Matt, if you learn anything from your econ teacher, please relay it to me so I can better understand the system too.

Uncle, I never took any business classes in school so I don’t know what they teach about the Fed in there. But I have taken some political science courses where I would expect the Fed would fit in to the curriculum. However, if my memory serves me correctly, there was little elaboration on the Federal Reserve system. I could easily say that I learned most of what I know through your input and that of David Icke. I have asked friends and family to tell me what they know, but it doesn’t take long before I realize that they don’t know any more than I do (although they might think they do!). All in all, the American people are slaving away for a system that they know next to nothing about. I suppose we could actively seek more information about the system or demand it from our institutions (UW Parkside comes to mind…taxpayers are paying professors’ salaries and they are encouraged to interact with the community), but I don’t know who would spearhead that operation.

To those who might ask “What can I do right now?”, I would suggest that you make an effort to shop at local businesses as opposed to national franchises. Barter goods and services if you can. That way you circumvent the entire financial system altogether. Sure, the law says even if you barter that you should give uncle sam a cut of the profits for making the trade on his soil, but others would argue that civil disobedience is justified when corruption is rampant. If nothing else, by shopping locally you establish a sense of community out of which people can band together in the event that the whole economy goes belly-up. The more neighbors can resist competing with each other in a crisis, and instead favor cooperation, the more likely everyone is to benefit.