Glenn Beck: Bretton Woods 3

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November 17, 2008 - 13:28 ET

Glenn: I wanted to get some sense, does anybody really have an idea of how deep and how this is just destroying the Constitution and nobody did. Bretton Woods 1 and, believe me, this is one of the reasons why I was sleeping two hours a night over the last couple of years, for some reason -- I don't remember what it was, but something came up in a story and I would leave no stone unturned about two years ago as I started to -- I knew nothing about the economy. I couldn't tell you even how the Fed worked. Discount -- I had no idea what any of this stuff meant. I just knew there was trouble and so educate yourself, Glenn. And so I did and I worked with my researchers and we researched everything and every story that would come up, if it had one thing in it that I didn't know what it was, let's look into that. One of the stories about a year and a half ago or two years ago mentioned something called Bretton Woods 1. I didn't know what it meant. I'm like, geez, please just be like a farm where they all had pancakes there or whatever. That was actually where the world got together after World War II and the United States said, Do you know what guys? This is going to be a hassle. Do you know what it's like to carry gold bars? It's going to get heavy and then you have to go to the bank and make it into coins. Why don't we just keep all the gold and then you guys just keep our dollar? It was the exchange currency. It was the -- it was the -- it's the global currency and we promised them at Bretton Woods 1 that we would hold the gold and we would never go off the gold standard.

So, if you held a dollar, it would mean a dollar's worth of gold and you didn't have to have all that heavy gold because out, out, my back hurts. It worked to our advantage because everybody had to use our dollar. Then we started the great society and we were first told debt doesn't matter. This is when this started. Debt doesn't matter. We'll build all these housing projects and give away you will kinds of free stuff. Debt? What debt? Oh. We're and doing that war thing. Don't worry about it. We have plenty of money. We didn't have enough gold. Out. My back is hurting. I don't think we can get more gold. So, what we decided to do was go off of the gold standard and onto the debt standard. This is sounding like it's going to work out well! Well, that's what the rest of the world thought. So, they called Bretton Woods 2, another summit where the world got together and said, Hey, remember when you guys said you would never go off of gold and we bought all of your dollars and so now we have them sitting in your bank? You guys are devaluing that and so it hurts us? And we went, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, we'll never be irresponsible with our debt. (Laugher.) We're Americans. And, you know what? It's only going to help you because we're going to change gears and become a consumer society. Sure, we used to make washers and dryers and everything like that, but now we're so rich, we're going to start consuming. So, Japan, it will be good for you because we'll start buying your crazy televisions. Hey, China, we'll buy more than bamboo umbrellas for your drinks from you guys. And so the rest of the world went, Okay. So, we'll still hold on to your currency and you're going to buy our crap? Yeah. And you'll never devalue your dollar? You'll never go crazy on debt? Of course not. What do you guys think? You crazy cats. Get out of here. We're Americans.

Well, now we're at the top of our debt limit and it's not a self-imposed limit. It is a limit -- you know it. You've got one. You know you can carry debt, but then there's a point like, Oh, boy, we're never got to get out of this debt. It's like a flying piano coming out of the sky at us. It should hit us in about 10 minutes. You know when that debt is going to crush you. You can carry debt, but not an irresponsible debt because in the end it all comes raining down like giant Steinways. Right? Well, that's where we are now. Isn't this crazy? And so the world call together another summit, only in a couple of news stories have I heard it called what it really was and, that is, Bretton Woods 3. So, this is, okay, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice. This is the world getting together. That's why we serve them $500 bottles of wine this weekend. We're like, you guys are great. Here. Drink a lot. The rest of the world, Japan -- I'm sorry, not Japan. China, Germany, France, they're all saying now that they want a -- they want -- do you know what they would like is they would like a global reserve currency and I thought, hum. Bretton Woods 3. And they want a global reserve currency. Wait a minute. Where have I heard that one before? Oh, I remember. The global reserve currency that used to be called the -- the dollar! They're looking for a global reserve currency. They were talking about there is no franc, there is no mark, there is no yen, there is no dollar. We just need a global reserve currency. That's what happened this weekend. Was anybody giving you that story on television or radio? Anybody? You know, I turn it on, Hey, we've got some boring stuff to talk about. Here's some boring economist guys talking about some boring stats and stuff and, you know what? Just go back watching football or something because I'm paid to do this job and I can't even pay attention to it. My gosh, is this boring stuff! That's what was happening this weekend, not the boring stuff that they all reported on, the context, the meaning of it, but you only know that if you know history. You only know that if you have a sense of what is coming and I have that sense and I think you have that sense, but you don't have anybody giving you context on it. This is why I say you've got to do your homework. You've got to seek those things out, but you also have to be very, very careful not to go to extreme websites, not to go -- you've got to be careful. You have to second source everything. With everything that is going on in the world today, all of these rumors, all of these things, the truth is bad enough, gang. The truth is bad enough. You don't need to go to some, you know, i'minmybasement.org. You don't need to do that. The truth is scary enough and you don't -- what we cannot afford is more half truths, more lies. We're not -- we don't have a dollar shortage. We have a trust shortage. And so be that person that people can trust.

You know, when I was asked to leave the building at CNN because we had signed the new deal with FOX and they said, do you know, Glenn? We're just going to pay out your contract and this is totally traditional in radio and television. This is what you do. When you go to a competitor, they don't have you finish out your contract. They just pay it out. And so it's totally fine. And when I was leaving, I left -- I couldn't evening say good-bye to my staff and so my staff, they didn't know what was going on and there were all kinds of half truths and untruths that were floating around and everything else and I thought to myself for two weeks I couldn't speak for them and for two weeks I thought, my gosh, they must think I was lying to them and I just wanted a chance to explain. When we finally got back together about a week ago, I went to each of them and they were, like, Glenn, we worked with you, we knew. We knew. At first we looked at each other and went, wait a minute. This doesn't match and then we all started talking about it and said, it doesn't match and we have two years of experience with him telling us the truth. That's why it's so critical, so critical that you live your life the way you want to live it, the way you're meant to live with it. Live it in truth because when it comes -- push comes to shove, when it comes to a critical time, it may not matter today, but when it's a critical time in your life or our country's life or your family's life, they've got to know, they've got to know, and that's why I say please don't send these crazy e-mails around. Don't do it. Unless you know it to be true, don't do it. Just tell the truth and make sure they're from good sources because when push comes to shove. People are going to need to know that they can trust the information that they have from you. I am doing my best to live my life this way so you can trust the information that's coming from me and if I get it wrong, I will correct it and I won't bury it. I will lead an hour with it. If I get it wrong, I will tell you that I have it wrong, not because I'm, look at me, how wrong I am, but because we need to trust each other and if we all adopt that, if we all do those things, we are going to be fine and we'll make it. 

(Break) 

Glenn: What is -- out of the seven deadly sins, what's the biggest sin? I'm going to tie this in and tell what I think the biggest sin is, coming up in just a second. We'll see if you agree. We have Garrett on the phone, however. Hello, Garrett. 

Caller: Hi. I'm very upset at the slander that you presented at my show about the website. i'minmybasement.com. I worked very hard on this website. Here you are trying to talk about Bretton Woods 3. We're already on to Bretton Woods 9. Where are you on interpret Bretton Woods 4 through 8? You have no position on it and you've been silent this entire time. I want to tell you something. I'm in my basement right now and I have the entire wall sealed with packing tape and "Star Wars" throw blankets and if there's an attack from Bretton Woods 7 or Bretton Woods 4 like I predicted, I will be safe and I will be the one laughing! (Laugher.)