Our economic system is not designed to assist the public in the event of emergencies. The policies of the private Federal Reserve System of banks focus only on profits of the financial and corporate sectors of the economy. Howard Switzer of the Green Party of Tennessee explains:  “When we are faced with a pandemic situation, the largest concern of our leaders is not the disease, but rather the trade losses of investors who benefit from the private for-profit monetary system. Public need for money during a crisis is precisely the time the financial system fails.”

Banking and Monetary Reform Committee
http://greensformonetaryreform.org

For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2020

Contact:
Mary Sanderson GPWI & Howard Switzer GPTN, [email protected]

In the past three years five of the major financial institutions in the U.S. have shoveled billions of dollars into energy companies that are major contributors to climate change. The financial institutions not only provide debt financing, but invest in the stocks and bonds of the corporations, and are major shareholders in many of the largest energy companies and weapons manufacturers. The major concern of the Fed is to protect the investors during this crisis. The investors are not losing real wealth. They are losing artificial wealth that has risen in value caused by speculative investing.

Congress long ago gave up its Constitutional responsibility for the creation of money, and handed it over to a private banking cartel. When the big banks refused to help the nation fight against its possible division in the Civil War, Greenbacks came to the rescue. Greenbacks are debt-free government money created as an asset, not a debt, and today offer the safest alternative to getting the nation and the world out of debt and through this and other crises. The hegemony of the global financial industry and its private for-profit money system must now be replaced with a public money system in order to fund an effective response world-wide.

Sue Peters, Green Party New York notes, “Legislation was written, vetted and introduced to Congress in 2011, to replace the speculative Federal Reserve System with a reliable, stable-value monetary system.  The NEED Act (HR 2990 – 112th Congress) was shelved by the Banking Committee at that time and remains at the ready.  Now is the time to make this important change“.

The monetary reforms proposed in the Green Party platform would create a public money system that is not based on debt.  Money would not be created by banks and would not disappear in a crisis. Kevin McCormick of the Green Party of Texas explains: “Public money is permanent in the sense that it is not a mere entry in a bank ledger, but instead is created by Congress to serve the public good.”  Unlike the Federal Reserve System, dealing with a pandemic would not automatically become a financial crisis. Instead we would have a government able to respond effectively and swiftly in a crisis with the power to fully fund a public healthcare system.

Greenbacks are permanently circulating money that does not require a loan from a bank. Greenbacks could be used for investments in health care, infrastructure, replacing fossil fuels, and ending wars. Now is the time for Congress to revisit its Constitutional responsibility to the American people.