All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, as much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.

Source: John Adams
Works 8:447

Topics: Economics

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

Source: Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

Topics: Economics

The few who understand the [banking] system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependant on it’s favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.

Source: Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

Topics: Economics

The Federal Reserve banks, while not part of the government,...

Source: United States budget for 1991 and 1992 part 7, page 10

Topics: Economics

Where The Bondage Of Debt Falls.

I know of no other factor which has had such potent influence, in the dissolution of nations which have flourished and passed away, as has the bondage of debt. When nations become debtors the only means of providing revenue with which to meet their obligations is by taxation. This burden falls heaviest upon the masses, the common people, who are the producers of the indispensable necessities of life.

The men who till the soil, who tend the flocks and herds, who dig from the earth the treasures which are hidden there, the men who take the raw materials which are provided by nature and convert them into the things which man requires for his convenience and comfort, who are real producers, they are the people who do the world’s work, fight the world’s battles, and pay the world’s taxes.

I know there are those who will not agree with me in this statement, and I shall not discuss it with them at this time, only to say that I have given the subject as careful study as I am capable of doing, and have concluded that commerce, the professions, and the great industrial systems of our country find means by which the burden of taxation may be shifted until in the last analysis it falls heaviest on the classes to which I have referred.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1921

Topics: Debt; Economics

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of the waters. This struggle may be both moral and physical, but it must be struggle.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. And these wrongs will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Source: Frederick Douglass, 1857

Topics: Power

Avoid Mortgaging The Home.

My remarks are directed more particularly to my brethren who are engaged in agricultural pursuits. Israel has always been an agricultural and pastoral people. We are told that about fifty millions of dollars of our securities are now in the possession of the Federal Reserve Bank. The past we cannot well remedy, but we can, so far as the future is concerned, profit by its experiences. I feel that every mother of a family is entitled to a home, to shelter her and her children, upon which there is no mortgage, and I plead with my brethren to keep mortgages from their farms and homes so far as it is possible.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1921

Topics: Debt

The humble beginning of the Prophet Joseph Smith is well known. His education was limited. He was obliged to start work early in his life to contribute to the support of himself and other members of the family. Yet from that humble beginning he became one of the greatest prophets of all time. He not only became the dynamic leader of a fast-growing modern Church, but he set forth principles of government worthy of study by our greatest statesmen and in the latter part of his life became a candidate for president of the United States.

Source: Elder Samuel O. Bennion
General Conference, April 1939

Topics: Character

A Day of Extravagance

We are living in a day of extravagance and I have wondered of late where it is going to end. The Church has set the example to every member of it and to the glorious nation that we love, to be out of debt. I remember when our nation, at the close of the World War, found itself in debt to the amount of twenty-six billions of dollars. For ten years as Chairman of the Finance Committee, and a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, I did everything in my power to reduce that obligation by necessary legislation. It was reduced to sixteen billion dollars and now it is up to forty billion dollars.

I know it is easy to say “billions,” and we have become used to it in America and perhaps in the world, but it may be of interest to some, at least, to give a description of what forty billion dollars really is so that all can understand it I do it in this way: Supposing that the minute the Savior was born some person had decided to deposit in a place selected by him forty dollars and he continued that plan, carrying it out faithfully every minute to the present time, at the end, my brethren and sisters, there would be forty billions of dollars there.

So you see what responsibilities rest upon those who direct the financial affairs of our Government. I want every Latter-day Saint, no matter where he is, to support in every way every recommendation made, not only by this administration but by the administrations to follow to reduce these obligations, for they will have to do everything in their power to accomplish this.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, April 1939

Topics: Debt

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