“The system of banking [is] a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction…
I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity… is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
Thomas Jefferson, it should be noted, died deeply in debt. He contracted to sell landholdings before the Revolutionary War - but the payments he received were given in paper money after the war, which due to hyperinflation (itself caused by massive issuance of debt by the Continental Congress), were worth nothing. Any similarity to events past or present is purely coincidental.
says a long time Wall St. trader. If only it were so. Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman for the last 14 years, has had to suffer such indignities as cashing only a $40million paycheck, and seeing his Florida home lose about $4million in value during this housing crisis. Did he even notice this change fall out of his pocket? Not likely. In an ideal world, nobody would give these guys any more money, as their own personal risk is essentially nil - they can simply shrug and go back to eating exotic food and complaining about the help. Meanwhile, will we continue trusting our life savings to them? it looks less and less likely that the patchwork plumbing (based on fragile absurdities like Fractional Reserve, and Bretton Woods II) will hold together long enough for us to ever get it back.