Seminar: Economic Security Possible Through Monetary System Changes
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
July 16, 2009
Cleveland, OH – As Ohio grapples with its own economic woes, some residents will gather for a seminar tonight to look a way to change the nation’s monetary system - the American Monetary Act, which is being proposed by Congressman Kucinich.
Greg Coleridge, a director with the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, says fiscal policy gets a lot of attention, but it’s time citizens learn more about how monetary policy can affect their lives.
"The problem today in our society is that the creation of money, the actual issuance of money is not a public decision, but a private one, for the most part, done by our banks and the Federal Reserve."
A move from the bank-centered, debt-based monetary system to the direct creation of money would be responsive to the needs of consumers, says Coleridge.
"It would spend it into circulation on all sorts of legislative, government things that we need; infrastructure, including education, healthcare, improving our roads, and sewers."
Dramatic reform of monetary policy is needed, he adds, in order to protect the economic well-being of America.
"A transparent, public, accountable system is the best way to keep it responsible and close to meeting the needs and requirements of people and our needs at a community, a nation and a state level."
Currently, the Federal Reserve is partly public, with some private components. Part of the new proposal would make the money issuing system all public. Those against the government issuance of money say it would drive up inflation, but proponents say that won’t happen if the money is used to create goods and services. Congressman Kucinich's senior counsel, Marty Gelfand, will speak at tonight’s event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Peace House in University Circle in Cleveland.