Some communities are printing their own currency in the face of the Federal Reserve. One such town is Great Barrington New Hampshire and they are currently taking the lead with "Berkshare" bank notes. Locals especially love these notes because the big chain stores do not accept them and business is driven back to the local merchants. Although these notes cost a premium and still must be purchased with Dollars, merchants welcome them and offer discounts to customers who patronize local businesses. After having been in circulation for several years most of the internet chatter suggests that these notes are a great success. So why can't we in CT enjoy the same great success?
This novel Idea has got me remembering back in my collection of old bank notes. One in particular reminded me that New London Connecticut once printed its own money. With so much talk about inflation and the decline of the U.S. Dollar, now worth an astounding .04 Cents since 1913, I thought what a great insurance policy for CT and its citizens against inflation. Lets "get real" America has a catastrophic debt. Walker from the GAO (See my previous article) surely believes that unless our politicians control their voracious appetite for spending, our economy will suffer a "sudden fall." You can use your imagination on what exactly "sudden fall" is but my guess is; that it shares the same space in the dictionary with "Broke," "Bankrupt," and "Foreclosed." Personally I do not believe Connecticut should have to suffer for the financial mismanagement of our Federal leaders.
We could still use Dollars but I was thinking that we could trade perhaps one of ours for a dozen of theirs. This will work so long as we have every note backed by something tangible like hard assets, such as Real Estate, Land, and commodities. In either case I am no expert, but I do know that in order for this to work some money genius will have to make sure they can't be printed out of "thin air" like the U.S. Dollar.
As a strong proponent of States Rights it would be awesome to take the "Berkshares" idea to create "Nutmeg Notes." Since the U.S. dollar is backed, well. By absolutely nothing and America has become the largest debtor nation on earth it might be a great idea to have our own backup currency in case "sudden fall" includes the Dollar losing its purchasing power. As it stands foreigners hold more dollars than Americans and the global currency market decides the value of our money. Some have even hinted that China's sell trades alone could make our Dollar worthless. This is not a good or safe feeling to know that China has more power than the Federal Reserve over the value of our money. What would happen if we suddenly fell out of favor with China? And why do our leaders allow this?
Before the Federal Reserve Act existed CT had its own monetary system. The Union Bank of New-London printed money for Connecticut up to the ladder part of the 19th century. There is a colorful history of these state banks, their stock holders and much more. I will include the link to a very informative paper for anyone out there who is curious. This paper can be found at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/town_hist/nl-chap16.htm
Below is a picture of this currency, and if I think I know CT as well as I do I would be willing to see how many of these old banking laws are still on the books facilitating the creation of our own nutmeg notes.
I would love to hear any of your comments on the practicality and initial perception of this idea. Please leave me your comments on this “blog” space and I will check back from time to time to discuss some thoughts. This is an important thought to me and I also made it part of my campaign agenda because I believe it will protect CT from a global run on the Dollar of which is becoming increasingly popular due to the mortgage crisis and loan failures.
A group of retired teachers grilled outgoing Majority Leader Denise Merrill and Rep. John Geragosian, chairman of the legislature’s spending committee, Monday over the state’s decision to delay its payment to the Retired Teachers’ Health Insurance Fund.
