Economic Liberty From Philadelphia

Henderson also came out in favor of having the Treasury issue our currency instead of (only?) the private banking sector.  Henderson spoke favorably of a tongue-in-cheek Sheila Bear plan to have Bernanke issue $10 million to everyone as a 10-year loan instead of further bailouts to Wall Street, and promoted the idea of making Ellen Brown Treasury Secretary -- which drew wide applause. 

On the other hand, some of the presenters almost seemed like they thought the current system just needed some tweaking and to be extended so that the States, and in one case (Samuel Giles), universities, could form their own banks to get a piece of the action.  This last proposal, at a time when student debt has just topped a trillion dollars, set off alarm bells for both me and my fellow traveler and Public Banking advocate, Rita Rowan (treasurer of Common Ground-NYC too, where I am president).  The last thing students or universities need, it seems to us, is more debt. 

Continuing the Green theme later in the day, Frank Nussle from the University of Pennsylvania presented his view of economics as a kind of biological analogy, urging us to think of both efficiency and resiliency in any new economic paradigm we devise.  The current system is resilient for the TBTF banks, he says, but he is advocating resiliency for the economy as a whole, and the "casino economy" does not have that.  He advocates for us to go beyond the fiat money monoculture, stressing more social technology as a way of properly allocating resources, something he says is already happening with various local economies. 

Two rousing speeches (one in a tavern the night before the official conference, the other at the conference) by Ethan Allen impersonator Jim Hogue excited the crowd, running off every invective against the robbing of the "commons" (broken down by root "com' into 2 dozen related words: Community, Communication, etc.) by the elite "tyrants, smirking chimps, backstabbing, worthless, treacherous, treasonous, cowardly, unctuous whores, leeches, arrogant, destructive and panderers"What they can't pillage, pillage, pillage some more, they destroy!"  Their accomplices are "maggots, enemies of planet Earth, tyrants"and we take it, and grovel and call ourselves free...and they are violating the rights of all Men!" says "Ethan Allen."

This drew hearty applause from the crowd, which was equally frustrated and patriotic.

Off Session Conversations

There were some interesting audience members -- including Green gubernatorial candidates for both California (Laura Wells) and New York (Howie Hawkins).  Wells gave a short speech, in which she cited her past support of State Banking as a major platform in her run for Governor -- which was received very favorably when she was running as an otherwise too-easily-ignored third party candidate - as well as fair taxes. These were the only two planks she felt she had time to emphasize as a minority candidate with little media coverage.   Off session I asked her why we couldn't just "tax bads, not goods."  She said because the bads (pollution, resource use/abuse) are easier to tax.  Wells, I hope you will not succumb to the Money Power.

Hawkins and I had met before, at a Pace University Left Forum conference in 2011, and we got to talking again between sessions.  He told me the Democrats had given the Green party, and him, a silver or lead type choice, wherein they would promise to support his party's candidates for some role in local government, if they didn't oppose them in the elections"or else "smash you if you (the Green Party) ran against us" including character assassination.  We talked about the difference in countries where there are parliamentary systems where minor party candidates get proportional representation, like Canada, or France.  There, Hawkins says, parties are forced to "form coalitions" and to work with minor parties.  Here, in the winner-take-all system, it is "like the Mafia" says Hawkins, when dealing with the Democrats. 

He is less worried about the recent changes to the voting process with the new electronic machines, and says there are paper ballots to count and there are spot checks with samples.  He has watched them count ballots himself. 

However, he said the Working families party and Charles Barron took some of his votes, during several recounts, when he ran for Governor, in the Bronx, when he should have done better, according to previous polls, though he doesn't know how this was done. 

It is hard to imagine a more frustrating endeavor than to be a third-party candidate for office, except maybe, for some, being a monetary reformer.  Our collective understanding has never been greater.  Our collective will never stronger.  But the elite opposition has never been more determined to hold on to the means of making and raking in, the money.

There are some great pictures of the attendees here. There is indeed a lot of positive energy at conferences like this.  Are these the people who will return the Money Power to We The People?  Time will tell"

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