsed societies all point to an impending international trauma. I think that it is quite possible that the Lord knows and understands this all!

It’s our job then to read, to ask questions, to think, to work it out and to then act intelligently.

While challenging, there are simple straight-forward ways to address this evil. Cold-turkey extraction from all usurious money is unrealistic for many but should the current usurious financial system collapse under its own weight (as the natural consequences of evil always does cause implosion, death and destruction) then people will be forced to consider alternatives. The sooner the better in my book. As they say, it’s better to be a year or two early than a day or two late!

I have blogged extensively and intend to continue blogging about the subject and those various alternatives. My free eBook Mistakes of the Monetary Reformers is a good place to start.

Thanks for stopping by. It hasn’t been much of a pleasure sharing with you today, because it is a sad day and a sad topic, but hopefully we can all proceed with our living today a little wiser.

_ _ _ _

[1.] I consider the Wikipedia definition a poor definition, for it describes usury as “excessive interest” and only mentions that some people consider usury as ANY interest. This is the wrong way around – it should be rephrased that usury IS interest and some people (even the majority of people) consider it to be excessive interest.

[2.] The definition of usury was universally accepted as ANY charges additional to the amount loaned. Some defined it as theft of time, owned by God and therefore not commercialisable by man. This concept is foreign to modern Western man but this has not always been the case. In Samoa for example the repayment of debts has historically not been affected by time, so that a delay in repayment did not incur a required increase in payment (the essence of charging interest).

[3.] If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender to him; do not charge him interest.
Exodus 22:25 and many more.

[4.] You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest. You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite
Deuteronomy 23:19,20a

[5.] But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back.
Luke 6:35

[6.] Usury was condemned universally.

[7.] Participating in a Mortal Sin prohibited a Christian burial for example.

[8.] The Protestant take on usury is best outlined in Michael Hoffman’s book Usury in Christendom where he shows that the Catholic practices were generally, but not exclusively followed by the Protestants. It’s not a simple or black and white issue as some portray it to be. Regardless, usury is the basis of all Legal Tender money used across the globe today and the curse applies to all.

[9.] Original full text or here:

SESSION 10

4 May 1515

[On the reform of credit organisations (Montes pietatis)]

Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, with the approval of the sacred council, for an everlasting record. We ought to give first place in our pastoral office, among our many anxious cares, to ensuring that what is healthy, praiseworthy, in keeping with the christian faith, and in harmony with good customs may be not only clarified in our time but also made known to future generations, and that what could offer matter for scandal be totally cut down, wholly uprooted and nowhere permitted to spread, while at the same time permitting those seeds to be planted in the Lord’s field and in the vineyard of the Lord of hosts which can spiritually feed the minds of the faithful, once the cockle has been uprooted and the wild olive cut down. Indeed, we have learnt that among some of our dear sons who were masters in theology and doctors of civil and canon law, there has recently broken out again a particular controversy, not without scandal and disquiet for ordinary people, with regard to the relief of the poor by means of loans made to them by public authorities. They are popularly called credit organisations and have been set up in many cities of Italy by the magistrates of the cities and by other Christians, to assist by this kind of loan the lack of resources among the poor lest they be swallowed up by the greed of usurers They have been praised and encouraged by holy men, preachers of God’s word, and approved and confirmed also by a number of our predecessors as popes, to the effect that the said credit organisations are not out of harmony with christian dogma, even though there is controversy and different opinions regarding the question .

Some of these masters and doctors say that the credit organisations are unlawful. After a fixed period of time has passed, they say, those attached to these organisations demand from the poor to whom they make a loan so much per pound in addition to the capital sum. For this reason they cannot avoid the crime of usury or injustice, that is to say a clearly defined evil, since our Lord, according to Luke the evangelist, has bound us by a clear command that we ought not to expect any addition to the capital sum when we grant a loan. For, that is the real meaning of usury: when, from its use, a thing which produces nothing is applied to the acquiring of gain and profit without any work, any expense or any risk. The same masters and doctors add that in these credit organisations neither commutative nor distributive justice is observed, even though contracts of this kind, if they are to be duly approved, ought not to go beyond the bounds of justice. They endeavour to prove this on the grounds that the expenses of the maintenance of these organisations, which ought to be paid by many persons (as they say), are extracted only from the poor to whom a loan is made; and at the same time certain other persons are given more than their necessary and moderate expenses (as they seem to imply), not without an appearance of evil and an encouragement to wrongdoing .

But many other masters and doctors say the opposite and, both in writing and in speech, unite in speaking in many of the schools in Italy in defence of so great a benefit and one so necessary to the state, on the grounds that nothing is being sought nor hoped for from the loan as such. Nevertheless, they argue, for the compensation of the organisations — that is, to defray the expenses of those employed and of all the things necessarily pertaining to the upkeep of the said organisations — they may lawfully ask and receive, in addition to the capital, a moderate and necessary sum from those deriving benefit from the loan, provided that no profit is made therefrom. This is in virtue of the rule of law that the person who experiences benefit ought also to meet the charge, especially when there is added the support of the apostolic authority. They point out that this opinion was approved by our predecessors of happy memory, the Roman pontiffs Paul II, Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, Alexander VI and Julius II, as well as by saints and persons devoted to God and held in high esteem for their holiness, and has been preached in sermons about the gospel truth .

We wish to make suitable arrangements on this question (in accord with what we have received from on high). We commend the zeal for justice displayed by the former group, which desires to prevent the opening up of the chasm of usury, as well as the love of piety and truth shown by the latter group, which wishes to aid the poor, and indeed the earnestness of both sides. Since, therefore, this whole question appears to concern the peace and tranquility of the whole christian state, we declare and define, with the approval of the sacred council, that the above-mentioned credit organisations, established by states and hitherto approved and confirmed by the authority of the apostolic see, do not introduce any kind of evil or provide any incentive to sin if they receive, in addition to the capital, a moderate sum for their expenses and by way of compensation, provided it is intended exclusively to defray the expenses of those employed and of other things pertaining (as mentioned) to the upkeep of the organisations, and provided that no profit is made therefrom. They ought not, indeed, to be condemned in any way. Rather, such a type of lending is meritorious and should be praised and approved. It certainly should not be considered as usurious; it is lawful to preach the piety and mercy of such organisations to the people, including the indulgences granted for this purpose by the holy apostolic see; and in the future, with the approval of the apostolic see, other similar credit organisations can be established. It would, however, be much more perfect and more holy if such credit organisations were completely gratuitous: that is, if those establishing them provided definite sums with which would be paid, if not the total expenses, then at least half the wages of those employed by the organisations, with the result that the debt of the poor would be lightened thereby. We therefore decree that Christ’s faithful ought to be prompted, by a grant of substantial indulgences, to give aid to the poor by providing the sums of which we have spoken, m order to meet the costs of the organisations .

It is our will that all religious as well as ecclesiastical and secular persons who henceforth dare to preach or argue otherwise by word or in writing, contrary to the sense of the present declaration and sanction, incur the punishment of immediate excommunication, notwithstanding any kind of privilege, things said above, constitutions and orders of the apostolic see, and anything else to the contrary.

[10.] Prior to publication I sought opinion from others on the significance of this date. In discussion with Michael Hoffman he agreed, saying: “Leo X’s gradual relaxation of the immemorial divine law against any interest on loans of money was indeed a monumental betrayal and deserves to be commemorated as such.”

[11.] Putting aside the obvious negative social and mathematical consequences, an analysis of scriptural teaching on usury brings four issues to the fore. There is:

i) Widespread Old Testament prohibition & condemnation in both the Torah (Law) and wisdom literature;
ii) One Old Testament exemption;
iii) Jesus’ explicit condemnation – not to lend for profit; and
iv) One parable – in which usurious practices are used in an example, not a specific teaching authorising it.

Understanding that the one Old Testament scripture that authorised usury did so as a method to enslave God’s enemies removes any doubt that usury was prohibited. Claiming that this one exception permits wholesale usury brings scripture into conflict with scripture. God is not confused about the matter! Likewise with the New Testament teaching – Jesus came to fulfil the law, thus any scripture that appears to endorse something prohibited in the Old Testament must be being interpreted wrongly. The parables used to justify usury are interpreted in different ways – the traditional teaching and cursory assumption that the greedy unjust master is a type of God and that usury is a good thing, doesn’t ‘wash’ with me in the slightest. The parables speak of other matters, contrast the ‘way of the world’ not encourage us to act immorally and don’t condone usury for me – at all!

It’s a slam-dunk – Usury is evil, period.