Following the Money
6 Jul 2025 – When we think of empires throughout history we think of examples like the Roman empire, the British empire, the American empire, etc. In other words, we automatically conflate the idea of empire with a particular location on the planet. Up until not too long ago this automatic conflation was an understandable error. In our modern era though, this tendency to unquestioningly link empires to particular geographical land masses is a mistake that has contributed to the confusion of an overwhelming majority of the world’s population.
Similarly, when we think about the history of war and conquest we tend to link particular events to particular personalities. For instance, we read about Napoleon and his gigantic ambitions being the spur of “his” huge successes and his eventual imprisonment. The question arises though: Who funded these gigantic undertakings? Who paid for his army? Who footed the bill for all of the weapons, traveling supplies and ammunition that were needed? Was it a king who supplied the money? And if so, was it the king’s money or was it someone else’s money?
Now fast forward to the 21st century in the US. Who decides what wars are to be fought? I’m going to guess that if you’ve read this far that you at least suspect that these decisions and allocations are not solely decided by US presidents and their administrations. What if I told you that, in almost every case, these government officials have very little to do with deciding who the US goes to war with. “Then who decides?” you might be thinking.
The Current Monetary System is a Predatory Ponzi Scheme
The current Western monetary system has been put together by the world’s most powerful bankers. The system doesn’t have to be the way it is. “The monetary system is the way it is because those who run it choose to have it remain that way.”, says former hedge fund manager and economic analyst Alex Krainer.(1) The monetary system, which is run by banker oligarchs and the banking system, achieves its ends via the use of physical (military), economic and psychological violence. “How so?”, you might me wondering. The system is set up in such a way that it requires constant growth in order to stay alive. In this sense the existing system is like a bicycle. If the accumulation stops, if the forward motion (growth) stops, the bicycle tips over and the rider falls off.
When a banker gives you a loan, say 100,000 dollars for a mortgage, you have to pay it back with interest. Generally speaking, over time, you’re going to end up paying it back twice, to the tune of about 200,000 dollars. The problem is, only the principle, only 100,000 dollars enters circulation. The additional 100,000 that’s required to pay off your loan has to be earned and thus extracted from an overall pool of money that doesn’t include anything other than principal allocations. This creates a situation where growth is not only advantageous for bankers, it’s also essential in order to keep the overall system afloat. In other words, the monetary system is a huge predatory money lending scheme that financially entraps its prey in debt cycles. While all of this is happening the banking system continually accumulates untaxed, “untouchable” off-shore financial holdings that total out at upwards of 50 TRILLION dollars and counting.(1a)
All Modern Wars are Bankers Wars for Profit and Conquest
Following logically from all that has been said so far, the only way continual growth can be maintained is by moving outside of given markets once they are saturated. In other words, if growth is essential for the current system’s survival and growth is no longer possible within a given region then the profit makers must find new markets, new regions, new resources and new targets of exploitation or the system will collapse.
In the US, Europe and in Canada, we’ve seen more and more cities slipping into drug addiction, suicide and deeper into poverty. This is because the banks have been pushing the donor owned political class to create more and more growth and therefore profit (for bankers) abroad. All of this has transpired at the expense of the aforementioned countries’ general populations. This growth fetish is the true underlying cause of the perpetual bipartisan push for more and more wars in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and wherever else imperialist expansion and looting are possible.
To take an example: Ukraine’s resource wealth is estimated at 15 trillion dollars while Russia’s resource wealth is estimated at 70 trillion dollars. Anyone who has put a modicum of time into studying the current Russia-Ukraine war by considering points of view that come from both Western and nonWestern sources (sources outside the Western narrative) knows that “Project Ukraine” has been in the works for close to 2 decades.(1b) From 2019 to 2022, for 3 years, US money and weapons were poured into Ukraine in order to prepare it for its role as a battering ram, as a proxy army to take on Russia. This is not an inference. It’s a documented fact that the US government and military were contemplating the use of Ukraine’s population as a proxy army since at least 2019.(2),(2a)
Similarly, the US government had a plan to undertake “7 wars in 5 Years in the Middle East” beginning in 2003.(3) These wars were undertaken to expand the reach of the US banking system and to extract resources from these now bombed out and battered countries. Our “mainstream” Western media tells us that these wars, including the recent clash with Iran, were undertaken to prevent the development and/or use of weapons of mass destruction, to thwart “evil”, to spread democracy, or they were undertaken for “humanitarian purposes”.
I’m going to speak very directly here: These excuses that have been used to start and escalate wars have all been children’s stories. Our electoral system/our political system and our “mainstream” media have been to a large degree taken over by oligarchs, by the banking system, which is tied in directly with the military industrial complex. This has, to a degree, been the case for a long time. That said, over the course of the last few decades the US has shifted from being a problematic but functioning democracy into what is now essentially an oligarchy that has retained only the outer form of a democracy.(4) If you don’t believe these facts as delivered by me then check out what Harvard University and The Guardian have said about this matter: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policycast/oligarchy-open-what-happens-now-us-forced-confront-its-plutocracy
The Monetary System Could Be Changed (A Recent Real Life Example in 21st Century Germany)
Some have argued that the shortcomings of the current global monetary system are simply part of the deal, and that it couldn’t be any other way. This is nonsense. Up until about 15 years ago one of the greatest economic successes on the planet was Germany. It was the number 1 exporting superpower in the world. The value of Germany’s exports was greater even than China’s up until a little over a decade ago. This happened because the German banking system had a policy of not only giving interest free loans to small businesses, they also supported those small and medium sized businesses, giving them helpful advice, accompanying them to conferences, etc.. The banks that issued these loans were smaller regional banks, 70% of which were non profit establishments. In other words, these banks were not in it for giant profits for themselves alone. There was a mutually beneficial aspect to what was happening for both parties. This allowed these companies to develop their businesses over time without the constant pressure of having to quickly pay back loans at high interest rates.(5)
Unfortunately, Germany eventually succumbed to the US-propelled finance based banking model and began de-industrializing about a decade ago. The result of this switch has been disastrous. Germany has been hovering close to recession for the better part of 3 years now.
We Have To Stop Pretending
Some kind of new tipping point has been reached of late. Maybe it just happened a day or 2 ago, or a week or two ago, or a year or 2 ago? I’m not sure when the exact moment was when it happened (for you). The thing is, you, the one reading this, know what I’m talking about. Maybe in your head you’re thinking now that you’re not sure what I’m talking about. In your heart you know though. It’s time for you and I to stop bullshitting ourselves. Forget about your allegiance to Donald Trump or the Democratic party for a moment. People with good jobs are having trouble paying their rent and the situation is getting tighter and tighter all the time. And you know it. You see the way prices are skyrocketing seemingly every few months over the course of the last few years. But the economy “is doing well”, we keep being told. You know you’re being lied to. You know that the wars we’ve been constantly getting into over the course of the last 25 years, or more, have all been bullshit. You know that the news channels you watch on “mainstream” TV are pumping mostly nonsense when it comes to war and prospective war. You know that the US and Israel have been violating every international law on the books for years. Come on, you know that you know! You’d kinda have to be an idiot not to know. But you’re not an idiot. Or are you? Stop.
All bantering aside, none of this is a secret anymore. The core flaw, the perceptible central sin that is generating all of this chaos and disruption is in the monetary system. In other words, there’s nothing magical about what’s been happening, technically speaking. The question is, what will it take to get people to look into these matters more deeply. Maybe some kind of spiritual awakening will be necessary? Honestly, I’m not sure what it will take. Perhaps we all need to begin seriously asking ourselves the question, “Do I want to live and if so, in what conditions? What kind of world do I want to live in?”
CITATIONS:
1-https://youtu.be/cvPVTp9e1eI?si=48bcvC8K6bWlMVC5
1a-https://gfintegrity.org/50-trillion-offshore-with-james-s-henry/
2-https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html
2a-https://www.pressenza.com/2024/08/the-us-calculated-sacrifice-of-the-ukrainian-population/
3-https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TJpGoKqPM0k
5- go to 22:50 in – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM2b_youfAg&t=1662s
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Mark Lesseraux is a singer/songwriter/socio-political columnist from Brooklyn, New York. He is a humanist, a proponent and practitioner of Active Nonviolence and a student of Nonduality.