Coming Soon to Three Sages: "Alexander Hamilton's Suicidal Financial System is Coming to an End"
What President John Adams called the "gangrene of avarice" can't last forever. Sooner or later the patient dies.
A powerful cult of Alexander Hamilton has grown up in the US that worships the first Treasury Secretary for supposedly paving the way for the “American System” of infrastructure development as the foundation of a powerful nationalist economy.
Cultists cite Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures as their chief piece of evidence that testifies to the great man’s good intentions.
Of course much is made of poor Hamilton’s demise in a duel at the hands of the nefarious Aaron Burr, always portrayed as the “Snidely Whiplash” of the age.
Never mind that Hamilton had previously challenged his critics to meetings on the dueling ground.
Never mind that the day after he was named Treasury Secretary he borrowed $50,000 from his own Bank of New York to forestall looming government bankruptcy then $50,000 more from the Bank of North America.
Never mind that his Report on Manufactures was a copy of the mercantilist program under French king Louis XIV but was never implemented in the US.
Never mind that when he did set up a joint company to establish a new manufacturing center in New Jersey the financier he named as chairman embezzled the money and spent the rest of his life in debtors’ prison.
Never mind that the only infrastructure the federal government created prior to the Civil War was contributions to the National Road. The rest was created by state government bond sales or the private sector.
Never mind that his primary aim was to create an American empire in alliance with Britain’s and that he announced his imperial objectives numerous times.
Never mind that he wrote the legislation for the Bank of the United States with the charter of the Bank of England sitting on his desk.
Never mind that his system of government finance was based on perpetual debt with taxes only being sufficient to pay the interest.
Never mind that his system was the forerunner of today’s $36.22 trillion federal government deficit that can never be paid off.
Never mind that the interest alone on the deficit is now almost $1 trillion a year.
Never mind that servicing the ever-growing deficit requires a worldwide system of neocolonialism and dollar hegemony that is the real cause of America’s regime of endless wars.
Of course the cultists don’t tell us any of these things. But Three Sages will. Stay tuned for a multi-installment series now in development.
They were against it but in those early days Hamilton had Washington's support. And they had no coherent alternative. Plus the US was not just broke but deeply in debt. Hamilton's plan was essentially begging the rich of Europe for a bailout
Yes, and hugely controversial. They got Jefferson, Madison, and Washington to go along by promising to locate the nation's capital on the Potomac River.