If we do not state, who is the owner of money, at the act of issue, it is impossible to distinguish between creditor and debtor.

When money was made of gold, there was no doubt: the bearer was the owner of the money.

Since the introduction of "nominal money", the bearer has become the debtor and the bank, the owner. In this way, the people have been expropriated and forced into debt to an amount equivalent to the quantity of money in circulation.

Manipulating a conditioned reflex, arising from the habit of always giving an equivalent, in order to get money, the central banks succeeded in making the national communities accept their money, at the act of issue, as the equivalent of a debt (i.e. in the form of loans). The greatest fraud, in the recent times, has happened and it has a sum total, which is double the quantity money in circulation around the world.

Only in the light of these preliminary considerations can we understand the real aim of the French Revolution and the great insight of Ezra Pound, "...thus all the usurers are liberals (even if liberals are not all usurers)".

Through the substitution of "nominal money" for gold money we have not only a change in the material structure of the symbol, but also a profound legal change. The people have been transformed from owners of money to debtors. The anguish of the inevitable insolvency which this causes can easily explode into a social crisis. This was the real cause of Vandea's revolution in France, and of all the other revolutionary movements, which have appeared in other countries, on the occasion of the introduction of constitutional systems of government and "nominal money". This is the reason why the noblest concept of "democracy", which means sovereignty of the people, has been, improperly, supplanted by "usurocracy", which is the hegemony of the "great usury", under which the people are, only, cows to be milked.

This great, cultural fraud, which has plagued nations, during the last three centuries, has been possible, because the heads of the banking system have understood that value is not a property of material, but an expectation or forecast, i.e. a dimension of time.

In this way, by making people accept the expectation and, hence, the custom of being able to purchase, with paper, instead of gold, monetary convention has moved from gold to paper, so that the value of gold could be created with paper.

These developments have occurred gradually. During the initial phase, the bill issued by the bank (i.e., the bank-note, according to Paterson's scheme for the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694) was, on request of the bearer, convertible into gold. During the later phase, the convertibility was abolished and the banks, thus, achieved the privilege of creating the value of gold, with negligible cost, i.e. "golden paper", which they appropriated for themselves, because they lent it, at the act of issue: as only an owner can

The heads of the central banks became, in this way, the owners of the world: the supreme puppet-masters of history. If money is the value of measure, and the measure of value, at the same time, the sums, of the monetary units of measure, express a quantity of value, which is equivalent to that of all real goods, measured, or measurable, in value and, thus, creates a mirror-like duplication of their value. This value can assume, either, the positive sign of an asset - in this case it doubles the wealth of the people - or the negative sign of a debt - and, in this case, it causes desperation and anguish because of the inevitability of insolvency.

Since the bank issues money, ONLY, IN THE FORM OF LOANS, national communities are doubly damaged: firstly, because they are dispossessed of their own money and secondly, because they incur a debt of an equivalent amount. In this way, the cost of money, at the act of issue, has become 200% to which we have to add additional bank charges and interest payments.

Usury is now so prevalent that it poses a serious threat not only to fundamental liberties but also to the very possibility of humanity's survival.

A necessary reform, which can no longer be postponed, is to substitute asset-money for debt-money. A new type of money must be established which has the positive quality of gold but not the negative one; and the positive quality of paper but not the negative one. The positive quality of gold concerns the fact that the bearer is the owner; the negative quality concerns the fact that it is extremely rare. The positive quality of paper is that it does not create problems of scarcity; the negative quality is that, historically, it has been issued as debt-money.

Therefore the problem can be solved only through the introduction of NOMINAL MONEY, WHOSE OWNERS ARE THE CITIZENS.

The thirst for justice, which moves the history of the nations, is based on such simple ideas, even if they appear profoundly new. The popular ownership of money has these characteristics. We hope that the legislature and the judiciary declare by means of statute or judicial ruling that money at the act of issue is the property of the citizens and not of the banks, finally overcoming a serious legislative deficiency which can no longer be tolerated.

The shepherds who move beside the deserts, fear the smell of water because they know that when their flocks are thirsty they can smell it and so may break into an uncontrollable stampede, trampling down everything before them. We hope that the judiciary or the legislature, by wisely using the means of the constitutional state, can quench the thirst for justice through the peaceful revolution of "stamped paper". Otherwise, we may witness an uncontrollable stampede caused by the smell of water in the desert.

Prof. Giacinto Auriti
UNIVERSITĄ DI TERAMO
FACOLTĄ DI GIURISPRUDENZA