VIDEO: A good introduction to the global monetary system, usurped by private interests from the nations, can be viewed on Google Video. See [Money as Debt]
BOOK LIST: [Money reform]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax
[2] Henry George (1839-1897), was the last of the great Classical economists. His first book, Progress and Poverty (1879), was the best-selling book to that date, save only the Bible. George wrote several other popular but substantial books, and also had an international reputation as a lecturer, speaking throughout the English-speaking world, from Australia to England. He greatly influenced philosophers and politicians from Leo Tolstoy and G. B. Shaw to Clarence Darrow, Sun Yat Sen and Winston Churchill, among many others.
Like Tom Paine, George drew a sharp distinction between land and capital. Capital, he said, was a subset of wealth, i.e. that part of wealth which is devoted to economic activity; to production, transportation, sales, or services provided for profit. Like labour, capital represents human effort and deserves fair recompense. Land, however, is another matter.
It is produced by no person, and whoever uses it prevents others from doing so. Moreover, most of the economic value of land is created by society as a whole, not by the "owner".
Population growth creates demand for land and for resources, and population, together with public roads, pipelines, and utilities cause the value of land to rise even if the owner does nothing with it.
Since the economic value of raw land and its natural resources results entirely from social action, that value should be shared by all and not accrue to any single "owner".
George said that this result could easily be accomplished by taxing away all or most of the "economic rent" -- i.e. the rent that raw land or its resources would bring on the open market.
George added that society should collect the rent not only from land and natural resources, but also that accruing from special privileges such as patents and licenses like taxi licenses, radio and TV licenses, satellite orbits etc. which enable a few to profit from monopolies. Everything beyond a fair return to the inventor or license holder should accrue to society as a whole.
[4] Full quote of Abraham Lincoln:
“The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles… the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity"
[5] The Federal Reserve Bank of America [which is not federal, and has no reserves] actually posted this pdf on the Chicago FED's web site. Modern Money Mechanics is the story of money from the horses mouth. There is nothing in the UK that spells out the official charter for banks to make money out of nothing. This pdf file if no longer available from the FED. They say "it is out of print".
http://ia301505.us.archive.org/2/items/ModernMoneyMechanics/MMM.pdf[6] What should money represent?
Dr Peter Bowman, tutor at School of Economic Science, and member of the Council of Management of Henry George Foundation reflects on Karl Polanyi's 1943 book "Great Transformations" which explores what happened to sow the seeds of self-destruction in our present monetary system. Polanyi's thesis is that it was a deception.
It was the pretence that the primary elements of the economy, namely land, labour and credit, are commodities that can be traded in the market in the same way that actual commodities can. He pointed out that these primary elements of the economy are patently not commodities in that they are not man-made goods. [Read more]
for opening wider the door to the enriching vista of a "people's currency".