SEPTEMBER 7
1867 – BIRTH OF JP MORGAN, JR, BANKER
Morgan was instrumental is providing financing several nations during World War I, including loans and other financial support to France, England and Russia. Accusations were made that this financial commitment led him to influence the Wilson Administration to enter the war.
2006 – STATEMENT OF NOURIEL ROUBINI, US ECONOMIST
Roubini warns the International Monetary Fund about a coming US housing crash, failures of mortgage-backed securities failures, bank failures, and a major recession. His work was based partly on his study of recent economic crises in Russia (1998), Argentina (2000), Mexico (1994), and Asia (1997). His warnings proved to be correct.
2013 – DEATH OF ALBERT BARTLETT, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” [Note: Exponential growth requires exponential resources – which are finite. If we have no energy, we have no economy. Also, exponential growth is mandatory under a debt-based money system since exponential natural resources must absolutely be plundered to produce endless stuff to sell to pay off the endless compounding/exponential interest connected to the endless debt. Multiple crashes are inevitable.]
2015 – LABOR DAY IN THE UNITED STATES
Begun by President Cleveland in 1894 as a means to distract attention and break solidarity of US workers from workers around the world that celebrated worker progress and activism on May Day (May 1).
The enactment of the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, HR 2990 in the last Congress, would create 7 million jobs. The jobs would focus on repairing our nation’s infrastructure. The debt would not need to be raised. Taxes would not need to be imposed. Funding from any other public program would not have to be shifted. Public creation and circulation of U.S. money is all that would be required. Just as the colonists did when fighting the British. Just as President Lincoln did during the 1860 when creating Greenbacks. Just as economists proposed under the “Chicago Plan” during the 1930’s to President Roosevelt to move the nation out of the Great Depression.
For more information on the NEED Act, go to http://www.monetary.org
SEPTEMBER 8
1999 – DEATH OF HERBERT STEIN, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
[Note: Sounds like our current debt-based money system – an unsustainable system which can only continue if more debt is issued, which happens by banks when they issue loans and purchase treasury bonds, bills and notes]
SEPTEMBER 9
1801 – DEATH OF ROBERT YATES, POLITICIAN AND JUDGE
“I can scarcely contemplate a greater calamity that could befall this country, than be loaded with a debt exceeding their ability ever to discharge. If this be a just remark, it is unwise and improvident to vest in the general government a power to borrow at discretion, without any limitation or restriction.” – Brutus pseudonym, probably Robert Yates
1828 – BIRTH OF LEO TOLSTOY, RUSSIAN WRITER AND SOCIAL REFORMER
“Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal, there is no human relation between master and slave.”
1890 – BIRTH OF MARRINER S. ECCLES, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND GOVERNOR OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
“That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.”
SEPTEMBER 10
2015 — 11TH ANNUAL MONETARY REFORM CONFERENCE, SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN MONETARY INSTITUTE
The conference brings together some of the world’s most serious advocates of real and achievable monetary reforms. http://www.monetary.org/2015-ami-monetary-reform-conference
“The banking disaster, created and facilitated by false economic and monetary ideas, used by some very bad people, actually poses a real danger to the survival of the species. We must transform the ongoing disaster into an opportunity to achieve real and lasting monetary reforms for mankind. These are the reforms indicated as necessary by decades of study and centuries of experience…
The main cause of the problem is using debt in place of money when the banks make loans, as our present system does. That single error, allowing banks to control our money system, promoted by those really trying to block monetary reform, and by some economics professors trying to keep their salary checks coming, is all it takes to wreck any monetary system, and begin the insane concentration of wealth, into exactly the wrong hands, as we now see in our society! The conference shows why money must be created by our government and spent into circulation on infrastructure, healthcare, and education. The conference highlights recent important moves in that direction by key people, and institutions, around the world.
We have a once in several generations opportunity to fix an obviously flawed money system that is causing so much pain and hardship among a growing section of our people. It is clearly time to fix our monetary and banking system! Come and find out how, and the role you can play in that process.”
SEPTEMBER 11
1857 — STEAMSHIP ‘CENTRAL AMERICA’ HIT BY HURRICANE, SINKS
In the second day of a hurricane, the ship sprang a huge leak. It sank the next day, drowning over 400 passengers and crew. The steamship had a million dollars in gold and silver onboard. It caused the Ohio Life and Trust Company to fail and sparked the Financial Panic of 1857 since money was backed by gold. Under such a metal-based money system, the less gold and silver, the fewer dollars in circulation. The fewer dollars, the less economic transactions occur, resulting in less production and more unemployment.
SEPTEMBER 12
2013 – TALK BY ADAIR TURNER, SENIOR FELLOW, INSTITUTE FOR NEW ECONOMIC THINKING, “CREDIT, MONEY AND LEVERAGE”
“Banks create credit, money and purchasing power. That fact is fundamental to macro-economic dynamics in any economy with a complex banking (or shadow banking) system: and fundamental to both the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis and the depth of the post crisis recession.”
1880 – BIRTH OF H. L. MENCKEN, AMERICAN JOURNALIST
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
SEPTEMBER 13
1785 – PENNSYLVANIA REPEALS THE CHARTER OF THE BANK OF NORTH AMERICA
This was the nation’s first private commercial bank, chartered by Congress under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles gave Congress the power to “emit bills of credit” — to create money. By a single vote, Congress voted to transfer their authority to issue money to the Bank, thus, become a quasi central bank. The Pennsylvania legislature repealed the Bank’s charter, which was significant since it primarily operated in just three states. Why did Congress willingly give up their money power in the first place? The public argument was that the business of finance could not be ably conduced by a public body (Congress) — only by a small number of private financiers.
1873 – NATION’S BIGGEST BANK, JAY COOKE & COMPANY, BECOMES EFFECTIVELY INSOLVENT
Congress had passed the Coinage Act earlier in the year, which ended the minting of silver dollars. US money system was, thus, backed only by gold. The effect was similar to other instances in US history when money was backed by gold — a depression ensued, prices fell, unemployment increased and major banks failed since there wasn’t enough gold to back the money needed to fuel the growing economy. Jay Cooke & Company was the largest bank to fail due to this policy of gold-backed money.
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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, Deb Jose 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, email monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
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