Review of the Money Masters at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Money_Masters_(film)

The Money Masters is a 1995 documentary, produced by attorney Patrick S. J. Carmack and directed and narrated by William T. Still.^[2] It discusses the concepts of money, debt, and taxes, and describes their development from biblical times onward. It covers the history of fractional-reserve banking, central banking, monetary policy, the bond market, and the Federal Reserve System in the United States. The film is widely available online.^[3][4][5]

Premise

The film makers posit that the profit from issuing money is currently being used in the United States to benefit a few wealthy individuals. It further argues that this situation should be remedied, so that the profit benefits the public good, as during four periods in the history of the United States. Finally it presents a proposed piece of legislation, the Monetary Reform Act, to implement such a remedy. As support, the film provides many quotations from notable figures including economists, members of the financial system, kings of England and United States presidents.

The film criticises fractional-reserve banking and the control aspects of both modern banking regulation and centralized banking systems such as the Federal Reserve System. It describes the history of money and banking, how central banks came to be and how they operate.

The film describes how the U.S. Congress gave the power of money creation to private banks through the Federal Reserve Act and how the banks accumulate large amounts of interest using this power. It asserts that wealth is slowly being drawn into the hands of a small banking elite at the expense of the general population. This can be seen through such events as the 1929 stock market crash when a broker's call was issued, triggering the crash which further solidified the power of the federal reserve.

The film argues that there is no publicly owned gold left in Fort Knox because the gold belongs to private banks as collateral against the U.S. national debt. The film argues that since the gold was accumulated by prohibiting its possession, the public's gold has been stolen by private banks. The film also asserts that this gold was used as collateral against government loans used to escape the Great Depression and that the majority went to overseas banks who used it to fund Nazi Germany.

The film also asserts that the Federal Reserve System enables private banks to force recessions at will by refusing to offer new loans while simultaneously demanding payment on existing loans. It asserts that this power has been used a number of times since the 1913 creation of the Federal Reserve.

The film asserts that by the end of World War I, private banks owned and controlled much of the United States' newspaper, news magazine, and film outlets and that they achieved this using consolidated wealth generated by fractional-reserve banking. It argues that these banks have influence over the mainstream media through their ownership and that this influence is used to prevent criticism of the financial monopoly from entering the general public's consciousness.

The film argues that placing our economy back on a gold standard will not solve the economic crisis. The scarcity of gold means it is one of the easiest commodities to manipulate. Attempts have been made to outlaw silver, such as the Coinage Act of 1873, which caused outrage and was termed the crime of 1873.

By way of conclusion, the film advocates a Monetary Reform Act and suggests that fractional-reserve banking and the Federal Reserve System be abolished in favor of 100% reserve banking, also known as warehouse banking. These reserves would come from the U.S. Treasury, which would issue non-interest generating money to repay the public debt to the banks. This would happen over a period of one year. As the government repaid its debt, the banks would be required to hold the government's new money as reserves and the reserve rate would slowly be increased to 100%. It is claimed that thus, there would be no inflation or imbalance in the amount of money in circulation. The issuing of new money would then be controlled. In order to prevent inflation, issuance would be according to population statistics. After the public debt was repaid, money that would previously have been interest on the debt would be distributed by the government as a tax refund, leading to the abolition of the Federal income tax.

Distribution, reception, and longevity

According to the producer, 50,000 units of The Money Masters were sold between 1995 and 2001.^[6] An article containing the basic ideas presented in the documentary has appeared in Nexus magazine in several languages.^[7] Even 15 years after its release, the film still has considerable popularity, gaining interest from an audience first introduce to this subject through other documentaries such as Zeitgeist. As of February, 2010, the film ranked #18,629 of the more than 240,000 movies on DVD and tape cataloged by Amazon.com, and it has a 4.5-star rating.^[8] The film was aired in its entirety by PBS affiliate stations in 2002 and 2008.