AUGUST 5
1964 – PUBLICATION OF “A PRIMER ON MONEY” BY THE U.S. CONGRESS, HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC FINANCE 88TH CONGRESS, 2ND SESSION
“The dollar is based on credit and every dollar in existence represents a dollar of debt owed by an individual, a business firm, or a government unit.”
AUGUST 6
1893 – BIRTH OF WRIGHT PATMAN, DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN FROM TEXAS, CHAIRMAN OF US HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING & CURRENCY (1965-75)
“I have never yet had anyone who could, through the use of logic and reason, justify the Federal Government borrowing the use of its own money I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with Congress for sitting idly by and permitting such an idiot system to continue.”
“The Constitution of the U.S. says that Congress shall coin money and regulate its value. That does not mean that the Congress of the U.S., composed of the duly elected representatives of the people, have a right to farm out the great privilege to the banking system, until today a few powerful bankers control the issuance & distribution of money — something that the Constitution of the U.S. says Congress shall do.”
AUGUST 7
1946 – FIRST COIN IN THE U.S. AUTHORIZED BEARING THE PORTRAIT OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN
The coin was the Booker T. Washington Silver Half Dollar Commemorative Coin. Commemorative Coins, designed to honor special people, place, events and institutions, aren’t usually minted for circulation even though they are legal tender. The coin was designed by Isaac Scott Hathaway, the first African American man to design a U.S. coin with a African American face on it. He later designed the George Washington Carver coin.
2015 – SECOND NIGHT OF THE OPENING OF “HAMILTON” ON BROADWAY
The rap musical opened last night at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Inspired by the 2004 biography “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow, the musical won 11 Tony Awards in 2016, including best musical and book of a musical. It lauds the contributions of one of nation’s “founding fathers,” and first Treasury Secretary.
There was another side to Hamilton that the rap musical didn’t glorify – his effort to privatize money creation in the new country from We the People to financiers through the establishment of the First Bank of the United States, an entity Thomas Jefferson called “one of the most deadly hostile against the principles of our Constitution,” which, “in a critical moment might overthrow the government.”
The timing of the musical release took place ironically when awareness was growing of the modern dangers to private banks controlling the printing and distribution as debt of our nation’s money and calls by some to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill.
AUGUST 8
1916 – BIRTH OF HERBERT STEIN, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS
Stein’s law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
[Sounds like our current debt-based money system – an unsustainable system which can only continue if more debt is issued, which happens when banking corporations issue loans and purchase treasury bonds, bills and notes]
AUGUST 9
1836 – BIRTH OF ALEXANDER DEL MAR, AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMIST, HISTORIAN, NUMISMATIST, AUTHOR, DIRECTOR US BUREAU OF STATISTICS
“As a rule political economists…don’t take the trouble to study the history of money; it is much easier to imagine it and to deduce the principles of this imaginary knowledge.”
“[T]he State alone had the right to issue money and to decide of what substances its symbols should be made, whether of gold, silver, brass or paper. Whatever the State declared to be money was money.”
“Lexington and Concord were trivial acts of resistance, which chiefly concerned those who took part in them and which might have been forgiven; but the creation and circulation of bills of credit by revolutionary assemblies in Massachusetts and Philadelphia were the acts of a whole people, and coming, as they did, upon the heels of the strenuous efforts made by the Crown to suppress paper money in America, they constituted acts of defiance so contemptuous and insulting to the Crown, that forgiveness was thereafter impossible…Thus the bills of credit of this era, which ignorance and prejudice have attempted to belittle into the mere instruments of a reckless financial policy, were really the standard of the Revolution. They were more than this: they were the Revolution itself.”
1944 – BIRTH OF WILLIAM ENGDAHL, AUTHOR OF “GODS OF MONEY”
“Since 1945, American hegemony, or more accurately an American imperium, has rested on two firm pillars of support! The 1st pillar has been the role of the dollar as unchallenged world reserve currency in which New York’s Wall St. is the center of global finance, the ‘banker to the world’. The 2nd has been the role of the Pentagon and the unchallenged dominance of American military power.”
1989 – FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REFORM RECOVERY AND ENFORCEMENT ACT (FIRREA) ENACTED
The law passed in response to the 1980’s savings and loan crisis – in which. FIRREA created the Resolution Trust Corporation, which bailed out failed institutions primarily through taxation. It also shifted regulatory authority from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to the Office of Thrift Supervision within the Department of the Treasury.
It should be noted that more than more than a thousand felony convictions followed the savings-and-loan scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s. There have been virtually no investigations, let alone convictions, of those responsible for the 2007-2008 global financial meltdown triggered by US financial institutions.
AUGUST 10
1863 – BIRTH OF ALFRED OWEN CROZIER, PROMINENT OHIO ATTORNEY AND AUTHOR
Crozier wrote widely against the power and influence held by Wall Street Bankers. Crozier wrote eight books, including The Magnet and U.S. Money vs. Corporation Currency, which served to warn the country of the replacement of the country’s currency by notes printed by private banking corporations. A wonderful display of political cartoons from his book, US Money vs. Corporations Currency is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qQ59w4ML4
1868 – BIRTH OF PAUL WARBURG, US BANKER
Warburg guided the operations of the National Citizens League, an organization formed in 1911 with $5 million in contributions from the big New York banks (including those owned by Rockefeller and J.P Morgan) to establish an “educational fund.” The fund financed respected university professors to endorse the concept of creating a private central bank, which became the Federal Reserve Bank, created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.
1929 – THE FEDERAL RESERVE BEGINS TO TIGHTEN THE MONEY SUPPLY – LEADS TO GREAT DEPRESSION
The Federal Reserve sharply raises the interest rate it charges local banks to borrow money (called the “discount rate”). At the same time, it begins to sell its government securities (remember, the Fed is not part of the federal government, despite its name, but rather a largely private entity controlled by 12 reserve banks which are controlled by banks). These actions were the seeds, which led to the Great Depression – as limited money in circulation prevents business and commercial transactions from occurring.
1930- BIRTH OF GEORGE GOODMAN, AUTHOR, “THE MONEY GAME”
“[T]hose who live by numbers can also perish by them, and it is a terrifying thing to have an adding machine write an epitaph, either way.”
AUGUST 11
1943 – BIRTH OF NICOLAUS TIDEMAN, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, VIRGINIA TECH AND FORMER SENIOR ECONOMIST FOR THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS
“Money is what people make sure they have when they want to buy things. Something works as money when people expect others to accept it as payment. Sometimes money is a valuable commodity, such as gold, wampum, or packs of cigarettes. More often, especially these days, money consists of pieces of paper.
The pieces of paper that serve as money have sometimes been issued by governments and sometimes by banks…What gives paper money its value to the general public is the expectation that a party with whom many will have occasion to trade will accept the paper as the basis for crediting the person who presents it. The crediting can take the form of payment of taxes, payment of loans, payment of religious obligations, or, as with paper money issued by banks and some paper money issued by governments, the crediting can take the form of obliging the issuer to exchange the paper for some specified thing of value…
In those cases in which the crediting takes the form of obliging the issuer to exchange the paper for a specified thing of value, the paper money can be described as the record of a promise to pay a debt on demand, and if that is the only form of money, then an expansion of the money supply requires an expansion of debt. But other forms of paper money are not debt. In particular, a paper money that consists of fiat currency issued by a government, good for the payment of taxes but not otherwise guaranteed to be convertible is not debt.”
2011 – PUBLISHED BLOG POSTING: CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUCINICH’S BRIEFING TO SOLVE THE DEBT CRISIS
“Congressman Dennis Kucinich hosted Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi (Berkeley & Doshisha universities) for a Monetary Briefing to present to members of Congress the real solution to the real problem. The problem is that the monetary system itself is broken. It is controlled not by our government but by corrupt financial interests. The solution is genuine monetary reform!…
“This money system requires government and private debt to grow exponentially and indefinitely. Dr. Yamaguchi finds that it inevitably leads to either a Financial Meltdown, a Debt Default, or Hyper-Inflation…
“The real surprise comes when he examines what would happen with a government money system, where government creates the money as money, not debt, and spends it into circulation for things the country (i.e. the people) really need, like infrastructure.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zarlenga/congressman-dennis-kucini_b_924004.html
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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 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/
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