|
"...maybe you've wondered why the banking laws of our great democracy are written in such a way that they allow bankers to rob you and me -- such daylight robberies as their endless and always-rising fees, so-called privacy provisions that let them sell our personal financial information, etc. etc. It will all become clear to you if you go to the swank Rainbow Room in Manhattan on the night of August 30th, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. "There you'll see Rep. Michael Oxley, chairman of the Financial Services Committee that supposedly oversees the banking industry. He'll be the guest of honor at a party paid for by J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse First Boston, and the other big banks that profit enormously from Chairman Oxley's willingness to legalize their robbery -- banks that currently have bills before him to allow even more robbery. The banks are paying up to $100,000 each in tribute to the guy who writes the banking laws" (Jim Hightower. The hightower Lowdown, June 2004: 5).
"The USA permitted "wildcat banking," which was little different in principle from counterfeiting operations... As late as 1929, the US banking system was made up of thousands upon thousands of small, amateurishly managed, largely unsupervised banks.... even during the prosperity of the Coolidge presidency (1923-9), 600 banks a year failed" (Ha-Joon Chang. Kicking Away the Ladder: Developement Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem Press, 2002. Page 94).
|