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November 15, 2009 (LPAC)-- Below is a question submitted by a representative of an important political party in Italy and Lyndon LaRouche's response:

Mr. LaRouche,

The economic crisis has made it even more clear that the banking system does not work for the real economy. Even the banks which are apparently healthy do not lend to industries.

A group of politicians and activists here in Italy are studying the question of the banking system, and we are interested in knowing if you think that there is a structural problem with the banks. Is the fractional reserve system itself the problem, leading to inflation and the reduction of purchasing power? Is interest inherently a method for the financial elite to steal from the people?

If we need to create a new credit system, as you say, do we need to change the way which banks are organized today?

Thank you for your time.

LaRouche replies:

The imposition of the present Euro system on continental western and central Europe, has had the consequence of dooming the entire world to what erupted in July-August 2007, presently accelerating, terminal breakdown-crisis of the present world monetary-financial system. Without the replacement of the effects created by the British imperialist-controlled Euro system, there would be no hope that any part of the planet would escape the presently accelerating dive into a planetary "new dark age" far worse than that which Venetian monetary policies imposed upon Fourteenth century Europe.

The only present option for the survival of any part of the present world civilization would be the creation of a Hamiltonian form of credit system, to replace the present world monetary system entirety. The possibility of such a reform depends absolutely on initiating cooperation among the USA, Russia, China, and India; such a reform could not be launched initially from a western and central Europe still the prisoner of the British Euro empire, nor from Africa or South America. The reform will come, if at all, from the extended Pacific region of North America, Russia, China, and India, or there will be no escape from a planetary dark age for any part of the planet.

To understanding this situation adequately, it is indispensable to begin from any understanding of the difference between the credit system re-introduced by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, rather than the monetarist system which Winston Churchill and Truman substituted for Roosevelt's credit system beginning April 13, 1945.

The intention must be to rescue the world's nations; but, the principal battlefield will be the war between the allies around the extended Pacific bloc of North America and Asia, rather than the Atlantic one. Either this bloc is formed and consolidated now, or civilization as we have known it since A.D. 1492, will have disappeared for several generations or longer. It is political and other leaders among the various nations who have "grown up" to this ominous reality, who are the only ones fit to lead the world now.

There is a certain Renaissance tradition in Italy which should play a crucial part inside Europe in this struggle for a rebirth of civilization.

— Lyndon.