Alexander Hamilton – The Burning Platform

Was Andrew Jackson A Fraud?

by Anton Chaitkin

Look back, from our present national disintegration, into the defiantly optimistic thinking of the Americans of the 1776 Revolution. They foresaw their grandchildren prospering, with power over nature beyond all prior experience.

Understand them by reading the prophecy of Benjamin Franklin, in the accompanying box.

The founding Americans’ passion for improvement could bring a profound result for prosperity, but only if the Revolutionary country could control its own economy against the global power of the British Imperial enemy.

native advertising

Acting for their grandchildren’s survival, the Founders set up the Bank of the United States to guide the economy and foster the necessary fundamental change.

This founding nationalist framework of our first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, disputed by Thomas Jefferson and his allies, was nevertheless retained by them; when it expired, they revived it.

Britain’s American political agents made Andrew Jackson President, and with populist noise, he took down the National Bank, ceding control to the Money Power centered in London.

Continue reading “Was Andrew Jackson A Fraud?”

THE FOURTH TURNING & WAR OF THE WORLDS

“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe

The paragraph above captures everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen during this Fourth Turning. It was written over two decades ago, but no one can deny its accuracy regarding our present situation. The spark was a financial crash. The response to the financial crash by the financial and governmental entities, along with their Deep State co-conspirators who created the financial collapse due to their greed and malfeasance, led to the incomprehensible election of Donald Trump, as the deplorables in flyover country evoked revenge upon the corrupt establishment.

Continue reading “THE FOURTH TURNING & WAR OF THE WORLDS”

“Toward An American Revolution”

Exposing the Constitution and Other Illusions

by Jerry Fresia

Fresia’s book provides additional insight into the Federalist Constitutional coup against the Articles of Confederation in the aftermath of Shay’s and the Whiskey Rebellions as discussed in our July 4, 2017 post, “America; A Short Story (ver 2.0)”.

Fresia leans radical left (Marxist class-based) but his historical review is equally supportive of a more libertarian (freedom-based) orientation.

Cent.

Marker Denoting the First Anti-Federalist Rebellion by American Patriots

Afraid to Reflect (excerpt)

Consider certain features of the lives of three men. The first was a very wealthy man. In l787, many considered him the richest man in

all the thirteen states. His will of l789 revealed that he owned 35,000 acres in Virginia and 1,119 acres in Maryland. He owned property in Washington valued (in 1799 dollars) at $19,132, in

Alexandria at $4,000, in Winchester at $400, and in Bath at $800. He also held $6,246 worth of U.S. securities, $10,666 worth of shares in the James River Company, $6,800 worth of stock in the Bank of Columbia, and $1,000 worth of stock in the Bank of Alexandria. His livestock was valued at $15,653. As early as 1773, he had enslaved 216 human beings who were not emancipated until after he and his wife had both died.

Continue reading ““Toward An American Revolution””

Bernanke Blasts Lew’s $10 Bill Woman-ification

I think Llpoh and Bennie would make fine friends. They have a hatred in common.

Authored by Ben Bernanke via The Brookings Institute,

I must admit I was appalled to hear of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s decision last week to demote Alexander Hamilton from his featured position on the ten dollar bill. My reaction has been widely shared, see for example here, here, here, here, and here.

Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, would qualify as among the greatest of our founders for his contributions to achieving American independence and creating the Constitution alone. In addition to those accomplishments, however, Hamilton was without doubt the best and most foresighted economic policymaker in U.S. history. As detailed in Ron Chernow’s excellent biography, as Treasury Secretary Hamilton put in place the institutional basis for the modern U.S. economy. Critically, he helped put U.S. government finances on a sound footing, consolidating the debts of the states and setting up a strong federal fiscal system. The importance of Hamilton’s achievement can be judged by the problems that the combination of uncoordinated national fiscal policies and a single currency has caused the Eurozone in recent years. Reflecting on those parallels, as Fed chairman I recommended Chernow’s biography to Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank. Mario told me that he read it with great interest.

Hamilton also played a leading role in creating U.S. monetary and financial institutions. He founded the nation’s first major bank, the Bank of New York; and, as Chernow points out, Hamilton’s 1791 Report on the Mint set the basis for U.S. currency arrangements, which makes his demotion from the ten dollar bill all the more ironic. Importantly, over the objections of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Hamilton also oversaw the chartering in 1791 of the First Bank of the United States, which was to serve as a central bank and would be a precursor of the Federal Reserve System.

In the nineteenth century, a principal public role of central banks was to control banking panics, as the Bank of England would do quite successfully. Unfortunately, in large part because of populist opposition, neither the First Bank of the United States nor its successor, the Second Bank of the United States, would have their charters renewed. President Andrew Jackson led the opposition to the Second Bank, vetoing a bill passed by Congress to continue its operations. The expiration of the Second Bank’s charter in 1836 likely worsened the very severe Panic of 1837, which was followed by a prolonged economic depression. The United States would go on to suffer numerous banking panics that would hamper its economic and financial development over the rest of the century.

Hamilton’s demotion is intended to make room to honor a deserving woman on the face of our currency. That’s a fine idea, but it shouldn’t come at Hamilton’s expense. As many have pointed out, a better solution is available: Replace Andrew Jackson, a man of many unattractive qualities and a poor president, on the twenty dollar bill. Given his views on central banking, Jackson would probably be fine with having his image dropped from a Federal Reserve note. Another, less attractive, possibility is to circulate two versions of the ten dollar bill, one of which continues to feature Hamilton.

I was in government long enough to know that decisions like this have considerable bureaucratic inertia and are accordingly hard to reverse. But the Treasury Department should do everything within its power to defend the honor of Jack Lew’s most illustrious predecessor.

* * *

So.. keep Hamilton (pro-Fed) but dump Jackson (anti-Fed)…

Did Bernanke just become the internet’s biggest troll? Of course, Bernanke has already reserved the $100 trillion bill for his own omnipotent likeliness.