{"id":236260,"date":"2023-05-29T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=236260"},"modified":"2023-05-28T08:39:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T07:39:03","slug":"peace-dollars-putting-u-s-economic-house-in-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/05\/peace-dollars-putting-u-s-economic-house-in-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace Dollars: Putting U.S. Economic House in Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

27 May 2023 – <\/em>The total federal deficit at $31+ trillion?<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s time for some creative thinking . . . a totally\u00a0unique strategy that\u00a0benefits all North Americans,\u00a0not just capitalist predators.<\/p>\n

Special use currency is not unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln used \u201cgreenbacks\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>the paper currency shown above, backed by nothing more than confidence in the government\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>to finance the Civil War.\u00a0 He printed\u00a0$449,338,902 of this currency, a lot of money at the time.<\/p>\n

A century later, on June 4, 1963, John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110 which set in motion the issuance of silver certificate notes, currency backed by silver reserves being held at that time by the U.S. Treasury.\u00a0 Records show that Kennedy issued $4,292,893,825 worth of cash money.\u00a0 This bypassed the established procedure of borrowing money into circulation from the Federal Reserve.\u00a0 $20 billion of such United States Notes were eventually put into circulation before he was assassinated.\u00a0 It has been suggested it was Kennedy\u2019s and Lincoln\u2019s introduction of such interest-free debt-free currency which\u00a0was the primary reason both of them were murdered<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Understand that their actions were completely within the framework of the Constitution.\u00a0 Of course, presidents must seek Congressional approval, as the ultimate authority for creating money actually resides with Congress.\u00a0 This is delineated in Article 1: The Legislative Branch, Section 8: Powers of Congress . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no dispute that what both Lincoln and Kennedy did, while anathema to private banking interests, was entirely legal.\u00a0 In fact, progressive economists would argue that it is incumbent on our elected officials to\u00a0again secure absolute control of the currency<\/a>, and that money creation never should have been\u00a0ceded to the private banks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Risk of assassination aside, no legal case or compelling argument can be made against using this power.\u00a0 Our current debt-driven system requiring us to borrow from the private banking institution, misleadingly named The Federal Reserve, to inject money into the economy is absurd and in the long term counter-productive.<\/p>\n

While ultimately our goal should arguably be to totally eliminate the Federal Reserve\u2019s role in this process, at least for now we can pick up where Kennedy left off, prudently using what we call\u00a0U.S. Peace Dollars<\/em>, to cover a sizable portion of the federal government’s budgeting requirements.<\/p>\n

U.S. Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0would look almost exactly like their Federal Reserve Note counterparts.\u00a0 Same layout, same denominations, same founders-of-the-nation and presidential images.<\/p>\n

Where U.S. currency now says \u2026 FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0not surprisingly would say \u2026 U. S. PEACE DOLLARS<\/p>\n

Where U.S. currency now says \u2026 IN GOD WE TRUST<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0would say \u2026 PROMOTING PEACE<\/p>\n

Where in nearly microscopic print U.S. currency now says \u2026 THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0would say \u2026 THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DOMESTIC FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Which brings up a critical feature of this financial instrument:\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0would be for\u00a0domestic use only<\/u>. This is to prevent them from being shipped overseas or being fed into the ongoing frenzy of currency speculation.\u00a0 Banks would be instructed to block transfer of\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0equivalencies to non-domestic banking institutions.\u00a0 For example, if a person deposited $8,000 of\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0into a domestic account, transfer of funds to non-domestic banks or use of funds for purchases outside the U.S. could only be made from balances of his or her account in excess of $8,000 accruing from regular Federal Reserve Note deposits.<\/p>\n

This restriction is to guarantee that\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0go exclusively toward promoting U.S.\u00a0domestic\u00a0economy<\/em>, meaning only purchasing goods and services \u201cMade in the USA\u201d.\u00a0 This precludes exporting any newly generated Peace Dividend wealth, which would only exacerbate our already excessive, out-of-control trade deficit and facilitate capital flight from the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Private banks would be incentivized to create\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0credit cards.\u00a0 If there is institutional resistance to this by private banks, the U.S. government can fill that need by issuing through its own agencies such credit instruments.<\/p>\n

A host of small-business and employee-owned business incentives could be built around\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>, for example giving matching federal grants or at least preferential treatment for investing\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0in job-creating domestic business start-ups.\u00a0 Worker-owned businesses and co-ops could be high on the priority list for such support.<\/p>\n

All of this points the economy in a hopeful and highly constructive, new direction.\u00a0 Further expanding general usage of\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Peace Dollars<\/em>\u00a0down the road could gradually dismantle the current Debt Doomsday Machine of the Federal Reserve paradigm.\u00a0 Imagine Congress arguing over the size of budget\u00a0surpluses<\/em>\u00a0instead of budget deficits!<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t that be refreshing?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>________________________________________________<\/p>\n

John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter, novelist, music producer, neo-Marxist, and an evolutionary humanist. He has written nine novels and four political non-fiction books. His most recent polemic is “<\/em>The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World.” His political articles have appeared at <\/em>OpEdNews, Greanville Post, Nation of Change, Dissident Voice, Truthdig, Russia Insider, Counterpunch, Popular Resistance, and other alternative media outlets.\u00a0Currently in development is his call for a new brand of peace activism titled, <\/em>War Is Making Us Poor: Militarism is Destroying the US.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 May 2023 – The total federal deficit at $31+ trillion? Maybe it’s time for some creative thinking . . . a totally\u00a0unique strategy that\u00a0benefits all North Americans,\u00a0not just capitalist predators. Special use currency is not unprecedented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":236266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2825,354,70],"class_list":["post-236260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-dollar","tag-economics","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236267,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236260\/revisions\/236267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}