Morning Walk

Too cold for a walk. Last year, I wanted to keep it regular and would bundle up and force the walk. I am not feeling that way now.

Alexander Hamilton

For Alexander Hamilton, when it came to the issue of having a central bank, it was worth accepting a little greed for the general prosperity that followed.

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Aware of the widespread prejudice against banks, Hamilton knew he needed to set out their advantages. Echoing Adam Smith, he showed how gold and silver, if locked up in a merchant’s chest, were sterile. Deposit them in a bank, however, and these dead metals sprang to life as “nurseries of national wealth,” forming a credit supply several times larger than the coins heaped in the bank’s vaults. In contemporary parlance, Hamilton wished to increase the money supply and the speed with which it circulated. Due to scarce money, many deals were being done as barter; in the south, warehouse receipts for tobacco often doubled as money. In contrast, a central bank would provide liquid capital that would promote the ease, freedom, and efficiency of commerce.

-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”

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The problem is that greed has a way of growing and taking over the system.

The Torah and the Golden Rule

“That which is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah, the rest is just commentary.”

-- Hillel the Elder