Understanding Money 101
An investmment in knowledge pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin
Websites
Links
A Primer on Money (1964) explains in simple, everyday language how our monetary system works and indicates where it needs reform. This is a Congressional Subcommittee Report authored by Congressman Wright Patman.
Money Facts (1964) 169 Questions and Answers on Money -- A Supplement to "A Primer on Money."
"Money Facts" is a series of questions and answers on the basic workings of our monetary system.
Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of a Paper Money Economy
by Farley Grubb
"Benjamin Franklin's life spans most of the first epoch of paper money, and he is its most insightful analyst and ardent defender."
Books
Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free
by Ellen Hodgson Brown
The most important current book one can read on understanding the current economic crisis and its solution.
The Lost Science of Money
by Stephen Zarlenga
A modern classic on money. "The Mythology of Money: The Story of Power"
Fixing the System: A History of Populism, Ancient and Modern
by Adrian Kuzminski
A New Monetary System
by Edward Kellogg
The Role of Money: What It Should Be, Contrasted with What It Has Become
by Frederick Soddy
Direct Credits for Everybody: Showing How Capitalism Will Work
by Alfred Lawson
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Selected Articles
Understanding Money by John H. Hotson.
"...is essential for those seeking economic reforms toward the creation of sustainable societies..."
Tragedy and Hope – An Introduction
By Michael L. Chadwick
"...one of the most revealing books ever published..."
Money and Liberty
by Adrian Kuzminski
"...It is essential to this end to understand how a non-usurous, publically
accountable currency might work."
Margrit Kennedy Inspires NZ Groups to Establish Regional Money Systems
by Deidre Kent.
According to a German study, interest composes 30 percent to 50 percent of everything we buy.
More....
Links on Fractional Reserve Lending
How Banks Make Money: Creating Money Out of Thin Air
by Doug Pibel.
Very illustrative.
US Banks Operating Without Reserve Requirements
by Eric deCarbonnel.
"...reserve requirements falling to zero over the last fifty years..."
Reserve Requirements: History, Current Practice, and Potential Reffrom
By Joshua N. Feinman.
From the Federal Reserve itself.
Reserve Requirements for Various Countries (.xls)
Videos
Banking 1
Banking 2: A bank's income statement
Banking 3: Fractional Reserve Banking
Zeitgest: The Movie
Zeitgest: Addendum
More...
Frequently Asked Questions
THE CASE FOR MONETARY REFORM by Bill Clarke
5 WAYS THE MAN-IN-THE-STREET IS BAMBOOZLED
1. HE THINKS THAT MONEY IS CREATED BY THE GOVERNMENT, THROUGH THE MINT AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND, AND IT CONSISTS LARGELY OF NOTES AND COINS.
FACT -- Only 3% of money is in the form of notes and coins created by the government.
2. HE BELIEVES THAT WHEN BANKS LEND MONEY THEN THE MONEY WHICH IS BORROWED IS THAT WHICH OTHER BANK CUSTOMERS HAVE DEPOSITED.
FACT -- The money one borrows from a bank is not depositors' money at all. It is new money created by the simple process of writing the amount of the loan on the credit side of the borrower's account. Ninety seven percent of all money in circulation originates in this way. If banks actually lent their depositors' money it would not be available when they wanted it. If someone wanted to draw out money and was told, "Sorry, we've lent it to Joe Blow," he would be justifiably annoyed.
In other words, 97% of money is not "real" money at all but credit, just figures in a bank's ledger or computer. It is created out of nothing. Yet is used and accepted as real money. To all intents and purposes it is money. Borrowers buy houses with it, pay wages and buy raw materials with it, and spend it in many ways. Yet it is just figures in a ledger transferred from one account to another. It is called various things -- credit, bank-money, number-money, cheque-money, debt-money, electronic money. Whatever it is called, it is used and trusted because people know they can obtain real money, notes and coins, if they want.
3. HE BELIEVES THAT THERE IS STRICT CONTROL AND REGULATION BY THE GOVERNMENT, OF BANKS AND BUILDING SOCIETIES.
FACT -- The belief that there are strict controls over what banks and building societies can and cannot do is also false. There are no statutory deposits which banks at one time had to lodge with the Bank of England. There are no fractional reserves of currency to be held by a bank as security for loans. All that has gone in the deregulation so beloved by financiers and, now, politicians. The only stipulation now is that banks must deposit with the Bank of England, 0.35% of their assets, which consist mainly of the loans they have made. This paltry percentage shows that borrowers have no real security, no proper regulations to protect them. The banks, however, have the property of borrowers, pledged as collateral, as security.
4. HE BELIEVES THAT THE INTEREST HE PAYS FOR THE LOAN IS A LEGITIMATE CHARGE BECAUSE IT IS OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY HE IS BORROWING.
FACT -- Interest is considered to be a recompense for lenders giving up the use of their money, for the sacrifice they make by not spending it on satisfying immediate needs or pleasures.
This may be so for depositors but it is not so for banks which create money out of thin air when they make a loan. They are charging a tribute -- interest -- for money which did not exist before the loan was made. So they are getting money, in the form of interest, for nothing. It would be legitimate for them to charge a fee for administering the loan but that would be far smaller than the interest they charge.
5. HE IS PERSUADED THAT IF HE CANNOT PAY BACK HIS DEBT THEN IT IS RIGHT THAT THE BANK SHOULD TAKE HIS PROPERTY TO REIMBURSE ITSELF.
FACT -- The borrower owes a debt which has to be paid, in regular installments, plus the interest, or legal penalties come into force. If the borrower defaults -- cannot pay -- then his property which he put up as security for the loan is legally confiscated and used to reimburse the bank, no matter what distress and hardship is suffered by the borrower, be it the loss of a home or a business. Whatever the reason, debts must be paid, and on time.
Remember, though, this money was created out of thin air. It was debt-money.
