“Sovereign money”, alias Monnaie-pleine in Chicago, September 29 – October 2, 2016

Confirmed Speakers:



Joseph Huber is the key monetary reformer of Germany. Founder of monetative.de, Berlin, a monetary reform initiative. In the ’90s he developed a new currency-school approach to overcome fractional reserve banking. Prof. Huber has been working with James Robertson on UK and European monetary reform since 1999, on behalf of the New Economics Foundation, London (report Creating New Money).

In 2013, his talk was “Modern Money – Interest-bearing Credit or Debt-free Currency?” which challenged assumptions of so called “Modern Money Theory” (MMT), and the views on money, credit, and debt and MMT’s belittlement of the dysfunctions of the present mixed-money system because of fractional reserve accounting. He compares this against the analyses given by contemporary monetary reformers who actually stand for a transition from banks’ credit-created money to debt-free sovereign money. Prof. Huber has launched an important new website at www.sovereignmoney.eu to help explain monetary reform to all. That talk was sent to the 25,000 subscribers to the Real World Economic Forum in January 2014. MMT has been unable to answer it. Prof. Huber “coined” the phrase “sovereign money” some years back. We consider him among the very top monetary reformers in the world.

Why a swiss national bank ?

http://desiebenthal.blogspot.ch/2016/09/why-swiss-national-bank.html

Dear Friends of the American Monetary Institute,

12th Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference

Chicago, September 29-October 2, 2016

Confirmed Speakers:

Joseph Huber is the key monetary reformer of Germany. Founder of monetative.de, Berlin, a monetary reform initiative. In the ’90s he developed a new currency-school approach to overcome fractional reserve banking. Prof. Huber has been working with James Robertson on UK and European monetary reform since 1999, on behalf of the New Economics Foundation, London (report Creating New Money).

In 2013, his talk was “Modern Money – Interest-bearing Credit or Debt-free Currency?” which challenged assumptions of so called “Modern Money Theory” (MMT), and the views on money, credit, and debt and MMT’s belittlement of the dysfunctions of the present mixed-money system because of fractional reserve accounting. He compares this against the analyses given by contemporary monetary reformers who actually stand for a transition from banks’ credit-created money to debt-free sovereign money. Prof. Huber has launched an important new website at www.sovereignmoney.eu to help explain monetary reform to all. That talk was sent to the 25,000 subscribers to the Real World Economic Forum in January 2014. MMT has been unable to answer it. Prof. Huber “coined” the phrase “sovereign money” some years back. We consider him among the very top monetary reformers in the world.

Elizabeth Kucinich is an independent transatlantic consultant working to bring social, economic, agricultural and ecological systems into balance. Elizabeth worked for 10 years with the Christian Council for Monetary Justice and the Forum for Stable Currencies in London, before coming to America in 2005 to help organize the AMI’s first international conference for monetary reform.She was later instrumental working with her husband, Dennis Kucinich, in the writing and introduction of HR 2990, The National Emergency Employment Defense Act; bringing monetary reform into the 2008 presidential campaign, and in spurring Congressional debate regarding oversight of the Federal Reserve.

Elizabeth knows and does more about monetary reform than virtually all of the supposed monetary reformers, and she always tells the truth! This is Elizabeth’s second presentation to us and I’m looking forward to it very much. She is one of the most important persons in the U.S. concerning monetary reform. Her husband Dennis has addressed our conferences twice in the past. I’m guessing Dennis won’t be far away, and might yet be convinced to give a keynote Dinner talk.

Dr. Michael Kumhof former Deputy Division Chief of the modeling Division, at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, now works at the Bank of England in London. Though Dr. Kumhof is not making a formal presentation at this conference, this year Dr. Kumhof  will be in attendance, and be available, if appropriately and privately approached, to answer questions about his papers from individuals – a rare opportunity. At past conferences, when he worked at the IMF, Dr. Kumhof has addressed us on the important results of his “modelling” (mathematically predicting the results) of the Chicago Plan proposal of the 1930s, when applied to the modern U.S. financial system. The Chicago Plan was designed and promoted by our best economists in the 1930s (Henry Simons, Irving Fisher, Douglas, et al), to get our nation out of the Great Depression.  The Chicago Plan is the precursor and model of both the American Monetary Act, and Congressman Kucinich’s “NEED Act” (National Emergency Employment Defense Act). His recent paper at the Bank of England is titled, “Banks are not intermediaries of loadable funds- and why this matters.”  Dr. Kumhof’s papers are revolutionizing economic thought!

Prof. Kaoru Yamaguchi has continued to refine his highly advanced modelling system to project how HR 2990 will achieve monetary reform. He concluded it will pay off the US national debt as it comes due; provide the funding for infrastructure, which solves the unemployment problem  and does this without inflation!

Professor Yamaguchi has headed the System Dynamics Group of the Doshisha Business School at Doshisha University in Kyoto Japan. He presented his macroeconomic model on the to a plenary session of the System Dynamics International Conference in Seoul (2010), being attended by more than 300 researchers. It was so well received that on July 26th, the same International Conference asked him to speak on this matter again, at their meeting in Washington, DC.

Dr. Yamaguchi will appear at our conference either in person or  via skype, with full facility for extended questions and answers. His webpage is available for viewing where you can read about his talk and books here:  http://www.muratopia.org/index.html

Rev. Delman Coates is a graduate of Morehouse College (B.A. in Religion, 1995), Harvard Divinity School (Master of Divinity, 1998), and Columbia University (Master of Philosophy in Religion, 2002; Ph.D. in New Testament & Early Christianity, 2006). Coates has served as the Senior Pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, MD since 2004.  During this time, the congregation has grown to almost 9,000 members. Pastor Coates is founder and president of the Black Church Center for Justice & Equality (BCC), and a board member of the Parents Television Council and the National Action Network. He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Morehouse College Board of Preachers, and the NAACP.Rev. Delman Coates has appeared on and been profiled in national media such as MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Essence Magazine, NPR, VH1, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and was featured in the documentary The New Black.

Reverend Coates understanding and commitment to getting monetary reform, as the key stepping stone to achieving economic and social justice in America could well become a pivotal factor in attaining true monetary reform for the nation! Once we get it here, it will spread across the globe very, very quickly.

Jim Wert just retired as senior counsel in the Legislative Counsel’s Office of the US House of Representatives where he worked for almost 31 years, 26 of them writing banking, financial services, credit, and coins and currency legislation and laws, including Kucinich’s NEED Act, HR2990, which he guided for over 2 years! The Legislative Counsel’s Office provides legislative drafting services to the committees and Members of the House of Representatives on a nonpartisan, impartial, and confidential basis.  Today he participates in, and is very much interested in, continuing discussions on what a sustainable and fully functional economic system might look like and what kind of financial system should evolve, to support the development of such an economic system and he has become very interested in Monetary reform.  Jim’s talk to us 2 years ago, was a conference highlight. He surprised and shocked participants when he informed us that the primary element of banker power, using the fractional reserve system has never ever been established in law! Jim told us of a number of such surprises in banking law.

Steve Keen is a top Australian economist won the inaugural (Paul) Revere Award for giving an early warning (2005) of the debt-deflation collapse. He has built a growing reputation as a rare deep thinker on how monetary systems really work, not just how the central banks have said they work. Thus his blog has over 50,000 followers. Keen is a must-see analyst for theorists and investors involved in markets of all types, including the bond markets. Keen has moved from the University of Western Sydney, Australia, to Head, School of Economics, Politics & History, Kingston University in London. In December 2005, drawing on his 1995 theoretical paper, and convinced that a financial crisis was fast approaching, Keen went high-profile public with his analysis and predictions. He registered the webpage www.debtdeflation.com dedicated to analyzing the “global debt bubble”, which soon attracted a large international audience.

In December 2012, Prof. Keen delivered a Congressional Briefing to Congressmen and aides in Washington DC, sponsored by Congressman Dennis Kucinich; which accurately warned of the dangers of a “sequestration.” Prof. Keen will appear at our conference via skype, with full facility for extended questions and answers.

Prof. Nic Tideman received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (where he studied under Milton Friedman and others); taught at Harvard and served as Senior Staff Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers before moving to Virginia Tech in 1973. He has been Professor of Economics there since 1985. While his research has focused primarily on urban economics, public finance, voting rules and social justice, in 1975 he collaborated with Nobel Laureate James Buchanan in writing on “Gold, Money and the Law.” His topic this year focuses on the seigniorage involved in a society’s money creation process, and who it should belong to. At present these vast sums go to the private banks that lend their credit into circulation as money, except for the smaller portion created by the Fed.

Nic is a senior adviser to the American Monetary Institute. Note – neither the AMI nor Prof. Tideman is predicting or expecting a collapse of the Dollar.

Mark Pash, CFP has been promoting monetary reform to our leaders and the general public for over 25 years. He will discuss his 28 reasons for monetary reform and the 14 ways of overcoming its major objection of excess inflation. He will also discuss the many different ways that new money can be distributed and how it will create a 21st Century Win-Win Economy even for the bankers.

Mark is a Certified Financial Planner from the College of Financial Planning with a Bachelors and Masters in Business Administration from UCLA and USC, respectively. He has served and founded a number of financial organizations and industry associations. His extensive background brings a grounded understanding of the practical and theoretical in the field of macroeconomics. He has written many articles besides his book “Economic Theory of Relatively” and the website of his nonprofit-think tank, Center for Progressive Economics at www.cpe.us.com. His new book “Creating a Win-Win Economy for the 21st Century” should be available at the AMI conference. Mark has long been active in politics serving on a Presidential and Congressional Campaign Advisory Economic Committees besides running for a Congressional seat in 1996.

Robert Poteat is one of America’s most knowledgeable, reality based experts on our money system. A long term and meticulous monetary researcher, certainly among the top half dozen in America in awareness of monetary systems. Bob discusses why the American Monetary Act is needed in order to help resolve the greatest crises we now face.

He writes: “The results of the privatized bank credit system are so well documented by history that to recount them is cubic redundancy. However, politics seems to operate on sound bite redundancy. We must frame our case to win the battle of monetary reform.” Bob is a senior adviser to the American Monetary Institute.

Jamie Walton worked for two years in Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s office, helping put the N.E.E.D. bill together. He will describe how its various elements work. The three elements of this single reform are: 1) Incorporation of the Federal Reserve into the U.S. Treasury. 2) Ending Fractional Reserve Banking – Changes in accounting rules so that banks no longer create any part of what we use for money. 3) New money needed in a developing society is introduced by government spending money into circulation on things like infrastructure, starting with the $3.6 trillion our engineers (ASCE) tell us is needed by 2020. Also included will be the “human infrastructure” of education and health care. Read  his latest work here.Jamie is an experienced civil engineer, and a senior AMI Researcher.

Stephen Zarlenga, Director and co-founder of the American Monetary Institute in 1996; author of The Lost Science of Money book; and the Refutation of Menger’s Theory of the Origin of Money; and Greening the Dollar, a free CD of his presentation at the U.S. Green Party’s July 2007 National Convention; plus various articles and speeches; presents the background; objectives; methodology of the AMI and the Conference agenda and goals. An overview of what the AMI has accomplished since its founding in 1996, and our challenges and plans for the future.

Greg Coleridge presents the primary methodology to avoid wasting crucial time and energy at historically critical points – for example the error of some Greens in supporting states to do fractional reserve banking, at this time when real reform must be the target. Rigorous research and study is the essential first step of any social change agent in understanding the root of any problem and in developing appropriate organizing actions and campaigns. Without “deep discovery” of core causes, appropriate social change cures are impossible.

Greg is Director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). He is on the National Steering Committee of the Move to Amend / Campaign to Legalize Democracy Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) national collective.

Howard Switzer is a Tennessee architect working in eco-friendly building methods and builds energy efficient, healthy, homes of earth and straw. He co-founded the ‘Moving the Money to MainStreet Campaign,’ adopted by the GPUS in 2007. That same year he attended the AMI presentation from Stephen Zarlenga at the Greens national meeting in Reading, PA which confirmed his belief that monetary reform is critical to democracy and the funding of the Green Economic Transition. He presented on monetary reform at the 2013 Green Party National Meeting and then at the 9th Annual IMRC. He is a founding member and was co-chair of the Green Party of Tennessee 2002-2003 and served many terms on the Green Party’s National Committee as a delegate from Tennessee. He has run for state office in Tennessee to give the party standing in court to successfully sue the state for unconstitutional ballot access laws, which has been upheld in Federal and Appeals Courts 4 times. Tennessee Greens enjoyed their highest vote count to date this last election cycle!

He is currently a GP national delegate advocating monetary reform, as per the Green Party platform which includes the key elements of the AMI/NEED Act proposal, to be a central component of the 2016 GPUS POTUS campaign and is calling for Reviving the American Revolution electorally to reclaim our nations’s economic sovereignty for the democratic governance of the United States.

Steven Walsh is a leading Chicago educator and expert authority on New England Colonial moneys. As a long time (and continuing) Chicago Educator, Walsh played a key/crucial role in the Chicago Teachers Union (30,000 strong) endorsement and support of Kucinich’s N.E.E.D. Act (HR 2990) The National Emergency Employment Defense Act. This endorsement was spearheaded by the Union’s President, Karen Lewis, known nationwide by educators.

Joseph M. Pijanowski, a leading labor figure in the Chicago area and mid-west, and former Directing Business Representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – Local 126. He is highly regarded with a unique understanding of our monetary system and its penalty to Workers and our economy.

Joe writes: “In an era of debt, austerity, and spiraling income inequality, we can no longer ignore the truth that workers, not plutocrats are the most important contributor to our economy. If ultra low interest rates and tax cuts for the rich actually created jobs in our current debt based monetary system, we would be drowning in jobs instead of crushing the middle class with austerity. Real Monetary reform will unleash the wealth creative power of the Middle Class Workers.”

Under Joe’s Leadership, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – Local 126, became one of the key Union supporters and official endorsers of Kucinich’s monetary reform bill, HR2990.

John Howell (Ph.D. UCLA); teaching and research in physiology for 42 years,(Ohio University); recipient of numerous grants and awards; including the directorship of the Institute for Musculoskeletal Research, and chairing various committees. He currently serves as a teaching assistant in the Department of Classics and World Religions. He is co-founder and coordinator of Democracy Over Corporations, in Athens Ohio and has attended AMI Monetary Reform Conferences in 2012 and 2013, and is now giving presentations on monetary reform at local and regional gatherings. John gives one of the clearest, most inspiring talks on the problem of fractional reserve banking and using debt in place of money, and has established himself as a premier monetary reform presenter.

Joe Bongiovanni is a second-generation monetary reformer, studying money systems for over 40 years, being the co-founder and co-Director, with J. Peter Young, of the Kettle Pond Institute for Debt-free Money.

Joe is an important monetary blogger and though always polite, his posts are blocked from some websites such as the Naked Capitalist, and some MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) sites because they cannot answer his points.

Nick Egnatz is a Vietnam vet, and small businessman. His life as an activist began opposing the imminent invasion of Iraq in 2003. This opposition soon grew to include all U.S. wars, militarism, empire and the war on the poor and working class facilitated by a monetary system designed to send everything straight to the top. The National Association of Social Workers named Nick 2006 Northwest Indiana Citizen of the Year for his anti war activism. At last year’s conference Nick began a discussion on social justice and monetary reform that he would like to continue this year. His pamphlet Linking Social Justice to Monetary Reform is available free at Alpheus.org. Those that would like copies to distribute are invited to contact Nick at OccupyNick@yahoo.com

Ole Mackeprang, European Financier spoke on “Money Systems & Warfare” at our 2007 Conference and will update us on the practical changes the Euro has brought since its launch. Back then the Euro was proclaimed “dead on arrival.” Next, pundits claimed the U.S. Dollar was the casualty, and now it is the Euro in trouble again! Perhaps it is time to get some firsthand observations. Mackeprang’s book, ”Money is Not Capital” will be available.

Mackeprang speaks 8 languages, has worked in 62 countries, principally France, Germany, Italy and Spain (Banque Rothschild and Banque de l’Union Parisienne are some companies he has worked with). His fascinating experiences are described in his book. The life experiences it describes are what American kids (20 & 30 year olds) can only dream about in today’s world – and Yes – we shared some of those times working together in old Europe!

Dr. Edward F. Stuart is Professor of Economics and International/Intercultural Studies at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). He instructs classes in Macroeconomic Theory, International Economics, and The Economics of the European Union, European Economic History, and Comparative Economic Systems at Northeastern Illinois University where he has been a member of the Economics Department faculty since 1986. He often presents sensible economic comment on Chicago Public television. This year his talk will focus on the limits of Contemporary Monetary Policy.

Edgar Wortmann is legal counsel specialized in property law and committed to reform the monetary and banking system. Edgar is an associate of Stichting Ons Geld (Our Money Foundation), which initiated the citizens’ initiative for monetary reform in the Netherlands (Burgerinitiatief Ons Geld), and successfully stirred up public debate about the money system. This resulted in Dutch Parliamentary Hearings, which will continue. Edgar will tell us how he helped make that happen! Previously, Edgar explored new utilities and was involved in the design and process descriptions of decentralized water chains, floating homes and fully self-sufficient residential areas. Edgar was a guest-lecturer Urban Infrastructure at Wageningen University. He will give an update of the developments regarding monetary reform in the Netherlands, and explain the circumstances that enabled our citizens’ initiative, and parliamentarian hearing that evolved from that. “I take a legal approach towards money and this gives interesting discussions; especially for older economists it seems hard to distinguish bank credit (bank deposits) from money. I’ll also discuss what we call in the Netherlands ‘government issued digital chartal money.”

William Bergman, economist and formerly an official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, until he became a whistle-blower on Fed practices. At past conferences he gave up to the minute discussions on the banking problem. Presently he is Director of Research at the Truth in Accounting organization and is invited to discuss that organizations objectives and conclusions.

Also  invited to speak:

Dr. Michael Clark, of the United Nations, is the man who a few years back sparked the issue of 240 billion new SDRs by the International Monetary Fund, though they had only issued 21 billion of them since its inception in January 1970. A fascinating story in itself. Dr. Clark is one of the most interesting and knowledgeable Americans today. He presently heads the United Nations operations in Italy.

Mason Gaffney is an American economist and a major critic of Neoclassical economics from a Georgist point of view.[1] He earned his B.A. in 1948 from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Gaffney first read Henry George’s masterwork Progress and Poverty as a high school junior. After serving in the southwest Pacific during World War II, this interest led him in 1955 to get a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.[3] There he addressed his teachers’ skepticism about Georgism with a dissertation entitled “Land Speculation as an Obstacle to Ideal Allocation of Land.” Gaffney has been Professor of Economics at the University of California, Riverside since 1976.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday Sept. 29

9 AM-12PM            Registration (and the prior Wed. evening from 6 PM-8PM)

1 PM to 6 PM          Presentations

7 PM                         Conference Reception with punch and hors d’oeuvres

Friday Sept. 30

9 AM to 7 PM         Presentations: break for lunch, refreshment breaks

Saturday Oct. 1

9 AM to 6 PM         Presentations: break for lunch, refreshment breaks

7:30 PM                  Dinner party, with keynote presentation

Sunday Oct. 2

9 AM to 12 PM       Presentations & discussion

1:00 PM -5:00 PM: Beach Party Barbecue and Swim

Register through PayPal

Discount Registration $250.00 USD Teacher Registration $125.00 USD Student Registration $79.00 USD Full Registration will eventually be $350.00 USD

 

2016 Conference Registration Form:

 Enclosed is my $______ registration donation for the 2016 AMI Monetary Reform Conference, Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, 2016. ($195 per person discount ends March 16th, then rises to $250 until July 18, thereafter it’s the full $350)

All participants must pre-register – there are no at the door registrations.

(An 80% refund is available until March 15th, and will afterward be pro-rated downward to a 20% refund after September 1st)

For excellent pre-conference reading or viewing:

 Please send me The Lost Science of Money book by Stephen Zarlenga. Enclose a check for $68 ($60 plus $8 S&H) [All foreign shipments are an additional $30 per book for postage (total $98)].

 Please send me the VIDEO set of the full 2014 or the 2015 Conferences (circle one), at $160. Postpaid;

Enclose a check for all items payable to The American Monetary Institute, and mail it to:

The American Monetary Institute, PO Box 601, Valatie,        NY 12184.

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For questions regarding registration  call 1-224-805-2200 or contact us through e-mail:  ami@taconic.net

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