Zeitgeist: Addendum - Part One

Unlike the first movie, I won't be going through the transcript of the film talking about everything. That's because, while the movie is almost as long, it does not say as many untruths as the first one -- and that's probably because it does not talk about as many topics as the first movie.

NOTE: I am a busy person, so it's hard to make time to work on my site. Unfortunately I have to work unlike Peter Joseph who makes a killing off of the movie. The first film took me two months, in my spare time, to research and create a page for, so that means this area could take just as long. Sorry if this is inconvenient, but it doesn't mean I can't debunk it. In other words it is not done yet, and that means that I am working on it, it will be done in the future, that is not today, i.e. not yet. If you cannot figure this concept out I assure you it isn't that difficult to comprehend.

1. Goethe Speaks
2. Modern Money Mechanics
3. Andrew Jackson
4. Greenbacks
   1. The Hazard Circular

Goethe Speaks

I could not find a source for this quote, and I'm not the only one. Every original quote site I can find with this quote on it says it is unsourced. So, I cannot say for sure whether or not these are the words of Goethe. I will say, though, it does seem like his style.

Modern Money Mechanics

It was hard to find direct proof this publication existed. Granted, I already knew it existed, but for sake of sourcing everything I do, I wanted to find proof. So, I emailed the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

From: Information.CHI@chi.frb.org

Dear Edward, 

Sorry, that publication is out of print for several years now. It dealt with the expansion of the money supply through the banking system. This process can be studied in books at your local library in the money and banking section.. 

Don Wagener 
Public Information

[More to come on this later]

Andrew Jackson

The film maker is essentially lying by omission when it comes to the situation with Andrew Jackson. As I discussed in Zeitgeist, The Movie Part III, History of Central Banks there were two Central Banks prior to the Federal Reserve. The First Bank of the United States was established to bring about stability, security, and credit, by founding fathers such as Alexander Hamilton[3a] and it worked well. 

In fact only 5 years after the first Central Bank expired, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered in order to stabilize currency once again. Thomas Jefferson's good friend James Monroe was among the founders of the Second Bank of the United States[3b] -- not "international banking cartels." The reason for its founding was that after the war of 1812, the country was in so much debt it was unable to function properly. Unfortunately, due to mismanagement and not having the protections central banks do today, the government removed their money from the bank and switched it another bank. Even after the US government removed their money, corruption continued and the bank went bankrupt and turned into what is today the Bank of Philadelphia[3c].

But why did Andrew Jackson oppose the Second Bank as the movie states? Well, for two reasons: first and foremost it was because of the corruption which had immerged within the Second Bank. Secondly because Jackson believed in an "agricultural republic"[3d], which the country was moving away from by this time. Unlike Industrial societies, like the one we live in now, agricultural societies do not expand and contract greatly and central banks add stability during expansion or contraction. Due to Andrew Jackson's actions the Panic of 1837 began and the economy went into a deep depression, which took years to recover[3d].

Greenbacks

The Greenback was a fiat paper currency that was in circulation between 1862 and January 21, 1971 when placing new bills into circulation ended. After this the Federal Reserve Note began to be only only note in circulation[4] -- I mention this because it seemed to me that the film implied this ended at the start of the Federal Reserve. While the greenback was "inherently debt free", like most fiat based systems, it was extremely limited in expansion, in fact a statutory limitation of $346.7 million dollars was put on the maximum amount in circulation[5].

The Hazard Circular

The movie quotes from a document called "The Hazard Circular", and I cannot find an original source for this. In fact, it is only mentioned, as far as I can tell, one conspiracy web sites or web sites where people are discussing others who believe in conspiracies. Regardless, a full quote is available and shows more than the movie did[6]:

"Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and all chattel slavery abolished. This I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led on by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. The great debt that the capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money. To accomplish this the bonds must be used as a banking basis. We are now waiting for the Secretary of the Treasury to make this recommendation to Congress. It will not do to allow the Greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that. But we can control the bonds and through them the bank issues."

The first part seems to me to be talking about how slavery works vs. wages, specifically in Europe where slavery had already been illegal for some time. As for the final two sentences, it seems as though the author(s) was referring to investments more than anything else. Regardless if my opinion here, an original document of this cannot be found -- so it's probable it is not real at all, or highly edited.