by Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 22, 2009
Dear Friends:
I am writing to ask for your financial support in producing a series of six videos on the financial crisis and on my proposed solutions based on the principles of Dividend Economics and the “Cook Plan.” The “Cook Plan” involves the immediate payment of vouchers to individuals and families as an emergency basic income guarantee. The vouchers would then be deposited in a new series of community savings banks to capitalize low-cost lending for consumers, students, small business, local manufacturing, and family farming. I will be speaking on the “Cook Plan” at the 8th Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network in New York this weekend.
As most of you know, I have been working on monetary reform since I served in the Jimmy Carter White House in 1979-81 on the staff of Esther Peterson, President Carter’s Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs. Later I worked for NASA, then spent 21 years in the U.S. Treasury Department in the field of public finance. I retired from the government in 2007. I was also an adviser to Dennis Kucinich in his two presidential campaigns and for the last two years have been publishing articles in print and on the internet on economics, monetary reform, space policy, and geopolitics. I also worked as an adviser to the American Monetary Institute and contributed to their draft monetary reform legislation, the American Monetary Act. In January 2007 I published Challenger Revealed on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Recently I published a new book entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.
This week we saw headlines that even a few weeks ago seemed impossible: the U.S. government is considering nationalization of the largest U.S. banks. It may be that the grip the banks have held on the U.S. monetary system, our economy, and our government is weakening after nearly a century of monetary tyranny since the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. If there was ever an opportunity for those of us in the monetary reform movement to be heard it is now. This opportunity may never come again.
Those of you who have followed my writing over the last two years know that I have been in the forefront of those who have been calling for change. I have been a leading proponent of such ideas of the right of the government to spend money directly into existence, as was done with the Civil War Greenbacks, instead of having to borrow money from the private banking system. I have also spoken in favor of a National Dividend based on the productive values of our economy and a basic income guarantee for all citizens. The idea of a National Dividend grows from the concepts of Dividend Economics that I have begun to pioneer as a completely new way of approaching economic democracy.
I am currently in the process of working with several other people on producing a six-part series of videos that would be around two hours in length where I would explain my ideas to the American people and others around the world. This would be a professional production that would appear initially on YouTube and Google and would also be available for TV broadcast and on DVD.
The cost of this project would be modest compared to the benefits of reaching a large audience in a short time. If you would be interested in making a cash contribution, I would be most grateful. Donations can be made through my website at http://www.richardccook.com. Just click on the “Donate” button at the top of the homepage. Those who donate will receive a PDF copy of the written script via email.
Whether you are able to donate or not, I thank you for your past support and wish you all the best for the future.
Sincerely,
Richard C. Cook
From the archives:
Bailout for the People: “The Cook Plan” by Richard C. Cook
Richard Cook: “It’s Time to Fix the Monetary System” by Mike Whitney
Open Letter to Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Challenge to Debate By Richard C. Cook
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