Orthodox Reflections

Thanks to Augustine Martin for his suggestion of this topic based on his reading of St. Basil, and for providing much needed research. Primary author is Ted Kowal, an Orthodox Christian who recently retired after more than three decades working in corporate treasury, with heavy editing and shaping by Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America  

The global financial system is collapsing. The numbers are stark. Like almost every other nation in the world, the United States is drowning in debt. The U.S. has over $37 trillion (constantly climbing) in direct liabilities with over $1.8 trillion in annual interest payments. In 2025, the U.S. government needs to refinance approximately $9.2 trillion of debt, which includes both maturing debt and debt that needs to be rolled over. The massive amount amount of debt to be dealt with this year has the global bond markets completely spooked. 

Let the true magnitude of this sink in for a minute. The U.S. government now spends $1.8 TRILLION dollars a year just in interest payments. That is 14% of annual government expenditures. It is the number two annual expense, behind only Social Security. Interest expense will continue to grow, of course, as the debt will continue to grow. How can you operate a government when so much of your income is devoted to paying interest on money you already borrowed and spent?

The U.S. is not alone in succumbing to a debt death spiral. UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that global public debt reached a record $97 trillion in 2023. Total global debt, including debt from governments, corporations, and households, stands at a staggering $315 trillion, equivalent to 322% of global GDP. That is almost $40,000 of debt for every single person on planet Earth.

All that debt exists to generate a 2025 projected net interest income of $8.94 trillion USD for the global banking market. Don’t get it twisted. In reality, no matter who signs your paycheck, you ultimately work for the global banking cartel. 

The Rothschilds founded modern banking in the 18th century. The Rothschild motto is “Amaro et fidelis” which translates as “bitter and faithful.” The modern banking system rests on fractional reserve banking, which creates money out of thin air as debt. A bank keeps part of each dollar deposited on reserve to cover depositor demands for money. Historically that has been around 10%. For example, if a bank has $500 million in deposits, it generally (sometimes as best practice, sometimes as directed by the Federal Reserve or a national central bank) would hold $50 million, or 10%, in reserve. Now the banking magic happens. The bank may then lend out the remaining 90%, or $450 million, to businesses, consumers, governments, non-profits, etc. When those funds, lent at interest, make their way back to the banks as deposits, the process continues. Banks may lend out 90% of that amount, or $405 million while retaining $45 million in reserves. That $405 million will be deposited again, and so on. Ultimately, that $500 million in deposits can turn into $5 billion in loans.

All fractional reserve banks are bankrupt. They could never meet their depository obligations if too many people wanted their money at the same time. Banking is, in reality, a confidence game. The bank customers are the suckers.

Timeline of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023.  At the end of March 9th, 2023 SVB customers had initiated $42 billion in withdrawals, making it the largest bank run in history. Fearing that a loss of public confidence would crash the entire financial system, the Fed created lots of money to provide liquidity to banks, and agreed to cover all depositors’ losses, even above the FDIC insurance limit.

Money is not money in our financial system. At least not the way most regular people think of money. Money is a debt instrument. Constant inflation (an increase in the supply of money leading to its decline in value) is baked into the very foundation of the modern banking system.

Now, that is just what regular banks do everyday. Central banks, or central bank like organizations such as our U.S.  “Federal” Reserve, operate on a whole other level. They can literally create money out of thin air, no initial deposits or reserves needed. They can also take money out of circulation as well. This is all done primarily through what is referred to as open market operations (OMOs). The Fed, for example, buys and sells securities in the open market, typically government bonds but also other financial assets, to influence the money supply and interest rates. When the Fed wants to inject money into the system, it creates money that it then uses to buy assets, usually from banks, giving them more reserves which they can then lend out. When the Fed wants to take money out of the system, it sells government debt or other assets, reducing the amount of reserves.

In operation for the last few hundred years, the Rothschilds’ banking system has had some absolutely horrific effects. Among these are wealth concentration, constant decline in the value of currency, the co-opting of governmental institutions, and the normalization of a constant state of war.

Wealth Concentration

In the U.S., the top 0.1% of citizenry controls more of the national wealth than the bottom 60%. The modern financial system concentrates wealth at the top, and everyone else gets mere crumbs. Many analysts believe the only accurate description for the current financial system is neo feudalism. A new class of nobility owns all the real wealth and political power, while the bottom 80% are modern-day debt-serfs. The remains of the once prosperous “middle class,” the 10% between the serfs and the overlords, are doing just well enough to mistakenly feel invested in the system. None of this is an accident. It is all by design.

Perpetual Inflation

The Federal Reserve likes to tout its dedication to a low rate of inflation. Put aside the statistical manipulations of how inflation is calculated, and accept that the Federal Reserve really has kept inflation around an average of 3.3% a year. That seems low right? Until you realize that the cumulative effect since 1913 has been a loss of 96.8% of the purchasing power of the dollar. Now, for a lot of that downward slide, living standards in the U.S. still rose. Wages outpaced inflation for many periods for many Americans, especially after WWII. The major dollar declines happened in fits and starts, broken up by periods of relative stability. The Dollar’s reserve currency status allowed Americans to benefit from cheap imports. Other countries wanted to earn dollars for trade, and so were willing to sell to us on favorable terms. Cheap foreign goods, and the massive expansion in debt over the past few decades, have allowed many Americans to finance lifestyles well above their means – bigger homes, better cars, luxury vacations, and helpful appliances. Everything bought on payment plans.

But no matter how fast you are, the hangman always catches up. Which is what has happened in the past few decades. The dollar’s decline has far outpaced wage growth. Americans are feeling the pinch, having maxed out their ability to borrow trying to keep the good life going. The U.S. Dollar is rapidly losing its reserve currency status. Meanwhile, Trump threatens punishing tariffs on trading partners. This means Americans will have fewer cheap goods available at Walmart to help offset their continuous loss of purchasing power.

All the while, of course, new dollars are continuously created which flow ever upward to the .1% Like all fiat currencies, the U.S. Dollar will come to an end as expansion of the monetary base eventually renders it absolutely worthless. The only question is when this will occur, not if.

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Co-Opting Government Institutions

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, famously said, “Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.” Historical results have proven him correct. The global banking cartel is the real power in any advanced economy. He who creates the money to pay the piper will call the tune.

Many politicians have confirmed this fact. Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss gave us provided this assessment in an appearance on Steve Bannon‘s War Room:

“What I found out when I got into No. 10 is, I thought that if I got to the top of the tree, I would be able to implement those conservative policies… And what I discovered was that I was not holding the levers. The levers were held by the Bank of England, by the Office of Budget Responsibility, they weren’t held by the Prime Minister or the Chancellor…”

We frequently talk about global centralizing movements and institutions such as the: New World Order, the rules based global order, the Military Industrial Complex, the Deep State, global Zionism, the World Economic Forum, the European Union, NATO, etc. as if they were related but separate things. They are not. As Carroll Quigley warned in his 1965 book Tragedy and Hope:

“The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. … The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and direct injury of all other economic groups.”

The world you see around you is being organized and controlled by the financial elite for the benefit of the financial elite. Global institutions, elected office holders, government agencies, even military alliances are all just tools for advancing the goals of people you couldn’t pick out of a lineup. This hidden power and control are why no matter how badly the financiers screw up, there is never any accountability. Remember the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, precipitated by the bursting of the mortgage bubble? Profits from shady mortgages all accrued to the bankers, while all the costs of the crisis they caused were born by average people. After the mortgage crash, few lenders went bankrupt, and no banker ever faced criminal prosecution. Eight million American families ended up losing their homes, and bankers were given somewhere between $16 – 29 trillion dollars in handouts. At the high end of the estimate, that is more than $85,000 per man, woman and child living in the U.S.

The head honchos in an industry that can create money out of thin air, whose reckless business practices caused a global crisis, got bonuses paid for by tax dollars while millions of ordinary Americans lost everything. This is not new, by the way. Representative forms of government have proven to be particularly vulnerable to being controlled by bankers.

Prior to the advent of elected representation, royal borrowings remained private affairs rather than truly public debts. Bankers did not like that state of affairs, as monarchs could go bankrupt. They wanted more security for their loans. For a sovereign’s debts to become binding upon the entire nation, elected representatives had to enact the taxes to pay their interest charges. By giving taxpayers a voice in government, thus putting everyone on the hook for sovereign debt, the Dutch and British democracies in the 18th Century provided creditors with much safer claims for payment than did kings and princes, whose debts died with them. Democracy turned government debt into a permanent obligation of the entire nation.

Why are representative forms of government so vulnerable to manipulation? Many reasons. Political office cannot be passed directly to future descendants, is always of a limited duration, and can be lost. So politicians invariably want to “get while the getting is good.” An industry able to literally create money out of thin air has no issue finding the resources with which to “reward” cooperative “public servants”.

The mechanics of representative government are uniquely suited to enabling grift. In a system of elected representation, the benefits of any policy are always concentrated, while the costs are always diffused. For example, Congresses passes a policy that leads to a $1 billion benefit for one industry. For a small number of companies, that is a huge windfall. For the tens of millions of American voters, however, the cost per head is actually quite small. Very few voters will even notice a billion dollars. Even fewer will care enough to object. The cooperative politicians are rewarded for their looting of the public treasury with the beneficiary industry’s votes (employees, contractors, etc.), the industry’s campaign contributions, and all kinds of direct payments (speaking fees, consulting fees to spouses, stock tips, future employment after leaving office).

The bankers may be particularly egregious offenders, but they are not alone in profiting handsomely off representative government. There are many industries and pressure groups that exploit this same combination of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs. Decades of repeatedly voting favors for different beneficiaries leads democracies into the kind of massive debt we now see around the world. Debt that representative systems are completely incapable of dealing with.

You cannot vote your way out of our current range of systemic problems. The inability of our system to correct course actually reveals that so-called democratic governments are not really democratic at all. They are all actually oligarchies, disguised to look like representative systems responsive to the voters. Ancient philosopher Plato said an oligarchy is a government where the rich hold power, and the poor are deprived of it. Below are Plato’s key characteristic of oligarchy:

• • Economic inequality: The rich own most of the land and amass wealth, while the poor are burdened with debt and disenfranchisement.
  • Love of money: The pursuit of wealth becomes the primary focus, replacing the love of honor and virtue.
  • Corruption of rulers: Those in power become greedy and prioritize their own financial interests, leading to a decline in the overall health of the state.
  • Social division: The wealthy and the poor are in constant conflict, creating a state of instability and unrest. (In the U.S., the governing elite tries to keep everyone focused on divisions over race, sex, religion, abortion, transgenderism, etc. precisely to keep everyone from noticing the massive wealth gap. Keep the serfs divided to prevent them from turning on the overlords.)
  • Weakness in war: Oligarchies are often weak in military strength because the wealthy are more interested in their fortunes than in defending the state. (The U.S. has not won a major war since 1945. We are constantly fighting wars against smaller, weaker opponents who nevertheless emerge victorious against us.)
  • Potential for tyranny: Plato believed that the unrest and inequality within an oligarchy could eventually lead to a tyrannical form of government. (Only a tyranny would have to power to solve systemic problems created by the oligarchs running society solely for their own benefit.)

Which more closely matches our current American situation? The principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence, for example, or Plato’s key characteristics of oligarchy?

Perpetual War

It has been said, quite accurately, that for about the last 200 years, “all wars are bankers’ wars”. Wars create debt which provides ongoing profit for the banks. But direct lending to warring governments is just the start. Banks also benefit from war by collecting commissions for selling war bonds, by financing the war profiteers that provide goods and services to the military, and by financing reconstruction following the end of hostilities. Above all, banks benefit from the control of new resource collateral in occupied nations. Think farmland and minerals in Ukraine, just as an example. The more collateral controlled by the banks, the more money that can be created. The constant thirst for more collateral makes bankers one of the main groups with an incentive to foment wars.

You Can’t Reform an Immoral System

Usually about this time, a writer will start to talk about possible reforms to the global financial system to make things better. That will not happen this time. The usury-based global financial system is fundamentally immoral, and is actually doing exactly what it was designed to do. Reform is simply impossible. You can abolish it, or suffer with it. Those are the two choices.

The first step towards any future abolition of this system is to recognize what usury really is. In the Biblical tradition, usury means any form of interest charged on a loan, not just excessively high rates as we consider it today. There are multiple prohibitions against usury recorded in the Old Testament. Exodus 22:25 forbade oppressing one’s neighbor with usury. Deuteronomy 23:20-21 said you could not charge your brother usury. Ezekiel 18:7-8; 13 makes it clear that the righteous do not lend at usury; and that usurers “shall not live.” Leviticus 25:35-36 says if your brother is poor do not charge him usury. The final Old Testament word on the issue came from the Psalmist, who charged the godly to aid their neighbors, not lending to them at interest. The strongest rejection of loans at interest came from Christ in Luke 6:35, where He says “Lend, hoping for nothing in return.”

God’s hostility to usury in the Old Testament inspired Christian theologians from the fourth century on to define lending for gain as a sin. St. Jerome declared usury to be the same as murder because it consumed the life of the borrower. Canon law and secular law held usury to be malum in se, an evil in itself that must be outlawed because God condemned it. St. Basil in his volume On Social Justice provides his own Patristic condemnation of usury:

1 Yesterday, as we were explaining Psalm 14, time did not permit us to reach the end of our discourse. Today, however, we come like good-natured debtors, ready to repay the remainder owing from yesterday’s discussion. The rest of the Psalm is so short, however, that upon hearing it, one might think nothing of importance had been omitted; most of you have probably not even noticed that anything was left out. And yet recognizing that this brief verse concerns matters of great interest to us, it seemed best not to lose the profit of examining it. When the prophet wished to describe in words those who have attained perfection, those who are about to attain to everlasting life, he reckoned among their noble works the following: “They do not lend money at interest.” This sin is denounced in many places in Scripture. Ezekiel accounts the taking of interest and receiving back more than one gave as being among the greatest evils, and the Law specifically forbids this practice: “You shall not charge interest to your relative or your neighbor.” And again the Scripture says, “Guile upon guile, and interest upon interest,” and a certain Psalm moreover says regarding a city that prospers amidst a multitude of evils, “Interest-taking and guile are never absent from its squares.” And now, the prophet identifies this very thing as the characteristic of human perfection, saying, “They do not lend money at interest.”

 

For in truth it is the height of inhumanity that those who do not have enough even for basic necessities should be compelled to seek a loan in order to survive, while others, not being satisfied with the return of the principal, should turn the misfortune of the poor to their own advantage and reap a bountiful harvest. Thus, the Lord explicitly commanded us, saying, “Do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” But the lover of money, when he sees someone prostrate at his feet, pleading—a person in this predicament will say anything, will stoop to any abasement—shows no mercy to the one who acts in such an undignified manner. He does not consider human nature, gives in to no entreaty, but stands cruel and unwavering, not yielding to pleas, not moved by tears, steadfast in his denial. He swears up and down, even calling down curses upon himself, that he is at a complete loss for funds, and that he too is searching for someone from whom to procure a loan. He confirms the falsehood with an oath, thus acquiring perjury as an evil fringe benefit of misanthropy. When, however, the one seeking the loan mentions rates of interest and names collateral, then he winks and smiles, suddenly recalling some old family acquaintance, and calls him “friend” and “neighbor.” He says, “Let me see if I can find some money set aside somewhere. I have here a deposit entrusted to me by a friend for trading, but he set heavy terms of interest on it. For you, however, I will reduce the rate somewhat and lend it to you at lower interest:’ And with this subterfuge, cozying up to the wretch and baiting the hook with his words, he binds him fast with contracts and departs, depriving him of freedom even more than the poverty that already oppressed him. The one who has made himself liable for rates of interest he cannot pay has incurred self-inflicted slavery for life.

 

Tell me, do you really seek riches and financial gain from the destitute? If this person had the resources to make you even wealthier, why did he come begging to your door? He came seeking an ally, but found an enemy. He came seeking medicine, and stumbled onto poison. Though you have an obligation to remedy the poverty of someone like this, instead you increase the need, seeking a harvest from the desert. It is as if a doctor were to go to the diseased, and instead of restoring them to health, were rather to rob them of the last remnant of their strength. Thus, you make the hardships of the miserable an occasion for profit. And just as farmers hope for rain so as to multiply their crops, so you eagerly seek out deprivation and want, so that your money might produce a better return. Do you not know that you are taking in an even greater yield of sins than the increase of wealth you hope to receive through interest? The one who seeks the loan is caught in a predicament. When he looks to his poverty, he despairs of ever making repayment, but when he looks to his present condition of need, he makes bold to seek the loan. In the end, the borrower is defeated, bowed into submission by want, while the lender departs victorious, having secured his position with contracts and pledges. [Against those who lend at interest, pages 89-91]

 

To what manner of quickly reproducing beast are you yoking yourself? It is said that rabbits give birth and breed again while still nursing their young. And for those who set rates of interest, their money is loaned out and bears interest and produces even more. You did not even have the money in your hands, and already the lender was demanding the interest payment for the current month. And when this was loaned to you as well, it brought forth more evil, and still more, evil without end. It is from the tendency to multiply that this kind of greed derives its name. For it seems to me that loans are said to “bear” interest on account of the great fecundity of evil. How else? Or perhaps interest is said to “bear” on account of the pains and travails which it naturally produces in the souls of those who borrow. The appointed day of repayment is ever present in the minds of those who are indebted, like labor pains to those who give birth. Interest upon interest—wicked children of wicked parents. The offspring of interest one might even call a “brood of vipers.” It is said that vipers are born by eating their way through their mother’s womb, and loans bear interest by devouring the houses of those who owe. Seeds take time to grow, and animals take time to fully mature, but interest is born today, and today begins to bear. Those animals that begin bearing at an early age also cease bearing early. But money immediately begins to multiply, and possesses limitless ability to reproduce. And every animal, once it reaches its proper size, stops growing. But the silver of the greedy never stops growing as time passes. And animals, once they have raised their young to maturity, cease bearing. But when it comes to borrowed silver, the newborn gives birth, and the elderly continues to bear. You should have nothing to do with this monstrous creature. [Against those who lend at interest, page 95]

 

Tear up the unjust contract, so that sin might also be loosed. Wipe away the debt that bears high rates of interest, so that the earth may bear its usual fruits. For when gold and bronze and things that do not naturally reproduce give birth in a manner contrary to nature, then the earth which bears according to nature becomes barren and is sentenced to fruitlessness as a punishment to those who dwell there. [“In Time of Famine and Drought”, page 78]

 

We may observe, moreover, that it is not those who are truly deprived who come to procure a loan, since the creditors have no confidence in their ability to repay; most borrowers are rather people who devote themselves to unconstrained expenditures and useless luxuries, those who serve the passionate desires of women. “I shall have fine clothing embroidered with gold,” she says, “and it is only fitting that the children should have beautiful outfits as well. There shall be bright and colorful dress for all the slaves, and plenty of food for the table.” The one who thus caters to the desires of a woman goes to the banker, and before using up the money received, exchanges one tyrant for another by constantly switching creditors, avoiding the accusation of poverty by extension of the evil. [“Against Those Who Lend at Interest”, page 96]

By the late Middle Ages, it was the consensus that lending at interest for guaranteed return was both illegal and damnable. However, Christian authority also taught that if the lender shared in the risk of the venture, then a loan was legal. Partnership, with a chance of profit or loss (even if that loss was later compensated), was not considered the same as lending money at interest. Merchant bankers such as the Medici did not charge interest per se, but they often received gifts from grateful clients whose financed business ventures prospered.

So how did we go from Christians condemning usurers to giving them total control over practically the entire world economy? Like almost everything else wrong with our modern world, the Protestant Reformation played a key role. Leading reformers, such as John Calvin, argued in favor of lending at interest under certain circumstances. Calvin believed that lending at interest could be justified in commercial transactions when a borrower would use the loan to generate profits, as long as it didn’t lead to exploitation. Weakening the moral aversion to usury started the ball rolling, eventually leading to the founding of the Rothschild banking dynasty in the 18th Century.

Disgust with usury was not limited to only Israelites and Christians. Even pagan philosophers rejected the immoral practice. How did a sin so reviled become the entire foundation of our modern economy?

As noted, an inherently immoral system cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. That means going back to a strict Christian prohibition of lending for a fixed rate of return. Any fixed rate of return, not just one deemed to be “too high”. As all existing debts held at interest are fruits of immoral activity, they should be abolished. Consider it our Jubilee year. In ancient Israel, the Jubilee year, or yovel, was observed every 50 years after seven cycles of seven-year sabbatical years. It was a time of proclamation of liberty, involving debt release, freeing of slaves, and the return of land to its original owners. The Jubilee year was a sacred reset, focusing on social justice, economic fairness, and the restoration of right relationships within society.