The first part of the original movie made too much of the obvious fact that most monotheistic religions share lots of similar threads, building on what came before.

Sure, many religious institutions have become dogmatic conservative bodies and some extremists perpetuate divides. But the fact is that, being part of a church group or similar is one of the most statistically likely thing to increase reported quality of life (best explained by the human desire and need to belong and experience community, I guess)

The second bit of the film was all about 911 being an inside job. There is certainly more evidence for that than there is for the official story, but there are many better documented examples of false flag terrorism and of US (and UK) governments violently overthrowing democracies to instill dictators. So I don’t like how much emphasis people place on 911.

Two examples that come to mind are the Iran coup 1953 and in Chile on September 11th 1973

This sort of stuff has been normal practice for a long time so I don’t like how much emphasis people place on 911.

Anyway, I thought the beginning of third part of Zeitgeist – The Movie about the Federal Reserve was well done, and the bulk of this second film follows on from this:

“The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole…Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world’s money…” THE MONEY MASTERS is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today. The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money. The development of fractional reserve banking practices in the 17th century brought to a cunning sophistication the secret techniques initially used by goldsmiths fraudulently to accumulate wealth. With the formation of the privately-owned Bank of England in 1694, the yoke of economic slavery to a privately-owned “central” bank was first forced upon the backs of an entire nation, not removed but only made heavier with the passing of the three centuries to our day. Nation after nation, including America, has fallen prey to this cabal of international central bankers.”

Here is a great poem he wrote about money and banking…

The Matrix

Basic Info:

• Money Today
• A Brief History of Money

Money Books:

• Money Books
• More money books
  • see also Money downloads

Money Videos:

• Money as Debt
• The Matrix – A Poem by Paradox
• Zeitgeist Addendum
• Zeitgeist – The Movie: Federal Reserve
• The Money Masters
• New American Currency
  • see also http://delicious.com/uniteddiversity/money+video

Money Downloads:

• Money downloads

More

• http://delicious.com/uniteddiversity/money
• http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Money

What’s more, in order to make a guaranteed profit, the banks create money out of nothing, lend it to us at interest, and then demand we pay back more money than exists! Collectively we are left in the impossible situation of always owing more money than actually exists.

Instead of telling the banks where to go (by creating our own money systems based on collective mutual advantage and reciprocity), we then scramble to the banks and beg them to lend us more money. This situation is utter madness.

Money for nothing.

Creating money out of nothing first emerged in the 13 century, at goldsmiths’ benches (or bancos) in Italy, when receipts issued for deposits of gold, goldsmiths’ “tokens of promise to pay”, began to be used for trade because they were much easier to exchange than the gold itself. Goldsmiths soon realised that depositors would never try to retrieve all of their gold at the same time, and so cleverly, or perhaps deviously, began to issue tokens (i.e. create money) for gold they didn’t have (i.e. out of nothing).

This was the beginning of both western “promise to pay” paper currencies and of the so-called “fractional reserve banking” systems that persist today – “fractional reserve banking” being the fancy name given to the process that enables banks, like the goldsmiths before them, to create more money than they hold, out of nothing.

Money and War

The ability to create money out of nothing inevitably gave bankers, and the banking system as a whole, a significant amount of power – a power that was increased substantially during the 17th century when “a deal was struck between the governments and the banking system. The banking system obtained the right to create money as “legal tender” in exchange for a commitment always to provide whatever funds the government needed” – Bernard Lietaer, Future of Money

This power was first granted to the Riksbank in Sweden (then called the Bank of the Estates of the Realm) when in 1668 the crown needed urgent money to fund a war against Denmark. Similarly, the Bank England was founded in 1694 when King William of Orange needed an extra £1.2 million to fund a war against the French.

At Bretton Woods, 250 years later, war was again instrumental in the shaping of today’s global economic (dis)order. A year before the end of World War II, on July 22nd 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed in New Hampshire, USA and the US dollar became the de facto currency of the world. Under this agreement, 44 countries “had to fix their currencies to the US dollar, and the US committed in counterpart to keep its dollar convertible into gold upon request from any central bank at the fixed rate of US$35 per ounce of gold.

A new institution – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – was created to police the system…(and it) worked well for over two decades until President Johnson introduced his “guns and butter” strategy during the Vietnam War…This triggered an unprecedented dollar outflow from the US … (and) it was these substantial dollar holdings in the hands of foreign central banks that were to force President Nixon in 1971 to renege on the convertability promise of dollars into gold” – Bernard Lietaer, Future of Money

Thus, when Britain and France wanted to convert dollars into gold, and Nixon said “no”, dollars – the linchpin of global economic system – were no longer backed by a fractional reserve of gold, but by nothing. Since that time, the dollar has represented a promise from the US government to redeem the dollar with – another dollar. This further increased US influence in global monetary policy and, with currency exchange rates left to the whims of the market, inaugerated an era of unprecedented monetary instability; today’s “global casino” of international trade, completely dominated by speculation, had been born.

So, under the present banking system, we allow banks to create money out of nothing, so long as they hold a fractional reserve, not of gold, but of money previously created out of nothing. This is a pretty clever a trick (more devious even than the Italian goldsmiths), but it’s still only half the picture: modern banks don’t just create money out of nothing, they create it by lending it to us at interest, insisting that we pay back more money than actually exists! – we have to pay back what we’ve borrowed (i.e. the money we’ve allowed the banks to create out of nothing) plus interest (i.e. money that doesn’t even exist).

Paying back more money than actually exists is, of course, impossible – unless, that is, more money is created, by issuing more loans and creating more debt. This “debt imperative”, the perpetual need for more money to pay back our ever-expanding and constantly spiralling debt, leads in turn to a “growth imperative”, the need for perpetual economic growth. Unfortunately, we now know conslusively that perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable.

How money works today.

How money works today is completely ludicrous.

It pits people against each other and guarantees that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

To understand how, imagine there are only 2 friends and a bank, and that in order to buy food, pay their rent, and trade amongst themselves, the 2 friends need money that only the bank can create.

The bank (actually an already wealthy 3rd person) creates £20 and gives £10 to each of the 2 friends.

All the bank asks is that both pay back £11 next year. Since the 2 friends need the money to eat, they agree, gratefully accepting the £10 that helps them to fulfil their immediate needs.

They even promise (because the bank insists that they do) that if they are unable to pay back the £11 next year, they will allow the bank to take some of their belongings as payment.

The problem is, it is totally impossible for both to pay back £11, because the bank only created £20, and 2 x £11 = £22 – more money than actually exists.

The only way either of the 2 friends can pay back the £11 is to get the extra £1 they need off the other.

This leaves their friend with only £9, unable to repay their £11 debt.

The 2 friends are now pitted against each other, both desperately trying to get the extra £1 they need off the other in order to avoid having to hand over some (or all) of their belongings.

Whatever happens, in the end at least one of them is going to lose some of their belongings, and it s the bank (the already rich 3rd person) that is going to get them.

Basically that s how banking works, and that s why bankers (the rich) get richer and the poor get poorer.

Now, with the global economy struggling on all sides with economic collapse, climate change and peak oil very much beginning to kick in, I thought I share a few more good reads on the subject.

Hopefully lots and lots of people will read these books and we can finally move away from Money as Debt madness towards a saner banking system. :

[amtap book:isbn=0816649634]

“A firsthand view of local currencies that are providing alternatives to global capital.

Is conventional money simply a discourse? Is it merely a socially constructed unit of exchange? If money is not an actual thing, are people then free to make collective agreements to use other forms of currency that might work more effectively for them? Proponents of “better money” argue that they have created currencies that value people more than profitability, ensuring that human needs are met with reasonable costs and decent wages—and supporting local economies that emphasize local sustainability. How did proponents develop these new economies? Are their claims valid?

Grappling with these questions and more, Money and Liberation examines the experiences of groups who have tried to build a more equitable world by inventing new forms of money. Presenting in-depth profiles of the trading networks that have been constructed both historically and more recently, including Local Exchange Trading Schemes (England), Green Dollars (New Zealand), Talente (Hungary), and the barter system in Argentina, Peter North shows how the use of currency has been redefined as part of political action, revealing surprising political ambiguity and a nuanced understanding of the potential and limits on alternative currencies as a resistance practice.”

[amtap book:isbn=0002559471]

“Only our limited ideas about money are keeping us poor…”

Funny Money is written like a travelogue and features the new alchemists of the USA who have found new ways of conjuring money out of next to nothing. After reading this book, you will never think about money in quite the same way again.

It was this book where I first read about Deli Dollars, a precursor to Berkshares (which has recently inspired the Totnes Pound and the Lewis Pound here in the UK).

See my draft proposal for Sustainable Enterprise Agency (.pdf) that I wrote back May 2002 after reading this book

[amtap book:isbn=0979560810]

“Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been “privatized,” or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions — including the private Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices — and robbing you of the value of your money. Web of Debt unravels the deception and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading. Then it explores a workable alternative, one that was tested in colonial America and is grounded in the best of American economic thought, including the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. If you care about financial security, your own or the nation’s, you should read this book.”

[amtap book:isbn=1893520021]

Civil Rights lawyer Edgar Cahn came up with the idea of Time Banking whilst ill in hospital feeling useless. It occurred to him the as a legal expert he wasn’t useless but that whilst in hospital he was totally reliant on the nurse’s and doctor’s time.

He thought about it some more and realised there are probably thousands of older people who feel useless but aren’t. He convinced Elderplan (a health insurance company for old people in US) to give the idea ago and they got some of their customers to try it out.

The results were amazing. Just getting old people to earn time credits by calling each other up to check up on each other had a radically positive effect on their health – so much so that Elderplan started letting those that participated in the system part-pay the insurance premiums in time credits!

And its not just old people either. Everyone can benefit from building new trusting social relations and the sense of community belonging that time banking can induce.

Which is why now, time banking has become one of the most widespread models of community currency/ mutual credit systems in the world.

[amtap book:isbn=0230007848]

“In this book, Ann Pettifor turns her attention away from the debt crisis affecting developing countries and examines the issues of debt affecting the first world or OECD countries. She examines the history and roots of where the current international debt crisis stems from – economic liberalization – and the restructuring of the international financial architecture in the early 1970s. The book goes on to explore the implications of high international indebtedness for governments, corporations, households and individuals. An important and unique contribution is Pettifor’s discussion of the justice and morality of debt, particularly for individuals.”

[amtap book:isbn=0954972759]

“The contribution of Douglas-Orage to the incorporation of the non-market sectors of the economy – health, education, social security, the environment – is crucial. The power grab of the banking system that Douglas and his associates identified almost a century ago, have come into a lethal flowering. In the long-overdue reassessment for what passes as economic science, their ideas will require careful attention. The Hutchinson Burkitt book is mandatory for preparing ourselves for the task.”

[amtap book:isbn=0944435351]

“Dr. Jaikaran has made a compelling case that our civilization is piling up too much debt, causing debt inflation and creating dangerous monetary conditions. He also provides intriguing information about who owns the Federal Reserve (it’s not who you think), how banking really works, the history of money, where our money comes, what banking systems might offer safer alternative systems from and other important facts.”

[amtap book:isbn=095552170X]

“Here is a disquieting dispatch from someone deeply embedded in the financial world and all us amateur punters should sit up and take note. Do not say later you were not warned.” –Lord Desai, Emeritus Professor of Economics, London School of Economics

[amtap book:isbn=0275953769]

“We must rethink our centralised monetary system as part of a larger re-examination of existing political economy, according to Solomon. In questioning the passive acceptance of a federal monopoly in producing money, the author challenges prevailing notions of “progress” and “economic life”. Advancing the idea of local currencies to promote a political economy based on empowerment, self-reliance, and ecological permanence, the book discusses three viable systems, all of which are possible under federal and state laws: barter, customer discounts, and local scrip not pegged to the US dollar. The business and practical aspects of each of these systems is considered. This work should be of interest to scholars, students and policy-makers in political economy, money and banking, public finance and public policy.”

[amtap book:isbn=1897766335]

An early title written by Frances Hutchinson who worked on the book with Mike Rowbotham (author of the excellent Grip of Death, see Money Books)

He is a fascinating chap, check out his CV (.pdf).

In the first OpenCoin meeting he said (in a strong Scottish accent):

“I think there is going to be a global currency. I call it the Global. This will either be a top-down currency from the IMF and World Bank, like existing SDRs (Special Drawing Rights), or a bottom-up, grassroots initiative, like what you are doing, which is much more exciting”

He went on to say:

“either you guys are going to be billionaires, or its fines and jail”.

And:

“I can defend you in court, I’ve not been to court for a while now, and then I can write a book about it”

Anyway, in his capacity as Professor in International Financial Law George teaches a popular course in Banking Law. He gives his students an introductory reading list which includes titles by authors such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Naomi Klein. I spotted some of these titles on his bookshelf in his office and so asked for him to send me his list of books (.pdf), which he kindly did.

Considering it is an introductory reading list for a course in Banking Law there are a surprising and refreshing amount of relatively radical titles in the list. I was surprised however that none of my favourite money books were included.

So George, how about adding some (or all!) of these titles to your list?

[amtap book:isbn=1890132373]

You can download a pdf extract of this book here. See also author’s Beyond Money blog, his personal blog and website.

[amtap book:isbn=0712699910]

Read an interview with Bernard Lietaer in YES! Magazine’s Summer ‘97 edition all about creating your own money. Also check out some key points from the book

[amtap book:isbn=1901970515]

A great little book with links to lots of further reading and info.

[amtap book:isbn=1853838950]

Another great book from David Boyle, associate at the new economics foundation

[amtap book:isbn=1897766408]

Grip of Death is the literal translation of Mortgage. Read the first chapter here

[amtap book:isbn=1870098811]

Read this book online here

[amtap book:isbn=1877333298]

Read a draft copy and critique of the book here and check out the author’s blog

[amtap book:isbn=0745317200]

A academic look at money from a marxist/ feminist perspective. Very well written.

[amtap book:isbn=0708317170]

Check out Glyn’s excellent website on the same topic.

[amtap book:isbn=1930748035]

See the American Monetary Institute’s website for more details

See also:

• Money as Debt
• New American Currency