SF Source Tracks Nov 2020
Costa Rica
Public Banking In Costa Rica: A Little-Known Model
MaxKeiser November 12 2013
In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it.
So says political activist Scott Bidstrup, who writes:
For the last decade, I have resided in Costa Rica, where we have had a “Public Option” for the last 64 years.
There are 29 licensed banks, mutual associations and credit unions in Costa Rica, of which four were established as national, publicly-owned banks in 1949. They have remained open and in public hands ever since—in spite of enormous pressure by the I.M.F. [International Monetary Fund] and the U.S. to privatize them along with other public assets. The Costa Ricans have resisted that pressure—because the value of a public banking option has become abundantly clear to everyone in this country.
During the last three decades, countless private banks, mutual associations (a kind of Savings and Loan) and credit unions have come and gone, and depositors in them have inevitably lost most of the value of their accounts.
But the four state banks, which compete fiercely with each other, just go on and on. Because they are stable and none have failed in 31 years, most Costa Ricans have moved the bulk of their money into them. Those four banks now account for fully 80% of all retail deposits in Costa Rica, and the 25 private institutions share among themselves the rest.
Food Monopolists Are Taking Over The World Food Supply
NaturalNews March 6 2013
There was a reason why our founding fathers were leery of monopolies – because they knew that too much power and influence in too few hands was not conducive to liberty and freedom.
That’s one reason why they would likely be concerned about control of the global food supply these days – because too few food multinationals have a grip on commodity markets, “with potentially dramatic effects for consumers and food producers alike,” Britain’s Independent reported recently.
The newspaper was citing a new report that warned the livelihoods of millions of small business owners and firms that produce many of the drinks and foods we consume on a daily basis are “seriously under threat,” noting that extreme price volatility coupled with higher food prices and more concentrated food markets threaten to leave farmers “condemned to poverty.”
The paper said three mega-multinationals now control better than 40 percent of global coffee sales, for example. Eight companies control the supply of cocoa and chocolate. Seven control the lion’s share – 85 percent – of tea production. Five multinationals control three-quarters of the world banana trade. And the largest half-dozen sugar traders account for about 66 percent of world trade, the new report by the Fairtrade Foundation said.
World food system ‘dangerously out of control’
That tight control of the markets by the mega-companies, which utilize their “buyer power” to control the supply chain and how it operates – can leave smaller firms “marginalized” and surviving on low-yield contracts, poverty-level wages and with poor health and safety practices to boot, the report warned.
Who Really Owns Your Gold
William Garner | January 23 2013
Dean does an excellent job summarizing the way things operate financially, and how this enslave-and-control system ended up the way it did. He connects some interesting dots and provides clear insight into the planned erosion of standards of living in America and around the world. He also suggests steps you can take to avoid the financial crash ahead. Well worth your investment of $5.95 (USD) ~Gillian C Grannum, Ph.D.
A Couple Reviews
Scott Oliver ~ “In this short, easy-to-read book, the author William Dean A. Garner asks: ‘How many dots will it take you, Dear Reader, to realize that you are in the grip of an otherworldly, destructive force whose goal is to enslave you and your family?’
“It was in 1790 when Mayer Amschel Rothschild said: ‘Let me issue and control the nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.’ Now Garner connects the dots for you and explains how: ‘We The People of the United States of America are in the worst predicament of the history of this country. And, perhaps worse, most of us don’t even know it.’ ” — Scott Oliver is author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore in Bull & Bear Markets, and founder of WeLoveCostaRica.com