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Europe has the Euro. Are you ready for The Amero

Posted April 4, 2007 - 09:47 by Paul Michael on http://www.wisebread.com/


Hold onto your hats. (Or should that be dollars?) The Amero is coming. I’ve heard a lot of talk over the last few years about a new currency called the Amero that will replace dollars and pesos.

I thought at first it was just conjecture and gossip, but the more I have researched it, the more I believe it is not only real…but coming soon. And as a writer who has your best monetary interests at heart, I feel you need to know at least a little about this.

A North American Union (NAU) with a common currency is not a new idea. Herbert G. Grubel, a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute, came out with a book entitled “The Case for the Amero” in September of 1999. But the mass media has largely ignored it, with both the supporters and critics of the plan being relegated to obscure talk radio and Internet sites (hopefully, this one doesn’t fall into the latter).

However, since 1999 a case has been building for the new currency, and some believe the current administration is setting the stage for the introduction of the Amero very soon, as soon as 2010 some believe. The lack of serious intervention on illegal immigration coupled with the continued devaluation of the dollar and its weakness in the world economy is in fact the perfect place to set the foundation for a new currency. Or so I’ve been told by various economists with far more smarts than myself.

The Security And Prosperity Partnership Of North America.
This is where many people believe the Amero will stem from. This is not a phantom organization or conspiracy theory, the SPP exists and you can view it yourselves at http://www.spp.gov . It was a 'dialogue' (some say agreement) between President Bush, Prime Minister Harper and President Fox to enhance security and prosperity among the three nations (prosperity for whom is obviously debatable).

What you’ll notice is that the SPP is a trilateral partnership established to keep North America a safe and secure place to live and work. So why the open borders and lack of serious control on illegal immigration? Surely such a plan would involve tighter security, not weaker.

Well, it comes down to this. If there is a plan in the works to create a union of Canada, the USA and Mexico, the last thing you’d want to do is close the borders. Quite the opposite. You want open borders. It’s good for business. And as we all know, big business and large multi-national corporations are always looking for new ways to make a profit. The NAU and the Amero is one such way.

The AMERO – who benefits?
That’s the big question. Now, in Europe the Euro was not such a bad idea (although I know many people who disagree). The countries of Europe are all fairly well matched economically. So, it made sense to simply create a Euro and encourage cost-effective trade between all the separate nations (of course my home country Great Britain is still being difficult…as we always are). It also reduced a whole bunch of costs associated with exchange rates, fees and so forth.

However, Canada, the USA and Mexico are hardly the same economically. For a world super-power like the USA to consider diluting its economy with that of Canada and a ‘third world’ nation like Mexico, rife with corruption, seems at first ill-conceived. Unless, of course, the ultimate goal is to create “corporatism” – the merger of big business with big government (and something Mussolini referred to as the foundation of fascism).

Basically, with the NAU, multinationals are dealing with one currency (the Amero), one controlling entity (government) and one set of rules for all. And the benefit? Simple. To enable the sale, purchase and movement of goods across the former three nations effortlessly and cheaply. And let’s not forget the creation of a super-cheap workforce and the eventual destruction of the middle class (which is already happening).

As you can tell, I’m clearly not a supporter of the NAU. But I’m not a supporter of any policy that seeks to make the rich even richer, and make a profit at the expense of the public. As Tom DeWeese wrote in his article for the American Policy Center, “The SPP is not about free trade. Its use of public/private partnerships creates an elite of certain, chosen global corporations which basically become part of government at the expense of their competition and our national independence.”

The NAFTA Super Highway.
Also known as the Trans Texas Corridor, this is another huge benefit to big corporations that would be made possible by the NAU and the Amero.

Nafta highway

It is basically a massive super-highway, ten lanes wide, with rail lines, utility corridors and natural gas and oil power lines running down the center. It’s purpose? To transport containers loaded in foreign lands (Indonesia, China etc) from Mexican ports, through the USA and up to Canada with massively reduced transportation costs. Such a move would only decrease the security of America, to such an extent that the borders would literally be wiped out. And the flood of Mexican trucks using the highway would not be required to meet current US standards of safety. Getting the picture? At the end of the day, the Amero is a move to will make a select few so rich, they’ll make Bill Gates look like a welfare case. Money is power…and ultimately, that’s what this is all about.

What can you do about it?
Well, keeping yourselves informed is the first step. I haven’t even scratched the surface here. So far, the public has been kept in the dark about the Amero and the NAU, and before you get a chance to protest you’ll be spending you new, devalued currency and wondering what happened.

Here are the links to several sites you can read. I have included information that’s both for and against the NAU and Amero, you are all smart people, you can chew the facts over and make up your own minds.

More reading.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15017

http://www.nascocorridor.com/pages/about/about.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_currency_union

http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/ ... 999/amero/

http://www.americanpolicy.org/more/security.htm

http://www.spp.gov/security_agenda/inde ... ity_agenda

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=50618

http://www.cfr.org/publication/8102/bui ... unity.html

http://www.spp.gov/report_to_leaders/in ... to_leaders

http://www.canadians.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497

http://www.answers.com/topic/security-a ... th-america

http://www.newswithviews.com/Spingola/deanna9.htm

http://www.scics.gc.ca/cinfo06/850105007_e.html

http://www.prosperitypartnership.org/

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/tag/ ... on/page/2/

http://www.american.edu/TED/dollar.htm

The next thing coming down the pipe. National ID cards. Doesn't sound so bad you say? Read on!

Real ID Act Will Increase Exposure to ID Theft

If you think identity theft is bad now, wait until something called the Real ID Act goes into effect. This law federalizes and standardizes state driver’s licenses for all 50 states, and it will result in something that has been resisted in this country for a long time -- a de facto national identity card.

The Real ID Act was pushed through Congress in 2005 with little meaningful debate. It imposes sweeping changes on state driver’s licenses that will result in significant new fees and hassles for everyone who needs a license or ID – not to mention posing a new threat to Americans’ privacy. And, our experience suggests that if Real ID becomes the standard for driver’s licenses, it will worsen the problem of identity theft.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) has worked with thousands of ID theft victims, providing them with information and assistance in regaining their financial health. It usually takes months to repair the damage that ID thieves are able to cause in just a few minutes – if there’s an especially aggressive thief, it can take a year, even more. And during that time you’re in credit limbo. You can’t get a credit card, take out a loan, refinance your home – or if you do, the cost of your credit is much higher than it otherwise would be.

A lot of what makes it so difficult for victims is that they run up against a presumption that the transactions completed in their name are legitimate. Banks, merchants, and other creditors assume that the purchases that were made and the loans that were given belong to the victim – and the victim is forced to prove otherwise.

Real ID may just strengthen that presumption. If someone succeeds in getting a counterfeit Real ID under your name, you’ll have to confront a perception that Real IDs are more secure and difficult to obtain fraudulently.

Unfortunately, we all know that these IDs will be counterfeited within hours of release – and if they are perceived as super-reliable, they will be all the more valuable and attractive as a target for crooks. Crooks have always proven to be very clever and able to make IDs look realistic, and we have no reason to doubt this will be any different. They will figure it out very quickly – or simply bribe a DMV official somewhere in the country to provide a genuine (but fraudulent) card. A number of cases of bribery at DMVs have come to light in recent years. And merchants and government clerks simply are not experts in determining whether an ID they’re looking at is the real thing.

Real ID will also create new opportunities for ID thieves to commit their crime. The law requires DMVs to store scanned copies of birth certificates, Social Security cards, and any other documents that individuals present when they apply for a license. It creates a national linked database allowing millions of employees at all levels of government around the nation to access personal data. And it mandates a nationally standardized “machine-readable zone” that will let bars, merchants and other private parties scan personal data off licenses with greater ease than ever before, putting all that information into even greater circulation.

Real ID is the subject of an ongoing battle in the state legislatures, many of which are moving toward rejecting participation. Consumers concerned about privacy and identity theft might want to make their voices heard by contacting their state or federal legislators.


The ACLU's Real ID Web site includes the status of efforts in all 50 states and what consumers can do to take action: http://www.realnightmare.org.

The ACLU's Real ID scorecard, along with an explanation of each item and the grade assigned, is available at: http://www.realnightmare.org/resources/106 .

For more information about identity theft, see the PRC's resources: http://www.privacyrights.org/identity.htm

go surfing, you're thinking too much.

"Sometimes it's better to think with little head"
-Rocky Rockbottom

FYI Hawaii residents might have a hard time hopping the plane to indo this summer. Or anywhere else for that matter. Or getting into federal buildings. Depends if Chertoff is bluffing or not about putting this thing into effect even though Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington have also said they won't cooperate.


Lingle requests time to implement REAL ID
The governor asks to delay the program in Hawaii until 2010
By Alexandre Da Silva
adasilva@starbulletin.com

Hawaii wants to delay until 2010 implementation of a national identification card program requiring state residents to carry driver's licenses with new security controls beginning this summer to board airplanes.

Gov. Linda Lingle, in an August letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, said the state needs more time to coordinate the program's launch with counties.

The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005 to combat terrorism, demands anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building after May to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license.

Lingle said Hawaii should receive the extension to comply with the program because it is the only place where counties issue driver's licenses while the state is in charge of ID cards.

The waiver, which has not yet been granted, would push back the state's deadline to begin issuing REAL ID cards until after Dec. 31, 2009, said Liane Moriyama, administrator for the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center.

Chertoff, who was revealing final details of the REAL ID plan yesterday, said that in instances where a particular state does not seek a waiver, its residents will have to use a passport or a newly created federal passport card if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

The plan's chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff's deadline a bluff -- and urged state governments to call him on it.

"Are they really prepared to shut those airports down? Which is what effectively would happen if the residents of those states are going to have to go through secondary scrutiny," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. "This is a scare tactic."

Hawaii and 16 states have objected to REAL ID, passing legislation or resolutions arguing it would be expensive and raise privacy issues by setting up electronic databases of information.

To make the program more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities reduced the expected cost to $3.9 billion from $14.6 billion, a 73 percent decline, Homeland Security officials said.

But Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who supports the program's goal of improving security, still worries it would place a heavy burden on the city's budget, said his spokesman, Bill Brennan.

The city is still calculating the program's cost under the revised format, but it has previously estimated initial expenses of about $7.7 million to set up the system and another $18 million during its first five years.

The city has a $4.87 million driver's license budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year. In the previous fiscal year, the city issued 230,616 driver's licenses.

"It is still a costly, unfunded federal mandate for us," Brennan said. "That would be something the city would have to pay for, but where the funds would come from is part of the issue."

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who has introduced legislation to repeal the REAL ID program, said yesterday the final regulations still impose "a nearly $4 billion unfunded mandate on states." The guidelines, he added, "fail to provide strong privacy protections for the volumes of personal information that will be stored and shared among the states and the federal government."