"Not money, but a false money system is the root of all evil."
This new concept is a challenge to the academic economist and a bid to the layman to enter into the practical mastery of a subject that has heretofore been enshrouded in mystery.
"To desire freedom is an instinct. To secure it requires intelligence.
It must be comprehended and self—asserted. To petition for it is to stultify
oneself, for a petitioner is a confessed subject and lacks the spirit of a
freeman. To rail and rant against tyranny is to manifest inferiority, for there
is no tyranny but ignorance; to be conscious of one's powers is to lose
consciousness of tyranny. Self government is not a remote aim. It is an
intimate and inescapable fact. To govern oneself is a natural imperative, and
all tyranny is the miscarriage of self government. The first requisite of
freedom is to accept responsibility for the lack of it."
E.C. Riegel
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E. C. Riegel — Relating to Freedom
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"In my humble opinion E.C. Riegel was the most lucid thinker on the topic of
monetary theory and its liberating aspects (and prospects) when understood correctly.
His breakthrough I liken unto Einstein's theory of relativity as it applies to
monetary and economic theory. Riegel demonstrated and articulated the
mathematical relativity of value as Einstein demonstrated the equivalency of
matter and energy. His approach to the nature of money, monetary (or
exchange) systems and freedom are unsurpassed in history, and if understood
properly is no less profound than Einstein's breakthrough. We can use and
apply Riegel's insights towards greater understanding of social and economic
human interaction with the prospects for a more equitable and less
oppressive means of appraising and reciprocating exchange value. Riegel's
thought kernel is the liberating notion that one should be able to monetize
one's own productive capacity in a framework where voluntary trade and the
convention of those who produce value concomitantly enjoy a commensurate
means and mechanism to ensure there is the absence of unjust enrichment by a
non—producing interloping third party. I have stated for years that I
believe if one has a thorough understanding of E.C. Riegel he or she has a distinct advantage over all others
regarding the nature of money and monetary theory (as it applies to
freedom)."
Gerald DeCosta
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E. C. Riegel — Master of Monetary Truth
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"Throughout my career as a monetary transformer, I have drawn heavily upon the profound and insightful writings of E. C. Riegel (b. 1878; d. 1954). As I wrote in one of my books, I've learned more about money from Riegel than from any other source. Riegel left a great legacy of writings and correspondence. That legacy would have been lost to us except for the fact that Spencer MacCallum happened to meet Riegel a year before his death, and recognized the greatness of his work and its importance to the future of civilization — to peace, freedom, and general prosperity.
Riegel wrote about all of those things because, as he showed so clearly, they are dependent upon the liberation of the exchange process from the dominance of political and banking interests, and he showed how private initiative and voluntary action could achieve it. Much of what he proposed and tried to implement in the 1930's and 40's has been reinvented in more recent times in the form of the mutual credit, LETS, and clearing circles that have been proliferating around the world. But there is yet something incomplete about these. Today's initiatives could benefit from the deeper understanding and structural proposals that Riegel shares with us in his works.
As I've said from time to time, "Why go prospecting in the desert when we've already found the mother lode?" This Riegel material is the mother lode of monetary truth. We are pleased to make it available.
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Money Power In You
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There is a treasure buried in your consciousness. If you will dig it up from
the debris of superstition and fear that covers it you will gain a freedom
and self—mastery that will lift your life to a higher plane. This is the
money power in you. The power to create money with which to purchase wealth,
health and happiness actually lies dormant within you. You have thought of
the money power as something remote from you and beyond your grasp. You have
dreamed of the good you could and would do if you had money power. You have
blamed others for not accomplishing this good. You have blamed them for evil
economic and political conditions; for unemployment, for poverty, for crime,
for war. It is quite logical to blame these maladies upon the malfunction of
the money power, but you have not suspected that the money power resides in
you and because of your failure to exert it the world is afflicted with
miseries. You have the power; you have the responsibility. The power and
responsibility to banish poverty, unemployment, insecurity, misery and war
rests entirely with you. You, in cooperation with other intelligent persons,
can drive economic and political evils further and further from the area of
your life and ultimately they may be driven from the face of the earth. You
can do this by the money power in you, expressed first in your own
prosperity and happiness, and radiating to others. You can do it and you
must do it. There is no power outside of you that can bring these blessings
to you. Petitioning the Government is like writing to Santa Claus. You need
no laws — there is a law, a natural law that governs your money power. You
need no government aid. You need only cooperation with and from persons who,
like you, have resolved to exert the money power inherent in us all. This
power in each of us needs only the recognition and respect of our fellows to
spring forth and exert its blessings. We need not petition Congress and we
need not waste time to denounce bankers, for they can neither help nor
hinder our natural right to extend credit to each other, and this is the
perfect basis for a money system.
It is E. C. Riegels admonition to all and a promo written by him for his own book — Private Enterprise Money.
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The Educational Money Movement
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To trade goods and services is a natural right of all people. To issue the money necessary to make these exchanges is also the natural right of all people who are intelligent enough to do so. We need not beg for money. We do not need to be money slaves: we can be money masters. When we have become money masters we shall master all our economic and political problems.
Dig up this treasure, your money power, that has been lying dormant in your consciousness and express it for wealth, health, peace and happiness by associating with others who are similarly awakened.
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