Sunday, June 13, 2004

Shifting the balance

A website called Solari is sending out this email (excerpts):

Celebrate July 4th the Solari way!

"When in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the {financial} bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the {financial} separation."


-- Adaptation of the American "Declaration of Independence"*


We hereby declare our independence from the financial behavior which is destroying our country and our world.

We are not going to wait for November. We are voting now.

We are not going to ask more Congressmen, Commissions, Administration Representatives or Presidential Candidates for help.

We have the power of our votes in the marketplace.

We are going to exercise that power now!

Our kickoff date is July 4th. We are calling for 600,000 people worldwide to join us in pulling our checking accounts, certificates of deposits, credit cards and other business out of multi-national banks such as Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and switching to a local, well managed community-friendly bank or credit union...

Why switch your bank account?

This will make news.
This will make heads turn on Wall Street.
This will shift the power in Washington.
This will send a strong signal to the powers that be that your vote counts.
This will send a strong vote of confidence to trustworthy leaders and candidates.

...The election in November is important. Voting with our money now can increase support for the honest candidates in November. Voting with our money now can shift the political and economic agenda that the winning candidates will face in January.


...* In our Declaration we changed "political" to "financial" because the key to establishing integrity in our government is to bring transparency and accountability to the management of government resources. Increasingly, our government assets are being transferred or outsourced to private interests. Meantime, those private interests are transferring their liabilities back to government. Our currency is managed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System of twelve privately owned Federal Reserve Banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which in turn serves as depository for the US government bank accounts. The member banks who own and control the individual Federal Reserve Banks have received extraordinary credit subsidies through the governmental apparatus. In addition, there is over $3.3 trillion missing from our government accounts. In short, our government is being manipulated to serve a private agenda. Hence, we are supporting in the marketplace with our choices as consumers and investors the very banks who are orchestrating the corruption of our government.

** Why 600,000? Our financial system is highly leveraged. That means that a tiny shift in customers from big banks to local banks can cause a dramatic shift in political and economic power and behavior. This is why our coins are so powerful. We estimate that 600,000 is 1% of 1% of our worldwide population.


I've had my money (pittance that it is) in a local credit union for as long as I've lived and worked here. The treatment you get, for one thing, is so much better than at the corporate banks. And, of course, there's the local investment idea.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.