Dear readers of “New View on Money”,
Pasted in below (for those unable to open the attachment) is a note from my colleague, Stuart, on the virtual eve of the introduction of the “Concord Resolution” at the town meeting of April 27 in Concord, Massachusetts. This locale for the bringing of the question of whether money might be issued publicly for the common good is particularly apt, as it was the colonial government of Massachusetts in the year 1690 that became the first government in the Western world to issue its own paper currency. The founding economic principle of a great nation was thus conceived. The “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington/Concord gave notice of its birth eighty-five years later. The issuance of the “Continental Currency”, the first national scrip,
commenced barely two months after.
Surely, the likelihood of this untested idea gaining a toehold in the earth, winning the hearts and minds of the People, and eventually transforming their affairs, must have seemed at least as “impossible” to our forebears then as the prospects for “getting the politicians to listen” are to us now; but the Minutemen mustered. How different would history have been if they had given way to cynicism, calculation and despair, and stood down because exercising their sovereign monetary franchise in the face of opposition by the most powerful empire in the world was deemed to be too daunting? Would there even be a nation in America, or only “third-world” enclaves, perpetually in “debt” to a private banking order? In the current financial crisis, has the question of who would issue the nation’s money, in what manner, and for whose welfare been visited upon us yet again?
Rich Kotlarz
*******************************************************************************************************************
“Listen my friends, and you shall hear,
of the mid-night ride of Paul Revere
On the 18th of April in ’75 . . . .”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dear Friends,
We write in the aftermaths of Patriot’s Day. Over the last months you have received Rich’s column: “New View on Money.”
On a number of occasions, Rich mentioned our work with the “Concord Resolution”, which seeks to contribute, at long last, to the healing of our financial system, by addressing what we see as the very heart, “life-blood”, of the problem-challenge and, above all, the opportunity facing our nation today.
That is: the renewal of our public works, infrastructure, our foundations in the only longer term way possible: through the redemption of our privately controlled, debt-based, money system.
The resolution has been developed, so as to be adapted and adopted (including its very name e.g. "Kalamazo Resolution") in communities across the nation.
We write to invite you to contribute to this healing process, this process of renewal, by:
1) Reviewing the resolution at www.concordresolution.org
2) If you see not only its merit, but believe it could serve your community or county and are willing to share it with neighbors and friends (both near and far), kindly let us know . . . .
3) ASAP. A brief response before Monday evening, April 27 would be a blessing, indeed. That is when we bring the “Concord Resolution” to Concord’s Town Meeting. If we can report at the meeting that fellow citizens in communities – 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 100 or more . . . – across the country are, at the very least, turning to the Concord Resolution and beginning to consider its merits, that fact will serve – IMMEASURABLY – our labors here in Concord. I trust that engagement of which I speake is clear.
So it was on that April morn of which Longfellow writes. Reinforcements, Minutemen (aptly named) arrived not only “from every Middlesex village and farm” but from as far north as New Hampshire and Vermont -- a stone's throw, and more, in Colonial Days.
If, friends, there is any time to enact the monetary reform that Rich has been writing about and, I trust, we all seek, this may be it. Such was Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s conclusion following our March meeting with him; such was the feeling, we sensed, that rose in author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s good heart at her parting embrace last week.
An unprecedented window of opportunity opens before us – if We the People are able to rouse ourselves from, and to, our dream. May it be so!
Our heartfelt thanks for your consideration.
Con-corde,
Stuart-Sinclair Weeks
Founder, Center for American Studies
Concord, Massachusetts, USA
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood;
It’s flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn
* * * * *
P.S. The Resolution and Brief Presentation Follow.
CONCORD RESOLUTION
Mr. Weeks moves: that the Town vote to petition its Congressional representatives to submit legislation in order to establish a process, whereby Concord and other local governments will be able to fund their duly authorized public works projects publicly, that is from monies created and loaned directly out of the US Treasury in accordance with the power of Congress to coin money and regulate the value thereof.
Public Loans Directly From Our Public US Treasury, As Opposed to Through the Private Bond Market
Think Globally; Act Locally.
PROS:
Overview:
1) NO RISK, first and foremost:
^ Having given resolution our best, Congress determines its fate;
^ Not tied into that fate. Can stick with bond market.
Locally:
2) Tax relief due to savings of interest on the bonds, totaling $8.5 million 2008-2112.
3) Proceed more readily with duly authorized public works projects;
4) Renewal of our infrastructure/foundation as a community and nation;
Nationally
5) Essential step taken to turn-around economy: return control of our nation’s money supply to our publicly elected representatives, as envisioned by our Constitution: “Congress . . . . shall have the power to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.”
6) Cornerstone set for a revitalized economy in which money serves people, as opposed to people increasingly obliged to serve money.
Globally: “. . . . And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
7) Concord’s legacy carried on in service to our children, generations to come.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
CON:
1) Wasted stamp that sends Concord Resolution to our congressional rep.
2) Other . . . ?
Q: You’re proposing reform of our current financial system?
A: Yes, for reasons:
1) System broken;
2) Worsening predictions;
3) We’re affected, growing distress;
4) Experts increasingly acknowledge they don’t have answer;
5) Someone has to come up with solution;
6) Is not ours a government, as Lincoln said, “of, by, and for the people”?
7) Monetary reform other unavoidable and indispensable side of the public works “coin”. . .
8) . . . . If more than a short-term, self-serving, band-aid approach to infrastructure is sought;
Example: The "shovel-ready projects” digging us into deeper hole/debt. Its stimulus money borrowed from Fed.
Q: Congress can make such loans now if it wants?
A: Yes. And nearly a century of experience since the passage of the Federal Reserve Act has shown that it won’t -- unless We the People speak up.
This conclusion confirmed by our recent visit to 6 Congressional offices. Their responses:
A) Little familiarity with the idea of public funding of our public works;
B) Nevertheless, see that financial system is a mess; self-interest rules, as opposed to the public interest;
C) Immediate sense that “Concord Resolution” onto something fundamental;
D) Express desire to be kept informed;
E) Clear counsel: little possibility without real support from the constituents, us.
Pasted in below (for those unable to open the attachment) is a note from my colleague, Stuart, on the virtual eve of the introduction of the “Concord Resolution” at the town meeting of April 27 in Concord, Massachusetts. This locale for the bringing of the question of whether money might be issued publicly for the common good is particularly apt, as it was the colonial government of Massachusetts in the year 1690 that became the first government in the Western world to issue its own paper currency. The founding economic principle of a great nation was thus conceived. The “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington/Concord gave notice of its birth eighty-five years later. The issuance of the “Continental Currency”, the first national scrip,
commenced barely two months after.
Surely, the likelihood of this untested idea gaining a toehold in the earth, winning the hearts and minds of the People, and eventually transforming their affairs, must have seemed at least as “impossible” to our forebears then as the prospects for “getting the politicians to listen” are to us now; but the Minutemen mustered. How different would history have been if they had given way to cynicism, calculation and despair, and stood down because exercising their sovereign monetary franchise in the face of opposition by the most powerful empire in the world was deemed to be too daunting? Would there even be a nation in America, or only “third-world” enclaves, perpetually in “debt” to a private banking order? In the current financial crisis, has the question of who would issue the nation’s money, in what manner, and for whose welfare been visited upon us yet again?
Rich Kotlarz
*******************************************************************************************************************
“Listen my friends, and you shall hear,
of the mid-night ride of Paul Revere
On the 18th of April in ’75 . . . .”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dear Friends,
We write in the aftermaths of Patriot’s Day. Over the last months you have received Rich’s column: “New View on Money.”
On a number of occasions, Rich mentioned our work with the “Concord Resolution”, which seeks to contribute, at long last, to the healing of our financial system, by addressing what we see as the very heart, “life-blood”, of the problem-challenge and, above all, the opportunity facing our nation today.
That is: the renewal of our public works, infrastructure, our foundations in the only longer term way possible: through the redemption of our privately controlled, debt-based, money system.
The resolution has been developed, so as to be adapted and adopted (including its very name e.g. "Kalamazo Resolution") in communities across the nation.
We write to invite you to contribute to this healing process, this process of renewal, by:
1) Reviewing the resolution at www.concordresolution.org
2) If you see not only its merit, but believe it could serve your community or county and are willing to share it with neighbors and friends (both near and far), kindly let us know . . . .
3) ASAP. A brief response before Monday evening, April 27 would be a blessing, indeed. That is when we bring the “Concord Resolution” to Concord’s Town Meeting. If we can report at the meeting that fellow citizens in communities – 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 100 or more . . . – across the country are, at the very least, turning to the Concord Resolution and beginning to consider its merits, that fact will serve – IMMEASURABLY – our labors here in Concord. I trust that engagement of which I speake is clear.
So it was on that April morn of which Longfellow writes. Reinforcements, Minutemen (aptly named) arrived not only “from every Middlesex village and farm” but from as far north as New Hampshire and Vermont -- a stone's throw, and more, in Colonial Days.
If, friends, there is any time to enact the monetary reform that Rich has been writing about and, I trust, we all seek, this may be it. Such was Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s conclusion following our March meeting with him; such was the feeling, we sensed, that rose in author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s good heart at her parting embrace last week.
An unprecedented window of opportunity opens before us – if We the People are able to rouse ourselves from, and to, our dream. May it be so!
Our heartfelt thanks for your consideration.
Con-corde,
Stuart-Sinclair Weeks
Founder, Center for American Studies
Concord, Massachusetts, USA
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood;
It’s flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn
* * * * *
P.S. The Resolution and Brief Presentation Follow.
CONCORD RESOLUTION
Mr. Weeks moves: that the Town vote to petition its Congressional representatives to submit legislation in order to establish a process, whereby Concord and other local governments will be able to fund their duly authorized public works projects publicly, that is from monies created and loaned directly out of the US Treasury in accordance with the power of Congress to coin money and regulate the value thereof.
Public Loans Directly From Our Public US Treasury, As Opposed to Through the Private Bond Market
Think Globally; Act Locally.
PROS:
Overview:
1) NO RISK, first and foremost:
^ Having given resolution our best, Congress determines its fate;
^ Not tied into that fate. Can stick with bond market.
Locally:
2) Tax relief due to savings of interest on the bonds, totaling $8.5 million 2008-2112.
3) Proceed more readily with duly authorized public works projects;
4) Renewal of our infrastructure/foundation as a community and nation;
Nationally
5) Essential step taken to turn-around economy: return control of our nation’s money supply to our publicly elected representatives, as envisioned by our Constitution: “Congress . . . . shall have the power to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.”
6) Cornerstone set for a revitalized economy in which money serves people, as opposed to people increasingly obliged to serve money.
Globally: “. . . . And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.”
7) Concord’s legacy carried on in service to our children, generations to come.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
CON:
1) Wasted stamp that sends Concord Resolution to our congressional rep.
2) Other . . . ?
Q: You’re proposing reform of our current financial system?
A: Yes, for reasons:
1) System broken;
2) Worsening predictions;
3) We’re affected, growing distress;
4) Experts increasingly acknowledge they don’t have answer;
5) Someone has to come up with solution;
6) Is not ours a government, as Lincoln said, “of, by, and for the people”?
7) Monetary reform other unavoidable and indispensable side of the public works “coin”. . .
8) . . . . If more than a short-term, self-serving, band-aid approach to infrastructure is sought;
Example: The "shovel-ready projects” digging us into deeper hole/debt. Its stimulus money borrowed from Fed.
Q: Congress can make such loans now if it wants?
A: Yes. And nearly a century of experience since the passage of the Federal Reserve Act has shown that it won’t -- unless We the People speak up.
This conclusion confirmed by our recent visit to 6 Congressional offices. Their responses:
A) Little familiarity with the idea of public funding of our public works;
B) Nevertheless, see that financial system is a mess; self-interest rules, as opposed to the public interest;
C) Immediate sense that “Concord Resolution” onto something fundamental;
D) Express desire to be kept informed;
E) Clear counsel: little possibility without real support from the constituents, us.
Surprise? “When the people lead, the leaders will follow….”
