Reply #5: If the rule is follow the money -- where does the money *go*?

[starroute]

It's obvious that much of what is what has been discussed on these threads involves the movement of huge sums of money around the world. The sources of that money are also clear, at least in outline -- the main ones being oil, arms sales, and illicit drugs. And the mechanics of money laundering are apparent, from complicit banks to the diamond trade.

But what I've never seen clearly addressed is where all that money goes and what it does when it gets there. If, say, trillions of dollars have been ripped off from the US government, what's become of it all? Clearly, it's not just sitting in vaults somewhere for the Uncle Scrooges of this world to dive through like a porpoise and throw it up and let it hit them on their heads. But what is it being used for? What purpose are these unfathomable sums actually serving?

It goes without saying that the ultimate point must be power. But power for whom? And power to do what? I think we need to start examining the other side of the money equation a lot more closely.

The Reverend Moon might be taken as a representative (if somewhat eccentric) case. Here is someone who has access to large sums of money (probably much of it from dubious sources) and is visibly spending it on things like having the Washington Times run at a consistent loss. In his case, the objective seems to be to buy himself the kingship of the world.

Other wealthy and secretive men are not as transparent in their ambitions. For example, take William Stamps Farish III, Bush family friend and recently-resigned ambassador to Great Britain. One writeup on him says, "Known as one of the richest men in Texas, Will Farish keeps his business affairs under the most intense secrecy. Only the source of his immense wealth is known, not its employment."

And these are just individuals. There are also official and unofficial organizations of various sorts involved in the game. What is the CIA, say, doing with all its off-the-books income? Does it really cost that much to control public opinion and overthrow the occasional government? Does it all just dribble away in fruitless arm-wrestling for dominance? Or is much of the lose cash going into the manipulation of financial markets -- and if so, to what purpose except to produce more money?

There's a puzzle here I can't get my head around. If we were living in one of those science fiction stories where it turns out an entire planet is being exploited for the benefit of some other-dimensional world, even that would make more sense. But I can't see any earthly reason for the transfer of these vast amounts of wealth from us to -- whoever.