Where Occupy protesters and Tea Party members connect

A very good question!

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR June 25 – July 1

JUNE 30

1812 – FIRST US TREASURY NOTES AUTHORIZED BY THE UNITED STATES 
Treasury notes are promise to pay notes to borrowers to raise revenue. The US needed funds to fund the War of 1812. Rather than print US money (such as “Continentals” – an interest- and debt-free money issued by the Continental Congress to pay for the Revolutionary War), the US government followed a different course – to issue notes to borrowers with promises to pay the principal with interest at a later date. The original interest rate was 5.4%. Wars cause indebtedness. Bankers tend to like wars since they tend to create financial dependency of nations to bankers. Thomas Edison would later say about Treasury bonds, “If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good...” 

2005 – PUBLICATION OF "A MATTER OF INTEREST" BY WILLIAM HIXSON, CANADIAN ECONOMIST 
"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. Either everyone in government in charge of the procedure is lacking in intelligence or they have been bought and paid for by those who profit from their skullduggery and their infidelity to the public interest." 

JULY 1

1818 – SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF US TRIGGERS RECESSION/DEPRESSION
The Second National Bank of the United States (a private financial institution) on this day reversed its financial course from monetary expansion to contraction. They called in loans and cut future loans. They required payments from state banks in gold alone. This caused deflation, leading to a two-year recession/depression – called the “Panic of 1819.” This is what happened time and again when private financial corporations control a nation’s money system instead of We the People through their government. 

1944 – BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE BEGINS 
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, known as the Bretton Woods Conference was a meeting of 44 Allied nations in New Hampshire, where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank were created. Participant nations agreed to fix their currencies to a set value of gold. Debtor nations were to be helped with payments. The actual program was the use of loans (to be paid back with interest) to create political and economic dependence to loaning countries and their bankers. Agreements to receive further loans were often conditioned on “Structural Adjustment Programs” which called for privatization/corporatization of public services, wage cuts, and perversion of economies to service debt payments.

1967 – US POSTAL SAVING SYSTEM ENDS 
Because of opposition from the commercial banks the postal savings system does not develop in a substantial way. The United States Postal Savings System was a postal savings system operated by the United States Postal Service from January 1, 1911 until July 1, 1967 

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NOTE:  Several individuals have inquired about the June 24 posting from last week. On that date in 1996, the US Supreme Court ruled, in Lewis v. United States that federal reserve banks were not federal agencies. Below is background on the case from http://nesara.org/court_summaries/lewis_v_united_states.htm 

John L. Lewis was injured by a vehicle owned and operated by a federal reserve bank, and brought action alleging jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The District Court dismissed the case by ruling that the federal reserve bank was not a federal agency within meaning of the Federal Tort Claims Act and the court therefore lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The Appeals court affirmed the decision.

The court stated “Examining the organization and function of the Federal Reserve Banks, and applying the relevant factors, we conclude that the Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purpose of the FTCA, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.”

However, this does not imply, as so many wrongly interpret, that private individuals own the banks for the court also stated “Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stockholding commercial banks elect two thirds of each Bank’s nine member board of directors. The remaining three directors are appointed by the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board regulates the Reserve Banks, but direct supervision and control of each Bank is exercised by its board of directors. 12 U.S.C. Sect. 301. The directors enact by-laws regulating the manner of conducting general Bank business, 12 U.S.C. Sect. 341, and appoint officers to implement and supervise daily Bank activities. These activities include collecting and clearing checks, making advances to private and commercial entities, holding reserves for member banks, discounting the notes of member banks, and buying and selling securities on the open market. See 12 U.S.C. Sub-Sect. 341–361. 

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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

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR June 18-24

JUNE 19

1843 – DEATH 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.”

JUNE 21

1940 -- DEATH OF SMEDLEY BUTLER, MARINE CORP MAJOR GENERAL (MOST DECORATED MARINE IN US HISTORY AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH)
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things that we should fight for. One is the defense of out homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket…. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912…” [A very timely quote given the just-ended “Marine Week” in Cleveland]

JUNE 24

1996 – LEWIS VS. UNITED STATES (AMENDED DECISION OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, NINTH CIRCUIT)
“Federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of a Federal Tort Claims Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations in light of fact that direct supervision and control of each bank is exercised by board of directors, federal reserve banks…are locally controlled by their member banks, banks are listed neither as 'wholly owned' government corporations nor as 'mixed ownership' corporations; federal reserve banks receive no appropriated funds from Congress and the banks are empowered to sue and be sued in their own names. . . .”

JUNE (not certain of exact date)

1992- UPDATED PUBLICATION OF MODERN MONEY MECANICS BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CHICAGO
“The actual process of money creation takes place in commercial banks. Banks can build up deposits by increasing loans and investments…This unique attribute of the banking business was discovered several centuries ago…At one time, bankers were merely middlemen. They made a profit by accepting gold and coins for safekeeping and lending them to borrowers. But they soon found that the receipts (bank notes or IOUs) they issued were being used as if they were a means of payment. These receipts were acceptable as if they were money since whoever held them could go to the banker and exchange them for metallic money…Then bankers discovered...that they could make loans merely by giving borrowers their promises to pay (bank notes). In this way banks began to create money...More notes (IOUs) could be issued than the gold and coin on hand because only a portion of the notes outstanding would be presented for payment at any one time...Demand deposits (checks) are the modern counterpart of bank notes. It was a small step from printing notes to making book entries to the credit of borrowers which the borrowers in turn, could 'spend' by writing checks.”

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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 

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Expands Corporate Rights

From "Newly Leaked TPP Investment Chapter Contains Special Rights for Corporations"
http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2012/06/13/newly-leaked-tpp-investment-chapter-contains-special-rights-for-corporations/

The most important paragraph is:
"The new texts reveal that TPP negotiators are considering a dispute resolution process that would grant transnational corporations special authority to challenge countries’ laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems."

This is entirely consistent and predicable with how corporations have responded in the face of people flexing their democratic/self-governance muscles over the last several centuries. Corpses escape democratic control in three distinct but related ways. They seek to shift decision-making from:
1. A lower level of government to a higher one (local to state, state to federal, federal to international) -- which are further removed from the public.
2. The legislative level to the courts - especially appointed ones – which are easier to influence or capture.
3. The legislative level to regulatory agencies (which are often stacked with corporate appointees, serve as shields between the public and corporations and can always be appealed to courts - see point 2 - in the oft-chance that decisions are made in the public interest.

The TPP is simply the latest chapter to what began with the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, dubbed by corporate anthropologist Jane Ann Morris as "Baby NAFTA" (see her book Gaveling Down the Rabble) which shifted trade powers from the states to the federal government over 200 years ago. The U.S. Constitutional Convention was in some striking ways similar to the current TPP in terms of meeting/deliberating in secret (including not making the minutes public for decades) and is usurping existing and established laws and rules (i.e. the Constitutional Convention was intended originally to amend, not replace, the Articles of Confederation). The TPP, however, is worse since corporations can directly challenge laws, rules and court decisions without having to use government as a surrogate. It's expanding what the U.S. Constitution never intended — corporate rights.

Maybe this will give rise to a global Move to Amend campaign.

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR June 11 - 17

JUNE 15

1836 – CHARTER (LICENSE) FOR SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF THE UNITED STATES REPEALED

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. 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 issuing loans, resulting in a severe contraction of the money supply. This led to massive bankruptcies and the Panic of 1819. When President Andrew Jackson threatened to repeal its charter, the Bank’s leaders used its power to restrict money circulation to cause another depression. Bank President Nicolas Biddle wrote, “Nothing but widespread suffering will produce any effect on Congress…Our only safety is in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction – and I have no doubt that such a course will ultimately lead to restoration of the currency and the recharter of the Bank.”

President Andrew Jackson said this about the bank, “The immense capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise despotic sway over the other banks in every part of the country. From its superior strength it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the business of any one of them which might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency throughout the United States. In other words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty or scarce at its pleasure, at any time and in any quarter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other banks and permitting an expansion or compelling a general contraction of the circulating medium, according to its own will.”

JUNE 16

1929 – DEATH OF VERNON PARRINGTON, HISTORIAN

“The only safe and rational currency is a national currency based on the national credit sponsored by the state, flexible and controlled in the interests of the people as a whole.”

1933 – PASSAGE OF GLASS-STEAGALL ACT

Actual title was Banking Act of 1933. Considered one of the most important post Depression laws, the legislation created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which protected bank deposits. It also instituted several bank reforms to curb speculation that caused the Depression. One important provision was to create a firewall between Main Street depository banks and Wall Street investment banks. The Act was repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999

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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 

Ending Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech

The ongoing U.S. crises in jobs, health care, foreclosures, finance, foreign policy, debt, energy and the environment are connected to, if not rooted in, the crisis in democracy. There's a widening disconnect on issue after issue between what the majority of the public desires and the policies we have.

The growing democracy crisis isn't at its core about who's been elected or unelected or what laws have been enacted or not enacted. It's about the undemocratic nature of what's considered constitutional - the very ground rules of our political and economic system.

"Our country is broken because the system is fixed," read a sign last fall at the Occupy site in Washington, DC. This sums up succinctly our democracy crisis.

The overarching set of rules or guideposts of our nation, our constitution and numerous U.S. Supreme Court decisions cast for over a century, have created a profoundly rigged system favoring corporations and the super wealthy at the expense of the vast majority of We the People.

Among the constitutional doctrines anchoring the ever growing power and authority of corporations and the super wealthy are the edicts that "corporations are people" and "money equals speech." Corporations first acquired corporate rights as "persons" under the 14th Amendment in the 1886 Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific RR Supreme Court decision while money was protected as free speech under the First Amendment in the 1976 Buckley vs. Valeo decision.

Despite all the valiant education, advocacy and organizing human persons of all races, creeds, genders, incomes and ages to elect specific people and pass specific laws; all the citizen initiatives and referenda to create or repeal statutes; all the strikes and boycotts; all the marches and rallies to stop wars and occupations; and all the social movements to guarantee inalienable rights for women, people of color, workers and young people -- the power and authority of corporations and the super wealthy have arguably never been greater in our nation's history, if not world history, than today. This is due to the widening constitutional shields of corporate personhood and money as speech. Unless and until these doctrines are reversed, it will be extremely difficult, to say the least, to achieve any of the real justice and peace most people aspire to enjoy.

Corporations were never intended to possess inalienable constitutional rights. The Bill of Rights and the rest of the constitution were meant to apply solely to human beings. Corporations were originally creations of government via charters issued for the most part by state legislatures for a limited time period to produce specified goods and/or services. Corporations are not people. They are human-created legal entities separate from the individuals who work or invest in them. They aren't associations of people or products of private contracts. Only governments make incorporation possible. Since they are human created, humans can, should and once did rigidly define their terms - to ensure that they were and are our servants and not our masters.

The 2010 Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision expanded never-intended inalienable constitutional rights, specifically free speech rights, to corporations. The decision allows corporations to shift unlimited funds from their treasuries to political "independent" groups supporting or opposing political candidates. "Independent" is supposed to mean the groups are not coordinated by any political candidate or campaign. The decision also applied to unions.

Citizens United gave rise, in part, to "Super PACs," groups funded by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, which were responsible for a 400% increase in spending in the 2010 mid-term elections from 2006. Most of the spending was directed to attack ads. Such spending was defended as free speech and expanding democracy. Did the 400% rise in political spending in 2010 yield a 400% increase in our democracy?

The 2012 election season has seen an increase in the number and size of Super PACs that are destined to dwarf by year's end 2010 spending. Incredibly wealthy individuals and corporations fund the largest Super PACs. Labor unions are limited in funding these political entities since their treasuries are much smaller than those of corporations and the super wealthy. Super PAC funding of what has largely turned into hate speech attack ads drowns out the political voices of people or groups without money. It limits what problems are identified, issues discussed, and solutions considered - all of which are tilted to the perspectives of corporations and the super wealthy.

Citizen United expanded the political power of corporations to influence elections and public policies beyond corporate Political Action Committees and direct corporate lobbying that predate the decision by decades.

And since money equals speech, those who have the most money possess the most speech. Political "donations" or "contributions" from the super wealthy are actually more akin to "investments." Even a cursory examination of laws and regulations in almost every public policy arena reveals the buying, renting, leasing or retaining of public officials by money from the wealthiest 1% have yielded impressive returns.

Labor unions, African-American and Latino groups and other communities of color, women's organizations and other sectors of the population representing the 99% can't politically compete in such a rigged system. Corpocracy and plutocracy have replaced whatever amount of democracy we ever possessed.

Widespread public outrage following Citizens United has led to various Congressional initiatives and proposals to amend the constitution. The most comprehensive approach has been proposed by the Move to Amend coalition calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish all inalienable constitutional rights for corporations and an end to money being equated with free speech.

Working on elections and working to change laws are important tasks for those concerned for justice and peace. But they aren't enough. We must also work to fundamentally amend the U.S. constitution to ensure that the most basic ground rules are not rigged against authentic self-governance.

Why Reversing Citizens United isn't Enough

Testimony to Cleveland Heights City Council 

June 4, 2012

The Citizens United Supreme Court decision has resulted in many responses by individuals, organizations and governmental entities across the country. I’d like to thank this council for both having the interest and taking the time to take a position. Citizens United has spawned a grassroots national movement, Move to Amend,  that seeks to not simply reverse the decision via a constitutional amendment. Nearly 150 communities have passed resolutions or citizen initiatives calling for reserving Citizens United AND ending all never-intended constitutional rights AND ending the constitutional doctrine that money is akin to free speech.

Why have communities from coast to coast taken such a more comprehensive position than simply calling for reversing Citizens United?  Three reasons.

1.    Reversing Citizens United alone would return us to the time before January 21, 2010. Remember those days? When banking corporations used their political influence to reduce financial regulations that led to massive home foreclosures and the national economic implosion. When BP corporation and others used their political influence to reduce environmental regulations that led to the Gulf Coast disaster. When heath care corporations used their political influence to prevent real health care reform. When wealthy individuals donated or invested huge sums to produce massive tax breaks for themselves – a major cause for the spike of our national debt. When … well you get the idea. We had no democratic nirvana prior to Citizens United. If we’re going to work on a constitutional amendment, shouldn’t it call for something profound? For something that will dramatically expand self-governance?

2.    Simply reversing Citizens United doesn’t address the many other forms of never-intended constitutional rights of corporations. Corporations have turned on its head many constitutional rights, not simply first amendment free speech. 14^th amendment due process and equal protection rights for example …and others. Constitutional rights are meant exclusively for human beings. Corporations are creations of the state and thus, the state, has the authority to regulate or define them. That’s how it once was in our nation. That’s how it was meant to be. Charles Peterson, Oberlin City Councilperson and Associate Professor of Black Studies at the College of Wooster, when voting for a resolution abolishing all never intended corporate constitutional rights, earlier this year said, "The movement to abolish the 'citizenship' status held by corporations is one of the unheralded battles of our historical moment. Under the guise of freedom of speech and the protections of the 14th Amendment, corporations have slowly expanded their control over not just the economic life of the nation but its political life as well. It is a cruel irony of history that the amendment to the constitution which guaranteed freedom, justice and democratic participation to 4 million former slaves turned citizens, would become the foundation for the degradation of freedom, justice and democratic participation for every US citizen. As both a private citizen and public official, I support a constitutional amendment that abolishes citizenship rights for corporations.”

3.    Finally, only reversing Citizens United won’t do much, if anything, for controlling what has become the ugly face of politics over the last 18 months – SuperPACs. Technically, SuperPACs came into being by another Supreme Court decision – SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission – in July 2010. As far as the millions spent to date on what largely have been political attack ads, the majority of those ads have been funded by private wealthy individuals, not corporations, unions or any other type of organization. According to analysis of presidential SuperPACS by the Sunlight Foundation, 70.3% of SuperPAC contributions have come from wealthy individuals. This is why any constitutional  amendment must also include ending the constitutional doctrine that money is akin to free speech. If money is speech, then those who have the most money have the most speech. This pretty accurately describes our current political system – and why Move to Amend has included this provision along with ending all never intended corporate constitutional rights in its call.

Thank you once again for taking up this issue. We respectfully request, however, that any resolution addressing this issue do so with the urgency, clarity and unison of the 149 other communities across the nation that have called for an end to BOTH the constitutional doctrines that corporations are equal to people and money is equal to speech. We ask that you amend this resolution this evening or take the time to come back with a more complete resolution at your next meeting. Thank you.

MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR June 4 - 10

JUNE 4 

1910 – BIRTH OF ROBERT B. ANDERSON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY UNDER PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

"When a bank makes a loan it simply adds to the borrowers deposit account in the bank by the amount of the loan.  The money is not taken from anyone else's deposit; it was not previously paid in to the bank by anyone.  It's new money, created by the bank for the use of the borrower."

JUNE 6

1934 – CHICAGO PLAN INTRODUCED IN THE US CONGRESS

The “Chicago Plan” was a proposal developed by several prominent economists directed at President Roosevelt to end the Great Depression. The Plan was signed by 157 academic economists, another 40 approved it with reservations. Main features: 1. Only the government would create money. 2. The Plain separated the loan-making function, which can belong in private banks, from the money-creation function, which belongs in government. 3. The proposal recognized the distinction between money and credit. The Plan was introduced in Congress (S. 3744) by Senator Bronson Cutting (R, NM). In several respects, the Chicago Plan was the precussor to the National Emergency Employment Act (HR 6550) introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich in 2010, and reintroduced as HR 2990 in 2011.

JUNE 8

1042 – REIGN OF KING EDWARD OF ENGLAND BEGINS

Taking any interest on loaned money was considered a sin in early England. Under King Edward’s reign, those who charged interest (usurers) were declared outlaws and banished from the country. 

1809 – DEATH OF THOMAS PAINE, COLONIAL 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."

1845 – DEATH OF ANDREW JACKSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

"The bold effort the present (central) bank had made to control the government ... are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it."

"If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations."

JUNE 10

1816 -- DELEGATES CONVENE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IN INDIANA

Private banking corporations were banned altogether by the Indiana Convention in 1816 and the Illinois Constitution in 1818. Voters in Wisconsin plus four other states rewrote existing consititutions requiring popular votes on every bank charter recommended by their legislatures as a result of corrupt banking practices associated with issuing bank notes. Only private banks that didn’t issue money (bank notes) operated in these states.  

1932 – QUOTE OF LOUIS MCFADDEN (R- PA), CHAIRMAN OF THE US HOUSE BANKING AND CURRENCY COMMITTEE

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

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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 \

The poor are no longer with us

We read this poem, The poor are no longer with us, Saturday at our Public Hearing on Poverty and the Federal Budge at St. Paul's Missionary Baptist Church in Akron.

The poor are no longer with us

Marge Piercy

The poor are no longer with us

No one’s poor any longer. Listen
to politicians. They mourn the middle
class which is shrinking as we watch
in the mirror. The poor have been

discarded already into the oblivion
pail of not to be spoken words.
They are as lepers were treated once,
to be shipped off to fortified islands

of the mind to rot quietly. If
poverty is a disease, quarantine
its victims. If it’s a social problem
imprison them behind high walls.

Maybe its genetic: how often they
catch easily preventable diseases.
Feed them fast garbage and they’ll
die before their care can cost you,

of heart attacks, stroke. Provide
cheap guns and they’ll kill each
other well out of your sight.
Ghettos are such dangerous places.

Give them schools that teach
them how stupid they are. But
always pretend they don’t exist
because they don’t buy enough,

spend enough, give you bribes
or contributions. No ads target
their feeble credit. They are not
real people like corporations.

http://monthlyreview.org/2012/05/01/the-poor-are-no-longer-with-us-these-bills-are-long-unpaid