SEPTEMBER 21
1950 –FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE LIMIT RAISED
The popular FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) limit is raised by Congress to $10,000. The FDIC insures commercial bank deposits against loss due to bankruptcy or default. It was created following the Great Depression when depositors lost their savings when banks collapsed due to speculative investments and/or depositor fears, which led to a run on banks.
2008 – FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD APPROVES APPLICATIONS OF INVESTMENT BANKING CORPORATIONS GOLDMAN SACHS AND MORGAN STANLEY TO BECOME BANK HOLDING COMPANIES
Prior to the Great Depression, banking corporations could engage in both “commercial” (traditional loans to individuals and businesses) and “investment” (stock and other forms of speculative activities) activities. Overzealous speculation by banks using depositors’ money was one of the causes of the Depression. This led to the 1933 Glass Steagall Act, separating commercial from investment activities. This law was overturned in 1999, leading to a breach in the “firewall” keeping the two types of financial activities separate. This grant application allowed two of the largest investment banks on the planet to begin engaging in commercial banking activities.
2011 – NATIONAL EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT DEFENSE (NEED) ACT REINTRODUCED IN CONGRESS BY US REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH (HR 2990)
The bill would shift the private Federal Reserve System to the US Treasury Department, end fractional reserve lending by banking corporations (which permits them to lend out many more times the amount of their deposits) and authorizes the US government (in accordance with Art 1, Sec 8 of the US Constitution) to print US money to repair our nation’s physical and human infrastructure. Money issued in this way by the US government is debt-free and inflation-free vs the financial industry which currently issues the vast majority of our nation’s money as debt. No longer would banking corporations have the license to create our nation’s money. That would become a public function.
2014 – FEAST OF ST. MATTHEW
Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” Born in Palestine sometime in the 1st century, St. Matthew was one of Jesus’s 12 apostles and also one of the four Evangelists, according to the Bible. Matthew authored the first Gospel of the Bible’s New Testament, now known as the Gospel of Matthew. Prior to preaching, he worked as a tax collector in Capernaum. Matthew is the patron saint of tax collectors and accountants. The Feast of St. Matthew is annually celebrated on September 21.
SEPTEMBER 22
1956 — DEATH OF FREDERICK SODDY, NOBEL LAUREATE
“It was recognized in Athens and Sparta…centuries before the birth of Christ that one of the most vital prerogatives of the State was the right to issue money.”
On money: “To allow it to become a source of revenue to private issuers is to create first, a secret and illicit arm of the government and last, a rival power strong enough ultimately to overthrow all other forms of government.”
1973 – HENRY KISSINGER SWORN IN AS 56TH US SECRETARY OF STATE
William Engdahl asserts in his introduction to Gods of Money that then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a protégé of the powerful Rockefeller corporate empire, stated: “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.”
SEPTEMBER 23
1998 – TALK BY MICHAEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS
“Monetary policy is in the hands of private creditors who have the ability to freeze state budgets, paralyze the payments process, thwart the regular disbursement of wages to millions of workers and precipitate the collapse of production and social programs.”
SEPTEMBER 24
1976 – DEATH OF PAUL DOUGLAS, ECONOMIST, US SENATOR, QUAKER
A prominent University of Chicago economist, Douglas was one of several economists who developed A Program for Monetary Reform in 1939. It was sent to President Roosevelt as a proposal to end the Great Depression. More than 230 economists from 150 universities approved it without reservations while an additional 40 supported it with some reservations.
In assessing the problem of the day, the PMR states, “If the purpose of money and credit were to discourage the exchange of goods and services, to destroy periodically the wealth produced, to frustrate and trip those who work and save, our present monetary system would seem a most effective instrument to that end.” It also stated monetary systems based on a gold standard “has had…disastrous results all over the world.”
The PMR called for government creation and maintenance in the quantity of money. “Our own monetary policy should…be directed toward avoiding inflation as well as deflation, and in attaining and maintaining as nearly as possible, full production and employment.” The plan also called for eliminating fractional reserve lending – the process of banks loaning multiple the times the amount of money in their possession. Back in the 1930’s the reserved requirement was 5:1. Today it’s 9:1. Some of the major banks involved in the economic collapse of 2007 had ignored this law and were loaning out 50 times their reserves. The PMR called for a 100% reserve requirement – banks could only lend the amount of money they possessed.
The document goes on, “In early times the creation of money was the sole privilege of the kings or other sovereigns – namely the sovereign people, acting through their Government. This principle is firmly anchored in our Constitution and it is a perversion to transfer the privilege to private parties to use in their own real or presumed interest. The founders of the Republic did not expect the banks to create the money they lend.
Their plan to reduce the national debt was simply to have the government purchase government bonds with new US debt-free money.
The PMR was the outgrowth of an earlier similar proposal from many of the same economists, The Chicago Plan, which was introduced as federal legislation in 1934, as a means to end the Great Depression The Chicago Plan called for the issuance of debt-free U.S. money and the end of banks lending less that their assets as means to reduce public and private debt, eliminate bank runs, and gain control over money creation.
[NOTE: An economic/mathematical analysis of The Chicago Plan was published 2 years ago. “The Chicago Plan Revisited” by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhoff, two International Monetary Fund economists,. It affirms virtually every assertion by its advocates in the 1930’s. The paper is at http://www.stanford.edu/~kumhof/chicago-imfwp.pdf ]
SEPTEMBER 25
1913 – STATEMENT OF T. CUSHING DANIEL, US LEADING MONETARY SCHOLAR BEFORE SENATE BANKING AND CURRENCY COMMITTEE
“[I]t should be borned in mind that the value of the American dollar does not depend upon bankers or gold, but upon the National wealth of the United States created by the people.”
SEPTEMBER 26
1939 – DEATH OF ALFRED OWEN CROSIER, PROMINENT OHIO ATTORNEY AND AUTHOR
Crosier 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 warned 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, U.S. Money vs. Corporations Currency is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qQ59w4ML4
1942 – STATEMENT OF REVERENT WILLIAM TEMPLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, CALLING FOR THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND
“The private issue of new credit should be regarded in the modern world in just the same way in which the private minting of money was regarded in earlier times. The banks should be limited in their lending power to the amount deposited by their clients, while the issue of newer credit should be the function of public authority. This is not in any way to censure the banks or bankers…But the system has become anomalous, and, so often happens when anomaly has persisted through a long period of time, the result is to make into the master what ought to be the servant.”
Temple’s advocacy for banks being “limited in their lending power to the amount deposited by their clients” was for the ending of “fractional reserve banking” – the common practice of financial institutions providing loans in amounts many times in excess of the actual amount held by them. This feature is one of the major components of HR 2990, The National Emergency Employment Defense Act.
SEPTEMBER 27
2014 – ARTICLE, “‘NATIONAL THE FED,’ SAYS MONETARY EXPERT'” BY KEITH JOHNSON
“Few would deny that predatory bankers have been feeding off the blood and treasure of the American people for far too long. So what’s being done about it? Though many have stepped forward proposing ways to break free from this century-old system of debt slavery, perhaps no one has worked harder or come closer to an infallible escape plan than Stephen Zarlenga of the American Monetary Institute (AMI). “Congress already had the solution hand delivered to them a few years ago,” he replied. “Our work now is getting them to put it into action…
“According to Zarlenga, the solution he has helped champion can be found in the text of the National Emergency Employment Defense Act (NEED), a bill that was introduced by former Representative Dennis John Kucinich (D-Ohio) in 2011.
“’All the components for monetary reform can be found in that bill,’ Zarlenga said. ‘It essentially accomplishes three things: nationalizes the Federal Reserve, prohibits banks from deciding what we use for money and returns that power to Congress, which creates new U.S. money and spends it into circulation for the common good: infrastructure, health care and education.'”
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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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