jaycey

JPMorgan: Beneficiary of Depression?

It's deja vu all over again

I've been reading about turn of the (20th) century politics and finance recently and the similarities are striking. The finance aristocrats seem to have an ancient playbook that they recycle every generation--as soon as the public has forgotten about the previous episodes. Bubbles, contractions (macro pump & dump?), imperialism, war profiteering and government giveaways; all facilitated by political bribery, slanted news coverage and paid shills to gull the public. It happened then, it's happening now.

What strikes you reading that stuff is how much the discussion of the intrigues and lies have been marginalized in the present day. Turn of the century commentators were much more frank--though it's debatable whether it did them much good.

I recently read an old book about the "crime of 1873." The author, a member of the US Monetary commission of 1879, says the whole "free silver" "Cross of Gold" thing was orchestrated by European investors wanting to double their money on Civil War bonds. It seems the bonds were sold for greenbacks then selling at half the value of gold and silver coins. They had over a billion dollars of these bonds and stood to make a killing if they could get their principal back in gold dollars rather than greenbacks. A quiet campaign of subterfuge and corruption slipped the law through the legislature unnoticed by the general public. The result was a bonanza for the foreign bondholders and a painful deflation for everybody else.

If you want to make sense of the world, follow the money!

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