[All] Economic Solutions for the 99%

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hi folks

Just finished writing out the minutes of the meeting that I took at the nonviolence festival event: Economic Solutions for the 99% held on Nov.12, 2011. Feel free to use/share the info. I did a spell check but I'm too sleepy to do a proper proof read so if you find typing errors,by all means, feel free to fix.  Info is below for your reference.

Lulu :0)


Notes taken at the public forum: Moving Towards a Peaceful Economy: Solutions for the 99% held on November 12th, 2011 as sponsored by the Nonviolence Festival, as taken by Louisette Lanteigne

Matthew Albright helped open the event with an intro of the group and reading of the agenda.

Roger Albright showcased economic movies to provide background to our current economic crisis. They can be viewed on YouTube at the following link:

The Essence of Money: A medieval tail. http://youtu.be/_dwL9lqVBxY
Money as Debt (part 3) http://youtu.be/kTv1fo6sKmo
Dollars & $ense: Where does money come from? http://youtu.be/r0jtkwBVG6M
Canada's Greatest Experiment with Bill Abrams (part 2) http://youtu.be/9yYEFuN2v08

Guest speaker Tom Kennedy, a retired school teachers shared his knowledge about the function of Usury aka Interest.

In the criminal code, section 347-348 it states that it is illegal to charge a usury fee that exceeds 60% of credit advanced. Technically people can literally charge up to 60% interest and get away with it in Canada.

The practice of charging usury fees is prohibited in religious texts including the Old Testament, the Bible and the Koran.

Citizens have the power to create community currency at the local level and with it, one can circumvent the need to pay usury fees. One such example can be found in Ithaca NY called the Ithaca Hours. To read more of this visit here: http://www.ithacahours.org/

Recommended Reading: None dare not call it conspiracy by Gary Allen published in 1971.

There is an old saying that interest is theft and money can't have babies.

Many activities are being recorded to review trends, information using even our online browsing history but a good site to use if this is a concern is startpage.com.

In medieval times, a winged lion represented loans without usury fees. Has anyone looked at the logo of the RBC? It's like a lion with it's wings clipped.

Workshop Questions: What have we learned & What do we want to communicate to others?

Group 1
-Canada experienced greater prosperity when the Bank of Canada handled the money.
-Other options exist: currency as credit in general stores worked, local currency in hours, bartering etc.
-Currently Canada has no policy in place to secure economic resilience.
-People should get political/run for office/vote and participate in movements such as Occupy.
-We need more education/public outreach on the matter.
-We need our economy structured within natural capital limits

Group 2
-Money is not circulating as it should
-US federal reserve is privatized
-People need to understand how important it is to not buy beyond one's means
-Money = air . (aka most money doesn't physically EXIST)
-It's up to citizens to create the change.

Team 3
-Occupy needs to be aware of their strategy and beware of those trying to manipulate the movement.
-Once people are aware of what's happening, there's no undoing it. We need to wake people up.
-Good authors to read: John Perkins and Steve Keen.
-Check out personocraftia.com
-At times of war or threats of war, question the agenda of attacking nations and national banking set up
-Community Currency for donations are legally recognized by way of the issuance of tax receipts. In that regard, the government has handled it like currency.

Team 4
-People need information beyond what media is currently providing
-The crisis is far greater than many people realize
-We need financial regulation and to expose directive market
-We need a time to see debts forgiven. A Jubilee year.
-Quality of Life and Health indicators should be the new index
-Glass Eagle Bill: November 12, 1999, this bill to introduce banking regulation was abolished. Learn about it and reintroduce.

Team 5
-absolute Power corrupts absolutely
-the banks subjugate the public/nations
-We have many unseen influences in media/credit card and debt activities etc.
-the system we have fosters an isolationist society.
-the Global power brokers are unseen by the world.

PART 2 of Forum

The non violence festival's website is at www.nonviolencefestival.com and they meet at the Queen St. Commons Tuesday nights. Anyone is welcome to attend.

Keynote Speaker: Retired Professor George Crowell BA Th. D.

Violence can be reduced through Economics. It's my ambition to secure the Economic solutions to help create a better world.

The creation of money out of nothing is huge and it should be reserved for those working for the public good, not corporate benefit.

We have coins/cash but the cash only makes less than 5% of today's money. The rest is all through banks who facilitate transactions. Problems arise when they make loans creating money every time it's done. 97% of money in circulation is created by private banks. They create principal but they don't cover the costs of the interest so the loan is not covering the total cost of the money paid back to them. They get more so public debt is created. Many end up borrowing to pay back principal and interest and there simply isn't enough to go around. We compete for the limited cash resources and defaults lead to further debt. When paid back, the money created simply disappears. No actual cash is circulated after the debt is paid.

The consequence of debt money is:
-recession
-competition in community which is bad
-banks are in a strong position based on our collateral. They take the interest and when people default they take their collateral including real assets such as homes, properties, belongings etc.
-The current monetary system concentrates money into the hands of the few not the many.
-It promotes growth to exploit our finite planetary resources
-The Government must borrow from private banks building debt. While bank profits increase citizens face austerity measures, programming cuts etc.
-Creating money by government to solve the issue is possible. The monetary policy applicable is the Bank of Canada Act.
-Raising interest to fight inflation ins perverse. It only benefits the wealthy.

Alternatives Exists ( the work of Will Avery was referenced)
The power to create money out of nothing can be taken away by the Bank of Canada to stop banks form handling it. It can be spent into reality by way of expanding social programs, infrastructure projects and public services. It creates money as it creates jobs for the public creating a public benefit with unlimited possibilities. Interest free loans to build infrastructure means taxpayers only have to pay it off once not two or three times.

Canada pays $60 Billion per year, that's $165 million per day on interest for out debt. Imagine using that money to fund social justice programs, environmental programs etc.

We need to see a Renaissance of the Bank of Canada. Make it an environmental issue, make it an election issue. Visit this website for more details:http://www.comer.org/

People worry about issues such as counterfeiting when someone gets something for nothing but banks get away with it all the time. All of us can benefit when money creation works through the Bank of Canada because it is spent into existence to create jobs and things people need or it is lent into existence interest free to help pay down debt. We need to take over the power and use it for the public.

Fractional Reserve Banking: We had policy in Canada to mandate bank reserves of 5-20% to be maintained but Harper abolished it in 1991.

Defaults- Bake write offs. When a person goes into bankruptcy for $45,000, that $45,000 is a benefit to the economy because there is no more interest on it.

Rely on local economy. Buy local. Live within your means and lobby for the Renaissance of the Bank of Canada.

Trade and Debt = the enslavement of nations. NAFTA is less than free and more than trade.

Myth buster: Don't believe that if we make more money there will be inflation because the fact is, Government money is less inflationary than bank made money.

The US needs to use the National Emergency Employment Act to remove the Federal Reserve money to the National Monetary Fund.

Good book and website: Ellen Brown's Web of Debt. For online info visit www.webofdebt.com

Another good site, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives at http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

Austerity is unnecessary, (Quote by Jim Stanford CAW)
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