- On Thursday, April 23, 2009, Stephen Zarlenga, director
of the American Monetary Institute (AMI), delivered two briefings on Capitol
Hill on the American Monetary Act that AMI drafted and that may be introduced
as legislation during the current congressional session. This single measure
has the potential of bringing together the tens of millions of people who
have realized it's our bank-run debt-based monetary system that lies at
the center of the financial rot that is destroying our republic and its
values.
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- Attending the briefings were congressional staffers and
members of the public. Zarlenga was introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
(D-OH), who has spoken in favor of wholesale reform of the monetary system
on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Kucinich is also sponsor
of H.R. 7260, the "Transparency in the Creation of Wealth Act of 2008."
This act would require the Federal Reserve to resume reporting on the quantity
of M3 in the economy (mega-money accessible only to large financial institutions),
along with several other economic indicators it now keeps to itself, such
as total credit market debt and the holding of Federal Reserve notes by
foreign interests.
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- Stephen Zarlenga is author of The Lost Science of Money
(American Monetary Institute, 2002), a monumental 736-page book that shows
how money has served socially beneficial purposes throughout history only
when created by governments as an instrument of law and not as the private
preserve of the rich.
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- Hugh Downs, an unusually well-informed media personality
with a strong social conscience, said of The Lost Science of Money, that
it "has some stunning historical vistas of the whole concept of media
of exchange." Renowned progressive economist Dr. Michael Hudson said,
"The history of money is critical to understanding the greatest problem
the third millennium will face. Stephen Zarlenga's Lost Science of Money
provides the needed background for seeing the basic structural issues at
work."
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- Since Zarlenga published The Lost Science of Money, the
American Monetary Institute has grown, with chapters in Boston, New York,
Chicago, Iowa, Seattle, and other locations. He conducts an annual monetary
reform conference at Roosevelt University in Chicago and has a busy travel
and speaking schedule. He has addressed audiences at the U.S. Treasury
Department in Washington, D.C., and the British House of Lords in London.
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- The American Monetary Act may be viewed and downloaded
from the AMI website at http://www.monetary.org/American_Monetary_Act_version_10_feb_06.htm.
The main thrust of the act is to replace the bank-centered debt-based monetary
system with the direct creation of money by the federal government which
would spend it into circulation as was done with the Greenbacks of the
latter part of the 19th century.
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- The money would be spent on all types of legislated government
requirements but would focus on infrastructure improvements, including
education and health care. The act not only would create a new monetary
supply denominated in U.S. Treasury notes, but would rebuild our job base
which has been outsourced to other nations by the globalist corporations
and big financial interests.
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- The critical role of the Greenbacks in U.S. history has
been distorted and downplayed by the establishment interests that control
the writing of history textbooks. The Greenbacks originated during the
Civil War when the government printed and spent them to meet wartime needs.
Contrary to mythology, the Greenbacks were not inflationary. They continued
to serve as a key part of the nation's monetary supply into the early 20th
century. As late as 1900 they formed a third of the nation's circulating
currency, with coinage, along with gold and silver certificates, forming
another third, and national bank notes the remainder.
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- Later the value of both the Greenbacks and metallic-based
currency were destroyed by the inflation caused by the introduction of
Federal Reserve Notes after the approval of the Federal Reserve System
by Congress in 1913. From that point on, the creation of money in the U.S.
became a monopoly of the private banking system. This led to the Great
Depression when the banking system crashed the economy through its deflationary
policies.
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- The nation recovered from the Depression through the
New Deal and the adoption of Keynesian economic policies during and after
World War II. But now, in the early years of the 21stCentury, the financial
system again has collapsed through the gigantic speculative bubbles of
the last 30 years. The Bush-Obama bailouts that are costing taxpayers trillions
of dollars are benefiting the financial controllers but are not doing anywhere
near enough for the producing economy. Even though officials are starting
to forecast an economic recovery, there is every indication it will be
another "jobless" recovery like the one from 2002-2005.
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- The American Monetary Act would put a stop to the travesties
of the bank-controlled monetary system that has wrecked what was once the
world's greatest industrial democracy. In addition to reintroducing the
Greenbacks, the act would eliminate fractional reserve banking by requiring
banks to borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to bring their cash reserves
up to the level of their lending portfolio rather than allowing them to
continue to create money "out of thin air." The banks would no
longer be able to create trillions of dollars of credit, backed by nothing,
which they use to fuel the speculative equities, hedge fund, and derivative
markets.
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- The act also contains a provision for a citizens' dividend
through direct payment of cash to individuals. While it does not authorize
a dividend at the level Stephen Shafarman and I have proposed in our respective
books, Peaceful, Positive Revolution and We Hold These Truths: The Hope
of Monetary Reform, it is a major step in the right direction. In what
I have called the "Cook Plan" I advocate a dividend of $12,000
a year per capita for adults who apply with the money, once spent, being
used to capitalize a new network of community savings banks.
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- With the 2008-2009 collapse of the financial system,
the deep recession we are now suffering through, and the injustice of the
government's bank bailouts currently being administered by Secretary of
the Treasury Timothy Geithner, millions of people in the U.S. and around
the world have had enough of government policies that enrich the financial
oligarchy and destroy the livelihood of everyone else. The world today
is headed for a dark age of debt-slavery and ruinous poverty for much of
the world's population, including working people in the U.S.
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- The only way a catastrophe can be averted is for mankind
to wake up and demand the creation of a new monetary system where money
and credit are treated as a public utility. This means that money and credit
should serve the needs of the producing economy while assuring a decent
living and sufficient income for everyone.
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- To reach this goal, it is counterproductive for people
simply to complain about what is happening or support half-measures like
the call to embrace a gold standard. Any attempt to impose a new gold standard
would play into the hands of those who control the gold; i.e., the bankers.
Creating a new gold standard appears to be the objective of movements like
"End-the-Fed."
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- The key is not whether money is backed by gold or any
other commodity but whether it serves the needs of real people, allows
the trade and productivity of the nation to move, restores our job base,
and supports consumer purchasing power. The American Monetary Act would
meet these objectives. With the financial disasters of the last two years,
millions of people realize the system is rigged against them. Jobs and
savings continue to disappear while debt and the power of the banking millionaires
increase. The time for Congress to act is now.
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- Richard C. Cook is a former federal analyst who writes
on public policy issues. His book "We Hold These Truths: the Hope
of Monetary Reform" is now available at www.tendrilpress.com. His
website is www.richardccook.com.
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