Clive Boustred says the future can be different; that we can get rid of the Federal Reserve Bank, displacing it with a new system that puts people in control of their money and lives It is hard to believe, but he has the credentials to be taken seriously

Clive Boustred has an impressive resume that includes nearly twenty years of providing consulting strategy for many of the high tech companies that are creating the world in which we now live. That experience built the corporate strategies of such companies as Sun Microsystems and Intuit. The core of his experience is in high tech, edge banking systems. Boustred's solution to the problem Americans face economically is CopperCards Bank. According to Boustred, the CopperCards Bank does not generate money, as we know it. It does not charge you for every transaction. It does not use fractional reserve banking. Instead, it simply enables trade using the heretofore untapped potentials of computers, encryption, and the Internet.

We all know that if we all took our money out the bank would not have enough to meet its demands. That is what a 'run on the bank' means; it is the result of fractional reserve banking. With the bank Boustred has designed the money you put in the bank stays there, waiting for you, he says. It does not visit anyone and is not rented out without your knowledge, as is true with the bank down the street. Boustred explains that CopperCards Bank is not banking, as we have known it, but a system that eliminates currency as the means for conducting transactions. People can use gold and silver coins; anything, according to Boustred, can be traded through CopperCards Bank. No fees are charged, loans on assets, such as your car or home, are made without charging interest at no cost to you. Boustred's system would eliminate the costs of making transactions. It will sit on your desk or in your purse, waiting for when you need it.

Today, many Americans seek relief for the problems created through fractional reserve banking and the FED. Many are looking seriously for solutions. More people every day can tell you who owns the FED and why a solution is necessary. At the same time, those entrusted with government, for instance Congress, continue to ignore the problem. Which leaves Americans at a stand still.

Such solutions as that started by Bernard von NotHaus's Liberty Dollar have proven to be problematical. The company issued minted gold and silver currency, valued for collection and as a way to hold precious metal against inflation. In the von NotHaus case, while tens of thousands in coin and metal were seized by the Federal government, no arrest or charges were made; the holdings of gold and coins confiscated are being held with no explanation. Asked if his system was legal Boustred replied that it certainly is. Displacing a system with something better, like the car replacing the horse and buggy, annoys the blacksmiths but it is perfectly legal. Also, there is nothing to seize. All transactions are recorded off shore.

Interviewed for this article Boustred said, “If not for the Federal Reserve and government Americans would have had this system as the natural extension of the computer and Internet long since.” Boustred then explained that we have seen the technology moving in this direction without understanding what was going on. Citing such innovations in trading as Ebay and Craig's List, Boustred pointed out that these are actually trading systems and since they charge small amounts are wildly profitable because of the high volume. That makes these sites a little like today's banks, but better than selling or trading using traditional means.

The CopperCards Bank extension of this is to see the 'bank' just as a point for trading. Anything can be traded. You pay in dollars, which are traded for 'coppers' the internal unit for marking value, to buy Swiss Francs; your old stamp album, converted into coppers, by placing it for sale, is paid out in Euros to buy lodging in Hawaii. Ten hours of your time spent building a rocking chair becomes coppers which instantaneously are paid out to buy transport into the Alps. Anything, effectively, becomes money when viewed this way.

The existence of the FED and other Central banks, for instance those in Europe, have obscured where the technology could take us and what it could make available. Boustred predicts that traditional banks will disappear, just like the horse and buggy, when CopperCards is fully on line. All existing systems are based on loaning money you did not own, especially Fractional Reserve Banking. The practice got its start over 200 years ago.

A gold merchant in Frankfurt, Germany, a Mr. Nathaniel Bauer, got into the habit of loaning money actually owned by his customers. He had noticed how careless the nobility he routinely dealt with were with their gold. In that inattention he found an opportunity. Mr. Bauer discovered he could loan many, many times the gold in his possession. Then, he realized the gold was not necessary. He later changed his name to Mayer Amschel Rothschild. The practice with loans, money, and currency became a family business, now of many generations duration. From the family practice of marrying cousins so to preserve their capital, came the Central Banks of Europe today. The lineage of the family illustrates the strategy, the story appearing on their own website as the Family History.

Boustred advised Americans to pay attention to what was being done to the wealth they entrust to traditional banks as he pointed out that with the high security encryption built into his system every copper in every transaction can be traced.

With America's economy well into its downward spiral no one is sure where we will be a year from now. Americans are looking for solutions, and Boustred's ideas are creating a following. The number of calls received at their office is increasing rapidly. Most Americans are worried about money; there is not enough to stretch and what remains is too often spent on taxes, fines, fees and costs from big corporations and government. No one seems to know what you are supposed to actually get for the money you give them.

With oil arching up to touch $145 a barrel and questions on how the vast oil reserves in Alaska were taken off line, making relief from that direction unlikely to happen, even people at the check out line in the local grocery store are conscious of what is going on with the dollar and the FED. It has been a long time since Americans worried about finding food in the stores. Today, that worry is growing as the dollar continues its nosedive.

And each of these questions return to the issue of the Federal Reserve Bank. The root of everything we do begins at the need to buy and sell. For many years, the idea that there was something smoky about the FED and how fractional reserve banking worked was the sort of thing you expected to hear only from nutcases and weirdos, who ran around in tin foil hats, or economists. But today revelations regarding the status of that institution have increased in volume until the questions are being voiced at the local Walmart.

What is the FED, who controls it, and what happened to our money? More are asking every day.

The present movement towards hyperinflation was predicted by John Templeton, considered by many to be the Father of Wall Street. Templeton predicted the present collapse three years ago, also predicting that it would be unstoppable because those in charge did not have the expertise, skills, or ability to stop it.

As to who controls the FED, a cursory check does verify that it is actually twelve separate banks, each a privately and closely held corporation. Ownership of the banks is murky, with the most likely scenario being that much of the effective control rests with Europeans. Also easily verifiable is the fact that it came into existence via a move by Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a group of bankers, meeting over the Christmas Congressional break in 1913. The number of bankers involved, according to “Secrets of the Federal Reserve”

by Eustace Mullins, a highly respected historian, was limited to the participation of less than ten men. The book goes on to raise eyebrows with quotes such as this,

“The Rothschilds were wary of Germany's ability to continue in the war, despite the financial chaos caused by their agents, the Warburgs, who were financing the Kaiser, and Paul Warburg's brother, Max, who, as head of the German Secret Service, authorized Lenin's train to pass through the lines and execute the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. According to Under Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, America's heavy industry had been preparing for war for a year. Both the Army and Navy Departments had been purchasing war supplies in large amounts since early in 1916.”

Meaning that the same bankers who met with Woodrow Wilson and the Roosevelts planned the War to End all Wars, World War II and, presumably later military ventures, as a way to generate corporate income through the printing of US Treasury dollars, emptying the all too occasional surpluses into their own pockets. Today, through the Internet, this kind of information is percolating across the entire population to be discussed, like bad weather, at Walmart.

Through other easily discovered linkages most of the ills that have plagued the world for the last century can be explained as a means to churn US Treasury dollars, paid for by American Taxpayers, into money banked by the same, small group of individuals, mostly located in Europe. This explains the present mortgage meltdown, those funds end up in the same accounts, off shore.

What Americans need today, said Boustred, is the means to stabilize their economy, trade, do business, buy, sell, and hold on to what they own. Money must flow, but for that to happen Americans must pry lose the fingers of those who control them through their money.

Boustred, returning to the subject of the developments in banking technology, went on to point out that when the transfer of money is electronic it is instantaneous, thus the 'float' is eliminated, making it possible to have a system of banking and trading that is a simple but elegant service that costs nothing. The tiny cost, Boustred said, would be nearly unnoticed and easily borne as a business expense of businesses who would be paying far less with this technology than the present fees charged to implement credit cards. This has been true for some time now. Boustred said, “we can now eliminate the need for banks and fiat currency as we have known them. Instead, this can be handled as a not-for-profit that is decoupled from government, corporate or personal interests. CopperCards Bank will function as a not for profit and encourages others to do the same.”

Asked if this would change the lives of ordinary people Boustred responded with enthusiasm. “Yes. Their incomes will effectively double. They can carry out their transactions in tax free zones. The average Joe can structure their affairs in the same way that the megawealthy do today. This will eliminate taxes all together. This also means that commerce will receive an enormous boost. We can experience the greatest boom in history instead of a downward spiral into poverty.”

The lives of ordinary people, said Boustred, will be less, not more, complicated.

“Using CopperCards Bank we can eliminate the fluctuations and wars that have plagued us. We can live in peace, prosperity, and community. It will be very much better for everyone, even the Rothschilds..” said Boustred.

“For instance,” Boustred said, illustrating his point. “Imagine yourself selling a used car. You list it for free. Your local CopperCards Guardian looks it over, notes you have good credit and are in good standing. You receive 90% of the probably selling price immediately. When a buyer gives you the money you get the other 10%.” I asked, “No fee?” “None. Welcome to banking as it will be very soon.” Then he smiled.

Boustred, a native of South Africa who left there for America because he was disgusted with Apartheid, lectured on strategy for high tech companies in Silicon Valley and around the world for much of the 90s. Boustred's website is at CopperCards.com and the site offers cards that help “Americans stranded in the courts.”