-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Finally, in what has become the most famous exchange in the [House Banking and Currency subcommittee 1912 "money trust"] hearings' thousands of pages of testimony, the two men returned to the question of controlling money and credit. [Samuel] Untermyer [vocal critic of the "money trust", committee counsel] said, "The basis of banking is credit, is it not?" Morgan: "Not always. that is an evidence of banking, but it is not the money itself. Money is gold, and nothing else." There was in 1912 a significant difference between actual metal coin and loans represented by paper (banknotes, bonds, bills). When Morgan repeated yet again that money could not be controlled, Untermyer asked whether credit was not based on money -- that is, did not the big New York banks issue loans to certain men and institutions "because it is believed that they have the money back of them?" Morgan: No sir. It is because people believe in the man." Untermyer: "And he might not be worth anything?" Morgan, with less than perfect regard for grammar: "He might not have anything. I have known a man to come into my office, and I have given him a check for a million dollars when they had not a cent in the world." Untermyer: "That is not business?" Morgan: "Yes, unfortunately, it is. I do not think it is good business, though." Untermyer did not, apparently, think much of this answer, for he repeated his proposition: "Is not commercial credit based primarily on money or property?" Morgan: "No sir; the first thing is character." Untermyer: "Before money or property?" Morgan: "Before money or property or anything else. Money cannot buy it" - -- and he elaborated, after a few more questions -- because a man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom." - -- From _Morgan:_American_Financier_, by Jean Strouse. Random House, New York, 1999 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 6.5.2 iQEVAwUBOYr6icUCGwxmWcHhAQFiAgf8DeMLgkK5p69cfxQ1gN8CsK6UJCgzke9d QOzQL1RwbBZd1e5Pyl5Qt/iHUokWZi/tug42nSof5OJHiVpwcBI2Dl2k9tG5cn6G vGpzYw+DfdX7oLRRSwmhKZ25dzgay975NnIKP2QrUfSOM2ygY/Bd+eleYgu1X4im JSv7RFKyAnm348twu4V526mwW5mi0O1doteXJr5cDAMN9yAaIv3RzsEjsbXswuS4 Z2P6Fba8s/0n/ZWMI8cw2F74TtZyO+aUnIRbCLdVBLVB6wnbT4D4gwu3TClhK+0c 6mBOTLgRKyGPNOSVbP6nMB2rptqCf3d9Z/1mViRb8MvQqnJT7KtmlA== =uL9R -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
