Finances Quotes
Stimson was one of the first to realize the new economic reality in America. In prior years, wealthy individuals financed most business and industrial efforts. However, the need for capital had become so great that wealthy individuals could no longer provide sufficient capital to underwrite some of the business efforts. The age of the corporation was dawning on America and Stimson was one of the first to recognize it.
“Collegiate management” referred to a government central finance department that would be managed by committees of politicians and/or experts for the entire country. What Google feared was that elites like bankers and merchants would dominate and control the finances of the new government. He preferred to keep most of the financial management at the provincial and city governmental level. Further, that management by committee was inefficient and often produced gridlock. By the 21st century virtually every nation had a central bank or ministry that managed the nation’s finances in a globalized world. And there was a central banker in charge (although the amount of authority differs by nation.) However Gogel’s concern has never been abated. Virtually every country had evolved to where the nation’s finances were operated and/or controlled by elite minorities. The technical and educational requirements forced that to happen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal then created the Securities and Exchange Commission to Regulate the Stock Market and that kept things under reasonable control for over 50 years, but then the fraudulent schemes had gotten very sophisticated and the Enron and other scandals were uncovered, leading to Sarbanes Oxley and other more regulatory legislation.
The first non-PRI President in over 70 years. Before Fox, the corruption of Mexican Presidents was rampant.
The threat to which Rubin was referring was the fact that the United States, the largest dues payer to those organizations were in arrears on their dues—financially strapping the organizations. The reason for the arrears was a combination of 3 forces. There was conservative dissatisfaction with many of the policies and decisions of these international bodies. There was an effort to produce badly needed reform in those organizations, ranging from lack of transparency to toleration of massive corruption that was strongly resisted. Last, the United Nations was culturally very different from what Americans are used to with the diplomatic niceties taking precedence over candor and “telling it like it is, first class travel and accommodations for United Nations staff and consultants, sumptuous offices in many countries including America, and a civil service not based on merit but with quotas of nationality.
After many years of deficit financing, Clinton finally produced a balanced budget and together with his Secretary, of the Treasury, Robert Rubin, actually developed an economy which was producing a huge annual surplus that would soon eliminate the national debt. However, when George W. Bush replaced Clinton after two terms, Bush was unable to manage the budget any better than the other aspects of the Presidency. He cut taxes dramatically and even after it was clear that the Clinton surplus was squandered, he continued tax reductions and even increased them while increasing government spending creating the biggest government in history and went from our largest surplus to our largest deficit in his 8 years.
