We continue our journey through the Democrats’ implementation of Engels’ roadmap of revolution with Measure (vi):
“Centralization of money and credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital, and the suppression of all private banks and bankers.”
There are many, many examples of this; one that has been mentioned before on this site is the nationalization of student loans. Another example: the Federal Reserve system, which is how the government “prints money” through manipulation of interest and reserve rates for banks. That was also a Democrat invention, and marked the transition from a commodity-backed currency to our current fiat currency. While private banks and bankers have not yet been completely suppressed, they are shackled to the Fed. The government ultimately controls the supply of currency, and thus its value.
What about regulation? The surest way to “suppress private banks and bankers” is to regulate them into oblivion: enter the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The law gives the Fed and other Federal agencies sweeping authority to regulate private banks, including credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products that generate capital. While its application has been relatively benign to date, it set up the framework for the federal government to tighten control over the private financial sector. As we have seen with other well-intentioned laws that give government sweeping powers, it is only a matter of time before Dodd-Frank is abused for Democrat political purposes. They have already done it with the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Think that’s far-fetched? From the 2020 Democratic Party Platform:
“…we will strengthen banking regulations, including the Community Reinvestment Act, to ensure equitable access to credit and banking products for all Americans, and reinvigorate the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) to ensure that banks, financial institutions, and lenders cannot prey on consumers.”
Also:
“We will also give bankruptcy judges the authority to ‘cram down,’ or modify, mortgages for primary residences during bankruptcy proceedings…”
And:
“Democrats will expand access to credit by creating a public credit reporting agency to provide a non-discriminatory credit reporting alternative to the private agencies, and will require its use by all federal lending programs, including home lending and student loans.”
Lest we neglect actual State banks:
“Democrats support the creation of an infrastructure bank, a public bank that will leverage public and private resources to build infrastructure projects of national or regional significance, including in rail and transit, clean energy and water infrastructure, broadband, and affordable housing.”
That’s how you take over an economy. The private banking system is the engine that drives a Capitalist economy, so it is a high-priority target for Democrats. To destroy Capitalism, one must first seize the banks and destroy their ability to generate capital for anyone but the State. Once you have the banks in hand, the rest of the economy follows whether they like it or not; what choice do they have?
This, above all other methods that Democrats have employed over the years, has been the most successful: they have destroyed the link between hard currency and real assets by creating the Federal Reserve system and introducing a fiat currency. They have created frameworks for regulating and controlling financial markets with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, and other financial regulations. They have gone so far as to create nationalized banking, through the Student Loan program and, before that, Fannie May/Freddie Mac. They will not stop there; those are only incremental stepping stones to the final destination.
Until next time.