issues addressed by book

War and who profits from war is a central question in Why We Are Always Broke: Things We need To Know About The Economy. The book looks at some underlying institutions which promote wars. Who finances wars? Who profits from wars? It looks at several financial and political organizations created in the last 100 years as a result of war. Several treaties signed at the end of wars and the economic impact of those treaties are examined. A central thesis of the book is that individuals and nations are controlled by keeping them in debt. War is a principal means of creating debt.
President Eisenhower, a great military hero, warned us before leaving office in 1961 that every dollar spent on war or defense ultimately was money taken from education, health care, and otherneeds of our people.
The book looks at the national debt which has grown immensely in recent years. The debt is due in large part to war. The book describes the influence of America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, on this country and others. The author tells how this system of private bankers has manipulated the U.S. Government by propagating debt. He details a major purpose of Federal Reserve issued money, which he says is to fund weapons manufacturing and U.S. Military activity.
He discusses John F. Kennedy's attempts to loosen the Federal Reserve's grip on the government. Crumley shares his research on the United Nations, the Bank for International Settlements and NATO, and shows how these organizations have influenced global interactions. He writes how, after years of being manipulated, some nations in the Middle East are fighting back by implementing new economic systems.
The book contains almost 200 quotes from notes and materials of persons directly involved in decisions which led us to war.
The book looks at the radical economic reforms President Kennedy was implementing in the summer of 1963, prior to his assassination. JFK took steps to restore economic stability to the USA and cut our military, especially foreign military, expenses. Kennedy attempted to stop the flow of gold from the USA and to put control of our money back in the hands of government. No one looked at these economic forces in investigating his death. These reforms were the most radical and far reaching acts of his abbreviated administration. They were abandoned immediately after his death.
It looks at the Egyptian constitution, a decision of the Pakistan Supreme Court outlawing usury, and the attempt of several Islamic nations to form a coalition and create their own central banks based on real resources rather than on debt.
The book examines how war played a central role in creating the international monetary system in place today. One chapter looks at the evolution of central banks. These banks are almost always private institutions owned and run by bankers. These central banks take over the role of creating money. They determine the economic policy of nations. Our own central bank, the Federal Reserve, performs these duties in violation of our constitution.
The author examines The Bank For International Settlements set up at the end of World War 1. The stated intention of the bank was to create a fund to enable Germany/European nations to pay off debts they incurred because of World War 1. A large portion of that debt was owed to the USA. According to the plan agreed upon, the USA was to put up the bulk of the money. These funds would form the capital of the bank. Interest accruing from this money would pay off the debt, most of which was owed to the USA.The book describes how Britain began and took over the process of creating a Zionist state. Britain was interested in obtaining control of Near East shipping. In the 1940's the state of Israel was created. Britain agreed to ensure the rights of the Muslims and other non Jews in the area but did not. In the first three years 700,000 Israelis entered the new state. Over 600,000 Arabs were expelled from the area and had to seek homes in refugee camps. The situation became worse. The United States was forced to try and pick up the pieces. Two major attempts (The Camp David Accord 1979 and the Oslo Agreement 1993) tried to bring order into the area. Neither succeeded.
Underlying the book is social justice, a prominent issue in Christian churches the last 50 years. The book looks at the breakdown of some religious values, in particular church attitude toward usury. Originally usury was condemned and outlawed by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teaching. Today only Islam maintains a strict condemnation of usury. Jewish opposition to usury began to wane when large central banks become controlled by Jewish bankers.
Christian opposition (especially Catholic opposition) began to wane when the Vatican formed its own international bank. Usury is still a system contrary to the Old Testament and the Gospel ofJesus Christ. The book looks at contemporary Islamic teaching which forbids usury also Islamic policy which is setting up economic systems which forbid usury. The book helps the reader understand the gap between Islamic and Judeo-Christian thought. It offers an insight into underlying issues behind many present days Middle East conflicts.
A year before World War 2 ended a conference was held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. It set up some tools eventually used by the United Nations. The structure of the World Bank was set up at this conference. It took a different spin than the Bank For International Settlements. Instead of settling war debts this bank loaned money to third world nations for "development" . This so called development allowed mega-corporations to come into third world nations and set up large industrial complexes.
This "development" had several consequences. 1) It destroyed local and native land use patterns. 2) It forced people off of land they used to sustain existence. 3) It brought in outside corporations who took over land and evicted people from it. 4) It created large debts owed by the governments of these nations.

These are some of the issues the book addresses.