Forum Post: The NEED Act, to Create Millions of Jobs, and Rebuild America, Debt-Free

Washington, Sep 21 -

International Monetary Experts Meet in Chicago To Discuss Kucinich Legislation, HR 2990, The NEED Act, to Create Millions of Jobs, and Rebuild America, Debt-Free

Today a panel of international monetary policy experts gather in Chicago at an event sponsored by the American Monetary Institute (AMI) to discuss major changes in U.S. monetary policy proposed by United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich. The meeting is occurring on the one year anniversary of the introduction of H.R. 2990, the National Emergency Employment Defense (“N.E.E.D.”) Act, at the University Center at 525 South State Street in downtown Chicago.

Conferees at the AMI conference in Chicago are hearing from monetary theorists, economists, advocates and professors as they discuss the moral approach at the heart of successful monetary reform.

With its introduction one year ago by Congressman Kucinich the NEED Act’s paradigm-shifting legislation has broken new ground, formally advancing a simple but powerful idea: that the creation of wealth should be in the hands of the people, and used not for the benefit of financial speculators.

In the last year, the NEED Act has received endorsements from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (Chicago area Local 126) Executive Board, the Chicago’s Teacher’s Union and the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee.

The bill has been favorably modeled by experts. Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, conducted an economic analysis of the bill, showing how H.R. 2990 pays off the national debt in full as it comes due, eliminates government borrowing without tax hikes or spending cuts, and can pull the economy out of recession without inflation.

Professor Yamaguchi’s analysis showed that present policies cannot work. Attempts to reduce deficits by either spending cuts or tax hikes plunges the economy into deeper recession, reduces revenues, and ends up increasing deficits. An International Monetary Fund Modeler also studied the NEED Act. He concluded that direct governmental control of the money supply could significantly reduce business cycles, and would eliminate bank runs, lead to large reductions in the levels of both government and private debt, and generate large steady state output gains due to the removal or reduction of interest rate risk spreads, taxes, and bank costs, and zero steady state inflation.

“The NEED Act is so named because America has a jobs emergency and a monetary policy emergency. Congress has not stood up and reasserted its Constitutional control over the monetary system. Instead, our nation’s ability to create money was farmed out to the Federal Reserve in 1913. The ‘Fed’ is an institution which operates with virtually no oversight from Congress. Its primary function has been to assist private financial institutions, many of which are multinational,” said Kucinich.

“The NEED Act places the Federal Reserve under the authority of the Treasury. It creates verifiable transparency in our nation’s monetary policy choices. It will put our nation’s resources to work for the American people. The NEED Act would put 7 million Americans back to work rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure without debt or inflation,” Kucinich concluded.

Learn more about the NEED Act at www.Kucinich.House.gov/TheNEEDAct