Opinion: Boom and bust in the 1870s

Posted in News September 26, 2009 - 11:11am, Bernard Hickey

By Neville Bennett New Zealand's history has a strong theme of boom and bust. Its rhythm is associated with the international economy and export prices. The social impact was usually immediate: booms were associated with greater trade, greater debt, more immigrants, marriages, children, drink and bigger houses. The busts were dramatic with collapsing house and farm prices, emigration, and unemployment. My research into NZ history was initially a study of prices and the effect of changes. I was fascinated by the evidence of cycles and the robustness of French methodology used by the Annales School, especially the insights of Fernand Braudel. A lot of my research is rather technical, relating to Kondratieff's but my purpose here is to illustrate the boom and bust in the Victorian period for general readers. I selected this topic on the urging of Bryan Crump of the Nights programme of Radio NZ where I am a regular contributor as their economics contributor. I will be covering other periods too in print and sound.

The Boom; beginnings New Zealand's prosperity before the 1970's was closely associated with the British market for goods, services and capital. British recessions, as in 1868, 1879, and 1885, brought marked falls in NZ exports. Similarly when export values were high, migrants crowded in: 93,000 arrived 1861-5 but only 29,000 in 1881-85. In recessions, there was net emigration in 1886-1890, and 1931-1935. British interest in New Zealand arose when it could provide a staple product that was non-perishable with a high value/low volume characteristic such as gold. Wool was more important, Britain's demand had outrun the possibility of European supply, and New Zealand had obvious potential; bring successive waves of population to the South Island. Greasy wool fetched 15 pence a pound in the 1860 and early 1870's, an extraordinary figure. For the period 1850-70, NZ's exports grew at a compound rate of 13.3% p.a. which I believe was the world's fastest. But when London sneezed, New Zealand caught a cold. Financial crises were rapidly transmitted through capital and labour flows as well as interest rates and markets. This is well known for the 1930's, 1987 and 2007-9, but crises in 1866, 1873 and 1879 are interesting. The collapse of Overend Gurney, a London bank in 1866 was quickly transmitted to New Zealand through the collapse of some banks (Commercial, Banking Corporation, and Bank of Auckland.) Many wool farmers were embarrassed by a fall in wool prices of 40%, and many who had secured an advance on the wool-clip, had to return substantial amounts. A huge number of bankruptcies followed, with high unemployment and distress. However, a recovery quickly promoted prosperity. 1873-1879: the biggest crash of all The crash of 1873 so jolted Britain that the value of its 1873 exports was not exceeded until 1899. Similarly NZ trade per capita in 1873 was â‚¤40, a figure not exceeded until 1913. New Zealand's internal prices went from an index of 164 in 1873 to 127 in 1879 and 102 in 1887. Wool fell from 15p in 1873 to 8.75p in 1879. Fine wool was 16p in 1873 and it did not reach that price again until 1944! But NZ retained an air of prosperity. This was helped by a record number of immigrants in 1874 (38,000 net) and a strong stimulus from Vogel-type spending. It also became a preferred market for British capital; Australasia absorbed 40% of British capital exports. Vogel raised massive loans in the UK to develop rail, telegraph, ports and other infrastructure, as well as introducing migrants with cheap passages. His scheme functioned as a Keynsian stimulus that mitigated the shock of 1873. He planned to pay for the loans with land-sales, especially those adjacent to new rail lines. This land did appreciate, often from one pound to 25 in Canterbury. However, the gains were privatised at the cost of rising public debt. The availability of capital and the desire of banks to invest in land led to an incredible boom. Bank advances exceeded deposits by 132%. I calculate that land prices increased by 500% 1874-9. The crash came when the City of Glasgow Bank went bust in 1868. British lenders reviewed New Zealand and re-rated it downwards. It entered a terrible depression that lasted until 1895. Reflections on the boom There is something incredibly exciting about the 1860' and 1870's. It was probably the world's fastest"“growing economy. Its population doubled between 1866 and 1876. Birthrates and immigration were high, increasing the population by 9.59% p.a. If that rate were maintained, there would be 2 billion kiwis today! There have been few booms in world history to match New Zealand in this period, the number of houses increase of 8% p.a., an addition of another twelve for every existing home. Directed by Vogel's capital-raising, railways and ports developed extraordinarily. There is no other boom of this in New Zealand's history. Unfortunately, the debt ran up was a millstone on subsequent generations. The bust in 1879 was terrible for families. Without reliable work people squashed into over-crowded rooms, even though immigration fell to only one twentieth of boom rates. Births fell by 10% and in 1879 34% of babies died in their first year as epidemic raged unchecked. The marriage rate fell by one-third, and salaries were cut by 10%. The Depression 1879-1895 My research shows that in the Great Depression of the 1880's re-orientated society. New Zealand found itself priced out of many markets. Its exports were sluggish and it began import-substituting activity. The economy could afford fewer imports, which fell 50% in per capita terms by 1895. While exports remained important, much production was internally orientated: construction, foodstuffs, printing as well as export preparation. Deflation depressed prices by 43% in the period 1873-1895, or about 2% p.a. Assets eroded, cash was king allowing some to accumulate, or find profitable outlets in manufacturing and shipping. Much labour was placed on a piecework or casual basis. Many rural households appear to have relied on their land to provided most of their needs, although contract or casual work (e.g. at harvest-time) brought welcome cash. The labour market was very tight, and employers increased the proportion of women and children in their employ. The standard of living declined: between 1878 and 1895 household consumption of imported goods fell by two-thirds. Wealth per capita did not increase during the depression but increased rapidly in the upturn. New Zealand had many youthful dependent children who were generally expected to pull their weight and work hard, often milking in the morning before school and delivering milk, meat papers afterwards. Some school districts opened only 150 days and many of those were half days. Holidays depended on the crops grown. One farmer was typical; he sent his kids to school when there was no work on the farm. I am not sure there were "children" as we use the term today, to some extent people seemed to go from infant to young adult, most of whom had many chores and later started work at an early age. I searched very detailed customs data for "toys" but could not find any. Falling wool prices after 1891 threatened the financial sector in a way reminiscent of the dairy industry today. Banks had foreclosed on collateral and had vast land holdings. The BNZ was the largest land-holder. In June 1893 it warned the government it would have to close its doors unless it received support. It was "too big to fail", and won support. The huge NZ Loan and Mortgage was allowed to fail. There was innovation. Refrigeration appeared in the 1880's but was of no benefit until British prices rose in the 1990' 1890s. In 1887 it cost 2.5p to land meat in London where it retailed for 3.5p. Freezing companies often made losses. Refrigeration was a consequence of prosperity rather than its cause. The meat trade was profitable only when England boomed, in depression New Zealand was an indigent price- taker. The recession underlined its dependence on the international economy for capital and markets. Some brief conclusions: 1. NZ closely linked to UK, shared its prosperity and downturns. 2. Although domestic activity was large, in land development, infrastructure and housing, much of the capital was imported. 3. Debt per capita was 30 pounds in 1970 and 60 pounds in 1896. Debt was a big strain on budgets. 4. The depression was extraordinary long but some industries grew within a stagnating economy. Deflation was about 2% p.a.1879-1895. 5. Society was amazingly responsive to the economy. There were 4 people per household in boom, over 6 in slump, the marriage rate varied similarly. 6. New Zealand was dragged out of the depression by improved British prices after 1895: the turn-around was very abrupt, I will explain why in detail in about 3 weeks. ____________ * Neville Bennett was a long-time Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Canterbury, where he taught since 1971. His focus is economic history and markets. He is also a columnist for the NBR where a version of this item first appeared. neville@bennetteconomics.com www.bennetteconomics.com

30 Comments

by Steve Netwriter | 26 Sep 09, 11:43am

Can I recommend the radio

Can I recommend the radio interview series with Neville to anyone who hasn't heard it.
I've listed them all, with the mp3 links so you can download them, here:

Dr. Neville Bennett Economic Historian at the University of Canterbury Interview Series on Radio New Zealand
http://www.neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/node/1941

I really enjoyed listening to your interviews Neville. In fact I've listened twice now, and intend to listen again.

Are there any more interviews with you anywhere else?
I wish I had your knowledge of economic history.

by AndrewJ | 26 Sep 09, 11:55am

Neville Its interesting to read

Neville
Its interesting to read of past depressions and how regular they were. My great grandfather wrote a diary which my grandfather continued up to the Mid sixties. The 1880's they called the lost decade or the hungry decade. They farmed in Wanaka but lost the farm,moved to Cromwel but a huge flood took most of the stock as well as many Chinese gold miners. They moved to work for an Englishman in Canterbury before finally settling in the east coast of the North island. It was a hard slog for Scottish immigrants and the family was bailed out by the family in Scotland twice.
We appear to readily forget the struggles and lessons our ancestors often learnt the hard way. Today many of my farming friends who were over optimistic in the last decade get to pay for it in greatly diminished circumstances. The one difference appears to be the fact that they will be left to farm rather than face bankruptcy and eviction from their homes. Left working in peonage to large Australian banks who wish to get their pound of flesh rather than have to market to market, huge losses in the rural property market.

by AndrewJ | 26 Sep 09, 12:05pm

That was a diary my

That was a diary my grandfathers kept they had a dairy cow. This fonterra stuff has got to me, every thing is about dairy.

by Chris_J | 26 Sep 09, 1:44pm

Neville, how many of NZ

Neville, how many of NZ banks actually collapsed in the 1890's.

A quick look on the National Library's newspaper collection:

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

suggests that it's only good luck that some of today's biggest Australasian banks survive.

Bank of New Zealand and the Commercial Bank of Australia both narrowly avoided been liquidated.

The Colonial Bank, The Commercial Bank, Nelson Savings Bank were all liquidated in the 1890s.

Obviously a property collapse post gold boom was partly responsible for the banking collapses but was the 1870s' crash really bigger than what happened in the 1890s?

Interesting just as an example, a property on the Corner of Rattray and Bond Sts in Central Dunedin's banking district, sold for 14,000pounds in 1882, as land value for a 330m2 site. A similar size property with a substantial 3 storey building on it about on the other side of Rattray St sold for $22,000 in the early 1990s.

That means that after 110 years the property was worth less in nominal terms!!

14,000pounds in today's dollars is something like $4m. The current land value on that property is $400,000 - so who says that today's property values are high!!

by Harriet | 26 Sep 09, 3:04pm

1882 Dunedin was the 'capital

1882 Dunedin was the 'capital of the world' ( or there abouts) for the gold trade ( Otago Goldfields). That's what happens to property when an asset boom, whatever it is, implodes. The key was to sell in 1881, before the 'rules' changed!

by Chris_J | 26 Sep 09, 9:15pm

Some other Australasian bank failures:

The Federal Bank (Australia) 1893
The Mercantile Bank (Melbourne) 1892
Nelson Savings Bank 1899
Colonial Bank of New Zealand 1895 (one of the largest banks in NZ customers taken over by BNZ)
Bank of South Australia 1894 (required a 10pound per share call from stockholders)
Bank of Van Diemans Land 1891
City of Melbourne Bank 1895 (Directors and auditors tried for fraud)
Real Estate Bank (Melbourne) 1893
Imperial Bank (Australia) 1893
Queensland National Bank 1893
British and Australian Land Banking Co 1891
Mortgage Insurance Corporation 1895 (suffered heavy losses insuring bank deposits in Aus)

Commercial Bank of Australia (was in liquidation but restructured in 1896)
Bank of New Zealand (in 1895 was in to be put liquidation but restructured by NZ Govt and incorporated The Colonial Bank's customers)

Obviously the 1890s weren't a good time to be an Antipodean banker.

It seems that the current financial crisis pales in comparison to earlier events. A lesson could be that allowing prices to deflate is not a tonic for economic prosperity, (despite what the Bernards out there believe!)

by AndrewJ | 27 Sep 09, 7:44am

trouble coming, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambro

trouble coming,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/623493...

by Daniel Porter | 27 Sep 09, 7:56am

The above articles are very

The above articles are very interesting and it is good to look to history, so to avoid future mistakes.

From 1860 to 1900, the world was politically, socially and conducting business was very different and totally alien from today.

Most of the countries of the world were still colonies and controlled by a few dominate nations and the people living in these colonies had little or no say in the politics or business decisions at all. Even people living in the dominate nations had more rights but still very controlled by a powerful few.

The communications were really by mail and sailing ships and over long distances could take months. Telegraph and telephones were just only invented and very limited to the dominate nations in a small scale.

The best time to look at history to try and avoid future mistakes would from 1920 to the present,

by Steptoe (Steps) | 27 Sep 09, 9:36am

Daniel Porter... I disagree...it is

Daniel Porter... I disagree...it is very easy to say communication where slow and colonial influences made it different..
but when one compares how things still rippled around the world, as it dose do so today , From Russia to Vienna to London, New York..New Zealand....the same things happened...basically for the same reasons..over leveraging, borrowing on future income during a boom.
And the Colonial asspect...althu the structure may have been different, the essence of how that structure worked simply replaces colonialism with 'corporate colonialism'

I draw a parrell....slavary was abolished after 1000s of yrs...has this 'system' disaperared?...no....we have a automatic washing machine...dishwasher...we still feed it with power, we still house it with its own sparse quarters..we still 'dispose' of it when it doesnt do its job. The 'slavery system' still to this day remains an intricate part of modern life.
The unfortunate part of the human psychic has always been our ego...every generation believes it superior to previous generations, more knowledgeable, and that we live in times dramatically different to yesterday...
Yes technology is upgraded, but how we socialise, out thought patterns, why we go to war, why banks fall, all remain the same......We just get more efficient , using machine guns instrad of spears, communications are quicker....but when boiled down, nothing has changed from 1000s of yrs ago.
Our egos and greed cause booms and crashes...those of us who have learnt from the past tend to remain reasonably secure, those who dont hit the bread line...just as in the past.

The sad part is people like Neville who tend to post warnings in a boom are written off as doomsayers, then when the proverbial has hit the wall, their articles become very interesting' by the same people who wrote them off a few months previous.

by Iain Parker | 27 Sep 09, 10:00am

And when you cut through

And when you cut through the mustard they were all on the ebbing tides of credit money supply controlled by the privately owned international central banking network.
Predatory lending is a very simple practice once you cut through the knee deep jargon, loan a system more created credit money than you know it can ever repay, then put it into receivership and drive all the real assets into the hands of your corporate subsidiaries:

"Robert H. Hemphill, Credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in the Great Depression, wrote in 1934:

"We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon."

In the Foreword to Irving Fisher, 100% Money (1935), reprinted by Pickering and Chatto Ltd. (1996)."
http://publiccreditorbust.blog.com/2009/07/24/from-backed-money-to-fresh...

"WASHINGTON -- A recent analysis of the 2007 financial markets of 48 countries has revealed that the world's finances are in the hands of just a few mutual funds, banks, and corporations. This is the first clear picture of the global concentration of financial power, and point out the worldwide financial system's vulnerability as it stood on the brink of the current economic crisis........... Based on their analysis, Glattfelder and Battiston identified the ten investment entities who are "big fish" in the most countries. The biggest fish was the Capital Group Companies, with major stakes in 36 of the 48 countries studied. In identifying these major players, the physicists accounted for secondary ownership -- owning stock in companies who then owned stock in another company -- in an attempt to quantify the potential control a given agent might have in a market."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14934

"All four big Australian banks are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. None have shareholders that have a controlling interest, and their shares are spread around fairly diversely, especially among themselves. While they don't have direct shareholdings in other banks (and are not allowed to by Australian competition law) they do invest customers' money on under their name. According to their respective 2004 Annual Reports for instance, ANZ Nominees is the sixth largest shareholder of Westpac ordinary shares and Westpac Custodian Nominees is the third largest shareholder of ANZ shares. And on it goes.

But in among all that mutual ownership are two big American banks with significant shareholdings (on behalf of their customers) in all four Australian banks; JP Morgan Chase and Citicorp.

JP Morgan Nominees is the largest shareholder of Westpac and CBA with 17.09% and 9.60% holdings respectively. It is also the second largest shareholder of NAB with 10.32% holdings, and its affiliated company, Chase Nominees, is the second largest shareholder of ANZ, with 13.26% of the company."
http://www.finsec.org.nz/flash/flash_0805/following_the_money.aspx

"One thing is for sure Westpac is not majority owned by Australians. As you will see in the links below at least 50% of the company is owned by foreigners largely hidden in nominee companies."
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/banking/wpac97.html

As I have often said, if this was not so serious it would be bloody funny just how plain and simple this thing is at the core. Those protecting the greatest wealth transfering system ever conspired surround it with boring rants that make the average persons eyes go to the back of their heads within two paragraphs.

by Raf | 27 Sep 09, 12:30pm

Steptoe is right.......leverage is the

Steptoe is right.......leverage is the bottom line in all aspects of banking and we have countless examples going back at least 400 years. Neville's article is interesting but Fred Harrison has done the research on property and banking busts going back 400 years. It's a must read for any serious student of historical cycles.

Here's a small piece on it...

http://sustento.org.nz/credit-crunched/

by Wally | 27 Sep 09, 1:05pm

AndrewJ, how do you read

AndrewJ, how do you read that Telegraph report? Credit crunch to grow a second leg?

by AndrewJ | 27 Sep 09, 1:13pm

Wally ,more like gangrene.

by W. Kunz | 27 Sep 09, 1:31pm

....ho ho looking at the

....ho ho looking at the two last comments - we are crawling back to the stone age- bought property in Takaka- just joking.

by Ross | 27 Sep 09, 3:10pm

Based on the Fred Harrison

Based on the Fred Harrison analysis given in the link from Raf we are in for a L shaped recovery from this mess. ( Although I think there might a small W in front of it , because there are still a few blind optimists out there. One is named Bernanke )

by Steptoe (Steps) | 27 Sep 09, 3:56pm

Raf Says: "Steptoe is right"

Raf Says:
"Steptoe is right"
Now that scares me..
I know I have 'different' logic at looking at things, which in many cases is rather basic and simplistic, with lay person teminlogoly....I dont mind you guys scratching your heads...but when ppl start to see what Im getting at....thinking it thru, to the nth degree , thats not normal for most people.

by neville | 27 Sep 09, 5:36pm

There are some terrific posts

There are some terrific posts here. iain realy interesting. andew right into it''...would like to hear more family history. Chris_J fantastic detail..could Chris give me a source?

by Chris_J | 27 Sep 09, 10:17pm

Neville All that info is

Neville

All that info is from newspaper articles from the National Library website:

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

Just search under "articles" for content type, I used the keywords "bank" and "liquidation". There are about 7,000 results across all the papers, I just scanned through the first few hundred to look for interesting articles.

You'll note that there are literally thousands of articles (almost daily) written about the Colonial Bank's liquidation, which was obviously a massive event in NZ at the time, even involving intervention by Parliament.

There's lots of interesting tidbits in the articles. Obviously the 1890s were a period of international banking crises, with articles about banking collapses in France, Argentina and Britain.

by Steven | 28 Sep 09, 5:17am

Since these cycles always re-appear,

Since these cycles always re-appear, my conclusion is, they always will....at some point some "bright sparks" will think themselves clever enough to avoid the mistakes their "bright sparks" predecessors made and do it all again......but of course it will be the ordainary ppl who suffer the most....again. It would be nice to think it could be avoided but realistically legislation past today would be dis-mantled by another Reagan/Greenspan in a generation or two....(which means they are alive today so somebody should shoot them now!)

So I can but assume that as my and younger generations lack the collective memory of the great depression, we will over-optimistically continue doing as we have done until such time as the rug is pulled out from under our feet...at which point we will break our noses...

regards

by Wally | 28 Sep 09, 6:14am

Gangrene! yep I think that's

Gangrene! yep I think that's about it AJ. The smell is drifting through the western economies. I see the mortgagee sales have increased here in Noddyland. So much for a property "recovery". Just lost my breakfast when Jimbo showed up on tv, followed by that blatt shipley and then to top the nightmare off, Clark!

by Steptoe (Steps) | 28 Sep 09, 6:32am

Steven ..the penny dropped m8...u

Steven ..the penny dropped m8...u sum up exactly what I have been saying for 18 + months here now...
Steven you have come to a conclusion...but I dont think that you have yet "thought it thru, to the nth degree , thats not normal for most people"

This then posses the question...has this crisis been fairly place on the shoulders of the baby boomers? Or have the baby boomers created a very prosperous time ruining up to the boom and the "younger generations lack the collective memory" (even of the oil crisis s and the 80s crash) screwed it?
Do the baby boomers show predominately in the record mortgaugee sales now taking place?
If you look around at your colleges, I assume u work in some financial industry, the policy makers predominately baby boomers?.

by john kelly | 28 Sep 09, 8:27am

Very interesting and erudite information

Very interesting and erudite information on the money/business/debt cycles of previous generations. The thing seems to be that productivity of people in building real wealth is always dependent on the means of exchange of that wealth ie the money tokens, which is where the manner of creation of the money supply is so pivotal. The cycles crash through the accumulation of debt and the working out of that debt liability through long years afterwards. I am continually amazed by the blind spot evident in 'mainstream' commentary, towards exposing the way creation of money supply happens, and the way society has been conditioned to accept that the privately controlled banking system should have this 'licence' when they are thereby controlling the sovereign right of a nation to manage their economy without debt. I would love to see you do research on the creation of fiat money through the responsible use of 'government bills of credit' which would create money supply without the accumulation of a national debt, vs the current system of government bonds which mean we allow the banking system to create the money as a debt-bearing instrument, which can only be extinguished by the repayment of compounding interest over many years, a burden on generations of taxpayers and gives the banking system it's obscene compounding profits - are we hypnotised, or are our 'economic experts' brainwashed by their education?
Over to you, Neville ;o)

by Alastair | 28 Sep 09, 8:28pm

john kelly, That was well

john kelly,

That was well put, unfortunately I fear Neville may not reply to you.

But I'm glad to see more and more people are becoming aware of the money = debt system we have as well as other issues. I think it's due to the power of the internet and it's ability to inform more people.

Cheers,

by Iain Parker | 28 Sep 09, 9:17pm

Alistair - Being someone who

Alistair - Being someone who appears to give a stuff, check out below to see what the Corporate Raider influenced Cabinet Executive have been upto while most of Caucus and the House would remain blissfully unaware of the consequences , firstly from WorldBank:

WASHINGTON, DC, April 29, 2008"”The Multilateral Investment Guaran-tee Agency (MIGA)"”a member of the World Bank Group"”said today that New Zealand has become its newest shareholder, bringing MIGA's total member countries to 172.

New Zealand signed MIGA's Convention, completed the ratification process and made its initial capital contribution to the agency in order to become a full member of MIGA. The resulting membership enables eligible companies in New Zealand seeking to invest in developing economies to receive MIGA's guarantee coverage, which protects investments against the risks of transfer restriction, expropriation, breach of contract, and war and civil dis-turbance (including terrorism)."
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21749427~men...

Then take note our increased drawing of SDRs from the IMF in this:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/exporta.aspx?memberkey1=710&date1...

Then take note of our projected increases in interest payments in this:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/exfin2.aspx?memberKey1=710&date1k...

Anyone feel like a Mushroom, fed crap and kept in the dark.

by neville | 28 Sep 09, 10:11pm

John Kelly I am interested

John Kelly

I am interested in how economies regularly run into crises. There is a tendency to over-rapid expansion and over-confidence which comes to grief in response to a shock. Mant assets prove to be over-valued, and renewed growth is difficult until the mess is cleaned up.
The invitation to create government credit without debt is hard for me to research, though Major Douglas did much work on social credit. I have a few other things on my plate at present so cannot get ito it. Sorry

by Iain Parker | 29 Sep 09, 4:10am

Many other things on your

Many other things on your plate Neville, what could be more important at present and relevant to economies regularly running into crisis than the age old battle over the monopolisation of the credit money supply? Face it Neville you are another apathetic proponent of the privately owned international central banking network and all the misery it causes. I only hope you end up tortured by your inaction when you had the chance to help make a difference, just like the likes of Woodrow Wilson and Roosevelt

Toggle down to The Goldsborough bill:
http://www.michaeljournal.org/plenty50.htm

Woodrow Wilson
"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."
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Woodrow.Wilson.Quote.51CE

by Doug | 29 Sep 09, 5:20am

Such narcism to account for

Such narcism to account for the boom of 1870. The great boom was built on plundered land. The wealth of this country has always been at the cost of the indigenous people of New Zealand. It still is.

by Steve Netwriter | 29 Sep 09, 6:54am

John Kelly +1 This guy

John Kelly
+1

This guy gets it, and also explains it very well:

Bernard Lietaer Author of The Future of Money
http://neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/forum/50

One day his ideas will become mainstream. I hope.

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