APRIL 14
1948 – RETIREMENT OF MARRINER S. ECCLES AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE US FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD
“That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.”
2018 – WORKSHOP, “’WHAT’S MONEY GOT TO DO WITH IT?’ WOMEN AND MONETARY REFORM” AT 3RD ANNUAL 4W SUMMIT ON WOMEN, GENDER AND WELL-BEING AND 41ST WISCONSIN WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES CONFERENCE, MADISON, WI
“As Earthlings and females, we understand the need to protect habitat and future generations. But doing so requires monetary and economic stability for caregivers, their families and communities. Unfortunately, due to a flaw in how legislators institutionalized it 105 years ago, our money system systematically and increasingly impoverishes most living creatures to serve the interests of the very few. Ironically, habitat collapse and economic instability caused by our monetary system imperil rich and poor alike. It is crucial to understand this flaw and how our money system currently works, who benefits from and who pays for it, and how we can correct it. This interactive session with friends of the American Monetary Institute (AMI) will help participants to explore these issues and how to become part of a growing national and international movement for sovereign money reform. We will tell you about a suite of three concrete monetary correctives that together will create a level playing field from which we can eliminate poverty, end debt slavery, and sustainably rebuild our earthly commons for a thriving future.”
Facilitators/speakers were Susan Peters, Lucille Eckrich, Mary Sanderson and Bo-Young Lim – all affiliated with the American Monetary Institute
2019 – “JESUS & THE MONEY SYSTEM – A PALM SUNDAY REFLECTION” BY REV. DELMAN COATES ARTICLE PUBLISHED
“Debt-based money and not simply the need for more financial regulations create the conditions for the moral hazard and speculative activity of Wall Street. Their power over the money supply, and the power to create what is used as money out of nothing give them almost divine power to control society…
“Dr. King said, “If a soul lives in darkness sins will be committed. But the guilty one is not the one who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” The nation’s debt-based money system is the cause of the darkness, and it is not until we have the prophetic courage to envision an alternative world that we will create a monetary system that benefits the many rather than the few. It has been done before. It will take knowledge and courage to do it again, but we must be willing to be like Jesus and overturn the tables of today’s moneychangers.”
2020 – “THE PEOPLE WANT THEIR MONEY BACK, PART 1: WHY A NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION?” posted article by Joe Bongiovanni
“Over the years, many have questioned the necessity of establishing a Congressionally-mandated ‘Commission’ to inquire into the national money system with the goal of achieving what is essentially a revolution in how our money system works – a change from private issue and gain to public purpose and benefit.
“For over 100 years, monetary reformers have called for fundamental change from a private (corporate), temporary, debt-based money system which privileges the banking and financial class to a public, democratic, permanent, equity-based system of money that serves the needs of the people who create the real national wealth. Such a reformed system would then be capable of fulfilling what Dr. Frederick Soddy (Nobelist and Father of the ecological economics movement and its supporting science) termed The Role of Money, namely to distribute the increasing national wealth among our wealth creators instead of the already wealthy. Only the Congress, and the law, can make these changes happen. Only a national monetary commission can give Congress the task and duty to bring that about. Only Congress can establish this National Monetary Commission (NMC).”
2020 – “THE PEOPLE WANT THEIR MONEY BACK, PART 2: SHIFTING THE TIDE OF OUR MONETARY UNDERSTANDING – A RESOLVE” posted article by Joe Bongiovanni
“At the very start of the discussion about AFJM Resolution One, On the Establishment of a National Commission of Inquiry into the Monetary System of the United States of America, there were key questions: (1) Why call for a “National Monetary Commission” (NMC), and (2) Why adopt a “Resolution.” That first question stands answered in Part 1 of this article.
“But the answer to both should be familiar to us all: the purpose is to overcome our national monetary ignorance. It is especially important to inform and to empower those whose consent is needed in order to do something about our monetary system. We hereby Resolve to do just that…
“This initial public-money powered benefit is a benchmark of how our money MUST and will fulfill its true role in a modern monetary economy: the role of distributing national wealth created by the 99 Percent – as best we can and as much as possible – to that same 99 percent of Americans. Under the current system, where the 1% have a legal (though illegitimate) leash on the operations of our money system, our national wealth concentrates in the hands of that One Percent…
“But FIRST, we’ll NEED a BRIDGE:
“From Our Collective Money Ignorance to Its Understanding.
“Please read the Alliance’s Resolution. Please understand it. Please question it in any way you care through our Blog. Please sign our Petition for advancing the Resolution’s key purpose – achieving a Congressionally-authorized National Monetary Commission. Please join us in this critical effort in any way you can to make the revolutionary change that is needed. We need to move from private to Public money. We need to so this NOW. Because it’s OUR money system, our common good.
APRIL 15
1865 – ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Under Lincoln’s administration, the US Government issued 450 million “Greenbacks” – interest and inflation free money. They weren’t government bill, bonds or any other debt-bearing note. This was money not borrowed from banks, but created (as authorized in the US Constitution, Article 1, Sec 8)
by the government to meet the nation’s needs.
2020 – “THE PANDEMIC AND THE ECONOMY: A STATEMENT OF THE AFJM BOARD OF DIRECTORS” POSTED ONLINE
“The government is about to spend a lot of money. Why should the government have to borrow it when the Constitution gives Congress the authority to create money? Why should we as taxpayers have to pay interest on that money as it is created by the banking system? The government creates the demand for money; it doesn’t currently create money, itself. But with appropriate legislation it could. That legislation has been written and was introduced into Congress in 2011 as H.R. 2990. It should be reintroduced and given serious consideration. It would set up the machinery within the government to create money and spend it into circulation for the public good. It would also end creation of money by the private sector. It lays out how we can transition from the bank money-as-debt system we have now to the Just Money system we need—money as a public asset lubricating the exchange of goods and services we produce…
“Under the pressure of the moment imposed by the pandemic, while we deal local issues as best we can, let us not fail to keep up our efforts toward fundamental reform of the money system that will serve all of society. Let us use this enormous disruption as stimulus to build a just and prosperous society for all. For this purpose, the Alliance has recently launched a campaign around an adopted Resolution calling for a National Monetary Commission to look into the current dysfunctional system and consider possible alternatives like a sovereign monetary system as we discussed above. The Alliance has also initiated a Petition asking Congress to create the proposed National Monetary Commission. Read the Resolution and sign the Petition. Use the resources of the Alliance For Just Money and How We Pay for a Better World to keep telling our neighbors, friends, relatives, colleagues, media, and elected representatives at all levels that now is our time to make a real difference and to make the world safe for our children and theirs.”
2024 — TAX DAY
Why are taxes so high? Why does it feel like we aren’t getting back in programs and services what we put in? Part of the reason has to do with the hundreds of billions of dollars we spend every year paying interest on the national debt. That interest goes disproportionately to the very wealthy. And that interest would not exist if instead of borrowing that money (including from banking corporations), we created interest-free and inflation-free money as stipulated by Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Why be enslaved by debt when we could be liberated by democratic money?
APRIL 16
1804 – DEATH OF WILLIAM MACLAY, SENATOR OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE 18TH CENTURY
“Bank bills are promissory notes, and, of course, not money. I see no objection in this quarter.”
1915 – DEATH OF NELSON ALDRICH, LEADER OF REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE US SENATE
Aldrich was a key proponent of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, a bill creating a National Monetary Commission in 1908, which studied the problem of monetary instability following the financial Panic of 1907. The Commission played a pivotal role in calling for “reform” of the US monetary system. The Act also established the “Aldrich-Vreeland system” which through the Comptroller of the Currency authorized some banks to issue new money. This helped the US deal with the financial crisis associated with WWI. The expanded money power of the government, however, was meant to be short-lived. The final volume of the Commission’s report called for a privately owned central bank, the “National Reserve Association,” in which “[c]ontrol was to be exercised completely by private bankers.” Passage of this Act was a stepping-stone to passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
2019 – “MOMMY, WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM” VIDEO POSTED
“In this episode of Mafiacracy Now we see in irrefutably cold detail how the criminal banking cartel maintains not only control of, but sovereign status within, the U.S.
“Everything else is piss, dodge, sham and weave.
“The book of Leviticus will end up looking like a fantasy vacation before these inbred psychopaths are finished with our husks.
“The launchpad for this springtime message of hope is a scientific paper in the field of… gasp… economics! No. Seriously. Not some stealth advocacy team slinging equations from tensor calculus and diff-EQ like the coked-out snake oil salesmen who define that sad “profession.” But a real paper about an actual experiment. Behold: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914001070
“You won’t see this one in your econ textbook, that’s for damn sure.”
2020 – “‘DIGITAL DOLLAR’ REINTRODUCED BY US LAWMAKERS IN LATEST STIMULUS BILL”
“The concept of a digital dollar that can be used to provide U.S. taxpayers with stimulus payments to weather the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has once again been floated by lawmakers.
“Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced a new proposal to have the federal government issue $2,000 per month to residents by minting a pair of $1 trillion coins and using these to back the payments. The Automatic BOOST to Communities Act (ABC Act) also brings back the idea of a digital dollar, describing the concept using similar language to a series of bills introduced last month.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-dollar-reintroduced-us-lawmakers-165056167.html
APRIL 17
1790 – DEATH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Franklin printed the paper money for several of the American colonies, most of which developed their own currency – separate from British money. This was an important revolutionary step toward independence, as well as essential to conduct economic transactions in the colonies since British money was in short supply.
“In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”
[Note: This from Geri Perry, author of “Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy: The New Trifecta”: Franklin made his statement without acknowledging the fact the the British government returned to the colonies their right to coin money in 1773 via an “Act to explain and amend” the 1764 measure. The amendment said that the colonies would henceforth be able to issue money “for the publick Advantage” which could be made “a legal Tender to the publick Treasuries” in payment of taxes and other dues. That is why this complaint was left out of the long list of complaints contained in the Declaration of Independence.]
1837 – BIRTH OF JP MORGAN, US FINANCIER AND BANKER
John Pierpont Morgan dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. His empire consisted of banks but also hundreds of other corporations via interlocking corporate directors and financial investments. The “House of Morgan” was also one of the key players in organizing politically and backing financially the campaign to pass the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, creating the largely private Federal Reserve System.
APRIL 18
2020 – “COVID-19, CAPITALISM, NEOLIBERAL DEBT & THE NEED FOR SOVEREIGN MONEY” ARTICLE REPRINTED BY TIM DEMUZIO
“As COVID-19 spreads around the world threatening the ‘normal’ operations of global capitalism, governments on the centre, left and right have been issuing large stimulus packages in efforts to stabilise the financial haemorrhaging as businesses shut and unemployment soars. This crisis is made
worse by the mountains of corporate and consumer debt that have accumulated over time to keep businesses turning over and households afloat…
“In our present crisis, I would argue that those of us who want to see a better world for our families and future generations should consult the most progressive idea ‘lying around’: sovereign money – an idea it should be said, that was never broached by Keynesians or free marketeers. Though the technicalities regarding how to achieve this project, as well as the institutional and accounting arrangements for establishing such a system can be debated, in general sovereign money is the idea that democratic governments should be in control of new money creation and that new money should be issued as a public credit or dividend based on the productivity of the economy. Outside of the environmental emergency and the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest challenges of today are the dearth of public money, the creation of private money as debt, and the need to bring forth an economic system that works in the interests of all, not just the 1% and their obsession with their differential rates of return.”
2023 – VIDEO: “REGENERATIVE CURRENCIES AND POSITIVE CHANGE WITH ALEX BERNAT”
“This was an interactive presentation and open discussion exploring how we can leverage alternative currencies as tools for the common good. This presentation explored the possibility of changing some fundamental properties of our currencies as a way to halt inflation, to fund the complete and equitable elimination of poverty, and to prioritize the well-being of our planet.
“This presentation introduced ‘Regenerative Currency Systems’, an open-source, free, and modifiable framework for using electronic currencies as community-governed tools for funding the protection of people and the planet, discussing this approach as it relates with existing monetary reform work. These scalable systemic platforms are intended to facilitate universal basic access to all components of basic well-being without cost, without inflation, and without requiring any participation from non-interested groups.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSSqT-gjV8
APRIL 19
2014 – STATEMENT OF ANDREI KOSTIN, PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERFUL RUSSIAN VTB BANK
“It is time to change the entire international financial system that considers the dollar the key reserve currency…The world has changed. [China’s] Yuan and [the Russian] Ruble have to take their place in international transactions.”
APRIL 20
1868 – BIRTH OF JOHN HYLAN, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY, 1918-1925
“The real menace of our republic is this invisible government, which, like a giant octopus, sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen….At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties.”
1999 – POSTED PAPER: THE ‘CHICAGO PLAN’ AND NEW DEAL BANKING REFORM
“During the 1930s, there were numerous proposals put forth to modify the financial system. The ‘Chicago Plan,’ submitted in 1933 by economists at the University of Chicago, recommended abolition of the fractional reserve system and imposition of 100% reserves on demand deposits. Despite the radical nature of this proposal, Phillips argues that it played an important, and hitherto neglected, role in the banking legislation passed during the New Deal. The paper addresses the question of whether our present financial problems might have been avoided had the – “Chicago Plan” been fully implemented during the New Deal.
“Phillips provides a historical analysis of banking reform during that era, and explores the reasons why the Chicago Plan was not adopted. On the surface, it appears to have been defeated as a matter of pure political expediency. The Banking Act of 1935, by institutionalizing Federal deposit insurance and the separation of commercial and investment banking, successfully restored the public’s confidence in the banking system. Moreover, Roosevelt was satisfied since the act permitted enhanced control over monetary policy by a reconstituted Federal Reserve.
“The Chicago Plan ultimately succumbed to alternative (and less stringent) measures embodied in the Banking Act of 1935, but its principles (e.g. restricting bank assets and limiting taxpayers’ liability from Federal deposit insurance) have reemerged in the contemporary debate over banking reform in this country: after all, there has been a rejuvenation of the 100% reserve plan via “narrow banking” or “core banking” proposals. Though the early New Deal legislation must be considered a success since it remained relatively unchanged for almost fifty years, a formidable challenge is posed in devising a financial system that will last well into the twenty-first century. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=160989
[Note: It’s time to revisit these questions again: Who should have the power and authority to create money? For what purposes(s)? Should banks be able to issue loans without adequate reserves?]
2010 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “BANKING REFORM SELLS BETTER WHEN ‘WALL STREET’ IS MENTIONED”
“Americans are about evenly divided on the merits of giving the federal government new powers to regulate large banks and major financial institutions; however, they offer greater support when the issue is more specifically framed as regulating “Wall Street banks.” http://www.gallup.com/poll/127448/banking-reform-sells-better-wall-street-mentioned.aspx
Monetary History Calendar 