Greens for Monetary Reform

Party Building with Monetary Reform

by The Banking and Monetary Reform Committee

Why Monetary Reform?

Monetary reform is crucial for nations world-around because the current financial system perpetuates war, inequality, instability, and unsustainable economic practices. It is especially important for the United States because it is a global military empire and controls the dominant currency. Reforming how money is created, distributed, and managed can:

• Empower Congress to fulfill its Constitutional mandate to make public policy in the public interest.
• Provide quality housing, medical care, education, transportation, a universal basic income and social security to all.
• Put an end to the military industrial complex and its wars as well as other industrial monopolies such as pharmaceuticals and mass media ending political corruption.
• Empower nations to eliminate poverty, reclaim their natural resources and provide full employment with an adequate income for food, shelter, and recreation.
• Ensure fair and open elections putting an end to the corrupt campaign finance system that enables corporate and wealthy elites to purchase political outcomes.
• End cyclical financial crises, creating economic stability and eliminating the practice of compounding interest.
• Stop illegal detention restoring habeas corpus, end mass surveillance of citizens and investigate all covert state crimes such as 9/11, MKULTRA and others.
• Ensure farmers' fair incomes in providing healthy food and natural fiber.
• Restore the precautionary principle for all scientific research and development and restore informed consent
• Create a world of peace among nations with good relations allowing freedom of travel to experience and learn about other cultures.
• Shift the culture to prioritize sharing community wealth over individual accumulation. Money isn't just an economic tool; it's a cultural artifact that influences how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success.

What is Monetary Reform?

Monetary Reform refers to a systemic change in a nation's money creation and distribution processes, aiming to shift control from private banks, issuing the nation's money supply as interest-bearing debt, to control by democratic public institutions issuing the nation's money supply as a debt-free asset to ensure that the first use of new money serves the public interest rather than private profit. It does not refer to changing monetary policy to work within the current system, rather, it is a historically grounded and radical alternative whose time has come.

Cultural shift

Money isn't just an economic tool; it's a cultural artifact. It influences how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. Conversely, culture dictates how money is created, spent, and discussed. Understanding this relationship helps explain everything from spending habits to global economic disparities.

The current culture drives pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; we want a culture that increases wealth, comfort and intelligence for all. The current culture drives universal war; we want universal peace. The current global monetary system is based on 'fear of there not being enough to go around' which creates problematic psychological issues. These can be reversed by changing the money from being issued as interest-bearing debt for personal gain to being issued as a permanently circulating asset for public care, the common good. This will eliminate the oppressive nature of debt and eliminate poverty. It can both elevate and free humanity.

Monetary reform is highly relevant to building and growing a political party, particularly for a party advocating economic justice, anti-imperialism and systemic change. The U.S. financial system is dominated by Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and corporate monopolies and is ripe for monetary reform as part of a broader political party-building strategy. A party that effectively ties economic justice to monetary policy can galvanize working-class Americans, challenge elite power, and present a credible alternative to establishment politics. Keep in mind that debates over polarizing issues drown out systemic solutions.

Here's how it connects to party-building, along with key strategies, methods, and tools:

1. Relevance of Monetary Reform to Party-Building

   • Alternative Economic Vision: A clear stance on monetary policy distinguishes the party from establishment forces, a vision of a world free of war and poverty.
   • Grassroots Mobilization: Issues like compounded interest, inflation, currency devaluation, and financial exclusion directly affect the masses, making monetary reform a potent tool for recruitment.
   • Anti-Corruption & Transparency: Reforming monetary policy, freeing public policy and regulatory agency capture from private interests, can be a rallying cry against elite corruption.
   • Economic Sovereignty: A party advocating monetary reform can position itself as a champion of national economic independence freeing the nation and its people of debt.

   1. Key Problems in the Current U.S. Monetary System

      • The Federal Reserve's Private Control: Despite its public mandate, the Fed serves Wall Street, not consumers, workers or small businesses.
      • Temporary Money: Bank issued money circulates temporarily and is extinguished as the debt principal is paid, creating periodic crises.
      • Dollar Hegemony & Imperialism: The U.S. abuses its currency dominance using sanctions and war.
      • Debt Slavery: Student loans, medical debt, and credit card exploitation trap millions.
      • Inflation: Issuing money as debt is inflationary and prices contain compounded interest costs, 50% on average.
      • Banking Oligopoly: A handful of megabanks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, etc.) control most of the wealth and lending.
      • Cryptocurrency & Digital Surveillance Capitalism: Private fintech (e.g., PayPal, CBDCs) threatens financial freedom.

   2. Opportunities for Political Mobilization

      • Bipartisan Anger: Both left-populists (Sanders/AOC) and right-populists (Trump) criticize the Fed and big banks.
      • Crisis-Driven Discontent: Inflation, bank bailouts, and inequality fuel demand for systemic alternatives. Historical Precedents: Past movements (Occupy Wall Street, Greenbackers and Jacksonian Democrats) show potential.

2. Strategies for Integrating Monetary Reform into Party-Building

   1. Ideological Clarity & Education

      • Develop Study Materials: Pamphlets, videos, and workshops explaining monetary reform in simple terms. (This is what the BMRC has been doing.)
      • Training Cadres: Ensure party members understand monetary policy's role in economic oppression and the alternatives (e.g., Greening the Dollar- Greenbacks).

   2. Policy Proposals & Campaigns

      • Democratize the Money: Greening the dollar is based on existing legislation for sovereign monetary reform introduced in 2011, The NEED Act, that would transition the current private profit system to a public care system. All money would be issued exclusively for public needs such as income support, infrastructure, healthcare, education, etc. as its first use.
      • Parity Pricing: When raw materials enter trade channels at prices in balance with the prices of labor and capital, the economy operates on an earned-income basis with no buildup of public and private debt.
      • The Citizens Dividend/UBI: The existing legislation provides $10,000 to every citizen to kick-start the new economy as well as an annual per capita distribution of 25% of new money to states and municipalities. This is to close the gap between production (GDP) and the national income.
      • Eliminate Debt: Publicly issued money is a permanently circulating asset that is historically proven to eliminate public and private debt increasing freedom and prosperity.
      • Control Inflation: Allows public policy to control inflation. Money would be issued exclusively for productive public purposes only if labor and materials were available to do it. Taxes can be used to remove money from the economy if necessary to control inflation.
      • Mandate Full Employment & Wage Growth: Replace inflation-only targeting with pro-worker, and small business policies. This is what the National Emergency Employment Act (The NEED Act) would do.
      • Make the Fed a Public Utility: End private bank ownership of the Fed and its regional branches.
      • Congressional Oversight + Public Audits: Push for full transparency (expand on Audit the Fed movements).
      • Local/Alternative Currencies: Promote community exchange systems to resist financial monopolies based on the Wörgl model. (A small-town system that accomplished $2.5 million in public works in 15 months during the Great Depression while issuing only $6000 in currency.)
      • Cancel Student & Medical Debt: Use Treasury authority.
      • End the Petrodollar's Imperial Grip: End sanctions and dollar weaponization.
      • End U.S. Empire: Close the 800 military bases encircling the world and instead invest in the national well-being and develop mutually beneficial relationships with all other nations.

   3. Coalition Building

      • Seek alliances with unions, farmers' groups, and cooperatives affected by financial instability.
      • Align with movements for economic justice, anti-austerity and monetary reform.

   4. Agitation & Propaganda

      • Street Protests: Target the Fed and financial institutions.
      • Media Campaigns: Expose how current monetary policies exploit consumers, workers and small businesses.
      • Symbolic Actions: Launch a "People's Monetary Plan" (Bring Back the Greenback) to contrast with elite-controlled policies.

   5. Key Methods & Tools

      • Digital Organizing: Use social media to break down complex monetary issues (e.g., TikTok explainers on inflation).
      • Local Assemblies: Host "People's Economic Forums" to discuss monetary reform.
      • Parallel Institutions: Create credit unions or mutual aid funds as living examples of alternatives.
      • Legislative Push: When the party has representatives, introduce bills for sovereign monetary reform, financial transparency and public banks.

   6. Case Studies & Historical Lessons

      • Colonial America thrived on publicly issued money which funded the American Revolution.
      • Lincoln's Greenbacks funded the Civil War, avoiding and eliminating crushing debt.
      • The Chicago Plan 1930s proposal to end the depression by banning backs from creating money and issuing debt-free government money.
      • Ireland's Banking Strikes: Local pubs became centers for banking services, debt clearing and exchange.
      • Iceland's Post-2008 Reforms: Nationalized banks, jailed bankers—a model for anti-financial corruption struggles.
      • The NEED Act: Legislation introduced to Congress in 2011 proposed reforms that Greening the Dollar is based upon.
      • 1. The government issues debt-free money exclusively for productive public needs (infrastructure, green energy, healthcare, education, etc.).
        2. Puts the Federal Reserve under public control.
        3. Abolishes private bank money-creation so banks would only lend existing US money.

Conclusion

Monetary reform is not just an economic issue but a political weapon for party-building. By linking financial struggles to systemic change, the party can attract disillusioned voters, mobilize activists, and present a credible alternative to neoliberal economics.

The key is simplifying the message, organizing around concrete demands, and demonstrating real-world alternatives.

Bring back the Greenback!

How to Challenge the Status Quo

by Howard Switzer, GPTN

Creating a movement that can make our economy work for all

The issues facing civil society seem to get bigger and more urgent with every election cycle and polls show that the number one issue for most of the electorate, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of which party is in power, is the economy. What about the economy that makes it an issue? The answer unequivocally is money. People don't have enough money to pay for the things they and their family need to maintain a decent quality of life; food, shelter, transportation, healthcare and enough money to pay their debts so as not to default on their loans and lose what they have. People are not concerned about inflation if they have enough money. No solution to the problem of poverty has ever been so effective as providing income to the poor, income is by far the best antidote for deprivation. An economy in depression is an economy with not enough money in circulation, a policy of austerity only makes it worse. The truth is that nothing denies a person liberty more than the absence of money and no truth has ever spawned more ingenious evasion than that. If the lack of money is the problem, then a political party that wants to win must offer a viable solution to that problem. Why is it that 80% of the population is struggling for lack of money? Over 60% could not cover a $400 emergency.

People can see that the economy is not designed to serve most people. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer is an aphorism that has been popularly repeated since long before the civil war. We have an economic system that steadily transfers wealth to the super-rich. People have felt powerless as their government bails out the big banks and spends trillions on corporate subsidies and foreign wars. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this process as 8 million more people slid into poverty and 100,000 small businesses, responsible for creating two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. economy, closed their doors permanently. At the same time the world's billionaires increased their wealth to a record $10.2 trillion.

This is where we are, what some call late-stage capitalism is an unleashed neoliberal crime fest as private equity firms pillage any company that has value now even targeting retirement savings and healthcare. The result is increased economic suffering, homelessness, and increasing oppression to keep it going that way. Our elections and public policy are controlled by money. All the regulatory agencies are captured by the industries they are supposed to regulate, and the military industrial complex takes the lion's share of discretionary spending year after year as interest payments on the federal debt blow past a trillion dollars per year. These are the reasons that trust in the two major political parties and our national institutions has fallen to a record low. There have been calls for a new political party to pick up the pieces and champion the American people. A party that can effectively tie economic justice to monetary reform can galvanize 80% of the population, farmers, working-class and small business Americans, to challenge elite power and present a credible alternative to establishment politics. The Green Party has the platform and infrastructure to be that party. What it lacks is vision.

Can there be any doubt that money rules the roost? That being the case it behooves us to look at the money system we have since it is not taught in any of our schools and has long been kept shrouded in mystery. It is our nation's privatized monetary system that creates and allocates the money. There have been numerous calls for monetary reform over the last 240 years, but most people are unaware of them as the systemic solution has always been drowned out by debates over polarizing issues.

Why Monetary Reform?

If the Green Party stands unconditionally for constitutional rule and an economy that is focused on the long-term needs of citizens, it can build a broad coalition of the disaffected who are disgusted with the constant betrayals of the duopoly. The Green Party could transform itself into the most powerful political movement in the United States since the anti-slavery movement of the 1850s, and do so in a short period of time, if it vows to return the United States to the citizens and to wrest away control of government from the multinational corporations and banks, and the billionaires who lurk behind them. The reason the major political parties will not pursue a solution to the economic woes of Americans is because of corruption. Money selects and elects our representatives and buys public policy that benefits the private moneyed interests. Monetary reform is the systemic solution they most fear because it would put an end to this very profitable scam.

Frederick Douglass famously said, Power concedes nothing without a demand. However, power has conceded nothing regardless of demands and controls public policy to maximize profits for themselves at the expense of everyone else. Thus, we must demand that they concede the power!

Money isn't just an economic tool; it's a cultural artifact. It influences how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. Conversely, culture dictates how money is created, spent, and discussed. Understanding this relationship helps explain everything from spending habits to global economic disparities.

The current culture drives poverty, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; we want a culture that increases wealth, comfort and intelligence for all. The current culture drives universal war; we want universal peace. The current global monetary system is based on 'fear of there not being enough to go around' which creates problematic psychological issues. These can be reversed by changing the money from being issued as interest-bearing debt for personal gain to being issued as a permanently circulating asset for public care, the common good. This will eliminate the oppressive nature of debt and eliminate poverty. It can both elevate and free humanity.

Monetary reform is crucial for nations world-around because the current financial system perpetuates war, poverty, instability, and unsustainable economic practices. This is why the economy is the number one issue for most people. It is especially important for the United States because it is a global military empire and controls the dominant currency. Reforming how money is created, distributed, and managed can solve every major issue humanity is facing today.

Monetary Reform refers to a systemic change in a nation's money creation and distribution processes, aiming to shift control from private profit-oriented banks, issuing the nation's money supply as interest-bearing debt, to control by democratic public institutions issuing the nation's money supply as a debt-free permanently circulating asset and ensuring that the first use of all new money serves the public interest rather than private profit. That is what the Greenback did. It does not refer to changing monetary policy to work within the current system, rather, it is a historically grounded and radical alternative whose time has come.

The Extent of Evil in the Banking Community Has No Limits!

by Rita Jacobs, GPMI

Having studied our money system for a few years, I am still shocked by some of the things that I learn. I have known for a long time that the world's worst evils usually involve bankers, but sometimes I stumble upon something that is just over the top!

I assume that many people know that the financial crash that took place in 2008 was the worst economic crash we have had in the last century. And the banks got bailed out. And none of the perpetrators of the crash went to jail, even though it was shown that the bankers had violated all kinds of laws and regulations (working in concert with impunity) in causing this crash. I had read a couple of articles about bankers having some kind of immunity from prosecution, but really didn't understand until recently the extent of that immunity.

Immunity, as discussed in this article means an exemption that is granted from a legal requirement, prosecution, or penalty. It acts as a shield from liability or legal action that would otherwise apply. My own opinion is that if immunity had not been granted to banks that created the crash in 2008 hundreds of bankers would have been given prison sentences.

I recommend that anyone more interested in this immunity enjoyed by banks, read this article: BANKING CARTEL: 'The Control Network', Laundering Money With Total Immunity – By Corey Lynn

Corey Lynn explains:

At the top of the ivory tower, sits BIS, the Bank for International Settlements, with sovereign immunity. When carrying out specific activities under BIS, this immunity extends to its members, which is made up of 63 global central banks and monetary authorities, the Federal Reserve System, plus insurers, and payment systems through their subsidiary, that BIS deems 'systemically important institutions'.

The US has also given 76 public international organizations immunities. Some have added immunities through treaties. There are hundreds of NGOs, corporations and universities that operate within those organizations that have immunities. The International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA), which was signed into law on December 29, 1945, established immunities, privileges, and tax exemptions for international organizations that might not be considered international organizations under the rules of international laws.

All big pharma, GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), WHO (World Health Organization), and all five arms of the World Bank, and the Global Funds hold immunities. We certainly heard about some of those immunities during the pandemic, but what we are looking at now is a world where we don't know if there is anyone in authority we can trust.

The article by Corey Lynn lists the dozens of organizations that are covered by immunities described in her article. It also gives some ideas of what states can do to lessen the effect of some of these immunities. But mainly she expresses her ideas that something needs to be done to put a halt to the horrific control that is maintained by the bankers and other organizations. Under the immunities granted to the BIS there is absolutely no transparency, traceability, or accountability for where funds are being moved.

Other sources of information recommended by Cory Lynn:

• All The Plenary's Men, by John Titus
• The Iron Bank: Is BIS Sovereign Immunity the Secret Sauce Behind the Global Coup? Part 1 with Catherine Austin Fitts and Patrick Wood
• The Iron Bank: Is BIS Sovereign Immunity the Secret Sauce Behind the Global Coup? Part 2 with Catherine Austin Fitts and Patrick Wood
• Does the BIS Owe US $21 Trillion (Or Owe You $65,000)? by Catherine Austin Fitts
• Fed Immunity for Banksters with John Titus and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• The Tower of Basel, by Adam LeBor
• Missing Money, section on The Solari Report containing documents, articles, and videos.

Culture and Money

The necessity of a culture of humanity in economic life

by Howard Switzer, GPTN

I think most of us agree that our problems are rooted in the culture and that it needs to change. We need a culture of education, for instance, that promotes empathy and independent thinking rather than conformity, arrogance and careerism. We need a healthcare system that is worthy of the name and where what is technically feasible is supplemented by comprehensive information about how we can individually maintain our health, strengthen personal responsibility and society's health awareness. We also see the necessity of a culture of humanity in economic life.

Many think this means rejecting money to create a gift economy. They blame money for greed, power, profit and the repression of human rights. This, however, is mistaking a correlation for causation and represents a profound misunderstanding of the ancient innovation we call money. Money is not a static neutral thing; its essence is an agreement embodied by custom or law. The nature of that agreement is critical to culture. Money and culture are deeply intertwined, thus, the key to changing culture is changing the money.

How a society views money reflects its cultural values. For example, capitalist cultures equate wealth with success, while Indigenous and some religious communities prioritize communal sharing over individual accumulation. Western capitalist societies emphasize individual wealth, while collectivist cultures focus on family or community wealth-sharing.

Money isn't just an economic tool; it's a cultural artifact. It influences how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. Conversely, culture dictates how money is created, spent, and discussed. Understanding this relationship helps explain everything from spending habits to global economic disparities.

Capitlaist culture drives poverty, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; we want a culture that increases wealth, comfort and intelligence for all. The current culture drives universal war; we want universal peace. The current global monetary system is based on 'fear of there not being enough to go around' which creates problematic psychological issues. These can be reversed by changing the money from being issued as interest-bearing debt for personal gain to being issued as a permanently circulating asset for public care of the common good. This will eliminate the oppressive nature of debt and eliminate poverty. It can both elevate and balance humanity.

The war on the world is coming to an end. The current culture is showing signs of fatigue, fracture, collapse and apocalypse is making way for a cultural shift. It will require us to come together, a harmonization of interests in loving unification. It will require an open mind as well as an open heart to accomplish this shift in culture which I think is our evolutionary responsibility.

Are you tired of the Roller Coaster Ride?

by Howard Switzer, GPTN

Don't let polarizing issues drown out the systemic solution.

The financial bureaucratic state has all but canceled our Constitution, now hanging only by the thread of the 1st and 2nd amendments.

The whole point of our nation's Constitution was to establish We the People as the sovereign, the supreme ruler, accomplished through electing representatives of said people. It was done to get out from under the autocratic rule of monarchy which, in 1694, had already become a financial bureaucracy ruled by a few elites in which most of the important decisions were made by their captured ‘state officials' rather than by elected representatives. All we got was elected representatives who, for the most part, never represented most people but rather the New York branch of that same financial bureaucracy, when Hamilton, wanting to make sure we became an industrialized nation rather than the agrarian vision of Jefferson, handed our monetary authority to the private banking system. This was the key component of our sovereignty; any nation that does not create its money is ruled by those who do. It is the most vital prerogative of democratic self-governance.

The Big Lie that many believe is that money and debt must go hand in hand. I heard Richard Heinberg say that today. I find it remarkable that intelligent people don't see through that self-serving myth perpetrated by the elite-owned banks who, BTW, create and issue all our money as interest-bearing debt, long known to be a form of slavery since before the Bible. Usury, the abuse of monetary authority for personal gain, is an inconvenient word they did away with leaving only a false definition. MMT's Stephanie Kelton made that argument in her substack recently; have a problem with a word? Well, just get rid of it. So, you don't like debt or deficits? Fine, let's call it our "financial contribution" instead. Problem solved.

Never mind the exponential growth of debt due to compound interest. Counting both public and private debt our nation's debt is $100T while there is only $20T in the nation's money supply. Never mind that the annual interest payment on our $36.5T federal debt is over $1T and what is often overlooked is that 50% of the prices we pay for everything, on average, is accumulated interest paid to the banks. Depending on the goods or services, it can be as high as 70% or as low as 20%, but interest is part of the price.

The Big Lie that money can only be debt ignores the monetary history of the world, which as with any inconvenient history is suppressed and buried and not considered a legitimate field of inquiry by economics departments as it is of a "third order of importance' and thus is not studied and one should not bother writing a thesis on it. As the Sanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, there are two competing monetary theories. The Commodity Theory where a commodity is used for money, and the Credit Theory where credit is used for money. Note they list no theory where money is used for money, and yet this was the root of democracy. Money created and issued as money has created broad-based prosperity and bailed out nation's robbed by the banking system on several occasions in history. The last time it was used in the US was to defend the nation from dissolution as the banks would not lend Lincoln the money (credit) to do it except at an exorbitant rate. The European banks feared the new nation would get uppity, so they supported the secession. Lincoln, left with little choice issued debt-free sovereign money called the Greenback. It was money issued as money, a debt-free asset. Once they were spent into circulation provisioning the war effort, they created a cash economy in which both household and business debt was being eliminated, and interest rates came down as banks competed for deposits. The banks bribed Congress to make them redeemable in gold, hoping to get them out of circulation, but the people found them too useful to do that. More extreme measures were then taken and the Greenbacks eventually ended up as collector's items.

Proposals to have the government issue sovereign money was at the top of the platforms of the progressive populist parties of the late 19th century but the industrialist banks had a firm grip on industry and government by then and passed the Federal Reserve Act, ostensibly to stabilize the economy, which gave them full control of the nation's monetary system. They were soon back to their old tricks and by 1929 caused the Great Depression. That brought forth more proposals for monetary reform which were not adopted. In response to the 2008 banking crisis, Dennis Kucinch introduced the NEED Act in yet another effort to nationalize the monetary system. It was ignored and most people have never heard of it.

Today there are two monetary reform non-profits advocating for the NEED Act in the US and it is included in our Green Party platform. Awareness of Monetary Reform is growing slowly as its abuse reaches devastating proportions. Capitalism is all about war and debt and we have way too much of both. It is time for We the People, the sovereigns of our nation, to rise up against the bureaucratic state and fulfill the Constitutional mandate articulated in the very first sentence of the Preamble.