Well, this just confuses me.

A big central bank (i.e. a new IMF) seems like a really bad idea--but the CATO Institute (Pieces of Shit) is against it. A tax on global transactions is a good idea--for each country individually--not Globally (who would receive and enforce?).

And--the Catholic Church being against idolatry is hypocrisy at its finest.

I don't know what to think.

I need analysis.
(yes, I need analysis--but here I mean of this issue)

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Boise_Lib.

>> ^Boise_Lib:

Well, this just confuses me.

It mostly made me chuckle. The Catholic church goes ultra-Keynesian in defense of social justice. Somewhere, there's a fleet of Ron Paul supporters whose heads just exploded.

As for the merits of the idea itself, I don't think we're at the point where a global monetary union would be useful. While the IMF doesn't have the same sort of dedication to social justice one would imagine a Papal Global Bank would have, it's not actually doing too bad a job given its limited resources and authority, and given the kind of ideological mindsets that tend to infest monetary institutions.

I'm also somewhat fascinated at the idea of the Catholic church putting out a statement about a need for expansionary monetary policy to ease poverty in the world. I wouldn't have expected such a scientific idea to come from them.

my head didn't explode. I can spot a Red herring.

This is the real issue:
Money = power
therefore
Unlimited banking = unlimited power.

>> ^marinara:

my head didn't explode. I can spot a Red herring.
Money = power. Unlimited banking = unlimited power.


Aha! So you're a Ron Paul supporter?

Also, you believe the Catholic church is bent on world domination by hook or by crook? And that their interest in poverty is just a red herring?

You miss the entire point.

Why would you concentrate on my characterization of the church, and ignore the fact that the elites in charge of this proposed bank would have unlimited money.

And the church is no stranger to power.

Yes, I love Ron Paul, Yes the Church is chasing power, Yes the Church will not care to use the proposed world bank to eliminate poverty.

Tell me how the Church is working to eliminate poverty now?
Tell me when the Church has given away power?
Tell me why I shouldn't love Ron?

Shut up pope. Go away. You screwed our children. The banks screwed everyone.

A global central banking system - isn't this what was suggested was the overall plan years ago?

falsify and orchestrate a financial breakdown and then swoop in with the fix-all of a World central bank with only one money system controlling all the countries. And the goal was to make people think this was a good idea and that they would all embrace the idea as a saving grace.

Greed and corruption doesn't hit all at once. It sits there invisible, waiting in the dark, sowing it's seeds and waiting for each plan to execute itself one at a time! The best take over and conquer plan is one where the people don't even notice it happening!

Moving this video to NetRunner's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

>> ^marinara:

You miss the entire point.
Why would you concentrate on my characterization of the church, and ignore the fact that the elites in charge of this proposed bank would have unlimited money.
And the church is no stranger to power.
Yes, I love Ron Paul, Yes the Church is chasing power, Yes the Church will not care to use the proposed world bank to eliminate poverty.
Tell me how the Church is working to eliminate poverty now?
Tell me when the Church has given away power?
Tell me why I shouldn't love Ron?


Not really missing the point, just focusing on the part of your comment I find interesting.

Basically my read on all right-wing thought is that it's almost entirely motivated by fear. The modern, highly distilled version we have here in the American right is a particularly insane bunch who believe that every institution with any kind of power is evil. Not just too wrapped up in its own self-serving goals to meet the needs of ordinary people, but actually out to maliciously do harm to everyone else because they're all apparently inhuman monsters bent on our destruction.

That's what Ron Paul is a spokesman for.

The Catholic church is a lot of things, and it's made up of a lot of people. It's had a particularly awful history, but I do believe that in large part the modern Catholic Church believes what it preaches when it comes to social justice. I don't really see how or why they'd bother teaching social justice if their true goal was to abolish social justice. Take a look at right-wing churches in America for an example of how they could be twisting the teachings of Christ into some grand justification for Ayn Rand-style market fundamentalism, as well as hate and intolerance.

I also find the whole "fear the Fed" thing to be tiresome and quite misguided. If you think it's physically impossible for Central Banks to ever do any good, you simply need to go out and educate yourself on modern monetary theory. Read Milton Friedman if you think Keynes was some demon summoned straight from the bowels of hell. If you just think the institution is just being run by corrupt people, then presumably you're in the "fire Bernanke, and put a liberal conservative in his place" club. Or maybe you're like me and just want to modify the Fed's charter so there's more democratic accountability, and a clearer mandate.

Or we should just put the Pope in charge.

Mostly though I just find the very idea of a conspiracy amusing. The Pope isn't saying "the Catholic Church should be the Global Central Bank", he's saying "there should be a Global Central Bank whose mandate is to cure poverty". I like that idea! But, I think a) it's obviously politically impossible, and b) a global monetary union would be harder to pull off than the euro monetary union, and the euro is headed for collapse as it is...

But like I said originally, this seems tailor-made to get Ron Paul-style conspiracy theorists all in a tizzy, and apparently I was right!

This. Monetary unions need to follow political unions, not the other way around. The problem in europe is that they can't just print the currency of the nations that were irresponsible. If they could do that, there would be very little problem (just localized inflation). Instead, since responsible countries in Europe don't want to suffer because of the Mediterranean profligacy, they need to go with the often counter-productive austerity measures and debt renegotiation (declaring insolvency). With a global bank the problem would be worse. I'm okay with a concept like the SDR (a basket of currencies) for currency reserves and commodity pricing, but sovereign nations need the power to print their own paper. It seems clear however that the global economy needs to be decoupled from the dollar. It would be better for everybody.

>> ^NetRunner:

I think a) it's obviously politically impossible, and b) a global monetary union would be harder to pull off than the euro monetary union, and the euro is headed for collapse as it is...