ARTHUR HAILEY
From "THE MONEYCHANGERS"
* * *
It was, Alex thought, as if the toppling of a giant had brought home the realization that other giants, once thought invulnerable, could topple too, that neither individuals, not corporations, nor governments could escape forever the simplest accounting law of all -- that what you owed you must one day pay.
Lewis D'Orsey, who had preached that doctrine for two decades, had written much the same thing in his latest "Newsletter." Alex had received a new issue in the mail this morning, had glanced at it, then put it in his pocket to read more carefully tonight. Now he took it out.
"Do not believe the glibly touted myth," Lewis wrote, "that there is something complex and elusive, defying easy analysis, about corporate, national, or international finance.
"All are simply housekeeping -- ordinary housekeeping, on a larger scale.
"The alleged intricacies, the obfuscations and sinuosities are an imaginary thicket. They do not, in reality, exist, but have been created by vote-buying politicians (which means ALL politicians), manipulators, and Keynesian-diseased 'economists.' Together they use their witch doctor mumbo-jumbo to conceal what they are doing, and have done.
"What these bumblers fear is our simple scrutiny of their activities in the clear and honest light of common sense.
"For what they -- the politicians, mostly -- on one hand have created is Himalayas of debt which neither they, we, nor our great-great-great-grandchildren can ever pay. And, on the other hand, they have printed, as if producing toilet tissue, a cascade of currency, debasing our good money -- especially the honest, gold- backed dollars which Americans once owned.
"We repeat: It is all simply housekeeping -- the most flagrantly incompetent, dishonest housekeeping in human history.
"This, and this alone, is the basic reason for inflation."
There was more. Lewis preferred too many words, rather than too few.
Also, as usual, Lewis offered a solution to financial ills.
"Like a beaker of water for a parched and dying wayfarer, a solution is ready and available, as it has always been, and as it always will be.
"Gold.
"Gold as a base, once more, for the world's money systems.
"Gold, the oldest, the ONLY bastion of monetary integrity. Gold, the ONE source, incorruptible, of fiscal discipline.
"Gold, which politicians cannot print, or make, or fake, or otherwise debase.
"Gold which, because of its severely limited supply, establishes its own REAL, lasting value.
"Gold which, because of this consistent value and when a base for money, protects the honest savings of all people from pillaging by knaves, charlatans, incompetents, and dreamers in public office.
"Gold which, over centuries, has demonstrated:
" -- without it as a monetary base, there is inevitable inflation, followed by anarchy;
" -- with it, inflation can be curbed and cured, stability retained.
"Gold of which Americans once stated proudly their dollar was 'as good as.'
"Gold to which, someday soon, America must honorably return as its standard of exchange. The alternative -- becoming clearer daily -- is fiscal and national disintegration. Fortunately, even now, despite skepticism and anti-gold fanatics, there are signs of maturing views in government, of sanity returning...."
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