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The following is a transcript on a an interview with Richard C. Cook conducted by Ahmed Danyal Arif, Editor of the Economics Section for
The Review of ReligionsADA: Mr. Cook, first of all thank you so much for giving us a little of your precious time. We are very grateful for this. I have to be honest I don't know where to start as you have had such a long career in the US Government where you have essentially served (please correct me if I am wrong) as a policy analyst in the 70s and 80s. You then worked for NASA and ended your career in 2007 as a Project Manager in the US Treasury Department. You are now retired and writing with a particular focus on monetary reform. What led you to write about this?RCC: I began to study monetary reform in 1979-1980 when I worked for the
Carter White House in the office of consumer affairs. I had discovered the ideas of British engineer C.H. Douglas who explained the chronic gap in developed economies between GDP and national income, which meant that
society never had enough money to purchase what their economies were able to produce. Some very notable people like Winston Churchill and Henry Ford were also aware of this.
The system of Keynesian economics was developed to address the problem through government borrowing. But all this accomplished was to 'kick the can down the road' by creating debt that eventually had to be paid off, usually through war or hyperinflation.
A decade later I found myself working for the
US Treasury Department, when I was able to carry out an
in-depth study of the history of the US monetary system. I learned that the banking system existed to fill the GDP-income gap but that the debt it created in doing so led to
massive profits to the banks but ruin for the nation at large. I also learned that the only successful alternative had been the spending of Greenbacks by the government during the Civil War. I then came into contact with Stephen Zarlenga who had founded the American Monetary Institute and was studying the same problems. Together we wrote the
American Monetary Act which became Congressman Dennis Kucinich's NEED Act introduced in Congress in 2011 but not yet passed. This would create a modern version of Greenback money. So one thing led to another, and I am still writing about these things. My latest is my
new book,
Our Country, Then and Now to be published soon by Clarity Press.
Comment: While this may be unrelated, Russia's Deputy Defence minister, allegedly a friend of Shoigu's, was in court recently on corruption charges.
More from Reuters Shoigu's replacement: Also, a quote from him on Russia's proxy war against the West: