MAY 27
1923 – BIRTH OF HENRY KISSINGER, 56TH US SECRETARY OF STATE
“If you control the oil, you control entire nations; if you control the food, you control the people; if you control the money, you control the entire world.”
MAY 28
1836 – STATEMENT BY JOHN C. CALHOUN, FORMER US VICE-PRESIDENT
“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.”
2014 – STANLEY FISCHER BEGINS TERM AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. A MONTH LATER, HE BECAME VICE CHAIR
“I thought that when Dodd-Frank [proposed bank reform legislation] started, that the banks would not succeed in influencing it, having lost all the prestige they lost…Boy, was I wrong.”
MAY 29
1998 – DEATH OF BARRY GOLDWATER, REPUBLICAN SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people’s money.”
2015 – “BANKS ARE NOT INTERMEDIARIES OF LOANABLE FUNDS — AND WHY THIS MATTERS” PUBISHED BY ZOLTAN JAKAB AND MICHAEL KUMHOF, BANK OF ENGLAND WORKING PAPER #529
“The quantity of [bank] reserves is a consequence, not a cause, of lending and money creation…in the real world, there are no pre-existing loanable funds…Instead, banks create new funds in the act of lending…there is no deposit multiplier mechanism that imposes quantitatyive constrains on banks’ ability to create money in this fashion. The main constraint is banks’ expectations concerning their profitability and solvency.”
MAY 30
1896 – DEATH OF MARK “BRICK” POMEROY, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER, CURRENCY REFORMER AND ORGANIZER OF “GREENBACK CLUBS”
At the national Greenback Party convention in 1876, Pomeroy was named chairman of a committee to coordinate the activities of local Greenback clubs across the country. The clubs served as forums for monetary education and mobilization on behalf of the Greenback Party. During his leadership, Pomeroy claimed almost 6000 clubs had been chartered: the most in Missouri, followed by Illinois. Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York followed in number of clubs.
1908 – ALDRICH-VREELAND ACT SIGNED BY PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The Act established the National Monetary Commission recommending the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating the Federal Reserve System, the current private central bank (actually 12 banks to give the appearance of decentralization of economic power and control) of the US. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act was passed in response to the economic Panic of 1907 of bank failures. JP Morgan and other bankers who had been the target of Roosevelt’s trust busting efforts through more aggressive enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act manufactured the Panic. Through manipulating the stock market, calling in loans and not granting new ones, Morgan severely contracted the nation’s money supply. Thousands of banks were overextended. An economic crash followed. The Panic of ’07 was the pretext used to end the nation’s system of decentralized private banking by creating a system of centralized private banking – the Federal Reserve System.
MAY 31
1857 – BIRTH OF POPE PIUS XI
“For what will it profit men that a more prudent distribution and use of riches make it possible for them to gain even the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their own souls? What will it profit to teach them sound principles in economics, if they permit themselves to be so swept away by selfishness, by unbridled and sordid greed, that, ‘hearing the Commandments of the Lord, they do all things contrary.”
JUNE 1
1938 – BIRTH OF HERMAN DALY, ECONOMIST, AUTHOR OF “STEADY STATE ECONOMICS”
“If our present banking system, in addition to fraudulent and corrupt, also seems “screwy” to you, it should. Why should money, a public utility (serving the public as medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account), be largely the by-product of private lending and borrowing?…Why should the public pay interest to the private banking sector to provide a medium of exchange that the government can provide at little or no cost? Why should seigniorage (profit to the issuer of fiat money) go largely to the private sector rather than entirely to the government (the commonwealth)?
“Is there not a better away? Yes, there is. We need not go back to the gold standard. Keep fiat money, but move from fractional reserve banking to a system of 100% reserve requirement…Banks would no longer be able to live the alchemist’s dream by creating money out of nothing and lending it at interest.”
From “Nationalize Money, Not Banks”
JUNE 2
1995 – PAPERBACK PUBLICATION OF “THE CHICAGO PLAN & NEW DEAL BANKING REFORM” BY RONNIE PHILLIPS
This work presents a comprehensive history and evaluation of the role of the 100 percent reserve plan in the banking legislation of the New Deal reform era from its inception in 1933 to its re-emergence in the current financial reform debate in the US.
———————–
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 the original project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini, Deb Jose and Greg Coleridge helped in its development. It is currently updated by Greg Coleridge. Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, email monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
To see the calendar year-to-date, go to https://monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/
A second historical calendar, the REAL Democracy History Calendar, in many ways complements this calendar. For information, go to https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/about/
create real democracy 