"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.
When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!
Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."
Andrew Jackson
The reason that there is a 'currency war' underway globally, and why there is increasing civil and political tension domestically, is not because of an envy for the Anglo-American one percent's way of life.
The reason is that the monetary system and the Western economies have gone off the rails with financialization and speculation, and there is a commensurate revulsion from it from those who are in a position to seek alternatives wherever they may. Those who cannot will be victims.
This system is fragile, and will not cohere.
This is why the precious metals have spiked, and will contain to struggle against the very obvious financial repression that is being driven by the Banks. It is an exercise in the abuse of power and the corruption of governance.
This does not mean that austerity or repression are the solution, anymore than mindless stimulus in pursuit of a top-down recovery of a corrupt, wealth transfer system is either.
The nature of the cure is in equal justice and significant reform, the protection of the weak from the overreach and encroachments of the powerful and the wealthy, whether they are allied in a foul bargain with the state or not.
We may try scheme after scheme, from clever gimmicks to 'new' theories, until we will stand exhausted on a wreckage of our own devices. There is no substitute for transparency, justice, and reform.
