I respond to the Opinion of James Douglas published on Sept. 1 in the Rutland Herald : A responsible use of federal money. The $13 trillion dollars in debt is a misleading concept when money gets into circulation only as debt. Indicative of the scam that has been perpetrated on a public who has been taught and molded to think of money as a tangible item, money is only accounting.

All of our money is fiat, backed only by faith. We live under an accounting system that benefits the banks . This includes creating money through an accounting entry as both a liability and an asset, and not creating the interest that is expected. Therefore, we are perpetually caught in a game of musical money chairs.

Bolstered by a deliberate shift from Common Law to the Uniform Commercial Code, the banking industry at its most concentrated level has rewarded greed and harmed the natural ecosystem of our Earth. I will not get into the history of the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the corporate USA, the practices of corporate banking that have been hidden etc., instead I will merely describe what we must do before they take everything.

We must build a complete foundation that addresses the need to fund the way of life we want, and reduce the inequities that have developed over the past century as banking interests took over our future. I will describe 2 of the 4 corners of the foundation we need in this brief essay; I will begin by asking you this:

Where does money come from ? From the Banks of course. What happens when money used in Vermont comes from banks that are owned out-of state ? Our wealth is sent there in the form of interest and fees. What happens when the Banks are owned and operated by the people of Vermont ? The things that Vermonters want to see happen, will happen. Interest from the loans are returned to benefit everyone in Vermont. The interest rate is decided by people of Vermont. There is profit and it goes to Vermont.

What bank am I proposing? Not one, but two separate types of banks. A single Bank of Vermont and Common Good Banks for each community. The power of money is given directly to Vermonters through Common Good Banks in a more meaningful way than credit unions. Modeled after a successful Bank of North Dakota that has been in existence since 1919, the Bank of Vermont I propose is run by appointed, hired and elected people of this State.

North Dakota , with pop 600,000, is the ONLY state to have job and income growth through this recession. North Dakota has protected itself from the recession because it created its own "mini-federal reserve". We must create the same economic environment for Vermont. Simply, we should NOT be sending value to financiers who live glamorously elsewhere. We should not pressure major banks to lend to Vermont. The 4 billion Deb Markowitz describes in our treasury should be protected in our own State Bank, and we should make loans for the things we want to do here in Vermont; the interest returning for the benefit of our future.

We cannot move forward effectively to do the things we know we should do without concurrently reclaiming the monetary system so that it benefits the people. Today our daily efforts benefit pathologically greedy people who sit at the pinnacle of financial helms elsewhere as we repay loans to out-of-state owned banks, or act on bonds owned out-of-state. Let us focus on the methods we have at our disposal to make a system that benefits our people and our future.

Here in Vermont we care about the balance between Nature and human activity, good numbers of us take great joy, care and pride to honor nature in every way imaginable. This is the path of the future, where complexity is not always more interesting than simplicity.

I am running for Governor because I want to do these things before it is too late. I have not enough room here to describe very important supporting actions we must take to cope with the problems of minimum wage, entitlement, criminalization, and how to best care for our collective good health.