Financial Interests Quotes
Leaders of nations for years only trusted as truly patriotic those man—usually nobles of the aristocracy—who owned land. If an invader came and seized their land, they would lose their wealth. However money is fungible, and a banker can easily move his money abroad and join another nation or side in a war. If the country is ruined by war, the manufacturer cannot obtain labor or raw materials, The financier depends on none of these and so hs not the vested interest in the welfare of the nation.
This platform was not very different from those of many democratic political parties at the time. It was on this sort of basis that the German Nazis were elected. However the last sentence of this quotation turned out to be the undoing of the German people and most other people throughout Europe. The “common good” always was interpreted to be the good of the Nazi government which had been elected as against the individual god—the rights of the individual. Soon the state had all the rights and individuals, none. And no other political force could contest and election as that was not in the interest of the common weal.
The Banks and Wall Street were much to blame of the Great Depression which began in 1929. Many called for reform and heavy regulation of the finance industry. However President Hoover was very passive and the Depression became worse. Hoover also opposed ANY regulation of banking or Wall Street. Hence the names in this quotation. The Priest was the right wing demagogic radio host of his day. Virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Black, he was threatened with excommunication by the Catholic Church, which finally ordered him to cease us weekly radio show and stop the political hate.
At this time it was 6 years after the Home Financing Crisis and the Meltdown of 2008 and despite tens of thousands of law violations by the bank, the Justice Department was finally finishing their investigations and requiring some penalties. Other negotiations with other banks were in progress, but no bank executives were going to jail for the millions they handled fraudulently, whereas a burglar who stole household goods would do jail time.
The sentence was actually drafted by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase.
The commercial special interests, together with the banks had become a very dominant force in society just as before the Great Depression in 1929 and the Great Recession in 2008.
