Get control of the money flow

I have long been a fan of Thomas Jefferson, one of our Founding Fathers and our third president. I recently ran across a statement he wrote that was so on target and timely that I wanted to share it with Southeast Missourian readers.

Jefferson wrote: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issues of currency, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

On the same day I ran across this statement, I heard on the news that a third of all real estate for sale in this country is owned by banks, and this obviously does not include the foreclosures expected over the next few years. It appears that Jefferson was extremely accurate in his observations

Unfortunately, our elected officials were not aware of or did not care about Jefferson's warning when they created the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Federal Reserve banks constitute a quasi-public (government entity with private components) banking system. The stocks of the regional Federal Reserve banks are owned by the banks operating within that region which are part of the system.

The Fed was created to bring some stability to the banking industry, and it has obviously failed miserably. Since its creation the Fed has presided over booms (Roaring Twenties, early 1980s and the early part of this century) and busts (Great Depression, 1987 stock market collapse and the current financial situation).

The banks and corporations that have grown up around the Fed include Countrywide Bank, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities and many other institutions that have wiped out the savings and investments of countless individuals, companies and foundations.

I am amazed that our elected officials have rewarded many of these entities with bailout and cash infusions of our hard-earned tax dollars. Much of this money has already been lost, and the rest has not been accounted for. And the government seems poised to provide additional billions of dollars to the banks and financial services industry.

When is this going to end? And where is all the money going to come from?

It would appear that the banks and financial services industry are calling the shots in Washington, because a majority of the public is against all these bailouts. It may already be too late, but the American people need to challenge our elected officials to reconsider their actions before they succeed in helping the Federal Reserve and banks "deprive the people of their property" and before "our children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Mike Sprouse of Cape Girardeau owns River City Coins. He has a degree in economics and is a graduate of two banking schools. He was a banker more than 10 years before becoming a rare-coin dealer.