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.”
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.
Monetary History Calendar 