February 26 – March 4

FEBRUARY 26

1913 – CONCLUSION OF PUJO COMMITTEE HEARINGS IN CONGRESS

A committee of Congress, headed by House Banking and Currency Committee Chair Arsene Pujo, investigated the Wall Street banking “Money Trust from 1912-1913. The Committee’s report identified a financial network of Wall Street bankers connected by 341 interlocking directorships held in 112 corporations valued at more than $22 billion connected to the Morgan and Rockefeller empires, which exerted identifiable control over the US monetary system and economy.

Paradoxically, the report resulted in the push for a Federal Reserve Act, which, of course, legitimized and shielded control of the money system and economy by the financial elites.

2011 –  “HOW THE ECONOMISTS FACILIATED THE CRISIS AND MUST NOW BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE,” PRESENTATION BY STEPHEN ZARLENGA

This article is part I of III, of Mr. Zarlenga’s address at the Eastern Economic Association Annual Meeting in NYC on February 26th, 2011. 

“Economists have allowed the idea to generally prevail that a government has to be run the way a shopkeeper runs his store! But methods that promote virtue and success at a shopkeeper or family level lead to stagnation and disaster when used at a national level. For example, they ignore that our government has both the responsibility and the power to provide the nation’s money supply in an effective way. Delegating that power to private interests such as the banking system has always failed, and will continue to fail. Haven’t we learned that by now? (See The Lost Science of Money)

“These times call for greater care and heroism among economists; and cowardice is not tolerable among those who do understand.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-the-economists-facili_b_870628.html?fbclid=IwAR1ME37FK81zs6EQ56SlXb_595fPAVKJ6Ae3SmykI1vXQbiUV3pCmb6MEV0

FEBRUARY 27

1844 – DEATH OF NICHOLAS BIDDLE, PRESIDENT OF SECOND NATIONAL BANK

Biddle threatened to cause a depression if President Andrew Jackson did not re-charter the Bank. The privately owned Second Bank was chartered in 1816. President Jackson did not sign the bill to renew the charter. “This worthy President thinks that … he is to have his way with the Bank. He is mistaken…[opposition] can only be broken by the actual conviction of exiting distress in the community… Our only safety is in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction [of the money supply] – and I have no doubt that such a course will ultimately lead to restoration of the currency and the re-charter of the Bank.” The result of the contraction of the money supply was a financial panic followed by a deep depression. (Edward Kaplan, The Bank of the United States and the American Economy)

1867 – BIRTH OF IRVING FISHER, MATHEMATICAL ECONOMIST

“If two parties instead of being a bank and an individual, were an individual and an individual, they could not inflate the circulating medium by loan transaction; for the simple reason that the lender could not lend what he didn’t have as banks can do … Only commercial banks and trust companies can lend money that they manufacture by lending it.” 100% Money (1935)

FEBRUARY 28

1989 – DEATH OF RICHARD ARMOUR, POET AND AUTHOR

“That money talks I’ll not deny, I heard it once: It said ‘Goodbye.’”

FEBRUARY 29

2012 – SEMIANNUAL TESTIMONY OF FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE BEFORE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

“The recovery of the U.S. economy continues, but the pace of expansion has been uneven and modest by historical standards…

“The members of the Board and the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks recently projected that economic activity in 2012 will expand at or somewhat above the pace registered in the second half of last year.

“The [Federal Open Market] Committee modified its policies regarding the Federal Reserve’s holdings of securities…The Committee reviews the size and composition of its securities holdings regularly and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in the context of price stability.”

[Note: The Fed certainly did “adjust” their holdings of securities (i.e. government debt, as in Treasury bonds, bills and notes) in response to the economy’s uneven recovery. A few months after this testimony, the Fed launched a third round of Quantitative Easing (QE) — creating and spending $40 billion per month to purchase toxic mortgage backed securities and added tens of billions more to purchase U.S. Treasury securities. This propped up Wall Street balance sheets, but did little to help Main Street or the side and back streets of our country — since the decision of how this money “created out of thin air” was being spent was decided by an entity (the Fed) largely beholden to banking corporations. If, instead, the money was created by a public agency and publicly decided how it was to be spent, then there would be public accountability  — with the greater likelihood that the funds would benefit the public.]

MARCH 1

1781 – RATIFICATION OF ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, THE FIRST US CONSTITUTION

“The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” of the thirteen States was ratified and in force on this date. The Articles was the first Constitution of the United States, preceding our current constitution by several years. The Articles granted the Federal Government the authority to issue money and determine its value if nine states agreed.

MARCH 2

1810 – BIRTH OF POPE LEO XIII

“On the one hand there is the party which holds the power because it holds the wealth, which has in its grasp all labor and all trade, which manipulates for its own benefit and its own purposes all the sources of supply, and which is powerfully represented in the councils of State itself.  On the other side there is the needy and powerless multitude, sore and suffering. Rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless under a different form but with the same guilt, still practiced by avaricious and grasping men…so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.” — Pope Leo XIII statement on usury, 1891

1876 — US SILVER COMMISSION (TO STUDY THE CRIME OF 73) REPORT RELEASED ON WHAT CAUSED THE 1873 DEPRESSION

The Commission concluded that the depression was caused by a reduction of the money supply. They compared the 1873 Depression to the deflation of the Roman era. “The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices… Without money, civilization could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply, it must languish and unless relieved, finally perish.  Falling prices and misery and destitution are inseparable companions. It is universally conceded that falling prices result from the contraction of the money volume.” The Report suggested that the Dark Ages ended when paper money was issued, “It is suggestive coincidence that the first glimmer of light only came with the invention of bills of exchange and paper substitutes…”

MARCH 3

1863 – LEGAL TENDER ACT PASSED

Congress authorizes the Government to print no more than $150,000 million Greenbacks to pay for the Civil War. This was interest-free and debt-free money. The Lincoln Administration did not want to borrow money from corporate banks to pay for the war.

1865 — INCORPORATION OF FREEDMEN’S SAVING AND TRUST COMPANY

The banks purpose was to serve “persons heretofore held in slavery in the United States, or their descendants.”

The bank operated 37 branches in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. It was one of the first multi-state banks in the nation with nearly all the local branches eventually run by African Americans. The bank held $3.6 million in deposits by 1874 of individual, black churches and beneficial societies.

But the bank was forced to close.

“By 1874, massive fraud among upper management and among the board of directors had taken its toll on the bank.  Moreover, economic instability brought upon by the Panic of 1873 coupled with the bank’s rapid expansion proved disastrous.  Hoping to revive the bank, Frederick Douglass, who was elected president in 1874, donated tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to shore up the declining institution.”

“Although Douglass pleaded for Congress to intervene, on June 29, 1874, the bank was officially closed. At the date of closing $2,993,790.68 was due to 61,144 depositors.  Mistakenly believing that the deposits were insured by the federal government, the bank’s collapse left many African Americans cynical about the banking industry.”

Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company (1865-1874)

1884 – JULLIARD V. GREENMAN (110 U.S. 421) SUPREME COURT DECISION

US Supreme Court ruling upholding the legality of US Government issued money (Greenbacks) created following the Legal Tender Acts of 1862 and 1863. The Court ruled that the government possessed the authority under the Constitution to issue a national currency and that that currency could be used to pay debts.

2003 – WARREN BUFFET, SECOND RICHEST PERSON ON EARTH, IN HIS ANNUAL LETTER TO BERKSHIRE HATHWAY SHAREHOLDERS

“Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.”

MARCH 4

1789 – US GOVERNMENT UNDER NEW CONSTITUTION BEGINS OPERATION

The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation as the overarching legal document of the nation. The new Constitution provides the federal legislature the sole power “[t]o coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.” (Article 1, Sec 8). The Government subsequently abdicated its responsibility when it gave the Federal Reserve and private banks the power to create money literally out of thin air…as debt.

1837 – FAREWELL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson was most responsible for not renewing the charter of the misnamed Second Bank of the United States, a private institution. In his farewell address when leaving office (Presidents used to be sworn in during the beginning of March for decades, now it’s mid January), he stated, “The immense capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it [(Second National Bank of the United States] enabled it to exercise despotic sway over the other banks in every part of the country. From its superior strength it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the business of any one of them that might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency throughout the United States. In other words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty or scarce at its pleasure, at any time and in any quarter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other banks and permitting an expansion or compelling a federal contraction of the circulating medium, according to its own will.” This is something to keep in mind during this period when Democrats at the local level hold their “Jackson” or “Jefferson-Jackson” annual events. 

2020 – “L. SWARTZ, STARBUCKS, LIBRA AND THE BORING FUTURE OF MONEY” ARTICLE POSTED

“In 2010, the satirical newspaper the Onion ran a story with the headline, ‘U.S. Economy Grinds to Halt as Nation Realizes Money Just a Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion.’ In the joke news report, people all over the country stop in their tracks as they reconsider ‘little green drawings of buildings and dead white men they once used to measure their adequacy and importance as human beings.’ Although the article was humorous, it reflected larger cultural and technical changes that emerged in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. As the general public learned about such arcane financial instruments as credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations, money itself had become strange. And it remains that way. In the context of this chaos and creativity, some people saw an opportunity to create new kinds of money, to forge new transactional communities. During the next few years, a dizzying array of new money forms were produced—from computational “crypto” currencies like Bitcoin to trust-based community currencies…

“If national currency represents liberal democracy, and Bitcoin represents some combination of techno-libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism, then Libra represents Silicon Valley feudalism. Libra is complete with its own round table: its infrastructure and monetary policy is controlled by the Libra Association. This is not a “peer-to-peer” technology; rather, it bestows a peerage.”

L. Swartz, Starbucks, Libra, and the Boring Future of Money

February 19 – 25

FEBRUARY 19

1473 – BIRTH OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, MATHEMATICIAN AND ASTRONOMER

“Although there are countless maladies that are forever causing the decline of kingdoms, princedoms, and republics, the following four (in my judgment) are the most serious: civil discord, a high death rate, sterility of the soil, and the debasement of coinage.

The first three are so obvious that everybody recognizes the damage they cause; but the fourth one, which has to do with money, is noticed by only a few very thoughtful people, since it does not operate all at once and at a single blow, but gradually overthrows governments, and in a hidden, insidious way.”

[NOTE: Debasement means lowering the value of. What lowers the value of our currency? How about creating it out thin air like the Federal Reserve via Quantitative Easing (QE) has done to prop up major banks or by banks when they create money as debt when they issue loans?]

1869 — CONGRESS PASSES BILL PROHIBITING USING UNITED STATES NOTES AS SECURITY OR COLLATERAL IN ANY LOAN MADE THROUGH A NATIONAL BANKING ASSOCIATION

“That no national banking association shall hereafter offer or receive United States notes or national bank notes as security or as collateral security for any loan of money…and any national banking association offending against the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof in any United States court having jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine…” Approved February 19 1869

This was one of many attacks by bankers on the Greenbacks — public money issued by the Lincoln Administration. Public control of the money system meant banks couldn’t control it. Banking corporations wanted, as they had done prior to and after Greenbacks, to print money out of thin air and then charge interest on top of it (otherwise known as “debt money”). Banks pressured Congress in a variety of ways to delegitimize Greenbacks. This law was one such way.

2013 – “HOW TO FIX BANKING” VIDEO POSTED

“Why our monetary system is broken and how it can be fixed?

“’The financial crisis occurred because we failed to constrain the private financial system’s creation of private credit and money.’” Adair Turner, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority

“Positive Money Founder, Ben Dyson, presenting at the 3rd annual Positive Money Conference “’Modernising Money’…He explains the main principles behind the monetary reform proposals which offer one of the few hopes of escaping from our current dysfunctional monetary system.”

FEBRUARY 20

1811 – CHARTER OF FIRST BANK OF UNITED STATES NOT RENEWED

The federal government issued a 20-year charter in 1791 to create the first national private bank. This was unusual since at the time most corporate charters, or licenses, were issued by states. The Bank was the first private institution empowered by the U.S. federal government to create paper money — with all the power and profit that goes along with it. The bank’s paper money was accepted for taxes. Eighty percent of its shares were privately owned – among these 75% were foreign owned (mostly by the English and Dutch). Originally the government owned 5,000 shares; 2,780 of these were sold in the first two years; the final 2,220 were sold (by the Treasury) in 1803 to Baring & Brothers. The bank was modeled on the Bank of England. Within two months of its creation, it flooded the market with loans and banknotes and then sharply shifted course and called in many of its loans. The result was the first US securities market crash — what became known as the “Panic of 1792” – the first of many panics, recessions and depressions due to the private/corporate control of our money system. On January 24, 1811, the U.S. House voting to not renew the bank’s charter. The U.S. Senate did the same on February 20.

During the first 50 years of the US, legislatures and courts routinely chose not to renew or revoke corporate charters, which were considered democratic instruments and used to control the actions of corporations.

1842 – BIRTH OF GEORG FRIEDRICH KNAPP, AUTHOR OF THE “STATE THEORY OF MONEY”

“Money is a creature of the Law…” (page 1)

“The most important achievement of economic civilizations, the cartelism (using tokens for money) of the means of payment.” (page 92)

1878 – REIGN OF POPE LEO XIII BEGINS

“On the one hand there is the party which holds the power because it holds the wealth, which has in its grasp all labor and all trade, which manipulates for its own benefit and its own purposes all the sources of supply, and which is powerfully represented in the councils of State itself.  On the other side there is the needy and powerless multitude, sore and suffering. Rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless under a different form but with the same guilt, still practiced by avaricious and grasping men…so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.” — Pope Leo XIII statement on usury.

2020 – PUBLICATION OF BOOK, “FAREWELL TO BANKS” BY FORMER GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF SPAIN

“On February 20, the book Adios a los Bancos (Farewell to Banks) by the former governor of the Bank of Spain Miguel Ordoñez will be in bookstores. The book contains a set of reflections on the advantages of using as money what we now call Central Bank Digital Cash (CBDC, i.e. deposits in the Central Banks) instead of using fragile deposits in private banks…

“Last summer, when I delivered the manuscript to the editor, nobody could still foresee the CBDC media revolution that was going to unfold throughout the world. But Facebook’s announcement to create Libra, a private digital currency, has forced most Central Banks to study, experiment and even approve the issuance of public digital money (CBDC) in its various modalities. As D. Marcus has said, ‘we don’t know how it will end, but I’m sure the system will be different from what it is now.’ The extraordinary atmosphere of expectation that has been created on the possibilities of public money and the reform of Money and Banking is very positive.”

Book on Monetary Reform by Former Governor of the Bank of Spain

2023 – PRESIDENT’S DAY NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN THE US

In commemoration of today, here’s what a few Oval Office occupants said about money and banking:

• John Adams: “All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises, not from the deflects of the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
• Thomas Jefferson: “The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is rising up moneyed aristocracy in our country, which has already set the government at defiance, and although forced at length to yield a little on this first essay of their strength, their principles are unyielded and unyielding. They have taken deep root in the hearts of that class from which our legislators are drawn…”
• Andrew Jackson: “If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.”

FEBRUARY 21

2013 – RELEASE OF NEW VIDEO ON MONETARY REFORM IN CANADA

Monetary Reform – a simple solution to some major problems affecting everyone in society. In this short interview, William Abram explains how money is created and some solutions that will benefit everyone. http://www.positivemoney.org/2013/02/new-monetary-reform-video-from-canada/

FEBRUARY 22

1732 — BIRTH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Washington’s image is on the $1 bill, which has lost over 90% of its value since 1900. It’s estimated that $100 in 2012 equals the purchasing power of $3.48 in 1900. That’s a 96.4% decline. Inflation due to money printing for spending on unproductive purposes has been the major cause. The private Federal Reserve System has been the US central bank during for most of this period (since 1913).

1878 – FOUNDING OF GREENBACK-LABOR PARTY

The National (Greenback-Labor) Party was formed at a convention in Toledo, Ohio. Their platform declared that reform of the monetary system was necessary in order to “secure to the producers of wealth the results of their labor and skill, and muster out of service the vast army of idlers who, under the existing system, grow rich upon the earnings of others, that every man and woman may, by their own efforts, secure a competence, so that overgrown fortunes and extreme poverty will seldom be found within the limits of our Republic.”

2013 – ‘WHY DOESN’T THE MEDIA UNDERSTAND MONEY?” video posting

Patrick Chalmers, former Reuters journalist and the author of “Fraudcast News: How Bad Journalism Supports our Bogus Democracies”, presentation

“’Why didn’t I get money?’ Answer: ‘I didn’t have to! But I didn’t know I could get it, no-one was asking me to get it, and my day-to-day job was trying to find out what a derivative was and how it related to gold.’ And then he listed some further reasons why the journalists and the media don’t understand money:…

FEBRUARY 24

1809 – BIRTH OF ELBRIDGE SPAULDING, US LAWYER, BANKER AND POLITICIAN 

“Why then should we go into Wall Street…begging for money? Their [private bank] money is not as secure as Government money…I am unwilling that this government should be left in the hands of any class of men, bankers or moneylenders, however respectable or patriotic they may be.

The Government is much stronger than any of them. All the gold they possess would not carry on the Government for ninety days. They issue promises to pay, which, if Congress does its duty, are not half as secure as United States Treasury notes based on adequate taxation upon all the property of the country.”

2021 – “SAVING THE FOREST, SAVING OUR LIVES” POSTED ARTICLE BY HOWARD SWITZER

“In the 1990s I was a member of groups called The Cumberland Greens and the Dogwood Alliance that at the time were both trying to save Tennessee’s forests from being clear-cut via protests, public rallies and lobbying the state legislature…

“I even wrote and sang two songs to educate people about the forest issue.

“However, we failed which taught me that power over public policy was critical, not only to save our world’s forests but to have any semblance of economic justice able to save life on the planet.

“History reveals what can be done to create a stable and just economy. Stephen included a proposal, based on history, science, and law, to return the sovereign monetary power to the government…

“[U]nless the monetary system was changed there was no way any of that legislation would ever be passed…

” The big decisions being made that propel this [forest] destructive profit-obsessed economy are made at the top financial level.

“I leave you with the lyrics to the two songs I wrote for the forests, Stumps Don’t Lie and The Forest Feeds Us.”

https://howardswitzer.medium.com/saving-the-forest-saving-our-lives-fab915b507bf

FEBRUARY 25

1791 – CREATION OF THE FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

The federal government issued a 20-year charter (very unusual at the time since most corporate charters, or licenses, were issued by states) to create the first national private bank. The bank’s paper money was accepted for taxes. Eighty percent of its shares were privately owned — among these 75% were foreign owned (mostly by the English and Dutch). The bank was modeled on the Bank of England. It’s main proponent, Alexander Hamilton, argued in support: “Suppose that the necessity existed…for obtaining a loan; that a number of individuals came forward and said, we are willing to accommodate the government with this money (which we have or can raise) but in order to do this it is indispensable that we should be incorporated as a bank…and we are obliged on that account to make it a consideration or condition of the loan.” In other words, Hamilton was saying the private/corporate bank would be more than happy to give the government loans if the government grants the private/corporate bank the power to create money! Jefferson, Madison and others opposed it. Jefferson said, “This institution (the Bank of England) is one of the most deadly hostility against the principles of our Constitution…suppose an emergency should occur…an institution like this…in a critical moment might overthrow the government.” The bank had an enormous impact on the economy early on. Within 2 months of its creation, it flooded the market with loans and banknotes and then suddenly called in many of its loans. The result was the first US securities market crash — what became known as the “Panic of 1792” – the first of many panics, recessions and depressions due to the private/corporate control of our money system.

1862 – LEGAL TENDER ACT PASSED

A bill authorizing the issuance of $150 million non interest-bearing United States notes (called at that time “Greenbacks”). Congress would later grant $300 million more in US notes. This was interest free US money. The administration of Republican President Abraham Lincoln wanted to avoid the nation going into debt borrowing money from private/corporate bankers to pay for the Civil War. Greenbacks were not bonds or notes or any other promises to pay “money” at some future time. They were money. Since they were not borrowed, they didn’t add to the national debt. What later made them inflationary was they were used to pay for war  – which didn’t produce or add anything productive to the economy to offset the added money supply. The bill contained an “Exception Clause”, which stated that Greenbacks could not be used to pay the interest on the national debt, or to pay taxes, excises or import duties.

1863 – NATIONAL BANKING ACT PASSED

It provided for the national chartering of banks by the federal government. This replaced state charters – many of which contained much more rigid and democratic provisions. The Act in numerous ways standardized banking across the country. The act established National Banking Associations, the office of the Comptroller of the Currency and a system of national chartered banks with control over all of them coming from Washington. The new banks were given virtually tax-free status. In doing so, it entrenched what some have called “structural fraud” of the banking system – creating money out of thin air and charting interest on it.

February 12 – 18

FEBRUARY 12

1791 – BIRTH OF PETER COOPER, US INDUSTRIALIST, PHILANTHROPIST (FOUNDED COOPER UNION) AND GREENBACK CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT

“The substitution of greenbacks for National bank notes would have the bounty now paid to banks, which, being invested as a sinking fund, would in less than thirty years pay off the whole debt of the country.”

1809 – BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me, and the financial institutions in the rear. Of the two, the one in my rear is my greatest foe.” Source:  Letter to a friend on November 21, 1864

1873 – COINAGE ACT PASSED BY CONGRESS (THE “CRIME OF ‘73”)

The Coinage Act removed silver as a form of currency (“demonetized) – leaving gold as the major form of US currency. The public didn’t realize at first what happened. With silver no longer a form of money, the overall amount of currency dramatically declined, causing the prices farmers received for their produce to drop (deflation) but the cost of their debts rise. Thousand of famers lost their land. Those who held silver also suffered. This was one of the sparks of the rise of the farmer-led US Populist movement.

2021 – “MONEY CREATION IS A FORM OF VIOLENCE,” PUBLISHED ARTICLE

“The institutional level of violence is submerged from view so that its forms are almost completely invisible. Violence at this level includes harmful actions by social and financial institutions (the Federal Reserve system, large commercial banks) that obstruct the development of human potential through the use of discriminatory lending and other economic policies and practices. Violence at this level is not universally condemned because it is often subtle, indirect, covert, and involves long-term rather than immediate consequences.”

Money Creation is A Form of Violence

FEBRUARY 13

1728 – DEATH OF COTTON MATHER, AUTHOR, MINISTER AND CONVERT TO PAPER MONEY

“Where money has not been introduced, men are brutish and savage and nothing good has been cultivated.”

FEBRUARY 14

2021 – “THE TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH TO PAY FOR HUGE COVI-19 AND CLIMATE COST”S posted article

“There are three approaches of paying for the enormous costs to combat the coronavirus-19 pandemic and the looming climate catastrophe:

1. the traditional approach of raising taxes and borrowing,

2. the present approach of Central Bank funding, called quantitative easing (QE) or monetary financing and

3. the emerging transformational approach that moves from monetary financing to the sovereign approach of financing by the creation of money…

“Very few politicians are discussing about how both the national debt and the Fed’s negative balance sheet are going to be resolved. Here Approach #3 comes into view where money is created in the quantities and qualities that match the needs for dealing with the COVID-19 and climate emergencies. Given that the financial needs are so high, the national economy and the world economy are not in danger of leading to an inflationary spiral. Disciplined imagination will be the limit of spending in this sovereign money approach, not inflation dangers or bank runs.”

The Transformational Approach to Pay for Huge COVID-19 and Climate Costs

2022 – VALENTINE’S DAY – A DAY OF LOVE

In trying to find a link between love and something related to money and debt…

Bible, Romans 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

FEBRUARY 15

2007 – QUOTE BY BEN BERNANKE, CHAIR OF THE US FEDERAL RESERVE (THE PRIVATE CENTRAL BANK OF THE US), ON THE US ECONOMY

“Despite the ongoing adjustments in the housing sector, overall economic prospects for households remain good. Household finances appear generally solid, and delinquency rates on most types of consumer loans and residential mortgages remain low.”

Less than a year later, the economy collapses due to the reckless housing loans and speculation by the financial industry. So much for Federal Reserve chairs being, as many believe, great sages. Congress passes a $700 billion bailout bill. The nation was mired in a ‘Great Recession;’ for many an outright Depression. The economy has in some ways today still not recovered.

FEBRUARY 16

1922 – BIRTH OF MARGARET DEVRIES, IMF HISTORIAN

“The extreme volatility of capital flows in response to interest rate difference or anticipation of exchange rate changes was in large part responsible for undermining the international monetary order that existed until the late 1960’s.”

2018 – MAN MADE MONEY MONEY – STEFF KUYPERS online video posting

“Money is often said to the ‘root of all evil’ what if it could be ‘reconfigured’ to solve the worlds social problems by incentivizing it’s natural strengths?  Stef Kuypers has a history in IT, creative thinking, improvisation and business interventions. He self studied on economics, monetary systems, complexity theory, human behaviour and sociology through diving into online research articles on the subjects and engaging with progressive thinkers. He got interested in monetary systems after discovering that the biggest hurdle to solving our climate change problem is actually our monetary system and more importantly the behaviour it creates. This launched him on a path to create a system which could lead to more sustainable economical and social behaviour. The end result is the Circular Money Economic Ecosystem model. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

FEBRUARY 17

1950 – TESTIMONY OF JAMES PAUL WARBURG BEFORE US SENATE

Warburg, son of Paul Warburg, the “father of the Federal Reserve,” was a banker, advisor to FDR and member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Speaking before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he stated: “We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest.”

2015 – A NEW ERA FOR MONETARY POLICY – ADAIR TURNER online video posting

“Since the financial crisis of 2007/8 central banks have entered unchartered territory. Unconventional monetary policy tools such as Quantitative Easing and Funding for Lending have blurred the line between monetary and fiscal policy.

“This has opened an opportunity to question current models and conventional wisdom. For example, should central banks add financial stability to their remit?

“New insight has come both from people working inside the system as well as from people working on these issues from the outside. Lord Turner has been a leading voice in this enquiry examining both theoretical and practical policy considerations.

“One of the most pressing questions concerns democratic accountability. Fiscal authorities are directly democratically accountable to the public, but central banks are not. How can these important policy debates become more transparent and accountable, allowing civil society to participate in the crucial debate on how monetary policy can best serve the needs of society?

FEBRUARY 18

1546 – DEATH OF MARTIN LUTHER, MONK, PRIEST, KEY FIGURE IN PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Luther condemned anyone who charged usury (interest): “A thief, robber and murderer. Money is an unfruitful commodity which I cannot sell in such a way as to entitle me to a profit.”

2019 – PUBLICATION OF AN OPEN LETTER TO ECONOMIC PROFESSORS AT MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY (THE NETHERLANDS) BY PLURALISM IN ECONOMICS (“PINE”)

“RE: Evidence suggests that UM’s teaching on how banks work is flawed – and why this matters a lot!…

 “We are a student-driven initiative at Maastricht University that is eager to improve the economics curriculum. With this open letter, we want to raise your awareness that what is currently taught in economics at UM on how banks work and how money is created is contrary to existing evidence and does not fit with the high-quality education that UM offers. Professors and textbooks at UM teach the mainstream but faulty view of “loanable funds” and ‘money multiplier’, even though central banks and commercial banks openly admit that those concepts are misleading…

“How banks actually work

“Banks individually create money (liquidity) out of nothing by granting a loan. By granting a loan the individual bank extends its balance sheet by creating simultaneously a loan (asset) and a deposit (liability). If a loan contract is fulfilled and paid back, money is destroyed and drained from the monetary circuit. The money creation is neither constrained by savings nor by reserves, but rather by demand for loans as well as by profitability and solvency considerations. What is scarce, is not money nor deposits, but good borrowers.” https://pine-maastricht.nl/pine-open-letter

February 5 – 11

FEBRUARY 5

1953 – BIRTH OF GIANNINA BRASCHI, PUERTO RICAN POET, NOVELIST AND ESSAYIST

“Banks are the temples of America.”

2013 – “HERMAN DALY – MODERNIZING MONEY” video posting

Prof Emeritus and former Senior Economist at the World Bank, Herman Daly, gave a pre-recorded message for the 3rd annual Positive Money Conference “Modernising Money” (London 26th Jan 2013). It was his opinion that fractional reserve banking pushes “anti-economic” growth. The fact that we have had such meltdowns should make the public eager to seek reform.

FEBRUARY 6

1756 – BIRTH OF AARON BURR, POLITICIAN, BUSINESS PERSON, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Burr and others convinced New York City council to charter the Manhattan Corporation in 1799. Its purpose was to raise dams and divert water throughout the city in response to the outbreak of yellow fever. A provision of the charter allowing the company to divert its excess capital in any activity “not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.” This vague clause enabled the company to engage in banking activities. Alexander Hamilton (who later Burr killed in a famous duel) said, “He (Burr) has latterly, by a trick, established a bank — a perfect monster in its principles, but a very convenient instrument of profit and influence.” The Manhattan Corporation was the predecessor of what is now the J.P. Morgan Chase bank – one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S.

2011 — “THE MONEY FIX – A DOCUMENTARY FOR MONETARY REFORM” POSTED ON YOUTUBE

“Money is just information, a way we measure what we trade, nothing of value in itself. And we can make it ourselves, to work as a complement to conventional money. It’s just a matter of design.

“Money is at the intersection of nearly every aspect of modern life. Most of us take the monetary system for granted, but it has a profound and largely misunderstood influence on our lives.  ‘THE MONEY FIX’ is a feature-length documentary exploring our society’s relationship with the almighty dollar.

“The film documents three types of alternative money systems, all of which help solve economic problems for the communities in which they operate.

“‘THE MONEY FIX’ examines economic patterning in both the human and the natural worlds, and through this lens we learn how we can empower ourselves by redesigning the lifeblood of the economy at the community level.”

2013 – TALK BY ADAIR TURNER ON “DEBT, MONEY AND MEPHISTOPHELES: HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS MESS?”

In this speech Turner discussed an alternative to Quantitative Easing, which he termed Overt Money Finance (also known as Sovereign Money or Public Money or Government Money).

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/pubs/speeches/0206-at.pdf?mccid=a1ec1750c1&mc_eid=[UNIQID]   

2021 – “THE PROBLEM WITH MONEY”, PUBLISHED ARTICLE

The nascent monetary reform movement understands that the real cause of the extreme wealth inequality as well as the destruction of our resource base, is the monetary system. It is a systemic problem that affects human behavior as well as society and our planet…

“There are 3 characteristics of the current monetary system that bestows power on the undeserving.

It systematically concentrates wealth to the wealthiest (plus compounding interest)

It is capable of being hoarded (withheld from the economy for speculation)

It has superior liquidity to goods and services.”

The Problem with Money

FEBRUARY 7

1870 – HEPBURN V GRISWOLD US SUPREME COURT DECISION

The Court declared that certain parts of the passed Congressional Legal Tender acts in the 1860’s were unconstitutional. The Legal Tender acts authorized the government to issue paper money, “Greenbacks”, and recognized it as legal to meet financial obligations. The Court concluded, however, that a party to a contract could not use paper money as payment for a debt if the contract stipulated gold or silver as payment. The Court explained how the US Congress possessed the power to coin money, but that that power was different than the power to make paper money legal.

FEBRUARY 8

2010 – PUBLICATION THIS MONTH OF PAPER, “THE BANK LENDING CHANNEL REVISITED” BY PITI DISYATAT, BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS

“This paper contends that the emphasis on policy-induced changes in deposits is misplaced. If anything, the process actually works in reverse, with loans driving deposits. In particular, it is argued that the concept of the money multiplier is flawed and uninformative in terms of analyzing the dynamics of bank lending. Under a fiat money standard and liberalized financial system, there is no exogenous constraint on the supply of credit except through regulatory capital requirements. An adequately capitalized banking system can always fulfill the demand for loans if it wishes to.”

2016 – A CRITIQUE AND ANALYSIS OF MODERN MONETARY THEORY (MMT)

This took place at the annual conference of the American Monetary Institute

FEBRUARY 9

2005 – STATEMENT ON BANKERS OF HANS SCHICHT, AUTHOR

“The fact that the Banker is allowed to extend credit several times his own capital base and that the Banking Cartels, the Central Banks, are licensed to issue fresh paper money in exchange for treasury paper, have provided them with free lunch for eternity. Thanks to the stupidity and corruption of the legislators. And thanks to the great pundits and journalists, that never understood the crux of fiat money and thus never managed to explain the blatant, ongoing legalized robbery of the people by means of the financial fiat system!

“For over 150 years this robbery has been going on, recently increasing hyperbolically and building to an ultimate crisis. Year after year the Banker’s slice of the world’s asset baskets has been growing and growing. The Banker has become almighty. Through a network of anonymous financial spider webbing only a handful of global King Bankers own and control it all. Big Brother has come to us in the striped suit of the Banker.” (From “The Death of Banking and Macro Politics” February 9, 2005)

2009 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE: ECONOMIST DEAN BAKER SLAMS BANK BAILOUT

“Mr. Geithner wants to use taxpayer dollars to keep bankrupt banks in business. In effect, he wants to tax teachers, fire fighters, and Joe the Plumber to protect the wealth of the banks’ shareholders and to pay high salaries to their top executives…

The point of buying the bad assets is to pay too much, so that the banks can get enough money to stay solvent…

It would be nice if the [Washington] Post and the rest of the media would report honestly on the bank bailout and stop trying to conceal plans for a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives.”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/02/leading-economist-says-true-purpose-of-bank-rescue-plans-is-a-massive-redistribution-of-wealth-to-the-bank-shareholders-and-their-top-executives.html

FEBRUARY 10

1808 – STATE OF OHIO GRANTS CHARTER TO BANK OF MARIETTA

This was the first bank chartered by the State of Ohio – and one of the earliest of any kind in the state. Once the charter or license was granted, the bank’s directors and stockholders (as with all banks) were provided the incredible privilege not available to farmers, artisans, or workers of any kind – the license to print money. Their paper bills were deemed legitimate by the state government by agreeing to accept them in payment of certain fees, etc.

The legal contradictions between bankers and farmers of that time (as well as today?) is summarized by author Jason Goodwin: “There seemed to be one set of laws for bankers, and another set for everyone else. For subsistence farmers working dawn till dusk the sums involved seemed obscene, and the principles of banking defied common sense. Armed with a charter, a banker could print money on demand to manufacture, out of thin air, a substance other people would pay him to possess. Yet he didn’t own it to begin with: it wasn’t anything but a promise, written on paper, to pay gold on demand—and he didn’t have the gold.”

1898 – BIRTH OF BERTOLT BRECHT, GERMAN PLAYWRIGHT AND POET — ON BANKS

, Three Penny Opera, “What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank.”

Source: The Threepenny Opera (1928) act 3, sc. 3

1939 – DEATH OF POPE PIUS XI

“For what will it profit men that a more prudent distribution and use of riches make it possible for them to gain even the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their own souls?  What will it profit to teach them sound principles in economics, if they permit themselves to be so swept away by selfishness, by unbridled and sordid greed, that, ‘hearing the Commandments of the Lord, they do all things contrary.”  

2009 – FEDERAL RESERVE CONTINUES TO BAIL OUT BANKING INDUSTRY – WHICH CAUSED THE FINANCAL COLLAPSE TO BEGIN WITH

“The Federal Reserve Board announces that is prepared to expand the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to as much as $1 trillion and broaden the eligible collateral to include AAA-rated commercial mortgage-backed securities, private-label residential mortgage-backed securities, and other asset-backed securities. An expansion of the TALF would be supported by $100 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Federal Reserve Board will announce the date that the TALF will commence operations later this month.”

Federal Reserve Press Release issued on this date

FEBRUARY 11                                                               

1847 – BIRTH OF THOMAS EDISON, US INVENTOR

“If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good… If the Government issues bonds, the brokers will sell them. The bonds will be negotiable; they will be considered as gilt edged paper. Why? Because the government is behind them, but who is behind the Government? The people. Therefore it is the people who constitute the basis of Government credit. Why then cannot the people have the benefit of their own gilt-edged credit by receiving non-interest bearing currency… instead of the bankers receiving the benefit of the people’s credit in interest-bearing bonds?”

2004 – RON PAUL, US CONGRESSMAN, SPEAKING TO THE HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE

He referred to the Federal Reserve by stating, “maybe there’s too much power in the hands of those who control monetary policy?  The power to create the financial bubbles.  The power to maybe bring the bubble about. The power to change the value of the stock market within minutes.  That to me is just an ominous power and challenges the whole concept of freedom and liberty and sound money.”

2020 – PSYCHOLOGIST EXPLAINS WHY ECONOMISTS  – AND LIBERALS – GET HUMAN NATURE WRONG” posted articleP

“That’s why a rebel economist challenging conventional thinking about subjects like human nature faces a heavy lift. Experts have to see a lot of evidence accumulating across many studies before they reach a point where they are finally forced to think differently. Scientific studies are even less helpful in persuading the general public.

“When I asked Haidt how the mavericks could help their cause, he noted that humans are social creatures more influenced by people than by ideas. So, it matters who says something as much as what they say. It also makes a difference how they say it: elephants don’t like to be insulted, and they lean towards arguments made by people they like and admire. Not very rational, perhaps, but likely true.”

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/psychologist-explains-why-economists-and-liberals-get-human-nature-wrong