Josiah Stamp

“’The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again...
Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit’.” Sir Josiah Stamp Director, Bank of England 1928-1941
(reputed to be the 2nd richest man in Britain at the time)

"The government are very keen on amassing statistics. They collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But you must never forget that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn pleases." Josiah Stamp

"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities." Josiah Stamp

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with a flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits." Josiah Stamp

"The ethical aspect may be set out, and then the economic. Whose task is it to mix them; to combine? Certainly not anyone who, however skilled in one, is ignorant of the other. Surely, if the economist does not like the task or feel apt for it, he cannot complain if the parson essays it and, with the best of intentions and no discipline, reaches conclusions which do injustice to economics. It is a combined study of peculiar balance and interpretation, and perhaps has not yet developed a proper technique of its own." Josiah Stamp

• Presidential Quotes on Banking
  

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world, no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” Woodrow Wilson

Producer's Comment

• This quote attributed to Woodrow Wilson is widely used in the monetary reform community and is found in several reputable works, including Wikipedia. I used the quote in Money as Debt without finding an original source.
  

The research below indicates that this quote is cobbled together from quotes found in Wilson's book "the New Freedom", which itself is cobbled together from speeches Wilson made in 1911, before the Federal Reserve was established. However, if this is what Wilson thought before the Federal Reserve, how could further establishing the power of a "small group of dominant men" make Wilson happy?

The unhappiness of Woodrow Wilson

Did the president lament the day he "unwittingly ruined" his country by creating the Federal Reserve? Andrew Leonard [2007-12-21]