Debt is a promise made that is still unpaid.  

Debt is an unfulfilled obligation.   In and of itself, it is neither good nor bad.   It just is.   The way it's used determines what effect it has.    (Reference:  The Curse of Debt ² ) 

Debt Pure Form                ...

In It's Pure Form, Debt Works Something Like This.    

Here it is by example:  Joe has extra goods and services (commonly stored in the form of money ² ) that he doesn't don't need right now.   He would like to store his wealth for future use.   Dan has a product or service the he wants to produce, but he doesn't have enough G&S/money with which to produce it.   Joe and Dan  decide to mutually support each other.   Joe lets Dan use some of his excess goods and services (i.e. money) and Dan use the money  to produce his product or service.    For the use of Joe's money, Dan gives Joe a portion of what he (Dan)  produces.   Joe not only stores his excess G&S/money for future use, he end up with more than he would otherwise have had.   Dan will have been able to create something that otherwise would not be produced.   Dan's customers will be happy.  Dan will be happy.   Joe will be happy.    Everybody wins.     

Living off Interest 

You've probably heard the saying,  "Stop working for money and get money working for you."   In essence, that means stop producing goods and/or services and live off the money (interest) received form loaning your excess goods and services ( money)  to others.  In other words, live off the goods and services produced by others.   The super-wealthy have been doing this for centuries.

Money is not always loaned in the form of money.   Any time you pay money for the temporary use of something that you don't own, you are paying the equivalent of interest on a loan.  For example,  you may own a home and lend the use of it to someone and charge them interest (rent) on the loan.    Unless you are a rather unusual person, you owe money to the bank as payment on your mortgage.     Your tenant (renter) is actually paying your mortgage.    The renter is in essence, supporting both your as the property owner and the bank.   He or she is also supporting the insurance company that insures the loan and everyone else who was/is involved creating or maintaining the loan.   

Although the people involved will be slightly different, the same principle applies to other loans, such as an auto loan or any other buy-now-pay-later purchase.   Any time you purchase a product or service from a professional seller ( such as a grocery store, furniture store, etc.) a portion of your purchase price goes to one or more money lenders.   

If you had a choice between working for a living and having money work for you, which would you choose?   Of course, the answer is let money do the work.   Now, you've probably heard these two  statements also:  "Crooks go where the money is."   and  "The ultimate crook is the thief that steals in a way that nobody knows that a crime has been committed."     Stop reading for a moment and think about these three statements.   Put them together, and where are you?  

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Degrees of Separation: 

Lets  looks at the rise in the price of gasoline and follows the trail to its cause.   When one goes through the degrees of separation ² between the cause and its effect, we see that a rise in the price of oil produces a rise in the price of gasoline.  But the rise in the price of oil is a symptom of the problem, but is not, in and of itself, the problem.   What's producing this symptom?    The underlying cause brings us to the same bottom line -- debt  --  deficit financing --  speculators attempting to protect their investment money and to continue earning money off the production capacity of others.  See the section below.

Looking for a Safe Investment: 

The stock market analysts are telling the public (May 2008) that financial pressure from investors is one of the major reasons why the price of oil is so high.   When you look beneath the surface facade, you'll see that stock market investing is a variation on the theme that made Las Vegas famous -- gambling.   Investors are betting on the future value of something, in this case, the future price of oil.

Investors are seeking the safest investment (the safest gamble)  they can find in the present financial market.   With the incredibly shaky dollar, investors are looking for tangible assets to invest in -- investments that will hold their worth as the value of the dollar continues to fall, or if they do fall, the recovery will surely follow.   George Bush & Company ²   with their excessive deficit spending and fiscal irresponsibility**  are leading the nation down the path to its inevitable conclusion -- hyper inflation  and into a financial crash equal or worse than that which occurred in 1929.  

** Low federal government interest rates  --  low-cost loans on make-believe money   to investment banks  --  the fiscal stimulus checks,² another $186,000,000 in make-believe money, given to millions of Americans  --  fractional reserve lending.  --  underhandedly encouraging business and personal debt  --  the deficit financing of  murder and mayhem in Iraq  (the cost is estimate to be over five-hundred billion  dollars and still rising at the rate of about ten billion dollars per month.  When one adds in the indirect costs, the price is measured in trillions of  dollars)  --  excessive promises to future entitlements  --  promises of more deficit spending  --  et cetera.  

Anyone versed in even just the basics of economics and financial history can see the inevitable results of excessive deficit financing.    Excessive debt caused the hyperinflation and the economic crash  in Germany in 1922 and the great depression in America in the 1930's.  

The market traders (those who actually buy and sell stocks for investors)  see what's coming and invest accordingly.   They look to commodities, that is, they look for something that contains a tangible asset.  The future value of oil is one of the best commodities  for a safe investment that the stock market traders can find.   As a result, (again, using basic supply-demand economics) the excess amount of money being directed into the purchase of oil and oil related stocks is causing the price of oil to rise.   This, in turn causes a rise in the price you and I pay for gasoline.   So, where is all that money going?   Into the pockets of the wealthy and super-wealthy.   

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When the Government Deficit Finances, 

    Who Actually Pays the Bills?

This section has it's own page:     Deficit Spending - Who pays the Bill? ²

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Manipulating the Money-Lending Process

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Product sellers may advertise as an interest free loan.   That con-artist talk for,  "The interest money is hidden in the price of the product."   "Cash back" is another financial scam.  It's simply a creative way of manipulating people into borrowing money.   

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Manipulating the Product-Marketing Process

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Manipulating the Insurance Process

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The Taxation Scam

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I'm from the Government.  Trust me.

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The Federal Government's Deficit Spending

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Here's an example of Bush & Company's Disneyland Economics:    On February 13, 2008, George Bush and Company's²  proposed resolution to the nation's financial wows became federal law.   This law (peddled as the "stimulus package") authorized the government to deficit spend another 168 billon dollars of non-existent money.   In terms of fixing the problem it's about as effective as pouring water on a drowning man.  

Where is that 168 billion coming from?    Think of it symbolically as watering down your orange juice.  If you have a quart of orange juice and you mix it with a quart of water, what have you got?   Where does the orange juice in the second quart came from?   And how valuable is it?   It comes from the original juice.  And each quart has only half of it's original value.  

The same principle applies to your fiat money.   When the 168 billion dollars in funny money is dumped into the economy, it gets its value by taking the value away from the dollars that are already in the system.   Nothing new is created except more debt.  The value of the existing dollars decrease!  It's called Inflation²  .  

This "ain't" rocket science.   It's basic "Economics 101".   Even if Born-Again George is as dumb as a rock, his advisors aren't.   Excessive debt is what caused the problem to begin with.    Now, Bush and Company are telling us that expanding the problem is the solution.   They can't really be that stupid.   The questions, then, is:  Why are they intentionally destroying the economy?²   

Current Real Estate Financial Crisis          ...

The Current Real Estate Financial Crisis -- 2008

A Manufactured Crisis:   The current real estate, financial crisis has two root causes, both of which are based of debt.   First is the incredible destructive  deficit spending by George Bush and company.  (See the above section.)   The second cause is the lending organization who gave out very shady loans for individuals to purchase homes.    Most of these lenders did not care about the borrower's ability to pay back the loan because they intended to sell the loan to someone else.   (They sold these loans  in the U. S. Subprime Mortgage Market.

  They sold loans that were backed by the shady high-risk mortgages on real estate at inflated values. )   If and when the borrower defaulted on his/her loan, the lender did not care because the default was someone else's problem.  

Fraudulent Lending Assumptions:   People were given loans that they could just barely manage in their at-loan-time financial condition.   Borrowers who had no financial cushion whatsoever were given loans.    The loans assumed the borrowers would have no future financial crisis.   The loans assumed  that the borrower would remain employed at his/her at-loan-time job.   The loans assumed  that the borrower would remain in good health.   The loans assumed that the prices of goods and services would remain stable.

The loans assumed the value of the dollar would remain at its at-loan-time value.   The loans assumed  that the property values continued to rise.    Many of the loans were at an initially low interest rate with an automatic rise in interest after a few years.   The loans assumed  borrower could handle a significant rise in his/her/their interest rate in a few years after the loan was initially made.   The lenders new these assumptions were filled with  serious flaws and that the loans should not be made.   They made them, anyway.   They didn't care.    Short-term, personal gain was all they had in mind.  

Fractional Reserve Lending:   You might also note that the majority of these loans were made using the government-authorized process called fractional reserve lending.   Fractional reserve lending is, in and of itself a scam because lenders lend money they do not have and charge interest on the loan.   In the case of the present (2008) lending crisis, the fractional reserves which are normally at a ratio of ten to one were, in some cases, as high as thirty to one.   (In other words,  for every dollar the lenders  actually had, they loaned our thirty dollars.)   

Lender/Government Response:   Now that the crisis is becoming obvious what are the lenders and their government puppets doing?   For the lenders, they are bailing each other  out with more phony loans -- with more deficit financing --with  more loans based on nothing.   It's a variation of the Enron scandal gone global.   

For the individuals who got suckered into shoddy home loans,  they are saying screw you and foreclosing on the properties.   (Reference:  The Curse of Debt )    

Why:    Those of us who notice where we are headed ask,  "Why are are our so-called leaders doing this?   They are not stupid.   They are driving the world into collective, mass suicide where the planet will become uninhabitable for humans.   WHY?"   Either they are literally insane.   They are promoting the religious fairytale called The Rapture²   or they are under the control of off-planet forces.   

Where is this headed?   What the future if we allow Bush & Company to continue deficit financing?   It's called runaway inflation.   When that happens, the entire financial bubble will burst.   The rich will  run into their private guarded homes with gold and silver hidden on the property.  The people will be left to fend for themselves.   The government puppets will  institute more restrictions in a further attempt to manufacture its intended two class society -- the wealthy and the wage slaves.   If we allow this cycle to continue unchallenged, we will have a depression that will make the depression of the 1930's look like a picnic.  

The Ignored Context   There is another major piece of this puzzle that needs to be seen.   That piece is the environment.   We have turned on  Nature's Doomsday Machine.²   Unless we intentionally turn it back off very soon, it won't matter how much money you have or where you live  -- death and destruction will be knocking on your door.   Actually it won't be knocking, it will simply smash the door down.  This brings us back to our two choices:    

The Long-Term Vision of Economic Freedom

In order to have a functional economic system, everyone must have a fair share of the wealth.   Under the present system the wealthy have almost  exclusive access to the power of money.   The present system is about to collapse under the weight of its own corruption and a new structure will eventually evolve to take its place.   

There are several financial functions that are hallmarks of a fair economic system.   The concepts mentioned below are simply not possible in the present economic/political structures.   The present system is so powerful and so corrupt that it will almost certainly have to collapse in order for these changes to be put into effect.   They are mentioned here because they will eventually be required for a just and fair political and economic system to function.    

1)   A Return to the Gold Standard² ---  Politicians cannot manipulate a monetary system based on something of value such as gold.   With a gold standard, the billions of dollars of Government deficit spending would be impossible.   Gasoline would not be costing you almost $4.00 a gallon.

2)   The Elimination of the Federal Reserve² ---  The Federal Reserve is the greatest, most-lucrative, longest-lasting financial swindle the world has ever seen.

3)   The Elimination of Fractional Reserve Lending²  --- One of the greatest cons of all  time can be found at your local bank.   It's lending someone something they don't have (in this case, money) and charging you (the borrower)  money (interest)  for its use.   

4)  The Decriminalization of Drugs² ---  The sale of illegal drugs produces billions of dollars of secret money with which to finance a clandestine activities that dominates all life on planet Earth.   The least ethical people are among the wealthiest people on the planet.   

5)  Free the Media from the Control of Money  ---   A free society requires freedom of information.   Present major media outlets are little more that a propaganda machines for the status quo.   Your life and the lives of everybody on the planet are being manipulated by media programming designed to control what you believe.¹    

6)  Eliminate Campaign Contributions to Candidates for Political Office.   The power of the money manipulators must be taken money out of the  election process.   Politicians are presently owned by special interests groups (mostly corporations) who finance their political campaigns.   Politicians who represent the people have been replaced by politicians who represent the wealthy special interests.

Three-Step Response                  ...

The Three-Step Response to 
   that which Appears to be Creating Problems in Your Life

1)    Notice it.   Become aware of what is happening.   Allow it.   Forgive it.   Let it be.   Why allow it, forgive it, and let it be?    Because if you fight it you empower it, and because it's a reflection of something inside yourself that you:  1)  do not like, and 2)  have not accepted, and 3)  have not faced an stepped beyond.   

2)    Shift your focus and imagine a world in which the undesirable situation does not exist.  Answer these questions:    "Who do I choose to be in this new world?   
If my job was to create this new world, what would I do next?"     

3)    Take that next step, NOW!    For a very creative next step, see  the section below.