Communism failed and capitalism seems to be on the brink of collapse. So the question arises: Is it possible that human beings can come up with something better?
It’s a fascinating question – especially considering that it was the subject of this op-ed from the Russian newspaper Gazeta.
Here are some excerpts from Boris Tumanov’s wide-ranging article, which touches upon Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. banking system and science fiction writer Clifford Simak:
“‘Thomas Jefferson said, ‘I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies … If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'”
“Today, as the global financial crisis is becoming almost a literal confirmation of these warnings, it’s hard to believe that they were uttered over two centuries ago, in 1802. And then not by some economic ‘guru’ of the era, but by a provincial (by European standards of the time) named Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. The financial and economic history of the United States, and consequently of the entire world, has repeatedly (including during the current crisis) confirmed the truth of Jefferson’s prophecy. But his warning was soundly forgotten.”
“The magnitude of the current global crisis isn’t just unprecedented; after a short respite it clearly promises even more overwhelming turmoil. It would seem time, finally, to think not so much about rescuing national economies, but about ridding humanity of similar disasters.”
“Can humanity come up with something more reliable than a system that repeatedly commits increasingly catastrophic failures, and in which human destiny is effected not merely on a national scale, but across the entire planet?”
By Boris Tumanov
Translated By Yekaterina Blinova
November 24, 2008
Russia – Gazeta – Original Article (Russian)
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies … If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Today, as the global financial crisis is becoming almost a literal confirmation of these warnings, it’s hard to believe that they were uttered over two centuries ago, in 1802. And then not by some economic “guru” of the era, but by a provincial (by European standards of the time) named Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.
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