Alan Greenspan on the cause of the Great Depression

When business in the United States underwent a mild contraction in 1927, the Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any possible bank reserve shortage. More disastrous, however, was the Federal Reserve's attempt to assist Great Britain who had been losing gold to us. ... The "Fed" succeeded: it stopped the gold loss, but it nearly destroyed the economies of the world in the process. The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market - triggering a fantastic speculative boom. ... As a result, the American economy collapsed.

~ Alan Greenspan as quoted by G. Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 474

Thomas Jefferson on banking and paper money

I have ever been the enemy of banks; not of those discounting for cash [that is, charging interest on loans of real money], but of those foisting their own paper into circulation, and thus banishing our cash. My zeal against these institutions was so warm and open at the establishment of the bank of the U.S. that I was derided as a Maniac by the tribe of bank-mongers, who were seeking to filch from the public their swindling and barren gains. ... Shall we build an altar to the old paper money of the revolution, which ruined individuals but saved the republic, and burn on that all the bank charters present and future, and their notes with them? For these are to ruin both republic and individuals. This cannot be done. The Mania is too strong. It has seized by its delusions and corruptions all the members of our governments, general, special and individual.

~ Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams in 1814

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 341.)

Governeur Morris on aristocracy and government

The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will. ... They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by such a government, keep them within their proper spheres. We should remember that the people never act from reason alone. The rich will take advantage of their passions, and make these the instruments for oppressing them. The result of the contest will be a violent aristocracy, or a more violent despotism.

~ Governeur Morris, New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention and drafter of the Constitution, reflecting on the new federal government

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 335.)

Thomas Jefferson on government borrowing

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the general principle of the Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.

~ Thomas Jefferson

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 332.)

Thomas Jefferson on private central banking

A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army.

~ Thomas Jefferson

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 329.)

George Washington on paper money

We may one day become a great commercial and flourishing nation. But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy.

~ George Washington

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 323.)

Oliver Ellsworth on paper money

This is a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischief of the various experiments which have been made are now fresh in the public mind and have excited the disgust of all of the respectable parts of America.

~ Oliver Ellsworth, representative from Connecticut to the Constitutional Convention, subsequently Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

(Quoted in G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 315. Ellsworth was referencing various paper money schemes that were tried and failed during the War of Independence and in the period between the war and the beginning of the Constitutional Convention.)

Thomas Jefferson on paper money and inflation

It will be asked how will the two masses of Continental and state money have cost the people of the United States seventy-two millions of dollars, when they are to be redeemed now with about six million? I answer that, the difference beeing sixty-six millions, has been lost on the paper bills separately by the successive holders of them, Every one, through whose hands a bill passed, lost on that bill what it lost in value during the time it was in his hands. This was the real tax on him; and in this way the people of the United States actually contributed those sixty-six millions of dollars during the war, and by a mode of taxation the most oppressive of all because the most unequal of all.

~ Thomas Jefferson

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature of Jekyll Island, page 313. Jefferson was describing the danger of printing money with no metal backing, an arrangement in which Congress and The Federal Reserve System now participate.)

Andrew Jackson on central banking

Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? ... [Is there not] cause to tremble for the purity of our elections in peace and for the independence of our country in war? ... Controlling our currency, receiving our public monies, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it would be more formidable and dangerous than a naval and military power of the enemy.

~ Andrew Jackson

(Quoted by G. Edward Griffen, The Creature from Jekyll Island, page 257.)

Andrew Jackson

Ronald Reagan on the Continental Illinois bailout (1984)

It was a thing that we should do and we did it. It was in the best interest of all concerned.

~ Ronald Reagan, on the bailout of Continental Illinois, at the time the 7th largest U.S. bank

(Quoted from The Creature From Jekyll Island, p. 62, source: New York Times, "Reagan Calls Rescue of Bank No Bailout," July 29, 1984.)