'Democratic Money' & the Tragedy of Anti-Marxism

[William S. Lear]

On Monday, November 15, 1999 at 12:49:43 (-0500) Doug Henwood writes:
>Max Sawicky wrote:
>
>>The populists had a clearer view of money
>>than most of their critics on this list.
>>They understood that an inelastic currency
>>and a private monopoly on credit
>>favored creditors over debtors, stasis
>>over economic growth, and concentration
>>over broad participation in enterprise.
>
>Well they got their elastic currency with the Federal Reserve Act of 
>1913. It didn't turn out quite the way they planned. So maybe, by 
>even the most pragmatic standards, the focus on the technical 
>arrangements of money is fairly meaningless if you don't address the 
>class relations and competitive economic system of which money is a 
>representation. ...

Well do give them some credit: weren't they a movement with deep roots
in the soil?  Credit to farmers is an acute need, so perhaps they were
a bit paranoid of getting choked off by tight money.

Bill