not far from royalty

That’s because the institution itself is fatally flawed.

If the American or European central bank broke down, and investigations were held into the relationships, all holy hell would likely break loose.

How can it be otherwise?

These central banks are run by small groups of (mostly) men, who grow up with each other and go to the same clubs and run in the same social circles and have the same interests.

For all of the wrong reasons:

  1. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said yesterday that the U.S. government is wary of challenging the financial industry…
  2. Economic historian Niall Ferguson asks, “Guess which institutions are among the biggest lobbyists and campaign-finance contributors?”
  3. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas agrees, “The too-big-to-fail financial industry has been good to elected officials and former elected officials…”
  4. Investment analyst and financial writer Yves Smith says, “Major financial players [have gained] control…”
  5. William K. Black – the senior regulator during the S&L crisis, and an Associate Professor of both Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – says, “There has been no honest examination of the crisis because it would embarrass CEOs and politicians…”
  6. Harvard professor of government Jeffry A. Frieden says, “Regulatory agencies are often sympathetic to the industries they regulate. This pattern is so well known among scholars that it has a name: regulatory capture.”