May 12 – 18

MAY 12

1863 – “LOST PROPERTY” VIRGINIA NEWSPAPER ADS OF REWARD FOR RETURN OF RUNAWAY SLAVES

“In the back of the Staunton Spectator, May 12, 1863, there appeared a section for Advertisements and Lost Property. Directly under and advertisement of ten pigs for sale, there is the section of lost property, for which rewards are offered. There are six articles that report lost animals or slaves. 50 is offered for a stolen black horse, as well as 50 for a dark bay mare. Intermixed with these ads for horses, are rewards for runaway slaves, ranging from 50 to 300 per slave. Descriptions of color, markings, age, and last known location are given for slave and animal alike. The only difference in description between the two categories of lost property is that the horses are reported stolen, while the slaves are reported as runaway; logically showing that the horses could not have let themselves out of their gates.

“This underscores the status of people, slaves at the time, were property.”

https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2534

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

2001 – HENRY GEORGE’S CONCEPT OF MONEY, ARTICLE BY STEPEN ZARLENGA

“On the other hand it is the business of government to issue money. This is perceived as soon as the great labor saving invention of money supplants barter. To leave it to every one who chose to do so to issue money would be to entail general inconvenience and loss, to offer many temptations to roguery, and to put the poorer classes of society at a great disadvantage. These obvious considerations have everywhere, as society became well organized, led to the recognition of the coinage of money as an exclusive function of government. When in the progress of society, a further labor-saving improvement becomes possible by the substitution of paper for the precious metals as the material for money, the reasons why the issuance of this money should be made a government function become still stronger.”

Henry George’s Concept of Money

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

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.”

April 21 – 27

APRIL 21

1910 – DEATH OF MARK TWAIN, AUTHOR

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” 

”I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two million dollars.”

“A banker is a man who loans you umbrellas when the sun is shining and demands it back the moment it looks like rain.”

Classic Twain. 

1946 – DEATH OF JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, BRITISH ECONOMIST

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

APRIL 22

EARTH DAY – CREE INDIAN PROVERB 

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught, will we realize we cannot eat money.”Seems an appropriate quote on this day. 

2018 – “THE GREEN PARTY US POSITION ON BANKING REFORM” WEBSITE POSTING 

17. Nationalize the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, reconstituting them and the Federal Reserve Systems Washington Board of Governors under a new Monetary Authority Board within the U.S. Treasury. The private creation of money or credit which substitutes for money, will cease and with it the reckless and fraudulent practices that have led to the present financial and economic crisis.

18. The Monetary Authority, with assistance from the FDIC, the SEC, the U.S. Treasury, the Congressional Budget Office, and others will redefine bank lending rules and procedures to end the privilege banks now have to create money when they extend their credit, by ending what’s known as the fractional reserve system in an elegant, non disruptive manner. Banks will be encouraged to continue as profit making companies, extending loans of real money at interest; acting as intermediaries be- tween those clients seeking a return on their savings and those clients ready and able to pay for borrowing the money; but banks will no longer be creators of what we are using for money.

19. The new money that must be regularly added to an improving system as population and commerce grow will be created and spent into circulation by the U. S. Government for infrastructure, including the “human infrastructure” of education and health care. This begins with the $2.2 trillion the American Society of Civil Engineers warns us is needed to bring existing infrastructure to safe levels over the next 5 years. Per capita guidelines will assure a fair distribution of such expenditures across the United States, creating good jobs, re-invigorating the local economies and re-funding government at all levels. As this money is paid out to various contractors, they in turn pay their suppliers and laborers who in turn pay for their living expenses and ultimately this money gets deposited into banks, which are then in a position to make loans of this money, according to the new regulations.

Source:

Green Party US. 2014. “Monetary Reform (Greening the Dollar)”. July 2014. 

Comment:

Planks 17, 18 and 19 faithfully reflect the three prongs promoted by The American Monetary Institute. For more see:  “Formulations of the Three-Point Policy Proposal for Monetary Reform“. Alpheus, 6 Feb 2018.

http://www.alpheus.org/the-green-party-us-position-on-banking-reform/?fbclid=IwAR0Vval2tUABiPvKb2-iqAWsag5OBjOspC6FrlE9DAayNjpg4EYiVDB-VRI 

APRIL 23

384 BC – BIRTH OF ARISTOTLE

“The most hated sort of wealth getting is usury, which makes again out of money itself and not from the natural object of it.  For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money…of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural.” 

“Money exists not by nature but by law.” This is one of the most insightful comments on money of all time. 

871 – REIGN OF KING ALFRED OF ENGLAND BEGINS

King Alfred (Alfred the Great) implemented a law that moneylenders who took usury would forfeit all their possessions to the King.

1616 – DEATH OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. HE WAS BORN ON THE EXACT SAME DATE IN 1564

“Poor? Look upon his face. What call you rich?

Let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks.”

– From The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, act 3, sc 3

[Note: The word “coin” is a verb, a common usage of the period. The same is true in the phrase “To coin Money” in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the legislative branch the authority to “create” or “coin” our nation’s money supply. Was true then. Is still true now. Yet, banking corporations have largely usurped this public authority – creating money as debt, loaned to the government, which must be paid back with interest. We the People must end the hijacking by banking corporations and banksters of our Constitutional authority to create our own money for purposes that we collectively determine, not banks and bankers which create money as debt that must be paid back with interest.] 

2018 – POSTING OF VIDEO “TODAY’S SOURCE OF MONEY CREATION” BY RICHARD WERNER

Professor Richard Werner, Chair in International Banking, University of Southampton, England provided this overview of how money is created in nations throughout the world and the impacts and consequences of the current system.

2018 – POSTING OF VIDEO “WHY I SUPPORT SOVEREIGN MONEY” BY LARRY KOTLIKOFF

Professor Larry Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics, Boston University, former Senior. Economist, US President’s Council of Economic Advisers provided this overview of the concepts of limited purpose banking and sovereign money, as well as why he favors the adoption of such a such a system in nations around the world.

APRIL 24

2014 – PUBLICATION OF ARTICLE IN FINANCIAL TIMES: “STRIP PRIVATE BANKS OF THEIR POWER TO CREATE MONEY” BY MARTIN WOLF, CHIEF FINANCIAL WRITER

Since banks create money out of thin air, they should be stripped of this power, and limited to normal depository functions. Wolf indicates the centrality and importance of the issue with his subtitle: “The giant hole at the heart of our market economies needs to be plugged.”

APRIL 25

2012 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “TARP OVERSEER DEBUNKS BAILOUT MYTHS: BIG COMPANIES HAVEN’T REPAID TARP FUNDS…AND FUNDS TO HELP HOMEOWNERS HAVEN’T BEEN PAID”

“Apologists for government bailouts push two main myths:

-That all of the bailout funds have been repaid

-That the bailouts helped the average American

But the official government overseer of the Tarp bailout program – the special inspector general for TARP, Christy L. Romero – has debunked both myths.

Today, Romero wrote the following to Congress:

After 3½ years, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) continues to be an active and significant part of the Government’s response to the financial crisis. It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit. The most recent cost estimate for TARP is a loss of $60 billion. Taxpayers are still owed $118.5 billion (including $14 billion written off or otherwise lost).”

2020 – OPEN LETTER TO MICHAEL MOORE ON FACEBOOK FROM HOWARD SWITZER

“Thank you! Planet of the Humans is a wonderful and powerful film because it exposes the reason WHY we have to change our civilization, the way we live on this planet, and do it NOW. It also gives us a hint at WHAT is responsible for the horrendously destructive perpetuation of this system.  “Its all about the money.

“Now can you please expose the myths about money? Delve into Capitalism, the “private control of the creation and allocation of what we use for money,” which is credit/debt? All our money is created by a private for-profit industry run by the oligarchy, which allows them to direct the entire economic development of the world. They have sufficiently proved that such power in the hands of a few means very bad decisions. Money is the most influential of all man-made systems and money is more about power than it is economics, which is why it should not be in a few private hands but in broadly represented public hands. Just like the American Revolution, Mike, it’s all about the money. 

“A friend of mine says “Public money won’t fix everything but it makes everything fixable.”  (the Continental and  the Greenback were both debt-free public money) It would be so great to explore a vision of what a Public Money System is capable of in transforming our ‘economics of greed’ into an ‘economics of care.’ The pandemic has shown us how fast the air and water clears when we stop what we’re doing. We need to rebuild the local economies destroyed by capitalism and localize food production on a massive scale and only a public money system is capable of doing that. Instead of wealth flowing to the few at the center, it flows out to the many. This is because it is not money issued as debt, it is money issued as money, a permanently circulating public asset, based on a share in our national equity.

“The story of money is the story of power, and I find it vexing that it has been left out of our history books for so long. I would LOVE to talk to you more about this and help you uncover the story.   howard.s@monetaryalliance.org

Switzer is on the Board of the Alliance for Just Money 

APRIL 26

1914 – DEATH OF GEORGE ‘DIVING RIGHT’ BAER, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILADELPHIA & READING RAILROAD CORPORATION, WHICH WAS OWNED BY BANKER J.P. MORGAN

“The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country, and upon the successful management of which so much depends”

APRIL 27

1637 – HOLLAND SUSPENDS ALL CONTRACTS DURING TULIPMANIA BUBBLE

Tulip mania or tulipomania (1636-37) was a period during which contract prices for new tulip bulbs in Holland exceeded more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble). People from all walks of life sold homes and land at low prices just to speculate on the rising tulip prices. Prices suddenly collapsed in February 1637. By March, tulip prices had crashed by 90 percent or more. There were widespread defaults on purchased contracts. Long-term economic decline followed. The suspension of contracts gave the seller the right to sell contracted bulbs at market prices.   

2009 – COMMENT BY DICK DURBIN, US SENATOR, ILLINOIS

“And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”

[Note: What was a refreshing bit of true reality in 2009 is even truer today. The finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector tops all sectors in political campaign contributions (or are they investments?) to Washington politicians. The return on their investments are substantial – no indictments of top bankers responsible for the 2008 subprime crisis and financial implosion, bailouts galore…and, of course, the continuation of the license to print debt money that is loaned to the US – at interest. Between the economic stimulus bill and Repurchase loans, more than $13 trillion has been pumped into the financial markets since September 2019…and counting. Meanwhile, help for small businesses from the stimulus bill was initially only $379 billion, an amount already depleted. Banking corporations and banksters still “own the place,” and that includes elected officials of both political parties.] 

2021 – “WEBINAR WITH MICHAEL HUDSON: A 4000-YEAR PERSPECTIVE ON ECONOMY, MONEY AND DEBT” ONLINE POSTING

“The Bible talks about jubilee years that recurred at certain intervals when all debts were written off. This was to correct imbalances that arise in economies over time. When economics professor Hudson in 1994 published his research that biblical debt relief dates back two thousand years to the Babylonian and Sumerian traditions, it was very controversial. Today it is recognized by Assyriologists, but among most economic thinkers the idea is taboo.

“Why was debt write-off a matter of course several thousand years ago, but not today? Hudson’s research shows that, as he writes, ‘Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.’ How then will it be resolved? Do you want to know more? Watch this webinar.”

April 14 – 20

APRIL 14

1948 – RETIREMENT OF MARRINER S. ECCLES AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE US FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

“That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.”

2018 – WORKSHOP, “’WHAT’S MONEY GOT TO DO WITH IT?’ WOMEN AND MONETARY REFORM” AT 3^RD ANNUAL 4W SUMMIT ON WOMEN, GENDER AND WELL-BEING AND 41ST WISCONSIN WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES CONFERENCE, MADISON, WI

“As Earthlings and females, we understand the need to protect habitat and future generations. But doing so requires monetary and economic stability for caregivers, their families and communities. Unfortunately, due to a flaw in how legislators institutionalized it 105 years ago, our money system systematically and increasingly impoverishes most living creatures to serve the interests of the very few. Ironically, habitat collapse and economic instability caused by our monetary system imperil rich and poor alike. It is crucial to understand this flaw and how our money system currently works, who benefits from and who pays for it, and how we can correct it. This interactive session with friends of the American Monetary Institute (AMI) will help participants to explore these issues and how to become part of a growing national and international movement for sovereign money reform. We will tell you about a suite of three concrete monetary correctives that together will create a level playing field from which we can eliminate poverty, end debt slavery, and sustainably rebuild our earthly commons for a thriving future.”

Facilitators/speakers were Susan Peters, Lucille Eckrich, Mary Sanderson and Bo-Young Lim – all affiliated with the American Monetary Institute 

2019 – “JESUS & THE MONEY SYSTEM – A PALM SUNDAY REFLECTION” BY REV. DELMAN COATES ARTICLE PUBLISHED

“Debt-based money and not simply the need for more financial regulations create the conditions for the moral hazard and speculative activity of Wall Street. Their power over the money supply, and the power to create what is used as money out of nothing give them almost divine power to control society…

“Dr. King said, “If a soul lives in darkness sins will be committed. But the guilty one is not the one who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” The nation’s debt-based money system is the cause of the darkness, and it is not until we have the prophetic courage to envision an alternative world that we will create a monetary system that benefits the many rather than the few. It has been done before. It will take knowledge and courage to do it again, but we must be willing to be like Jesus and overturn the tables of today’s moneychangers.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jesus-the-money-system-a-palm-sunday-reflection_us_58e2a7eae4b09deecf0e18f1 

2020 – “THE PEOPLE WANT THEIR MONEY BACK, PART 1: WHY A NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION?” posted article by Joe Bongiovanni

“Over the years, many have questioned the necessity of establishing a Congressionally-mandated ‘Commission’ to inquire into the national money system with the goal of achieving what is essentially a revolution in how our money system works – a change from private issue and gain to public purpose and benefit.

“For over 100 years, monetary reformers have called for fundamental change from a private (corporate), temporary, debt-based money system which privileges the banking and financial class to a public, democratic, permanent, equity-based system of money that serves the needs of the people who create the real national wealth. Such a reformed system would then be capable of fulfilling what Dr. Frederick Soddy (Nobelist and Father of the ecological economics movement and its supporting science) termed The Role of Money, namely to distribute the increasing national wealth among our wealth creators instead of the already wealthy. Only the Congress, and the law, can make these changes happen. Only a national monetary commission can give Congress the task and duty to bring that about. Only Congress can establish this National Monetary Commission (NMC).”

The People Want Their Money Back, Part 1: WHY a National Monetary Commission?

2020 – “THE PEOPLE WANT THEIR MONEY BACK, PART 2: SHIFTING THE TIDE OF OUR MONETARY UNDERSTANDING – A RESOLVE” posted article by Joe Bongiovanni

“At the very start of the discussion about AFJM Resolution One, On the Establishment of a National Commission of Inquiry into the Monetary System of the United States of America, there were key questions: (1) Why call for a “National Monetary Commission” (NMC), and (2) Why adopt a “Resolution.” That first question stands answered in Part 1 of this article.

“But the answer to both should be familiar to us all: the purpose is to overcome our national monetary ignorance. It is especially important to inform and to empower those whose consent is needed in order to do something about our monetary system. We hereby Resolve to do just that…

“This initial public-money powered benefit is a benchmark of how our money MUST and will fulfill its true role in a modern monetary economy: the role of distributing national wealth created by the 99 Percent – as best we can and as much as possible – to that same 99 percent of Americans. Under the current system, where the 1% have a legal (though illegitimate) leash on the operations of our money system, our national wealth concentrates in the hands of that One Percent…

“But FIRST, we’ll NEED a BRIDGE:

“From Our Collective Money Ignorance to Its Understanding.

“Please read the Alliance’s Resolution. Please understand it. Please question it in any way you care through our Blog. Please sign our Petition  for advancing the Resolution’s key purpose – achieving a Congressionally-authorized National Monetary Commission. Please join us in this critical effort in any way you can to make the revolutionary change that is needed. We need to move from private to Public money. We need to so this NOW. Because it’s OUR money system, our common good.

The People Want Their Money Back, Part 2: Shifting the Tide of Our Monetary Understanding – A Resolve

APRIL 15

1865 – ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Under Lincoln’s administration, the US Government issued 450 million “Greenbacks” – interest and inflation free money. They weren’t government bill, bonds or any other debt-bearing note. This was money not borrowed from banks, but created (as authorized in the US Constitution, Article 1, Sec 8) 

by the government to meet the nation’s needs.

2020 – “THE PANDEMIC AND THE ECONOMY: A STATEMENT OF THE AFJM BOARD OF DIRECTORS” POSTED ONLINE

“The government is about to spend a lot of money. Why should the government have to borrow it when the Constitution gives Congress the authority to create money? Why should we as taxpayers have to pay interest on that money as it is created by the banking system? The government creates the demand for money; it doesn’t currently create money, itself. But with appropriate legislation it could. That legislation has been written and was introduced into Congress in 2011 as H.R. 2990. It should be reintroduced and given serious consideration. It would set up the machinery within the government to create money and spend it into circulation for the public good. It would also end creation of money by the private sector. It lays out how we can transition from the bank money-as-debt system we have now to the Just Money system we need—money as a public asset lubricating the exchange of goods and services we produce…

“Under the pressure of the moment imposed by the pandemic, while we deal local issues as best we can, let us not fail to keep up our efforts toward fundamental reform of the money system that will serve all of society. Let us use this enormous disruption as stimulus to build a just and prosperous society for all. For this purpose, the Alliance has recently launched a campaign around an adopted Resolution calling for a National Monetary Commission to look into the current dysfunctional system and consider possible alternatives like a sovereign monetary system as we discussed above. The Alliance has also initiated a Petition asking Congress to create the proposed National Monetary Commission.  Read the Resolution and sign the Petition. Use the resources of the Alliance For Just Money and How We Pay for a Better World to keep telling our neighbors, friends, relatives, colleagues, media, and elected representatives at all levels that now is our time to make a real difference and to make the world safe for our children and theirs.”

The Pandemic and the Economy: A Statement of the AFJM Board of Directors, April 15, 2020

2024 — TAX DAY 

Why are taxes so high? Why does it feel like we aren’t getting back in programs and services what we put in? Part of the reason has to do with the hundreds of billions of dollars we spend every year paying interest on the national debt. That interest goes disproportionately to the very wealthy. And that interest would not exist if instead of borrowing that money (including from banking corporations), we created interest-free and inflation-free money as stipulated by Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Why be enslaved by debt when we could be liberated by democratic money? 

APRIL 16

1804 – DEATH OF WILLIAM MACLAY, SENATOR OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE 18TH CENTURY

“Bank bills are promissory notes, and, of course, not money. I see no objection in this quarter.”

1915 – DEATH OF NELSON ALDRICH, LEADER OF REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE US SENATE

Aldrich was a key proponent of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, a bill creating a National Monetary Commission in 1908, which studied the problem of monetary instability following the financial Panic of 1907. The Commission played a pivotal role in calling for “reform” of the US monetary system. The Act also established the “Aldrich-Vreeland system” which through the Comptroller of the Currency authorized some banks to issue new money. This helped the US deal with the financial crisis associated with WWI. The expanded money power of the government, however, was meant to be short-lived. The final volume of the Commission’s report called for a privately owned central bank, the “National Reserve Association,” in which “[c]ontrol was to be exercised completely by private bankers.” Passage of this Act was a stepping-stone to passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. 

2019 – “MOMMY, WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM” VIDEO POSTED

“In this episode of Mafiacracy Now we see in irrefutably cold detail how the criminal banking cartel maintains not only control of, but sovereign status within, the U.S.

“Everything else is piss, dodge, sham and weave.

“The book of Leviticus will end up looking like a fantasy vacation before these inbred psychopaths are finished with our husks.

“The launchpad for this springtime message of hope is a scientific paper in the field of… gasp… economics! No. Seriously. Not some stealth advocacy team slinging equations from tensor calculus and diff-EQ like the coked-out snake oil salesmen who define that sad “profession.” But a real paper about an actual experiment. Behold: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914001070

“You won’t see this one in your econ textbook, that’s for damn sure.”

2020 – “‘DIGITAL DOLLAR’ REINTRODUCED BY US LAWMAKERS IN LATEST STIMULUS BILL”

“The concept of a digital dollar that can be used to provide U.S. taxpayers with stimulus payments to weather the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has once again been floated by lawmakers.

“Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced a new proposal to have the federal government issue $2,000 per month to residents by minting a pair of $1 trillion coins and using these to back the payments. The Automatic BOOST to Communities Act (ABC Act) also brings back the idea of a digital dollar, describing the concept using similar language to a series of bills introduced last month.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-dollar-reintroduced-us-lawmakers-165056167.html

APRIL 17

1790 – DEATH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Franklin printed the paper money for several of the American colonies, most of which developed their own currency – separate from British money. This was an important revolutionary step toward independence, as well as essential to conduct economic transactions in the colonies since British money was in short supply. 

“In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”

[Note: This from Geri Perry, author of “Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy: The New Trifecta”: Franklin made his statement without acknowledging the fact the the British government returned to the colonies their right to coin money in 1773 via an “Act to explain and amend” the 1764 measure. The amendment said that the colonies would henceforth be able to issue money “for the publick Advantage” which could be made “a legal Tender to the publick Treasuries” in payment of taxes and other dues. That is why this complaint was left out of the long list of complaints contained in the Declaration of Independence.]

1837 – BIRTH OF JP MORGAN, US FINANCIER AND BANKER

John Pierpont Morgan dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. His empire consisted of banks but also hundreds of other corporations via interlocking corporate directors and financial investments. The “House of Morgan” was also one of the key players in organizing politically and backing financially the campaign to pass the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, creating the largely private Federal Reserve System. 

APRIL 18

2020 – “COVID-19, CAPITALISM, NEOLIBERAL DEBT & THE NEED FOR SOVEREIGN MONEY” ARTICLE REPRINTED BY TIM DEMUZIO

“As COVID-19 spreads around the world threatening the ‘normal’ operations of global capitalism, governments on the centre, left and right have been issuing large stimulus packages in efforts to stabilise the financial haemorrhaging as businesses shut and unemployment soars. This crisis is made

worse by the mountains of corporate and consumer debt that have accumulated over time to keep businesses turning over and households afloat…

“In our present crisis, I would argue that those of us who want to see a better world for our families and future generations should consult the most progressive idea ‘lying around’: sovereign money – an idea it should be said, that was never broached by Keynesians or free marketeers. Though the technicalities regarding how to achieve this project, as well as the institutional and accounting arrangements for establishing such a system can be debated, in general sovereign money is the idea that democratic governments should be in control of new money creation and that new money should be issued as a public credit or dividend based on the productivity of the economy. Outside of the environmental emergency and the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest challenges of today are the dearth of public money, the creation of private money as debt, and the need to bring forth an economic system that works in the interests of all, not just the 1% and their obsession with their differential rates of return.”

Covid-19 Capitalism, Neoliberal Debt & the Need for Sovereign Money

2023 – VIDEO: “REGENERATIVE CURRENCIES AND POSITIVE CHANGE WITH ALEX BERNAT”

“This was an interactive presentation and open discussion exploring how we can leverage alternative currencies as tools for the common good. This presentation explored the possibility of changing some fundamental properties of our currencies as a way to halt inflation, to fund the complete and equitable elimination of poverty, and to prioritize the well-being of our planet.

“This presentation introduced ‘Regenerative Currency Systems’, an open-source, free, and modifiable framework for using electronic currencies as community-governed tools for funding the protection of people and the planet, discussing this approach as it relates with existing monetary reform work. These scalable systemic platforms are intended to facilitate universal basic access to all components of basic well-being without cost, without inflation, and without requiring any participation from non-interested groups.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSSqT-gjV8

APRIL 19

2014 – STATEMENT OF ANDREI KOSTIN, PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERFUL RUSSIAN VTB BANK

“It is time to change the entire international financial system that considers the dollar the key reserve currency…The world has changed. [China’s] Yuan and [the Russian] Ruble have to take their place in international transactions.”

APRIL 20

1868 – BIRTH OF JOHN HYLAN, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY, 1918-1925

“The real menace of our republic is this invisible government, which, like a giant octopus, sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen….At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties.”

1999 – POSTED PAPER: THE ‘CHICAGO PLAN’ AND NEW DEAL BANKING REFORM

“During the 1930s, there were numerous proposals put forth to modify the financial system. The ‘Chicago Plan,’ submitted in 1933 by economists at the University of Chicago, recommended abolition of the fractional reserve system and imposition of 100% reserves on demand deposits. Despite the radical nature of this proposal, Phillips argues that it played an important, and hitherto neglected, role in the banking legislation passed during the New Deal. The paper addresses the question of whether our present financial problems might have been avoided had the – “Chicago Plan” been fully implemented during the New Deal. 

“Phillips provides a historical analysis of banking reform during that era, and explores the reasons why the Chicago Plan was not adopted. On the surface, it appears to have been defeated as a matter of pure political expediency. The Banking Act of 1935, by institutionalizing Federal deposit insurance and the separation of commercial and investment banking, successfully restored the public’s confidence in the banking system. Moreover, Roosevelt was satisfied since the act permitted enhanced control over monetary policy by a reconstituted Federal Reserve. 

“The Chicago Plan ultimately succumbed to alternative (and less stringent) measures embodied in the Banking Act of 1935, but its principles (e.g. restricting bank assets and limiting taxpayers’ liability from Federal deposit insurance) have reemerged in the contemporary debate over banking reform in this country: after all, there has been a rejuvenation of the 100% reserve plan via “narrow banking” or “core banking” proposals. Though the early New Deal legislation must be considered a success since it remained relatively unchanged for almost fifty years, a formidable challenge is posed in devising a financial system that will last well into the twenty-first century. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=160989  

[Note: It’s time to revisit these questions again: Who should have the power and authority to create money? For what purposes(s)? Should banks be able to issue loans without adequate reserves?]

2010 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “BANKING REFORM SELLS BETTER WHEN ‘WALL STREET’ IS MENTIONED”

“Americans are about evenly divided on the merits of giving the federal government new powers to regulate large banks and major financial institutions; however, they offer greater support when the issue is more specifically framed as regulating “Wall Street banks.” http://www.gallup.com/poll/127448/banking-reform-sells-better-wall-street-mentioned.aspx 

April 7 – 13

APRIL 7

1858 – BIRTH OF DAVIS RICH DEWEY, AMERICAN ECONOMIST AND STATISTICIAN

“The underlying idea in the greenback philosophy…is that the issue of currency is a function of government, a sovereign right which ought not to be delegated to corporations.” 

APRIL 8

1838 – SLAVES USED AS COLLATERAL ON LOAN APPLICATIONS

“George Guion wrote to the Thibodeauxville Branch of Union Bank of Louisiana asking for a loan of 5,000 in addition to a 10,000 mortgage he already had from the bank on his plantation and slaves….As security for the additional loan he offered to the bank his plantation and sixteen slaves whose ages ranged from sixteen months to fifty years. It is unknown if the bank granted his loan…

“Although collateralized transactions usually accounted for a small number of credit transactions, slaves were the most popular form of collateral for those short-term and long-term loans that required collateral. For example, slaves accounted for 80 percent of the securities offered in recorded mortgages in antebellum East Feliciana Parish in Louisiana. Slaves could also be used as collateral for purchasing shares in Louisiana’s investment banks.

“In the South, slaves were property-they could be bought, sold and transported to any location that allowed slavery. As property, their owners could use slaves when they needed loans.”

https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2288

2009 – “AMERICA’S DEBT CRISIS AND THE NEED FOR MONETARY REFORM” PRESENTATION BY JOE BONGIOVANNI, DIRECTOR OF THE KETTLE POND INSTITUTE FOR DEBT FREE MONEY

Part 1: Introduction

Joe promotes public, debt-free money creation by the US Treasury, as opposed to private money creation as debt by the Fed, as the solution to the debt crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AamPaXA_a0M

Part 2 Early History

Joe describes colonial and revolutionary monetary history https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w0vyB9sq1Y

Part 3- Lincoln’s Greenbacks: 

Lincoln and his experiment with debt-free money http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzf3h-63sjk

Part 4 Post Civil War

The Greenback Party after the Civil War, Vermonter Bradley Barlow, the Crash of 1907. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsWJK8pQ_uQ

Part 5 Federal Reserve Act: US monetary history from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 through the Crash of 1929. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Q7IcTAgcQ

Part 6  Chicago Plan of 1933

FDR came to power in 1933, more than three years after the 1929 Crash. The national banking system was on the verge of total collapse, despite the Federal Reserve banking system being 20 years old. Fortunately, after the Crash, many economists saw the need for an alternative to the private Fed and it’s boom-and-bust prone fractional reserve banking system. These economists developed a proposal for complete monetary reform that would negate the Fed’s boom-bust cycle and impart soundness to the banking system. The Chicago Plan for Monetary Reform was sidelined in favor of Glass-Steagall and the FDIC. It’s time again for the Chicago Plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_wp8N-Q_O4

Part 7: Robert Hemphill quote

Joe discusses the following quote from Robert Hemphill, Credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank, Atlanta GA

“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.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTVoNIpBjE

Part 8: Milton Friedman

Joe highlights Milton Friedman’s opposition of money creation by private banks by highlighting the following quote:

“A reform of the monetary and banking system to eliminate both the private creation and destruction of money and discretionary control of the quantity of money by the central bank authority. The private creation of money can perhaps best be eliminated by adopting the 100% reserve proposal, thereby separating the depository from the lending function of the banking system

“These modifications would leave as the chief monetary functions of the banking system the provision of depositary facilities, the facilitation of check clearance, and the like; and as the chief function of the monetary authorities, the creation of money to meet government deficits or the retirement of money when the government has a surplus.”

From A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability in The American Economic Review, June 1948, p.247. Available on the web at : http://www.jstor.org/stable/1810624

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tSXnXE1slk

Part 9: The Solution

Joe recommends the American Monetary Act (http://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdf), a draft of legislation being compiled by the American Monetary Institute as the most workable solution to the current financial crisis, and also the transparency legislation proposed by Dennis Kucinich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lyGoTEJb6g

2018 – “JEKYLL ISLAND, THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FEDERAL RESERVE” ONLINE POSTED VIDEO

Excellent explanation of the 2013 video describing the creation and impact of the Federal Reserve by Bill Still

APRIL 9

1626 – DEATH OF SIR FRANCIS BACON, PHILOSOPHER, BRITISH LORD CHANCELLOR

“If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.  The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.”

APRIL 10

1816 – CHARTER APPROVED FOR INCORPORATING THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

As with the earlier Bank of the United States, the Second National Bank of the United States was private with many of the largest investors foreigners and those representing great wealth. Congress chartered (licensed) the bank for 20 years.  It’s worth remembering that corporate charters are democratic tools once used by sovereign people (that would be We the People) to control and define corporate actions. As a result of bank practices geared to serving the interests of banks/bankers, (including limiting the issuance of money into the economy – which triggered economic stagnation), President Jackson pledged that the bank would not be issued a new charter after its 20-year charter ended. Without a charter – which provides those forming corporations certain legal protections (then and now) – corporations cannot exist.

1858 – DEATH OF THOMAS BENTON, US SENATOR FROM MISSOURI

“I object to the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States, because I look upon the bank as an institution too great and powerful to be tolerated in a government of free and equal laws.  Its power is that of the purse, a power more potent than that of the sword; and this power it possesses to a degree and extent that will enable this bank to draw to itself too much of the political power of this Union and too much of the individual property of the citizens of these States.  The money power of the bank is both direct and indirect.” http://yamaguchy.com/library/benton/benton_187.html

2012 – “EXPONENTIAL ECONOMIST MEETS FINITE PHYSICIST” BLOG POSTING

“Some while back, I found myself sitting next to an accomplished economics professor at a dinner event. Shortly after pleasantries, I said to him, ‘economic growth cannot continue indefinitely,’ just to see where things would go. It was a lively and informative conversation. I was somewhat alarmed by the disconnect between economic theory and physical constraints—not for the first time, but here it was up-close and personal. Though my memory is not keen enough to recount our conversation verbatim, I thought I would at least try to capture the key points and convey the essence of the tennis match—with some entertainment value thrown in…

“The evening’s after-dinner keynote speech began, so we had to shelve the conversation. Reflecting on it, I kept thinking, ‘This should not have happened. A prominent economist should not have to walk back statements about the fundamental nature of growth when talking to a scientist with no formal economics training.’ But as the evening progressed, the original space in which the economist roamed got painted smaller and smaller.”

Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist

APRIL 11

1932 – PECORA COMMISSION HEARINGS BEGIN – INVESTIGATE CAUSE OF US DEPRESSION

The investigation was launched by a majority-Republican Senate, under the Banking Committee’s chairman, Senator Peter Norbeck. Hearings began on April 11, 1932, but were criticized by Democratic Party members and their supporters as being little more than an attempt by the Republicans to appease the growing demands of an angry American public suffering through the Great Depression. Two chief counsels were fired for ineffectiveness, and a third resigned after the committee refused to give him broad subpoena power. Ferdinand Pecora, an assistant district attorney for New York County was hired to write the final report in January 1933. Discovering that the investigation was incomplete, Pecora requested permission to hold an additional month of hearings. His exposé of the National City Bank (now Citibank) made banner headlines and caused the bank’s president to resign. Democrats had won the majority in the Senate, and the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, urged the new Democratic chairman of the Banking Committee, Senator Duncan U. Fletcher, to let Pecora continue the probe. So actively did Pecora pursue the investigation that his name became publicly identified with it, rather than the committee’s chairman. Pecora not only documented a litany of abuses, but also paved the way for remedial legislation. The Securities Act of 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 — all addressed abuses exposed by Pecora. It was only poetic justice when Roosevelt tapped him as a commissioner of the newborn Securities and Exchange Commission.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission

APRIL 12

1866 – CONGRESS PASSES THE CONTRACTION ACT

The Act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to begin retiring Greenbacks (public debt-free money first issued by the Lincoln Administration) in circulation and to contract the money supply. By 1876, two-thirds of the nation’s money had been called in by the bankers. A contraction of the money supply when demand is high causes depressions, which is what happened from 1873-79.

1910 – DEATH OF WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER, PROFESSOR, YALE UNIVERSITY, MONETARY THEORIST

“For as the currency question is of first importance and we cannot solve it or escape it by ignoring it.  We have got to face it and the best way to begin is not by wrangling about speculative opinions as to untried schemes but to go back to history and try to get hold of some firmly established principles.”

1945 – DEATH OF PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

 “The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson … The country is going through a repetition of Jackson’s fight with the Bank of the United States – – only on a far bigger and broader basis.”

APRIL 13

1743 – BIRTH OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

“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.”

“And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

“Bank-paper must be suppressed, and the circulating medium must be restored to the nation to whom it belongs.”

2015 – DEATH OF EDUARDO GALEANO, URUGUAYAN JOURNALIST, WRITER AND NOVELIST

Great quote for monetary reformers: “The system steals with one hand what it lends with the other.” 

[Note: This is never more true than the present time. The $450 billion corporate slush fund bailout given to the Treasury Department in the recent economic “stimulus” bill was handed over the Federal Reserve, which in turn handed it over to several major banking corporations to distribute to “needy” mega corporations. These banks will profit from the administration of the funds.]

2021 – “HOW MONETARY REFORM SOLVES CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION” BY MARK PASH

How Monetary Reform Solves Climate Change and Environmental Contamination

“Now we have the biggest global crisis in World history that of Climate Change and Environmental degradation. And the current money-banking system in 2020 lent over a trillion dollars to fossil fuel companies. This is going in the opposite direction for adequate climate control. We have most of the technical solutions. Then, what is missing? It is mainly money! Therefore, we have to “Go Back to the Greenbacks” and eliminate the unsustainable, extremely skewered, private money system…

“The following is a list of specific operations solving climate change that we can implement to save our planet and how they can be funded from the new money system of “Back to the Greenbacks”…

“Solar Alternatives…

“Electric Automobiles & Trucks…

“Land…

“Refrigeration…

“Aircraft…

“Water & Agriculture…

“Research & Development…

“Manufacturing…

“Environmental Firms & Trees…”

How Monetary Reform Solves Climate Change and Environmental Contamination

March 31 – April 6

MARCH 31

1913 – DEATH OF J. PIERPONT MORGAN, BANKER

J.P Morgan founded one of the world’s most powerful banks and had extraordinary political influence in the U.S. The National Citizens League, funded by millions of dollars from Morgan and a few other major bankers, financed respected university professors to endorse the concept of creating a private/corporate central bank, which became the Federal Reserve Bank, created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. Morgan’s men were among the small number of architects of the private/corporate Federal Reserve.

1999 – “THE MATRIX” FILM RELEASE DATE [25^th anniversary]

“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?”  — Morpheus to Neo

[ Opinion: 25 years later, ‘The Matrix’ is less sci-fi than tech reality

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/30/opinions/matrix-25-years-later-tech-reality-virk/index.html ]

APRIL 1

2011 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN BLOOMBERG: “FOREIGN BANKS TAPPED FED’S SECRET LIFELINE MOST AT CRISIS PEAK”

“Dexia SA (DEXB), based in Brussels and Paris, borrowed as much as $33.5 billion through its New York branch from the Fed’s “discount window” lending program, according to Fed documents released yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request… The biggest borrowers from the 97-year-old discount window as the program reached its crisis-era peak were foreign banks, accounting for at least 70 percent of the $110.7 billion borrowed during the week in October 2008 when use of the program surged to a record.”

[Note: The Fed worked very hard to keep this information secret. The amount in secret loans to US banks and corporations and foreign banks following a partial audit of the Fed in 2012 revealed a total of $16 trillion. The GDP of the United States is only $14 trillion by comparison.

APRIL 2

1792 – COINAGE ACT PASSES CONGRESS

Congress used its power (as established under the U.S. Constitution) to establish a national Mint. The act authorized the creation of U.S. money — something that we have since forgotten and that Congress has willingly handed over the private banking corporations. Article I, Section 8 states that the government has the power to “coin” money. Coin is used as a verb, as in creating money.

2011 – EMAIL TO HILLARY CLINTON FROM SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL ABOUT QADDIFI’S GOLD (FROM WIKILEAKS)

“On April 2, 2011 sources with access to advisors to Salt al-Islam Qaddafi stated in strictest confidence that while the freezing of Libya’s foreign bank accounts presents Muammar Qaddafi with serious challenges, his ability to equip and maintain his armed forces and intelligence services remains intact. According to sensitive information available to this these individuals, Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver. During late March, 2011 these stocks were moved to SABHA (south west in the direction of the Libyan border with Niger and Chad); taken from the vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli. This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French.franc (CFA). (Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.”)

https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/6528

2015 – “ICELAND IS PROPOSING A RADICAL CHANGE TO ITS MONETARY SYSTEM” published article

“Iceland’s government is considering a revolutionary monetary proposal – removing the power of commercial banks to create money and handing it to the central bank…

“In Iceland, as in other modern market economies, the central bank controls the creation of banknotes and coins but not the creation of all money, which occurs as soon as a commercial bank offers a line of credit.”

https://www.businessinsider.com/iceland-is-proposing-a-radical-change-to-its-monetary-system-2015-4

APRIL 3

1729 – PUBLICATION OF “A MODEST INQUIRY IN THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF A PAPER-CURRENCY” BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

“As we have already experienced how much the Increase of our Currency by what Paper Money has been made, has encouraged our Trade…”

“Thus the Riches of a Country are to be valued by the Quantity of Labour its Inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the Quantity of Silver and Gold they possess…”

The paper currency reduced the inconvenient method of barter transactons, expanded businesses and promoted the settlement of the area. New York and New Jersey experienced the same prosperity when they began printing and circulating their own paper currencies.

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0041?fbclid=IwAR3lPyQJiHKSdjhGAV_MRiKDJh8l7-MqigRJcr4e4z4n2GiVOGTHzv2KAHI

1912 – FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IS A FRAUD QUOTE BY H. L. BIRUM SR.

“The Federal Reserve Bank is nothing but a banking fraud and an unlawful crime against civilization. Why? Because they ‘create’ the money made out of nothing, and our Uncle Sap Government issues their “Federal Reserve Notes” and stamps our Government approval with NO obligation whatever from these Federal Reserve Banks, Individual Banks or National Banks, etc.”

2020 – “WAS THE FED JUST NATIONALIZED?” BLOG POSTING BY ELLEN BROWN

“The Fed has evidently abandoned its vaunted “independence” and is now working in partnership with the Treasury. In some sense, it has been nationalized. A true partnership, however, would make the printing press available for more than just buying toxic corporate assets. A central bank that was run as a public utility could fund programs designed to kickstart the economy, stimulate productivity and generally serve the public.

“The reason the Fed is now working with the Treasury is that it needs the Treasury to help it bail out a financial industry burdened with an avalanche of dodgy assets that are fast losing value. The problem for the Fed is that it is only allowed to purchase or lend against securities with government guarantees, including Treasury securities, agency mortgage-backed securities, debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and (arguably) municipal securities. To get around that wrinkle, as Wolf Richter explains:

“’[T]he Treasury will create (or resuscitate) a series of special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) to buy all manner of financial assets, backed by $425 billion in collateral conveniently supplied by the US taxpayer via the Exchange Stabilization Fund. The Fed will lend to SPVs against this collateral which, when leveraged, could fund $4-5 trillion in asset purchases.

“’That includes municipal bonds, non-agency mortgages, corporate bonds, commercial paper, and every variety of asset-backed security. The only things the government can’t (transparently, yet) buy are publicly-traded stocks and high-yield bonds.’”

Was the Fed Just Nationalized?

APRIL 4

1834 – US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES AGAINST RECHARTERING THE SECOND BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

The US House voted 134-82 against rechartering (re-licensing) the nation’s central bank – a private bank not ultimately accountable to the public but to its shareholders. Charters were originally considered democratic instruments of public control to keep corporations accountable – as opposed to today where charters are issued automatically as long as minimal conditions are met and a fee is paid. The bank had established loan policies that were detrimental to the nation’s economy but very profitable for its owners. The bank’s President, Nicholas Biddle, had threatened to harm the US economy by restricting the nation’s money supply if the charter were not renewed. The bank shrank the money supply. A financial panic and deep depression followed. President Andrew Jackson was convinced all the more that the private bank should not be in charge of issuing and circulating the nation’s money supply.

1883 – DEATH OF PETER COOPER, US INDUSTRIALIST, PHILANTHROPIST (FOUNDED COOPER UNION) AND GREENBACK CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT

“The substitution of greenbacks for National bank notes will make a uniform currency of money. A greenback legal tender is to the full as much real money as a gold legal tender, the only difference being that as many nations make gold a legal tender, there is more demand for it than for paper legal tenders which have the sovereign stamp of only one Government. 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.”

2016 — “ENDING TOO BIG TO FAIL POLICY SYMPOSIUM” SPONSORED BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS

“Seven years after the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, the biggest banks are still too big to fail (TBTF). Without action, they continue to pose a serious, ongoing risk to our nation’s economy. It’s time to seriously consider bold and transformational solutions to address TBTF once and for all…The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is launching a major initiative to develop a plan to end TBTF and prevent similar economic devastation from hurting the American people.The Minneapolis Fed’s #EndingTBTF initiative will explore various proposals from expert researchers and incorporate input from a wide range of thought leaders, culminating in an actionable plan to end TBTF, which will be released by the end of the year.” https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications/special-studies/endingtbtf

APRIL 5

1764 – BRITISH PARLIAMENT PASSES CURRENCY ACT PROHIBITING COLONIES FROM PRINTING THEIR OWN MONEY

As early as 1723, the colony of Pennsylvania showed that it was possible for money to be issued by the government in the place of taxes without causing inflation. Money was printed and circulated there and elsewhere. No taxes needed to be collected in PA from 1723 to the 1750’s as a result. The Bank of England pressured the British Parliament to pass the Currency Act. Benjamin Franklin believed that passage of the Act caused poverty and triggered the Revolutionary War.

1933 – PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER CONFISCATING GOLD

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, ordering all citizens to turn in their private gold. The Order prohibited the “hoarding” of almost all privately held gold coins, bullion and certificates “to provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking” (i.e. the Great Depression) that was caused by the monetary policies of the privately operated Federal Reserve system.

2008 – DEATH OF CHARLTON HESTON (WHO PLAYED MOSES IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS}

[A stretch, but nevertheless, a means to share the following…]

From the Old Testament in the Bible, Deuteronomy 23:19

“Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn

interest.”

2021 – “THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CAPITALISM” posted article by Howard Switzer

“What drives this separation and disconnection from life? To understand the source of all this horror we must first look closer at capitalism and its main mechanism of power: money as debt. In the centuries old capitalist monetary system all money is created as interest bearing debt, credit issued by the commercial banking system when they make loans. This allows the owners of the big banks and their largest depositors to direct economic development through funding monopolies that dominate every industry. This was proved and diagramed by the Pujo Committee investigations in 1912.”

https://howardswitzer.medium.com/the-psychological-consequences-of-capitalism-8830577a3092

2023 – “A GROWING LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN THE FED IS SPILLING OVER INTO A LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN U.S. BANKS” POSTED ARTICLE BY PAM AND RUSS MARTENS

“Millions of Americans are beginning to ask themselves this question: Is the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) a competent central bank or a terminally compromised regulator that simply does the bidding of Wall Street’s mega banks to the peril of average Americans and the U.S. economy? Millions of other Americans have already made up their minds on this point.

:These persistent doubts about an institution with an $8.8 trillion balance sheet – that is backstopped by the U.S. taxpayer – is very bad for confidence in the U.S. banking system, especially when the Fed pivots from one banking bailout to the next. (What was the size of the Fed’s balance sheet prior to its serial bailouts? On December 26, 2007, the Fed’s balance sheet stood at $929 billion. It has soared by 847 percent in just over 15 years of serial bailouts.)”

A Growing Lack of Confidence in the Fed Is Spilling Over into a Lack of Confidence in U.S. Banks

APRIL 6

2013 – PLAN FOR MONETARY REFORM BY POSITIVE MONEY IN THE U.K.

“This document presents a plan for monetary reform, based on a proposal initially put forward by Frederick Soddy in the 1920s, and then subsequently by Irving Fisher and Henry Simons in the aftermath of the Great Depression… While inspired by Irving Fisher’s original work and variants on it, the proposals in this paper have some significant differences. The starting point was the work of Joseph Huber and James Robertson in their book Creating New Money (2000), which updated and modified Fisher’s proposals to take account of the fact that money, the payments system and banking in general is now electronic, rather than paper-based. The reform presented here develops Huber and Robertson’s proposal further, building on a submission made by Ben Dyson (Positive Money), Josh Ryan-Collins and Tony Greenham (new economics foundation), and Richard Werner (University of Southampton) to the UK’s Independent Commission on Banking in 2010.” http://www.positivemoney.org/2013/04/the-positive-money-proposal-plan-for-monetary-reform/

2020 – “PRINTING MONEY IS VALID RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS CRISIS” POSTED EDITORIAL FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES

“In times of emergency, particularly war, central banks have often handed freshly printed banknotes to governments. The fight against resultant inflation was postponed until after any crisis. Despite the pandemic, the world is not yet in that position today. There is no need, for now, to relax the framework of independent, inflation-targeting central banking. Yet this kind of monetary financing should be a tool available to policymakers, if needed.”

https://www.ft.com/content/fd1d35c4-7804-11ea-9840-1b8019d9a987?fbclid=IwAR0r7Iv3mRe3k-K7kq6wq4Tx8lzr3_B_7rXYF2BFAKunKZhTmn-LNSrQIew

2021 – “A BRIDGE – PUBLIC BANKING ON THE PBI MODEL: WHY?”

 “There are three key issues.

1. Can public banking serve as a bridge to money reform? Can we both be successful?

2. Does the public Bank of North Dakota (BND) create money as other commercial banks do, or is it simply a development revolving fund basic bank?

3. Is the scale of public benefit enough to make public bank advocacy worthwhile?”https://www.monetaryalliance.org/a-bridge-public-banking-on-the-pbi-model-why/?fbclid=IwAR2kZpkAyFahNBqKi3gowb12RChSS59QjXjcNSw-X9Mx2al6kbqVyxjsT1g

March 24 – 30

MARCH 24

2008 – NEW YORK FEDERAL RESERVE BANK ANNOUNCEMENT IT WILL GIVE CASH TO J.P. MORGAN TO ACQUIRE BEAR STEARNS

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that it would provide financing to facilitate JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s acquisition of The Bear Stearns Corporation. J.P Morgan Corporation received $29 billion from the Fed. However, the Fed never provided financing of this amount during this time to help small businesses or homeowners who were victimized by the speculative financial ventures of Bear Stearns Corporation, which led to its implosion, triggering the Great Recession.

2014 – QUOTE BY RICHARD FISHER, PRESIDENT OF THE DALLAS FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

 “I don’t think there is any doubt that quantitative easing enabled the rich and the quick. It was a massive gift.”

[Note: Quantitative Easing was the Fed’s program on injecting several trillion dollars into the economy – most of which ending up going to banks and to corporations to buy back stock.]

2021 – “TLAIB UNVEILS BILL TO PROVIDE MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO EVERYONE IN US – FUNDED BY MINTING TRILLION-DOLLAR COINS” PUBLISHED ARTICLE

“The Automatic BOOST to Communities (ABC) Act proposes financing the payments with an unconventional plan that would direct the Treasury Department to use its legal authority to mint as many $1 trillion platinum coins as necessary to fund the legislation, which would continue until a year after the public health emergency ends or the unemployment rate stabilizes at a low level.

“The idea of using the U.S. Mint to cover government costs rose to prominence in 2011 during a fight over the debt ceiling and briefly emerged once again in 2013. As Matthew O’Brien explained in The Atlantic at the time, federal law ‘lets the Treasury create coins in whatever value it wants, even $1 trillion.'”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/24/tlaib-unveils-bill-provide-monthly-payments-everyone-us-funded-minting-trillion

MARCH 25

1894 – COXEY’S ARMY BEGINS MARCH

Jacob Coxey, a businessman from Massillon, Ohio organized a 500-strong “Coxey’s Army” march from Massillon (beginning on March 25, 1894) to Washington, D.C. (ending April 30) to promote federal intervention for job creation. The primary demand of this “petition in boots” was unique — the direct printing and issuance of $500 million by the Federal Treasury to employ 4 million people. Coxey’s Army proposed two bills. The first, a “Good Roads Bill”, would help farmers through $500 million issued by the federal government in legal tender notes, or greenbacks, to construct rural roads. The second, a noninterest-bearing bonds bill, would empower state and local governments to issue noninterest-bearing bonds to be used to borrow legal tender notes from the federal treasury. This money would be used to build urban libraries, schools, utility plants and marketplaces. Millions of jobs would have been created — debt-free.

2018 – POSTED ARTICLE, “WHAT HAS SOVEREIGN MONEY GOT TO DO WITH AN UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME”

“As you are no doubt aware, we will be voting on 10 June 2018 on the Sovereign Money Initiative ‘Money safe from finance crises: Only the Swiss National Bank can create money’ (known as the ‘Vollgeld Initiative’ in German and ‘l’Initiative Monnaie Pleine’ in French). Here we present this initiative and how it links to the UBI.

“Whether or not you campaigned for an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI), you’ve probably heard this question repeatedly: how do you pay for the UBI? There are no shortages of solutions! Here we explore how a Sovereign Money system could achieve this. Before that, we explain how the current monetary system works and how a sovereign money system differs​.”

http://bien.ch/en/story/news/what-has-sovereign-money-got-do-unconditional-basic-income?fbclid=IwAR2Rz48_4fmzDtdQBwJFX6tvJAJdxg_HwP5-L7JgmtyODtuE4L2HxFQHJ_U

2020 – STIMULUS BILL ALLOWS FEDERAL RESERVE TO CONDUCT MEETINGS IN SECRET; GIVES FED $454 BILLION SUSH FUND FOR WALL STREET BAILOUTS

“The text of the final bill was breathtaking in the breadth of new powers it bestowed on the Federal Reserve, including the Fed’s ability to conduct secret meetings with no minutes provided to the American people…

“Why does the Federal Reserve need $454 billion from the U.S. taxpayer to bail out Wall Street when it has the power to create money out of thin air and has already dumped more than $9 trillion cumulatively in revolving loans to prop up Wall Street’s trading houses since September 17, 2019 – long before there was any diagnosis of coronavirus anywhere in the world.”

Stimulus Bill Allows Federal Reserve to Conduct Meetings in Secret; Gives Fed $454 Billion Slush Fund for Wall Street Bailouts

2022 – “REIMAGINING POLITICAL ECONOMY” ARTICLE BY JOHN MICHAEL GREER

“Thus a social credit society permits free enterprise in every field except finance, and is wholly compatible with democratic systems of governance…

“Cooperativism…As the name suggests, this is a system in which cooperatives—voluntary associations of individuals—own and control the means of production and distribution. There are two broad categories of cooperatives in a fully developed cooperativist system, worker cooperatives and consumer cooperatives, and they deserve separate discussion…

“Distributism….The distributist idea is that the best way to get the means of production into the hands of the working class is to distribute the means of production so that each worker owns the means he or she uses to produce goods and services…

“Social Credit…Money is recognized as a system of tokens rather than a commodity, and is issued directly by the government rather than by issuing bonds. (Do we really want to have the government paying rich people for the privilege of issuing its own currency?  That’s what today’s system of money creation via debt amounts to.)…Thus a social credit society permits free enterprise in every field except finance, and is wholly compatible with democratic systems of governance.”

Reimagining Political Economy

MARCH 26

1892 – BIRTH OF PAUL DOUGLAS, ECONOMIST, US SENATOR, QUAKER

Douglas was a prominent University of Chicago economist who helped develop “A Program for Monetary Reform” in 1939 — sent to President Roosevelt as a means to end the Great Depression. More than 230 economists from 150 universities approved it without reservations while an additional 40 supported it with some reservations.

In assessing the problem of the day, the PMR states, “If the purpose of money and credit were to discourage the exchange of goods and services, to destroy periodically the wealth produced, to frustrate and trip those who work and save, our present monetary system would seem a most effective instrument to that end.” It also stated monetary systems based on a gold standard “has had…disastrous results all over the world.”

The PMR called for government creation and maintenance of the quantity of money. “Our own monetary policy should…be directed toward avoiding inflation as well as deflation, and in attaining and maintaining as nearly as possible, full production and employment.” The plan also called for eliminating fractional reserve lending – the process of banks loaning multiple times the amount of money in their possession. Back in the 1930’s the reserve requirement was 5:1. Today it’s 9:1. Some of the major banks involved in the economic collapse of 2007 had ignored this law and were loaning out 50 times their reserves. The PMR called for a 100% reserve requirement – banks could only lend the amount of money they possessed.

The document goes on, “In early times the creation of money was the sole privilege of the kings or other sovereigns – namely the sovereign people, acting through their Government. This principle is firmly anchored in our Constitution and it is a perversion to transfer the privilege to private parties to use in their own real or presumed interest. The founders of the Republic did not expect the banks to create the money they lend. “

Their plan to reduce the national debt was simply to have the government purchase government bonds with new US debt-free money.

2021 – “SUBSIDIES ARE BUILT INTO THE EXISTING BANK SYSTEM” POSTED COLUMN

“Most of the money in circulation is created by private banks, and those banks create  money  when they grant loans…

“This, despite the reality tha private banks have nowhere near enough central bank cash to convert ALL the “promises to pay” into cash…

“But that system has collapsed regularly as clockwork ever since banks in their present form first started centuries ago. That is, private banks have repeatedly gone bust. Thus to ensure that this chronic system soldiers on, governments stand behind, i.e. subsidize private banks.

“The subsidy comes in different guises, of which three are as follows

“First, there is taxpayer backed deposit insurance…

“Second…banks enjoy preferential treatment – effectively a subsidy – relative to other lenders…

“Third, if a bank fails despite the latter two subsidies, then as a last resort there are multi billion dollar bail outs available for banks in trouble.

“The basic problem here is letting private banks issue or “print” their own home made money (those “promises to pay”) while also letting them grant loans…

“But there is an easy solution to that problem, which dozens of economists have advocated for about a hundred years now, which is to outlaw those promises, which at best are flawed if not actually fraudulent. That ipso facto means a big cut in the supply of money, but that’s easily made good by creating and spending CENTRAL BANK money straight into the private sector or into the economy generally. Incidentally, the Nobel economist Maurice Allais said the latter creation of “promises to pay” by commercial banks was essentially counterfeiting.

“The process of “creating and spending central bank money” straight into the economy mentioned just above is not technically difficult: it can be done in the way suggested by Congressman Dennis Kucinich in his NEED Act (HR2990 2012).”

Subsidies are Built Into the Existing Bank System

[Note: A particularly relevant piece given the current banking crisis and bailout of depositors]

MARCH 27

1933 – BIRTH OF HAZEL HENDERSON, FUTURIST AND ECONOMIST

“All of the intellectual models of the new economy are about cooperation, sharing and abundance.”

2009 – BARACK OBAMA ASSURES BANKERS HE WILL PROTECT THEM

President Barack Obama’s as expressed privately to the CEOs of Wall Street assembled together in the White House: “And I want to help. But you need to show that you get that this is a crisis and that everyone has to make some sacrifices…I’m not out there to go after you. I’m protecting you. But if I’m going to shield you from public and congressional anger, you have to give me something to work with on these issues of compensation.”

2019 – POSTING OF ARTICLE, “MODERN MONEY THEORY REVISITED — STILL THE SAME FALSE PROMISES,” BY JOSEPH HUBER

“[I]in the beginning of MMT, the writings of Mosler and Wray did not include a systematic element of monetary and financial crisis theory and they did not, and still do not, see any need for monetary and banking reform. They portrayed the present bankmoney regime as a marvelous credit-and-debt machine run as a sovereign currency system. A credit-and-debt machine it certainly is, although it is neither marvelous nor a sovereign currency system. In spite of MMT’s self-image to represent new chartalism, MMT is in fact apologetic about fractional reserve banking, belittling the system-dominating role of the banking sector, and thereby defending – as a matter fact – the banks’ neo-feudal privilege of money creation by way of extending credit.” https://www.monetaryalliance.org/modern-money-theory-revisited-still-the-same-false-promise/

MARCH 28

2007 – QUOTE BY BEN BERNANKE, CHAIR OF THE US FEDERAL RESERVE

“At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained. In particular, mortgages to prime borrowers and fixed-rate mortgages to all classes of borrowers continue to perform well, with low rates of delinquency.”

[Note: So much for believing that the head of the Fed should be thought of as a monetary guru.]

2022 – “CONGRESS IS DISCUSSING A DIGITAL DOLLAR PILOT. IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK” posted article

“At least not the bill Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) is floating. Rep. Lynch, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s Fintech Task Force, introduced today the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, which would establish a digital dollar that is neither tied to a distributed ledger nor issued by the Federal Reserve—but instead “printed” by the Treasury. The timing of the bill coincides with a committee hearing Tuesday on CBDCs.

“The act, if passed, would create a Treasury-led pilot program to test the digital dollar’s safety, functionality, and interoperability with other payment systems and financial institutions. According to a press release, the bill mandates that the e-cash include features “generally associated with the use of physical currency—including anonymity, privacy, and minimal generation of data from transactions.”

https://decrypt.co/96220/congress-discussing-digital-dollar-pilot-not-what-you-think

2022 – “MICHAEL HUDSON: US DOLLAR HEGEMONY ENDED ABRUPTLY LAST WEDNESDAY” interview

“On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, the United States announced that it would freeze Russia’s access to its gold. Russia has the fifth highest amount of gold in the world. Economist Michael Hudson explains that this action, which follows the US seizing Venezuela and Afghanistan’s gold and assets, has effectively ended dollar hegemony, which has been in decline in recent years, and the free ride that the US has enjoyed abroad.”

https://popularresistance.org/michael-hudson-us-dollar-hegemony-ended-abruptly-last-wednesday

2022 – WHY DO WE NEED CBDC’S [CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES]? WITH DR RONNIE PHILLIPS, VIDEO

“Ronnie Phillips will focus on the varying viewpoints on why we need Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). The discussion will begin with President Biden’s recent Executive Order on ensuring responsible development of digital assets. Ronnie’s starting point will be through Henry Simons’ “financial good society” and how CBDCs fit in this framework.”

MARCH 29

2010 – REUTERS ARTICLE, UK LAWMAKERS SEEK RADICAL, NOT RUSHED BANK REFORM

“Radical and carefully thought reform is needed to shield British taxpayers from having to bail out troubled banks again, a UK parliamentary report said on Monday. If a bank is too complex to adopt practical and speedy wind-up plan or living will, regulators should be ready to break it up, the Treasury Committee report on banks said.”

MARCH 30

2006 – LECTURE BY PROFESSOR FARLEY GRUBB, “BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THE BIRTH OF A PAPER MONEY ECONOMY,” AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IN PHILADELPHIA — ONE OF MANY EVENTS IN THE CITY MARKING THE 300TH BIRTHDAY OF FRANKLIN

“No other American was involved over as long a period of time with so many different facets of colonial paper money as was Benjamin Franklin — certainly no other American with such a preeminent stature in science, statesman- ship, and letters…

“The outcome of this discussion prompts him to write an anonymous pamphlet, one of the first to be published by his press: ‘A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency”…

“But what gives paper money its value? Here Franklin is clear throughout his career: It is not legal tender laws or fixed exchange rates between paper money and gold and silver coins but the quantity of paper money relative to the volume of internal trade within the colony that governs the value of paper money. An excess of paper money relative to the volume of internal trade causes it to lose value (depreciate). The early paper money of New England and South Carolina had depreciated because the quantities were not properly controlled.“

https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/publications/economic-education/ben-franklin-and-paper-money-economy.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2g4MSmk3aPJrqH3oAqNYOyF798mwx7ezrLIRDEfcyJDbcpqss3Zuu_2Gc

2021 – PUBLIC BANKING ON THE PBI MODEL: WHY NOT?” published column by Joe Bongiovanni and Howard Switzer

“[T]he March 8th Alliance For Just Money’s Monetary Reform Coffee House…discussion confirmed that PBI’s model of Public Banking includes ‘joining the Fed’ to gain the private commercial banking system’s power to create deposits – using fractional reserve banking…

“[T]here is no historical success for Public Banking doing fractional reserve banking…

“Instead of public banking, we ask ‘please’ imagine a new nation where every U.S. state has a myriad of public financing authorities, all funded by the ‘money powers’ of our inter-governmental sovereign authorities – that of monetary creation, issuance and ‘gain’ by the Public.”

Public Banking on the PBI Model: Why not?

1948 – BIRTH OF MERVYN KING, FORMER GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

“Of all the many ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today.” Possible remedies included not just breaking up banks, but also “eliminating fractional reserve banking.”

http://www.economist.com/node/17363435

March 17 – 23

MARCH 17

1947 – JOHN MCCLOY BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK

The World Bank would do more to expand US banking globally than any other treaty, agreement, or entity that came before it. McCloy was the World Bank’s second President. He had previously been Assistant Secretary of War during WWII.

2024 – ST. PATRICK’S DAY

“Nobody can borrow themselves out of debt no more than you can drink yourself sober.”  

– Byron Dale, monetary reformer and rancher.

[Note: Seemed a somewhat appropriate quote on this day…]

MARCH 18

1869 – PASSAGE OF US LAW THAT ALL US MONETARY NOTES WOULD BE EVENTUALLY CONVERTED TO SPECIE

Specie means money in the form of coins rather than paper notes. Bankers hated Lincoln’s Greenbacks, which were debt-free and inflation-free US money created to avert the financial crisis during the Civil War. Following Lincoln’s death, bankers pressured Congress to eliminate Greenbacks, base money creation on precious metals (preferably gold) and, if additional funds were needed by the government to borrow it from banks at interest. Basing the money supply on gold or silver meant that the money supply could only increase when the supply of gold or silver increased – regardless of the growing population or an expanding economy. A pure metal-based money system has historically resulted in depressions – not enough money to meet the economic needs. 

1993 – DEATH OF KENNETH BOULDING, ECONOMIST, PROFESSOR, PEACE ACTIVIST, QUAKER
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. [Note: the same goes for debt.]

2014 – “THE TRUTH IS OUT: MONEY IS JUST AN IOU, AND THE BANKS ARE ROLLING IN IT,” BY DAVID GRAEBER

“The Bank of England’s dose of honesty throws the theoretical basis for austerity out the window

“In other words, everything we know is not just wrong – it’s backwards. When banks make loans, they create money. This is because money is really just an IOU. The role of the central bank is to preside over a legal order that effectively grants banks the exclusive right to create IOUs of a certain kind, ones that the government will recognise as legal tender by its willingness to accept them in payment of taxes. There’s really no limit on how much banks could create, provided they can find someone willing to borrow it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity?fbclid=IwAR1OvFwYPQuJg3DBxnWftYpfmipt6FZW7m8KYKZmsD7h_KAcAtFEYEPsnbA

2019 – “TURNS OUT THAT TRILLION-DOLLAR BAILOUT WAS, IN FACT, REAL” BY MATT TAIBBI

“As I’ve written before, trying to compute the bailout is a fool’s errand, because it was so all-encompassing. The government’s massive treasure dump into the balance sheets of the top banks was a kind of merger, one that obligated us to keep our investments viable going forward though a range of complementary actions.

“Those included regulatory relief, inflated asset purchases, market intervention, tax breaks and other actions. God knows how much all of that was worth, but the cash portion of it alone was certainly north of a trillion dollars, when you figure in both TARP and the Fed lending.

“Apart from mortgage issuers like Countrywide, the institutions most responsible for the crash were the Too Big To Fail big banks that financed, pooled and re-sold toxic mortgage-backed securities, often fraudulently. Those banks were rewarded with bailouts and state-aided mergers that allowed executives to quickly return to previous compensation levels, and left them more dominant than ever.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/2008-financial-bailout-809731

2021 – “MAKING MONEY: THE PHILOSOPHY OF CRISIS CAPITALISM BY OLE BJERG – A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION” POSTED ARTICLE

 “Making Money is a good book to read for anyone involved in the monetary reform movement who wants to embed their existing ideas within a philosophical framework, or who wants to think about money differently—possibly, as they never have before.

“Bjerg makes the case that our disputes over money are not only technical, ideological, or jurisdictional; many disagreements we have over money are ontological or epistemological. We disagree over the very nature of money.

“If you want to get down to the core of this disagreement, Bjerg’s book is for you. Making Money will make you more proficient in philosophy and will make you a more understanding and enlightened monetary reformer.

“As is characteristic of philosophy when it is at its best, Making Money can light a spark in readers’ minds, leading readers to ask questions: to be critical of human life as it is, and to imagine how it could and whether it ought to work differently.

Making Money: The Philosophy of Crisis Capitalism by Ole Bjerg—A Review and Recommendation

MARCH 19

1860 – BIRTH OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, SENATOR, SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (DEMOCRAT/POPULIST)

Bryan had originally supported the 1913 Federal Reserve Act as Secretary of State under the Wilson administration. His position was crucial in gaining the support of many Congressional Democrats and Progressives. He later regretted his decision. “In my long career, the only thing I genuinely regret is my part in getting the banking and currency legislation enacted into law.”

2003 – LAUNCH OF U.S.-LED WAR AGAINST IRAQ (2023 is 20^th Anniversary)

Saddam Hussein announced in November 2000 that Iraq would no longer accept dollars, only euros, as payment for Iraqi oil. The inherent strength of the US dollar for decades has been passed on the “petrodollar” – the policy that only dollars could be used to purchase oil from any nation. An end or even serious threat to the petrodollar system would reduce the dollar’s value – causing severe economic decline in the US. Many believe this announcement was a major reason (along with control of Iraqi oil reserves for the attack — not anything to do with the 9/11 attacks in the US or possession or imminent use of “weapons of mass destruction” – all of which were lies.

2011– LIBYAN REBELS FORM CENTRAL BANK

In what may have been a first in history, the Libyan revolutionary rebels created a central bank while still fighting an established state power. The rebels designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as the new monetary authority. It would indicate how influential central bankers were over the rebels. “I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising,” said Robert Wenzel of the Economic Policy Journal.

2019 – “’NEW’ WORLD ORDER CRIMINAL BANKERS CAUSED THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION” VIDEO POSTED

 “A brief introduction to 19th century monetary historian Alexander Del Mar, an outstanding member of that bare-knuckled school of writers founded by Catullus:…

“Del Mar explains in no uncertain language exactly who is responsible for the depression that set off the American Revolution: greedy, self-centered, incompetent bankers–a “new order of men” that had taken root in England one hundred years earlier.

“Very little has changed in the intervening 350 years, as it turns out, at least when it comes to the gambit used by psychopath bankers to tilt the playing field to a 45-degree angle in their favor: they take over the monetary systems of nations.

“Unlike the sniveling mass of modern banking apologists found on both sides of the political aisle today, the American colonists understood that this ludicrous monetary order was causing them great harm, and threw it where it’s belonged from the beginning: off.”

MARCH 20

2014 – BANK OF ENGLAND ADMITS LOANS COME FIRST AND DEPOSITS FOLLOW

The Bank of England released two articles explaining the money creation process – “Money in the modern economy: An Introduction” and “Money creation in the Modern Economy” – in their flagship Quarterly Bulletin of March 2014.

“In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood: the principal way is through commercial banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money. The reality of how money is created today differs from the description found in some economics textbooks…”

2020 – “GREENBACKS NOT BAILOUTS CURE FOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY,” ARTICLE BY JOHN HOWELL POSTED

“Congress long ago gave up its Constitutional responsibility for the creation of money, and handed it over to a private banking cartel. When the big banks refused to help the nation fight against its possible division in the Civil War, Greenbacks came to the rescue. Greenbacks are debt-free government money created as an asset, not a debt, and today offer the safest alternative to getting the nation and the world out of debt and through this and other crises. The hegemony of the global financial industry and its private for-profit money system must now be replaced with a public money system in order to fund an effective response world-wide.”

Greenbacks Not Bailouts Cure for National Emergency

2022 – “CANCELLING RUSSIAN RESERVES BOOMERANGS TO A NEW INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM” POSTED ARTICLE

“The message now is plain enough – if even a prominent G20 state can have its reserves cancelled at a flick of the switch, then, for those who still hold ‘reserves’ in New York, take them elsewhere whilst the going is good!…

“The geo-political consequence, however, has been nuclear. The petro-dollar based trading system that flowed from it, has allowed America to ‘nuke’ the world with sanctions and secondary sanctions (through claiming jurisdiction over any, and all, trade denominated in dollars, or which in any way passed through a dollar clearing process)…

“And on 26 February, that system began its’ decease, when the Russo-phobic Washington ‘hawks’ stupidly picked a fight with the one country, Russia, that has the commodities needed to run the world, and to trigger the shift to a different monetary system — one that is anchored in something other than fiat money.”

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/canceling-russian-reserves-boomerangs-to-a-new-international

MARCH 21

1821 – GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY

There is an ever-declining degree of political and economic independence in Greece today. External economic institutions (i.e. International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Union) have forced the nation to reduce public services and privatize/corporatize public assets – selling them off to transnational corporations to reduce costs and raise funds to pay off many loans that were known from the beginning would be unpayable. The Greek people and their Parliament are losing more of their national sovereignty as more decisions are made by undemocratic entities outside their borders.

Debt has become the more preferred weapon (rather than tanks, planes and armies) to colonize other peoples and plunder national assets and treasures – all of which profits foreign corporations, including banks.  Economic austerity, social disintegration and loss of political power results.  It’s a growing phenomenon among many emerging market nations – and has its domestic equivalent in the U.S. Rising and unpayable debts are increasingly used to justify severe budget cuts, privatization/corporations of municipal or state assets and reduce the power and authority of democratically elected councils, mayors, legislatures and governors – and by extension by We the People.

1923 – BIRTH OF ALBERT BARTLETT, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” Bartlett was a leader on sustainability and this quote is from his lecture, ” Arithmetic, Population, and Energy” he first delivered on September 19, 1969.

 “Exponential growth requires exponential resources – which are finite. If we have no energy, we have no economy. The economy must grow but nonrenewal energy can’t grow since the environment is fixed.”

He makes the same statements here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY

1975 – DEATH OF RALPH HAWTREY, BRITISH ECONOMIST, FRIEND OF JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

“Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing.”

2023 – “RUSSIA SUPPORTS YUAN PAYMENTS IN TRADE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES – PUTIN” POSTED ARTICLE

“‘We support the use of Chinese yuan in payments between Russia and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America,’ the head of state said. The Russian leader also expressed confidence that such ‘forms of payments will be developed between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries.'”

https://tass.com/economy/1592277

MARCH 22

1832 – DEATH OF JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, GERMAN WRITER

“None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

2013 – “HOW THE MONEY SYSTEM IS DAMAGING BUSINESSES, SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT” VIDEO

Fran Boait, PhD, the Campaign and Operations Manager of Positive Money, presented about how the way money is created today damages our businesses, society and the environment at the Positive Money conference ‘Modernising Money’ (8 minutes)

2014 – “FEDERAL RESERVE 100 YEARS OF MONEY FOR NOTHING” VIDEO

[NOTE:Long but very informative]

MARCH 23

2009 – PUBLICATION OF PEOPLE’S BANK OF CHINA GOVERNOR ZHOU XIAOCHUAN’S PROPOSAL FOR REFORMING THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM

“’In the interest of international financial stability,’ Zhou proposed the creation of a new international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations, issued in accordance with agreed rules and stable in value. For this purpose he proposed to modify the IMF’s Special Drawing Right (SDR), a synthetic reserve asset and unit of account created by international agreement in 1969 to supplement official reserves of member countries and to support the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system.”

March 10 – 16

MARCH 10

1933 – LAST DAY OF “BANK HOLIDAY” DECLARED BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

The “holiday” meant that all banks would be closed from March 6-10 to prevent further runs by depositors. Bank failures were a result of earlier speculative investments and banks loaning out more money than they actually possessed (called “fractional reserve banking”). When too many people came to a bank at the same time wanting their deposits, the banks collapsed since they lacked sufficient assets. The bank “holiday” was meant to restore confidence in the banking system. At the conclusion of the “holiday,” 5% of all banks were unfit to continue business, many others only were permitted to accept deposits, while others permitted only a certain percentage of deposits to be withdrawn. Slightly more than 50% of all banks reopened with no withdrawal restrictions

MARCH 11

2000 – DOTCOM BUBBLE CRASH

The combined value of stocks on the NASDAQ was at $6.71 trillion on March 10. The market began crashing the next day. By March 30, the NASDAQ was valued at $6.02 trillion. It dropped to $5.78 trillion by April 6. Nearly a trillion dollars worth of stock value had evaporated in less than a month. What goes boom eventually goes bust in an economy with private control of the money system.

MARCH 12

1685 – BIRTH OF GEORGE BERKELEY, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CLOYNE IRELAND, PHILOSOPHER

Berkeley wrote The Querest in 1735. It was written as questions, which suggested their own answers. On whether money has inherent value, he asked/wrote: “Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a pledge as is variously suggested by writers?” On the evolution of exchange and money, “Whether in the rude original society the first step was not the exchanging of commodities, the next a substitution of metals by weight as the common medium of circulation, after this the making use of coin, lastly a further refinement by the use of paper with proper marks and signatures? And whether as it is the last so it be not the greatest improvement?  And whether money be not in truth tickets or tokens for conveying and recording such power, and whether it be of great consequence what materials the tickets are made of.”

2013 – “QUESTION FOR LIZ WARREN: HOW MANY SUBSIDIES DOES A ZOMBIE BANK NEED” PUBLISHED ARTICLE

“[T]he Fed is currently subsidizing the cost of funds for the US banking industry to the tune of about $90 billion per quarter or $360 billion annually.”  http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-03-12/question-liz-warren-how-many-subsidies-does-zombie-bank-need

2014 – “MONEY CREATION IN THE MODERN ECONOMY”  – VIDEO POSTING

Oxley, James. 2014. “Money creation in the modern economy – Quarterly Bulletin Article”

In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood: the principle way is through commercial banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.

2022 – HOW TO SPEND A TRILLION DOLLARS: OUR MONETARY HARDWIRING, WHY IT MATTERS, AND WHAT WE SHOULD DO ABOUT IT” – Harvard Public Law Working Paper

“A particular kind of hardwiring characterizes capitalism. That system amounts to the governing (constitutive) determination that the public medium of the economy – money – should be created by banks, predominantly banks operating for private profit. The determination is strange, indeed sui generis [unique], because governments can make money without any financial intermediary or involvement. Despite its anomalous nature, the banked design for creating the money supply has gone viral in the last three centuries. During that time, it has determined the way both private and public spending happens.”           

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4056241

MARCH 13

1943 – DEATH OF J.P MORGAN, JR, BANKER

JP (Jack) Morgan was the son and grandson of bankers who headed J.P. Morgan & Co., one of the most powerful banks in the nation. He struck a deal with the British and French governments to be the sole munitions and supplies purchaser during World War I, which earned the bank $30 million. The bank was so heavily tied to the British and French governments that it was charged Morgan politically pressured the US government to enter the war against Germany in order to rescue its loans.

MARCH 14

1782 – BIRTH OF THOMAS BENTON, US SENATOR, MISSOURI

“I object to the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States because I look upon the bank as an institution too great and powerful to be tolerated in a government of free and equal laws.  Its power is that of the purse, a power more potent than that of the sword, and this power it possesses to a degree and extent that will enable this bank to draw to it too much of the political power of this Union, and too much of the individual property of the citizens of these States.  The money power of the bank is both direct and indirect.”

1881 – INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT JAMES GARFIELD

“The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value.”

[Note: “coin” is a verb here, not a noun. Garfield was a Republican].

1900 – US GOLD STANDARD ACT APPROVED

The law established gold as the only metal standard for redeeming paper money. Banks wanted to maintain control of the money supply. President William McKinley (from Canton, Ohio), strongly backed by the nation’s major corporations, signed the Act. Whether gold and/or silver, backing money with metal moved the nation further away from the Greenbacks, the debt- and interest-free currency issued as credit, by the Lincoln administration.

2014 – “MONEY CREATION IN THE MODERN ECONOMY” Bank of England, Quarterly Bulletin, 2014, Q1

“In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood: the principal way is through commercial banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.”

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy

MARCH 15

1767 – BIRTH OF ANDREW JACKSON, SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the Bank and annul its charter. I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be a true, gentleman, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the Eternal, I will rout you out.” 1834

Jackson successfully opposed re-chartering the private “Second Bank of the United States.” He vetoed a bill in 1832 renewing the bank’s charter (license).

1985 – OHIO GOVERNOR DICK CELESTE DECLARES S&L “HOLIDAY”

Cincinnati, Ohio based Home State Savings Bank, a Savings & Loan, was about to collapse in March 1985 over its shady operations. As depositors lined up to withdraw their savings in a classic “run” on the bank’s branches, Celeste declared a bank “holiday.” He ordered all Savings & Loans closed in an attempt to stem the panic. Only those that were able to qualify for membership in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were allowed to reopen. Claims by Ohio S&L depositors drained the state’s deposit insurance funds.

2003 – QUOTE BY CHRISTOPHER MARK, AUTHOR OF THE GRAND DECEPTION: THE THEFT OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD, PART III

“Welcome to the world of the International Banker, who like the famous film, The Wizard of Oz, stands behind the curtain of orchestrated national and international policymakers and so-called elected leaders.”

2023 – “THE NEXT FINANCIAL CRISIS IS AROUND THE CORNER?” ONLINE ARTICLE BY GOVERT SCHULLER

“We know that the current monetary system is crisis-prone. We know that during the last big crisis in 2008 we skirted a total freeze-up and a possible break-down of the international banking system. We know that Wall Street was bailed-out and Main Street left to fend for itself. We know the system received some band-aids and was not re-set on a sound footing. And now we see another series of big booms and possible big busts, starting with the implosion of crypto-giant FTX in November 2022 and recently the bankruptcy of SVB…

“In the six years after the 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the monetary reform movement has attained far-reaching results in promoting breakthrough monetary theories, especially the credit creation theory of money and banking, and in proposing reform policies based on empirical findings and computer models…

“Our ideas are still spreading and are picked up in many countries to the extent that monetary reform organizations have been started. Even so, main stream economists, politicians and policy think tanks are resisting our findings or stay blissfully ignorant of them. Hopefully this half-panic around SVB’s downfall will create questions about the current crisis-prone, unsustainable monetary system and awaken the vision that a more stable, more equitable and less indebted system is possible.”

The Next Financial Crisis is around the Corner?

MARCH 16

1938 – HOUSE RESOLUTION (HR) 7230 INTRODUCED

John William Wright Patman, Democratic Congressman 1938-1978 and Chairman, Committee on Banking & Currency, introduces a bill to nationalize the Federal Reserve System.

“The Federal Reserve is a total moneymaking machine.  It can issue money or checks, and it never has a problem of making its checks good, because it can obtain the $5 or $10 bills necessary to cover its check simply by asking the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving to print them.” 1964

2008 – BEAR STEARNS FINANCIAL CORPORATION ACQUIRED BY JP MORGAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION

Bear Stearns financial corporation is acquired for $2 a share by JPMorgan Chase Corporation in a fire sale avoiding bankruptcy. The deal was backed by the Federal Reserve, which provided up to $30 billion to cover possible bank losses. Bear Stearns was a global institution that invested heavily in subprime loans. Its failure was one piece of the financial crisis and Great Recession.

[Note: The Fed is at it again. This week, it injected $1.5 trillion into the financial system – offering dirt-cheap overnight lending loans to banking corporations to keep it supposedly from blowing up. The problem is the whole financial system is a ponzi scheme based on creating money as debt forever and ever]

2013 – YOUTUBE UPLOAD OF TALK BY BEPPE GRILLO ON MONEY AND DEMOCRACY

Grillo is head of the “5 Star Movement” in Italy — a left-wing populist movement seeking political power. This guy understands money and how to democratize its creation and distribution. “Whom does the money belong to? Who does its ownership belong to? To the State, fine, so to us, we are the State… “You know that the State doesn’t exist, it is only a legal entity. We are the state, the money is ours… “Then tell me one thing: if the money belongs to us, why do they lend it to us?”

2013 – “MONEY, DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION: REVOLUTIONARY EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES” video posting

“This seminar explores the relationship between money and the legal formation of the modern liberal capitalist state, with a particular emphasis on the pre-Revolutionary and early United States. In contrast to conventional economic narratives that cast money as lubrication for existing forms of exchange, this event highlights the legal and political origins of our modern monetary system, and traces the influence of those forces on the shape of the modern economy. “Questions to be addressed include:

“How are monetary systems shaped by constitutional processes?

“How was the United States monetary system affected by the revolution and drafting of the U.S. Constitution?

“What impact does the legal structure of money have on the character of an economy?

“What insights do historical revolutionary debates about money provide on current economic problems?”

2016 – DUTCH PARLIAMENT ADOPTS MOTIONS TO INVESTIGATE MONEY CREATION

“On March 16th, the Dutch Parliament’s plenary assembly discussed the possibility of transitioning towards a sovereign monetary system and adopted two motions committing the government to carry out further research.

“About one year ago, more than 100,000 Dutch people signed a citizens’ initiative to make state issued digital cash into the political agenda of the Dutch Parliament. This success was the result of a fruitful cooperation between our sister organisation Ons Geld (translated ‘Our Money’) and a theatre group called ‘The Seducers (De Verleiders) which showed a play called “Taken by the bank“ which explains money creation…

“[T]he initiative was debated at the House during a three hours plenary session on March 16th.

The financial crisis has shown that leaving the creation of money to commercial financial institutions from lending leads to an unstable financial system. ‘The financial system is like a house of cards about to collapse,’ said spokesman for Our Money George van Houts.”

http://positivemoney.org/2016/03/dutch-parliament-adopts-motion-to-investigate-money-creation/

March 3 – 9

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 bank’s 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 – JUILLIARD 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 HATHAWAY 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

MARCH 5

1997 – SPEECH BY EARL OF CAITHNESS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, UK

“[I]t is also a good time to stand back, to reassess whether our economy is soundly based. I would contest that it is not, not for the reason to which the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, alluded, which is that it is the Government’s fault, but our whole monetary system is utterly dishonest, as it is debt-based. ‘Dishonest’ is a strong word, but a system which by its very actions causes the value of money to decrease is dishonest and has within it its own seeds of destruction…Governments…have abdicated their responsibility for producing new money and controlling the money supply so that now they are marginalized…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 – POSTED ARTICLE, “MMT FOR DUMMIES”

“In the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz about Modern Monetary Theory aka MMT. And most of what I’m seeing is reductionist to the point of absurdity. When I see critics of MMT talking about it, they’re mostly using MMT as a shorthand for saying ‘unbridled fiscal expansion without any concern for deficits’…

“I think this has been a very poor and uninformed debate. My guess is that it’s been sparked by the public policy views of people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, given the objections people have to her as a political figure. I could be wrong. But, as someone who’s been following this evolving conversation for several years, I thought I’d tell you how I see it.”

http://econintersect.com/pages/opinion/opinion.php?post=201903050116&fbclid=IwAR1rjmuZ9CP43cOOdHgTZS9lm7aLyieqM_SM9d6epRmC-fdlKGDvRXpEWng

MARCH 6

1933 — FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT ISSUED EXECUTIVE PROCLAMATION 2039 DECLARING A BANK “HOLIDAY”

The “holiday” meant that all banks would be closed from March 6-10 to prevent further runs by depositors. Bank failures were a result of earlier speculative investments and banks loaning out more money than they actually possessed (called “fractional reserve banking”). When too many people came to a bank at the same time wanting their deposits, the banks collapsed since they lacked sufficient assets. The bank “holiday” was meant to restore confidence in the banking system.

1926 – BIRTH OF ALAN GREENSPAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE US FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

“I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I’ve said.”

“Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?”

Mr. Greenspan conceded: “Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact…Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

2013 – TESTIMONY OF US ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER BEFORE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ON PROSECUTING LARGE BANKS

“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.” This from the chief law enforcement officer of a justice system that has practically abolished the constitutional right to trial for poorer defendants charged with certain crimes. It is not too much to say that Wall Street has virtually, if not actually, captured the federal government.

2013 — Video, “WHY DON’T ECONOMISTS UNDERSTAND MONEY?”

“Prof Victoria Chick, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University College London, addressed the question: “Why Don’t Academics Understand Money?” at the Positive Money conference in January 2013. She said there has been a regression in the way economics has been taught. This 18 mins video gives some very interesting insights.”

2020 — “PASSED RESOLUTION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” POSTING

“This RESOLUTION of the Alliance For Just Money, Inc., (Alliance or AFJM) is proposed and adopted to call upon the U.S. Congress, First, to establish a National Commission of Inquiry into the national money system of the United States of America; Second, to see that such a National Monetary Commission (NMC) is established with adequate enabling powers and authorities, including full funding, to inquire into and consider alternative systems, structures, and institutions to those of the present private Federal Reserve Banking System (FRBS); Third, to ensure that a monetary system of one-hundred percent public ownership, issuance, administration, and regulation of our national money, such as proposed in the 2011 NEED Act (H.R. 2990), is among the alternatives inquired upon, and, we hope, ultimately recommended; and, Fourth, to reinforce that all improvements to our national money system proposed by the NMC further the U.S. Constitution’s purpose, as set forth in its Preamble: “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

AFJM RESOLUTION for a National Monetary Commission (NMC)

MARCH 7

322 BC – DEATH OF ARISTOTLE

“Money exists not by nature but by law” (Ethics, 1133)

Aristotle understood that no natural substance qualifies as money. Rather, it’s governments that determine the definition of money.

1830 – BIRTH OF ERNEST SEYD – WORKED TO DE-MONETIZE SILVER

Seyd was a German-born British author, banker, and economist, particularly known for his expertise in coinage and foreign exchange

“I went to America in the winter of 1872 – 1873, authorized to secure, if I could, the passage of a bill demonetizing silver.  It was in the interests of those I represented, the governors of the Bank Of England, to have it done.  By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money.”

[Note: Passage of the “Coinage Act” of 1873 ended the ability of those with silver bullion to have it coined into silver dollars. This meant only gold holders were able to convert their bullion into money. Silver was becoming more plentiful due to western mining at that time. By preventing silver from being converted into money, a “gold standard” was created by default. Owners of gold – now the only source of commodity-based form of money – became even more powerful, both economically and politically – which are always interrelated.]

1976 – DEATH OF WRIGHT PATMAN, DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN FROM TEXAS, CHAIRMAN OF US HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING & CURRENCY (1965-75)

“When our Federal Government, that has the exclusive power to create money, creates that money and then goes into the open market and borrows it and pays interest for the use of its own money, it occurs to me that that is going too far. I have never yet had anyone who could, through the use of logic and reason, justify the Federal Government borrowing the use of its own money… I am saying to you in all sincerity and with all the earnestness that I possess, it is absolutely wrong for the Government to issue interest-bearing obligations. It is not only wrong; it is extravagant. It is not only extravagant, it is wasteful. It is absolutely unnecessary.

“Now, I believe the system should be changed. The Constitution of the United States does not give the banks the power to create money. The Constitution says that Congress shall have the power to create money, but now, under our system, we will sell bonds to commercial banks and obtain credit from those banks.

“I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with this Congress for sitting idly by and permitting such an idiotic system to continue. I make that statement after years of study.

“We have what is known as the Federal Reserve Bank System. That system is not owned by the Government. Many people think that it is, because it says `Federal Reserve’. It belongs to the private banks, private corporations. So we have farmed out to the Federal Reserve Banking System that is owned exclusively, wholly, 100 percent, by the private banks — we have farmed out to them the privilege of issuing the Government’s money. If we were to take this privilege back from them, we could save the amount of money that I have indicated in enormous interest charges.”

MARCH 8

1702 – DEATH OF WILLIAM III, KING OF ENGLAND

During his reign, a new corporation, the Bank of England, was chartered by the Parliament. Bank of England bank notes could now be loaned at interest and be accepted by the government for fees.

MARCH 9

1933 – CONGRESS PASSES EMERGENCY BANKING ACT

Among its provisions, the Act gave the President the ability to declare a national emergency and have absolute control over the national finances and foreign exchange of the United States. It also allowed for closing insolvent banks. The Act empowered the President during times of war or other emergency to regulate or prohibit the exporting, hoarding, melting or earmarking of gold and silver coin and bullion. All US residents were compelled to pay or deliver all gold (be it coins, bullion or certificates) to the Secretary of the Treasury. They were paid the market value for their gold in dollars. Shortly afterwards, the government significantly raised the price of gold, which in effect, reduced the value of the dollar.

2020 – MONETARY REFORM BRINGS TOGETHER ACTIVISTS FROM SEPARATE SILOS

“Last Monday March 9, three directors of the Alliance For Just Money (AFJM) presented some of the basics of monetary reform on The Access Hour, the weekly free-form radio space at WORT fm. WORT Back Porch Radio has been South Central Wisconsin’s strong and beloved listener-sponsored station since 1975.

“The goal of the show was to communicate two important points to progressive activists:

“First, that our flawed, privately owned monetary system underlies and impedes all their efforts, and second, that replacing that system with a public Just Money system can make the impossible possible. AFJM’s three participating directors themselves each came to monetary reform from different backgrounds.”

Monetary Reform Brings Together Activists from Separate Silos: AFJM’s First Amateur Radio Offering

2021 – BRIEF OF THIRTY-THREE BANKING LAW SCHOLARS ARGUED BEFORE THE U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

“Banking often involves lending, but mere lending does not constitute banking. When a bank makes a loan, it posts a credit in the amount of the loan to the borrower’s deposit account. It need not have any cash on hand. By contrast, before a nonbank lender can lend, it must procure cash or its equivalent. Thus, while nonbank lenders ‘deal’ in money, ‘banks do not merely deal in but are actually a source of money.’ This is a basic principle of economics. Bank deposits constitute

the bulk of our nation’s money supply, and it is for this reason that banks are subject to strict federal oversight.

Click to access 19-4271-Amicus-Brief-of-Banking-Law-Scholars.pdf

2023 – “MEET THE BANKER LADIES,” VIDEO

This zoom is open to the public and features solutions to issues of ‘banking while Black’ or racism in denying loans to people of color.

These women are creating their own banking cooperatives.

Learn how it works and celebrate their caring solidarity economy activism.

Following International Women’s Day, take an optimistic look at feminist economic solutions that are being created by those most affected by financial insecurity and predatory lending.

Guest speaker Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein PhD, Associate Professor of Global Development and Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough offers her unique understanding of how immigrant women and women in developing countries create their own alternative banking solutions and, in doing so, focus on mutual aid and support, rather than extracting interest and profiteering

WILPF.

February 25 – March 2

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 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…”

2018 – THE FUTURE OF MONEY,” SPEECH BY MARK CARNEY, GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

Speech to the inaugural Scottish Economics Conference, Edinburgh University

““Finally, and most significantly, the electronic deposits that commercial banks create when they extend loans to borrowers, accounting for fully 80% of money in the system.”

Footnote: “… the reality of how money is created often differs from that found in standard textbooks, and rather than banks receiving deposits when households save and then lending them out, bank lending creates deposits…”

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2018/mark-carney-speech-to-the-inaugural-scottish-economics-conference