Thomas Edison: Government Debt Brokers
on Tuesday, December 26, 2017Thomas A. Edison Money Quote saying that bankers are controlling the national wealth (and debt) by charging the government interest while contributing nothing. Thomas A. Edison said:
“It is a terrible situation when the Government, to insure the National Wealth, must go in debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the fictitious value of gold” — Thomas A. Edison
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Thomas A. Edison is criticizing the way monetary policy was tied to the gold standard at the time. His point is that by basing the value of currency on gold, whose worth could be manipulated, it forced governments like the U.S. to take on debt at high interest rates controlled by those who set gold’s artificial price.
Edison suggests this put nations in a “terrible situation” of being financially beholden to such moneyed interests. He implies tying the wealth and stability of countries to an arbitrarily valued commodity like gold was misguided and resulted in governments having to pay exorbitant “ruinous interest charges” on loans.
The quote reflects Edison’s view that this gold-backed economic system impaired national fiscal health and autonomy.
Birthday: February 11, 1847 – Death: October 18, 1931