MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR May 30 - June 5

MAY 30

1908 – ALDRICH-VREELAND ACT SIGNED BY PRESIDENT TEDDY ROOSEVELT
The Act established the National Monetary Commission recommending the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating the Federal Reserve System, the current private central bank (actually 12 banks to give the appearance of decentralization of economic power and control) of the US. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act was passed in response to the economic Panic of 1907 of bank failures. The Panic was manufactured by JP Morgan and other bankers who had been the target of Roosevelt’s trust busting efforts through more aggressive enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Through manipulating the stock market, calling in loans and not granting new ones, Morgan severely contracted the nation’s money supply. Thousands of banks were overextended. An economic crash followed. The Panic of ’07 was the pretext used to end the nation’s system of decentralized private banking by creating a system of centralized private banking – the Federal Reserve System.

JUNE 3

1864 – PASSAGE OF NATIONAL BANK ACT
This Act superceded the National Bank Act of 1863. Both Acts were pushed by bankers and their supporters to undercut Greenbacks. A system of nationally chartered, private/corporate banks was established and expanded. These new national banks were provided with virtually tax-free status and subsidized through purchasing of government bonds with discounted Greenbacks. These banks were permitted to then create “US Bank Notes” (debt-based money) which entered the money supply – to be used in payment of taxes and duties only. This system enriched banks and worked to wean the US away from Greenbacks (debt free money). The Act limited the issuance of Greenbacks to $300 million.

JUNE 4

1910 – BIRTH OF ROBERT B. ANDERSON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY UNDER PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
"When a bank makes a loan it simply adds to the borrowers deposit account in the bank by the amount of the loan. The money is not taken from anyone else's deposit; it was not previously paid in to the bank by anyone. It's new money, created by the bank for the use of the borrower."

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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.
This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html

Explaining Conservative Support Among “Ordinary People”.

Only 39.7% of voters, or 24% of the Canadian population supported the right wing Conservative Party in the last Canadian general election. The base for this party consists of religious extremists, but these make up only about 10% of the population. Then there are the five percent of the wealthy and near-wealthy who naturally vote Conservative, since their policies allow them to skim-off ever more of societies riches. Ideologically-rooted haters and greed creeps are the natural basis for far right parties. But how does one explain the support the remaining 9% of the population, neither cultists nor rich, give to the Conservatives? How to explain the support given by people who will be directly harmed by much right-wing legislation?

In order to explain this seeming contradiction we have to examine four factors:

1. education and culture

2. alienation

3. social psychology

4. age, gender and ethnic factors

Education and Culture

Regardless of the formal level of education, this is a group that is not well educated nor has a particularly high level of culture. Our schools do not teach people to think critically and to argue rationally. Thus, the uneducated do not discuss and debate, but mutually reinforce their prejudices. Anyone who steps out of line is either shouted down or ignored. They do not recognize a rational argument and thus are easily bamboozled by the strings of fallacies spouted by right-wing politicians. This is made doubly easy since these politicians pander to their prejudices.

Their culture consists of kitsch, corporate mass culture, or at best a philistine adoration of the “classics.” Anything beyond that is deemed “highbrow”. “modern”, or “intellectual” and thus not worthy of consideration. Attempts to raise the general cultural level or to introduce critical ideas are seen as a threat, and thus right-wing politicians who seek to cut back on government support for the arts get the backing of the culturally unsophisticated.

Alienation

Right-wing voters tend to be suburbanites. They do not live in communities, but are isolated in the suburbs, and even when connections are made, they tend to be with people similar to themselves. Isolated, with their only window of the world being the TV, they are subject to the fears and prejudices whipped up by the mass media. They don't encounter the people thus demonized, so only have the media stereotypes to go on. This situation, combined with prejudices they have inherited from their parents, leads to the creation of an unconscious “hate list”. We all know their list - tree huggers, anarchists, trade unionists, protesters, feminists, leftists, hippies, intellectuals etc. If a right-wing politician can tar his opponents as such or promise to harm the individuals on this list, he has the vote of the alienated suburbanite in his pocket. A certain amount of the right wing vote is simply a desire for revenge against other citizens deemed unworthy or a threat.

Social Psychology

Most of these people will have been brought up in an authoritarian manner. They react to this in two ways: They identify with the dominators, desire a “strong leader” and hence are open to someone as anti-democratic as Harper. Their attitude toward people deemed “beneath them” (remember the hate list) is that of the bully. (The idea that “these people ought to be suppressed.”)

One important result of an authoritarian upbringing is denial as a life-long procedure when faced with an unpleasant reality. Generally, their personal lives are ruled by denial, not just the political realm. Hence, when disasters result from right-wing policies, these are denied outright, or they latch on to a conspiracy theory to get them off the hook.

It seems that denial is not only a function of a repressive upbringing, but is inherent in the way we think. Neuroscientists have come up with a “theory of motivated reasoning” which helps explain the persistence of irrational beliefs. Our reasoning process is overlaid with emotional content. These emotions are what arise first, in advance of the reasoning process, when someone is confronted with an idea or situation. Our emotions bias us in advance. This works for everyone, progressive or reactionary. Since right-wingers have such a long and bitter catalogue of biases, I suggest that “motivated reasoning” leading to denial plays a much greater part in their decision making process than with left-wingers. (1)

Since the 1960's, old-fashioned authoritarianism has been augmented by narcissism. Old fashioned authoritarianism had the benefit of encouraging modesty and projecting an air of solidity and decency – even though those at the top were free to build their pretentious mansions and engage in their orgies. Today, modesty, solidity and decency fly out the door. Suburbanites simply must have their tacky McMansions and all the consumer goods that go with them. And they must have it all now, not ten years down the road like their parent's generation.

People who are insecure about themselves, something which authoritarian parenting mass produces - tend to substitute things to make up for that lost sense of worth. They will buy houses and cars that are more expensive than they can afford in order to project to the outside world that they are “somebody”.

All these obese houses and expensive toys mean a massive debt, which in turn creates a great deal of financial insecurity which right-wing demagogues freely prey upon.

Those of us who oppose this narcissistic consumer lifestyle are seen as a threat. Building houses for the less-fortunate or encouraging public transit are seen as “lowering property values” and “raising taxes.” Once again, the demagogues can read off their hate list of “cyclists, urban elitists, environmentalists” etc. and the narcissists gobble it up like Pablum.

Age, Gender and Ethnic Factors.

Polls taken during the election showed that youth aged 18-25 overwhelmingly rejected the Conservatives. Women too, though not to the same extent. Nor was there any of the much-touted “breakthrough” among “ethnic” groups. The real basis of Conservative support consists of white men over age 50, Micheal Moore's “Stupid White Men.” There is much sense to this rejection by youth, women and minorities. When these Stupid White Men are rotting in their graves, today's youth will be suffering the dire consequences of all the cut-backs and piratizations, not to mention climate change and peak oil. Women are generally raised to have empathy and are thus not so attracted to the sociopathic concept that only corporations matter and people don't. People of colour would be fools to support the party that contains most of Canada's racists, even though they pretend not to be.

A Couple of Fallacies to Clear Up

The Conservative support from the over-fifties seems to clash with the vision of the “radical Sixties Generation.” Some pundits will trot this fact out as an example of how people supposedly become conservative in their old age. But this is not the case at all, since the counter-culture and New Left radicals were only a minority of their generation. The vast majority of 60s rads are still there in the social movements or at least support them. Since the radicals got all the attention (and had all the fun) the conservative wing of the Sixties Generation has never forgiven its left-wing cohorts. Part of the present attack can be seen as a kind of revenge of the losers.

We will undoubtedly be told that today's NDP-supporting, anti-Conservative youth will go right when they get older. This ignores the fact that politics are based upon deeply-held values. These values, such as empathy or the lack of it, tend, in the case of the former, to direct one to a progressive stance, and the latter to reactionary politics. Furthermore, your moral compass is usually permanently aligned by about age 18 or 20. Thus, if you have empathy at 18, you are most likely to have empathy at age 50. If as a youth, you regard selfishness as a virtue, you are likely to do so in old age as well.

1. Cynics and reactionary apologists will claim that leftists are full of biases as well. But there are biases and biases. It is rational for a leftist to be biased toward Nazis – they are violent, racist, antisemitic brutes. It is not rational for a rightist to hate anti-war pacifists, people who wouldn't hurt a flea. Right wing hate lists are the result of the systematic demonizing of groups and individuals, and are not the result of rational analysis.

End of the World? It's Still Here, Sickos!

The Rupture, er Rapture, I mean, never came off. Must be a lot of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Christofascist set. Imagine being upset because the World didn't end. Upset because billions of “non-believers”, plus all those innocent plants and animals, weren't destroyed by earthquake and fire. Has there ever been a more depraved and evil belief system than this? Even vicious dictators don't want to kill everyone and everything.

This belief system, rooted in hate, revenge and the most appalling sin of pride (I am saved, you aren't!) is nothing short of criminal insanity and ought to be treated as such.

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR May 16-29

MAY 17

1787 – LAUNCH OF SHAY’S REBELLION
A revolt of farmers in Western Massachusetts which spread to other states fueled by the rise of personal and public taxes and debt and the collapse of any legitimate federal currency.

1901 – FINANCIAL PANIC
The first stock market crash in the US. It was caused by large investors speculating on railroad stocks. Thousands of small investors were ruined.

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.” Its headquarters are 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 and increase in the money supply."

MAY 23

1933 – ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT PRESENTED IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AGAINST THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD OF GOVERNORS , THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANKS, THE US SECRETARY OF TREASURY AND OTHERS FOR THEIR COLLUSION IN CAUSING THE GREAT DEPRESSION.
The Articles of Impeachment were introduced by US Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. McFadden stated,

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

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

MAY 24

1924 – DEATH OF CHARLES LINDBERGH, REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN (MN) AND FATHER OF FAMED AVIATOR
"This [Federal Reserve] Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the president signs this bill, the invisible government by the monetary power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed, the worst legislative crime of the ages perpetrated by this bank bill."

“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money."

MAY 29

1998 – DEATH OF BARRY GOLDWATER, REPUBLICAN SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money."

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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.
This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html

125 Years of Corporate Personhood is Enough!

125 years, 125,000 signatures

In May 1886 United States Supreme Court clerk J.C. Bancroft Davis, former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company, inserted a headnote

to the United States Reports pertaining to the Court’s decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company.

Thus with out a formal court ruling, this simple act set a precedent and effectively established corporations as legal persons entitled to the same rights as living, breathing persons under the 14th amendment.

What has followed is 125 years of case law giving corporations Constitutional Rights leading to the destruction of our democracy at the hands of greedy corporations. The most recent, of course, is the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission that opened the floodgates of corporate money in elections. From the environment, energy, and healthcare to jobs, education and the economy, the greed of big multi-national corporations is laying waste to the American dream, and our democracy.

The 125th anniversary of the Santa Clara Railroad case is upon us. As an signer of the Move to Amend petition, I hope you’ll mark this anniversary by signing the petition at Move to Amend.org . Our shared goal is to collect 125, 000 signatures for the 125th anniversary of corporate personhood.

We must come together to reclaim our democracy for living, breathing, people by eliminating corporate personhood through Constitutional amendment.

Whatever issue arises, at its root you’ll find a corporation standing between “we the people” and the solution. If we are to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity,” then we must put an end corporate personhood.

Please sign the Motion to Amend .

Election 2011 - The Failure of Canadian Politics

None of the major parties talked about the real issues facing us. Yes, the NDP and the Greens said good things about climate change and the need for sustainability, but neither were willing to stand up and shout the whole truth.

The truth is, Peak Oil is happening. We only have a few years left before the era of Happy Motoring is a thing of the past. Right now we should be planning for a future with a lot less automobiles, planes, imported food, cheap junk from China, etc. Couple this with Climate Change. The level of planning, organization and mobilization to deal with these twin crises ought to be about the same level as that of fighting the Second World War.

The second truth has to do with the global economy. No one really knows what might happen with it. Peak oil makes any sustained recovery very unlikely. Patting yourself on the back, that Canada is somehow disconnected from this crisis, is insanity. Not talking turkey about the crisis is foolish in the extreme. We should be preparing people for economic stagnation (or worse) and proposing ways of dealing with it that cause the least suffering for the populace.

The third truth has to do with our neighbour, the USA. Their empire is in rapid decline and they are descending into a possible collapse situation like that of the former USSR. To chain ourselves politically and economically to this Titanic of a country is suicidal. Furthermore, if collapse does come about there may well be civil unrest in the US and Americans will come pouring across our borders.

The fourth truth has to do with the Canadian military. The fact is, we have no enemies, nor are there even any potential enemies looming on the horizon. Armies are also useless for fighting terrorists. No one is willing to ask “Why do we need it ?” – or at least “why do we need it in its present form?” We do need search and rescue, we do need a force to help out in disasters and we need our coasts patrolled. In terms of fire power, a genuine truly defensive force would be a Swiss-style citizen guerrilla army. All of these functions combined would be vastly less expensive than our present military and would have the advantage that it would be impossible for our armed forces to be embroiled in US imperial adventures such as in Afghanistan. But there was not so much as a whisper about this in the campaign.

The failure to talk about the real issues, and the bleak outlook that any politician in the future is willing to discuss these problems, leaves me with one conclusion. - the system is so set up that cannot respond to in a rational way to disasters looming on the horizon. If a system can no longer respond rationally to the problems it creates it has become decadent.

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR May 9-15

MAY 10

1729 – PENNSYLVANIA PASSES PAPER CURRENCY ACT
Pennsylvania was one of the first colonies to issue their own paper money to facilitate exchange to offset the lack of British pounds in circulation. By 1755, all 13 colonies had issued some form of colonial currency.

On colonial issued currency, Benjamin Franklin said,
"This effect of paper currency is not understood in England. And indeed the whole is a mystery to the politicians how we have been able to continue a war for four years without money and how we could pay with paper that had no previously fixed fund appropriated specifically to redeem it. This currency...is a wonderful machine. It performs its office when we issue it and when we are obliged to issue a quantity excessive, it pays itself off by depreciation."

1775 – CONTINENTAL CONGRESS ISSUES “CONTINENTALS”
The Continental Congress voted to issue $200 million in paper money, “continental currency” or “continentals”, to finance the American Revolution. The money was essential since British pounds were in short supply. The currency lost much of their value during the war due to the flooding of British counterfeit “continentals” as a means to destroy the colonial economy. Inflation was also due to continentals being used to fund war purchases rather than socially and economically useful goods and services. Nevertheless, the colonial currency served its purpose in allowing the colonies to economically and militarily resist and defeat the most powerful nation on earth.

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, c1948.)

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 excercised 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."

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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.
This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html

Ohio House Budget Favors Corporations and Wealthy

Many corporate and wealthy investors to the Governor and Republican Ohio House members celebrated yesterday. And it wasn’t because it was Cinco de Mayo. Rather, the Ohio House passed a budget bill that will, if enacted, directly benefit corporations and wealthy Ohioans.

Business corporations received (appropriate on Cinco de Mayo) five legislative piñatas by the Ohio House stuffed with potential windfalls for various business corporations.

1. Leasing liquor sales. Ohioans like to drink alcohol. Liquor sales is very profitable for the state. The House bill calls for leasing liquor distribution operations to a corporation. The money from the lease will be used to fund the already privatized (“corporatized” is a more descriptive term) JobsOhio — the corporate entity created earlier this year meant to replace the public Ohio Department of Development. JobsOhio itself is unconstitutional ( see http://createrealdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/unconstitutional-jobs-law.html ). A lawsuit was filed recently by Progress Ohio challenging the constitutionality of JobsOhio. You knew liquor would be involved in this bill passed on this day in some way!

2. Charter schools. The Ohio bill permits more charters across the state and for-profit corporations to launch and operate charters without the oversight of a sponsor. Charter advocate and head of White Hat Management corporation, Akronite David Brennan, is a major political contributor/investor to Republicans. If this provision stands, he got much more than his moneys worth.

3. Cut funding for local governments. The House bill slashes $555 million in the Local Government Fund over the next two years. This compounds cuts from other state sources (including the estate tax) and the federal government. Local governments will be increasingly forced to consider corporatizing local services — which would benefit a variety of corporations all too willing to take over water, sewer, parking, trash and many other services.

4. Corporatize prisons and turnpike. Governor Kasich had originally called for corporatizing five Ohio prisons....an appropriate number for the day the bill passed. One more was added in the House bill. The estimated take by the state is $200 million. Prisons are very profitable businesses across the country. The history of corporate prisons is a history of corners cut (i.e. reduction of staff and services) to increase profits. A former Kasich congressional chief of staff and longtime advisor, Don Thibaut, is now a lobbyist. A new client is Corrections Corporations of America (CCA), one of the major corporate operator of prisons in the nation. CCA operates one federal prison in Ohio, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown. That facility has had a host of safety issues over the years, including murders and stabbings.

Separately, the bill empowers the Governor to explore over the next two years selling or leasing a real state financial jewel — the Ohio Turnpike.

5. Drilling for oil and gas in state parks. An amendment to the House bill to ban drilling for oil and gas in Ohio’s state parks was defeated. The ban would have covered the highly risky type of horizontal gas drilling known as “fracking.” Out-of-state gas and oil drilling corporations have rushed into the state recently vying for the “right” to drill on farmland, backyards and state parks above both the Marcellus and Utica shale gas formations. Gas drilling could yield tens of billions, if not more, for gas drilling corporations.

These corporate interests weren’t the only winners in the House budget bill. The wealthy benefited in at least two ways.

1. Abolishes the estate tax. Only 7% of all estates in Ohio are taxed — those valued over $338,000. The House bill eliminates the tax altogether starting in 2013. It’s ironic that many, if not most, who supported this measure also talk about how people should be economically rewarded for their own success and not simply live off the dole of others.

2. No tax increases. There was no mention in the House bill of closing any portion of the $8 billion state budget gap by raising taxes on the wealthy. The term “progressive tax” has virtually disappeared from political discourse. This despite the fact that Sociologist William Domhoff in his recent update of Who Rules America documents that the richest 10% people in this country own 98.5% of all financial securities. The middle class, working class and poor will all have to make sacrifices under this budget. The richest 5-10% of Ohioans can certainly contribute their part.

All in all, corporations and the wealthy did very well under the House bill. It next goes to the Senate.

In the immediate term, resistance to these measures must take the form of pressuring your State Senator. Contact yours at http://www.ohiosenate.gov/

In the longer term, corporations and the wealthy will continue to get their way so long as corporations continue to have constitutional "rights" (including political "Free Speech") and money is constitutionally defined as speech. Move to Amend seeks to abolish both notions and affirm that corporations are not people and money is not speech. To sign the Move to Amend peititon calling for a constitutional amendment addressing both counts, go to http://movetoamend.org

Reducing U.S. Debt and Creating Jobs Through Public Control of Our Money System

by Stephen Zarlenga
Coauthored by Greg Coleridge
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zarlenga/reducing-us-debt-and-crea_b_857230.html

For all the boisterous talk and debate by Congressional leaders of both parties and the President about the many ways to reduce our nation's deficit and debt while maintaining vital services and programs, there continues to be a roaring silence about a solution that has nothing to do with the budget. It has to do, rather, with our nation's monetary system.

Be it for ignorance or by intention, few federal elected officials have examined how a change in the way money in our nation is created and issued could reduce our nation's deficit and debt and, in doing so, increase millions of vital jobs to transform our economy.

One of the few exceptions is Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who during the last Congressional session introduced H.R. 6550, The National Emergency Employment Defense Act. A revised version is expected to be soon reintroduced. Americans would be wise to rally behind it.

The basis of the bill are three essential monetary measures proposed by the American Monetary Institute in their American Monetary Act (AMA). The AMA's recommendations are based on decades of research and centuries of experience; are designed to end the current fiscal crisis in a just and sustainable way, and are aimed to place the U.S. money system under our constitutional system of checks and balances.

The three essential measures include:

1. Moving the mostly private Federal Reserve System under the US Treasury Department. The Fed would no longer be a virtual fourth branch of government, unaccountable to the public. Their important financial research functions would continue. But the Fed would no longer make unilateral monetary policy decisions beyond the reach of We the People.
2. Making the power to issue money a public function -- bypassing the current system which invited the careless and risky lending that led to the global economic crisis. The U.S. government would be authorized to issue dollars debt free. This power would replace the current undemocratic and unstable "fractional reserve" system in which money is created as debt through loans by financial corporations who lend many more times what they possess. Banks would no longer have this privilege to create our money supply!
3. Enabling the U.S. government to use its money power -- creating and spending money into circulation -- to address pressing infrastructure needs such as repairing our crumbling roads, bridges, rails and highways. The government also would be enabled to invest in health care and education. These projects would provide a huge numbers of jobs without going into debt and having to repay interest on debt to financial institutions. Economist Kaoru Yamaguchi's computer model has shown that a public-based money system and spending government money on jobs fixing our infrastructure is the best form of economic growth.

The irony is that these three provisions would institutionalize what most Americans falsely believe already exists: That the Federal Reserve is public. That banks only loan money that they possess. That the government creates our money. Wrong on all counts.

Decades of distortion and deception can be remedied by this bill. Public control of the money system is not a new practice. The American colonists issued "Continentals" and the Lincoln administration "Greenbacks" to fund the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, respectively -- all debt and interest free. More than 200 prominent economists during the Great Depression of the 1930s developed and endorsed "The Chicago Plan" -- which declared that only the government should create money -- to address that crisis.

Ask your U.S. representative to cosponsor this act when it is reintroduced. Ask your two U.S. senators to contact Rep. Kucinich about becoming a Senate sponsor. This bill alone cannot solve all our current economic problems. But it will end the private/corporate control of what should profoundly be a public democratic function of any society -- issuing the nation's money. Maybe more importantly, the act will serve as a beacon of hope to a beleaguered citizenry who are seeking long-term solutions to unemployment, debt, crumbling infrastructure, and need to take power over their lives and their society.

Zarlenga is director of the American Monetary Institute and author of The Lost Science of Money. Coleridge is director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee.

Canadian Election 2011 - our "1933 Moment"

So the psychopaths got their majority. Now they can start dismantling all those remaining hated social democratic aspects of our society and turn us into a Third World country - now we can be just like the USA, the Harpercrits long term dream. Now they can freely terrorize cannabis smokers, impose crack pot religious ideas upon us, glory in war and corporate welfare, destroy the CBC, slowly privatize health care and so forth. But at the same time one must remember that only 40% of the population supported this wrecking crew, and most of that group are old, alienated and ignorant. The young do not support the far right, period. A sad commentary on our pseudo-democracy that 40% can bully the other 60%. What a sad commentary on our pseudo-democracy that all the major papers but one backed the Cons.

At the same time, this election marks a sharp turn to the left with the NDP making huge gains and the Greens apparently electing their first MP. Furthermore, much of this left comes from Quebec and while the rest of the country are candy- asses, the Quebecois will fight back and then some. We are in for a rough ride boys and girls. There are going to be some real brawls ahead. Judging by what our Fuehrer did at the G20 we can count on violence being done to us.

There is one other positive aspect to this otherwise nightmare scenario. When the global economy does its double dip, when the Canadian real estate bubble pops, the Harpercrits will be the ones holding the bag. The country will then become ungovernable.

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR May 2-8

MAY 5

1821 – DEATH OF NAPOLEAN BONAPARTE
“Money has no motherland, financiers are without patriotism or decency; their sole object is gain”


MAY 7

1873 – DEATH OF SALMON P. CHASE, US TREASURY SECRETARY
“My agency in procuring the passage of the National Bank Act was the greatest financial mistake of my life. It has built up a monopoly that affects every interest in the country. It should be repealed. But before this can be accomplished, the people will be arrayed on one side and the banks on the other in a contest such as we have never seen in this country."

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



Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.
This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html

May Day! Our Unemployment Crisis

There may be no better day of the year than May 1 (May Day) to call attention to the plight of the unemployed...and to demand dramatic actions from our public officials to create jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the March U-6 unemployment rate was 15.7%. The U-6 rate includes total unemployed, plus persons unemployment no longer looking for work, plus total part time employed for economic reasons. Rates for people of color and youth are much higher. The unemployment rate during the Great Depression, by comparison, was 25%.

Fewer employed means less money in the pockets of millions of people who, as consumers, form the backbone (70%) of the US economy. Fewer dollars to spend translates to fewer purchases, fewer businesses who produce goods and services and fewer workers in those businesses. It’s a vicious circle. Conditions are dire when even Wall-Mart is having a hard time – an April 28 report says shoppers are purchasing less at the end of each month as money is running out at a faster clip.

We can thank both corporate and government policies for the rise in unemployment.

On the corporate side, the movement of corporate capital abroad has left tornado-like wreckage in community after community – including many in Ohio – as companies moved production facilities to low-wage and low-regulation nations. Investment in technology is the other major corporate cause for unemployment. Machines of all shapes, sizes and sophistication yielded more production with fewer workers. Productivity has never been higher. The number of workers needed to produce so much stuff has never been lower.

On the government sides, tax policies that favor the wealthy over everyone else has resulted in a rich-poor gap of near historic proportions. Sociologist William Domhoff in his recent update of Who Rules America documents that the richest 10% people in this country own 98.5% of all financial securities. The rich, super-rich and super-duper-rich squirrel away and speculate their riches. No matter how many Lexuses, yachts, mansions and Guccis purchased, they don’t come close to the collective purchases of middle and lower class people with the same amount of dollars in their pockets. Fewer overall consumer purchases translates to fewer workers needed in the real economy. Federal spending to bail out banks and other financial institutions in the trillions (that’s with a “t”) at the expense of homeowners and spending on unnecessary military weapons, foreign military bases and wars and occupations in an ever growing number of foreign nations are both massive misuses of funds that provide fewer jobs per dollar spent than on just about any other federal program. Compounding these causes were Federal Reserve monetary policies that scraped regulations, encouraged bank leverage, and actively promoted bank speculation using money created as debt by banks out of thin air. The resulting economic collapse caused millions of home foreclosures and pink slips to workers.

Coxey’s Army

On May Day in 1894, Jacob Coxey stepped onto the grounds of the US Capital in Washington, DC. A day earlier, this businessman and social reformer along with 500 unemployed laborers completed a march from Coxey’s home in Massillon, Ohio. “Coxey’s Army,” as it came to be known, had marched for jobs. The economic Panic of 1893 was followed by a severe depression. Coxey and his fellow marchers had waged a “petition in boots” war against unemployment, demanding a federal public works jobs program.

The means for funding the program by this “petition in boots” was unique.
- It didn’t call on the government to raise taxes.
- It didn’t advocate for shifting funds from one part of government to another.
- Nor did it call for the government to borrow the cost of the program, $500 million, from bankers – which would have to be repaid with interest – lining the pockets of the bankers.

Coxey and his Army called, instead, for the US Treasury to directly print and issue $500 million to employ 4 million people. Specifically, they 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.

"Money exists not by nature but by law," Aristotle said. Unbeknownst to most people, the colonists issued “”Continentals” and the Lincoln Administration “Greenbacks” to fund the Revolutionary and Civil wars respectively – all debt and interest free. More than 200 prominent economists during the Great Depression developed and endorsed “The Chicago Plan” – which declared that only the government should create money – to address the economic crisis.

Whatever is used as money attains its worth and credibility when it’s accepted by society. "We the people” should have ultimate democratic authority to issue and circulate money, not banks or bankers. The issuance of money should be democratized. Inflation won’t result if public money is spent on needed goods and services (as opposed to wars and financial speculation).

Unfortunately, our current money system is privatized and corporatized. Private banks and the Federal Reserve create more than 95 percent of all our money. It is created literally "out of thin air" by banks and bankers as loans (debt) for their own gain, regardless of society's needs. Banks can loan $10 for every $1 held in reserve. We see how well they’ve done in this dictatorial money system.

Call for Nationwide Jobs Program

May Day 2011 is a fine time to (re)think and (re)commit to creating jobs. Current political fixation on deficits and debts are diversions from our unemployment crisis. Rising stock markets and corporate profits mean nothing if millions who want a job don’t have one. The corporate sector isn’t creating the jobs necessary to remedy unemployment.

A bold plan to create a public program of good paying jobs is called for. Funding for it can come from three sources.

1. Increased taxes on the wealthy.
2. Cuts in the military budget.
3. Issuing public money.

Much in progressive circles have been written on the first two options but little on the third.

US Rep. Dennis Kucinich in the last Congress introduced the National Emergency Employment Defense Act, HR 6550. Public issuance of $2.2 trillion to hire millions of people to repair our nation’s infrastructure is one of the 3 major provisions of the bill. The other two are to democratize the Federal Reserve by moving it under the authority of the Treasury Department and ending the ability of banks to create money out of thin air.

The beauty and irony of Kucinich’s bill, to be reintroduced this year, is that these three provisions would institutionalize what most of the public believes already exists – that the Federal Reserve is public, that banks only loan money that they possess, and that the government creates our money.

Encourage your Congressperson to learn about and cosponsor Kucinich’s bill when it is reintroduced this year. Ask your two US Senators to contact Rep. Kucinich about becoming a Senate sponsor. Your Senators and Congressperson need to know about this bill.

Reordering our tax and spending policies are certainly important avenues for freeing up resources for job creation and moving us toward a more sane and humane society. But don’t ignore our monetary system. Democratizing our money system is not only important to remedy unemployment. It’s critical as well in taking democratic charge of our entire economy. And without real economic justice, political justice is unattainable.