Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges spent much of his career in the Middle East with the motto, “Follow the money.”

When you look at the economic meltdown of the global financial system, tracing the money tree back to its roots leads you smack dab into our privately owned central bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.

Last year congressmen Ron Paul (R) and Alan Grayson (D), passed a bill to audit the Fed then leaned on Senate members to sponsor a similar bill. The Senate members were Republican, democrat and lone Independent Bernie Sanders, making it a tri-partisan issue.

The audit was passed, and in July the American people learned the Fed had extended a $16 trillion credit to other countries, businesses, extremely wealthy individuals and banks.  The Fed works outside of any political authority and is beholden to no one. The International bankers running the Fed are clearly above the law, as loaning money to other countries was supposedly illegal. That is why there is a World Bank, and I promise, if anybody is going to make money, it’s the World bank/International Monetary Fund.

Of course there is no one to hold the central bankers accountable or even say they are wrong because the Fed picks and chooses its regulators, and until now, has not had to open its books. The audit also revealed some of the regulators were CEOs of some of the too-big-to-fail banks at the same time they were supposedly regulating the bank in charge of the country’s money supply. Talk about a conflict of interests. You think they’re going to vote to turn down free money? Hell no!

With a $16 trillion global bailout, it looks as though the banksters are saving the oligarchies of the world in order to keep globalization alive. Does anyone actually think the oppressed workers most affected by this global downturn reaped any benefits? Of course not, the loans given to other governments are simply promises to the international bankers at the WB/IMF that they’ll continue to steal wealth from their workers to pay them back. This globalist agenda and individual state sovereignty, including America’s, is irrelevant and acts only as an obstacle of said agenda.

Sanders said, “It is socialism for the rich.” Well no kidding, the Fed is structured so the super wealthy have more purchasing power with their money which they get at a cheaper rate than the regular stiff, making it economically oppressive. This system is oppressive by nature. There’s no doubt we need congressional oversight and universal transparency from the get go. Now they’re oppressing and enslaving people around the world and “we the people” don’t seem to know, understand or care.

Of course no Congressperson or president had a say on whether or not the global bailout was in our best interests. There were no regulations or stipulations of how that money should be spent and it was given at zero percent, making it a tax on the American people as no bank runs at zero percent overhead. Hedges put it, “Goldman Sachs was given zero percent interest loans to gamble.” Goldman Sachs was one the banks to receive trillions in this scheme. The gamble doesn’t look like it’s going to pan out.

International bankers in charge of financing our Empire have committed our national interests to the entire system and economic order of globalization without so much as making a phone call to the White House. The nation’s workers have unknowingly allowed bankers to determine the future of our economic freedom. Hedges said, “They are untouchable. They own the process. That’s why Occupy is such a threat.” Keep that in mind when you knock ‘Occupy’ from the comfy lounge chair of your living room. It is going to take more than divisive partisan politics to end this necessary evil.

Sanders assembled a team of economists, including former labor secretary Robert Reich and Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz, to revise the Fed. “Clearly, it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power,” Sanders said. We need a Federal Reserve, which represents all of the people in our country, not just CEOs on Wall Street and too-big-to-fail financial institutions. Ron Paul and many in the Tea Party and Occupy movements go one step further and call to end the FRB altogether. Since that view has gained little public support, we should at least demand immediate reform.

Iceland is the first country to buck the international monetary system and opt-out of it, leaving billions in unpaid debt to banks across Europe. If this pattern of default continues, we now have 16 trillion guarantees the dollar will fail. Again, the president had no say in the matter; even if he did, he is paid off handsomely by Goldman Sachs campaign contributions to continue business as usual. American workers, meet the international bankers and the puppeteers.

A good way to correct the FRB system is to tax every dollar they print. Put some of what the big banks get for next to free, back into the government to help pay for our fiscal policy. My fellow Americans, the time is now. Open your eyes. Reform our federal banking system.