Let's Be a Democrat

I love quotes, because I am not the most creative writer.  So quotes do two things for me.  First, they get me thinking.  And Second they usually say it better than I can.  Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, and perhaps the first leader of the Democratic Party was an amazing speaker.  I wish they had recording devices in those days so we could actually listen to him.  I digress.  I ran into a quote attributed to him that is the base for this edition.  "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.  If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Wow!  I remember my Mom telling me that as she grew up in Southern Illinois, towns gaged their value by how many banks, churches, and taverns they had.  A town without a bank would always be small.  And that was pretty much true.  But I want to distinguish here between locally owned and operated banks and the large banks we have now.  Today we have many massive sized banks.  As I grew up in St. Louis, we had two large banks, Boatman's Bank and Mercantile Bank.  Both were gobbled up by larger out of town banks.  Both of those banks had good reason to care about their home town, and many of their shareholders were from the area.  When McDonnell Douglas needed a bank, they were there, it was good business.  When Anhueser Busch needed a bank, they were there.  When Monsanto needed a bank.. Well you get the picture.

Now that they are gone, Boeing was able to buy McDonnell Douglas, InBev was able to buy Anhueser Busch, and Monsanto while still independent, is not as big as it used to be.  Other great St. Louis Companies included Malinkrodt Chemical, Ralston Purina, Brown Shoe Company, International Shoe, Famous Barr, Stix Baer and Fuller, Venture Stores, May Department stores, Payless Shoe Source, Energizer on the larger side, and many small to medium size businesses.  But those were the good old days.

Let's look briefly at two of the companies mentioned above, Stix, Baer, and Fuller, and Anhueser Busch.  Stix as they were known was a full line department store, and number 2 in town to Famous Barr.  Look at what they did for their home town:  In the 1930s they sponsored a soccer team that won the national championship.  In 1955 they contributed funds to build the first public television studio in the country, and the station named the building after them.  The Boy Scouts of Saint Louis area still visit S-F Scout ranch, S-F stands for Stix, Baer, and Fuller on property the Stix family helped buy in the 1960s.  In 1984, they were bought by Dillard's Department stores of Arkansas.  Funny, but no other moves by Dillard's, except to sell product to St. Louisans.

Anhueser Busch was pretty much a family business that went public.  They did many charitable works, shipping water to natural disasters, helping local organizations stay afloat, they had a budget for managers that the managers could use for charity, merchandise for a local auction etc. It was the largest brewery in the world at one point, and still the largest in the US at the time of the InBev takeover.  There was a brief attempt to stop the purchase, and one way is to turn the tables and buy the buyer.  Gussie would have done that.  He would have made a call to Mercantile or Boatman's or both and InBev would be a division of a US company.  But at the time of the takeover, there was no Boatman's or Mercantile...  And the charitable budgets have been eliminated for the most part, I wonder if they help out in Belgium...  They still want to sell you beer.

Advertisment

Some of our economic troubles, perhaps many, are related to big banks.  Congress has passed legislation to control bank fees, because of lack of competition in that market.  Government regulation is interference in the market, but these banks are so large, the market has to pay homage to them, they no longer compete with as many institutions.  Lack of competition breeds government regulation, and restricts the economic liberty of the country.  So, several years ago we were told these banks were too big to fail.

But maybe failure of the big banks would readjust banking economics to a more local venue.  Perhaps they should have failed because they screwed up.  Maybe had they failed, our economy would be in better shape today. 

So I want to be a Jeffersonian Democrat.  Unfortunately, there is no Jeffersonian Democratic party in the United States.  In fact, neither of the two major parties seem to care one way or the other about localities, only their national power, and the ability to get rich.  They are to use an OWS phrase the 1%.  Jefferson would have been an advocate for local control.  Our founders distrusted large national government which is why they reserved the powers not enumerated in the Constitution to the states, or to the people.  If there were more George's (It's a Wonderful Life) and less corporate executroids, maybe we would be better off? 

Spend Wisely!