Charles Mackay Quotes
Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.
Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Vol. 1, 2nd ed., Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852, p. viii.
The military had made a mess of the Argentine economy and inflation was rampant. Some Argentines turned their Argentine pesos into dollars betting that the Argentine economic situation would get worse, This run from the peso would make it worse. If Argentina stabilized the peso, speculators in dollars would lose money. The Minister trying to discourage a run from the peso, warned Argentinians against the dollar investment. A days later the dollar went up over 30%. Those who had listened to the minister lost much of their money, He was soon forced to resign by the military dictators who controlled the government.
Speculation meant real estate investment and business.
The “Fed Note” was the term for a Federal Reserve Note. It was a then a new form of paper money issued by the Federal Reserve Banks instead of the Treasury department as the previous United States Notes had been. The United States was a guarantor of the Federal Reserve Notes in case the Federal Reserve defaulted and there were many who feared having the responsibility to back up the Federal Reserve notes which could be issued by the Federal Reserve Banks—not government entities and not under the control of the President or Congress.
There was a financial crisis in the country and the world when highly risky home mortgage loans defaulted leaving investors and speculators in mortgage-backed securities in a poor position. The investors had been reaping very high interest rates for their risky investments, but this was the first time that this form of risky investment had failed. The investors, of course were looking for a bailout from government. When the Bush administration failed to bail out investment bank, Lehman, there was a panic and the banking system of the country and much of the world froze up. Bush and his Secretary reversed their bailout of speculators policy and provided various assistants and bailouts to the very bankers and other investors who had caused the economic meltdown. The policy was continued by the Obama administration although the bailouts were just as distasteful to Obama as they were to Bush, but most economists agree that the two presidents very distasteful and unpopular bailout actions probably saved the nation from a massive depression. After being bailed out by the taxpayers, the Bankers then paid themselves exorbitant bonuses while the results of their management put 10 percent of the country out of work.
Charles Mackay was a Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter, remembered mainly for his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
