The Secret of Oz

[Rajiv]

"The Secret of Oz" (www.secretofOZ.com) directed by award winning filmmaker, Bill Still, (1995, "The MoneyMasters).

The only fix for the economy is to eliminate the national debt -- NO MORE NATIONAL DEBT. But how can we do that? The national debt is increasing at an alarming rate. That's the secret embedded in the book version of the beloved children's story, "The Wizard of Oz".

"The Secret of Oz" has won the Silver Sierra Award at the Yosemite Film Festival and the Award of Merit at the Accolade Competition. It premiered it the Louisville International Film Festival on Oct. 2 and has won at 3 other film fests.

Secret of Oz banned

The Secret of Oz Banned on Amazon

After being on Amazon.com for only three days, the new film on the economy, "The Secret of Oz" has been banned by Amazon.com.

"You may no longer sell on our site," said Amazon.com in an email to Still Productions at noon today.

"This came completely out of the blue without warning, and without any shred of legitimate cause," said Director Bill Still.

Amazon.com's email cites "performance" issues. "We took this action because your selling performance has fallen below our standards." It referred Still to their "Customer Experience Metrics" page to see what the problem was, but a check of that page showed no performance issues whatsoever.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Related or not, we also learned that this moving is now being discussed in "higher circles" at the very time that the Fed's opacity is under attack. Note the Oz analogy now coming into use:



Coincidentally, this action by Amazon follows the movie's first "rejection" from a film festival after being screened in 9 film festivals and winning multiple awards:



Just this past week, the Peak City Film Festival in Apex, NC, a suburb of Raleigh, NC, rejected the film after first accepting it. The film festival is going on this weekend, here's how they phrased their rejection:

Dear Producer,

Your entry in the Peak City Film Festival has passed through our jury process, but regretfully, will not be screened. Our judges have determined your entry did not meet the criteria for a completely family-friendly production due to certain elements of language or actions, regardless of how small...

I've seen the film twice, there is no language or action in the film that is not family appropriate, the Wizard of Oz movie itself would be less family appropriate.

I sincerely don't know if these things are connected, but this film deserves the widest possible dissemination.

Ben Still's response to Amazon

[LargoWinch]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Great stuff Master Rajiv. Thanks.

[Sidewinder]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Thank you Rajiv,

if this is of interest you might want to read Ellen Brown. Just bumped into her site http://www.webofdebt.com/. It also discusses the relationship of Oz to money and TPTB.

SW

[Sidewinder]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Apologies- posted in haste - I see Brown is in this clip.

[Rajiv]

Re: The Secret of Oz

"The Secret of Oz" Wins Best Documentary Award...

Bill Still:

"The Secret of Oz" won Best Documentary of 2010 at the Beloit International Film Festival. We beat out 6 other excellent finalists -- a really unbelievable win! Beloit, Wisconsin is about an hour from Chicago. It was a total shock to me. I was told that it had won about 15 minutes before the announcement so I had a chance to scribble a couple of thoughts on a piece of paper before I got to say a few words on stage. What a huge turnout Beloit has! This is the best film festival I've been to.

These people are mad and they want to do something about it. Beloit has 18% unemployment right NOW! A Wisconsin State Senator came up after the presentation and asked how the State Bank idea would work -- specifically what they would do about the existing debt.

.
.
.
.
Below is the basic outline of Freedom’s Vision concerning the states, but how this fits into the overall dynamic of creating a healthy economy is key to keep in mind as it is income that is required to service debt (State Banks would also take over functions of Reserve Banks). The ideal solution is to take all the steps within Freedom’s Vision in unison:

D. States – Treasury will provide funds equivalent to one year’s worth of each state’s revenue:

i. 50% of those funds will pay down current state debts easing the state’s debt burden.
ii. The other 50% will be used to fund initial start up of each state’s STATE BANK, based on the model of North Dakota (Bank of North Dakota, About Bank of ND)

a. All state tax monies are deposited in this bank.
b. 10 to 1 fractional reserve maximum on DEPOSITS which are backed by taxing authority and by vast assets, making these banks some of the most sound banks in the world – would exceed all other banking requirements.
c. Banks will support other commercial banks within state.
d. Banks will provide low or no interest loans to state for infrastructure projects.
e. The bank would generally support private people only by providing capital and working with private banks. These banks will meet or exceed all other banking requirements and be limited in a very conservative manner.
f. The advantage to the state is that they can get low or no interest loans and they can earn interest that goes to the people of the state instead of the central bank. These banks would generally be prohibited from lending directly to the public, but could perform a regional banking function supporting and regulating local banks much as the regional reserve banks do now.

iii. In addition to the above funds, State governments will be given initial funding from the Treasury to create a reserve fund equal to 10% of their annual budget. This money will be deposited and held in the State bank as the state’s reserve fund. Each state must develop a plan under which such funds can or cannot be used. Their plan MUST include a strategy to replenish the fund without federal aid and without raising new taxes for that purpose. Shrinking the size of government or saving from current taxes is the only method allowed to rebuild the fund once any of these funds are spent. Thus there will be no new taxes allowed in any form if funds are used from the reserve until the funds are returned. Governments need procedures to get them to size themselves for the bottom of economic cycles, not the top. This is the same thing that happens to businesses, and why conservative companies survive economic downturns and overly aggressive ones do not.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: The Secret of Oz

"The Secret of Oz" Wins Best Documentary Award...

That link got mangled in the posting -- the iTulip forum software doesn't allow active links to blogspot.com (it rebases them to iTulip.com, breaking the link.)

The link should have been to economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/02/secret-of-oz-wins-best-documentary.html

[Rajiv]

Re: The Secret of Oz

I'll have to remember that and find a workaround.

[friendly_jacek]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Did anyone actually watched the movie?
I'm not saying debt is not a problem, but there were 2 factual errors in the short trailer: banks do not lend to governments (this is why bonds exist) and the "Wizard of Oz" book is believed to be an allegory to giving up the gold monetary standard.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: The Secret of Oz

I'll have to remember that and find a workaround.

The two workarounds that come to my mind offhand are:

1. Don't make the link active, as I did above.
2. Link through a URL shortening service, such as tinyurl.com or bit.ly.

I've not tried the second workaround above, so cannot promise that there isn't some gotcha' with it.

[GRG55]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Did anyone actually watched the movie?
I'm not saying debt is not a problem, but there were 2 factual errors in the short trailer: banks do not lend to governments (this is why bonds exist) and the "Wizard of Oz" book is believed to be an allegory to giving up the gold monetary standard.

Are you sure?

Wall Street Journal
August 19, 2009, 10:33 AM ET
Head West, Big Bank: Inside J.P. Morgan’s California Loan

J.P. Morgan Chase to the rescue. The New York bank has agreed to loan the struggling state of California $1.5 billion to generate some badly needed operating cash...

[LargoWinch]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Ben Still's response to Amazon

Rajiv, it appears that Ben Still grew tired of Amazon.com and decided to post the movie in its entirety on YouTube tonight:

Runtime: 1hour 54min.

[Jay]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Rajiv, it appears that Ben Still grew tired of Amazon.com and decided to post the movie in its entirety on YouTube tonight:

Thanks very much for posting Largo, it is most excellent. The use of government issued Greenbacks and other historical examples of their ilk have greatly interested me but I have had tons unanswered conceptual questions. This documentary has jelled the concept for me, especially in its relationship with big banking. Awesome. This was a piece I needed and I recommend it highly.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: The Secret of Oz

Rajiv, it appears that Ben Still grew tired of Amazon.com and decided to post the movie in its entirety on YouTube tonight:

Awesome. This video makes it clear that there it clear that there are basically three kinds of monetary systems we could use:

1. Gold money, easily manipulated by the largest holders of gold.
2. Debt money, easily manipulated by the largest issuers of credit.
3. Government money, controlled by our government.

The Chartalist, aka Mondern Money Theory (MMT) money system which I had recently posted some positive comments about here is just system (3). This Bill Still video "The Secret of Oz" makes MMT much clearer and grounds it in history.

When the largest issuers of credit (aka Banksters) are granted a monopoly on issuing money, then they end up wealthy and powerful all out of proper proportion and obtain control over our government. Our government ends up looking like fraudulent fools.

The way to get the money out of excessive control of our government is to take the money making authority back from the Banksters.

No to gold based currency.

No to debt based currency.

Yes to debt-free government currency, issued into circulation to pay for public goods and services, circulated back via taxation so as to allow modulating the amount of money in circulation to maintain reasonable price stability.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Secret of Oz

The way to get the money out of excessive control of our government is to take the money making authority back from the Banksters.

(1) No to gold based currency.

(2) No to debt based currency.

(3) Yes to debt-free government currency, issued into circulation to pay for public goods and services, circulated back via taxation so as to allow modulating the amount of money in circulation to maintain reasonable price stability.

I would say yes to all 3.

(1) gold gram or gold backed currency for International Trade and as a Global savings vehicle. Capital needs a home where it can go for a period of "savings" and maintain its purchasing power. Anybody who's operated a Producer economy business knows that you go through periods where you need to save free-cash-flow for future investment.

(2) Debt-based currency for short & medium term business investments & consumer purchases. When you already have #1 this becomes easier to manage - as it will be a different currency co-existing with #1 and floating freely. I simply call this one "credit money".

(3) Debt-free Gov't currency. It has worked before - but in my opinion doesn't work well without something like #1 because International Producers & Traders will most likely get the upper hand during the Fiat Currency Differentiation stage. Global trade is more prevalent and necessary now (agriculture, oil, energy, water, technology etc.) This one still comes with all the Political trappings.

(2) & (3) could work within one's borders as the same currency and still peacefully co-exist with #1.

Eventually - no Nation's currency with a border will be currency #1 or the World's Reserve Currency again. That's where the fracturing will most likely begin.

It's easy to think we should eliminate #2 (especially when this mess gets sorted out) but we always end up with some debt-based money. I'm OK with this - as long as #1 emerges. Currently - 100% of all money is debt-based anyway. I think it would be next to impossible to go to 0% without #1.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: The Secret of Oz

but we always end up with some debt-based money. I'm OK with this - as long as #1 [gold based] emerges

May I differ, on two counts.

1. As this movie, The Secret of Oz, shows, we haven't always had debt based money. We always (in any monetized economy) have debt, but it need only be the lending of money you have, not the creation of new money through the magic of double entry bookkeeping. So no, we don't always end up with it.
2. What's more, debt based money is a cancer that has plagued civilization for millenia. I'm for zero tolerance of the stuff. Once a little is allowed, it seems to expand until it consumes the entire economic and political structure.

Gold based doesn't work. It fails two ways.

1. The gold base (the quantity of gold in the vaults and in circulation) does not expand and shrink naturally in tune with the economy of human productivity. This leads to serious inflation when there's too much gold (as in Spain after they plundered the Aztec gold) and serious deflation (as in the U.S. in the 1930's) when the economy is starved for insufficient circulating money.
2. As this Oz movie notes, gold money falls prey to the problem that the largest gold holders can manipulate the market, causing economy booms and busts, to their own ends and increased power. No monetary system which allows private powerful interests to gain an increasingly dominant position can remain healthy for the rest of us.

A healthy money system must have two characteristics:

1. The quantity of money must be controlled by people we can (and fairly regularly do) vote out of office.
2. No other private interests must be allowed to gain sufficient power over the money supply that they can co-opt those elected people.