John Gordon

2 months ago | nysun.com | John Gordon

The “Department of Government Efficiency” is charged with cutting federal expenditures and there is a vast amount of low-hanging fruit to be picked. There are, for instance, no fewer than 13,808 suggestions that have been submitted by the various inspectors general for cutting government waste and fraud that have yet to be acted on by Congress.

Sep 9, 2024 | bankingjournal.aba.com | John Gordon

By John Steele GordonIn the endless wars between Britain and France in the 18th century, Britain had a secret weapon: It was a bank. The concept of a national debt did not exist before the end of the 17th century. Instead, kings, in effect, borrowed money from bankers and private citizens and were personally responsible for both the interest and principal.

Jul 22, 2024 | bankingjournal.aba.com | John Gordon

By John Steele GordonWith the establishment of the federal government on April 30, 1789, the first priority was to get the country’s disastrous fiscal situation under control. How important this was is evident from the fact that the Treasury Department, under Alexander Hamilton, soon had 40 employees, while Thomas Jefferson’s State Department had only five. Hamilton soon submitted bills to Congress to establish a tax system and to rationalize the public debt.

Jun 6, 2024 | bankingjournal.aba.com | John Gordon

By John Steele GordonIn 1921 there were 29,798 banks in operation in the United States. On March 6, 1933, there were none. Most American banks in 1921 were rural, single-branch, state-chartered and were not members of the Federal Reserve. Rural America had prospered as never before during the First World War, as the U.S. greatly increased agricultural exports to make up for the fall in European exports. But as European agriculture recovered beginning in 1919, that rural prosperity ended.

Apr 17, 2024 | marxist.com | John Gordon

“Blinken was so impatient that he almost snatched the binder out of Kristersson's hands”, is how Swedish bourgeois newspaper Aftonbladet reported on the Prime Minister of Sweden handing over the final NATO signatures to the US Secretary of State. Along with the new Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), the war hawks in Washington have got all they could ever have hoped for – and more.