from http://www.nolanchart.com/article5324.html

Excerpt from Remarks by Ferdinand Lips spoken by JP Schumacher at the Gold Rush 21 Conference
Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.   August 8, 2005

[Note: Mr. Lips would die less than 2 months afterwards this speech was delivered.]  (Photo) (2)

“…Because the world has forgotten the monetary role of gold, our world is in serious trouble. That is the one major reason for the worrisome state of the world. The abandonment of gold as money, of the discipline of gold, is the major reason if not the only reason why our world has become a very dangerous place. In my opinion, it is the biggest tragedy in world history…

Some years ago I heard that the Mayan calendar will end on the 23rd of December 2012. There is no more Mayan calendar afterwards. That is only about seven years away.

The Mayans were a people of great culture and they loved gold. They have to be taken seriously.

What could that mean? What is going to happen? Is it the end of the world?

No, it can’t be that. We hope not. However, we are facing an economic situation that could easily end in a debacle of epic proportions.

Will there be another world war? Well, that is quite possible. There are so many wars already. In the 20th century there have been two world wars, thousands of smaller wars, even gold wars and currency wars. They would never have happened under a gold standard. Impossible.

What else could it be, then?  I have come to several conclusions. Conclusions usually come at the end of a speech. But I won’t keep you waiting.

George Bernard Shaw said: “It’s difficult to make forecasts, especially about the future.” But I will try anyway. I’ll tell you my conclusions right now.

First conclusion: There will be no more Federal Reserve. Yes, there will be no more Fed. Believe me.

It may come as a surprise to some of you to hear that the Federal Reserve System is already America’s fourth central bank. There were three others before that and the result was always the same — a disaster. We have had nearly a hundred years of the Fed and that is enough.

Why? Because this organization has tragically failed. It was set up to keep the dollar strong and the financial system sound. It was founded by powerful and supposedly very intelligent men. Within a hundred years they have succeeded in running the dollar down to 5 percent of its 1913 value. Maybe even below that.

The Fed has created stock market bubbles. Right now it is creating the biggest housing bubble in history. This may lead to economic collapse.

I expect that a revolution will one day take place against the Fed. It must be abolished. After all, its founders were not that intelligent but rather stupid men. Or they were devils. It is a tragedy. Not only that: It is the biggest tragedy in world history, even worse than wars. Yes, worse than wars. It made most people poor. It damaged America. It caused wars and then helped to finance them.

Second conclusion: Most other central banks will go too. The central banks invented this terrible monster of “the lender of last resort,” which allows irresponsible banks and the wealthy financial folk to speculate without real risk of their own. It led to an incredible buildup of financial leverage. And at the end it leaves ordinary people holding the bag.

None of this would occur if we had an honest monetary structure. We don’t need central banks. The once mighty Bundesbank, the bank that ruled Europe, has already lost all its power. All central banks must and will be abolished.

Why? Because they were so stupid and fraudulently sold their citizens’ gold and bought paper money instead, mostly US dollars. You know — those dollars that lost 95 percent of their value over 100 years.

Yes, there is now the euro. But is that currency cocktail any better? Somebody called it the Esperanto currency, meaning the hopeful currency. Before the creation of the euro all the central banks of the world held all their monetary reserves in U.S. dollars, a currency backed by nothing. After the dollar crashed in recent years, they shifted their paper dollars into euros. How clever — they sold gold at the bottom and then they sold dollars at the bottom.

I hope all is not lost. I suspect that some central bankers are beginning to find out that gold is the only real money — the only alternative to worthless paper money reserves.

Third conclusion: The United States will have Latin American conditions but without Latin charm.

I am extremely worried about the future of the United States. Its manufacturing industry is dying. The United States is bleeding to death with these endless wars. As far as I know, America has no enemies from outside that threaten it. In my view, the enemy comes from inside. The United States will face economic collapse and destruction of its currency. But people are not informed about what is going on. I also hear that U.S. citizens are losing their freedom. That is, of course, the consequence.

Americans should remember their heritage. They should remember the principles of their founding fathers. These wonderful men created a great and successful country that was admired by the whole world. This is all gone. The leaders of the U.S. government are thinking only about teaching everybody what democracy is. The leaders of the U.S. government want to rule a world they don’t understand. They want to manage the markets they no longer dominate and then go to war when nothing helps.

Fourth conclusion: China will probably become the biggest economy in the world.

China has a long history. The timeless value of the wisdom of a Confucius, almost 3,000 years old, is again remembered. Believe me, this is far superior to Disneyland. China will become the most important country. China will have a great future as long as it can master the speed at which it is changing and growing. That will be difficult.

China’s economic progress creates not only wealth but also tensions. It should not be built on the American consumer, who consumes that much only because he thinks the housing boom makes him rich. So China and the other Asian countries will one day need to have their own integrated markets. They will no longer depend so heavily on an American consumer drowning in debt.

If political tensions become too tense, the country could split up in three Chinas. It has happened before. That would not be too bad. Smaller countries can be better managed. In the case of China, these three countries would still be big enough.

Fifth conclusion: India will get wealthier and more successful. But I wonder if a country is really successful if it has that many poor people. Most important insight: In spite of all the forecasts, India will buy more and more gold. The Indians will never change. They have lots of history and experience with paper money.

In the Middle Ages there was a “silk road” going from Turkey to Kazakhstan. Now we are seeing the building of the “gold road.” It starts in Dubai. Dubai is building the biggest gold refineries in the world. They buy and refine the gold that flows over the “gold road” to India and all of Asia.

Sixth conclusion: Russia could become the greatest power. Russia may have the biggest gold reserves. In 1917 under the tsar the Bank of Russia had the biggest gold stock of all central banks, including the Bank of England. Russia has many well-educated, hard-working, and decent people. They just need to abolish their enormous bureaucracy, forget their Marxist nightmare, and learn the principles of a free-market economy. Russia is a fabulously rich country with enormous resources, a lot of good people, and a lot of culture.

Seventh conclusion: Together with Russia, Europe could again be the center of the world. But this is far from sure. It can be achieved only if we drop socialism and the welfare state. We should learn from the Chinese. Hard work and little welfare state.

But in order to succeed, the euro needs a link to gold. The miracle can be accomplished only if Europeans replace Keynes with the thinking of men like Röpke, von Mises, von Hayek, et al. Röpke, Eucken, and Erhard were the fathers of the German miracle. These policies could again be the source of a European miracle. The European Union of Brussels, the European Union in its present form, should be abolished.

The EU in its present form will fail and maybe the euro will fail as well. That would not be the end of Europe. As General Charles de Gaulle recommended, the ideal would be the Europe of the Nations, a Europe where the individuality of every nation and region is respected. A Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.

Eighth conclusion: Gold and Silver prices will be much, much higher. Oil prices too. There is not enough gold. Who wants to produce gold and silver as long as prices are held artificially low? This whole manipulation of the gold market has to end. It will end like the London Gold Pool in 1968. Just collapse. The gold pool was created in 1960 by the central banks to keep the price of gold at $35. It could not last. Gold was stronger than the central banks. And gold will also be stronger than the hedge fund boys who are criminally borrowing and shorting stocks of small gold-rich exploration companies just to bring them to their knees.

Only this time the explosion of prices will be more spectacular. The prices will go to the moon. And the manipulators will be hit by a real boomerang. Also, the central banks will start buying in 2006. Nobody will be able to stop that future gold rush. Gold will take its revenge.

Ninth conclusion: If the price of gold and silver were left to free-market forces, nearly everybody would benefit. South America. Most countries of Africa. South Africa would benefit most. Even the United States would greatly benefit because it is the No. 3 producer of gold. There could be a renaissance of mining generally, with all the beneficial effects on national economies.

Tenth conclusion: My most important forecast is the following: I forecast a return to the gold standard.  Without a return to the gold standard, you can forget it. I repeat: Forget everything. Then the calendar of the Mayans and their wisdom will have proved to be greater than that of Nostradamus.

If we go back to the gold standard I could see the best scenario for the future of mankind. Everybody would benefit from sound money. The United States again could become a great economic power and nation. Gold-rich Asia may benefit most. The world economy would run on its full potential. There would be full employment everywhere. The young could again find jobs. Peace would return to the world…
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…If we want to change the monetary non-system, then we must have a plan. We need a plan to inform people about sound money. For a century people have been brainwashed that gold is finished and fiat paper money will rule. The politicians are full of lies and the media is full of lies. There is not one university in the world where monetary history and science are taught.

From history we know how fiat money systems end. Look at the American Continental and the John Law experiment. They all finished badly. The present paper money experiment is even worse. It’s the worst because it is worldwide. For the first time in history all the currencies of the world are backed by nothing. It is the worst system ever invented. It is the Tower of Babel of irredeemable money.

Let me cite Professor Antal Fekete from my book “Gold Wars.” Fekete
said:

“This book is much more than a chronicle of gold wars. It is also an account of the historic failure of ‘Esperanto money.’ Over a hundred years ago a Polish physician by the name of Ludovik Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917) created a synthetic language in the hope of removing the curse of Babel from mankind. According to the Bible, man had become so conceited as to challenge God by proposing to build a tower that was to reach high heaven. The tower could never be completed because of failures of communication due to the confusion of different languages. Zamenhof called his new language ‘Esperanto,’ meaning ‘the hopeful.’ However, the hope was in vain as other synthetic languages, such as ‘Ido,’ sprang up. The confusion of tongues and the curse of Babel have remained.”

Calling irredeemable currency “Esperanto money” is apt. The Biblical story may be interpreted allegorically as an admonition not to challenge God by attempting to build a tower of irredeemable debt that is to reach high heaven. But the admonition fell upon deaf ears. Now God’s wrath is upon us.

Currencies of nations have been confused. The tower of Babel is in vain. Other synthetic currencies spring up such as the Special Drawing Right, the euro, and so on. The confusion of currencies, and the curse of Babel, remain.

How could this tower of irredeemable money come into existence? Because there is no gold standard. Because people do not know what money is, what sound money is and means. The lessons of history are forgotten. In the 19th century every peasant knew what money is. So you have to educate people again…

…Conquer the fiat money non-system with knowledge, just as Christendom conquered the pagan Roman Empire. Conquer it with gold. If we do this, then by the 23rd of December 2012 a new golden Mayan calendar will be born and the world will experience a renaissance and prosperity for all.

But if we don’t do it, the calendar of the Mayans will have truly been prophetic. We will face global economic collapse and believe me — the end of the world as we know it.

[To read the article in its entirety, go here or watch this video.  Part1 Part2 Part3]