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nydus/The Legalized Crime of BankingPublic

Silas Walter Adams critiques the Federal Reserve Banking System, arguing that its monetary policies have significantly inflated the costs of war and national debt. The book examines the historical impact of private banking practices on the American economy and proposes a constitutional alternative for the management of the nation's money supply.

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Table of Contents

Chapter V Bankers Want Double Or Nothing

corporation president's eyes renews his youth. It is agreed that the Bus Company would print up a $1,000,000 new stock for the corporation. Steck does a beautiful job. And Tom and Henry (I'm Tom, don't forget) hurry by plane to Washington. Trains are too slow now for us Big business men. We lay the proposition before the Reserve authorities. They agree that in a fast growing city like Austin, an up-and-coming School Bus Factory is entitled to additional capital. So the Reserve authorities buy the $1,000,000 stock in our school Bus Factory, and hand the President of the factory a cheque for $1,000,000. We hurry back; to Austin. Henry deposits the cheque in our bank, and he has $1,000,000 to spend on improvements and extensions and riotous living, too. . . and all such folks do. My cash chops, were drooling all the time, because I knew that when that cheque cleared through the San Antonio Reserve Bank, those nice boys would not forget to add $1,000,000 to our reserve account, and that I could say to the Reserve Bank, just send me $1,000,000 in cash, and get it; but I left it there, and on a scratch pad I deducted $160,000, leaving us $840,000 to lend. I multiplied that $840,000 by seven, and found that now we could continue to lend money, for it showed that our new bank credit growing out of the fact that the bus company deposited $1,000,000 with us had been increased to $5,880,000! Of course other banks were hogging in our gold mine, for each time a customer sent a cheque to a person who did business with another bank, when that cheque cleared through the Reserve Banks, I lost from my reserve fund the face of the cheque; but I largely offset that by being such a good fellow in the Country Clubs (Oh, yes, I joined at once on becoming a bank President) and on the golf courses, and at night clubs that many folks would send cheques from other banks for deposit in our bank. And, in a way, that just about evens things up. Well, it is time to quote that biggest of all bankers, who said in the late 20's: "Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. ...The bankers own the earth. . . take it away from them, but leave them in control of credit and the creation of money, and with a flick of the pen they will create

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