A Warning from American History

[AlfredJPruffock]

President Thomas Jefferson to Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin in 1803:

"The Bank of the United States... is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution...

An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government.

I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.

What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war!

It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?"

[shaunbhoy]

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin
(1802)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

Yes, he was a real visionary was TJ.

[gingerjedi]

Yes, he was a real visionary was TJ.

Sure was, often misunderstood though... Bill of rights

[AlfredJPruffock]

Yes, he was a real visionary was TJ.

Very much food for thought - if anybody doubts the message I was very interested to hear Obama's comments recently on the very real danger that the US Shadow Banking System posed to the US and the Global Economy - he claimed he was 'ready' for them - let battle commence.


"I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries.

In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.

My message to them is this:

“So am I.”

President Obama March 2009

[AlfredJPruffock]

For those who dont know the phrase 'Shadow Banking System' was not dreamt up by a conspiracy theorist - here is the defintion

The term "shadow banking system" is attributed to Paul McCulley of PIMCO by PIMCO's CEO Bill Gross.


The shadow banking system or the shadow financial system consists of non-bank financial institutions that, like banks, borrow short, and in liquid forms, and lend or invest long in less liquid assets.

They are able to do this via the use of credit derivative instruments which allow them to evade normal banking regulations, e.g. those related to specifying ratios of capital reserves to debt.

Many "shadow bank" like institutions and vehicles have emerged in American and European markets, between the years 2000 and 2008, and have come to play an important role in providing credit across the global financial system.

The system includes SIVs, conduits, money funds, monolines, investment banks, hedge funds and other non-bank financial institutions. These institutions are subject to market risk, credit risk and especially liquidity risk, since their liabilities are short-term while their assets are more long term and illiquid.

This creates a potential problem in that they are not depositary institutions and do not have direct or indirect access to their central bank's lender-of-last-resort support.

Therefore, during periods of market illiquidity, they could go bankrupt if unable to refinance their short-term liabilities.

Until the summer of 2007, structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) attracted little outside attention and were not always fully recognized on the balance sheets of their affiliated banks. Since then the shadow banking system has been blamed[2] for aggravating the subprime mortgage crisis and helping to transform it into a global credit crunch.

[NickNick]

Rather than going back hundreds of years, I'll give you this instead.

This is from the NYTimes from November, 1999. The article is titled, "Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws" about the repeal of Glass-Steagall a Depression-Era law to separate bankers and brokers:

"'I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. "'I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.'"