"Where would we be if we had I.O.U.'s scrip and certificates floating all around the country?" Instead he decided to "issue currency against the sound assets of the banks. [As opposed to issuing currency against gold.] The Federal Reserve Act lets us print all we'll need. And it won't frighten the people. It won't look like stage money. It'll be money that looks like real money."
by:
William Hartman Woodin
(1868-1934) U.S. industrialist, US Secretary of Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt in 1933
Date:
3/7/33
Source:
Source: 'Closed for the Holiday: The Bank Holiday of 1933', p20 - Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
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Reader comments about this quote:
Well, well, well. Now, if there is still anyone left that doesn't believe that we're all living on a debt that has never been and was never meant to be paid, here's the confession. And all the talk of balancing the budget over and over again ... I give it credit for its honesty, however unintentional it may have been, as it surely wasn't addressed to the masses for their edification.
 -- zeitgeist, la crescenta, ca     
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    Five stars for accuracy, thumbs down for what its done to the US. I shake my head while smiling, not for humor but, as apposed to the alternative. I.O.U.'s scrip and certificates floating all around the country was precisely the reason for Article I Sections VIII and X in the Constitution.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    The correct judgement of money should not be what it looks like but what does it do. I get the goods and services I need with it, that is all I care about. Zeitgeist the debt was coming down under Clinton. Bush blew the lid off of the thing. There is more than enough money and wealth in this country to pay the thing off. What we lack is politcal will. The debt is nothng more than the summation of the serial numbered bonds and tha accumulated interest thereon. A button is punched everyday in the Bureau of Public Debt and the figure is computed. That is real money that is owed to Russia, China, and to everyone else including many individuals inclucing myself. The fact that the US does not collect enough taxes or reduce expenses in order to live without debt is the problem.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, and that's good enough. It's fitting that this man worked for FDR, the man who made it illegal to own gold and whose policies extended the depression.
     -- jim k, austin     
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    How are we supposed to save and plan our retirement with an increasing incremental tax and inflation of what passes for currency? The dollar you save today won't be worth 25 cents in 15 years. It is then a method of wealth control is it not? Could it be said that if we can not determine our own futures we live at the whim of the state, no matter how hard we try? The National Debt is a fraud and we the people are the defrauded. Don't forget to vote! The system needs you to play the game.
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    Yeah, Federal Reserve Notes won't frighten the people -- what should frighten the people is "The Federal Reserve Act lets us print all we'll need." Yes, let's create a seat of power in which someone can create or destroy any amount of money they wish (not just need). Let's see, in nearly 85 years, the people of the nation have had every dollar taken from them (the entire nation's gold money supply was confiscated by the Fed) and has been replaced with interest-bearing debt that has stolen 95% of their purchasing power (that is to say stolen 95% of the fruits of their labors from inflation), have reduced us all to tenants on our own land, has created an Orwellian police state, and is in the process of crushing the last remnants of a free republic all in the name of 'security' and 'progress.' I am afraid that a revolution is inevitable.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    You rarely get honesty like that any more. It is being tried again during the current crisis. We went from gold backed currency, to the "full faith and credit" variety, but now it's just paper based on thin, hot air out of DC. A part of me fears how this will all end. Once upon a time the two great powers were England and France. More recently it was the USA and the USSR. Who will it be next? I believe we should be on very good terms with China.
     -- J. B. Wulff, Bristol, CT     
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