1. Joined
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    16 Oct '15 02:33
    Quotes said to originate from Wilson in regret of the Federal Reserve:

    "[Our] great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom.

    "We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world--no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men."

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  2. Standard memberno1marauder
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    16 Oct '15 07:57
    Originally posted by whodey
    Quotes said to originate from Wilson in regret of the Federal Reserve:

    "[Our] great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are ...[text shortened]... ty, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men."

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    The quote is either a fake or made before the Fed existed in support of the idea of creating it.
  3. Joined
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    16 Oct '15 11:03
    Originally posted by no1marauder
    The quote is either a fake or made before the Fed existed in support of the idea of creating it.
    In other words, you don't know if it's real or not?
  4. Standard memberno1marauder
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    16 Oct '15 11:32
    Originally posted by whodey
    In other words, you don't know if it's real or not?
    Since you cited it, it is your responsibility to give the exact place where WW supposedly said it. Some discussion boards I found came to the conclusion I gave above - that it is a false quote or that portions of it are from campaign speeches in 1912 before Wilson was President. If you have specific information regarding the quote I'd be interested to hear it.
  5. Standard memberDeepThought
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    16 Oct '15 12:22
    Originally posted by no1marauder
    Since you cited it, it is your responsibility to give the exact place where WW supposedly said it. Some discussion boards I found came to the conclusion I gave above - that it is a false quote or that portions of it are from campaign speeches in 1912 before Wilson was President. If you have specific information regarding the quote I'd be interested to hear it.
    I did a google search. According to Wikiquotes [1] the first quotation is from "The New Freedom - A call for the emancipation of the generous energies of a people (1913), Chapter VIII, Monopoly or Oppourtunity?". The second quotation is from Chapter IX page 219. The complete text is available online [2]. However, if you look at the talk page on Wikiquotes there are a lot of quotations purporting to be from Woodrow Wilson all over the internet and they're of dubious provenance.

    [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
    [2] http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14811
  6. Standard memberno1marauder
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    16 Oct '15 12:25
    Originally posted by DeepThought
    I did a google search. According to Wikiquotes [1] the first quotation is from "The New Freedom - A call for the emancipation of the generous energies of a people (1913), Chapter VIII, Monopoly or Oppourtunity?". The second quotation is from Chapter IX page 219. The complete text is available online [2]. However, if you look at the talk page on Wiki ...[text shortened]... .

    [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
    [2] http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14811
    This article offers a good refutation of the claim that this "quote" was one of WW expressing "regret" over creating the Fed: http://www.salon.com/2007/12/21/woodrow_wilson_federal_reserve/
  7. Standard memberDeepThought
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    16 Oct '15 13:15
    Originally posted by no1marauder
    This article offers a good refutation of the claim that this "quote" was one of WW expressing "regret" over creating the Fed: http://www.salon.com/2007/12/21/woodrow_wilson_federal_reserve/
    I agree that neither of the quotes in the OP have anything to do with WW's alleged regret over creating the Federal Reserve, but they do appear to be genuine.
  8. Cape Town
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    16 Oct '15 13:31
    Originally posted by whodey
    Quotes said to originate from Wilson in regret of the Federal Reserve:

    Discuss
    Anyone quoting a famous figure's opinion on a topic is almost certainly doing so because they lack logical argument in favour of their stance hence the attempt at deferring to authority.

    If you have a problem with the Federal Reserve, speak up. What Wilson thought of it doesn't really matter.
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    21 Oct '15 12:52
    Originally posted by twhitehead
    Anyone quoting a famous figure's opinion on a topic is almost certainly doing so because they lack logical argument in favour of their stance hence the attempt at deferring to authority.

    If you have a problem with the Federal Reserve, speak up. What Wilson thought of it doesn't really matter.
    Nice talking with you, as always. 😵
  10. Germany
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    21 Oct '15 16:02
    Originally posted by twhitehead
    Anyone quoting a famous figure's opinion on a topic is almost certainly doing so because they lack logical argument in favour of their stance hence the attempt at deferring to authority.

    If you have a problem with the Federal Reserve, speak up. What Wilson thought of it doesn't really matter.
    Of course whodey has a problem with the Federal Reserve. Someone wrote on a blog that it's bad.
  11. The Catbird's Seat
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    21 Oct '15 16:12
    Originally posted by whodey
    Quotes said to originate from Wilson in regret of the Federal Reserve:

    "[Our] great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are ...[text shortened]... ty, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men."

    Discuss
    Thomas Piketty, the darling of some here, wrote that during the entire 9th century, all the way to about 1913 there was virtually zero inflation in both Europe and the US. But then he makes no connection between the growth of inflation to both the existence of national banks, and the two World Wars. He dismisses the Wars, the largest and most expensive of human history as mere blips on the radar screen.
  12. Germany
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    21 Oct '15 16:16
    Originally posted by normbenign
    Thomas Piketty, the darling of some here, wrote that during the entire 9th century, all the way to about 1913 there was virtually zero inflation in both Europe and the US. But then he makes no connection between the growth of inflation to both the existence of national banks, and the two World Wars. He dismisses the Wars, the largest and most expensive of human history as mere blips on the radar screen.
    The 20th Century was actually quite peaceful by historical standards.
  13. The Catbird's Seat
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    21 Oct '15 16:31
    Originally posted by KazetNagorra
    The 20th Century was actually quite peaceful by historical standards.
    Oh, really?! Piketty doesn't agree, and the period between 1913 and 1945 accounts for more loss of wealth than any other on record.
  14. Standard memberno1marauder
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    21 Oct '15 17:53
    Originally posted by normbenign
    Thomas Piketty, the darling of some here, wrote that during the entire 9th century, all the way to about 1913 there was virtually zero inflation in both Europe and the US. But then he makes no connection between the growth of inflation to both the existence of national banks, and the two World Wars. He dismisses the Wars, the largest and most expensive of human history as mere blips on the radar screen.
    I'm sure he also points out that growth in the US pre-Fed was about half the rate as it was after-Fed. Naturally if you are having zero or even negative growth (as the US did for much of the 19th Century), inflation will tend to be low.
  15. The Catbird's Seat
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    22 Oct '15 17:46
    Originally posted by twhitehead
    Anyone quoting a famous figure's opinion on a topic is almost certainly doing so because they lack logical argument in favour of their stance hence the attempt at deferring to authority.

    If you have a problem with the Federal Reserve, speak up. What Wilson thought of it doesn't really matter.
    On my rereading of Thomas Piketty's. Capital in the 20th Century. Picketty backtracks quite a bit, and asserts that during the whole of the 19th century and early 20th there was negligible, if any inflation. The Fed, and other national banks married government and banking, and made inflation, and fighting world wars easier. The Fed is not helpful to the poor and middle class, in fact it would seem to be part of its job to secure the position of the wealthy.

    On the matter of inequality, during the 18th and 19th century, inequality was roughly as it is today, but it significantly dropped off during the period of the two World Wars. Seems the wealthy have more to lose, at least monetarily.
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