JANUARY 14, 2009 – DEATH OF CHARLES WALTERS, FOUNDER OF ACRES MAGAZINE, A VOICE FOR ECO-AGRICULTURE

2009 – DEATH OF CHARLES WALTERS, FOUNDER OF ACRES MAGAZINE, A VOICE FOR ECO-AGRICULTURE
“Once upon a time the nobles of Europe believed they had accomplished the physical impossibility of perpetual interest simply by owning all the land and raking in tribute from the peasantry, and when death finally pulled down an economic maggot, then there was always the heir. The historical showdown arrived, of course, and the 'new nobles' were forced to invent a more subtle form of tribute taking. It came on as debt, interest, compound interest, and all the institutional arrangements required to make the producing community share its income with the creditor. For centuries the details have stacked up, but economists [by and large] have failed to draw the appropriate conclusions."

JANUARY 14, 1875 – U.S. CONGRESS PASSES SPECIE RESUMPTION ACT

1875 – U.S. CONGRESS PASSES SPECIE RESUMPTION ACT
Wall Street bankers hated federal Greenbacks (U.S. created debt-free money issued by the administration of Republican President Abraham Lincoln.). They preferred "hard money" or "specie" money (paper money backed by gold), since the major banks controlled most of the nation's gold. Ohio Senator John Sherman (so close was he to the First National Bank of New York that the bank was dubbed "Fort Sherman") was the major advocate of the Specie Resumption Act, passed during the lame-duck controlled Congress (where have we heard that before). The Act legislated the U.S. Treasury to resume the issuance of legal tender notes backed only by gold (Greenbacks were only backed by the faith and credit of the US). The Act also took steps to reduce the amount of Greenbacks in circulation -- a step toward the creation of bank issued debt-money that the government would borrow from them at interest vs using government money without having to pay interest. Farmers and small manufactures opposed the Act, fearful that a contraction of the money supply would lead to a recession or depression. The Act took effect on January 1, 1879. It was a major step toward the re-consolidation of the nation's money supply and economy toward the Money Trust.

JANUARY 14, 1753 - DEATH OF GEORGE BERKELEY, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CLOYNE IRELAND, PHILOSOPHER

1753 - DEATH OF GEORGE BERKELEY, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CLOYNE IRELAND, PHILOSOPHER
Berkeley wrote The Querest in 1735. It was written as questions, which suggested their own answers. On whether money has inherent value, he asked/wrote: "Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a pledge as is variously suggested by writers? On the evolution of exchange and money, "Whether in the rude original society the first step was not the exchanging of commodities, the next a substitution of metals by weight as the common medium of circulation, after this the making use of coin, lastly a further refinement by the use of paper with proper marks and signatures? And whether as it is the last so it be not the greatest improvement?  And whether money be not in truth tickets or tokens for conveying and recording such power, and whether it be of great consequence what materials the tickets are made of."