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.”
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.”
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.”
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?
2023 – FACEBOOK POSTING OF MONEY JOKES LINK
Here’s one:
“Why is it a penny for your thoughts but you have to put your two cents in? Somebody’s making a penny.” — Steven Wright, comedian
More at https://www.rd.com/jokes/money/
Monetary History Calendar 