Alan Greenspan’s Deceitful Legacy – OpEd
The article equates Alan Greenspan’s monetary policy with theft, arguing that by inflating the money supply (targeting 2% inflation), the Fed steals purchasing power from savers and the public, similar to how bank robber Willie Sutton stole money directly.
Inflation benefits the government first through deficit spending and new money creation, while harming ordinary citizens whose dollars buy less over time, a process the author calls involuntary taxation by stealth.
The piece criticizes the praise for Greenspan’s low-inflation era, noting that true prosperity (as seen in tech or the late 19th century) can occur with falling prices and productivity growth, and that a gold standard or stable money supply would be preferable to fiat money manipulation.
When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton reportedly said, “Because that’s where the money is.”
That wasn’t necessarily a wisecrack, and Sutton denied having said it, though late in life he admitted, if he had been asked, that likely would be his reply. Success for some is measured by the amount of money they have, and banks are known to have lots of it. For a bank robber, it’s a matter of switching ownership of it through a threatened act of violence.
Sutton, though, was not a violent man and never killed anyone. The FBI described Sutton as being fond of expensive clothes and an immaculate dresser. He was also a master of disguises and acquired two nicknames: “The Actor” and “Slick Willie.” During robberies he carried a pistol and a Thompson submachine gun, neither loaded. In prison he befriended Mafioso Donald Frankos, a contract killer, who described Sutton as “a little bright-eyed guy, just 5’7” and always talking, chain-smoking cigarettes.”
In his “I, Willie Sutton” (1953) he said robbing banks gave him an emotional high: “I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. . . But to me the money was the........
