Money as <em>Res Publica</em>

Our current monetary system is a public-private banking hybrid dominated by private interest, often at the expense of public purpose. This article proposes a conception of money as a “common credit” res publica—“a thing of the public”—such that banker powers of money creation and allocation (through lending) are held in trust and subject to regulation or replacement. The idea of common credit underwrites the conditional legitimacy of private bank money creation and the inherent legitimacy in public banking. It supports citizen objections to private banker domination, and it excludes banker claims of regulatory domination entirely.