"Money has been privatized by stealth, the greatest privatization in history has gone unnoticed, it's time to take from the banks the power to produce money", Ben Dyson writes in his article published a few days ago by the Guardian. "You know, my son, it's really unbelievable how stupid one can be when his job depends on how stupid he can become", mama said to Forest Gump who browsed through the pages of the largest national daily newspaper - ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections - filled with invitations and promises in which desperate workers and farmers have invested all their hopes. "Well, mom", Forest replied, "if banks are evil, and if we're all angry and facing bankruptcy, then let's switch to alternative currency"!

"Novac je privatiziran prevarom, najveća privatizacija u povijesti je prošla neopaženo, vrijeme je da od banaka preuzmemo ovlast za proizvodnju novca", piše Ben Dyson u članku kojeg je neki dan objavio britanski Guardian. "Znaš, dragi sinček, zapravo je nevjerojatno koliko ljudi mogu biti glupi kad im upravo od toga koliko glupi mogu postati - ovisi radno mjesto", rekla je mama Forest Gumpu koji je listao stranice Večernjeg lista prepune poziva i obećanja povezanih sa skorim hrvatskim parlamentarnim izborima u koje su očajnici uložili sve svoje nade. "Ako je banka zla, i ako se svi ljute, prijeđimo onda na alternativne valute", veselo je Forest odgovorio mami.

Siamo semplicemente persone pigre che spendono e consumano oltre i limiti delle nostre capacità di acquisto e adesso affrontiamo il pagamento del conto per la propria negligenza, o c'è qualcos'altro che va oltre la percezione umana provocando la nostra intelligenza e la consapevolezza? C'è qualcuno là fuori che ancora non sa che il nostro sistema monetario globale è la principale causa di enorme stress sociale che oggi soffriamo? Per molti secoli fu assai divulgato l'uso dell'infinito debito impagabile. Nello stesso modo in cui i cittadini comuni devono prendere il terzo, quarto, quinto - e così via, mutuo - per pagare gli obblighi delle loro carte di credito; potenti banche internazionali hanno spinto i governi del mondo nella trappola della schiavitù del debito dalla quale non c'è scampo.

Novac je privatiziran krađom. Najveća privatizacija u povijesti je prošla nezapaženo. Vrijeme je da od banaka preuzmemo ovlast za proizvodnju novca.

Općenito je poznato da isprintati u tvojoj kući tvojih vlastitih 10 funti nije u skladu s politikom Njezinog Visočanstva. Pa ipak, uska grupa za to ovlaštenih kompanija, stvorila je i potrošila više novog novca nego što su krivotvoritelji ikad bili u mogućnosti tiskati. U industrijskom žargonu, ove tvrtke se nazivaju "monetarne i financijske institucije"; no prosječni ljudi ih vjerojatno puno bolje poznaju po njihovom nazivu iz uličnog žargona: "Banke". Novac kojeg one stvaraju, doslovce iz ničeg, nije papirnati novac koji na sebi nosi logo središnje banke - Bank of England. To je elektronički novac koji treperi na ekranu bankomata kad kroz njega provjeravate vaš saldo na bankovnom računu. Upravo u ovom trenutku, taj elektronički novac čini preko 97% svog novca u optjecaju u ekonomiji. Samo 3% sveukupnog novca je još uvijek u onom staromodnom obliku pravog keša koji se rukama može opipati.

In 2008, a multi-trillion bailout of European and US banks saved the global economy from a complete meltdown, but three years later, it appears that central banks did not learn the hard lessons that brought on the liquidity crisis. The only countries left in 2011 without a Central Bank owned by the Rothschild Family are Cuba, North Korea and Iran. Economist Jim Grant spoke in an interview on November 16th with Bloomberg News that the world's central banks are now at the point where they are insolvent, over leveraged, and in default. "The Italian yields did not fall on their own. It raises questions of overall integrity of market prices. In the US the Fed has nationalized the yield curve. In Europe much the same is going on: the SNB is expanding its balance sheet at astonishing rates of speed. The world over there is seeing immense money printing and there is a huge race to debase on the behalf of the sponsors of paper money. The ECB has a ratio of non-AAA rated assets to equity of 14 to 1. What the European Central Bank has been doing is stepping in where private money fears to tread. In the private sector we call that heading for trouble... The New York Federal Reserve is leveraged 100 to one."

"Not even me, who is regarded as the biggest catastrophist in the Croatian Parliament, could have predicted such a financial catastrophe", said Damir Kajin during the last year debate of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on amending the budget. If Kajin and others had paid a little more attention to what Yoko Ono and John Lennon had over their bed in sixties, instead of focusing on what they had underneath it, today we would probably not be indebted as Greece and we would not be dancing on the edge of an abyss. "Make love, not debt"! Marko Perkovic Thompson would conquer the Balkans with his hit song today: "All we are saying, is let the banks fail"...

"Ovakvu financijsku katastrofu ni ja, koji slovim za najvećeg katastrofičara u Saboru, nisam mogao predvidjeti", izjavio je Damir Kajin prošle godine na raspravi o rebalansu proračuna Vlade Republike Hrvatske. Da su Kajin i ekipa malo više pažnje šezdesetih godina poklanjali onome što su Yoko Ono i John Lennon držali iznad kreveta, umjesto onome što su držali ispod kreveta, danas vjerojatno ne bi svi zaduženi ko Grčka plesali po rubu provalije. "Vodimo ljubav, a ne dug"! Marko Perković Thompson bi danas osvajao cijeli Balkan hitom "All we are saying je pustimo banke da propadnu"...

It's common knowledge that printing your own £10 notes at home is frowned upon by Her Majesty's police. Yet there's a small collection of companies that are authorised to create – and spend – more new money than the counterfeiters have ever been able to print. In industry jargon, these companies are called "monetary and financial institutions", but you probably know them by their street name: "banks". The money that they create, effectively out of nothing, isn't the paper money that bears the logo of the government-owned Bank of England. It's the electronic money that flashes up on the screen when you check your balance at an ATM. Right now, this electronic money makes up over 97% of all the money in the economy. Only 3% of money is still in that old-fashioned form of real cash that can be touched.

Crom Alternative Exchange Association
Viska 14, 52100 Pula, Croatia
association[at]cromalternativemoney.org

Udruga Crom Alternativna Razmjena
Viška 14, 52100 Pula, Hrvatska
association[at]cromalternativemoney.org

Associazione Crom Scambio Alternativo
Viska 14, 52100 Pola, Croazia
association[at]cromalternativemoney.org

Ever since the crash several years ago, Americans have felt precarious about the nation's economy and the value of its currency. Money seems to take inconceivable, abstract, and even magical forms, traveling around the world at lightning speed with little oversight and obvious mismanagement. We have little control over it -- the value of our currency is tied to conditions well beyond our control. It moves in directions that most of us are vehemently opposed to. We trusted that the banks, Congress, the Federal Reserve, corporations and Wall Street are managing money responsibly on our behalf, particularly retirement funds and mortgages, but lately that trust has been broken. In response, the concept of localcurrencies have drawn interest from Occupy and other economic resistance groups as an alternative to state-controlled money.