Greens for Monetary Reform

Roger Waters' WAKE UP TOUR

By Eugene Woloszyn GPCT

Roger Waters is a member of the rock band PINK FLOYD, which peaked in 1973-83, with a series of albums and mass concerts. Albums like “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall” illustrated how bad education created alienated people constructing “Another Brick in the Wall” of their own bewilderment and repression. Such alienated adults became “Comfortably Numb”, dying as soldiers and paying higher taxes for unjust wars like Vietnam, while sucked into mass consumerism.

Now Waters has created a giant musical show touring the US and overseas for most of 2022-23. The musicians are in the center of the arena with a giant eight-sided video screen tower that supplements words and music with the video history of the last 60 years. Misuse of taxes for wars and blind consumerism hamstring other visions and possibilities. Consortium News had a detailed review with photos, which helps the reader to get a “feel” of the live performance.

Roger Waters creatively lays out the problems we face. He inspires us to provide solutions and the organizational steps needed. That is up to us in the Green Party to creatively use our platform to help Americans to see the path forward. The US Green Party is the only one with the courage to resist the 1% controllers and advocate:

1. A Green New Deal;
2. An End to US Militarism; and
3. A Sovereign Money system (the NEED ACT of 2011) to demand the abolition of the FED and Wall Street created bank money of $1.9 Trillion yearly, the interest of which banks and the 1% greedily feast.

Editors note:
If this is not accomplished the federal debt will be 40 trillion by the end of Biden's first term. Anything physically possible, ecologically wise, and socially desirable is financially feasible.

Crouching CBDC, Hidden Dystopia

Central Bank Digital Control Advances

By Howard Switzer

On March 9, 2022, Biden issued Executive Order 14067 on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets. In Section 4, he asked the federal authorities to work together to determine if the Federal Reserve Law would have to be changed for acceptance of CBDC by those same authorities.

Two months earlier On January 20, 2022, the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors published a paper, Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation, which focused on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and solicited comments from “the general public and key stakeholders.”

They received hundreds of comments most opposed to the idea over concerns of security and surveillance. Among the comments were those from member organizations in the International Movement for Monetary Reform, including its American member group, the Alliance For Just Money. They held that CBDC is not and cannot be viewed as a step toward a fully democratic sovereign money system so long as the private banking industry’s creation of bank-money through credit still exists. (Bank of England, 2014, p. 14) The Banking and Monetary Reform Committee of the Green Party US agrees.

In the Federal Reserve’s Money and Payments paper, and related papers of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), CBDC is not posed as sovereign money system. Thus, CBDC seems to be more a threat to monetary reform than a path toward it. As the paper admits, the Federal Reserve has no legal authority to proceed with issuance of a CBDC without “a specific authorizing law”.

Biden’s Executive Order, orders the Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the Attorney General, within 180 days of the date of the order, to provide the President with assessments, research and recommendations to examine the potential implications of a United States CBDC and to develop a strategic plan for Federal Reserve and broader United States Government action, as appropriate, that evaluates the necessary steps and requirements for the potential implementation and launch of a United States CBDC.

Well, 180 days puts us at September 5th, has anyone head about a new CBDC plan?

Be that as it may, history indicates that any top-down financial innovation will likely increase private control and private profits. If any law is to be passed it should be the National Emergency Employment Defense Act (the NEED Act H.R. 2990), proposed already in 2011-2012 to Congress. This is the legislation that the Green Party of the United States proposes in its platform to break the lock the big banks have on public policy and the economy.

Underground History of American Money

by Sue Peters

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Profit & Power vs Peace & Prosperity

War is a Boon to Bankers

By Howard Switzer

There was a time before 2014 where it seemed to me that relations with Russia were finally settling into peaceful trade and cultural exchange, perhaps it was only my imagination conjuring up a vision I would prefer because I was ignorant of what was really going on. That was shattered when the US engineered the fascist coup in Ukraine and the fascists began murdering the Russian speaking people of Ukraine, 80% of the people in Crimea immediately voted to become part of Russia for their protection.

Ukraine is a sensitive area for Russia, it has been invaded through the Ukraine numerous times, by Napoleon, WW1 and WW2, to name a few. NATO is an anti-Russian organization designed to extend western hegemony over the world.

Anyone calling for peace negotiations is attacked by western robots and automatons as a Putin puppet, a propagandist or worse, even threatening people’s livelihoods, firing people who disagree with the war, all hallmarks of fascism. Orwell’s nightmare has come to pass.

The American people living in the belly of the beast, well fed but in the dark, had only heard of the gnashing of the beast’s terrible teeth and claws until the beast began turning on them, robbing them of their homes, livelihoods, and health. Our youth are enticed into being killers or cannon fodder. Snipers are considered heroes in the twisted mind of this society. Drone pilots kill from the comfort of an easy chair suppressing their awareness of the “collateral damage” done, the innocent people they murder routinely, in a doomed effort to hang on to their humanity.

Our planet’s ecology, on which all life depends, all the life we know of in the entire universe, is being rapidly degraded in an insane obsession for accumulating profits and power. This process is enforced with violence against anyone who gets in the way or tries to stop the industrialized assault on our planet and all its life. The system seeks to eliminate everything green on the planet, the color that allowed the nucleated cell to be created, causing an explosion of diverse life forms, the color that creates the oxygen and food our lives depend on. The profit obsessed rulers remain obstinately on track to drive the world into oblivion.

Religions that emerged to unite peoples are now used to control and dominate people. In the US it is Christianity that is embraced by the fascist system we call capitalism, a system of private control of the money, governments, industry, and commerce to enrich the uncaring ruling class. It is a system of self-deception to justify ignoring that Jesus counseled people to love, take care of one another and the poor, and to live together in harmony, in favor of a violent and murderous hegemonic power over others, all justified as “God’s will.”

There are some nominating Elon Musk for the Nobel Prize, ignoring that he is a military contractor, for sending satellite internet terminals to the Ukraine as if they were a great boon for human rights. It is hyped as increasing communications among Ukrainians, ignoring that algorithms will regulate the information they are able to see. They are intended to help defeat Russia’s efforts as well as maintain a steady flow of propaganda to prop up the justifications for war and to eliminate any talk of negotiating peace.

So why on Earth would I or anyone else remain hopeful? I think because despite the terrible proclivities of the ruling elite and their extractive money system there are people doing good work, little things that could eventually combine to reverse our situation if brought up to scale. Activists are beginning turn their attention toward the banks funding of pollution, poverty, racism, and war. Without funding they cannot happen.

Now there is an International Monetary Reform Movement with groups in 30 western nations raising the awareness of how the money system operates to control public policy, create wars, and fund the destruction of our planetary ecology. Changing the monetary systems of the world could reverse the planetary assault and fund a quality of life for all, one beyond our ability to even imagine at this point. It means nations could reclaim their sovereign right as a nation to issue debt-free money, they would be able to reclaim their natural resources from private global corporate capital and direct its benefits to their people. It is a battle between good and evil, the have-nots and the haves, the givers and the takers, the producers and the parasites, the many and the few.

Evil has the hidden upper hand now, but evil can disappear in an instant before the power of peace and prosperity. For that to happen we will need to demand peace and prosperity, elect governments not beholden to the parasitic money system, one that is dedicated to monetary reform, one dedicated to the general welfare and the enrichment of all life.

Power’s Political Theater

What Will the Democrats Do Now?

by Rita Jacobs

Democrats continue to revel in the outcome of the election, holding the belief that Biden will fix all that ails our society. It is reminiscent of the adrenaline that flowed leading up to the election of President Obama, at a time when the democrats promised to undo all the wrongs that had taken place during the Bush administration. So pronounced were the promises made during his campaign that Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize before taking office. He ran on a campaign of hope. He was the knight in shining armor who would save the American people. I must admit that I voted for him, noting that he would be a vast improvement over George W. Bush. Before his re-election in 2012, I became aware of the platform of the Green Party, with its 10 key values which reflected my own beliefs in what the policies of government should be. It is far different than the platform of the democrats that has morphed into "beat the republicans and to hell with the progressives."

The democratic base was so taken up with the professional demeanor and intelligence of President Obama that they didn't look much beyond his outward image, and did little to question the messages being sent to his constituency. They relied on the mainstream media for news, without regard to the fact that it is corporate controlled, and has become a mouthpiece for government propaganda. The main flaw of the mainstream media is omission of important news that the public should know about.

President Obama took office during the height of the 2008 financial crash. The crash was caused by the most wide-spread financial fraud perpetrated in the history of the world by Wall Street bankers and financial institutions. This should have been cause to make cleaning up the corruption and fraud among the bankers the number one priority from day one. Instead, we learned toward the end of Obama's presidency that Citigroup, one of the most powerful Wall Street Banks, actually chose nearly every member of Obama's cabinet.

It soon became evident that the Obama presidency would not provide the promised benefits to his constituency. His choice of Timothy Geitner as Treasury Secretary foreshadowed what was to come. As the immediate past President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, part of Geitner's responsibilities included the regulation and oversight of the member banks of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is baffling that someone would be chosen to fill such an important position when it is obvious that he failed to perform adequately in his previous job. As Treasury Secretary, he had oversight of emergency lending programs and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), passed by Congress, and administered by the Fed to assist in the recovery of the financial institutions from losses suffered during the economic crash. Most of the firms that sold their short-term debt to the Fed as part of emergency relief were firms based outside the U.S., including firms like BMW that were not financial firms.

Although everyone is made to believe that there was recovery from the 2008 crash, the Federal Reserve System has been on life support ever since. It is running out of ideas to keep the economy afloat. This influence by Wall Street on the cabinet picks affected the priorities carried out by the Obama administration. Completely absent among his priorities was the prosecution of the bankers who orchestrated and carried out the fraud that resulted in the economic crash, the subsequent loss of homes through foreclosure by millions of Americans, and the loss of investment income by millions of Americans when the interest rates were lowered.

Legislation passed to help Americans who were facing eviction was used by financial institutions to further defraud homeowners and trick them into skipping mortgage payments so that foreclosure proceedings could be initiated. Although there was some attempt to re-establish sufficient banking regulations to curb the corruption in the financial sector, it was inadequate. After eight years of refraining from prosecuting any corrupt bankers, a de facto immunity was granted to bankers, protecting them from prosecution for their corrupt practices.

Despite being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama escalated the War on Terror started by George Bush, and expanded its reach. By the end of his term of office he was bombing seven countries with an average of 23,000 bombs per year. Most of this activity escaped public attention because drone warfare reduced the need for "boots on the ground," which many people interpreted to mean an end to the wars. The mainstream media failed to provide adequate coverage of foreign policies and programs. Obama's democrat supporters made no demands for correction of the policies coming out of Washington. He left as part of his legacy the destruction of Libya, and deportation of more illegal immigrants than any past president.

The showcase legislation during the Obama administration was the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The failure of this act to provide affordable health insurance to millions of Americans has resulted in thousands of deaths each year by individuals who had no health insurance, or avoided seeking health care because of expensive deductibles and co-pays. The legislation has not provided the promised benefits to most Americans who depended on it for their health care. Thousands of bankruptcies have been filed by Americans who have health insurance, but were bankrupted by the deductibles and co-pays in their coverage. Critics of the ACA have called it a giveaway to the insurance companies and Big Pharma.

Obama also signed into law the 2011 NDAA legislation that grants authority to the US military to arrest Americans (even in their own back yards) and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime or giving them access to an attorney. He prosecuted more whistleblowers than any previous president. While he was president poverty increased, household income went down, union membership decreased, and incarceration (disproportionately of minorities) went through the roof because of private prison contracts. Oppression of minorities grew worse under the Obama administration. Military expenditures increased as usual, while the arms industry continued to be the largest export business in the country.

I would think that being presented with these facts about failures in progressive programs, that democrats would ask themselves what causes a democratic administration to fail in making real progressive changes. Could it possibly be that the democrats are as corrupt and beholden to Wall Street as the Republicans? And why would one expect a new democratic administration, drawing on cabinet selections from the Obama administration, have a different agenda in the coming years — especially after the Democratic National Committee has successfully blocked progressive candidates from support during the past two presidential primary elections?

Both major political parties serve the Money Power interests, accepting billions in bribes. Green Party of the United States is the only party with a plan and policy proposals in its platform that could address all the problems we face in this nation, but the money powered system is blocking our participation as well as the participation of voters. It will take a movement against the private control of money to put the public back into public policy.

The Most Important History is the History We Don't Know

by Howard Switzer

Henry Charles Carey (December 15, 1793 – October 13, 1879)

He was the leading 19th-century economist of the American School, and chief economic adviser to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Carey was the major proponent in the Lincoln Administration of issuing debt-free US money, Greenbacks. In referencing the US economy under the Greenback system, he said, …

”for the first time, too, in the history of the world, there has been presented a community in which nearly all business was done for cash, and in which debt has scarcely an existence…there has been a large and general diminution of the rate of interest…traders have therefore become more independent of the capitalist, while the country at large has become more independent of the ‘wealthy capitalists’ of Europe.”