BANKING POLITICS & THE MONEY QUESTION: Recent resources for democracy activists
January 17, 2021
“There is a long tradition of Americans contentiously debating the design of monetary institutions. In the nineteenth century, they clashed over fractional reserve banking, central banking, and the gold standard….[Christopher] Shaw sees Occupy Wall Street and the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign as evidence of a possible revival in banking politics.” — from book review by Ariel Ron
This blog was originally posted on Jan. 11, 2021 to three food-and-farm listservs (COMFOOD, Food Policy Networks, Regeneration Midwest). There is a slight slant towards food-and-farm activists, but the resources are relevant — maybe even essential — to any U.S. voter who wants to (a) understand U.S. history as an experiment on money, and (b) get up-to-speed on 21st century monetary democracy and banking politics.
Here’s 3 recent entry points on U.S. history — two “windows” and a “doorway” — plus an additional, more generic “doorway” into money as a public policy issue.
BOOK REVIEW in Dissent Magazine
Monetary Democracy
by Ariel Ron (Fall 2020)
This might be the most direct access—the “doorway”—because it’s short, very detailed, and hyper-current.
Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic
by Christopher W. Shaw
University of Chicago Press, 2019, 400 pp.
The review starts with the Bank of North Dakota (founded in 1919 by a coalition led by farmers), the first and still only public bank in the U.S. Of interest is the reviewer’s description of the author’s understanding of grassroots organizing (reformatted for readability):
“I read Shaw as implicitly positing three conditions for a vital banking politics:
–widespread public interest in financial issues
–spirited debate about alternative financial structures, and
–organizational capacity to turn public sentiment and new thinking into government policy.”
For the record (per the last three paragraphs of Ron’s review about MMT — Modern Monetary Theory), many people working on monetary reform (including myself) regard MMT as only half the story. Proponents of MMT don’t seem to actually know what money is. Also, it’s not clear if the author Shaw discusses MMT in his book or whether the reviewer Ariel Ron is introducing the subject for 21st century context. Ron also discusses Bitcoin, the revival of public banking, and U.S. Rep. Tlaib’s Automatic BOOST to Communities (ABC) act (#MintTheCoin).
BOOK
Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic
by Christopher W. Shaw
University of Chicago Press, 2019, 400 pp.
A “window” into the trajectory from 1907-1935 to 21st century
I have not read the book but it sounds really useful, starting with Shaw’s coining of the phrase “banking politics” and including his observation that the public amnesia about banking in money from 1970s to 2008 “is an anomaly in grand sweep of American history” (per Ariel Ron’s review). Documents the large coalitions — led by farmers and workers — that led to various banking reforms.
More from Ariel Ron’s review about the book:
“There is a long tradition of Americans contentiously debating the design of monetary institutions. In the nineteenth century, they clashed over fractional reserve banking, central banking, and the gold standard. Before that they debated whether states should print their own money in competition with the federal government and, earlier still, whether colonial governments could operate public land banks or issue tax-anticipation notes. In light of this history, Shaw sees Occupy Wall Street and the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign as evidence of a possible revival in banking politics.”
BOOK — a “window” into The Money Question
Sovereign of the Market: The Money Question in Early America
by Jeffrey Sklansky
U. of Chicago Press, 2017
Sklansky is a Chicago colleague, professor of history at University of Illinois-Chicago. His primary interest is researching poverty. Like any thoughtful observer from the last few thousand years (especially the last few hundred—the age of capitalism), he recognized that money is an artificial construct that can be easily manipulated in a variety of ways and, in fact, has been manipulated.
From the publisher’s page:
“What should serve as money, who should control its creation and circulation, and according to what rules? For more than two hundred years, the “money question” shaped American social thought, becoming a central subject of political debate and class conflict. Sovereign of the Market reveals how and why this happened.”
BOOK — a generic “doorway” into hyper-current discussions about money
Money: The True Story of a made-Up Thing
by Jacob Goldstein, published in Sept. 2020
co-host of Planet Money, NPR — WBEZ (Chicago)
A good interview (49 mins.):
Radio Times, WHYY (Philadelphia)
Sept. 15, 2020 by Marty Moss-Coane