May 28 – June 3

MAY 28

1816 – THOMAS JEFFERSON LETTER ON DEBT

Thomas Jefferson commented on Hamilton’s plan to use debt as the engine for progress in building his desired empire in a letter to John Taylor, U.S. Senator from Virginia, saying, “And I sincerely believe. . . that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”  Jefferson letter to John Taylor, Monticello, May 28, 1816

1836 – STATEMENT BY JOHN C. CALHOUN, FORMER US VICE-PRESIDENT

“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.”

2014 – STANLEY FISCHER BEGINS TERM AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. A MONTH LATER, HE BECAME VICE CHAIR

“I thought that when Dodd-Frank [proposed bank reform legislation] started, that the banks would not succeed in influencing it, having lost all the prestige they lost…Boy, was I wrong.”

2021 – “PROFESSOR HUDSON: FINANCIALIZATION IS SUFFOCATING THE ECONOMY” posted video

“More and more economists state that we have created a “financialised” economy where it pays more to passively own than to work, to run companies or in general to do things that benefits society. The financiers are becoming increasingly powerful and richer, while households, business owners and society must tighten their belts. Why do we accept this?

“Professor Hudson tells us how economic and historical myths about money, debt and value have been used to justify an economic system that benefits financiers at the expense of everyone else.”

MAY 29

2015 – “BANKS ARE NOT INTERMEDIARIES OF LOANABLE FUNDS — AND WHY THIS MATTERS” PUBLISHED BY ZOLTAN JAKAB AND MICHAEL KUMHOF, BANK OF ENGLAND WORKING PAPER #529

“The quantity of [bank] reserves is a consequence, not a cause, of lending and money creation…in the real world, there are no pre-existing loanable funds…Instead, banks create new funds in the act of lending…there is no deposit multiplier mechanism that imposes quantitative constrains on banks’ ability to create money in this fashion. The main constraint is banks’ expectations concerning their profitability and solvency.”

2019 – POSTED ARTICLE, “BATTLE WITH THE BBC: HOW ONE POSITIVE MONEY SUPPORTER CHALLENGED THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND WON”

“But still there was no recognition of the fundamental point Dr. Laws had raised – that commercial banks do not lend out savers’ deposits!

“So this time, he wrote to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit, requesting that they not only acknowledge commercial banks as being credit creators, but offer reassurance that future BBC output would no longer inaccurately describe banks as financial intermediaries.

“Months went by, until finally Dr. Laws received a response from the Head of the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit, Fraser Steel, who admitted that there had been “a serious breach” of BBC editorial standards:

‘…we agree the original version of the article misrepresented the way modern banking works. As you have pointed out, it is not correct to imply banks act as financial intermediaries by simply lending out the deposits which savers place with them.’

“Victory!”

Battle with the BBC

2020 – “ENDING THE MONETARY PANDEMIC” BY GREG COLERIDGE posted article

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and worsened the inherent crises in our medical and economic system. The same is true of our monetary system, which in its own right is as invisible, harmful and widespread as the virus, but was unjust, unsustainable and undemocratic long before the first cough, sneeze, or breath from a coronavirus-infected person occurred on US shores…

“Let this sink in. Congress can only literally nickel and dime the issue of money creation. Our government currently cannot create money as an asset – unable to use one of its three constitutional financial tools to respond to our unprecedented economic crisis that is decimating individuals, small business, local and state governments, and the larger economy.  The creation and distribution of money by banks is the most economic and democratically damaging form of privatization/corporatization in our society.”

Ending the Monetary Pandemic

MAY 30

1896 – DEATH OF MARK “BRICK” POMEROY, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER, CURRENCY REFORMER AND ORGANIZER OF “GREENBACK CLUBS”

At the national Greenback Party convention in 1876, Pomeroy was named chairman of a committee to coordinate the activities of local Greenback clubs across the country. The clubs served as forums for monetary education and mobilization on behalf of the Greenback Party. During his leadership, Pomeroy claimed almost 6000 clubs had been chartered: the most in Missouri, followed by Illinois. Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York followed in number of clubs.

1908 – ALDRICH-VREELAND ACT SIGNED BY PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The Act established the National Monetary Commission recommending the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating the Federal Reserve System, the current private central bank (actually 12 banks to give the appearance of decentralization of economic power and control) of the US. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act was passed in response to the economic Panic of 1907 of bank failures. JP Morgan and other bankers who had been the target of Roosevelt’s trust busting efforts through more aggressive enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act manufactured the Panic. Through manipulating the stock market, calling in loans and not granting new ones, Morgan severely contracted the nation’s money supply. Thousands of banks were overextended. An economic crash followed. The Panic of ’07 was the pretext used to end the nation’s system of decentralized private banking by creating a system of centralized private banking – the Federal Reserve System.

MAY 31

1857 – BIRTH 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.”

JUNE 1

1938 – BIRTH OF HERMAN DALY, ECONOMIST, AUTHOR OF “STEADY STATE ECONOMICS”

“If our present banking system, in addition to fraudulent and corrupt, also seems “screwy” to you, it should. Why should money, a public utility (serving the public as medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account), be largely the by-product of private lending and borrowing?…Why should the public pay interest to the private banking sector to provide a medium of exchange that the government can provide at little or no cost? Why should seigniorage (profit to the issuer of fiat money) go largely to the private sector rather than entirely to the government (the commonwealth)?

“Is there not a better away? Yes, there is. We need not go back to the gold standard. Keep fiat money, but move from fractional reserve banking to a system of 100% reserve requirement…Banks would no longer be able to live the alchemist’s dream by creating money out of nothing and lending it at interest.”

From “Nationalize Money, Not Banks”

JUNE 2

1995 – PAPERBACK PUBLICATION OF “THE CHICAGO PLAN & NEW DEAL BANKING REFORM” BY RONNIE PHILLIPS

This work presents a comprehensive history and evaluation of the role of the 100 percent reserve plan in the banking legislation of the New Deal reform era from its inception in 1933 to its re-emergence in the current financial reform debate in the US.

JUNE 3

1864 – PASSAGE OF NATIONAL BANK ACT

The Act superseded the National Bank Act of 1863. Both Acts were pushed by bankers and their supporters to undercut Greenbacks. A system of nationally chartered, private/corporate banks was established and expanded. These new national banks were provided with virtually tax-free status and subsidized through purchasing of government bonds with discounted Greenbacks. These banks were permitted to then create “US Bank Notes” (debt-based money) which entered the money supply – to be used in payment of taxes and duties only. This system enriched banks and worked to wean the US away from Greenbacks (debt free money). The Act limited the issuance of Greenbacks to $300 million

May 21 – 27

MAY 21

1912 – SPEECH BY J. LAWRENCE LAUGHLIN, CHAIR OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL CITIZENS’ LEAGUE, ON MONETARY REFORM

Born in Deerfield, Ohio, Laughlin was the first chair of the economics department at the University of Chicago and chair of the Executive Committee of the National Citizens League for the Promotion of a Sound Banking System from 1911-13. The League was established and funded with $5 million in contributions from the big New York banks (including those owned by John D. Rockefeller and J.P Morgan) to establish an “educational fund.”  The fund financed respected university professors, such as Laughlin, to endorse the concept of creating a private central bank, what became the Federal Reserve Bank, created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. The “Citizens'” League provided a terrific cover in providing the appearance that privatizing/corporatizing money creation by a private national central bank was sound and reasonable since “objective” intelligent university professors promoted it.

MAY 22

1912 – SPEECH BY ROBERT MCCABE, VICE CHAIR OF THE OHIO CHAPTER OF THE NATIONAL CITIZENS’ LEAGUE, ON MONETARY REFORM

McCabe, an Ohio attorney, was recruited to speak on behalf of the plan supported by the nation’s biggest banks to create a private national central bank. He spoke throughout Ohio and the Midwest. He spoke on his date in Illinois. Among the points in his remarks was that the creation of what would become the Federal Reserve System would “avoid the tendency to take the money power of the nation out of the hands of the many and put it in the hands of the few.” The reality was and remains just the opposite.                            

The New York Times on the National Citizens’ League: ““A million dollars doesn’t go very far in a campaign of education such as is being carried on by the National Citizens League for the promotion of a sound banking system, yet the contribution of $1,000,000 for that purpose by individual Directors of the National banks of the country a short time ago provoked much comment and a suggestion that the electorate was the be corrupted by the use of these funds.”

MAY 23

1933 – ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT PRESENTED IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AGAINST THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD OF GOVERNORS, THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANKS, THE US SECRETARY OF TREASURY AND OTHERS FOR THEIR COLLUSION IN CAUSING THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

US Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, introduced the Articles of Impeachment. McFadden stated,

“The Great Depression was not accidental; it was a carefully contrived occurrence… bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here, so that they might emerge as rulers of us all.”

“We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.  I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks.  Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are U.S. government institutions.  They are private credit monopolies; domestic swindlers, rich and predatory money lenders, which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers…The truth is, the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States by the arrogant credit monopoly, which operates the Federal Reserve Board.”

1937 – DEATH OF JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, OIL AND FINANCIAL CAPITALIST

“God gave me my money!”

2017 –  “THE DOLLAR AS A DEMOCRATIC MEDIUM: MAKING MONEY A CURRENCY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE” VIDEO PRESENTATION BY CHRISTINE DESAN, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

Desan asks whether we can re-design money to deliver more fairness in a world where inequality is escalating.

MAY 24

1604 – ENGLISH COURT DECISION ON “MIXED MONEY” CASE

English court rules that sovereign governments possess the power to create, regulate, limit and define money.

“The Mixt Moneys case decided that Money was a Public Measure, a measure of value, and that, like other measures, it was necessary in the public welfare that its dimension of volume should be limited, defined and regulated by the State. The whole body of learning left us by the ancient and renascent world was invoked in this celebrated dictum: Aristotle, Paulus, Godin and Budelius were summoned to its support; the Roman law, the common law and the statutes all upheld it; ‘the State alone had the right to issue money and to decide of what substances its symbols should be made, whether of gold, silver, brass or paper. Whatever the State declared to be money, was money.’”

– From The History of Money in America by Alexander Del Mar

2016 — “WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM?” BY OLE BIERG, TEDx VIDEO PRESENTATION

“Where does money come from? How is money created? Can commercial banks create money by issuing new loans? Knowing that electronic money represents 95% of the total money supply, have we privatized the creation of money in our societies?

“Ole Bjerg believes that we have handed a vital societal power — money creation — to the financial sectors, and that this leads to instability, inequalities and a concentration of power outside democratic institutions. Facing this gloomy situation, he highlights the solution: a sovereign money system.”

[NOTE: Ole Bjerg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School, and co-founder of Gode Penge, an initiative for the democratization of the monetary system.

MAY 25

1787 – US CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION BEGINS

The Congress shall have power to…coin money [and] regulate the value thereof” Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution.

MAY 26

1976  – DEATH OF MARTIN HEIDEGGER, GERMAN PHILOSOPHER

“The things that are the most difficult to think about are the things that are most familiar to us.”

[NOTE: That is certainly the case with the things we call “money

2007 – PUBLICATION OF ARTICLE “CREDIT AS A PUBLIC UTILITY: THE KEY TO MONETARY REFORM” BY RICHARD COOK

“We now need to return to the recognition that money and credit truly are public utilities as recognized during colonial days and at the times of great crises such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the New Deal.

“Today we are in a similar crisis, when the solution is the same as it has been in the past. It is for the commonwealth of Americans, acting through their elected representatives, to exert their constitutional prerogatives in controlling the nation’s supply of money and credit.”

2019 – POSTED ARTICLE, “THE NECESSITY FOR MONETARY REFORM AND A JUST SYSTEM OF MONEY” BY NICK EGNATZ

“Transitioning to clean sustainable energy, a real national healthcare plan such as Expanded Medicare for All, sustainably rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, forgiveness of student debt and free public university education are all possible if we reform our present debt-based money system into the just money system of the NEED Act. The present debt-money system says that to achieve any of the above needed programs we must indebt ourselves to private banks. The Sovereign Money Creation power in the NEED Act allows our government to create the money for these programs and spend it into existence, debt-free, putting millions of us to work at good-paying jobs to do so.”

The Necessity for Monetary Reform and a Just System of Money

2021 – ADDITIONS TO BIBLIOGRAPHY, MAY 2021” posted online

Posting of an impressive list of additions to the original extensive original list of resources on monetary issues from the Alliance for Just Money

Additions to Bibliography May 2021

MAY 27

1923 – BIRTH OF HENRY KISSINGER, 56TH US SECRETARY OF STATE

“If you control the oil, you control entire nations; if you control the food, you control the people; if you control the money, you control the entire world.”

May 14 – 20

MAY 14

2013 – ARTICLE, “MONEY HAS BEEN PRIVATIZED BY STEALTH” BY BEN DYSON

“It’s common knowledge that printing your own £10 notes at home is frowned upon by Her Majesty’s police. Yet there’s a small collection of companies that are authorized to create – and spend – more new money than the counterfeiters have ever been able to print. In industry jargon, these companies are called “monetary and financial institutions”, but you probably know them by their street name: “banks”.

The money that they create, effectively out of nothing, isn’t the paper money that bears the logo of the government-owned Bank of England. It’s the electronic money that flashes up on the screen when you check your balance at an ATM. This electronic money currently represents over 97% of all the money in the economy. Only 3% of money is still in that old-fashioned form of real cash that can be touched.”

MAY 15

1915 – BIRTH OF PAUL SAMUELSON, ECONOMIST (FIRST AMERICAN TO WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS)

“Few understand that all our money arises out of debt and IOU operations. The banking system as a whole can do what each small bank cannot do: it can expand its loans and investments many times the new reserves of cash created for it, even though each small bank is lending out only a fraction of its deposits.” Economics, An Introductory Analysis by Professor Paul A. Samuelson. (Best selling college economics textbook of all time, c 1948.)

1931 – “QUADRAGESSIMO ANNO” LETTER ISSUED BY POPE PIUS XI  

The Pope discusses the ethical implications of economic and social order in this letter, warning of the dangers of unrestrained capitalism.

“Economic dictatorship is being most forcibly exercised by the few who hold the money and completely control it, control credit and the lending of money.  Hence they regulate the flow of the life-blood whereby the entire economic system lives, and have so firmly in their grasp the soul of economics that no one can breathe against their will.”

MAY 16

1876 – SECOND GREENBACK NATIONAL CONVENTION OPENS IN INDIANAPOLIS

May 16–18, 1876 — Academy of Music, Indianapolis, Indiana. There were 239 delegates present from 17 states. Peter Cooper was nominated for President of the Greenback Party (calling for the creation of debt-free national money) with 352 votes to 119 for three other contenders.

1912 – PUJO COMMITTEE HEARINGS BEGIN

A special subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency Committee began hearings under its Chairman, Arsene P. Pujo. Its purpose was to investigate the powers of the nation’s “money trust.” Its final report, issued in 1913, concluded that the power over the nation’s money and credit was concentrated in a small group of Wall Street bankers. The report created a climate for reform. Unfortunately one of the reforms advocated for was the misnamed Federal Reserve Act, which provided the appearance that finances would become a public function.

2018 – “BIBLIOGRAPHY MONETARY THEORY AND REFORM” WEBSITE POSTING

A tremendous site containing listings organized in the following categories:

A. Proposed Legislations and Organizational Endorsements

B. Academic Studies on Sovereign Monetary Theory and Reform

C. Studies Critical of Sovereign Monetary Theory and Reform (including MMT section)

D. Non-academic Advocacy Pamphlets, Reports, Briefings and Books

E. Supporting Studies Addressing Monetary Issues

F. Journalistic Articles Addressing Monetary Reform

G. Educational and Promotional Videos

H. Other Relevant Background Studies

http://www.alpheus.org/bibliography-monetary-theory-and-reform/?fbclid=IwAR3Xoxucc3GU0Wnert4W4KU-XPHtNmL89T54-auxpiZF8nbI7L_-WOixteM

Check it out…

MAY 17

1901 – FINANCIAL PANIC

The Financial Panic of 1901 was the first stock market crash.  This was caused in part by several powerful investors trying to gain control of the Northern Pacific Railway.  During the afternoon of May 17, 1901 the market started to decline sharply.  Investors on the floor of the New York stock Exchange began to panic.  An overwhelming yell of “Sell, sell, sell” could be heard; only fueling the panic. This cornering of stock caused a panic among many small investors resulting in the ruin of thousands of small investors.

1930 – BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS ESTABLISHED

This is the central bank of all central banks, established as an international financial institution to “foster international monetary and financial cooperation.” Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The BIS serves to strengthen the international private banking system, not national economies. The BIS advocates the establishment of a global currency, building on the International Monetary Fund “Special Drawing Rights” – a quasi currency, which has a value, based on a basket of 4 major currencies (the dollar, euro, pound and yen).

2002 – TALK BY WILLIAM HUMMEL, AUTHOR, MONETARY RESEARCHER

“Banks are not ordinary intermediaries, like non-banks, they also borrow, but they do not lend the deposits they acquire. They lend by crediting the borrowers account with a new deposit… The accounts of other depositors remain intact and their deposits fully available for withdrawal.  Thus a bank loan increases the total of bank deposits, which means an increase in the money supply.”

MAY 18

1846 – STATE OF IOWA CONSTITUTION ADOPTED

Article VIII of the original constitution states:

“Municipal corporations. Section 4. No political or municipal corporation shall become a stockholder in any banking corporation, directly or indirectly.

Banking associations. Section 5. No Act of the General Assembly, authorizing or creating corporations or associations with banking powers, nor amendments thereto shall take effect, or in any manner be in force, until the same shall have been submitted separately, to the people, at a general or special election, as provided by law, to be held not less than three months after the passage of the Act, and shall have been approved by a majority of all the electors voting for and against it at such election.”

1914 – FORMAL SIGNING OF THE ORGANIZATION CERTIFICATE ESTABLISHING THE CHICAGO FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

“The actual process of money creation takes place in commercial banks. Banks can build up deposits by increasing loans and investments…This unique attribute of the banking business was discovered several centuries ago. At one time, bankers were merely middlemen. They made a profit by accepting gold and coins for safekeeping and lending them to borrowers. But they soon found that the receipts (bank notes or IOUs) they issued were being used as if they were a means of payment. These receipts were acceptable as if they were money since whoever held them could go to the banker and exchange them for metallic money. Then bankers discovered…that they could make loans merely by giving borrowers their promises to pay (bank notes). In this way banks began to create money…More notes (IOUs) could be issued than the gold and coin on hand because only a portion of the notes outstanding would be presented for payment at any one time…Demand deposits (checks) are the modern counterpart of bank notes. It was a small step from printing notes to making book entries to the credit of borrowers which the borrowers in turn, could ‘spend’ by writing checks.”

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Nichols, Dorothy M (1961). Modern Money Mechanics; a workbook on deposits, currency and bank reserves. OCLC 510802. The 1992 revision of this booklet is available on wikisource

1920 – SECRET MEETING BY BANKERS TO REDUCE THE MONEY SUPPLY, WHICH RESULTED IN 5 MILLION UNEMPLOYED

Testimony in 1938 before the House Committee on Banking and Currency by Senator Robert Owen, a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Act:

“I wrote into the bill which was introduced by me in the Senate on June 26, 1913, a provision that the powers of the System should be employed to promote a stable price level, which meant a dollar of stable purchasing, debt-paying power. It was stricken out. The powerful money interests got control of the Federal Reserve Board through Mr. Paul Warburg, Mr. Albert Strauss, and Mr. Adolph C. Miller and they were able to have that secret meeting of May 18, 1920, and bring about a contraction of credit so violent it threw five million people out of employment.

In 1920 that Reserve Board deliberately caused the Panic of 1921. The same people, unrestrained in the stock market, expanding credit to a great excess between 1926 and 1929, raised the price of stocks to a fantastic point where they could not possibly earn dividends, and when the people realized this, they tried to get out, resulting in the Crash of October 24, 1929.”

MAY 19

1977 – QUOTE BY BIRTH OF EARL OF CAITHNESS (MALCOLM IAN SINCLAIR), MEMBER OF THE UK HOUSE OF LORDS

“The next government must grasp the nettle, accept their responsibility for controlling the money supply and change from our debt-based monetary system.  My Lords, will they?  If they do not, our monetary system will break us and the sorry legacy we are already leaving our children will be a disaster.”

2019 – ONLINE POSTING OF “RICHARD WOLFF’S TRAJECTORY BEYOND MMT INTO SMR” ARTICLE BY GOVERT SCHULLER

“Recently I watched two episodes of the progressive Thom Hartmann Program in which the host discussed banking and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with the Marxist economist Richard Wolff [1, 2]. Following are the pertinent points I came away with, which developed into a little article, in which I will try to make the case that, when Wolff found in MMT the correct theory of banking and money, he actually went beyond MMT. He did so by discerning some of the theory’s obvious policy implications, which people promoting Sovereign Monetary Reform (SMR)–which is a competing monetary theory focused on a radical reform of the monetary system–would heartily agree with.”

Richard Wolff’s Trajectory beyond MMT into SMR

MAY 20

1851- BIRTH OF CHARLES MACUNE, HEAD OF SOUTHERN FARMERS’ ALLIANCE AND ORIGINATOR OF THE POPULIST “SUB-TREASURY PLAN”

The “Sub-Treasury Plan,” developed by the southern Populist Macune, was an ingenious proposal to circumvent banking corporations, merchants and landlords by farmers to avoid debt at high interest, which often resulted in the loss of their farms. The proposal called for farmers to store their harvest in federal warehouses when prices for their commodities were low. Farmers would leverage those commodities for loans (up to 80% of the market value in federal notes) to support themselves until prices rose. The proposal was especially useful to southern farmers with non-perishable crops (i.e. cotton). The farmer had one year to sell the crop and then pay back the note and 1% interest.

1891 — FOUNDING OF THE PEOPLE’S PARTY IN CINCINNATI, OHIO

From their platform: “The right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be maintained by the people for the common benefit, hence we demand the abolition of National banks as banks of issue, and, as a substitute for National bank notes, we demand that legal tender treasury notes be issued in sufficient volume to transact the business of the country on a cash basis, without damage or especial advantage of any class or calling, such notes to be legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, and such notes when demanded by the people shall be loaned to them at not more than two per cent per annum upon nonperishable products as indicated in the subtreasury plan, and also upon real estate, with proper limitation upon the quantity of land and amount of money.”

May 7 – 13

MAY 7

1873 – DEATH OF SALMON P. CHASE, US TREASURY SECRETARY/US SENATOR FROM OHIO

“My agency, in procuring the passage, of the National Bank Act, was the greatest financial mistake of my life.  It has built up a monopoly that affects every interest in the country. It should be repealed.  But before this can be accomplished, the people will be arrayed on one side and the banks on the other in a contest such as we have never seen in this country.”

[NOTE: The National Bank Acts of 1863 was known originally as the National Currency Act and was updated the following year. The Act established chartered national banks that could issue bank notes, which were backed by the United States Treasury. These notes existed side by side to public “Greenbacks” (directly issued by the government). Bankers supported the Bank Acts as a means to eventually replace Greenbacks and, thus, gain full control of the US money system.]

2021 – “CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY: FRIEND OR FOE? POSTED ARTICLE BY BEN RININGER

“The US Money described in the N.E.E.D. Act could take the form of CBDC, if the act were slightly adjusted, but the two things are not the same.

“While U.S. Money and CBDC are both debt-free money, like the cash in your wallet, U.S. Money in the N.E.E.D. Act is different from CBDC, in that private banks still act in the role of safeguarding people’s bank accounts. If people want US money on demand to be held at their private bank, they’d have to pay a bank a small yearly fee to keep it there. If people want to make interest, they’d have to set their U.S. money aside in a time deposit, to be lent out.

“In contrast, CBDC either would be (a) held in individuals’ own digital wallets (so, not at a private bank) or (b) held in individuals’ accounts at the central bank (again, bypassing private banks) or (c) held at private banks, taking a form that is different from current central bank money held at private banks (central bank reserves).”

Central Bank Digital Currency: Friend or Foe?

MAY 8

1884 – BIRTH OF HARRY TRUMAN, 33^RD PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.

‘”There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.”

[NOTE: Why the monetary arena (problems and possible democratic reforms) seems new is because we never learned its history – in school, through the media, even in our activist organizations. Many activists still don’t – believing it too complicated, unrelated to other economic concerns or associated with political ideologies unlike their own. Social change activists, thus, ignore this arena at their peril.]

2012 –  “THE KEY TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY: KUCINICH EXPLAINS MONETARY REFORM” POSTED VIDEO

“The N.E.E.D. Act would put the Federal Reserve under the Treasury as part of a larger to plan to allow Congress to invest in our economy without creating debt or inflation. It does this in three simple steps outlined here.”

MAY 9

2014 – “WHO SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY?” ARTICLE BY ANDREW JACKSON OF POSITIVE MONEY

“Who should have the power to create money? In Modernising Money we argue that the power to create money should be removed from the banks and transferred to a democratic, transparent, and accountable body. Martin Wolf recently backed these proposals, but Ann Pettifor describes them as ‘deeply flawed’ and ‘outlandish’.

One of Ann’s main concerns is whether a committee can correctly make decisions over how much money should be added to (or removed from) the economy.

Let’s approach this by considering the different options for who could be given the power and authority to create money:

• Banks – as per the status quo

• Banks – heavily reformed (as Ann would suggest)

• Elected politicians

• The Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England (as proposed in Modernising Money)”

Full article at http://www.positivemoney.org/2014/05/power-create-money

MAY 10

1775 – CONTINENTAL CONGRESS ISSUES “CONTINENTALS”

The Continental Congress voted to issue $200 million in paper money, “continental currency” or “continentals”, to finance the American Revolution. The money was essential since British pounds were in short supply. The currency lost much of their value during the war due to the flooding of British counterfeit “continentals” as a means to destroy the colonial economy. Inflation was also due to continentals being used to fund war purchases rather than socially and economically useful goods and services. Nevertheless, the colonial currency served its purpose in allowing the colonies to economically and militarily resist and defeat the most powerful nation on earth.

1837 – US FINANCIAL PANIC

Banks limited credit and starting calling on debtors to repay. This ignited the Financial Panic of 1837.  Urban worker faced rising unemployment and food prices. A prolonged economic depression followed, including hundreds of bank failures. The economic depression that followed lasted nearly five years. This is the inevitable result of a debt-based money system – the lessons of which we never seem to learn.

1915 – BIRTH OF ROBERT HEMPHILL, CREDIT MANAGER, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ATLANTA

“If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.”

2022 – “BANKS BANK ON WAR PROFITS” POSTED ONLINE BY GREG COLERIDGE

“There are many reasons why nation-states start or join wars – including the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. Controlling natural resources is certainly one of them.

“Whatever the reasons, banking corporations and other financial institutions in the U.S., among many corporate sectors, profit enormously from wars – causing massive harm to people, communities, the planet, and self-described “democratic” political systems.

“This equation may best describe the reality: Dollars = Debt + Destruction + Defense”

Banks Bank on War Profits

MAY 11

2007 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “MONETARY REFORM AND HOW A NATIONAL MONEY SYSTEM SHOULD WORK” BY RICHARD COOK

“[T]he solution lies with the federal government taking back its constitutionally-authorized control of the credit of the nation from the financiers and managing it as previously stated—as a public utility… It is essential to realize that the central government of a sovereign nation has the right, the ability, and the responsibility to introduce ALL new credit into existence. This is totally different from having the central bank ‘print money’ by relaxing lending policies, resulting in an infusion of cheap loans, which must still be repaid.

“Sovereign creation of credit is not based on debt. It is and should be based on direct spending of money into circulation by the government itself. Obviously the government should do this in a way that promotes the best interests of the members of society while respecting the varying degrees of contribution by those of different levels of skill and achievement. It is quite possible to enact such a program with due regard to all established conventions of private property and the private ownership and control of existing wealth.”

2018 – “WHAT IS THE REAL PURPOSE OF MONEY” GAP PSYCHOLOGY AND FAIRNESS. YOU MANY NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF IT THIS WAY” ARTICLE PUBLISHED.

“I propose that the primary purpose of money is to mediate the conflict between Gap Psychology and Fairness.

“Gap Psychology is the common desire to narrow the income/wealth/power (IWP) Gaps above you and to widen the Gaps below you.

“You wish to follow, mingle with, and know more about the rich and famous, while you wish to distance yourself from those poorer and less powerful than you…

“The purpose of money is to deal with two conflicting desires: Your desire to gain relative to other IWP levels,  and your desire to achieve a fair distribution of IWP.”

https://mythfighter.com/2018/05/11/what-is-the-real-purpose-of-money-you-may-never-have-thought-of-it-this-way/?fbclid=IwAR2K1RirQdSvstCZgu6aine9dXG4UFUnbysoSm6LGHKAKPpv7MB05fkm-MA

2020 – THE TRAGEDY OF GROWTH – NEW POSITIVE MONEY REPORT AND WEBINAR

Webinar on May 11 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezIivuMVQX4

“As Covid-19 takes its toll on GDP figures, we must avoid a return to the kind of policymaking that chases economic growth above all else. In Positive Money’s new report we argue that by stopping our obsession with GDP, we can start designing policies that really work for people and planet, such as a universal basic income issued via a central bank digital currency, modern debt jubilees and public banks.” Report at

The Tragedy of Growth – New Positive Money Report and Webinar

MAY 12

1933 – THOMAS AMENDMENT BECOMES LAW – GIVES FDR POWER TO CREATE MONEY

Attached as Title III to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of May 12, 1933, the Thomas Amendment, drafted by Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas, provided New Deal relief to farmers suffering from low prices due to the Great Depression. The solution was to expand the currency.

“The amendment granted the president broad discretionary powers over monetary policy. It stated that whenever the president desired currency expansion, he first must authorize the open market committee of the Federal Reserve to purchase up to $3 billion of federal obligations. Should open market operations prove insufficient, the president had several options. He could have the U.S. Treasury issue up to $3 billion in greenbacks, reduce the gold content of the dollar by as much as 50 percent, or accept $100 million dollars in silver at a price not to exceed fifty cents per ounce in payment of World War I debts owed by European nations.”

http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TH007

1948 – THE FORMATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IS PROCLAIMED

Solomon, the son of David, was an early King of Israel from 970-931 BC. He was also the author of the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. From Proverbs 22:74: “The borrower is servant to the lender.” What was true nearly 3000 years ago is still true today for individuals and organizations — including governments.

2009 – BLOOMBERG ARTICLE: “NY FEDERAL RESERVE BANK CLAIMS IT IS A PRIVATE INSTITUTION”

“The New York Fed is one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks and the one charged with monitoring capital markets. It is also managing $1.7 trillion of emergency lending programs. While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.”

MAY 13

2013 – “WHAT IS MONEY” VIDEO – (3 MINUTES)

“We all use money, we all rely on money. But do we know how money works? Where does money come from? How is money created?”

[NOTE: The reality described in the UK system is exactly the same reality in the U.S.)

2015 – THE CENTRAL PROBLEM WITH CENTAL BANKS: THEY BECOME THE GREATER FOOLS/BAG-HOLDERS” ARTICLE BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH

The central problem with central banks is their mandate now includes propping up all asset markets globally….Central banks have inflated the markets to such high valuations that no central bank can possibly buy enough to keep the bubble intact…But having succeeded in blowing another unprecedented global bubble in assets, central banks have backed themselves into a corner of direct asset purchases to prop up markets.   http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay15/no-bid5-15.html