Wells Fargo,
the Problem With Capitalism, and the Bible
by Rev. Paul
J. Bern
I was alive
and kicking back in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, and in the
ensuing years when Communism imploded all across Russia, and Red
China soon after. The American political and military leadership
smugly congratulated one another when Communism fell. “Well, looks
like we won the Cold War”, they said among themselves. What nobody
realized at the time was that America was going to be next. It's just
that it's taking a lot longer for that to play out over here. America
has an 'ace in the hole' that the USSR never had – free enterprise.
I'm strongly in favor of free enterprise and private ownership. I
always have been, so I'm no communist or socialist, but what I
disapprove of is when our economic system gets abused by people whose
greed is out of control. These are a set of financial predators who
are in need of arrest and restraint!
As a result
of these occurrences, the capitalist economic system is ripe for a
collapse reminiscent of Communism's collapse a quarter century ago.
Interest on America's national debt is accruing faster than than the
principal can be paid down. Our country is buried under a mountain of
debt from which it is impossible to extricate ourselves. The fault
for this lies with the so-called 'Federal Reserve', which in fact is
neither. The Constitution of the United States says in Article 1,
Section 8, “The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect
taxes, …. coin money and regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin....”. Nowhere does it say “print money”, nor does it say
anything about a Federal Reserve. Real money must be coined, not
printed, and only Congress is authorized to coin money by the
Constitution. The very existence of the Federal Reserve is
unconstitutional! The so-called 'national debt' is a scam, a fraud, a
federal crime and an assault on the freedom of all Americans
everywhere! The Federal Reserve is something that clearly needs to be
stopped, and preferably nationalized. Fortunately, “we the people”
probably won't need to stage a revolt to make this occur. Like Soviet
Russia, capitalism will collapse on its own. It won't need any help.
I can sum up the reason why in one little word – debt.
Not only is
debt and the accompanying compounded interest reaching a point of no
return, America is faced with the indisputable fact that the
super-power era is at its end as far as world history is concerned.
Nations in other parts of the world, particularly in emerging
economies, have started to figure out that mutual cooperation for
profit is in everyone's best interests. Unfortunately, my country,
the venerable USA, has yet to get the message. The US refuses to
abandon its war-based and debt-based economy, because if it does, it
would be tantamount to voluntary relinquishing America's role as the
sole remaining super power. The nail in the coffin of American
'supremacy' will be the forcible replacement of the US dollar as the
world's standard currency. Russia and Red China have already signed
the trade and economic treaties to accomplish this, it's a done deal.
It's only a matter of time as to how long this will take to play out.
But the war
is also being waged right here at home, a fact that millions of
Americans are just now beginning to wake up to. People's bank
accounts are being raided by the very banks that purport to serve
them as loyal customers. The most notable example of this was this
past week's disclosure by the US Department of Justice of Wells Fargo
Bank opening multiple accounts in its customers' names, unbeknownst
to those customers, and getting commissions and bonuses as a result
of this nefarious and fraudulent financial activity. In an article
posted Wednesday Sept 21, 2016 on CNN.com written by Walter Einenkel,
he wrote:
“A
couple of weeks ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in
penalties for perpetrating a massive fraud on customers. Wells Fargo
executives boasted that they had fired 5,300 workers involved in
improprieties, but not a single executive was punished. In fact,
executives that literally oversaw the departments where the
gargantuan fraud was committed were very well compensated, and
lauded. Yesterday, Wells Fargo CEO — and blame-game champion —
John Stumpf went in front of a Senate Banking Committee where he was
rightfully castigated by Senator Elizabeth Warren for his “gutless
leadership.” Part of Stumpf’s “apology” was to say that Wells
Fargo didn’t do this as much as bad apples did it. It’s a similar
defense used by people who murder citizens.”
“Now
CNN Money is hearing from former Wells Fargo (WFC) workers around the
country who tried to put a stop to these illegal tactics. Almost half
a dozen workers who spoke with us say they paid dearly for trying to
do the right thing: they were fired. "They ruined my life,"
Bill Bado, a former Wells Fargo banker in Pennsylvania, told CNN
Money. Bado not only refused orders to open phony bank and credit
accounts. The New Jersey man called an ethics hot-line and sent an
email to human resources in September 2013, flagging unethical sales
activities he was being instructed to do.”
“Eight
days after that email, a copy of which CNN Money obtained, Bado was
terminated. The stated reason? Tardiness.... Retaliating against
whistle blowers is a major breach of trust. Ethics hot-lines are
exactly the kind of safeguards put in place to prevent illegal
activity from taking place and provide refuge to employees from
dangerous work environments....”
“Another
six former Wells Fargo employees told CNN Money they witnessed
similar behavior at Wells Fargo -- even though the company has a
policy in place that is supposed to prevent retaliation against
whistle blowers. CNN Money has taken steps to confirm that the
workers who spoke anonymously did work at Wells Fargo and in some
cases interviewed colleagues who corroborated their reports. It's
possible Wells Fargo could face legal consequences for any
retaliation that occurred against employees who called the ethics
line .... It is clearly against the law for any company (or
executives of such companies) to try to suppress whistle blowing,"
Harvey Pitt, former chairman of the SEC, told CNN Money in an
email...”.
As you can
clearly see, America's financial system is making all the money it
can, every way they possibly can, because they know this collapse is
coming. That's why stuff like the shenanigans over at Wells Fargo is
going on behind the scenes. The whole stinking system is corrupt from
top to bottom, and people are figuring it out in growing numbers.
Whatever you do, if you have an account with Wells Fargo, move your
money to a credit union. Unlike banks, credit unions are non-profits,
and they're far more personalized than banks. But it's not just a
violation of our laws that our financial system is a criminal
enterprise, it's a violation of God's laws too. And not just the
criminal and civil violations mentioned above, either. Let me take
you to the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, chapter 22, beginning
at verse 22:
“Do not
take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to
me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I
will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your
children fatherless. If you lend money to one of my people among you
who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by
sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body.
What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for
I am compassionate.”
As you can
clearly see, it is immoral in the sight of God to charge interest
beyond the borrower's ability to pay. It is also wrong for lenders to
take everything but the clothes off their customer's back, which
happens with disturbing frequency. Yet this is exactly the situation
the entire world is currently faced with. We have the Federal Reserve
in the US, the British “Royal Family” in the UK, and the
Rothschilds in Europe who basically control the world's flow of money
and liquid assets. Just beneath them in the economic pecking order
are the elite rich, government and corporate leadership, and
religious denominations of various kinds. But the remainder of us,
“the 99%”, have little or nothing. Economic inequality has become
like a ticking time bomb across the globe. There are simply so many
angry, frustrated, disenfranchised and often disenchanted individuals
like ourselves who are hungry and thirsty for real change that the
fuse on this socioeconomic time bomb has already been lit. Our entire
capitalist, debt-based economic system is based on something the
Bible said was a great sin nearly 3,500 years ago. The Bible does not
change, and neither does God! By incurring a debt that currently
stands at $17 or $18 trillion, America is reaping what it has sown.
God says to America, “You want debt, do ya? Well all right, then,
I'm going to give you a trainload of it!” Is it any wonder we are
in the shape we are in? We are bankrupt, we have been for a very long
time, and it's our own fault. Although the US government has been
concealing the true extent of this indebtedness from its citizens,
the people are catching on quickly. Our government has declared war
on its own citizens, and the soldiers are none other than police
offers who are sworn to protect and serve. Instead, they harass and
intimidate all they come into contact with, and they routinely kill
unarmed citizens just because they can. This cannot continue
indefinitely, and the standoff between the police and the rest of the
country continues to escalate. The fuse has been lit. And there is a
very large powder keg at the end of it.
