« Sovereign Costs of Financial Sector Support | Main | Diversion: Dancing Christmas »

Latest Stories

• Palm Pre, Plus Roger and Me
• You Say “Recession”, I Say “Recovery”, etc.
• Quote du Jour: Marc Rich
• South Korea Arrests Barry Ritholtz
• Afternoon Reading 01/08/09

December 17, 2008

[Updated] Quote of the Day

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)

[via a reader]

[Update] While I checked this quickly in various sources, as I usually do when sent stuff (especially quotes), I obviously didn’t check enough places. It is almost certainly spurious, at best. I should have known by the use of the words “inflation” and “deflation”, which didn’t come into current common usage until considerably later.

More here. Sorry about that.

Sphere It   |   Digg it   |   Bookmark it   |   Stumble it   |   Facebook it