The UK Government’s Latest Moneymaking Scam – 100 Year Gilts

Brit Dee, Contributing Writer

As massively indebted Western economies stand on the verge of financial collapse, the British government has come up with a cynical new wheeze so that it can steal yet more money from the people, to give to the corrupt political and financial elite. In next week’s budget Chancellor George Osbourne will announce that the government is to begin offering 100-year gilts – bonds which offer a fixed rate of interest, and which will not be repaid until next century.

The bankrupt British government is attempting to persuade us to exchange our money for a piece of paper that we are expected to trust will have at least the same value when our grandchildren own it in the early 22nd century. Considering the dire state of the British economy — the country is currently officially in debt to the tune of £1 trillion, with some estimating the real total to be £5 trillion — as well as extremely low interest rates and high inflation, with the possibility of future hyperinflation, you would have to be insane to imagine that such an investment is a good idea.

We cannot be sure of what state the economy will be in, or what purchasing power our fiat currency will have next year, let alone in a century’s time. Any rise in inflation before the 100-year gilts are redeemed — guaranteed under the debt-based, growth-driven economic system in which we live — will reduce the purchasing power of both the interest paid by the gilt, and its maturity value on redemption. Purchasing power is the amount of tangible goods and services you can exchange for your paper, metal, and digital pounds.

It is very likely that gilts bought today will be worth nothing, or practically nothing, in a century’s time. This eventuality is amply supported by examples from history. It has been estimated that £100 invested in War Loan stock nearly a century ago (the British government issued gilts to raise money for the First World War) would be worth little more than £2 today. This is borne out by comments made on a Daily Telegraph article, where one commenter recounts how his mother patriotically bought £300 of British war bonds in the 1940s, and ended up smiling “resignedly after she cashed them in about forty years later”.

Another reader explains how his £100, 3.5% wartime bond, which he inherited and kept just for fun, pays out a paltry £3.50 in interest a year. He points out that £100 was a lot of money when the bonds were purchased. 

The chief executive of a large trust fund similarly bluntly states that:

The fact that the British government has previously sold such bonds to fund world wars is highly ominous. With the West fomenting chaos in Africa and the Middle East, militarily deposing sovereign governments and backing armed insurgencies, whilst demonizing oil-rich Iran and antagonizing heavily nuclear-armed Russia and China, the world is in a highly dangerous situation and global conflict is a real possibility. 

In addition to sucking taxpayers dry, the latest gilts scam is another way in which the political and financial elite can raise money to fund their imperial wars. Such funds fuel the elite’s war machine, securing the globe’s natural resources, forcing open new markets for the banks and multinationals, and generating huge profits for the military-industrial complex. 

In a sick twist, British taxpayers’ and bond investors’ money is additionally used to fund our own enslavement, and keep dissenting voices in check. Huge amounts of our tax revenue is paid annually to the security industrial complex, which is currently working to introduce ever more effective systems of control and  surveillance — all in the name of protecting us from those evil terrorists, of course!

If you are lucky enough to have any spare money, do yourself a favor: do not buy the government’s gilts, and instead invest in goods that you can store and use in times of future economic crisis — tools, food, water etc. — or invest in precious metals such as gold and silver.