Joseph Huber is the key monetary reformer of Germany. He is Chairman of the Economic Sociology Department at Martin Luther University at Halle an der Saale in Germany. Becoming tenured in 1991, he previously worked as policy advisor to various governments. In the 90s he developed what's known as the "Plain Money" approach to monetary reform, and (working with James Robertson of the UK) seigniorage reform from 1999. His talk discusses various remedies proposed after the 2007-09 crisis and how they miss the crucial  point - the monetary "cause of causes" which is fractional reserve banking. His talk then focuses on overcoming fractional reserve banking and thereby putting an end to the bank's ability to create additional means of payment, thereby strongly fuelling whats known as asset price inflation, causing for example, the real estate bubble which created ridiculous prices for real estate; and continuing stock market bubbles.

  Prof. Tideman received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (where he studied under Milton Friedman and others); taught at Harvard and served as Senior Staff Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors before moving to Virginia Tech in 1973. He has been Professor of Economics there since 1985.  While his research has focused primarily on urban economics, public finance, voting rules and social justice, in 1975 he collaborated with Nobel Laureate James Buchanan in writing on “Gold, Money and the Law.” His topic is Dealing with Concern for the Possible Collapse of the Dollar.

William Bergman, economist and formerly an official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, until he became a whistleblower on improper Federal Reserve practices. This year he will review the basic forms of market failures, outline the perspective of the public choice school of economics on market failure and the role of government, and then discuss two examples of government as a borrower and lender of money in that light.

Bob is a senior advisor to the American Montary Institute, and a recipient of the AMI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Economies require growth to provide prosperity. Yet economies are already larger than earth’s commonwealth of life can support, and more growth seems mainly to enrich the very rich.

Those with plenty are urged to acquire still more, and those in debt, to borrow more, while many of the working poor are unable to improve their condition. Why is there an inadequate response to evidence that we are destroying our species’ ecological foundations? How our debt-based monetary system is at the root of these problems, and how the Quakers in Philadelphia intend to respond.

Ed Dreby; former Quaker school teacher and administrator; 15 years educating through the Society of Friends for a just and ecological sustainability; member of the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group, 1997 to 2002; Coordinator of the PA Council of Churches’ Climate Campaign 1999 to 2002. Since 2003, he has led a project on Friends Testimonies and Economics; has written several Quaker Eco-Bulletins on the money system; and published “Seeds of Violence, Seeds of Hope,” a three-volume resource.

A movement for monetary reform is in full swing. It consists of diverse strategies, tactics, actors and organizations - some of which complement while others compete with each other. What is our place in that movement? How to maximize our energies? Collaborate where possible? Go it alone when needed? And how do we best connect our effort to democratize the US monetary system with other movements to democratize other elements of our economy and society?
  Greg is Director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). He is on the National Steering Committee of the Move to Amend / Campaign to Legalize Democracy Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) national collective.

In addition to assisting in AMI research and operations, in 2011 Jules Brouillet worked with the AMI Chicago Chapter, Moveon.org, and US Uncut, and other local groups to effect monetary reform.  He has written on financial market crises, penitentiary privatization, public health policy, and grassroots organizing.  Jules will speak on AMI’s 2010 and 2011 successes. How did they happen and how can we replicate them?

We at AMI have the economic know-how and the legal expertise to define money, account for the mishandling of the money power throughout history, counter Trojan Horse monetary reform proposals, and guide a real monetary reform bill into the Congress- we need only train our political muscle to make reform into reality!  How can a non-partisan movement force corrupt, partisan officials in Washington to approve real reforms? Why and how Fractional Reserve banking must be made  illegal, How every one of us can use our unique skills and strengths to grow monetary reform? How can we grow this into a real, national movement that cannot be ignored by a press whose primary responsibility is to preserve the status quo?  How can we activate millions of adult Americans with imaginations destroyed, childhoods prolonged, and communities splintered by our education system? 

Dr. Norman Ehrentreich, born in East Germany, served as a quantitative investment analyst in the fixed income departments of Investments houses; responsible for forecasting the interest rate decisions of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee.
Bad “public” governance structures and a misapplication of economic and financial theories by consultants fostered a gambling mentality among all parties at the bargaining table. Sound investment advice has been systematically ignored. He will talk about his experience with pension reform on the national as well on the state level and will describe how public pensions are trying to pick the advantages of two mutually exclusive pension systems while avoiding their disadvantages.

  Ed Chambers is a philosopher, political organizer, and author of "Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action and Justice", the advanced source book for achieving progressive goals. Dr. Chambers trained Barack Obama in street organizing when he moved from the Harvard Law Review to Chicago's South Side; and in the difference between what is, and what should be! Ed discusses principles of organization that can apply to monetary reform. The IAF, founded by the late Saul Alinsky, has an exceptionally strong record in getting movements started and into self financing positions of strength.

"Beginning with a short introduction to the European Central Bank and the Maastricht Treaty / Stability and Growth Pact, I will outline the European fractional reserve system. After addressing the current national debt crisis (Greece, etc.) in the EU, the potential for a monetary reform will be discussed."
Since 2010, Christoph Freydorf is research assistant and Ph.D. student at the Chair of Financial Sciences and Fiscal Sociology at the University of Erfurt, Germany. His research project focuses on mapping the interdependencies and trade-offs between several functions of monetary systems in order to outline the potential for and general limitations of regulation. Besides his personal research, he is giving seminars on the history of economic thought, heterodox economics and complementary currencies.