Peter Stone wrote:

>> If you truly want to facilitate a democratic banking system,  first,
>> eliminate all banking regulations.  Not an absurd notion if you have
>> confidence in the civil courts (to arbitrate disputes over money and
>> agreements) and in the criminal justice system (to define criminal acts
>> and then to detect, investigate, adjudicate and incarcerate criminals).
>> Second, promote (do not force) gold as the best choice for a global
>> standard.
>
>In practice, of course, even banks do not want this. They realize that it is
>was a pretty nutty world out there when banks were unregulated. There were
>enough bank panics in the wild and unregulated years of the 19th century to
>convince banks, consumers, and the business community that regulation of
>some sort was a necessity if bank difficulties were not to reverberate and
>collapse the economy. The only question is what sort of regulation will it
>be--would it benefit everyone, or just rich people.
Absolutely right. The above is just more ahistorical libertarian
nonsense. The Fed--hardly a popular, democratic institution--came into
existence to coopt and neuter the popular outrage against hard money and
privatized banking, which fueled the Populist movement, probably the last
true expression of popular democracy this country has seen. The end
result was faintly formal democratic control over credit, with the
substantive decisions remaining in the hands of the rich. So as you
rightly point out, the end result of regulation has left control in the
hands of elites, while at least meliorating its worst consequences.

A fine synopsis of the Populist challenge is found in William Greider's
"Secrets of the Temple." It makes humbling reading for people today who
want to assert control over the fundamental decisions that affect the
welfare of the many.

_________
Tresy Kilbourne, Seattle WA
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and
diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public,
or in some contrivance to raise prices."  --Adam Smith