AMI CONFERENCE 2026

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT COLLAPSE

Monetary and Financial Reforms Are Crucial

September 25-27, Online

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About the Conference

This year’s 22nd American Monetary Institute Conference builds on last year’s conference. For example, Professor Yamaguchi, the world’s foremost systems dynamics modeler of monetary systems, continues to elaborate on his work as expressed in Public Money. He will answer questions posed in advance about his past work and his work as expressed in his book, Public Money. Professor Yamaguchi’s work in Japan serves as an important model for monetary thinkers elsewhere.

Richard Robbins, Steve Keen, Michael Hudson, Joseph Huber, and Oliver Heydorn will also build upon their previous works, including AMI presentations. Their work can inform us about how the present system is working and suggest new directions.

To create strategies for introducing new people and organizations to monetary reform as well as sharing ideas to build a better monetary system for our own countries, we have: Howard Switzer, Robert Ndubi, Loke Hagberg, Richard Cook, the International Movement for Monetary Reform’s CORE leadership team, and the Alliance For Just Money’s Research and Policy Committee members, all sharing their work.

14 Presentations

XX Sponsors

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Whether you are a policy expert, activist, student, or simply a concerned citizen, this is your chance to understand the system, challenge the status quo, and help chart a path toward an economy that truly serves people and planet. We kindly encourage a donation of $35 at the time of registration, which will contribute to supporting the financing of the conference.

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Speakers

Meet some of the world’s leading voices on economics, law, politics, and social justice to confront the roots of today’s financial and societal crises. 

Kaoru Yamaguchi

Professor of Economics

Richard Cook

Author & Former U.S. Treasury Analyst

Howard Switzer

Monetary Reform Advocate & Researcher

Brian Winters

Author & Democracy Reform Advocate

Sam Hummel

Research Lead, Money Justice Collaborative

Loke Hagberg

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Richard Robbins

Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY Plattsburgh

Oliver Heydorn

Director of the Clifford Hugh
Douglas Institute for the
Study and Promotion of Social Credit, Canada

Michael Hudson

Professor of Economics and Author

Steve Keen

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Robert Ndubi

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Richard DiMare

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Schedule

Coming soon...


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Friday, September 19

5:20 pm

Opening of the Conference

Steven Walsh

Dennis Kucinich

6:00 pm

The Birth of Public Money and Paradigm Shift in Economics as a Science

Kaoru Yamaguchi

Friday, September 26

5:30 pm

Welcome

Steven Walsh

5:55 pm

Monetary Reform for Beginners aboard Spaceship Earth 101

Nick Egnatz

6:55 pm

Break

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The American Monetary Institute is a U.S.-based research and educational organization dedicated to the study of monetary history, theory, and reform. Founded in 1996, AMI’s mission is to end the private debt-based money systems that commercial banks and financial institutions have created since the start of central banking, and particularly over the last 55 years (Money Market Mutual Funds started in 1970). We need a public sovereign monetary system that serves the public interest rather than private banking interests.

AMI publishes research, organizes conferences, and provides resources on how money is created and managed, highlighting the risks of our present debt-based monetary system. The institute advocates for monetary reform based on the principles outlined in works such as The Lost Science of Money by its founder, Stephen Zarlenga.

Through its annual Monetary Reform Conference and public outreach, AMI brings together economists, academics, policymakers, and activists to discuss practical steps toward establishing a stable, debt-free monetary system that fosters economic justice and sustainability.

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Bios and Abstracts

KaoruYamaguchi

Kaoru Yamaguchi

Professor of Economics
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Bio: Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi, PhD, is internationally known for his modeling of an alternative monetary order, the so-called Public Money. After his Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) he applied the System Dynamics method (developed by Prof. Jay Forrester) to various macro-economic theories, especially neoclassics and Keynesianism, and studied the dynamic behavior of these theories, especially their stability and vulnerability. Looking for better approaches he found out that Public Money (an approach developed by Prof. Irving Fisher as 100%-money in the 1930’s) is a more robust and sustainable basis for an economy. In addition, he has held leadership roles and received prestigious awards in his field of research.

Richard Cook

Author & Former U.S. Treasury Analyst
Coming soon...
On “The Origins of the NEED Act.”
About the talk: The NEED Act was the result of the intersection of the careers of four individuals: Stephen Zarlenga, founder of AMI and author of The Lost Science of Money; myself, Richard C. Cook, Treasury Department analyst and one-time government whistleblower; and Dennis and his wife Elizabeth Kucinich, Dennis of course being a former congressman and two-time presidential candidate. Richard will reminisce about the fateful interactions of these four reformers during the fateful years from 2002-2011 which resulted in placing on the books of Congress legislation that would restore Constitutional sovereignty over the money supply to the American people. Richard’s introduction to monetary reform began during his time with the consumer affairs office of the Jimmy Carter White House and his
discovery of the monetary ideas of early British pioneer C.H. Douglas which stood in stark contrast to the developing Keynesian dogmas during the Great Depression that have bankrupted governments around the world. After working for NASA, where he became a renowned whistleblower after the Challenger disaster, Richard spent 21 years
with the U.S. Treasury Department analyzing federal financial programs and teaching courses on U.S. financial history. About the time he began to favor abolishment of the Federal Reserve, he met and began to work with Stephen Zarlenga on development of the American Monetary Act which led to Dennis Kucinich’s NEED Act of 2011.

Bio: Richard C. Cook is a retired U.S. federal policy analyst who served across the U.S. Civil Service Commission, FDA, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. As a whistleblower at the time of the Challenger disaster, he exposed the flawed O-ring joints that destroyed the Space Shuttle, documented in his book Challenger Revealed. After 21 years at Treasury, he became a vocal critic of the private bank-controlled monetary system in We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform (2007). As an adviser to the late Stephen Zarlenga, founder of the American Monetary Institute, he co-authored the American Monetary Act, which Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced as the NEED Act of 2011—legislation to replace the Federal Reserve's debt-based system with a genuine national currency implemented through direct federal spending and a citizens' dividend. See also his book Our Country, Then and Now (Clarity Press, 2023).

Howard Switzer

Monetary Reform Advocate & Researcher
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Restorative Justice: Healing the Body Politic from the Ground Up
About the talk: This presentation offers a healing framework for a fractured republic, with monetary reform at its center. Drawing on restorative justice, citizen assemblies, and the emerging transpartisan movement, and the work of thinkers including Jem Bendell, Joe Cook, and Jon Spritzler, we explore how the NEED Act can restore sovereignty, repair harm, and rebuild the social fabric. Attendees will leave with a coherent vision for healing the body politic and practical steps for building a transpartisan movement to make monetary reform a political reality.

Bio: Howard Switzer is a writer and researcher on monetary sovereignty, democratic governance, and the structural erosion of American self-determination. He is a former co-chair of the Banking and Monetary Reform Committee (BMRC) of the Green Party, and ran for governor of TN twice and Congress once. He is a former President of The Alliance For Just Money, and a member of The American Monetary Institute, The International Movement for Monetary Reform (IMMR) and is a retired ecological architect.

Brian Winters

Author & Democracy Reform Advocate
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Jubilee 2026: A Practical Path to Sovereign Money
About the talk: A former legislator and political innovator, Brian presents a comprehensive monetary reform framework designed to move the United States from a debt-dependent financial system toward a stable system of publicly issued money. The path begins with a Jubilee—a cyclical time of reset—to address the otherwise-unpayable national debt. Rather than repudiating that debt, the Jubilee takes the form of an infusion of sovereign money. As debts are eliminated instead of rolled over, multiple mechanisms balance the money supply during the transition to a Chicago Plan–style system, public banking through the US Treasury, and a trickle-up economy with UBI. What makes Brian's strategy unique is the integration of economic, social, cultural, and political reforms into a unified vision. The monetary transition is just one portion of a 2,000-page legislative package for upgrading the United States, the POPULIST Act, which he asks voters nationwide to join him in collectively bargaining for during the 2026 midterms.

Bio: A student of American history, Brian has been exploring possibilities for systemwide reform for most of his life. In his twenties, he advocated for third parties as a way to take on the political system from the outside. It didn't work, so he spent most of his thirties serving in the state legislature (as a goldbug), trying to change the system from the inside. That turned out not to work, either, so he spent most of his forties designing a new framework for political action—one that would overlay the existing constitutional system.

Built on the principles of nonviolence and the organizing tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Brian presented his model of collaborative democracy in his 2024 novel, Looking Backward from the Tricentennial: A Timely Tale of Nonviolent Revolution (published under the pen name Dante J. Unitas so forthcoming nonfiction will not confuse the algorithm gods). He is seeking voters willing to collectively bargain for a better social contract through his campaign website, votewithbrian.com.

Sam Hummel

Research Lead, Money Justice Collaborative
Coming soon...
How Governments Turn Commercial Bank Debt into Money
About the talk: How can monetary reform proponents build political power in support of their reform proposals? Can integrating monetary reform into larger movements change the game? This talk will present initial insights from forty interviews conducted with leading monetary reformers, issue activists, and scholars. The interviews, conducted by members of the Money Justice Collaborative, explored opportunities to bridge the gap between monetary reform advocates and activists campaigning around issues such as climate, debt, human rights, and financial reform. The interviews uncovered ample opportunities for coalition-building, as well as key challenges that must be overcome for successful collaboration. A forthcoming report will provide recommendations for activists, academics, and funders. As we develop that report, we welcome reflections from AMI Conference attendees.

Bio: Sam researches monetary system transformations (past, present, and proposed) with a focus on social, ecological, and economic sustainability. Sam brings strategic lessons from past monetary reform victories into the service of progressive monetary reform today. In addition to leading research for the Money Justice Collaborative, Sam is a Master’s student at Duke University where he researches monetary system design. He is an active participant in the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Alliance for Just Money, the American Monetary Institute, Rethinking Economics International, and the Just Money Project. Previously, Sam helped build two associations that supported thousands of higher education institutions, governments, and corporations in implementing sustainability programs.

Loke Hagberg

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Richard Robbins

Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY Plattsburgh
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Bio: Richard Robbins is Distinguished Teaching Professor at the Department of Anthropology at SUNY, Plattsburgh. His books include Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (7th edition) with Rachel Dowty, (selected by Choice: Journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries as An Outstanding Academic Title of the Year), Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach (8th edition) co-authored with Rachel Dowty Beech, (which received the Text and Academic Authors Association textbook of the year award for the social sciences), Debt as Power, (runner-up for 2017 Sussex International Theory Prize) and An Anthropology of Money, both co-authored with Tim Di Muzio. He received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the American Anthropological Association/McGraw-Hill Teacher of the Year Award. Dr. Robbins joined the recently founded Advisory Board of the Alliance For Just Money.

Oliver Heydorn

Director of the Clifford Hugh Douglas Institute for the Study and Promotion of Social Credit, Canada
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Bio: M. Oliver Heydorn B.Sc. (biology), M.A. (philosophy), graduated summa cum laude with a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy at the Catholic Pontifical University of Santiago, Chile. His dissertation, undertaken under the directorship of Dr. Josef Seifert, was entitled: Insight and Existence: The Role of A Priori Knowledge in the Cogito according to Dietrich von Hildebrand. After having taught as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at three different universities in three different countries, he became the founder and director of the Clifford Hugh Douglas Institute for the Study and Promotion of Social Credit (www.socred.org). He is the author of four books on Douglas Social Credit theory: Social Credit Economics, The Economics of Social Credit and Catholic Social Teaching, Social Credit Philosophy, and Lives of our Own: Social Credit, Catholicism, and a Distributist Social Order and is the main architect behind the Douglas Social Credit animated series which is viewable on youtube.com (Douglas Social Credit).

Michael Hudson

Professor of Economics and Author
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Bio: Michael Hudson is one of the world’s leading financial analysts and is a critic of capitalism, especially in its present form of rampant greed economics. One of Hudson’s specialties is to analyze and explain how the world is dominated by the FIRE sector - Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. Besides being a present-day scholar, Professor Hudson is a leading authority on ancient economics of the Middle East, ancient Greece, and Rome. He has thoroughly documented the rise of private property, contract law, rentier class, and debt. In our fourth interview on ancient economics, we will cover the slow but steady downfall of debt forgiveness and jubilees starting in the Middle Bronze Age and work our way to more recent history while making connections to the present and other historical periods. Come for this fascinating discussion, and take a chance to ask your questions.

Steve Keen

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Robert Ndubi

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Richard DiMare

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Over time, whoever controls the money system, controls the nation.

Stephen Zarlenga

(1941 – 2017)

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