Reported by Rob Granger

Our speaker today was introduced by Bob Hoffman.  Dr. Gertmenian served the Nixon and Ford administrations as a Chief Détente Negotiator in Moscow of the Chairman of the National Security Council, as emissary to Tehran for the Secretary of Commerce, and as Special Assistant to the Secretary of HUD.  This corporate experience includes five years as COO of Ready Pac, President of Matrix Capital and Associates, and as CEO of the Jockeys’ Guild.

Dr. Gertmenian has been honored by Pepperdine University as the first recipient of the Charles Luckman Teaching Fellowship, and is the only professor to receive this award twice.  His seminars on economic restructuring, presented several times a year in Russia, are critically acclaimed, and his protégées have reached the highest levels of business and government including the President Vladimir Putin’s director of administration.  He is the author of a mathematics primer for the study of economics and the nationally marketed audio series, Everything is Negotiable.

Dr Gertmenian is an honorary citizen of China, and a Distinguished Professor of Pacific Rim Negotiations at two universities in Shandong Province.  Each year, by special invitation from the Chinese government, he shepherds a group of graduate students, alumni, and friends on a springtime study tour of China and Tibet.

Dr. Gertimenian will be speaking to us today about the Magna Carta and America’s Economic Future.

Welcome Dr. Gertmenian.

If we go back to England 1,000 years ago, England was really a colony of Denmark.  Cnut was the son of the King of Denmark.  He was a very odd looking little man, probably the result of inbreeding.  He best known for inventing a system of measurement based on his body parts, we won’t go there.  In any case, there is only one country left in the world that uses that system and that is the USA.  Cnut successfully took the throne of England in 1016.  When Cnut died, his son Harold became King of England.

The scene shifts to France.  Now bear in mind that most people at that time were considered to be little more than animals by the nobility.  And, the common people understood and expected to be treated as animals.  To have any recognition by the nobility was an honor. First Night’s Rights was the right of a Lord to bed a new bride on her wedding night.   So, over in Normandy, the Duke bedded the new wife of a tanner.  This union produced a boy – William the Bastard.   Interestingly his hair turned white by age 25.  Anyway, he was a very angry boy, having a noble blood but not being accepted because he was a bastard.  He started a gang and robbed villages.  At first he was protected because he was the Duke’s son but his continued raids became a problem.  Finally there was no one willing to protect him and he moved his operations to England.

The Swedes moved on England to claim the throne.  Harold (not Cnut’s son but a later Harold) won the battle.   However, William (the Bastard) moved on Harold from the south.  Harold’s forces met William’s at Hastings.   The battle begins and Harold gets speared through the eye.  Such an unlikely event must have been God’s will.  So, William legitimately claims the throne as an act of God.  Most of the people cheered William but there were those who opposed him.  They held up strips of leather (remember he was a bastard and his mother was the wife of a tanner).  William responded by burning their villages.

He devised a new system of administration by dividing England into counties and appointing groups to administer each county.

He set himself up as judge but since he spent most of his time living in Normandy, he only came back to England a couple of time each year to settle disputes.  This was an impossible situation so he set up a judicial system to handle disputes in his absence.  Court was held at a public house – the “Bar” had a stool placed on it from which the Judge could preside.  They took some drapes and wrapped them around him as a robe and plopped a mop on his head as a wig.  This goes on for 100 years.

Over in Rome, Pope Urban II was a total embarrassment to the church, he was crazy.   Cardinals conspired to kick him out and sent him off to France.  He preached the First Crusade, making a speech and reminding people that they needed to get the Holy Land back.  Of course, people had to give money to support this effort.  Richard of England took up the cause.  He was captured and sold to the Hungarians who held him for ransom.  Prince John refused to pay the ransom.

John was a tyrant, a really bad guy.  In fact he was so bad that there has never been another English King named John.  John strengthened royal control over the local courts.  Of course there was cost involved in a dispute so the party wishing to have the matter adjudicated would have to put up the money.  This often resulted in contradictory rulings – prior rulings carried no weight in decisions but decisions were strongly influenced by who was putting up the money.  John required ½ of the money which had formerly gone to the Circuit Judge.   This angered the nobles.  The nobles went to King John to try and get the system fixed and he threw them into the dungeon.  The nobles raised an army and attacked John and he was defeated at Runnymede. The nobles decided not to cut his head off but required him to agree to their demands.  Sixty three of the nobles wrote down their pet peeves.  For example, King John had completed the construction of the London Bridge over the Themes.  If a person tied a boat to the bridge, John would take the boat under the theory “my bridge, my boat”.  There needed to be consistency in the law.  Decisions needed to be in common with previous decisions.  The document John signed is the Magna Carta.   This action by the nobles eventually led to the formation of the House of Lords.

Today in the United States, the amount of money flowing to Congress is outrageous.  That money is the preventer of legislation.  The true power of congress has become the power to NOT pass laws.