by G. Edward Griffin

2000

Updated 2007 January 23
from FreedomForceInternational Website

The most important thing I can tell you about very high-yield bank investments is to forget them.

I have had considerable exposure to these programs over the years. I believe that such programs do exist and, yes, they may actually pay up to 1000% annual interest; but they are not available to investors with less than $10 million to place. $100 million is the preferred amount.

Even if you have this kind of money, there is no certainty that you will be admitted into the club. The gatekeepers are very fussy about who they favor with this program. It helps a lot to be part of or close to the ruling elite. Even if you should be accepted, you would then face the moral dilemma of participating in the same fiat-money scheme that has impoverished - and continues to impoverish - the common man through inflation.

Many of those who promote these programs to investors with modest capital are scam artists using a Ponzi scheme to pay off early investors so as to attract many additional investors who, in the end, lose everything. Some promoters may have good intentions at the start but are not able to complete the transactions because they have to aggregate the funds of many investors in order to meet the $10 million entry point.

The banks will not accept pooled money if they are aware of it, and they have ways of finding out.

Consequently, when these well-intentioned promoters are turned down, they have to refund the money to the investors in their pool - but, alas, by that time, they already will have spent some of it and cannot cash out. Typically, they tell their investors that the money was confiscated by the Federal Reserve or a government agency.

That way, they are blameless in the eyes of those who put their trust in them. Then they move to another country with what is left of the pool and live very well.

The road to these investments is strewn with the carcasses and skeletons of investors hoping to make a quick fortune.
 

IF WE COULD PARTICIPATE IN BANK-TRADING PROGRAMS

...COULDN'T WE USE THE ENORMOUS PROFITS TO FIGHT THE SYSTEM?

I cannot agree.

There are several reasons. First, human nature is such that very few people would actually spend the money that way. Great wealth is heady wine, especially when it is earned without effort or risk. Very few people would seriously try to dismantle a system that gives them such monetary power.

At best, they would rationalize to themselves that they'll do it after they acquire that dream house and after a new car and after a vacation home and after a yacht and after a trip around the world and after the children and grandchildren have an inheritance. At worst, they would simply change their worldview and accept the fact that they are now among the privileged class.

Secondly, there is the moral issue. If we seek to profit from the fiat system, we are no different than those whom we oppose. It is self-serving to argue that we will use some of our windfall to do good. True, we may salve our consciences by donating some of our unearned profits to those in need, but the reality is that only a few can be helped while everyone else is harmed.

We like to focus on those few whom we help and ignore those whom we harm.

This makes us feel good, and others may view us as being charitable. In reality, however, through inflation -- which is the mechanism by which these huge profits are created -- we steal $1 from a million people, give $3 to one person, and then claim we are humanitarians.

I cannot endorse that facade.