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Acton Institute/Samuel Gregg/6-30-2010
“Accompanied by Mephistopheles, Faust attends the court of a ruler whose empire is facing financial ruin because of profligate government spending. Rather than urging the emperor to be more fiscally responsible, Mephistopheles — disguised, revealingly, as a court jester — suggests a different approach, one with disturbing parallels to our own age.”
USAGOLD note: Dr. Jens Weidmann, President of Germany’s Bundesbank, made reference to Goethe’s treatment of money printing as a Faustian bargain in a speech delivered in 2012 (See below). For a scholarly approach to that section of Goethe’s famous play, Faust, we post the link to Samuel Gregg’s short essay above. All posted on a Friday for those looking for something to delve into over the weekend. We thought it a fitting addition to the board after Mario Draghi’s announcement yesterday that the ECB would launch a new round of quantitative easing for the European Union.
Money creation and responsibility/Jens Weidmann/Bank-Historical Research conference/9-18-2012
“Let me remind you briefly of the ‘money creation’ scene in Act One of the Second Part of Faust. Mephistopheles, disguised as a fool, talks to the Emperor, who is in severe financial distress, and says
“In this world, what isn’t lacking, somewhere, though? Sometimes it’s this, or that: here’s what’s missing’s gold.”
The Emperor finally responds to Mephistopheles’ subtle attempt to persuade him,
“I’m tired of the eternal ‘if and when’: We’re short of gold, well fine, so fetch some then.”
To which Mephistopheles replies
“I’ll fetch what you wish, and I’ll fetch more.”
–– from Jens Weidmann’s speech
Source: USA gold
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