This was posted by Robert Taft of Upton, Wyoming on the “Join in the Debate” page, but it adds an interesting ferment to the debate and bears repeating here. Noting that Ithaca Hours (local community currency) are expanding as far as China, he suggests that both interest AND gold act as a break on trade, and that neither is necessary for a freely circulating medium of exchange. This is what I’ve been trying to say about a truly “national” bank — if the national community owned the bank rather private bankers, the bank could be a profit-free, interest-free venture that simply provided ready credit to the people. Controls would have to be imposed (no interest-free credit for speculation, etc.), but basically we would just be monetizing our own promises to repay. That is, in fact, the credit system we have now, except that parasitic privateers get to draw a perpetual tribute off the top. Robert Taft writes:
According to the Ithacahours website http://www.ithacahours.com their debt-free money is going global. Great slap at the central banksters. While they may not state it in wording they have apparently discovered the basic axiom for debt-free money:
“There is a basic axiom on money that is either unknown by monetarists or ignored in favor of the many schemes used to enrich the few at the expense of the many. It goes like this:
“As universal prosperity is dependent upon the ability of Money to flow (its “velocity”), nothing may be done to money that would in any way impede that flow.”
“This would exclude things like using commodities for money (gold, silver), adding bankers’ gimmicks like interest to money, or in giving money additional uses beyond its sole legitimate use as a “medium of exchange.”
“Money needs to be “created” into circulation by a system’s wealth producers, never “borrowed” or “spent” into circulation by its bankers or consumers. It needs nothing backing it but the integrity of its issuers (in a second-rate democracy there can be no integrity).
“That is the rule, though it cannot be applied in this time and place. Money issuance is government’s most sovereign prerogative, yet in honest form is as unobtainable as is the only workable FORM of self-government, a Republic.
“Had we a Republic, one of the very few prerogatives granted to the upper levels of government would be money issuance, a completely worthless medium of exchange, which being worthless would never be hoarded but would be quickly spent for something that one coveted for its intrinsic value. This velocity is what produces UNIVERSAL prosperity. Lack of velocity is what creates wealthy and impoverished classes of people, plus the struggling middle class that actually produces the wealth, and unfortunately, their ranks are constantly diminishing.”
While debt-free money cannot be instituted at this time by corrupt governments, obviously it can and is being utilized by some communities around the world. This is the biggest advance in monetary policy since the ’30s when thousands of communities and counties across America issued currency that circulated during the Roosevelt bank holiday. Damn shame they quit it when the banks reopened. They proved we don’t need the banksters leeching off our productivity. Another great advantage with Ithicahours or any local currency is that it is not acceptable outside the local economy and is therefore not siphoned off like a national or international currency would inevitably be. Central banks, including and since the first Bank of the US started by Hamilton do nothing for local economies but allow wealth concentration in the hands of the few while impoverishing the many.
This budding concept needs widespread distribution. It must be instituted when present governmental structures and the monetary systems they spawn collapse of their own internal rot and putrefaction.
Filed under: Brainstorming | 10 Comments »
WEB OF DEBT BLOG 
Works of art are never finished . . .
March 2, 2008 at 5:06 pm Ellen: I’m still reading the first edition of your book (and I am so grateful for the clarity of it all; what a welcome education). Are you able to quickly summarize what topics are in the new version that are not in the original? Any hint on the topic of your new book? Many thanks for all this work…what a service.
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 7 Comments »