I’ve been watching with great interest as the nation’s banking institutions continue to act and react in ways that are unacceptable, unexplainable, and unchallenged by those in Washington, D.C.
I’ll spare you the details you’ve been hearing daily for months now. However, I can’t help but wonder if someone in authority didn’t see this coming. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had received some advance warning that would have allowed us to prepare for this crisis?
Well, it turns out that we did have that much needed warning, and it came from someone we’re quite certain knew of what he spoke. And he gave us plenty of time to prepare.
In 1802—yes, more than 200 years ago—Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States (1801-1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), said:
“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.”
On a more personal note, I recently received this quote in an e-mail from my son, Chad, who today is a budding businessman and proud father of two young sons of his own. Upon reading the e-mail, I had to reflect back on his high school days when I tried to inspire him to take an interest in business, politics, and what was going on in his world. Of course, at that time, my words were falling on deaf ears. Or so it appeared. He seemed to have other more pressing concerns such as his friends, his car, music and sports. Unbeknownst to me at that time, maybe he was simply practicing the fine art of prioritization. Maybe he just filed away my words of wisdom until a more appropriate time. I must admit that I often hear him advising his boys with words which sound fairly similar to what I shared with him years ago.
And the frosting on the cake … today he’s educating me. We’ve come full circle and he, too, will someday experience that joy with his own boys.
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