Hamilton v. Jefferson: The Central Bank Debate [POLICYbrief]

42

In 1791, two great minds clashed over an issue of constitutional and historical significance. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson tried to make the case to President George Washington for and against having a national, central bank. Hamilton saw the central bank as the key to America’s economic future, whereas Jefferson worried about the consolidation of power and thought a central bank was unconstitutional. In this episode of POLICYbrief, two experts–David Cowen, President/CEO of the Museum of American Finance, and Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Professor of Economics at Loyola University–explain and analyze this 200-year-old debate that still has relevance today.

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

*****

Learn more about David Cowen
https://www.moaf.org/about/people/cowen_david

Alexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt

Learn more about Thomas J. DiLorenzo:
https://www.loyola.edu/sellinger-business/academics/departments/economics/faculty/dilorenzo

Hamilton’s Curse

*****

Related Links:

[Founders Online] To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1791
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-07-02-0207

[PBS] Establishing a National Bank
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/establishing-national-bank/

[Federal Reserve History] The First Bank of the United States
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/first_bank_of_the_us

[Constitution Center] Hamilton’s Treasury Department and a great Constitutional debate
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/hamiltons-treasury-department-and-a-great-constitutional-debate

[History] Whose Vision of America Won Out—Hamilton’s or Jefferson’s?
https://www.history.com/news/whose-vision-of-america-won-out-hamiltons-or-jeffersons

[Mises] The Corrupt Origins of Central Banking
https://mises.org/library/corrupt-origins-central-banking

[Federal Reserve] America’s Central Bank: The History and Structure of the Federal Reserve
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20170328a.htm

[Oyez] McCulloch v. Maryland
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/17us316

[Cato] Money and Banking: A Constitutional Perspective
https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2015/5/cj-v35n2-2.pdf

source

42 COMMENTS

  1. Its easy with hindsight to say it was a mistake but i understand where hamilton is comming from though now i do think its time to break up the central bank for the purposes of trying to get our economy back under control

  2. While this is partly true you are not telling the whole TRUTH. The CENTRAL BANK HAMILTON WANTED INVOLED OTHER WEALTHY
    BANKERS. IT WAS NOT WHOLLY OWNED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. JUST LIKE THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IS PRIVATELY OWNED AND THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY. WHAT WAS HAMILTON FRIENDS NAME THAT WAS GOING TO SUPPLY MONEY FOR THIS BANK??? ANDREW JACKSON KICKED THE THIEVES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY. THIS VIDEO IS B.S.

  3. Everyone needs to understand that the First, Second, and Federal Reserve Banks of America are PRIVATE banks not run by federal government. PRIVATE banks with their own PRIVATE agendas. Hamilton was no hero, he doomed our country from the start.

  4. Paterson had an 80 Hamilton St food stamps and social security that building is closed know and there a building around the corner name Robert Roe federal building Roe vs wade abortion skid Row sht underware if you don't like social security then just don't talk about it

  5. In modern times, the cycle of debt and the risk of corruption are major concerns. When individuals or small businesses owe money to larger entities, and those entities in turn are indebted to even bigger institutions, it creates a chain where the small players often lose their independence. This situation is worsened when those who hold economic power also influence politics, leading to decisions that favor the powerful and increase the gap between different regions or groups. Such a system not only traps people in debt but also opens doors to corruption, threatening the fairness and freedom that modern societies strive for.

  6. Hamilton’s position of state run banking is more protective of American sovereignty, and Jefferson’s position of private run banking protects against the government becoming to powerful.
    In going the decentralized banking route America has lost its sovereignty. It has lost its soul/authenticity. Americans today know that they don’t even run their own country. It’s completely owned by anti-american Communists and their puppets operating as “special interests”.
    We are now the full-blown antithetical evil of monarchical Europe.
    The only way to win back the sovereignty of the country is to nationalize the central bank, to go the path of Hamilton.

  7. America was founded like an illegal lodge, the biggest scam, which didn’t collect money through voluntarism, but through force, this ain’t the honeymooners, and it must be dismantled.

    I am Michael

  8. Gold and other precious metals are finite, so manipulation of their value is easy. Fiat currency, though technically unconstitutional, is easily the most useful for flexibility reasons. The problem lies in the fact that interest is attached to every dollar and cent created. Simply put, there is never enough money in existence to pay in full the incurred debt, thus guaranteeing default.
    With a nation such as ours, our debt it so large that it is transferred, in perpetuity, to unborn generations for them to pay the unpayable principal and interest. There will come a point when the entire GDP will not be enough to pay a single payment to the Fed. Eventually, this continent, and our descendants, will be owned by another people just as Jefferson predicted.
    The only solution is for the treasury to directly issue currency, via collateral backed loans, without interest, outside of the grasp of a privately owned central bank where their charged interest is paid by unconstitutional direct taxation on wages.

    Though not impossible , it is hard to enslave a man without first enticing him into debt, without which the perpetrator's success becomes pyrrhic.

  9. Hamilton was right in that his vision was the direction America needed to go. Jefferson was right in how highly abusable it was. No matter how much we want to debate and say which side is right or wrong, the reality is this: government is flawed, because PEOPLE are flawed. This is an imperfect world filled to the brim with messy people from all walks of life, and the Founding Fathers knew that as well. I'm happy to have lived in this country.

  10. Central Bank is one thing, which there is a strong case for. Creation of the Fed in the 1900s is another where we can now print money based on debt rather than real assets (such as the Gold Standard). THAT, is the problem of today. Jefferson was right about special interest groups and consolidation of power to the central government; it has happened in this country.

  11. well. glad that all worked out then. maybe try monkeying blindly w interest rates & no regulation of rent-seeking theft? did we try that? how about, if you are already wealthy: we give you a printing press. that may work. _JC

  12. nothing like people criticizing a decision that caused problems 230 years down the road

    like fuck, in a parallel universe the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is collapsing today and blaming how it overexpanded itself by conquering Russia and Germany which caused massive problems a couple centuries down the road!

  13. So The Federalist are pro private central bank? We don’t have a national bank run by government with government oversight that Washington signed into law and Hamilton initially argued for. So if they came back they’d have to be briefed on legislation crafted on Jekyll Island.

  14. Hamilton was obviously a sellout that was working for foreign interest groups.

    This guy saying Wall Street and central banking are miracles has money as his God, but there are greater things than a usury debt style banking system that make a country what it is.

  15. Hเรื่องแบงร์ไม่เกียวกับท่านทั้งสองนะคะคิงกับนาชินีเพาะม่านยังเสียลูกสาวเลยเวลาไปแบงร์ที่ไรแบงร์ก็บอกว่าไม่มีเงินนะคะแล้วตอนนี้เงินไม่มีไปใหนหลอกนะคะฟีด

Comments are closed.