{"id":732,"date":"2008-12-26T00:40:51","date_gmt":"2008-12-26T05:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iomaire.com\/?p=732"},"modified":"2009-04-20T21:36:03","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T01:36:03","slug":"kucinich-and-decentralized-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/2008\/12\/26\/kucinich-and-decentralized-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"Kucinich and Decentralized Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is fair to state that very few people in this country expected or even predicted the financial crisis that we are enveloped in. Over the years, I\u2019ve read essays by people who claim that if we went back to the gold standard, our problems would be solved. These writers, usually influenced by Murray Rothbard or other writers from the Austrian School as presented by the Mises Institute<\/a>, also preach about the evils of fractional reserve banking<\/a> and how that leads to the creation of debt. Needless to say, 99.5% of the discussion of how to fix our problems sail right over the head of us ordinary Americans, who nonetheless suffer as a result of the policies executed by the “experts” who currently run the Federal Reserve System.<\/p>\n

However, understanding this topic is vital to our future financial health. As might be obvious to those who have read this blog for any length of time, I am not one who could be called \u201cconventional\u201d – indeed, my father always said that I was a contrarian. Indeed. I\u2019ve never been one to accept the received wisdom as truth and at my age, I don\u2019t think that will change. At the same time, I\u2019m equally suspicious of ideas that, to me, seem to have little connection to reality. Thus, I\u2019m not one to rail against the \u201cinternational Jewish financial conspiracy\u201d<\/a> touted by Henry Ford or to endorse Ron Paul when he calls for the abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank<\/a>. However, that certainly doesn\u2019t mean that I think the current paradigm is worthwhile continuing.<\/p>\n

I found this speech, by Dennis Kucinich, to be most interesting. It was given this past November 4, when he won his re-election race, at the American Monetary Institute<\/a>. In his speech, he calls for serious monetary reform.<\/p>\n

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Kucinich calls for a new look at the way we create money in our society and for us to not rely on the old Keynesian<\/a> deficit-spending method that was used by FDR.<\/p>\n

There are some very interesting links to other sites on the American Monetary Institute<\/a> webpage, where a link is made between the current monetary system and the militarism that so infects American society.<\/p>\n

One of the most common themes that runs through statements made by people opposed to the current paradigm is that the Federal Reserve Bank is a private bank, unanswerable to the people or to Congress. This belief finds tremendous support among the followers of the religious right and is not without merit. The Open Money Manifesto, published on The Transitioner<\/a> website, lays out the specifics. I found this site to be intriguing, because it demonstrates how the Internet, could, by using the example of the Napster<\/a> phenomenon, change the structure of the monetary systems of the world.<\/p>\n

Another interesting site that shows what the future of monetary systems might be is Thomas Greco’s Reinventing Money<\/a> site. There is a lot to digest on this site, as there is on the other sites mentioned in this post, but if we want to create a just and sustainable society for our children and grandchildren, we need to get to work. It is very clear that the current system is dysfunctional and that millions of people face financial ruin because of the current crisis. It is time for change and I, for one, am not counting on President-elect Barack Obama to deliver that change. We need to educate ourselves and demand change that will benefit us, our children, and our grandchildren, not the Wall Street fat cats who have already been bailed out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is fair to state that very few people in this country expected or even predicted the financial crisis that we are enveloped in. Over the years, I\u2019ve read essays by people who claim that if we went back to …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1093,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}