E. C. Riegel – Master of Monetary Truth
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. Besides the ReinventingMoney.com website, there are plans to launch a site called NewApproachToFreedom.info. While both of these sites will rely heavily upon Riegel, the former broadly covers the areas of free money and free banking, while the latter will be essentially a site for displaying the Riegel "jewels."
If you want to help financially, you can make a tax deductible donation to Community Information Resource Center, P.O. Box 42663, Tucson, AZ 85733.
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To review E. C. Riegel's writings, click on the following links below:
VALUN MUTUAL MONEY PLAN
by E. C. Riegel -
Introduction, Comment, and Critique by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. - June 9, 2003
A New Approach to Freedom
by E. C. Riegel -
Together with Essays on the Separation of Money and State
Flight from Inflation
by E. C. Riegel -
The Monetary Alternative
Private Enterprise Money
by E. C. Riegel -
A Non-Political Money System
The Politics of Money
In addressing the "money problem," I can do no better than the following essay. In it, E. C. Riegel is at his most eloquent, providing in a few short pages a concise review of the pertinent history, a lucid and persuasive argument as to the Constitutional scope of government's monetary role and power, a scathing indictment of legal perversion and usurpation, and an inspiring revelation as to the natural locus of the money power and how it can be applied to liberate us all.
The essay is reproduced below in its entirety, as it was written, except that I have added some bold emphasis, a few bits of punctuation, and occasional editorial comments. Here then, in a nutshell, is the problem, its context, and its solution. - Thomas H. Greco, Jr., May 9, 2004.
(New!) The Monetary Philosophy of E. C. Riegel
Based on a document entitled, “Author’s Note,” which Riegel presumably wrote as a preface to one of his books.
(New!) The Basic Law of Contracts
This article recently scanned in by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. - June 8, 2005