Andrew Jackson on the Bank of the United States (central bank)

I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the Bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.

Source: http://kenhirsch.net/money/AndrewJacksonAndTheBankHenkels.pdf

How little has changed. Bankers are still threatening that if the government does not do as they request, we will all suffer economic ruin. Too bad we no longer have politicians like Andrew Jackson who was unwilling to help the bankers destroy the country. And, even then, the bankers were in a heads-we-win, tails-you-lose situation.