Another 4th of July has passed, and we celebrated our Declaration of Independence from the tyranny of a mad Brit king. Let's proudly remember the victory a small group of dedicated, courageous men and women achieved against the world's most powerful military of their time.
It was a victory that appeared extremely improbable at best, as they pledged their lives to fight for its success. And as events and battles were fought, the possibility of a favorable outcome grew even smaller. But at the right moment, help from France turned the tide and the British were defeated.
They were defeated militarily, but not monetarily. For soon after the Constitution was ratified, in 1791, the first Bank of the United States, a privately owned and privately controlled central bank, was put through Congress by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, modeled on the private Bank of England. The gang around that bank was more dangerous than King George III, and the Hamilton people thereby insinuated into the New World forces representing the most evolved secular form that evil had attained in the Old World -- a privately controlled Central Bank. Thanks a lot, Hamilton!
Jefferson fought the bank, helping to bring it down, and Burr killed Hamilton over public insults; but privately issued money gained a foothold in America. It's still here, in control of our monetary system. It's the root cause of most of our social and economic problems. Whenever it caused crises in the past, our government had to come to the rescue. Its latest atrocity is the current monetary, banking and economic crisis, threatening to take the entire world economy down into depression, and destroy the lives of billions of people in the process.
The bankers' madness must end now -- we must complete the monetary part of our declaration. This crisis gives us our only opportunity to reform our monetary system and eliminate the private creation of money; to eliminate the privilege banks have to create our money supply when they extend loans; to eliminate using debt for money; to establish our nation's full sovereignty.
The American Monetary Institute has published its research results in the book The Lost Science of Money (drawn from a study of over 800 monetary books and sources). The first 23 chapters focus on the monetary case studies from Aristotle forward. The final chapter summarizes what those studies teach us and how that should be applied to solving today's dilemma. The American Monetary Act (and Kucinich's HR 2990) puts that plan into legislative form.
Each September (20-23 in 2012) we hold a monetary reform conference at University Center in Chicago where activists and advanced monetary researchers present talks and programs on monetary reform. You can see the speakers here.
HR 2990 is legislation which fundamentally reforms the private credit/debt system now wrecking our nation, and the World, replacing it with a government money system.
How is this done? The Federal Reserve is dismantled. The few necessary parts become incorporated into the U.S. Treasury. Banks no longer have the accounting privilege of creating our money supply. All their previously issued credit is converted into U.S. money through an elegant and gentle accounting change, which has been described as brilliant by a former officer of the NY Fed. The banks are held accountable for this conversion.
New money is then introduced by the government spending it into circulation for infrastructure, starting with the $2.2 trillion the engineers tell us is needed to properly maintain our infrastructure over the next 5 years. Infrastructure will include the necessary human infrastructure of health care and education.
Banks are encouraged to continue lending as profit making companies, but are no longer allowed to create our money supply through special accounting privileges.
Thus, the American Monetary Act nationalizes the money system, not the banking system. Banking is absolutely not a proper function of government, but providing the nation's money supply is a key function of government. No one else can do it properly. Talk of nationalizing the banking business may really act like a poison pill to block real reform. Talk of having states go into banking is even worse, since it further legitimizes the pernicious fractional reserve system, instead of fixing the problem by ending it.
Despite prejudice against government, most people are surprised to learn that history shows government has a far superior record in controlling the money system than private controllers have. And yes that includes the Continental Currency, the Greenbacks, and even the German Hyperinflation (which, by the way, took place under a completely privatized German central bank!).
Our present malformed banking and money system is crying out for reform, not merely regulation. It has visibly brought the world economy to its knees, it has concentrated wealth to obscene levels, and it now places the future development of humanity at risk.
While the French played a key part at the start of our nation, their gift to us of the Statue of Liberty still plays a crucial role for us. The liberty she symbolizes does not exist in our nation. It never really has. The Statue has always been a symbol encouraging us towards the possible. I love that statue, and when I lived in New York, I often anchored my motor boat under it. Some of my fondest memories are of those times as the sun set over New Jersey, reflecting off the still standing Twin Towers; or anchored under the spectacular fireworks display there during the bicentennial celebration.
Edited by Patrick Notaro
Stephen Zarlenga is director of the American Monetary Institute and author of The Lost Science of Money. Meet him at the 8th Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference!
Notaro is a researcher for the American Monetary Institute.