This week in New Hampshire, our Public Banking Institute colleagues are participating in the Bretton Woods IV Convocation on financial reform. There are four cornerstones to the conference: public banking, the North Country Resolution, local currencies, and Concordian economics. Here are some snippets from the conference website. I am blown away by the comprehensive and forward-thinking nature of this event. I look forward to hearing more about the outcomes.
Creation of a public state bank
Bringing the Bank of ND model to NH
* BANKING IN THE PUBLIC TRUST *To establish a public, state-owned bank on the acclaimed North Dakota model, run not by the government but by experienced bankers, public servants, who understand the guiding principle of public credit for the public good.
The North Country Resolution
Bringing Back the Greenbacks? When you read about this, think about the Pima County Bond issue. There are wide-ranging disagreements regarding the actual cost of borrowing $815 million to fund 99 projects.
THE NORTH COUNTRY RESOLUTION –
* PUBLIC MONEY (at its actual cost) FOR PUBLIC WORKS *
The cornerstone for getting our “House”/Infra-structure in order.
To determine whether the town/city of ________will vote to fund their next duly authorized public works project publicly, that is at the actual cost of the funds, which we anticipate as being less than 1%. The town treasurer is authorized, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen/City Council, to borrow public money by accessing our national credit through our local banking institutions.
“The government [on behalf of We the People, not the central bank or private member banks] should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of the consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government [United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 5], but it is the government’s greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium [of exchange] will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. The financing of all public enterprises, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.”
~ Abraham Lincoln, Senate Doc. 23, 76th Congress.
Local Currencies
Exchanging goods and services by using currencies other than Federal Reserve Notes (AKA US dollars)
Concordian Economics
“Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world,
unless he not only pays his debts, but also adds something to the common wealth.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Cornerstones of a Concordian Economics; Simple and to the Point:
1) Every human being, each and every one of us, is different, unique — not only outwardly, with respect to our countenance or finger-prints, but inwardly. That is, each of us has our own unique gift, talent, ability, our own “calling”. Such a genius is our birthright. It is what has brought us into the world, why we are alive, what we live for: the fulfillment of our potential.
2) As such, we have not only the right — which, if left at that, we can choose to disclaim — but, more to the point, we have the responsibility to give expression to our unique “calling”, genius, our gifts, talents, and abilities, in service to the greater community: our common wealth. We have the responsibility to give our best. If we withhold our unique piece of the puzzle (be it within our family or community, small or larger), than that piece is missing. The puzzle is incomplete. This responsibility, we suggest, gives our rights their ultimate right and meaning.
3) In order to assume responsibility, give our best — in a modern economy that has moved beyond self-sufficiency and barter — in order to be true to our “calling”, we require access, reasonable access to money, credit, our “life-blood”. Otherwise, we end up merely “going through the motions”, “hanging out”, “getting a job” — ‘good’ or otherwise. Our lives and labors are relegated to working to fulfill our “boss’” dream, while ours becomes, all too often, a nightmare.
4) If the foregoing points makes sense, common sense, what keeps us from recognizing their truth and, thereby, assuming responsibility for our national credit — alongside our national debt for which we’re obliged to pay our taxes? Why don’t We the People stand up on behalf of our genius, follow our calling, give more fully of our gifts, talents, abilities in service to our communities?
It is a very progressive conference that will be discussing far-reaching economic policy. I urge you to read the background information on the conference ideas. This is important work that could change the face of banking and finance in the US.
“Live Free & Prosper”– what an inspiration…
Bretton Woods IV Convocation
* LIVE FREE & PROSPER *
Toward the Redemption of Our Financial System & Restitution of Our Common Wealth
~ A CALL TO COLLABORATE ~
Arizonans for a New Economy 
This is an astounding and comprehensive conference! If only we could convince our city/county leaders to consider some of these approaches to our economic conundrum…This ideal, stated on their resources page, “’The material out of which we shall build a new world is in us, in our minds, in our memory of things past, in our hopes for the future. We are the source. We shall conceive it; we shall design it; and we shall put it into operation.’ ~ John W. Gardner, Founder, Common Cause”, should be our standard & rallying cry.
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Thanks for the comment, Susan. Yes, I can’t wait to see what comes out of this conference. It’s particularly fitting that this convocation on economic reform is being held at Bretton Woods. That is the location where the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were cooked up decades ago. In fact, in its recent promo, here is how the Public Banking Institute described it:
“Seventy two years ago, global money leaders gathered in bucolic New Hampshire to organize the chattel system of debt imposed on the world through the World Bank, the IMF and global trade. This week, generations later, the wreckage of human prospects imposed by the self- interest of Titans will be addressed at that same historical place from a new perspective – what is the prospect and shape of a truly new relationship with our money?”
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