Government and Politics framework included in the CED outlines distinct skills, called disciplinary practices, that students should practice throughout the year—practices that will help them learn to think and act like political scientists. Analyze and interpret quantitative data represented in tables, charts, graphs, maps, and infographics. Higher education professionals play a key role developing AP courses and exams, setting credit and placement policies, and scoring student work.
The AP Higher Education site features information on recruitment and admission, advising and placement, and more.
This chart shows recommended scores for granting credit, and how much credit should be awarded, for each AP course.
Your students can look up credit and placement policies for colleges and universities on the AP Credit Policy Search. Government and Politics. AP Central. A clear path out of the nightmare. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States and in many cases the victim has no knowledge of the theft until the situation is dire.
Author Mari J. I appreciated this book for its breadth and cynicism. Many books on American government present it as though it works as it appears on paper and confine themselves to the Constitution. Author 3 books 5 followers. So boring and dull, lol It's thorough and informative, but surely there is something better out there for this topic!! William Rabjohn. A helpful book for understanding how our government is structured and its political parties.
Sasha bahareads. The information was given in a nice way. I learned a lot and I quite enjoyed reading this. Responsiveness Consensus Oriented Equity and Inclusiveness Effectiveness and Efficiency Accountability Importance of Studying Governance - Governance, the people, most especially the citizens, will be aware of the need for good governance.
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Now customize the name of a clipboard to store your clips. Visibility Others can see my Clipboard. Banking and Monetary Reform Explanation and Details In a battle of knowledge between the lawyer-politicians and the public, the people fight unarmed. An elite group dominates through legal finesse. It holds the high ground, establishing rule with nothing more than technical words written on paper and a few simple principles adopted from Lex Mercatoria, nowhere officially recorded.
The easiest way out of this mess requires new monetary and fiscal policies. Both systems desperately need renovation. Monetary policy controls money creation. Most of these rules have changed little since when they were first implemented. The proposed bill, the National Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act, increases the efficiency of the monetary system and immediately eliminates part of the national debt. Both methods wipe debt off the books; both are painful processes.
By changing the rules it offers an engineered solution to the problem rather than insisting on additional sacrifice from those who have little more to contribute.
Words often have legal definitions that differ from popular or colloquial usage. A price of ten dollars is semantically equivalent to a price of ten gallons.
Gallons of what? Practical applications demand an additional clarification. Individuals usually supply the answer through ignorance in the form of assumed knowledge. Their stock seems unlimited. Words build sentences. Sentences frame ideas.
Ideas lawfully expressed in statutes become law. Changing definitions of words after the fact corrupts the law. The lawyer-politicians make effective use of this tactic with one exception—their attacks on the U. In order for it to have reasonable construction the words in the Constitution must be taken at their obvious historical meaning.
Ogden, 22 U. Furthermore, all definitions must conform to those used in the Constitution. Section 2 of Part I lists some obvious items as likely findings of Congress. The purpose of this section is to state the relevant facts about the issue addressed and explain why a new law is needed. New laws should not be passed without serious justification because their current total volume exceeds the ability of any human to know, let alone comply with all of them.
Section 3 of Part I acknowledges congressional control of the United States monetary system. In Section 4 of Part I Congress exercises its monetary power, directing the United States Treasury to produce three new kinds of currency: treasury credit-notes, standard silver coin, and standard gold coin.
All printing of previously authorized paper currency is now prohibited. Natural circulation and the resultant wear and tear will eventually eliminate the old paper currency, predominantly Federal Reserve Notes, except those items held as collectibles.
Existing gold and silver certificates will not be redeemed in specie but are still usable under their current legal tender status. The bill authorizes but does not mandate production of new silver certificates and new gold certificates that are redeemable.
It also provides general specifications and limitations for their production along with remedies for failure to meet those limitations. Congress further directs the Secretary of the Treasury to begin maximum production of standard United States gold and silver coin according to the general instructions provided. A standard design unchanged for thirty years and the marking of all coins produced within a decade with the same date works to limit an excessive exchange value for the coins as collectibles and to promote their circulation.
Macomber, U. Anyone may bring gold or silver bullion to these mints to be coined. A charge, called seigniorage, keeps them self-supporting. It raises the exchange value of the standard coin to a point above the exchange value of its bullion content, another way of protecting its circulation. In addition, seigniorage makes feasible the operation of private mints in competition with government mints, assuring the efficiency of both.
The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to promote and regulate such operations. Notice that unlimited coinage at the national mints of privately owned bullion has the effect of monetizing not just U. By honestly following this simple plan the United States will become the monetary capital of the world, its currency immediately acceptable at the published exchange-ratios anywhere on the planet. And this is accomplished at no cost to the government. The benefits of a moral monetary system extend beyond the borders of any nation.
Imagine what would have happened if the United Nations had adopted this plan and obtained its financial support from a small tax on the international trade of its members. Undoubtedly, the world today would be a far different place. Maintaining three types of currency in simultaneous circulation requires practical solutions to two problems: One is nomenclature; the other is regulation of their exchange-ratios.
Specific historical coins can be identified by date and description. To avoid the problems often encountered with fixed exchange-ratios, Congress directs the Secretary of the Treasury to determine and publish the exchange-ratios between the various currencies.
If parties to a mercantile transaction fail to specify a specific medium of exchange, such as standard silver dollars or eagles, the courts must assume they intended to use treasury credit-notes. Of course, as the issuing agent, the government must accept them in payment of all taxes and fees. Other provisions of this section give the new coinage a distinctive shape, useful for the visually impaired, and specify the method to compensate for abrasion.
NESARA also repeals all existing laws authorizing government seizure of precious metals for monetary policy purposes or prohibiting the recovery and use of the bullion content of lawful coin. This enables artists to use either the coin itself or its metal content in their works. It also encourages public enforcement of the regulation of their exchange-ratio because the coins may be melted to recover the intrinsically valuable bullion without penalty. Section 5 of Part I identifies the Federal Reserve Act of as the Act amended by this bill, using its original provisions for the dissolution and recovery of assets of the Federal Reserve System.
The character of this new Board is established by specifying that twelve of its thirteen officers are ordinary citizens representing their districts, a design patterned after the jury system. To encourage only conservative actions, NESARA reduces the current wide range of sometimes confusing and often conflicting objectives imposed on the existing Federal Reserve System to the single objective of maintaining a long-term, stable exchange value for the new treasury credit-notes. Every action by the new Board of Governors requires an affirmative vote by nine of its thirteen officers.
Also, a special account within the United States Treasury Reserve System called the Treasury Reserve Account is established, to be administered at its sole discretion. It establishes a requisition and accounting method for the Treasury to track the production and distribution of treasury credit-notes. All financial instruments held by the twelve United States Treasury Reserve Banks shall be delivered to the Office of the Director of the Board of Governors of the Treasury Reserve System and exchanged for treasury credit-notes from the Treasury Reserve Account at an equivalent face value of one for one.
These treasury credit-notes may then be used for the ordinary operating expenses of the Treasury Reserve Banks. This will effectively eliminate or keep the necessary charges for their services very low for an extended period. It also provides one method of slowly releasing them into general circulation, preventing economic shock. Once these funds have been expended, the Treasury Reserve Banks must charge a sufficient amount for their services to remain self-supporting.
As the obligations of the United States are received in the Office of the Director of the Treasury Reserve System, they will be delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury. Appropriate action by the Secretary cancels them out of existence. Notice that all commercial instruments other than those of the United States, such as private commercial paper and the financial instruments of other nations, remain under the control of the Board of Governors of the Treasury Reserve System.
Except for an absolute prohibition against making dispersals from accounts that contain no funds, they continue normal operations. Their exact status is deliberately left as an open question. The Comptroller of the Currency may operate them under commercial contracts or the current staff might become government employees.
It is contemplated that, at some future time, their physical assets and ordinary banking functions might be sold back into the private sector. This option should be kept open. They obtain the standard gold and silver coin from the Treasury as it becomes available.
Individuals may exchange their paper currency for coin at the published ratios. They are paid in newly printed treasury credit-notes at the price previously fixed by law. Stock not redeemed in 90 days becomes worthless.
Ultimately, the Secretary of the Treasury cancels the U. The new law prohibits commercial banks from purchasing or holding the income-producing instruments of the United States, or those of other nations, effectively eliminating much of their influence on monetary policy. These actions amount to a direct reduction of the public debt, and at virtually no cost.
When this system is absorbed into the Treasury, it gets that money back, essentially paying itself for its own obligations with a small printing cost. The Secretary of the Treasury then cancels these government obligations, eliminating billions of dollars of public debt. By limiting commercial bank reserves to treasury credit-notes, which produce no direct income, the national economy remains largely unaffected. Most of the exchanged treasury credit-notes rest quietly in bank vaults as reserves, out of the stream of commerce.
Because they are not in public circulation, they do not bid the price of consumer goods higher. Similarly, the private debt of the American people can be reduced by astronomical amounts simply by requiring repayment of principal on secured loans before a bank begins to earn the monetization-fee and by prohibiting compounded monetization-fees.
These rules would only apply to financial institutions that make secured loans on a fractional reserve basis. Lowering the debt-service burden associated with secured loans allows an ordinary working family a modern lifestyle it can afford.
Banks are compensated for this midstream change in rules in several ways—by a monthly service charge not exceeding 25 dollars, retroactively and on future loans, and by origination fees and points on new loans. Discount points are limited to a maximum of 5 percent of the principal loan amount and reduced proportionally as the annualized rate of the monetization-fee increases.
This encourages low rates. Under these rules, and in the absence of fraud, bank failures and taxpayer bailouts become a thing of the past. It will be almost impossible to suffer loss on a secured domestic loan with the principal paid up front.
And, in contrast to the perpetual expansion of compounded interest charges, the new repayment equations always converge to zero under any repayment plan. Defaults occur only if the borrower fails to make the payments specified in the original contract or to arrange for new terms through renegotiation.
With all regular banking operations controlled from this office, the Board of Governors of the Treasury Reserve System can concentrate on monetary policy. Several restrictions are imposed by Congress on all financial institutions operating within the jurisdiction of the United States.
To avoid the appearance of impropriety they may not grant loans to themselves nor to their directors, major stockholders, officers or employees or to members of their immediate families. To reduce public confusion, and the opportunity for mismanagement of funds, separate accounts of record must be maintained for each type of currency.
Converting funds between any two of the three different types of accounts requires the written authorization of the owner. To avoid legal confusion with credit-note dollar accounts, all such accounts are general warrant deposits—fungible accounts allowing banks to return property like-for-like, and all demand credit-note dollar accounts are strictly custodial accounts.
Deposits to other types of credit-note dollar accounts, such as certificates of deposit, require the depositor to be informed about and acknowledge the account contractual status. This helps to avoid confusion with credit-note dollar accounts. All gold and silver accounts are custody accounts only, the ownership of these funds remaining vested in the depositor. These specie accounts earn no income because they can never be used as fractional reserves for credit expansion or as the basis for loans.
A financial institution may even impose service charges for their maintenance. Checkable accounts or travelers checks on gold or silver accounts are strictly prohibited, blocking another avenue for fraudulent activity. Individuals not wishing to participate in a fractional reserve money system have a clear alternative. If a financial institution fails, the owners of gold and silver accounts receive preferential treatment for recovery of their funds. Such accounts may also prove useful in international trade.
What about silver? True, the U. Treasury owns more silver than gold but it is worth much less. Coin all of it into silver dollars, nearly Merely hinting that the United States intended to sell all its gold and silver at market prices would drop their value into the cellar. Mining stocks would plummet. Gold and silver mines would close as their operation became unprofitable. It would be much cheaper to mine the U. Bank accounts in lawful money will be restrictive, earn no interest and may suffer the insult of maintenance charges.
It is most unlikely that specie will return to general circulation. Much of it remained in bank vaults even while the nation was on various metallic standards. Facing these difficulties, why bother with a complex system using three types of currency? With a cast of characters selected and the stage set, use your imagination and let the play begin.
Suppose that Congress instructs the Treasury to sell small-denomination, nontransferable interest-bearing gold and silver savings bonds to U.
These bonds are redeemable in 5 to 20 years, interest paid annually, calculated in specie but paid in treasury credit-notes at the current exchange-ratio.
Americans could exchange their paper currency for lawful money, deposit it in a specie bank account, then convert those funds to interest-bearing gold or silver savings bonds. Because they are nontransferable, the bonds never enter the stream of commerce and cannot replace the paper currency. Nor can they be used as bank reserves. At the least this move is sharply deflationary, and probably recessionary.
Suppose Congress decides to accomplish this by redistributing the proceeds from the bond sales as restricted bank reserves, setting the restricted reserve requirement at 10 percent.
State and local governments could borrow funds for infrastructure projects from local banks equal to 10 times the reserve amounts, provided taxpayers agree to new taxes to repay the loans.
Everybody wins. The federal government, using the bullion now collecting dust at the Treasury, redirects a significant portion of net national production toward rebuilding a crumbling America—new roads, bridges, and other public facilities including water supply and waste disposal plants. Bankers earn a fee for handling the transaction. Voters get back into the loop. Proposed projects die without local approval.
If this strategy seems vaguely familiar, it should. Jay Cooke would recognize it as the flip side of his plan to finance the Civil War. In this instance the government leverages its gold and silver to generate billions of dollars for much-needed capital improvements. The financing technique employed is an adaptation of the Guernsey plan. It keeps local bankers and voters directly involved where it counts the most, their pocketbooks. Other versions of this general strategy may apply in international commerce.
A foreign nation—China, Russia, India, South Africa—having gold and needing technological assistance and investment capital for infrastructure projects might find both in an American corporate partner. Suppose that the foreign gold is delivered to the U.
With Congressional approval, those funds are converted to gold savings bonds, the proceeds being designated as restricted bank reserves for a loan to finance a specified project. Everybody wins again. The foreign partner gets an infrastructure project—a national communications system, power production or transmission facilities, a water or sewage treatment plant, heavy construction equipment, etc.
The bank earns its fee and, after loan repayment, the gold is returned with interest, or perhaps recycled into a new project. When conventional solutions fail, consider creative alternates. Fair deals work for everybody. Foreign aid projects that benefit the American taxpayer while helping others make good sense.
Section 8 of Part I imposes a progressive excise tax on the monetization-fee or interest income of all financial institutions or persons who make commercial loans of currency for profit. These provisions raise revenue for the government but also, and perhaps more important, discourage excessive debt-service burdens.
This tax is especially appropriate for those financial institutions that use a government-issued license to operate a fractional reserve system. This index, initially set at , tracks the exchange value of treasury credit-notes. These provisions eliminate the conflicting goals of monetary policy.
The Board of Governors administers monetary policy through four major regulation tools: 1 by setting the percentage of reserves required of commercial banks; 2 by setting the national discount interest rate, the rate at which commercial banks may borrow funds from their district Treasury Reserve Banks; 3 by purchasing income-producing United States Treasury obligations in the open market; and 4 by impounding and extinguishing funds within the Treasury Reserve Account or by transferring funds from the Treasury Reserve Account to the United States Treasury.
A 5 percent reserve requirement sets it at 20, the reciprocal of the reserve percentage expressed as a decimal number 1 divided by 0. Most of the trouble occurs during periods of monetary contraction, the Great Depression being a notable example.
Local bankers do not repossess the family farm out of malice. Heaven forbid they should ride a tractor for a living! They are compelled to act by banking rules they never wrote.
Few people protest a large multiplier factor during monetary expansion, with the economy booming and money flowing freely. But on the downside, good hardworking people get hurt. Unable to pay off their loans, they go broke, slowing down the economy and making a bad situation worse. Engineers call this system nonlinear and describe it as operating with a negative stability factor. People ruined by it call the system an atrocity.
A more charitable attitude blames inadequate design. One set of uniform rules applied despite condition or consequence explains a large part of the problem. To improve the character of fractional reserve systems, change the rules. Banks that temporarily fall below their reserve requirements, particularly when the cause is a sudden shift in national monetary policy, are not necessarily insolvent.
A bank is declared insolvent only when its reserves fall below 50 percent. To improve its reserve ratio a bank may borrow funds from its district Treasury Reserve Bank at the national discount interest rate set by the Board of Governors.
Each district Treasury Reserve Bank may obtain these funds from the Treasury Reserve Account, paying that account one-half of the interest income earned as a fee for their use.
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