Open letter to school boards, teachers’ unions, families: Funding crisis for all public goods & services already solved by Ben Franklin with monetary reform and public banking, backed by Thomas Edison, 86% of Economics professors

In fields of specialized knowledge, we aim to render an account that is plain and simple, yet does no violence to the difficulty of the subject, so that the uninformed reader can understand us while the expert cannot fault us. We try to keep in mind a saying attributed to Einstein—that everything must be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.  ~ A letter from the publisher, Time Magazine, 1962

American families could have ~$1,000,000 per household in benefits from monetary reform and public banking. This is literally the most valuable information you can learn. 

Colleagues and I presenting this data have written and presented at professional international economic conferences and have zero challenges to this information, such as this 2015 paper published by The Claremont Colleges for their ~2,000 person international economics conference, and this 2012 paper. 

I also assert that I've worked with ~2,000 Advanced Placement Economics teachers through their discussion board since 2009, and no colleague has ever challenged the factual accuracy of what I am about to explain and document. 

These two reforms are easy to learn: 

• Monetary reform simply means being able to create money as a positive number to directly pay for public goods and services. What we have only creates "money" as its Orwellian-opposite, debt, which explains how and why total debt increases exponentially. Creating money as a positive number has triple and game-changing benefits: upgraded infrastructure, employment, and falling prices to the extent infrastructure investment returns more economic output than cost (this usually happens).
• Public banking is creating in-house and at-cost credit instead of selling debt securities to the public. In-house and at-cost credit reduces total nominal debt costs by ~50% compared with paying Wall Street "debt experts" and interest. The one state with a public bank is North Dakota: also the one and only state with increasing budget surpluses from their paying half of what all other 49 states pay for debt.

But you didn't know about these reforms that would transfer trillions in profits back to the public rather than .01% Wall Street ongoing Robber Barons. It's important to consider what American sheeple receive for "news" and who American political and economic "leaders" work for:

Here’s a big part of this condition: just six US corporations control ~90% of what Americans get for news. MIT’s Simon Johnson (and former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund) describes our big banks being led by gambling oligarchs who have captured government as in “banana republics” (his words). He concludes fraud is the heart of Wall Street. His best-selling book, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street takeover and the next financial meltdown, was discussed with over 30 Emmy Award-winning journalist Bill Moyers to explain the US banking system, loss of trillions of American taxpayer dollars to oligarchs’ manipulation as a matter of definitive fact, the looting of America being protected by partners with political muscle, and rational consideration of the facts proving massive financial crimes:

SIMON JOHNSON: The American democracy was not given to us on a platter. It is not ours for all time, irrespective of our efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or we are going to be in big trouble, okay?… That’s absolutely the heart of the problem. I would also say and tell you, and emphasize, these people will not come out and debate with us. The heads of these companies or their representatives, they will not come out. They’re afraid. They don’t have the substance. They don’t have the arguments. We have the evidence. They have the lobbyists. And that’s all they have.

BILL MOYERS: They’ve got the power, the muscle, the money.

SIMON JOHNSON: They have money.

BILL MOYERS: You just have the arguments. You just have the facts. On your side.

SIMON JOHNSON: Absolutely. That’s exactly what it comes down to.

Two sections: videos and academic documentation of data

Different people learn in different ways. If you want just one video to watch, I recommend my 22-minute interview in the second video. If you want just one academic paper to read, I recommend my 2015 paper to The Claremont Colleges.

Crystal-clear videos to explain, document, and prove ~$1,000,000 per average US household in benefits from monetary reform, public banking

Demonocracy’s sharp 2 minutes of the tragic-comic mathematical certainty for a society that creates what is used for money as debt; just as certain as adding negative numbers forever causes only and always increasing aggregate debt until a system collapse:

My 2012 22-minute interview by Aaron Dykes on the most-viewed alternative news show at that time to explain specifically the public data where our government documents withholding trillions alleged for "pension funds" that deliver net income from negative returns to a maximum of 1%, and that taxpayers fund 95% of government retirement costs rather than so-called pension fund net incomes (documentation here, here):

My 2017 57-minute detailed interview and data presentation with Dr. Jim Fetzer:

For Americans still zombiefied to “believe” in America, please embrace the reality that 40% of US children live at least one year of their lives in under-measured poverty, while oligarchs most responsible literally laugh in grandiose glee of the poverty they euphemise as “income inequality.” A sobering 1-minute reality check:

John Perkins’ 2-minutes of context as an illustration of what the US rogue state executes:

15-minute video of obvious solutions: Mark Anielski and Ellen Brown’s powerful 15-minute response to an interview at the Seizing an Alternative conference (and here, with videos here) with former World Bank economist Herman Daly and co-author John B. Cobb of For the Common Good (video should start at 1:04:43):

81-minute interview with Byron Dale and Greg Soderberg of WealthMoney.org (the three of us have combined over 90 years of research on this topic).

Data, discussion of ~$1,000,000 benefits per average US household with monetary reform, public banking:

The top three benefits each of monetary reform and public banking total ~$1,000,000 for the average American household, and would be received nearly instantly. Fed Chair Janet Yellen publicly acknowledges monetary reform as described below, but continues a history of criminal fraud in her lawful fiduciary responsibility to truthfully provide what you’re about to read. The data below include evidence of a .01% oligarchy criminally looting tens of trillions of our dollars.

Monetary reform is the creation of debt-free money by government for the direct payment of public goods and services. Creating money as a positive number is an obvious move from our existing Robber Baron-era system of only creating debt owed to privately-owned banks (a negative number) as what we use for money. Our Orwellian “non-monetary supply” of adding negative numbers forever causes today’s tragic-comic increasing and unpayable total debt. You learned these mechanics of positive and negative numbers in middle school, and already have the education and life experience to conclude with Emperor’s New Clothes absolute certainty that accelerating total debt is the opposite of having money. As a National Board Certified and Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teacher, I affirm this is also exactly what is taught to all economics students.

The public benefits of reversing this creature of Robber Barons are game-changing and near-instant. We the People must demand these, as .01% oligarchs have no safe way to do so without admission of literal criminal fraud by claiming that debt is its opposite of money.

The top 3 game-changing benefits of monetary reform:

1. We pay the national debt in proportion to removing private banks’ ability to create what we use for money as debt in order to prevent inflation. We retire national debt forever.
2. We fully fund infrastructure that returns more economic output than investment cost for triple upgrades: the best infrastructure we can imagine, up to full-employment, and lower overall costs.
3. We stop the ongoing Robber Barons who McKinsey’s Chief Economist documents having ~$30 TRILLION in tax havens, and the Fed finding the US top seven banks creating shell companies to hide $10 trillion. This amount is about 30 times needed to end all global poverty, which has killed more people since 1995 than all wars and violence in all human history. Robber Barons are within our own Department of Offense Defense, who admit they "lost" $21 trillion of taxpayer money (~$200,000 per average US household).

Public banking creates at-cost and in-house credit to pay for public goods and services without the expense and for-profit interest of selling debt-securities. North Dakota has a public bank for at-cost credit that results in it being the only state with annual increasing surpluses rather than deficits.

Top 3 game-changing benefits of public banking:

1. a state-owned bank could abundantly fund all state programs and eliminate all taxes with just a 5% mortgage and credit card.
2. a state-owned bank could create in-house and at-cost credit to fund infrastructure. This cuts nominal costs in half because, as you know, selling debt securities typically doubles the cost. For example, where I live we’re still dismantling the old Bay Bridge in NoCal from the upgrade that cost $6 billion, but the debt-service costs will add another $6 billion when it’s all paid.
3. CAFRs (Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports) stash “rainy day” funds no longer required with a credit line from a public bank. In addition, the so-called “retirement funds” currently deliver net returns of just a few percent on good years, and negative returns on bad years (here, here). California’s ~14,000 various government entities’ CAFRs have a sampled-data total estimate of $8 trillion in surplus taxpayer assets ($650,000 non-disclosed assets per household, among California’s ~12.5 million households).

~$1,000,000 of benefits per US household:

• California’s CAFR data of ~$650,000 of assets per household is evidence of huge cash assets of similar magnitude in every state.
• Paying the US national debt of ~$18 trillion saves ~$180,000 per household.
• Ending state taxes in California to pay a budget of ~$170 billion saves each household ~$15,000, with similar savings in every state.
• ~$30,000 per household savings annually: the American public would no longer pay over $400 billion every year for national debt interest payments (because almost 30% of the debt is intra-governmental transfers, this is a savings of ~$300 billion/year). If lending is run at a non-profit rate or at nominal interest returned to the American public (for infrastructure, schools, fire and police protection, etc.) rather than profiting the banks, the savings to the US public is conservatively $2 trillion (1). If the US Federal government increased the money supply by 3% a year to keep up with population increase and economic growth, we could spend an additional $500 billion yearly into public programs, or refund it as a public dividend (2). This savings would allow us to simplify or eliminate the income tax (3). The estimated savings of eliminating the income tax with all its complexity, loopholes, and evasion is $250 billion/year (4). The total benefits for monetary reform are conservatively over three trillion dollars every year to the American public. Three trillion is $3,000,000,000,000. This saves the ~100 million US households an average of $30,000 every year. Another way to calculate the savings is to figure those amounts per $50,000 annual household income (for example, if your household earns $100,000/year, you save ~$60,000 every year with these reforms). This savings represents a 60% raise for every US household’s income.
• Related, if the ~$30 trillion hidden in tax havens by the .01% have $10-$15 trillion from Americans, and we count the Federal Reserve report that the US top seven banks have over $10 trillion stored, then the average US household could clawback ~$200,000 to ~$250,000. And again: Robber Barons within our own Department of Offense Defense admit they "lost" $21 trillion of taxpayer money (~$200,000 per average US household).

Famous Americans already on record for these reforms:

• Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Thomas Jefferson,
• President Andrew Jackson, famous inventor Peter Cooper,
• New York City Mayor John Hylan, two House of Representatives Banking Committee Chairs,
• Benjamin Franklin, William Jennings Bryan,
• Charles Lindbergh Sr., 86% of Great Depression economists,

Please understand that I represent likely hundreds of thousands of professionals making factual claims with objective evidence anyone with a high school-level of education can verify.

The obvious pathway out of these mechanics of our “debt system” is to start creating debt-free money (a positive number) for the direct payment of public goods and services, and create public credit for at-cost loans (a negative number). I have three academic papers to walk any reader through these facts; an assignment for high school economics students, one for Advanced Placement Macroeconomics students, and a paper for a Claremont Colleges’ recent academic conference:

Teaching critical thinking to high school students: Economics research/presentation

Debt-damned economics: either learn monetary reform, or kiss your assets goodbye

Seizing an alternative: Bankster looting: fundamental fraud that “debt” is “money”

Let’s examine just some of the facts of the current US economy that demonstrate need for reforms:

• We’ve already documented how the global so-called “elite” 1% are now wealthier than the 99% while ~30,000 children die daily from preventable poverty in gruesomely-slow agony. Over 500,000 Americans are homeless; living on the streets or shelters.
• Just 62 people on Earth own more than the bottom 50%.
• The US .1% own more than the bottom 90%.
• The top 20 Americans (.000006%) own more than the bottom 50%.
• Our current system of creating what we use for money as debt has the so-called “developed” and “former” colonial nations $50 trillion in debt, and lying for public austerity rather than admit the option of monetary and banking reforms.

More game-changing economic data:

• decaying infrastructure getting uglier from “deferred maintenance,”
• real unemployment near 25% with most families demanding both parents work longer and longer hours,
• real inflation well above official reports,
• US poverty of 20% among children, 40% for living at least a year in poverty,
• 72% of California students in schools with over half the children classified as “socio-economically disadvantaged,”
• the annual interest payment of ~$450 billion for the US national debt is over four times the amount needed to invest for ending all forms of global poverty (~$100 billion/year for ~10 years).
• a rigged-casino economy designed for “peak inequality,”
• “too big to fail” banks demand public subsidies (so-called “bailouts”) while gambling with over $200 TRILLION in derivatives,
• these “too big to fail/jail” banks deriving most of their income from subsidies and apparent market manipulations,
• Daily and never-ending Orwellian criminal-complicit lies of corporate media.
• US college Class of 2015 students average $35,000 in debt, with the total for 2015 graduates nearly $70 billion: more than ten times the amount from just 20 years ago. The average time to pay this debt is now 15 years (think paying until age 40).
• half of US 25-year-olds live with their parents, more than twice the number from 15 years ago.
• Over two million US college students are “Sugar babies”: selling sex as part-time employment. The UK has the same condition (here, here).
• 31% of US adjunct professors live in poverty.

Endnotes:

1) Of $60 trillion total debt, a conservative current interest cost of 5% is $3 trillion every year. Two trillion dollars of savings if the profits are transferred to the American public rather than to the banking industry is probably low. St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank: https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/TCMDO

2) The US GDP is ~$17 trillion. Three percent growth is moderately conservative.

3) Of the US Federal government’s ~$4 trillion annual budget, about $1.7 trillion is received from income tax.

4) Tax Foundation. Hodge, S, Moody, J, Warcholik, W. The Rising Cost of Complying with the Federal Income Tax. Jan. 10, 2006: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/1281.html

**

I make all factual assertions as a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History (also credentialed in Mathematics), with all economic factual claims receiving zero refutation since I began writing in 2008 among Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teachers on our discussion board, public audiences of these articles, and international conferences (and here). I invite readers to empower their civic voices with the strongest comprehensive facts most important to building a brighter future. I challenge professionals, academics, and citizens to add their voices for the benefit of all Earth’s inhabitants.

**

Carl Herman worked with both US political parties over 18 years and two UN Summits with the citizen’s lobby, RESULTS, for US domestic and foreign policy to end poverty. He can be reached at Carl_Herman@post.harvard.edu

Note: My work from 2012 to October, 2017 is on Washington’s Blog. Work back to 2009 is blocked by Examiner.com (and from other whistleblowers), so some links to those essays are blocked. If you’d like to search for those articles other sites may have republished, use words from the article title within the blocked link. Or, go to http://archive.org/web/, paste the expired link into the box, click “Browse history,” then click onto the screenshots of that page for each time it was screen-shot and uploaded to webarchive (blocked author pages: here, here).