Index

Book Review

3:   Q What’s the Difference Between Bankers and Counterfeiters?

(A on the back cover!)

William F Hixson E-Book Time, LLC Montgomery, AL 36108 September 2005 ISBN 1-59824-060-9

This book is in three parts: Part I reprints 28 short essays published in the 1990s, which, however, hold together well as a developing argument; Part II reprints a booklet first published in 1997; while Part III consists of four articles reprinted from academic journals published in the 1980s.

However, as the author claims, they are indeed ‘still of timely importance’. The situation he analyses has in the interim only got markedly worse, making attention to his message all the more urgent and timely.

His facts are drawn for the most part from US government and Federal Reserve sources, and relate to the USA, but are broadly true of all countries. His consistent point is that governments should be creating a much greater part, if not all, of their countries’ money and spending it into circulation. He supports his closely-argued case with meticulous detail, showing that the obscene growth of debts and of extremes of wealth and poverty need not have occurred.

From a Green perspective, I must take issue with the author in that he sees the remedy proposed, of more creation and spending by government, as allowing greater economic growth. No consideration is given to the case for Citizens’ Incomes, and the need, in fact, to reduce production. However, this is a matter of choice of policy which does not affect his line of argument for the need for reform of the method of money creation.

I defy any of the doubting Thomases who still swallow the Establishment economists’ views about the nature of money to produce a logical refutation of the detailed argument, supported by statistical analysis, Hixson offers.

Brian Leslie

P.S: Telling statistics from his:

AFTERWORD

In year 2005 in the United States money is being created at the average rate of about $1,500,000,000 a DAY. The total for the year will probably exceed $500,000,000,000. Over 92 percent will be created by private banks and less than 8 percent by the government.

Over the years the banks have created and now have outstanding about $7,000,000,000,000 in "promises to pay legal tender on demand". To meet this obligation they have as reserves only about sixty cents for every one-hundred dollars.

For money the federal government has allowed banks to create and borrowed from them (instead of creating the money for itself) the government is paying banks over $100,000,000 a day in interest. Total interest for the year will exceed $40,000,000,000.

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