There is an interesting article today (March 11 '11) at Naked Capitalism about the Fed's QE2 program. The user comments are at least as interesting as the article (and generally easier for me to comprehend).

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com…..works.html

I particularly liked the reader comments here:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com…..ent-347912
and quoting Ellen Brown here:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com…..ent-347917

This latter link, to a post by reader Bev, mentions the public Bank of North Dakota in the context of debt-free money, and compares it to part of the article that suggests that QE2 has the effect of creating debt-free money (but I'm not at all confident of my understanding of the whole QE business – I feel like I'm following it while I'm reading it, but I couldn't begin to talk about it at this point).

If you have the time to look at it, if nothing else it may be mildly interesting.

I certainly agree about war. Our Defense establishment is a huge factor in our current economy, and in our relationship with the rest of the world. Another big factor is Wall Street, of course. And Wall Street and Defense are intimately related. One thing I hope to gain by helping to build a Common Good Economy is to keep my money out of those realms, so that it can work for good.

I understand war in a way that only someone who lived through a war can understand it. I joined the Army in January, 1968, and you can probably guess the rest of that story. My mom and dad are both veterans of WWII, and at age 88 and 86 respectively, they are both living in the house where I grew up. I believe it is the sensibilities of those who lived through WWII that still govern our defense posture. There is a temptation to be cynical and say that the only reason anyone opposes dismantling every nuclear weapon on the planet is that nukes are good for business. But I believe those to whom Brokaw refers as "The Greatest Generation" steadfastly believe those nukes (and 11 Carrier Strike Groups, etc.) are still keeping us safe. The problem seems intractable most of the time, except for occasional glimmers of hope. If my nextdoor neighbor were loudly and openly heavily armed, and patrolled the neighborhood, protesting constantly that his weapons were purely defensive, I would nevertheless worry that one of his cannons could go off in my direction without warning. At what point does our alleged defensive posture appear to others as a threat? And while many of us firmly believe that we should go to war only as a last, desperate resort, we had a President who acted on his belief that we should launch a pre-emptive strike — against what many of us were certain would turn out to be an empty threat. My opinion is that our current defense posture is vastly greater than it needs to be, with several profound consequences, one of which is that it's extremely expensive. And now we have a situation in which we need to begin to strategize on how to reduce our steadily (and rapidly) increasing national debt, but instead of talking about cutting our defense budget in half or more, all we hear about is a desire to deprive the lower economic strata of more wealth.

We're seeing what many of us believe is the steady march of the oligopolists, or plutarchists, to consolidate their power and control over the economy, over the political class, over the media. Here in Wisconsin we have a governor who says he wants to eliminate the budget deficit, but it is obvious to all who have eyes to see that his maneuvers don't make sense in the context of balancing the budget.  The only possible logic — unless he has the intelligence of a doorknob, which sort of negates the idea of logic — is that his motives are political, and he hopes to concentrate more power in the hands of established businesses. We citizens have not yet lost all our power, but it's not difficult to imagine that there are dark days ahead for economic democracy and social justice.

Not to put too much pressure on the Common Good Community, but the only solution I can see for now is to build an alternative system. Many of us have been doing that for many years, but we have had little choice but to mingle with the war-heads and the bosses. We have had Two Americas for a long time. Maybe we can organize the disenfranchised America around our Common Good Economy, with banks and socially responsible businesses and mutual funds, and communities big and small.

I suppose we're all dreamers. It would be so soul-satisfying to be able to entrust my real property, my physical assets, my retirement fund, to a financial institution I know I can trust to understand peace. Peace is not a quiet Sunday afternoon break from the workaday rat race. Peace is working and living one's life while being kind to each other and to the Earth. And we cannot find peace alone, for surely some unrepentent ruffian will intrude upon one's peaceful existence. We must seek peace for the whole world. We must work as hard as we can to achieve peace, thereby to avoid war, and to achieve economic and social justice. Peace does not come easily to those who are hungry or impoverished.The breadth of our vision must reach a global scale, because everybody's life affects everybody else's life. We have an opportunity to be an example for the world.  Like I said, not to put too much pressure on the CG Community.

I want to discuss the value of a dollar in relation to the value of an hour of one's life. How can we participate in civilization, while finding ways to avoid destroying the planet, while "making a living"? But that will be for another time.

Peace

Web of Debt provides an excellent tutorial on money, debt, and how the system of money and banking evolved in the United States.  The author's web site has extensive articles and discussions related to banking by the people and for the people.