“Market Fundamentalism” and the Tyranny of Money by Richard C. Cook

[Joanne98]

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/%e2%80%9cmarket-fundamentalism%e2%80%9d-and-the-tyranny-of-money-by-richard-c-cook/

Recommendations for Reform of the US Monetary System

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I. What We Must Do Today

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are, or should be, the fruits of democracy. But the political democracy defined by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution has not been achieved because economic democracy has not been achieved. The attainment of real economic democracy is the next task for the American people.

In the midst of the most productive economy in history, the U.S. and much of the world today are in crisis, with stagnant or falling incomes, rising prices, and skyrocketing debt. Many experts are predicting an economic collapse, and people with money are scrambling for safe places to protect it. No one in an official capacity has provided a convincing explanation; few have even tried.

We are taught that economics is a “science” and that it operates under unchangeable laws that are understandable only to specialists. People speak with reverence of “market forces” as existing beyond the reach of human intelligence and will.

None of this is true. There is no such thing as “laws” in economics.

Of course there are plenty of habits and conventions, myths and prejudices. But the “laws” are the ones created by governments, usually under the control of powerful people who work the levers of power to acquire greater wealth through legislative favor. These laws are man-made. In some cases the laws may provide benefits to those who work for a living, but in many cases not. What we forget is that any of these laws can be changed and that many of them should be changed.

Besides, haven’t we learned by now that what has aptly been called “market fundamentalism” is really shorthand for the tyranny of money? It is a fact that control of economic life, at least in most of the Western nations, has been turned over to the monetary elite who control the world’s industry and resources through the private issuance of credit that originates from the privilege of fractional reserve banking.

This vestige of the financial systems of the Middle Ages allows the banks to produce credit “out of thin air” and lend it at a profit. They lend to consumers, businesses, investors, speculators (such as hedge funds), and to federal, state, and local governments. Under the banking laws, they generate this credit against a small “reserve base” consisting of customer deposits, government debt, overnight deposits from corporations and government agencies, and even—as has been well-documented—by laundering the proceeds of drug dealing and other types of crime.

The dependence of economic life on debt has assured that there has been a steady flow of wealth from the producing economy of goods and services into the financial web which surrounds it. Debt from lending at interest grows at an exponential rate.

Further, every period of economic growth in the last generation has been largely a bank-created bubble. Each time a bubble bursts, the financiers gain more wealth by buying assets at bankruptcy prices. The latest is the housing bubble.

Now we are about to see the bursting of an even larger bubble consisting of stocks and other business assets. In fact, the financiers are now positioning themselves to take advantage of a broad economic collapse.

Control of wealth by Continued>>>>
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/%e2%80%9cmarket-fundamentalism%e2%80%9d-and-the-tyranny-of-money-by-richard-c-cook/

[Joanne98]

1. The to do list... Take this you greedy bastards!!!!!!

Immediate

Abolish the Federal Reserve as a bank of issue and reconstitute it as a financial processing bureau servicing the public and private financial sectors under the authority of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Place all U.S. monetary operations under a Monetary Control Board that shall operate as a federal regulatory agency under the administrative supervision of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Abolish Federal Reserve open market operations by authorizing credit directly issued by the U.S. Treasury as collateral for all U.S. bank lending.

Restore private banking operations in the U.S. to the “real bills” doctrine and abolish all lending for financial asset and securities speculation.

Outlaw hedge funds.

Replace all Federal Reserve notes by U.S. Treasury certificates.

Place the entire U.S. national debt under bankruptcy reorganization.

Authorize the executive branch to begin direct Greenback-type funding of selected operational programs.

Establish a self-collateralized Federal Infrastructure Bank to lend to state and local governments for long-term projects at zero percent interest.

Restore the pre-2005 federal personal bankruptcy law.

Utilize an off-budget national credit account to issue an annual guaranteed basic income to all legal U.S. residents in the amount of $10,000 per adult and $5,000 per dependent child.

Establish a National Price Commission to work toward a system-wide fair pricing policy for the U.S.

Freeze budgets and hiring for all federal government agencies, including the military and all contractors.

Near-Term

Establish policies to maintain a stable dollar with minimal inflation allowances.

Adopt as a primary monetary goal the backing of our currency with domestic production within the physical economy rather than the “print, loan, charge, and spend” policy of bank-centered monetarism.

Extend the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate and eliminate predatory financial practices within U.S. capital markets that are destructive to U.S. industry, infrastructure, and labor.

Use the findings of the National Price Commission to establish an annual National Dividend that provides citizens with their rightful benefits accruing from the appreciation of national productive capacity through the application of science and technology to productive processes. The National Dividend shall utilize the amount of the guaranteed basic income as a floor in calculating benefits and shall consist in both direct payments to citizens and pricing subsidies for products sold in U.S. markets.

Establish a new federal agency to oversee and regulate mortgage funding, assure low-interest lending for housing, and protect the housing markets from predatory financial practices, including the inflation and deflation of housing bubbles.

Assure funding and legislative support to implement energy-conservation actions such as those contained in the 2005 report of the Rocky Mountain Institute entitled, “Winning the Oil End-Game: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security.”

Provide increased federal R&D funding for hydrogen technologies and for technologies that replace the internal combustion engine.

Provide funding for free college-level education for all U.S. citizens.

Reverse privatization of public utilities and re-regulate on a fair-price basis.

Protect and extend union collective bargaining rights.

Restore public service requirements for media broadcasting.

Establish public funding for all U.S. elections along with mandatory free air time for political candidates.

Depoliticize all agencies of the executive branch from undue corporate influence in decision-making and establish new and meaningful programs of public access and participation.

Establish federal support mechanisms allowing community banks to provide low-interest loans at one percent interest to small businesses and consumers.

Utilize a federal-state partnership to establish a series of ten regional mega-universities within the United States to serve both U.S. and international student audiences.

Reconstitute the federal budget by eliminating programs supplanted by the guaranteed basic income, utilization of direct Greenback-type funding where appropriate, and selective users’ fees.

Eliminate collateralization of private sector banking with federal debt securities. Emergency borrowing by the federal government will take place only through direct sale of Treasury bonds.

Eliminate all federal, state, and municipal income taxes and replace with a national sales tax.

Establish a mandatory annual income ceiling for individuals and corporations.

Establish a mandatory national building and zoning code that provides for affordable housing, use of renewable energy resources, and expanded mass transit.

Recreate and revitalize the nation’s railroads.

Establish a system of universal health care that draws heavily on concepts of lifestyle and prevention.

Establish meaningful programs of center city renewal to transform “death zones” into vibrant centers of urban culture.

Abolish the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the North American Free Trade Association and replace them with an international monetary authority under the U.N. whose function is to regulate international currency exchange to the mutual benefit of all parties.

Place all outstanding loans by the IMF under bankruptcy reorganization.

Support models of sustainable economic development among developing countries.

Begin the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from overseas bases.

Outlaw all covert warfare carried out by U.S. government agencies.

Eliminate all military programs of domestic surveillance and all overseas surveillance, detention, and torture contrary to established international law.

Reduce U.S. arms sales abroad to essential defense requirements.

Eliminate all U.S. funding of mercenary or contractor military forces.

Reconstitute the CIA and NSA as supporters of a defensive military posture and depoliticize their operations in order to assure accurate professional data-gathering and analysis.

Reconstitute the State Department as an agency to support the democratic aspirations of the people of the world.

Long-Term

Eliminate the entire U.S. national debt.

Carry out a general demilitarization of American culture.

Reduce the military budget by elimination of wars of “choice,” abandonment of “full spectrum dominance,” and restoration of a military devoted to multilateralist defense of the U.S.

Work with the nations of the world on establishing democratic economic systems based on the utilization of credit as a public utility in accordance with U.S. constitutional traditions.

Undertake reclamation and desalination programs to bring water supplies to drought-stricken areas.

Accomplish a permanent long-term conversion to renewable energy sources, including water-fueled hydrogen cells suitable to provide all power needs for homes and businesses.

Refocus the U.S. space program on activities that support space science and the economic development of space resources.