MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR -- November 28-December 4

DECEMBER 1

1135 – DEATH OF KING HENRY I OF ENGLAND
About 1100, King Henry, short on gold money, created a unique form of government issued money – Tally Sticks. These sticks were just that – polished pieces or sticks of wood with notches of a certain size to indicated the value of the wood. They were declared by the King as money and issued for purchases. They were accepted by the King for payment of taxes. Tally Sticks was an accepted debt-free government-issued money system of England for over 700 years, including the period of the rise of the British Empire. At is peak, about 95% of all money in England was in the form of Tally Sticks.

DECEMBER 4

1975 – DEATH OF GRAHAM TOWERS, GOVERNOR, BANK OF CANADA, 1934-54
"Each and every time a bank makes a loan, new bank credit is created - new deposits - brand new money."


NOTE: Due to the shortness of this week’s calendar, this may be an appropriate moment to invite you to share your thoughts about monetary policy/democratizing money with others. Forward this calendar (an earlier version with more entries might be more interesting) to your email list, write a letter to the editor incorporating information or a quote from previous entries, post the link to the running calendar (link below) on your Facebook page or via email, or talk about it to a friend. Change will only happen when we engage others and awareness reaches a tipping point. Below is an effort toward the letter to the editor end connecting monetary policy with the recently imploded Super Committee fiasco.

Now expand the money supply
Letters to the editor / Akron Beacon Journal / November 23, 2011
http://www.ohio.com/editorial/vop/letters-to-the-editor-nov-23-1.246842

Since Democrats and Republicans on the congressional supercommittee, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, were unable to find common ground on spending reductions and tax increases to reduce the debt, Congress should now focus on an arena where both Democrats and Republicans might agree — monetary reform.

Passage of the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, H.R. 2990, would eliminate the national debt by authorizing the government to print U.S. dollars (different from the Federal Reserve notes in our wallets) to pay off U.S. Treasury bonds, bills and notes.

Virtually all of our nation’s money is currently created by banking corporations as debt to people, businesses and governments, to be paid back with interest that over time often becomes an inflationary debt trap.

Democratic Presidents Jefferson and Jackson felt the people, not banks, should create our own money, while Republican President Lincoln created debt-free public money (greenbacks) in an effort to preserve the Union. The U.S. Constitution empowers the government to coin money.

Canadian economist William Hixson has said, “The very idea of a government that can create money for itself, allowing banks to create money that the government then borrows, and pays interest on, is so preposterous that it staggers the imagination.”

Congressional passage of the NEED Act would create a policy most people believe has existed since the nation’s founding — creation and issuance of U.S. money — which is both progressive and conservative.

Greg Coleridge
Director
Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, Cuyahoga Falls

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