Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
- We will strive for local and national food independence by rebuilding our local food systems
based on family farms and environmentally friendly farming methods that
rebuild the soil, maximize yields per acre, minimize the use of toxic
chemicals, and create opportunities for the many young people who are
returning to the land. - We will strive
for energy independence by supporting local entrepreneurs who are
creating local businesses to retrofit our buildings and develop and
apply renewable-energy technologies. - It
is a basic principle of market theory that trade relations between
nations should be balanced. So-called free trade agreements have
hollowed out our national industrial capacity, mortgaged our future to
foreign creditors, and created global financial instability. We will
take steps to assure that our future trade relations are balanced and
fair as we engage in the difficult but essential work of learning to
live within our own means. - We will rebuild our national infrastructure around a model of walkable, bicycle-friendly communities
with efficient public transportation to conserve energy, nurture the
relationships of community, and recover our farm and forest lands. - A
strong middle-class society is an American ideal. Our past embodiment
of that ideal made us the envy of the world. We will act to restore
that ideal by rebalancing the distribution of wealth. Necessary and
appropriate steps will be taken to assure access by every person to quality health care,
education, and other essential services, and to restore progressive
taxation, as well as progressive wage and benefit rules, to protect
working people. - We will seek to
create a true ownership society in which all people have the
opportunity to own their homes and to have an ownership stake in the
enterprise on which their livelihood depends. Our economic policies
will favor responsible local ownership of local enterprises
by people who have a stake in the health of their local communities and
economies. The possibilities include locally owned family businesses,
cooperatives, and the many other forms of community- or worker-owned
enterprises.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
| David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
| Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |
This article was written for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
- We will strive for local and national food independence by rebuilding our local food systems
based on family farms and environmentally friendly farming methods that
rebuild the soil, maximize yields per acre, minimize the use of toxic
chemicals, and create opportunities for the many young people who are
returning to the land. - We will strive
for energy independence by supporting local entrepreneurs who are
creating local businesses to retrofit our buildings and develop and
apply renewable-energy technologies. - It
is a basic principle of market theory that trade relations between
nations should be balanced. So-called free trade agreements have
hollowed out our national industrial capacity, mortgaged our future to
foreign creditors, and created global financial instability. We will
take steps to assure that our future trade relations are balanced and
fair as we engage in the difficult but essential work of learning to
live within our own means. - We will rebuild our national infrastructure around a model of walkable, bicycle-friendly communities
with efficient public transportation to conserve energy, nurture the
relationships of community, and recover our farm and forest lands. - A
strong middle-class society is an American ideal. Our past embodiment
of that ideal made us the envy of the world. We will act to restore
that ideal by rebalancing the distribution of wealth. Necessary and
appropriate steps will be taken to assure access by every person to quality health care,
education, and other essential services, and to restore progressive
taxation, as well as progressive wage and benefit rules, to protect
working people. - We will seek to
create a true ownership society in which all people have the
opportunity to own their homes and to have an ownership stake in the
enterprise on which their livelihood depends. Our economic policies
will favor responsible local ownership of local enterprises
by people who have a stake in the health of their local communities and
economies. The possibilities include locally owned family businesses,
cooperatives, and the many other forms of community- or worker-owned
enterprises.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
| David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
| Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |
Fellow Citizens:
My
administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time
when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us.
They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating
debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened the
destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The
failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that
says if government favors the financial interests of the rich to the
disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will
prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that
favored the interests of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking
people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn't work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing a system based on
false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to
create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based
pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for
any of us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective
action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its
core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the
indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place
financial values ahead of life values.
We have
been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic
product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and
resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure
economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the
health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the
natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a
healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and
maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local
energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to
achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing
the creative energies of our people and our local governments,
businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous
administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this
administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main
Street-people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore
the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
- We will strive for local and national food independence by rebuilding our local food systems
based on family farms and environmentally friendly farming methods that
rebuild the soil, maximize yields per acre, minimize the use of toxic
chemicals, and create opportunities for the many young people who are
returning to the land. - We will strive
for energy independence by supporting local entrepreneurs who are
creating local businesses to retrofit our buildings and develop and
apply renewable-energy technologies. - It
is a basic principle of market theory that trade relations between
nations should be balanced. So-called free trade agreements have
hollowed out our national industrial capacity, mortgaged our future to
foreign creditors, and created global financial instability. We will
take steps to assure that our future trade relations are balanced and
fair as we engage in the difficult but essential work of learning to
live within our own means. - We will rebuild our national infrastructure around a model of walkable, bicycle-friendly communities
with efficient public transportation to conserve energy, nurture the
relationships of community, and recover our farm and forest lands. - A
strong middle-class society is an American ideal. Our past embodiment
of that ideal made us the envy of the world. We will act to restore
that ideal by rebalancing the distribution of wealth. Necessary and
appropriate steps will be taken to assure access by every person to quality health care,
education, and other essential services, and to restore progressive
taxation, as well as progressive wage and benefit rules, to protect
working people. - We will seek to
create a true ownership society in which all people have the
opportunity to own their homes and to have an ownership stake in the
enterprise on which their livelihood depends. Our economic policies
will favor responsible local ownership of local enterprises
by people who have a stake in the health of their local communities and
economies. The possibilities include locally owned family businesses,
cooperatives, and the many other forms of community- or worker-owned
enterprises.
We will act to
render Wall Street's casino-like operations unprofitable. We will
impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and
impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal
for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not
own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy,
we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created
the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the
previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally
owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking
function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people
looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local
people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
| David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy BUY THE BOOK: Get the YES! discount: 20% off cover price | |
And
last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary
reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is
a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money
in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created
by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes.
That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My
administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from
our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money
is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued
money to fund economic-stimulus projects
that build the physical and social infrastructure of a
twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with
our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end
I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to
assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing
the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply,
contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and
assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to
eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting
ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our
possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and
institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can
secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the
Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No
government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but
together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join
with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families,
our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of
our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in
the community of nations.
| Work on the YES! website marked as (cc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |