Jefferson on the Public Debt
The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia Thomas Jefferson was relegated to the $2 bill. The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia is a collection of Thomas Jefferson’s writings. In this letter on public debt, Jefferson recognized that the dollar bill is an I. O. U., not actual capital. This fact seems to have faded in the minds of the gulls, as Jefferson puts it, despite a clear statement to that effect on every dollar bill. Give me debt, that's what I want. In modern terms, the Federal Reserve Bank decides on a dollar amount that it needs to borrow to stimulate the growth of new businesses or to fund a war, then it prints dollars to symbolize the debt. When you and I then borrow the dollars, we take on a portion of the Fed’s debt. Once we own the dollar bills, we pay interest on the dollars that the Fed borrowed. The Fed borrows not just interest-free, but at a profit. Can you imagine lending somebody money, then paying them a small sum every day to thank them for borrowing from you? I wish th...
