Current Events Watch

We need radical changes in the banking-financial system and our present government administration and Congress seems unwilling to make it happen.  We need to lobby them to take our concerns seriously and hold hearings to discuss the issues. The hearings should include people experienced in financial matters who advocate some radical changes in the financial system.

It’s our bank-run debt-based monetary system that lies at the center of the financial rot that is destroying our economy. We need a new monetary system. We need a system that takes control of the monetary system from bankers and financiers, and returns it to the U.S. government. We need to nationalize the Federal Reserve System and make control a matter of public policy.

Stephen Zarlenga, director of the American Monetary Institute (AMI), recently delivered to Capitol Hill two briefings on the American Monetary Act that AMI drafted. The AMA would replace the bank-centered debt-based monetary system with the direct creation of money by the federal government. The money would then be spent into circulation as was done with the Greenbacks of the mid to late 19th century. The money would be spent on all types of legislated government requirements mainly focused on infrastructure improvements, including education and health care. The act would also create a new monetary supply denominated in U.S. Treasury notes.

In addition to reintroducing the Greenbacks, the act would eliminate fractional reserve banking by requiring banks to borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to bring their cash reserves up to the level of their lending portfolio rather than allowing them to continue to create money “out of thin air.” The banks would no longer be able to create trillions of dollars of credit, backed by nothing, which they use to fuel the speculative equities, hedge fund, and derivative markets. The Act may be introduced as legislation during the current congressional session.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is sponsor of H.R. 7260, the Transparency in the Creation of Wealth Act of 2008. This act would require the Federal Reserve to resume reporting on the quantity of M3 in the economy (mega-money accessible only to large financial institutions), along with several other economic indicators it now keeps to itself, such as total credit market debt and the holding of Federal Reserve notes by foreign interests. I didn’t find any updates on this legislation, so the bill may no longer be active.

Lobby your senators and representatives to encourage them and the Administration to support these Acts and change the financial laws for the long-term benefit of all.