Hey I just agree with Thomas Jefferson,banks are the greatest threat to freedom there is.
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1325.htm
Normally I would counter respond with Snopes talking about the usual Jefferson misquote
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/banks.asp or with Monticello's page on the subject:
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Private_Banks_%28Quotation%29but since the U of V is using actual quotes, let me respond. In those quoted letters (like
this one, )
Jefferson was arguing against paper currency, which he feared would be quickly rendered valueless. In the 1790s, you had 50 different forms of currency in use in the US, some issued by banks and some foreign, and when people gave "X' amount of silver to a bank for "X" much currency, ten years later, it would often be worth half the original amount. This is why the US started a federal bank and created a Mint, so that we could try and standardize our currency as well as get foreign credit.
Look, Jefferson was a wise man, but his view of America was that it would be a nation of farmers forever. Heck, here's him talking about banks:
We are an agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in view.
Think about quote for a sec. The bank's money comes from orphans and farmers don't need that fancy money anyway. We can just plant and harvest until we get the funds. That philosophy just doesn't work in an industrial society. "You want to build cars? Build them by hand until you can afford a plant." or "You want to open a convenience store? Forget about a loan. Just sell snacks from the side of the road until you can afford a slurpee machine."
Hell. you just need to look at the events of the time that Jefferson was writing those letters to see that Jefferson was wrong. In 1811, the First Bank of the US went out of existence (The law that created it expired without Congress renewing it.) . Because of that, the US had to pay off the bank's investors and when the War of 1812 rolled around, the US had no available money supply. The folks who did the job of modern banks (i.e. loaning money) refused to extend loans to the government and foreign investors were similarly skittish. As a result, the US had problems fighting the British during the war because they had no funds available. Plus after taxing everything left and right in order to help get funds, public support of the government was at a pretty low mark. And this was in an era were annoyed folks would stage revolts. As a result, one of the first Congressional acts in 1816 after the war's end was to create another national bank. They recognized the problem, even if Jefferson didn't.
Oh and:
Topic: The Economic Downturn.. (Read 140167 times)
