Some Examples of Monetary Reform Proposals
- One exceptionally good proposal for monetary reform has been developed by the American Monetary Institute and is titled the American Monetary Act.
- The "sovereignty proposal" developed by Ken Bohnsack advocates that interest free loans issued by the U.S. Treasury should be issued to state and local governmental entities. This is one key element which we believe needs to be incorporated into any reform act, including the American Monetary Act since it places a significant portion of "money creation" power in the hands of local citizens. This is an important design element of our founding documents and one that should not be ignored. See Part II of our book and our slide presentation for more. Mr. Bohnsack has been a featured speaker at a number of conferences held by the American Monetary Institute.
- For a good description of how a Social Credit Money System - originally developed by Major C.H. Douglas decades ago - would work, read An Emergency Program for Monetary Reform in the United States by Richard Cook. Our reservation about this system is that it does not provide for the Bohnsack element mentioned above.
- Bill Still, as narrator of The Money Masters documentary, offers his own monetary reform act proposal at the end of the DVD copy of his documentary, portions of which he says were advanced in part by Milton Friedman - and which could get our government totally out of debt within one to two years. At the end of the same documentary Mr. Still also provides a very instructive outline of nearly painless procedures which could rescue us from financial disaster - if put in place soon enough. In such a case there would be little or no significant change in how the average citizen goes about his business. For the full version of this particular Monetary Reform Act, and for an abbreviated version see below.
We have one reservation about Mr. Still's vision, and that has to do with the manner in which he suggests money be created - at the rate of a 3% increase in the money supply per year. We believe this has the potential to cause unnecessary currency inflation (or dollar devaluation) - especially if a significant portion of the population were to return to small farms and/or a more self-sufficient, health-giving and planet-friendly lifestyle. In any case, there is a better way in our opinion. Again, see Part II of The Two Faces of Money and our slide presentation for more.
One additional element in considering monetary reform proposals needs to take into account the development of "public/private partnerships" which - in America - has been accomplished under the radar of average citizens and most of their elected officials. This has been done gradually, primarily through adoption of the "CAFR" accounting structure. This was briefly discussed in Part I of The Two Faces of Money. Two good articles on the subject are here and here and a couple more can be found on our Notable Articles page. you may also want to explore the CAFR reports.
Through its United Nations Economic Commission the United Nations also actively encourages the development of public/private partnerships around the world. Too few people, including most of our government officials, understand the full ramifications of this trend and it behooves all of us to research and discuss the issue thoroughly with each other and our government officials.
Now for Mr. Stills instructive procedures for moving to an "honest money system":
- Pay off debt with U.S. Treasury Notes - which will then be deposited gradually by those who receive them into their personal bank accounts. This will serve to gradually build the reserves of these banks.
- Abolish Fractional Reserve Banking. As bank reserves reach 100%, Federal Reserve Notes as debt would be paid off with the debt "free" treasury notes. And as debt is paid off, the reserve requirements of all banks and financial institutions would be raised proportionally at the same time to absorb the new U.S. notes as they are deposited into these institutions and thus become reserves. Toward the end of the first year (or second year) the remaining liabilities of financial institutions would be assumed or acquired by the U.S. government in a one time operation.
- Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the National Bank Act of 1864, both of which delegated the money power to a private banking monopoly - thus returning it to the Department of Treasury where it was initially under Abraham Lincoln.
- Withdraw the U.S. from the IMF, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements (or BIS) - all of which are designed to further concentrate the power of the international bankers over the world economy. Their harmless powers, such as currency exchange, can be accomplished either nationally - or through a newly created organization limited to this activity.