by Stephen Zarlenga and Greg Coleridge
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/How-Can-Obama-Invest-in-th-by-Greg-Coleridge-110128-901.html
President Obama presented worthy economic goals during his State of the Union address of investing in our physical and social infrastructure and increasing employment. Absent was any specific plan of how to achieve these ends without further increasing the national debt.
We have a specific plan President Obama. Take public control of our money system.
A bill was introduced at the end of last year that can put people to work by building and repairing our nation's infrastructure without adding to the debt. The details are contained in the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act (HR 6550 in the last Congress) by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).
While the bill focuses on the unemployment crisis, it contains the three essential monetary measures proposed by the American Monetary Institute in the 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 U.S. money under our constitutional system of checks and balances.
The three essential monetary measures of the NEED Act are:
1. Incorporate the mostly private Federal Reserve System into 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. End the banking systems "fractional reserve" accounting privilege in a gentle, elegant way. Fractional reserve lending allows banks to lend many times more than they possess, thereby issuing our money supply as interest bearing debt and dominating the financial system, taking wild risks as they did in creating the crisis. Instead, we should use our Government's Constitutional power (Art. 1 sec. 8) to provide the nation's money supply as interest free money, not interest bearing debt. This has immense benefits.
3. Use the US governments 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 advanced system dynamics computer model shows that basing the system on money instead of debt will allow the national debt to be repaid and the funding of infrastructure (thereby solving the unemployment crisis) without inflation! (see http://www.monetary.org)
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. And that the government creates our money. Wrong on all counts.
Decades of distortion and deception can be remedied by this bill.
Public control of money 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 US representative to cosponsor the NEED Act when it is reintroduced. Ask your two US Senators to contact Rep. Kucinich about becoming a Senate sponsor. Last year's bill can be read at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.6550
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.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR January 31- February 6
FEBRUARY 2
2010- DEATH OF EUSTACE MULLINS, AUTHOR, SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE
"The Nation magazine was the only public organ so far as I can find out which printed out that the issue of the money of the U.S. was being turned over to a body of men who were neither elected nor answerable to elections."
FEBRUARY 3
1913 – RATIFICATION OF THE 16TH AMENDMENT, ESTABLISHMENT OF THE US FEDERAL INCOME TAX
The income tax provides a guaranteed and consistent source of income for the payment of any federal government function, including payment of interest on national debt. It was ratified earlier in the same year as passage of the Federal Reserve Act which turned over the nation’s money power to a private central bank. Many economists believe the dollar holds its value better than the Euro in times of economic crisis since US interest payments from debt can be covered by US income taxes. There is no equivalent European income tax to cover Euro debts. This provides investors greater confidence in the dollar over the Euro.
1924 – DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON, 28TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND SIGNER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT
"Some of the biggest men in the United States in the field of commerce and manufacture are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so passive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
“A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. (1911)
[Note: Despite such misgivings, Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act two years later]
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
2010- DEATH OF EUSTACE MULLINS, AUTHOR, SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE
"The Nation magazine was the only public organ so far as I can find out which printed out that the issue of the money of the U.S. was being turned over to a body of men who were neither elected nor answerable to elections."
FEBRUARY 3
1913 – RATIFICATION OF THE 16TH AMENDMENT, ESTABLISHMENT OF THE US FEDERAL INCOME TAX
The income tax provides a guaranteed and consistent source of income for the payment of any federal government function, including payment of interest on national debt. It was ratified earlier in the same year as passage of the Federal Reserve Act which turned over the nation’s money power to a private central bank. Many economists believe the dollar holds its value better than the Euro in times of economic crisis since US interest payments from debt can be covered by US income taxes. There is no equivalent European income tax to cover Euro debts. This provides investors greater confidence in the dollar over the Euro.
1924 – DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON, 28TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND SIGNER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT
"Some of the biggest men in the United States in the field of commerce and manufacture are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so passive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
“A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. (1911)
[Note: Despite such misgivings, Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act two years later]
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
Friday, January 28, 2011
Campaign Financing after Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
Community Forum, First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, Shaker Heights, Ohio
January 23, 2011
Citizens United vs Federal Elections Commission is one of the worst decisions ever rendered by the US Supreme Court – right up there with upholding that slaves are property in Dred Scott (1857), asserting African Americans could be treated as separate but equal in Plessey vs Furguson (1896) and declaring money is speech in Buckley vs Valeo (1976).
It was a political decision trumped up as law rendered by five activist appointed-for-life justices based on a fraudulent, baseless, and bizarre notion that corporations are people possessing inalienable First Amendment Bill of Rights protections that were intended by this nation’s founders only for human beings – natural persons, real people.
The controversial decision permits corporate treasury funds to be spent for or against specific political candidates. Four times more money was spent in the 2010 midterm elections from outside groups than in the 2006 midterm elections ($296 million to $68 million – according to the Center for Responsive Politics). Much of this can be attributed to the decision.
I don’t particularly feel we had four times more democracy as a result. What we had instead were the election of more corporate friendly candidates who support the Republican Pledge to America and other corporate friendly rules, laws, budget giveaways and tax breaks.
Many claim the decision didn’t change very much. I actually tend to agree.
Corporations have been dominating our political system prior to Citizens United. The political speech of corporate PACs and lobbyists has drowned out the voices of people without money for decades.
Prior to Citizens United, did We the People control our elections? Our health care? Energy policies? Trade policies? Environmental policies? Our money and banking system? Were communities able to keep big box chain stores, cell phone towers or gas drillers out of our communities? Or toxic trash from being imported into our communities?
President Obama’s 2008 campaign raised $745 million under the old campaign finance rules. Among his largest contributors (or investors – depending on your perspective) was the FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) industry. Wall Street gave $14.9 million to Obama’s election campaign, the most for any campaign in history, with Goldman Sachs alone chipping in $1 million. Nineteen of 22 members of the Senate Banking Committee of both major political parties received donations/investments from Wall Street in 2009. Each of those up for reelection in 2010 received large political investments.
In just the past two years, corporate cash accounted for watering down consumer and environmental protections and diluting health-care and financial reform. Remember Sen. Dick Durbin’s comment about the power of the big banks in the financial reform debate last year? “They frankly own the place,” he asserted. Though troubling, it was refreshingly honest.
Corporations have been largely running the place economically and politically for more than a century prior to Citizens United.
This is not to diminish the impact of the decision. Citizens United has reduced what was already more or less our democratic theme park – with many of the trappings of a real democracy but just not much substance.
Citizens United was not the first time corporations achieved the ridiculous distinction of having inherent constitutional rights – on par with human beings.
The Revolutionary War was in no small part a reaction against the Crown’s chartered corporations. The most (in)famous incident was the dumping of goods, including tea, in the colonies by the British East India Company.
Thomas Jefferson thought ill of corporations: “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
Corporations were intended by the nation’s founders to be an artificial creature of the law, with no additional powers than what its charter granted.
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in an 1819 case, "A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible…It possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it."
Nowhere in the constitution are corporations mentioned. Nowhere. We the People were sovereign. Corporations were created to be subordinate to humans. The nation’s founders feared corporations gaining too much power. That’s why they placed the defining powers to control them at the state level.
Charters were democratic instruments, issued by state legislatures one at a time. They rigidly established what corporations could and could not do. It was focused on business, period. Political or inalienable rights weren’t granted. Those were reserved solely for people.
Corporations couldn’t claim as they do now both constitutional rights of human beings as well as the special corporate privileges unavailable to human beings – such as limited liability.
The notion that corporations are people is a radical concept concocted by the Supreme Court based on a fraud.
The 1886 Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific Supreme Court decision is often attributed as the foundation, the pillar that all subsequent corporate rights case are built upon. Yet the court in its ruling never actually concluding that corporations were people. Chief Justice Morrison Waite (from Ohio) said at the time that the case had settled no constitutional issues. Nevertheless, that conclusion was placed by the Court Reporter in the headnotes, or brief summary, at the very beginning of the case. Many members of the court at the time agreed with the sentiment that corporations were persons but the text itself did not actually address corporate personhood. The case only dealt with the issue of taxes on railroad fences.
The fraudulent Santa Clara decision was consecrated in 1889 when the court cited the case as a precedent for corporate personhood in Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company v. Beckwith.
All subsequent corporate personhood cases are built on Santa Clara.
However in 1906 the court ruled in United States v. Detroit Timber and Lumber Co. that headnotes did not carry any legal weight.
This makes Santa Clara, the rock solid pillar of corporate constitutional rights, nothing more than a fraud and illegitimate -- a legal house of cards build on a pile of sand. By extension, Citizens United is a fraud and illegitimate.
Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in Citizens United, said, “… corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings…But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stated, “Citizens United has signaled that the problem of campaign contributions in judicial elections might get considerably worse and quite soon.”
What sounds more reasonable? The above opinions of Stevens and O’Connor or these, the majority views from the Roberts court: "The fact that speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that these officials are corrupt," and the “appearance of influence will not undermine public faith in (American) democracy."
“Only if we pretend that corporations are ‘persons’ under the Constitution, is limiting corporate ‘speech’ a constitutional infringement,” says corporate anthropologist Jane Anne Morris
Only if we pretend that corporations are persons under the constitution are we faced with the dilemma that many of us many feel, as Morris explains: “Must we limit speech in order to have free and fair elections? Or, must we accept corporation-dominated political debate in order to preserve free speech? This false dilemma disappears if we reject corporate personhood.”
Slavery is the legal fiction that people are property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property are people. The first was abolished. The second one needs to be.
Free speech is for people. Not corporations. Period.
Abolishing corporate political speech is essential. Overturning Citizens United…and in fact, all so-called inherent corporate constitutional rights, the goal of the Move to Amend campaign, is also essential to protect what little is left of our democratic republic.
While this decision was a democratic disaster, its blatant overreach presents a unique opportunity to seek profound change.
An August 2010 Survey USA poll found that 77 percent of all voters - including 70 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents - view corporate spending in elections as akin to bribery. Broad majorities favor limiting corporate control over our political lives.
A coordinated effort can unite progressives, good-government reformers and conservative libertarians in a fight to restore democracy.
But it’s not enough. Even without corporate constitutional rights, campaign financing would be skewed. We can’t have a political democracy is a nation that defines money as speech. Defining money as speech means those with the most money have the most speech. Elections have become sales. That’s not a prescription for democracy but of a plutocracy.
According to sociologist William Domhoff, as of 2007, 1% of people in this country possess 43% of its financial wealth, the next 4% - 29%, the next 5% - 11%, the next 10%, 10%. That leaves the bottom 80% owning a mere 7% of the wealth in this country.
Ours is much closer to a plutocracy than democracy. The only way out is to break the link between economic and political inequality is to abolish the doctrine that money is speech. Without it, campaigns like voluntary systems of public financing or limiting the size of individual contributions, while helpful, are mere examples of triage. They keep what’s left of our democracy barely alive but little more.
Is all this radical? Is democracy radical? People in this nation fought a revolution for real self-governance. People of color and women organized social movements to drive themselves into the constitution to be recognized as persons. All this now is fundamentally at risk is in a political system were money is speech, elections are for sale, and corporations are people.
It’s time once more to become part of a social movement for real self-governance. What’s left of our democracy is at stake.
January 23, 2011
Citizens United vs Federal Elections Commission is one of the worst decisions ever rendered by the US Supreme Court – right up there with upholding that slaves are property in Dred Scott (1857), asserting African Americans could be treated as separate but equal in Plessey vs Furguson (1896) and declaring money is speech in Buckley vs Valeo (1976).
It was a political decision trumped up as law rendered by five activist appointed-for-life justices based on a fraudulent, baseless, and bizarre notion that corporations are people possessing inalienable First Amendment Bill of Rights protections that were intended by this nation’s founders only for human beings – natural persons, real people.
The controversial decision permits corporate treasury funds to be spent for or against specific political candidates. Four times more money was spent in the 2010 midterm elections from outside groups than in the 2006 midterm elections ($296 million to $68 million – according to the Center for Responsive Politics). Much of this can be attributed to the decision.
I don’t particularly feel we had four times more democracy as a result. What we had instead were the election of more corporate friendly candidates who support the Republican Pledge to America and other corporate friendly rules, laws, budget giveaways and tax breaks.
Many claim the decision didn’t change very much. I actually tend to agree.
Corporations have been dominating our political system prior to Citizens United. The political speech of corporate PACs and lobbyists has drowned out the voices of people without money for decades.
Prior to Citizens United, did We the People control our elections? Our health care? Energy policies? Trade policies? Environmental policies? Our money and banking system? Were communities able to keep big box chain stores, cell phone towers or gas drillers out of our communities? Or toxic trash from being imported into our communities?
President Obama’s 2008 campaign raised $745 million under the old campaign finance rules. Among his largest contributors (or investors – depending on your perspective) was the FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) industry. Wall Street gave $14.9 million to Obama’s election campaign, the most for any campaign in history, with Goldman Sachs alone chipping in $1 million. Nineteen of 22 members of the Senate Banking Committee of both major political parties received donations/investments from Wall Street in 2009. Each of those up for reelection in 2010 received large political investments.
In just the past two years, corporate cash accounted for watering down consumer and environmental protections and diluting health-care and financial reform. Remember Sen. Dick Durbin’s comment about the power of the big banks in the financial reform debate last year? “They frankly own the place,” he asserted. Though troubling, it was refreshingly honest.
Corporations have been largely running the place economically and politically for more than a century prior to Citizens United.
This is not to diminish the impact of the decision. Citizens United has reduced what was already more or less our democratic theme park – with many of the trappings of a real democracy but just not much substance.
Citizens United was not the first time corporations achieved the ridiculous distinction of having inherent constitutional rights – on par with human beings.
The Revolutionary War was in no small part a reaction against the Crown’s chartered corporations. The most (in)famous incident was the dumping of goods, including tea, in the colonies by the British East India Company.
Thomas Jefferson thought ill of corporations: “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
Corporations were intended by the nation’s founders to be an artificial creature of the law, with no additional powers than what its charter granted.
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in an 1819 case, "A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible…It possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it."
Nowhere in the constitution are corporations mentioned. Nowhere. We the People were sovereign. Corporations were created to be subordinate to humans. The nation’s founders feared corporations gaining too much power. That’s why they placed the defining powers to control them at the state level.
Charters were democratic instruments, issued by state legislatures one at a time. They rigidly established what corporations could and could not do. It was focused on business, period. Political or inalienable rights weren’t granted. Those were reserved solely for people.
Corporations couldn’t claim as they do now both constitutional rights of human beings as well as the special corporate privileges unavailable to human beings – such as limited liability.
The notion that corporations are people is a radical concept concocted by the Supreme Court based on a fraud.
The 1886 Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific Supreme Court decision is often attributed as the foundation, the pillar that all subsequent corporate rights case are built upon. Yet the court in its ruling never actually concluding that corporations were people. Chief Justice Morrison Waite (from Ohio) said at the time that the case had settled no constitutional issues. Nevertheless, that conclusion was placed by the Court Reporter in the headnotes, or brief summary, at the very beginning of the case. Many members of the court at the time agreed with the sentiment that corporations were persons but the text itself did not actually address corporate personhood. The case only dealt with the issue of taxes on railroad fences.
The fraudulent Santa Clara decision was consecrated in 1889 when the court cited the case as a precedent for corporate personhood in Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company v. Beckwith.
All subsequent corporate personhood cases are built on Santa Clara.
However in 1906 the court ruled in United States v. Detroit Timber and Lumber Co. that headnotes did not carry any legal weight.
This makes Santa Clara, the rock solid pillar of corporate constitutional rights, nothing more than a fraud and illegitimate -- a legal house of cards build on a pile of sand. By extension, Citizens United is a fraud and illegitimate.
Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in Citizens United, said, “… corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings…But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stated, “Citizens United has signaled that the problem of campaign contributions in judicial elections might get considerably worse and quite soon.”
What sounds more reasonable? The above opinions of Stevens and O’Connor or these, the majority views from the Roberts court: "The fact that speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that these officials are corrupt," and the “appearance of influence will not undermine public faith in (American) democracy."
“Only if we pretend that corporations are ‘persons’ under the Constitution, is limiting corporate ‘speech’ a constitutional infringement,” says corporate anthropologist Jane Anne Morris
Only if we pretend that corporations are persons under the constitution are we faced with the dilemma that many of us many feel, as Morris explains: “Must we limit speech in order to have free and fair elections? Or, must we accept corporation-dominated political debate in order to preserve free speech? This false dilemma disappears if we reject corporate personhood.”
Slavery is the legal fiction that people are property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property are people. The first was abolished. The second one needs to be.
Free speech is for people. Not corporations. Period.
Abolishing corporate political speech is essential. Overturning Citizens United…and in fact, all so-called inherent corporate constitutional rights, the goal of the Move to Amend campaign, is also essential to protect what little is left of our democratic republic.
While this decision was a democratic disaster, its blatant overreach presents a unique opportunity to seek profound change.
An August 2010 Survey USA poll found that 77 percent of all voters - including 70 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents - view corporate spending in elections as akin to bribery. Broad majorities favor limiting corporate control over our political lives.
A coordinated effort can unite progressives, good-government reformers and conservative libertarians in a fight to restore democracy.
But it’s not enough. Even without corporate constitutional rights, campaign financing would be skewed. We can’t have a political democracy is a nation that defines money as speech. Defining money as speech means those with the most money have the most speech. Elections have become sales. That’s not a prescription for democracy but of a plutocracy.
According to sociologist William Domhoff, as of 2007, 1% of people in this country possess 43% of its financial wealth, the next 4% - 29%, the next 5% - 11%, the next 10%, 10%. That leaves the bottom 80% owning a mere 7% of the wealth in this country.
Ours is much closer to a plutocracy than democracy. The only way out is to break the link between economic and political inequality is to abolish the doctrine that money is speech. Without it, campaigns like voluntary systems of public financing or limiting the size of individual contributions, while helpful, are mere examples of triage. They keep what’s left of our democracy barely alive but little more.
Is all this radical? Is democracy radical? People in this nation fought a revolution for real self-governance. People of color and women organized social movements to drive themselves into the constitution to be recognized as persons. All this now is fundamentally at risk is in a political system were money is speech, elections are for sale, and corporations are people.
It’s time once more to become part of a social movement for real self-governance. What’s left of our democracy is at stake.
ODNR tries to reassure; crowd wary
I testified last night at this event -- making 3 points.
1. The issue of hydrolic fracking has been framed as a state issue. Yet for years, the decision to drill was a local issue. It was only when local communities began resistance that the oil and gas corporations ran to the state level, contributed/invested in state politicians and passed a law, House Bill 278 in 2004, which stripped local control. [This was quite ironic since many of those in Stark Co and elsewhere who voted for the bill are generally big "local control" advocates.] Corporations don't like people flexing their democratic muscles. HB 278 is illigimate.
2. The Ohio Deparment of Natural Resources (ODNR), the agency established to "regulate" drilling has an inherent conflict of interest. They're hardly a neutral or impartial player since their budget is linked to approving permits to drill -- the more permits they approve, the more money they make. Their new state director, David Mustine, spent most of his career working for oil and gas corporations. He's worked for American Electric Power and Bechtel Industries, specializing in oil and gas ventures. Besides, the solution to this problem is not to "regulate" the harms, the poisions, the threats to community health and safety -- it's to abolish it. The only way to accomplish this is to prevent this controversial and dangerous form of drilling.
3. Respect, honor and trust local communities' right to decide. Those who are being impacted by this decision should have the major role in the shaping of the decision -- not industry, not regulators, but the residents of the area.
http://www.cantonrep.com/topstories/x1145628433/ODNR-tries-to-reassure-crowd-wary?photo=2
Monday, January 24, 2011
MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR - January 24-30
JANUARY 24
1939 – STATEMENT MADE BY ROBERT H. HEMPHILL, CREDIT MANAGER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ATLANTA
"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...”
JANUARY 27
2010 — DEATH OF HOWARD ZINN, HISTORIAN
"The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."
JANUARY 29
1737 -- BIRTH OF TOM PAINE, US REVOLUTIONARY
Commenting on the value of colonial-issued money, the “Continental”...
"Every stone in the Bridge, that has carried us over seems to have a claim upon our esteem. But this was a corner stone, and its usefulness cannot be forgotten."
1956 — DEATH OF H.L. MENCKEN, US JOURNALIST
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
JANUARY 30
1835 — ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST US PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON
Three years earlier, Jackson called for an end to the Second National Bank of the United States by calling on Congress not to renew its charter. He vetoed a bill to renew the bank’s charter, saying the bank was guilty of fraud, corruption, controlling the money supply (expanding and contracting the supply of money to economically and politically benefit the bank) and because “beyond question...this great and powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to influence the elections of the public officers by means of its money.” Jackson ordered the US government to move its money out of the Second Bank. In response, the bank called in all its loans and ceased issuing new loans. An economic panic followed. In 1835, Richard Lawrence fired 2 guns at Jackson but both misfired. He claimed his assassination attempt was because, in part, "money would be more plenty.”
1882 — BIRTH OF PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
"the real truth is…that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
1939 – STATEMENT MADE BY ROBERT H. HEMPHILL, CREDIT MANAGER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ATLANTA
"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...”
JANUARY 27
2010 — DEATH OF HOWARD ZINN, HISTORIAN
"The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."
JANUARY 29
1737 -- BIRTH OF TOM PAINE, US REVOLUTIONARY
Commenting on the value of colonial-issued money, the “Continental”...
"Every stone in the Bridge, that has carried us over seems to have a claim upon our esteem. But this was a corner stone, and its usefulness cannot be forgotten."
1956 — DEATH OF H.L. MENCKEN, US JOURNALIST
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
JANUARY 30
1835 — ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST US PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON
Three years earlier, Jackson called for an end to the Second National Bank of the United States by calling on Congress not to renew its charter. He vetoed a bill to renew the bank’s charter, saying the bank was guilty of fraud, corruption, controlling the money supply (expanding and contracting the supply of money to economically and politically benefit the bank) and because “beyond question...this great and powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to influence the elections of the public officers by means of its money.” Jackson ordered the US government to move its money out of the Second Bank. In response, the bank called in all its loans and ceased issuing new loans. An economic panic followed. In 1835, Richard Lawrence fired 2 guns at Jackson but both misfired. He claimed his assassination attempt was because, in part, "money would be more plenty.”
1882 — BIRTH OF PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
"the real truth is…that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
End Corporate Rule
Talk at Rally in Columbus, Ohio on Anniversary of Citizens United US Supreme Court decision, January 21, 2011
Ohioans Banner, Rally and March for Real Democracy on Citizens United Anniversary
END CORPORATE RULE
Ohio Actions on Anniversary of the Citizens United vs FEC Supreme Court decision
MEDIA coverage (Athens, Columbus, Cleveland and Akron)
Protesters: Real citizens’ names don’t end in ‘Inc.’
Athens News, Monday, January 24, 2011
http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-33042-protesters-real-citizensrs-names-donrst-end-in-lsincrs.html
Citizens United Still Dividing
Columbus Dispatch, January 21, 2011
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/21/citizens-united-still-dividing.html?sid=101
Rush hour drivers see protest banner
WEWS TV, Cleveland, January 20, 2011
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/group-protests-during-morning-rush-hour
Pic of the Day: Protest Banners for Rush Hour
Cleveland Scene, January 20, 2011
http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/01/20/pic-of-the-day-protest-banners-for-rush-hour&cb=e1c30c2a7aa1ca4bc8ecbe98ac90921e&sort=desc#readerComments
Election Forum
Akron Beacon Journal, January 17, 2011
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AK&p_theme=ak&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_site=ohio&s_trackval=AK&s_search_type=keyword&p_text_search-0=greg%20AND%20coleridge&s_dispstring=greg%20coleridge%20AND%20date(all)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no
---------
PHOTOS (Cleveland highway banners and Columbus march)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100382982746425&set=a.10100380736093735.2993558.12410011#!/media/set/?set=t.100001055953397
[please send additional photos to gcoleridge@afsc.org. We’ll add them to the website]
Ohio Actions on Anniversary of the Citizens United vs FEC Supreme Court decision
MEDIA coverage (Athens, Columbus, Cleveland and Akron)
Protesters: Real citizens’ names don’t end in ‘Inc.’
Athens News, Monday, January 24, 2011
http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-33042-protesters-real-citizensrs-names-donrst-end-in-lsincrs.html
Citizens United Still Dividing
Columbus Dispatch, January 21, 2011
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/21/citizens-united-still-dividing.html?sid=101
Rush hour drivers see protest banner
WEWS TV, Cleveland, January 20, 2011
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/group-protests-during-morning-rush-hour
Pic of the Day: Protest Banners for Rush Hour
Cleveland Scene, January 20, 2011
http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/01/20/pic-of-the-day-protest-banners-for-rush-hour&cb=e1c30c2a7aa1ca4bc8ecbe98ac90921e&sort=desc#readerComments
Election Forum
Akron Beacon Journal, January 17, 2011
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AK&p_theme=ak&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_site=ohio&s_trackval=AK&s_search_type=keyword&p_text_search-0=greg%20AND%20coleridge&s_dispstring=greg%20coleridge%20AND%20date(all)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no
---------
PHOTOS (Cleveland highway banners and Columbus march)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100382982746425&set=a.10100380736093735.2993558.12410011#!/media/set/?set=t.100001055953397
[please send additional photos to gcoleridge@afsc.org. We’ll add them to the website]
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Ohioans Demand: End Corporate Rule on Citizens United Anniversary
Today and tomorrow, Ohioans across the state are marking the first anniversary of the Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision with educational events and actions demanding an End to Corporate Rule.
Events are taking place in Akron, Athens, Cleveland, Columbus and Wilmington.
Above are photos showing banners stretched across 2 bridges during morning rush hour heading in to downtown Cleveland. More than 20,000 cars passed. A Cleveland TV station and news photographer attended — which hopefully will result in further publicity.
Tonight, a Caring Citizens Freedom Rally will take place in Wilmington.
http://movetoamend.org/events/wilmington-oh-caring-citizens-freedom-rally
Also tonight, a community forum is scheduled in Akron.
http://movetoamend.org/events/akron-oh-we-people-not-we-corporations
Tomorrow, on the one year anniversary, a noon rally in Columbus takes places followed by a march to the statehouse. (Dress warmly!)
http://movetoamend.org/events/columbus-oh-end-corporate-rule-rally-and-march
Also in Athens, a 2 pm rally sponsored by Ohio University students and community activists is slated for the Athens County Community Courthouse. For more information, contact John Howell at howell@frognet.net.
Please consider attending the event/action closest to you...or one that may not be so close but sounds interesting!
Check MovetoAmendOhio.org for the latest updates after tomorrow.
The Ohio events are a portion of more than 100 local activities across the country.
In Washington, D.C., there will be a rally tomorrow in front of the U.S. Capitol, located across from the U.S. Supreme Court, followed by a delivery to Congress of over 700,000 petition signatures calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. A “For the People” summit, focused on the harmful effects of the decision and efforts to overturn it, will take place immediately after.
These events are part of a nationwide effort led by Move To Amend, Backbone Campaign, Public Citizen, and other national groups, to raise awareness of the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics and to organize people to mobilize support for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision and, in the case of Move to Amend, end all corporate constitutional rights.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Anniversary of Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex Warning
Unpublished Letter to Editor to Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Anniversary of Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex Warning
January 17th, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell presidential address. His warning about the military industrial complex weight on public policy rings true today.
President Eisenhower cautioned against the temptation to respond to crisis with “some spectacular and costly action.” He stressed the need to balance national priorities. He outlined a new threat to maintaining that balance and our liberty – the combination of the immense military establishment of soldiers and infrastructure and the large arms industry.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military industrial complex. (Its) economic, political, even spiritual,” influence Eisenhower warned, existed in every city, state house and federal office. How sadly familiar this sounds today.
The military industrial complex today drives the calls for wars and occupations. It distorts our economy away from meeting human and environmental needs. And it dispenses influence and campaign contributions to keep tax dollars flowing to the military.
Today, Martin Luther King Day, is an appropriate time to recommit to changing our priorities. King’s leadership of a grassroots movement for justice and peace is worth emulating now more than ever.
Anniversary of Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex Warning
January 17th, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell presidential address. His warning about the military industrial complex weight on public policy rings true today.
President Eisenhower cautioned against the temptation to respond to crisis with “some spectacular and costly action.” He stressed the need to balance national priorities. He outlined a new threat to maintaining that balance and our liberty – the combination of the immense military establishment of soldiers and infrastructure and the large arms industry.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military industrial complex. (Its) economic, political, even spiritual,” influence Eisenhower warned, existed in every city, state house and federal office. How sadly familiar this sounds today.
The military industrial complex today drives the calls for wars and occupations. It distorts our economy away from meeting human and environmental needs. And it dispenses influence and campaign contributions to keep tax dollars flowing to the military.
Today, Martin Luther King Day, is an appropriate time to recommit to changing our priorities. King’s leadership of a grassroots movement for justice and peace is worth emulating now more than ever.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR - January 17-23
JANUARY 17
1706 – BIRTH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the revolutionary war."
“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.”
1863 – BIRTH OF LLOYD GEORGE, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, 1916-1922
“The international bankers swept statesmen, politicians, journalists and jurists all to one side and issued their order with the imperiousness of absolute monarchs.”
JANUARY 18
1910 – BIRTH 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.
[editor: the same goes for debt]
JANUARY 20
1859 – BIRTH OF CHARLES LINDBURGH, SR., US REPRESENTATIVE AND FATHER OF THE FAMOUS AVIATOR
The 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.
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
Previous calendar entries are posted at http://www.createrealdemocracy.blogspot.com/
1706 – BIRTH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the revolutionary war."
“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.”
1863 – BIRTH OF LLOYD GEORGE, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, 1916-1922
“The international bankers swept statesmen, politicians, journalists and jurists all to one side and issued their order with the imperiousness of absolute monarchs.”
JANUARY 18
1910 – BIRTH 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.
[editor: the same goes for debt]
JANUARY 20
1859 – BIRTH OF CHARLES LINDBURGH, SR., US REPRESENTATIVE AND FATHER OF THE FAMOUS AVIATOR
The 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.
______________________________________________________
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/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
Previous calendar entries are posted at http://www.createrealdemocracy.blogspot.com/
Is Calling for a New Money System Right Wing Extremism?
From today's New York Times in describing Jared Lee Loughner...
"He became an echo chamber for stray ideas, amplifying, for example, certain grandiose tenants of extremists right-wing groups – including the need for a new money system…"
Looking Behind the Mug-Shot Grin of an Accused Killer
This article was reported by Jo Becker, Serge F. Kovaleski, Michael Luo and Dan Barry and written by Mr. Barry.
New York Times January 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/us/16loughner.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
The corporate press painted a perilous picture linking a domestic terrorist with the supposed exclusive right wing extremist idea that a new money system in our nation is needed.
We may never know whether this is deliberate deception or just plain ignorance. Either way, the Times has done a disservice to the public and tarnished its reputation.
Our current money system is undemocratic and unsustainable. How should one describe a system characterized by:
1. the government permitting financial corporations to create or issue money literally out of thin air as debt (i.e. loans),
2. the government borrowing that money from financial corporations,
3. the government having to pay back that money with interest.
This is either the ultimate form of madness -- if you assume those who run economic affairs of the US are financially incompetent -- or it is the ultimate form of legal thievery of wealth by financial corporations from We the People.
Why should the government borrow money when it could create its own? Why do we use Federal Reserve Notes (owned by the private Federal Reserve system) when we could use US dollars? Why do we divert billions of interest payments annually from our federal budget to banking corporations when we could spend those billions on meeting human and environmental needs of society?
A new money system is essential -- one that is democratic and sustainable.
Calling for a new system is hardly right wing extremism. It's basic. Elementary. Rational. Democratic. Liberating. It's shared by those of all political ideologies.
Calling it an exclusive idea of right wingers is an attempt to distort, distract and demean. It's part of a very long history of working to keep the public ignorant of economic issues, especially monetary matters.
It breeds massive debt,
"He became an echo chamber for stray ideas, amplifying, for example, certain grandiose tenants of extremists right-wing groups – including the need for a new money system…"
Looking Behind the Mug-Shot Grin of an Accused Killer
This article was reported by Jo Becker, Serge F. Kovaleski, Michael Luo and Dan Barry and written by Mr. Barry.
New York Times January 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/us/16loughner.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
The corporate press painted a perilous picture linking a domestic terrorist with the supposed exclusive right wing extremist idea that a new money system in our nation is needed.
We may never know whether this is deliberate deception or just plain ignorance. Either way, the Times has done a disservice to the public and tarnished its reputation.
Our current money system is undemocratic and unsustainable. How should one describe a system characterized by:
1. the government permitting financial corporations to create or issue money literally out of thin air as debt (i.e. loans),
2. the government borrowing that money from financial corporations,
3. the government having to pay back that money with interest.
This is either the ultimate form of madness -- if you assume those who run economic affairs of the US are financially incompetent -- or it is the ultimate form of legal thievery of wealth by financial corporations from We the People.
Why should the government borrow money when it could create its own? Why do we use Federal Reserve Notes (owned by the private Federal Reserve system) when we could use US dollars? Why do we divert billions of interest payments annually from our federal budget to banking corporations when we could spend those billions on meeting human and environmental needs of society?
A new money system is essential -- one that is democratic and sustainable.
Calling for a new system is hardly right wing extremism. It's basic. Elementary. Rational. Democratic. Liberating. It's shared by those of all political ideologies.
Calling it an exclusive idea of right wingers is an attempt to distort, distract and demean. It's part of a very long history of working to keep the public ignorant of economic issues, especially monetary matters.
It breeds massive debt,
Monday, January 10, 2011
MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR - January 10-16
JANUARY 10
1843 – BIRTH OF LORD ACTON, ENGLISH HISTORIAN, POLITICIAN, AND WRITER
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later, is the people versus the banks.“
JANUARY 11
1893 – DEATH OF BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, US GENERAL, US REPRESENTATIVE (MASSACHUSETTS) AND GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
“The government shall issue an amount equal to its taxes…which shall be lawful money and legal tender for all debts, public and private, which by law are not made payable in coin.”
JANUARY 13
1808 – BIRTH OF SALMON P. CHASE, US SENATOR (OHIO), GOVERNOR OF OHIO, US TREASURY SECRETARY UNDER ABRAHAM LINCOLN, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE US SUPREME COURT
"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." 1863
2007 – ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY JAMES PETRAS, PROFESSOR (EMERITUS), BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK
"Within the financial ruling class,…political leaders come from the public and private equity banks, namely Wall Street - especially Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and others. They organize and fund both major parties and their electoral campaigns. They pressure, negotiate and draw up the most comprehensive and favorable legislation on global strategies and sectoral policies...They pressure the government to "bailout" bankrupt and failed speculative firms and to balance the budget by lowering social expenditures instead of raising taxes on speculative "windfall" profits...These private equity banks are involved in every sector of the economy, in every region of the world economy and increasingly speculate in the conglomerates which are aquired. Much of the investment funds now in the hands of the US investment banks, hedge funds and other sectors of the financial ruling class originated in the profits extracted from workers in the manufacturing and service sector." Global Research - January 13, 2007
______________________________________________________
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 and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
1843 – BIRTH OF LORD ACTON, ENGLISH HISTORIAN, POLITICIAN, AND WRITER
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later, is the people versus the banks.“
JANUARY 11
1893 – DEATH OF BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, US GENERAL, US REPRESENTATIVE (MASSACHUSETTS) AND GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
“The government shall issue an amount equal to its taxes…which shall be lawful money and legal tender for all debts, public and private, which by law are not made payable in coin.”
JANUARY 13
1808 – BIRTH OF SALMON P. CHASE, US SENATOR (OHIO), GOVERNOR OF OHIO, US TREASURY SECRETARY UNDER ABRAHAM LINCOLN, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE US SUPREME COURT
"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." 1863
2007 – ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY JAMES PETRAS, PROFESSOR (EMERITUS), BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK
"Within the financial ruling class,…political leaders come from the public and private equity banks, namely Wall Street - especially Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and others. They organize and fund both major parties and their electoral campaigns. They pressure, negotiate and draw up the most comprehensive and favorable legislation on global strategies and sectoral policies...They pressure the government to "bailout" bankrupt and failed speculative firms and to balance the budget by lowering social expenditures instead of raising taxes on speculative "windfall" profits...These private equity banks are involved in every sector of the economy, in every region of the world economy and increasingly speculate in the conglomerates which are aquired. Much of the investment funds now in the hands of the US investment banks, hedge funds and other sectors of the financial ruling class originated in the profits extracted from workers in the manufacturing and service sector." Global Research - January 13, 2007
______________________________________________________
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 and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
Thursday, January 6, 2011
MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR - January 1-9
JANUARY 1
1817 - SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF THE US OPENS
This was the third quasi national bank of the US — following the Bank of North America (1781-1785) and Bank of the United States (1791-1811). While called a “national” bank, it was not public but actually a commercial/corporate bank with the power to issue money directly (just like its two predecessors). Early on, it issued a huge amount of money (more than 20 times its reserves) as loans that led to financial speculation and large corporate profits. A year later, it stopped providing loans, resulting in a severe contraction of the money supply — which led to massive bankruptcies and the Panic of 1819. President Andrew Jackson believed the bank was a threat to the nation. He vetoed a bill in 1832 renewing the bank’s charter (license).
1909 - BIRTH OF US SENATOR (REPUBLICAN) BARRY GOLDWATER
“The Trilateralist Commission is international and is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the U.S. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power --political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical.”
1911 - US POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM OPENS
The Postal Savings System offered savings accounts to depositors, but no loans. When banks failed after the Great Depression, many people shifted their remaining funds. With post officers serving as bank branches, the Postal Savings System held upwards of 20% of the nation’s savings in the mid 1940’s. Commercial/corporate banks lobbied against their expansion and for their elimination — which occurred in 1967.
JANUARY 3
1977 - DEATH OF CARROLL QUIGLEY, PROFESSOR AND HISTORIAN
“The influence of financial capitalism and of the international bankers who created it was exercised both on business and on governments, but could have done neither if it had not been able to persuade both these to accept two 'axioms' of its own ideology...by basing the value of money on gold and by allowing bankers to control the supply of money. To do this it was necessary to conceal, or even mislead, both governments and people about the nature of money and its methods of operation.” [from his book, Tragedy and Hope, 1966]
JANUARY 7
1782 – BANK OF NORTH AMERICA OPENS
This was the nation’s first private commercial bank. At that time, the nation’s constitution was the Articles of Confederation. Article 9 of the Articles gave Congress the power to “emit bills of credit” -- to create money debt free. By a single vote, Congress voted to transfer their authority to issue money to the The Bank of North America when it approved its charter on December 31, 1781. Thus, the Bank served as a quasi central bank (which created money as loans, called “debt money”). Why did Congress willingly give up their money power? The public argument was that the business of finance could not be competently conduced by a public body (Congress) — only by a small number of private financiers. The first head of the Bank was Robert Morris, the richest merchant in America.
_______________________________________________________
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 and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
1817 - SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF THE US OPENS
This was the third quasi national bank of the US — following the Bank of North America (1781-1785) and Bank of the United States (1791-1811). While called a “national” bank, it was not public but actually a commercial/corporate bank with the power to issue money directly (just like its two predecessors). Early on, it issued a huge amount of money (more than 20 times its reserves) as loans that led to financial speculation and large corporate profits. A year later, it stopped providing loans, resulting in a severe contraction of the money supply — which led to massive bankruptcies and the Panic of 1819. President Andrew Jackson believed the bank was a threat to the nation. He vetoed a bill in 1832 renewing the bank’s charter (license).
1909 - BIRTH OF US SENATOR (REPUBLICAN) BARRY GOLDWATER
“The Trilateralist Commission is international and is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the U.S. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power --political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical.”
1911 - US POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM OPENS
The Postal Savings System offered savings accounts to depositors, but no loans. When banks failed after the Great Depression, many people shifted their remaining funds. With post officers serving as bank branches, the Postal Savings System held upwards of 20% of the nation’s savings in the mid 1940’s. Commercial/corporate banks lobbied against their expansion and for their elimination — which occurred in 1967.
JANUARY 3
1977 - DEATH OF CARROLL QUIGLEY, PROFESSOR AND HISTORIAN
“The influence of financial capitalism and of the international bankers who created it was exercised both on business and on governments, but could have done neither if it had not been able to persuade both these to accept two 'axioms' of its own ideology...by basing the value of money on gold and by allowing bankers to control the supply of money. To do this it was necessary to conceal, or even mislead, both governments and people about the nature of money and its methods of operation.” [from his book, Tragedy and Hope, 1966]
JANUARY 7
1782 – BANK OF NORTH AMERICA OPENS
This was the nation’s first private commercial bank. At that time, the nation’s constitution was the Articles of Confederation. Article 9 of the Articles gave Congress the power to “emit bills of credit” -- to create money debt free. By a single vote, Congress voted to transfer their authority to issue money to the The Bank of North America when it approved its charter on December 31, 1781. Thus, the Bank served as a quasi central bank (which created money as loans, called “debt money”). Why did Congress willingly give up their money power? The public argument was that the business of finance could not be competently conduced by a public body (Congress) — only by a small number of private financiers. The first head of the Bank was Robert Morris, the richest merchant in America.
_______________________________________________________
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 and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscibe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
Kasich to corporatize Ohio's prisons?
Ohio Governor John Kasich may corporatize the state prison system.
Gov.-elect John Kasich picks private corrections consultant and former warden to run Ohio's prisons system
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/01/gov-elect_kasich_picks_private.html
TAKE ACTION...
Defend Ohio’s Schools, Jobs and Public Services
Saturday, January 8, Noon
Rally at the Statehouse
End Corporate Rule
Rally and March on the Anniversary of the
“Citizens United vs FEC" Supreme Court decision
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2011, NOON
First Congregational Church - U444 East Broad Street, Columbus
flyer at http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/CUFECflyer.pdf
Gov.-elect John Kasich picks private corrections consultant and former warden to run Ohio's prisons system
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/01/gov-elect_kasich_picks_private.html
TAKE ACTION...
Defend Ohio’s Schools, Jobs and Public Services
Saturday, January 8, Noon
Rally at the Statehouse
End Corporate Rule
Rally and March on the Anniversary of the
“Citizens United vs FEC" Supreme Court decision
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2011, NOON
First Congregational Church - U444 East Broad Street, Columbus
flyer at http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/CUFECflyer.pdf
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