THE CRUCIBLE II E-Book

Robert Stetson

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

When the consolidation of the Euro fails to stabilize the local economy, the Council of 12 known announces the Blue Chip Credit to be the global cashless currency. Mining on the Moon and Mars destroys the value of precious metal as the economic standard undermining the value of the credit. Conversion to both the Blue Bank Credits and Basic Credit eliminates cash. Cash no longer exists. The government can track every small exchange. With taxes abolished, unused credits revert to the government coffers after one year. The peoples own hours of labor become the standard for the new world currency. Can the Spencer family use the very oppression designed to financially enslave them and set them free? Watch for Crucible III as you keep this this amazing secret ending close to your vest.

Leseprobe

Robert Stetson

THE CRUCIBLE II

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

CHAPTER 1 BLUE CHIP CREDITS

I am Marc Spencer, grandson of Park Spencer. I’m 36 and lean in stature.

I stand 6 foot 2 inches and have black hair and eyes so dark the irises look black. It runs in the Spencer Family.

I was often mistaken for my father. It’s as though we are all clones.

Judy Spencer was my dearly departed grandmother.

She was a beautiful lady, but she died of leukemia, which sadly enough was not curable then, but is completely curable now.

The government declared that she was above the threshold age for any form of treatment.

I was with her when she passed away.

Grandma was a small, frail eighty nine year old woman with white hair and blue eyes that would blaze in the slightest light.

In order to control the rapidly expanding population, the government has deemed that anyone over the age of eighty is no longer eligible for life saving treatment.

They say that ninety percent of the cost of medical care is expended in the last ten percent of life.

Unless you are a member of the Council of 12, you are living on borrowed time after eighty years of age.

My father and mother are retired now and living in Sacramento California.

I haven’t seen them in over 15 years. My dad promoted me to his job when he retired early.

He was never as keenly committed to the job as he could have been.

My grandfather was a great man, responsible for a lot of The Polygon’s progress.

The elders in our family work hard all of their lives and burn out from the hard work and the stress that comes with being part of the Polygon.

They retired right after Derek’s funeral.

An Elite Company Executive approached them with six guards and expressed their regret that we had lost a valued member of our team.

It’s a new dawn in the evolution of humanity.

The Council of 12 has announced that the economy is no longer going to be a problem.

We were once told that adopting the Euro as a currency would stabilize the world market.

It was supposed to fix all the trade issues and having the dollar do this, and the yen doing that, and the Mark drive down the dollar, and the yen surging on the market and so on.

They lied.

We were told that the global economy would bloom when we adopted the Global Elite central government.

The state of the economy has been up and down since Global Elite money was first invented, but now the Global Elite Council of 12 has again announced that they have found a way to free us from the tyranny of countless recessions and depressions.

Even better than that, the preliminary news is broadcast on every channel across Earth and on the Moon.

All taxes are going to be abolished at the end of their five year plan, would you believe it?

The Council of 12 has won the overwhelming approval of the gullible people.

Fortunately, we have had the good council of our financial firm Al Akken & Company and our law firm Buggs and Eats, PC.

The last names of the principal families have remained the same after over two hundred years.

Much of our money is sheltered in the Credit Union, tied up in construction equipment or stored in gold and platinum back in the Credit Union vault.

Al Akken & Company is urging us to convert the gold and platinum into credits before the space exploration discovers vast deposits of the ores on the new worlds they are beginning to conquer.

The downside of space exploration is that discoveries of rich deposits of rare metals can undermine the rarity and therefore the value of the substance we base our economy on.

We still have the gambling chip conversion receipts and the purchase receipt for the gold and platinum, so we put Al Akken to work selling off the precious metals and converting the revenues to credits.

Our early planning has paid off.

We don’t know what the catch is with regard to the government abolition of taxes, but we’re not that stupid.

The real kicker is coming soon. People are dancing in the streets, but we’re looking worried.

Yes, taxes will be reduced over the next five years until there are no more taxes. The SRS (Solar Revenue Service) said clearly, “Read my lips. No more taxes.”

Russell construction was just awarded the contract to finish Peri after some secret work was completed four years ago.

Things normally move a little slower when the project is as big as a small planet and located millions of miles from the supply depot.

Peri is beginning to look like a natural planet now.

In this case work is progressing at a more rapid pace due to the progress in technology.

Much like air travel in the ancient Earth, once the technology made it practical, it became commonplace and very comfortable in less than fifty years.

The planet Peri is located in orbit about forty percent of the way between Mars and Earth.

Art Buggs is in his office on Peri in the eastern sector twenty degrees north and forty four degrees west of Peri’s Zero Meridian.

Art and his two sons, Phobos and Deimos are seated at the council table. Art is what you might consider elderly.

He’s been a key player at Russell Construction Company for several decades. He’s still spry to say the least. He has a keen eye for business and treats it like a gambling game.

He’s a strong bluffer when the odds are against him. When it comes to what he does, he is the best.

True to the family tradition, Art is rotund with a ruddy complexion and walks with a slight waddle. He dresses in suit, white shirt and tie which all tend to be a bit unkempt.

His appearance might have impacted their business over the years but there is no evidence of that. Like his father, he is known for his ability to take hopeless situations and turn them around.

Art has two sons. Phobos is the Treasurer of the Polygon and Deimos is the Polygon Guard, commander of the security force that protects the Polygon Foundation.

These men are twins and like their father. They are both rotund with ruddy complexions and walk with a slight waddle. Much like with the moons of Mars, Phobos is the larger of the two twins. They are both genuinely good at what they do.

All three men are crowned with helmets that cover their heads down to their noses. Inside the helmet the men are fed with video and audio blending the real with the virtual.

It appears to each that they are seated at a long table populated by twelve people, nine who are not in the room, much less on Peri at all.

Conferencing by holography is the most natural way to gather a group of people in a meeting.

Given the distances between Earth and Peri, shuttling people around isn’t always the most practical solution.

The Polygon Foundation has existed for over five hundred years because of infallible security.

The session today is triple encrypted, but financial documents and other sensitive information are never connected via subspace audio or video stream.

The documents and reports are fragmented and moved by couriers.

As each fragment is received, the next fragment is sent via courier by an alternate route.

It can take three weeks to receive an entire message and reassemble it.

Urgent information is obviously never sent in this manner.

With regard to finances, only financial numbers are given. Sources and destinations are never revealed,.

The Guardian Foundation, a nonprofit, was formed to enable a sixth company to be created within the Polygon.

Because the Polygon is a secret organization it gets a bit complex, but this is a financial shell game. For this reason, the extent of the Polygon’s savings has become the best kept secret of the Polygonites.

The SRS (Solar Revenue Service) can’t seize what it can’t locate or quantify.

Prior to the conversion from cash to the credit based revenue system, taxes could only be levied on earnings.

The total assets and the relationship of the, now five, Polygon companies have always been undetermined.

The Polygon created the unique “sliding resource model” which was created as a response to the government tax system.

In this model, money, people and resources can be shuttled back and forth.

Phil Akken, President of Akken, CPA & Company clarifies, “These four for-profit companies forming the Polygon can donate fifty percent of each of their profits to those Foundations that aren’t on the client list. They can cycle back the maximum deductible amount.

In this way the money is partly recycled tax free. While tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is completely legal.”

The Earth, Moon and Peri branches of the universal government is in a quandary, as the Council of 12 believes that companies holding an undisclosed surplus of funds represent a direct threat to their control of society.

There is a major concern about the amount of money the cooperating companies have managed to amass and then conceal from the Global Elite.

The Global Elite Council of 12 meets to discuss the problem and determines that it’s time to implement the next phase of their plan early.

They are going to change the way money is created distributed and tracked.

The Global Elite Commander of the Council of 12 is calling for the “re-coining” of all Global Elite currency.

The recoining is the number two priority.

The primary concern is for the Council of 12, their holdings and principal partners to restructure their wealth in order to minimize or eliminate tax.

This strategy will eliminate the effect of the monetary shift in currency on the members of the Council of 12.

Changes of this nature have always been managed in this way with regard to the ruling class.

The reorganization of wealth in order to favor the government has always been done in secret to prevent common citizens from preparing for the change.

This was always the fact, even before the creation of the Euro back in the nineteenth century.

The Global Elite Commander of the Council of 12 speaks, “The general public is never notified of the change until the governing people are ready. The change then has to be swift to be effective.”

When the rich and powerful are ready, they have a final meeting and agree it is time to launch.

The highlight of the meeting discussing the recoining plan is broadcast on the news for all of Earth, Moon and Peri to see.

Win Talbert, son of Barry Talbert, the famous forensic scientist, is joining Metro Net Security as a Senior Vice President.

Win smiles broadly and makes the comment, “I think we have the Council of 12’s knickers in a twist.”

As usual, when a new system favors the wealthy the poor are sold a bill of goods.

The council of 12 issues an explanation, “This action has been anticipated for a very long time and many thought the idea had been strongly considered, planned and then abandoned in favor of our continued dependence on hard currency.

“With the anticipated advent of mining on the Moon and Mars, the use of mined materials in the form of precious metals as a basis for our economy is impractical.

“We need a basis for our currency that will level the economic playing field and more fairly compensate our citizens.”

A blend of currency, assets and labor exchange is far more equitable. It is important for the success of the new monetary system to convert the existing paper to electronic currency and melt down coinage thereby putting the next part of the plan, involving virtual currency, in place.

Another benefit of virtual currency is the technological inability of anyone to counterfeit it.

For the first time, each credit transferred has to be through a bank, so counterfeit currency will fail to transfer on the spot and the attempted perpetrators will be identified in the transaction and immediately arrested.

We realize that we have to dig our undeclared cash income out of its hiding place and make it legitimate.

If we try to convert this cash into credits, the World Government will demand to know its source and why we never declared it as income.

We will be arrested and all go to the Goon Farm.

One of the biggest advantages of the conversion to credits is the government’s ability to cash in the precious metal the monetary system is based on and store it in the government hoppers.

Quite naturally, the rich and powerful have already converted their tangible precious metal and laundered any questionable revenues, much as the Polygon has done.

Al, Buggs, Ramsey and I walk out to the car.

We have $40,000 worth of our loose cash divided between us. With $10,000 each we can do some minimal gambling at the local casino.

The object is to convert this ill-gotten gain into legal tender so we can convert it to credits without having to declare the true source.

Yes, we’re using the casino to launder our money.

Al says, “Truth be known, if you evenly distribute all the money in the world among the inhabitants of Earth, it will all migrate back again to where it is today within ten years.

“The system works because the poor do not manage money well and the rich have a talent for leveraging every dollar.”

We will make as many trips as needed to convert all of our undeclared income to tokens and then cash them in.

I ask Al, “How are we going to make money if we gamble it away?”

Al retorted, “That’s why poker chips were invented. You can play all night and lose your perception that you’re playing with real money.

That’s why casinos created the gambling token.

We’re going to trick the system and convert all of our money to tokens.”

“When the government calls for a conversion from cash to credits, we will have the casino transfer sheets to show that we cashed in our winning tokens at the casino.

“We can also play chips purchased with our credit cards at the tables.

That way the casino thinks we’re borrowing money to gamble with.

It relieves their suspicion that we’re either winning too much or not gambling enough.”

I stop Al and ask again, “How are we going to make money if we are playing the casino and losing?”

”We’ll only gamble $300 and then convert our tokens back to cash. It will look like winnings.

Al says, “We don’t gamble with most of the chips, including the chips we buy with credit cards, but pocket most of them, plus any winnings, if there are any.

“We then pay off the credit card before the end of the month to avoid accrued interest.

“It’s like a free untraceable money laundering scheme that is oddly legal. It eliminates the audit trail.”

Buggs injects, “The government requires the casinos to report large winnings. How do we keep the money from being traced?”

Al says, “You have to cash in your chips below the ten thousand dollar winning limit.

“For amounts of ten thousand dollars or more, the casino issues a federal form 1099 on your winnings and sends a copy to the IRS.

“It works because the casinos don’t have to report on the smaller transactions. They even deny the transactions exist.

”Hell, the members of the Council of 12 own the casinos. We just keep a low profile and there is no reason for suspicion.”

The SRS (Solar Revenue Service) says, “Taxes will be abolished when hard currency is abolished just as we promised.”

I call on Phil Akken to get a grip on what’s happening to our money. “What is the Government up to?” I ask.

Phil responds with, “Once the coinage and paper are gone, the new system will became the only system we can successfully go forward with.

“After the first year has passed and the government has announced that the change in the nature of credits is final, there will be no turning back.

“You can hide paper or coined cash, but you can’t hide virtual bank credits”.

I ask, “Are we getting a fair shake here?”

Phil says, “A credit is roughly the value of a Council Dollar.

“Since there is no competing currency left in existence, the problem of exchange rates has vanished. Now there is a division only in the two types of credits.”

He hands me a pamphlet that explains the new monetary system.

The Standard Credit expires one year after being exchanged. If you receive a credit it has a one year life.

If you spend that same credit six months later, the receiver’s bank deposits the credit with a new one year life. If the credit is not spent within one year, it vanishes.

One of the Akken CPAs, Bill, interprets the meaning, “This prevents the poor from amassing large amounts of money and upsetting the balance of the economy.

“Without this provision, the middle class could reappear and recreate the old class struggle.”

Phil adds, “The other type of credit is the Blue Chip Credit, or deferred currency, which never expires. Blue Chip Credit status is automatically given to any currency while dormant in the lending pools of lending institutions or in the coffers of corporations.

In this way people can borrow long term from banks and lending institutions and repay the loans with the short term earnings called standard credits.

“The banks and lending institutions need the Blue Chip Credit deal because, with companies unable to save, there is no way to purchase items except by borrowing.

“Consumers are intentionally unable to save credits so the banks will naturally have lower savings volume.

“The loss of consumer savings in the banks would cripple the banking institutions, except that it is greatly offset by the volume of interest on the loans.

“In the final analysis the banks are better off by far under the new system”

Bill says, “As for the citizens who have savings, cash or checking account money, the Council of 12 ruled that all credits currently held by anyone will be carried forward as Blue Chip Credit.

“This will quell most of the resistance to the new virtual currency.

“We don’t need the masses rising up in protest even though we could easily crush it. When the 99 percent of the population gets angry enough to rise up and revolt, the outcome is always ugly.

“It’s always easier to throw them a bone and quiet the masses.

“The masses have never learned that they have more power than they have ever imagined.

“So, Mark, that’s where we are in the grand scheme of things.

“We’ve been planning for this day and actually find ourselves in a perfect situation.”

I reflect on this and say, “The average person is in a bind because they were caught with their money in hard currency. The people were duped into believing they are powerless.

“It’s much like the story of the elephant in captivity. When the elephant is very small you tie them to an iron stake with a stout chain to one of their rear legs. The little elephant struggles hard, but can’t budge the chain.

“As they get older, you can remove the chain and use a rope and a wooden stake in the ground. The elephant could easily walk away and pull the steak out of the ground.

“The elephant never tries to pull on the rope hard enough to escape because it doesn’t know it can. And so it is with the mass population of humans.

“They will just accept the new currency if the change is not made excessively severe at first.”

Phil continues, “Yes, Mark. That’s exactly the situation. Only new earnings or currency transfers will acquire the Standard one year currency deletion policy.

“As for the wealthy, they have a field day because it secures all of their liquid monetary assets. Suddenly gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, and all other gems and metal including platinum have no special intrinsic value other than their rarity.

Their stability in value stems from the lack of demand brought on by the panic conversion of currency to precious metals.

“On the surface you may think that people will divert their cash to gems and precious metals, but the task of reloading your day to day living resources prevents a majority of luxury purchases.

“Consider if people used their funds to purchase gems on the retail market and then liquidated them two years later for their wholesale value.

“That would be fifty percent, or less, of the purchase price. It would cause a glut on the market and the value of gems would be destroyed. Gems do not make good currency.

“Also, once obtained, the market for sale of your precious commodities is largely nonexistent and the gem industries will all but collapse if not for the high demand for industrial diamonds for mining on the Moon and Mars.”

Mark says, “The ruby market used to be in good stead because of the high demand for ruby LASERs until synthetic rubies were manufactured that had a higher purity than the natural gems.

“Also, the manufacture of genuine diamonds is a reality today and you can’t tell a real diamond from a manufactured diamond, except that the manmade diamond is superior in purity and luster.