TURMEL: Tom Greco's Zarlenga Review
From: John Turmel (bc726_at_FreeNet.Carleton.CA)
Date: 09/22/04
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Date: 22 Sep 2004 02:09:09 GMT
JCT: Skeet for our entertainment. A shorter version of a
book I'd never read:
>Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:58:06 -0700
>From: circ2@mindspring.com (Thomas Greco -- CIRC2)
>Subject: [lets] my review of Zarlenga's book
>To: lets@yahoogroups.com
JCT: lets yahoogroup has banned my responses. Great. I can't
answer.
TG: - A Book Review by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money - the
Story of Power by Stephen Zarlenga
(The American Monetary Institute, PO Box 601, Valatie, NY,
2002. Hardcover, 724 pages. ISBN 1-930748-03-5)
Zarlenga's book, is in many ways, impressive, but in other
ways, disappointing. This massive treatise (more than 700
pages) recounts the history of money from early times,
providing an interesting historical overview based on a wide
variety of sources. It is a scholarly, well researched, and
insightful account of the evolution of money, banking, and
finance, in which the author argues that "a main arena of
human struggle is over the monetary control of societies..,"
and shows how the money power has historically rivaled that
of governments. All that is well and good; the story of
money IS the story of power, and the author tells it well.
It is, indeed unfortunate that few people today realize the
important political implications that are inherent in the
control over money and banking, or that such control has
typically been in the hands of elite private interests. This
well researched history goes a long way toward clearing away
the fog that has enshrouded that bastion of privilege.
JCT: I've read many good monetary histories though the best
is the http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/babyl00.htm
Actually, I've read so many that I judge their merits on how
many high-lighted new pieces of info I can add to the mosaic
of the picture I've discerned.
TG: The book attempts to do two things, first, to describe
the dimensions of the "money problem" by tracing its roots,
not only in economics and finance, but also in ethics,
religion, and politics; and second, to prescribe, in broad
outline at least, a solution. In the first instance it is
mostly successful, in the second, in my view, it falls far
short.
JCT: It's world-wide slavery with exponential debt as the
yoke of oppression. What's hard?
TG: The title promises to tell us about "the lost science of
money," but there is little in it that, in my opinion, would
qualify as scientific. The author's subtitle, "The Mythology
of Money - The Story of Power," would have been far more
appropriate as a title. While I can appreciate the author
for the major contribution he has made to our understanding
of the evolution of money, banking, and centralized power, I
must also offer my opinion that the conclusions he draws and
his proposed reforms are less than helpful.
Zarlenga begins with the very earliest evidence in tracing
the origins of money, from which he tries to discern the
meanings of money in very early cultures. That is
interesting, but not particularly pertinent to today's
problems. Much more important is the period from 1600
onward, the coverage of which he begins with Chapter 9 and
continues through Chapter 23. It is not until the very last
chapter that we see anything of proposed solutions. That is
just as well, for his reform proposals are ill considered
and anything but original, directing us into another blind
alley of centralized control.
JCT: Har har har har. 22 chapters on the problem, and 1 on
the solution. As it should be. Did he pick the one easy
solution of cutting the positive feedback loop?
TG: In a mere 28 pages, he manages to dismiss every other
approach to a solution which he has ever heard of, then
propose that the money monopoly be reestablished under new
management, and to chide the reader to adjust his attitude,
saying, "No doubt some readers will wince at the thought of
instituting the monetary power in our government. The reason
is that for over two centuries, a poisoning of our attitude
toward government has been underway. The stealthy promotion
of this self-destructive childishness must stop." (Emphasis
is the author's).
JCT: Sure, usury causes death in the death-gamble and he's
saying that if anyone should reap the financial gain from
all those put to death, it should be the government and not
private enterprise. It's a pretty good case for a second-
best solution compared to the ideal solution of not having
any death from the death-gamble in the first place.
TG: He gives short shrift to the whole alternative exchange
movement - mutual credit clearing associations, LETS, and
community currencies, and, does not even mention the
commercial "barter" industry, thus revealing that he has not
yet educated himself about the essential nature of the
exchange process, contemporary methods, and the
possibilities offered by voluntary, popular, and private
approaches.
JCT: But he could not tackle the UNILETS world-wide model
which I'm sure was studiously ignored. Let's not forget, how
can anyone who claims to be an expert in money and banking
not have heard of John the Banking Systems Engineer Turmel?
I've ruled the sci.econ Usenet newsgroup since I destroyed
Economics Professor Flaherty's critique of interest-free
banking and Bill Ryan's claims to an imperfect social credit
model. Anyone out there writing a book on banking who hasn't
studied the only advanced engineering analysis and
blueprints of the system under discussion is a fraud or an
idiot. A moron or a mole, always, when caught fighting in
opposition to righteousness.
http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/bankmath.htm
http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/biglie.htm
TG: His critique of the "free money" movement covers less
than a single page. If Zarlenga has any knowledge at all of
the free money and free banking theories, it is not
apparent, or maybe this is a case of selective perception.
One wishes that he had studied the free money literature as
diligently as he had studied the historical literature. But,
he may be forgiven that considering the general obscurity of
its main proponents and the lack of availability of the
writings of its best thinkers. It would have been better had
the author not mentioned it at all.
Likewise, his critique of the local currency movement is
similarly uninformed. Again, in less than a page he
dismisses it as worse than irrelevant, seeing it as a
distraction from the "real" work of reform (the centralist,
government-oriented approach). In his mind, all local
currencies are equivalent to LETS, and all lack vigor and
permanence. Never mind the fact that millions of people
around the globe are today taking the initiative to create
community-based approaches to financial and economic
liberation. To be sure, there have been many failures and
false starts, as there are in any newly developing
technological field, but to suggest that approach cannot
mature into something powerful and effective is sheer folly.
JCT: It's easy to dis the local models created with
saboteurs installing structural weaknesses and that's the
beauty of the world-wide UNILETS. An interest-free time-
trading software at the UN suffers none of the failings of
incomplete-shopping-database systems. When everyone can buy
everything with the same tokens, all the flaws just melt
away. Of course, only those of us with the global vision
acknowledge what I've seen for the past quarter century.
World-wide poker chip system based on person-time. What's
hard?
Of course,they can't dis how provincial and private
currencies have stabilized Argentina. They can't dis those
electronic models expanding in Japan. The critics of the
local currencies can only criticize the small dinky toys.
Never do they allege problems with a world-wide model.
TG: Zarlenga's third "straw man" is "the all money is debt
faction."
JCT: And I've pointed out that if we're both in debt to Bell
and I ask them to let me take on $200 more negative so you
can have $200 more positive, I've just done a transaction
with debt. Just like at Casino Turmel. Trades done between
people who bought in with cash, asset money, work no
differently than trades done between people who bought in
with markers, IOUs, debt money. Those who blame the money
for being debt and not the interest are leading the sheople
astray.
TG: This is a vague entity which takes two pages to dismiss.
In these pages, the author shows that he has not come to
understand that credit money need not be the offspring of
banking privilege; that interest-free credit money can be
created apart from any banking cartel, and that the entire
process can be democratized.
JCT: Sure does sound like a piece of trash.
TG: Having described so carefully the corrupting effects
that result from centralizing the money power, it is curious
that the author asks us to accept it when under the control
of politicians and bureaucrats.
JCT: Eliminating the usury that causes death in economic
activity is the vast solution, letting government profit
from the debt rather than private groups is the half-vast
solution. From a half-vast failure in banking systems
engineering. Imagine, writing a book without even finding
out that there were blueprints everyone could look at to see
when he makes his mistakes.
TG: Does he not see that the political and financial elites
are in cahoots, and indeed are the same people. Did
nationalization of the Bank of England solve the money
problem in the UK? Does he not see the utter futility of
getting his program implemented through the political
process, the very same process that has been used to
construct the system to be as it is? He himself points out
that "....grasping for privilege while rejecting
responsibility has become a hallmark of modern capitalism in
America." Central government is the dispenser of privilege.
The details of the Zarlenga plan consist of three main
points on which he insists there should be "no compromise:"
JCT: So whereas The Engineer recommends one repair to the
malfunction, Zarlenga without any blueprints, says we need
three. Har har har har.
TG: 1. Nationalize the Federal Reserve.
JCT: Nationalize the profits from permitting death-gamble.
2. End fractional reserve banking and institute the "100%
Reserve Solution" (ala Frederick Soddy), which he insists is
not the same as merely requiring 100% reserves.
JCT: Whereas UNILETS has an infinite supply of tokens just
waiting to be issued in exchange for collateral, these 100%
donkeys want to limit the number of tokens issuable by the
cage to the number of tokens saved over in the safety
deposit section. I've often laughed at Jon Chance for
continuing his 100% reserve savings before you can issue new
receipts for collateral the ultimate indicator of financial
stupidity. We find it displayed here.
3. Institute anti-deflation programs.
JCT: An 1 hour is always worth 60 minutes. Turmel's Miracle
Equation for Unemployment and Inflation I/(P+I) says that to
make inflation zero, you only have to make I=0%. No positive
feedback on the chips. I guess our expert in banking systems
engineering hasn't even mastered the grade-level algebraic
explanation of the instability yet!
TG: Zarlenga captures the essence of the underlying ailment
of modern society when he says, "When society loses control
over its money system it loses whatever control it might
have had over its destiny" (p. 656). His error lies in
believing that "society" is synonymous with "government." He
rightly seeks to "end the monetary privileges that the
financial classes have grabbed," and to achieve the goal of
a nation "in control of its own money system," (p. 663) but,
again, fails to make a distinction between "nation" and
"government." His approach is both reformist and centralist.
JCT: And the nation being in control of its own death-gamble
system is no better than the private banks being in control
of the death-gamble system. I don't wonder if it wouldn't be
scarier to have the government dependent on foreclosing on
people rather than the banks. When government does the debt
enslaving, there's no one to turn to. When the banks do,
there's always the spectre of justice from government's
courts. Joke, joke.
TG: He admits that he does not have a "complete and detailed
blueprint of the ideal monetary system,"
JCT: And the one accurate blueprint is online and this
researcher didn't find it. Har har har.
TG: but suggests that reform can be successful so long as it
is "consistent with the nature of money, and considerations
of justice play the major role" (p. 663), but such
generalities that are hardly arguable. One must agree, too,
with his cautions that reformers (1) avoid deflation, and
(2) "place time on the side of justice instead of against
it, as at present."
JCT: What a bunch of bilge on a mechanical engineering
system.
Zarlenga has adopted Aristotle's view, which he quotes:
"...Money exists not by nature but by law."
JCT: Money exists by collateral backing up the receipt.
TG: This is in direct opposition to the view of E. C.
Riegel, who has said that most monetary reformers "accept
the false premise that government must issue, control and
manage money and prices. Thus their efforts are innocently
devoted to various schemes to improve upon perversion.
Government should not issue or control money; and it is not
the function of money to control prices. Money is a neutral
agent whose sole function is facilitating exchange, and not
influencing prices in any way." (Private Enterprise Money,
Ch 1 p. 3 html version)
JCT: Again, they're arguing over who's doing the driver, not
what's fixing the machine.
TG: Riegel says further, "There has never been and can never
be an issue of money except by a buyer in the act of
purchase,"
JCT: When my casino cashier receives value and issues the
currency, he's not buying the product, only holding it in
trust as back-up for the liquidity. Since we do not purchase
the asset pledged, there's no need to call it a purchase.
Just a pledge.
TG: and goes on the clarify the meaning of "issue," saying
that "No actual issue can take place until there has been an
exchange for value. In other words, issue is not effected
until accepted by the seller who surrenders value therefor."
(Private Enterprise Money, Ch 2 p. 1 html version)
JCT: Pretty obvious if you've banked the local poker game.
TG: Well, no one volume can hope to be competent in
addressing all aspects of a problem, so we should appreciate
this book for what it is rather than condemn it for what it
isn't. Despite it's shortcomings, this is an important book.
JCT: Excuse me but it sounds like a piece of tripe. Not only
has his diagnosis missed the prime instability, usury on
financial no-babies debt, but his triple treatment is all
wrong too. Frankly, I'd think it could only serve to
confuse.
TG: In sum, it is an admirable contribution to our
understanding of power dynamics in today's world, and the
singular importance of the democratization of the monetary
power to enabling lives of dignity, freedom, and fulfillment
for all.
JCT: Sounds like the Banking Systems Engineering Professor
would have to grade it a double F for failure. Zarlenga's
book bites the trash bin of history upon only cursory
examination. Buy it just to add it to your "guys going down
wrong in history" section. Opining on the life-saving or
death-mortgaging engineering of the world banking system has
life-and-death consequences. If Zarlenga's book influenced
people away from LETS and UNILETS, the extra souls hurt will
be his responsibility.
People shouldn't demean the importance of abolishing the
death-gamble that's afflicted and enslaved humanity for the
past many millennia. It's going to be quite an achievement
for humanity to pop into a Heaven from a Hell no one even
thought we could escape.
No, other than getting Zarlenga's book to better understand
the blueprint by referring to Zarlenga's flaws, I'd have to
advise no one to buy from a doctor who gets his diagnosis
and his prescription wrong.
-- Abolitionist Slave Leader John C."The Banking Systems Engineer" Turmel for UNILETS interest-free time-based currency in U.N. resolution C6 to Governments in the http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration.htm http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel 519-753-0645 USENET: can.politics
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