Ethical Banking
by Ed Stapleton
Why is it that when I mention
ethical banking, the immediate response is one of laughter and derision? 'Bankers think
ethics is a county north-east of London' I am often informed! Why is this so? Some banks,
like the Triodes Bank and the Go-operative Bank, promote ethical banking. They invest in
projects that assist ecology, global care, organic farming etc., and avoid lending to, or
investing in, organisations that promote the misuse of drugs, weaponry and more sinister
activities. So what's the problem?
Let's explore ethics in banking and see if we can sort out the confusion. What is a
bank? Silly question? Read on. As a result of the recent and current mega merger-mania in
all aspects of commerce, banks are now global banking supermarkets offering all types of
financial services for the global corporate, global consumer and global asset management
businesses. However, within commercial banking, problems arise in the Private Banking
segment due to money laundering which is a major problem for most banks. In addition,
Investment Banking is now virtually gambling, using the options market as a casino. Banks
are also involved in Insurance, which is a fear-based commodity.
Banks are amongst the most powerful institutions in the world, increasingly so today.
When used positively, they can finance ethical projects but when used negatively they can
control and dominate governments and nations. Do they really? Are the Commercial banks the
culprits, or are they victims, or both? What about the Central banks such as the US
Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England and the Central European Bank? What part do they
play in the ethical scheme of things? We shall see in a moment. Let's look at 'ethics'.
Are you an ethical person? Am I an ethical person, I ask myself? What does it really mean
to be ethical? In the UK, we have an 'ethical foreign policy', or so I'm informed! My
dictionary says Ethics are 'Principles associated with the social conscience of the time'.
Excellent, but who sets the principles? And who and what determines social conscience?
Where does ethical individualism fit into the equation? Here's a clue. In esoteric
astrology, ethics is a Uranus issue, relating to technology, freedom, brotherhood,
humanity, ethical individualism, higher consciousness and Christ Consciousness. Aha! Now
we are getting closer to the issue. So what's the real problem?
James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth President of the USA (1809-1817) had the
following to say: History tells us that the Money Changers have used every form of
abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent means possible to maintain their control over
governments and countries by controlling money and its issuance. Then consider the
statement by Amschel Rothschild, a name synonymous with money and banking 'Let me control
the issuance of money and care not I who make the laws'. The Central bankers again!
Further investigation reveals that we really have a debt based banking system,1
whereby we and governments have to constantly borrow in order to pay the mounting
accumulating interest and that there is no way we can pay off the National debt without
reforming our banking system. Even the very basis for lending, fractional reserve lending,
is questionable - even a financial scam! How dare they lend out my £1,000 investment and
re-lend it ten times over, without security, and keep the interest on the £10,000 for
themselves! Never mind the issue of usury which is a separate subject. Who are these
mysterious Central bankers, who can have such control over governments and people? The
plot thickens!
If world debt continues on the current scale, will we have a globalisation of poverty,2
mass unemployment, even a collapse of global capitalism?3 Are we dealing with
ignorance, greed and self-interest or a sinister organisation with a historically
well-designed plan a dynamic structure for a New World Order?4 Or a conspiracy
theory? Certainly no laughing matter now.
The Eagle, Lion and the Bull represented by the US, European (German) and Japanese
Central Banks paint a different picture for the future!5 The German Government
and all Europeans will rue the day they gave over monetary control to the European Central
Bank. (UK beware!) However, spiritual investigation shows that within the structure of the
banking system lies another mystery. In the global corporate banking game, which I believe
it is, there are many players; the Overlords, who are the 'Pigs',6 who cause
Panic, display Ignorance and manifest Greed with their snouts in the trough and seats on
Concorde across the Atlantic; the Masters of the Universe7 (the traders whose
days are definitely numbered) and the numerous decent individuals trying to do an honest
and professional job in difficult circumstances. And the mystery? That the battle is not
only for the control of power and money, but a battle for the Tree of Knowledge.8
We are still struggling with the Cain and Abel archetype within our consciousness; the
issue of the male Cain wisdom versus the female Abel wisdom; King versus Priest, Pharaoh
versus Hierophant, Anthropos versus Sophia, all represented today in the western
hemisphere by Freemasonry9 on the one hand and the Catholic Church on the other
hand.
Both organisations, struggling and apparently consumed by their own shadow in the form
of power, corruption and ignorance at the hands of a small minority within. Sound like
life?
What does this mean for humanity? Loss of individual freedom and being dominated and
humiliated? Do these organisations, which also control the media, stifle our striving for
the Truth, even though they purport to adhere to moral and spiritual ethics? How can we
develop an ethical morality born out of freedom in this climate? Are we witnessing a
battle for the Soul of the World? Are bankers and certain multinationals going to take on
the Grail motto 'Know Thyself and Serve Humanity' or just continue to serve themselves and
the Brotherhood? Can they come to terms with this misplaced loyalty and perhaps the worst
form of pollution, the pollution of ignorance and greed? Beware of fattening the camel!
In a short article, we can only touch on an overview of how to understand ethics and
banking. There are many problems, raising many questions. The following points, offered
for the reader's consideration, are signposts for the direction out of which solutions may
come.
* Reforming the Banking System and the various Central Bank Acts and educating the
public as to how money is being manipulated.
* Establishing Governance and Ethical Committees for Governments, Banks and Corporate
businesses?
* Educating our MP's and Government Ministers on the fact that we cannot control Debt
whilst our money is created out of debt.
* Promoting the understanding of moral and spiritual ethics in schools and colleges.
* Raising our conscious awareness of world events and issues as to what lies behind
them.
* Developing and balancing, through inner work, the faculties of the human personality.
* Co-working with the spiritual world, sharing the issues and asking for guidance and
support.
* Promoting an understanding of karma and reincarnation, seeking how Old Testament
problems can be solved with New Testament solutions.
* Seek an understanding of the Mystery of the Tree of Life11 (a deeper
meaning of The Lord's Prayer), and how it is being misused by the Brotherhoods.
* Introducing feminine qualities of nurturing and caring into masculine dominated
organisations thereby ensuring a better balanced structure.
* Practising Ethical Individualism12 through developing soul faculties
leading to Knowledge of human worth, Feeling for human dignity and an active love for
Humanity.
* Contemplating the meaning of ‘Ethics' individually; does it encompass all the
virtues?
If the Banking and Multinational13 fraternity get their act together and
shareholders and the public insist on true ethical principles and practice, will
governments follow', Will humanity be brave enough to demand individual freedom?
By now you may well have realised the allegorical nature of this article. If a bank be
my 'Body' and the 'ethics' be my spirit within, then the next occasion when I see or hear
the word 'ethical' will I ask myself, 'Am I Spiritually Centred'? The answer may be Yes!
But for how long!
Ed Stapleton is a business graduate, an educational psychologist and a member of the
Anthroposophical Society. He has over 25 yars executive exerience in CIS and European
Multinational Corporations. He has no political affiliations and is a researcher for the
truth. Any objective comments welcomed to. e-mail, EStapl8215@aol.com
or 129 Wellington Road, Enfield EN1 2RS, UK
References
1. The Grip of Death, Michael Rowbotham
2. The Globalisation of Poverty, Michel Choussudovsky
3. The Crisis cf global Capitalism, George Soros
4. Mapping the Millennium, Terry M. Boardman
5. The human being is three fold in the sense of encompassing the realms of Thinking,
Feeling and the activity of our will (the ability to perform deeds in the world). These
qualities have long been related symbolically to the Eagle, Lion and the Bull (we can sec
this as Eagle eyed thinking, Lion-hearted feeling and Bull willed), and can in a certain
way be related to the Central Banks of USA in the West, Germany in Middle-Europe and Japan
in the East.
6. AnimcllFarm, GeorgeOrwell
7. The Collapse of 'Burinjis, Stephen Fay
8. The Burning Bush, Edward R. Smith
9. TheBrotherhood, Stephen Knight
10. Threefold Social Order, Rudolf Steiner
11. Technology of the Sacred, Dr. Petia Prime & R. Bitter
12. R. Steiner's Vision of Love, B. Nesfield-Cookson
13. When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten