Progressive Gazette
April 2, 2014
A dollar is not a mere instrument of exchange, but a certificate of credit: a claim on future value.
Article I: Section 8 is the heart of the US Constitution. It provides to Congress the following exclusive powers:
- To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;
- To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
- To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
The establishment of the first National Bank of the US was not – as foolish libertarians would have it – a British plot to establish tyranny over the states. It was the obvious instrument to carry out the above powers.
Our Federal government is our sole and sovereign representative in determining the flows of money and credit in the economy, and in making major commitments to promote "the general Welfare" through the issuance of new public credit, borrowed not from banks but on the "credit of the United States".
If Alexander Hamilton were chairman of the Federal Reserve, his program would be to issue long-term (ie 100 years), interest-free and low-interest credit for public infrastructure, industry and agriculture, student loans and home mortgages. The purpose of this program would be to unleash the productive powers of American labor, and to remove from the American people the burden of interest payments to private banks.
If Hamilton's assassin and "anti-federalist" Aaron Burr – a precursor to today's libertarians – were Fed chair, his policy would be exactly what we have today: to bail out and capitalize private banks for the purpose of their continued plunder and exploitation of the American people.
Put simply, our current policy is to trade "IOUs" to insolvent banks for pieces of paper they didn't earn.
We must restore our traditional policy of National Banking, and offer "I.O.Me's" in the form of long-term, zero- and low-interest bonds that will rapidly grow the economy, advance our scientific and technological capabilities, create full employment, and drive the modern "money changers" from the temple of OUR United States government.
