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money
Money
Money paradox
A map is not the same as reality. Anytime we describe something, we are converting what may be a very dynamic and complex process into words and diagrams on paper. And, the description will matter. It will tell us where to put our focus and constrain our thinking. Describing money...
Nature matters
Life is full of the unexpected. And as the saying goes, Shit Happens. Extreme weather, bugs, blights, and disease happen. Even too much of a good thing can create devastating and unpredicted hard times. In the natural world, diversity and redundancy are keys to survival. (I use the term redundancy...
Not money
To avoid confusion, it is helpful to clear away what money is not. Sharing, gifts and barter are not money systems – they are resource exchange systems. Sharing and gifts Giving one’s surplus to those in need is one way to distribute resources. The earliest societies functioned as sharing and...
Our Current System
There is something curious in the movements of this modern complicated machine, the funding system; and it is only now that it is beginning to unfold the full extent of its movements. In the first part of its movements it gives great powers into the hands of government, and in...
Our money system matters
The middle class is shrinking and poverty is growing. Jobs are going overseas. The top one percent is getting richer while everyone else gets poorer. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Taxes and government debt are high. States and the federal government are in crisis with serious budget shortfalls. Thirty percent...
Roots
An abstract, social innovation Money is a profound and extraordinary social innovation. Like language, it is abstract and social, with physical aspects (currency in the case of money, and spoken or written in the case of language). In essence, though, a money system and a language are abstract social tools....
Sovereign > Commonwealth money
The term sovereign money is used to refer to three different kinds of money systems. This means the term must be explained if it’s going to be used. What is a sovereign entity? The word sovereign comes from super and reign, meaning to rule over, and generally refers to formal...
The Constitution on Money
Not all of our founding fathers fully understood the importance of money creation to their vision for America – a nation of, by and for the people, and thus failed to make the money creation power crystal clear in the Constitution. Is our money system Constitutional? What does our Constitution...
The duties of our central bank
The Fed’s duties fall into 4 distinguishable areas: Basic banking services; Banking standards & supervision; Money creation; and, Compensating for an unstable system. Basic banking functions Services to financial institutions & the public Providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. Government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major...
The Fed’s goals
The Purposes and Functions of the Federal Reserve System… The goals of monetary policy are spelled out in the Federal Reserve Act, which specifies that the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee should “seek to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term...