Translated material
Brief history of the dollar
The microphone has Vladimir Abarinov with his historical report.
Vladimir Abarinov: "Take Lenin from money!" - once asked the poet Andrei Voznesensky, addressing the "comrades from the Central Committee." But the comrades not only did not heed the request, but also considered it seditious.
The Americans have long been accustomed to the appearance of their currency. They consider it quite natural to place portraits of statesmen on the banknotes, and not scientists or, say, art masters. However, there is still one scientist with American money-Benjamen Franklin, but he got into a 100-dollar bill not for his scientific discoveries, but for being one of the founding founders of the United States. Moreover, the artist portrayed him without two -focus glasses, which Franklin invented and wore.
The law says that on banknotes it is impossible to place images of people who are still alive. The decision on whose portraits to print on banknotes is the exceptional competence of the US Minister of Finance. The current set of personalities was determined in 1928. The then Minister of Finance Andrew Melllon, who held this position under three presidents, established a special commission, which made the list: George Washington - on a bill of one dollar, Abraham Lincoln - for five dollars, Alexander Hamilton - ten, ten,
Andrew Jackson-twenty, Ulysses Grant-at 50 and Franklin in a hundred.
With the exception of the First Minister of Finance of the United States Hamilton, none of the listed persons played an outstanding role in the history of the US money circulation, and the seventh President Andrew Jackson, his indescribable financial policy, brought the country to the so -called banking war, which was followed by a crisis known as a panic of 1837. Under Lincoln, paper money-Greenbeks-completely depreciated, and the 18th President of Ulysses Grant was sadly famous for corruption scandals.
However, this is not all, but only the most common banknotes. There is also a bill with a denomination of two dollars. It depicts Thomas Jefferson, and twice: on the front side - in the form of a portrait, on the back - in the group of delegates of the continental congress signing the Declaration of Independence. It is common that two -dollar pieces of paper are removed from circulation and that today they represent only collection value. In fact, they have circulation along with banknotes of other denominations. The date of their last issue is 1999. Given the natural wear, the US Department of Finance estimates the total cost of two -dollar bills in circulation around the world, $ 1 billion 166 million.
In addition, there are banknotes of a large denomination - from 500 to 100 thousand dollars. They were created for mutual settlements between banks. Their release is now terminated, because banks have more simple and reliable non -cash payments. Nevertheless, they remain a legal payment tool. However, the banks of the Federal Reserve System, upon receipt of such a bill, are required to remove it from the circulation and destroy it.
Who is drawn on this money of great dignity?
On the 500-dollar banknote-the 25th President of the United States William McKinli. So he just went down in history as a winner in the struggle for the gold standard, which ensured the firmness of the American currency. Here is an excerpt from his pre -election speech recorded by Thomas Edison's company on a record in 1896.
William McKinli: My dear fellow citizens! Recent events require the patriots of America responsibility and a sense of duty, which have not yet been required since the civil war ended. Then there was a struggle to save the Government of the United States. Today it is a struggle for saving the financial honor of the government. Our credo is a full -fledged dollar, it is an honest loan, sufficient funds for maintaining the government, protecting the interests of workers and industry and cooperation, which opens foreign markets for us.
Vladimir Abarinov: The 22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland, who brought the country's finances into a brilliant state, is depicted on a bill of dollars and once again defended the gold standard. The bill of five thousand dollars is decorated with the fourth president James Madison, an outstanding political thinker, the author of the concept of pluralism as the basis of the stability of the republican system and the systems of retirement and counterweights in the government. On a banknote of 10 thousand dollars, Salmon Chase, the Minister of Finance in the offices of Lincoln and Grant, was engraved. The struggle against monstrous inflation after the Civil War fell to his lot. Finally, a portrait of Woodro Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, who established the federal reserve system, is placed on the hundred thousandth bill.
But we haven’t said anything about the bargaining coin, and there are portraits on it too: on one cent, he is Penny - Lincoln, on the pile, he is Nickel - Jefferson, on the hryvnia, he is Daim - Franklin Roosevelt, who was destined to become president in the midst of great depression. On a coin of 25 cents - a quota - a minted George Washington, on a coin in the dignity of half -dollar - John Kennedy.
John Kennedy: There is a myth that our government is large and bad and steadily becoming more and more worse. Of course, there are some grounds for such a myth. Indeed, in recent history, every new administration spent much more money than the previous one. So, for example, President Roosevelt surpassed the expenses of the president of Hoover, and minus the costs related to the Second World War, President Truman spent more than President Roosevelt. This issue is not related to the party’s party affiliation, which is proved by the expenses of President Eisenhower, who exceeded the expenses of President Truman by a good amount of $ 182 billion. Some believe that this trend, quite possibly, will continue to continue. But does this mean that a large government becomes more in a relative sense? No, does not mean. For the past 15 years, the federal government, as well as federal debt has grown more slowly than the economy as a whole. If you do not take into account the costs of defense and space, after the Second World War, the federal government increased less than any other aspect of our national life - less than industry, less than trade, less than agriculture, less than higher education, and much less than talking about a large government.
Vladimir Abarinov: It is a pity that there was no coin or bill for the portrait of the successor Kennedy Lindon Johnson, who went down in history as one of the greatest social reformers of America, but the war in Vietnam ruined his reputation. Johnson, he put forward a program of deep transformations called "Great Society".
Lyndon Johnson: Great Society is a society in which every child can gain knowledge to enrich his mind and develop his talents. This is a society in which leisure is the desired opportunity to create and reflect, and not a reason for boredom and anxiety. This is a society that satisfies not only the needs of the flesh and interests of commerce, but also the need for beauty and thirst for communication. This is a society where a person will restore his connection with nature. This is a society in which people care more about the quality of their goals than about the amount of their property. But the most important thing: a great society is not a quiet harbor, not a place of rest, not the end station, not the completion of the work. This is a constant challenge, beckoning us towards our fate, in the implementation of which the meaning of our life and the amazing fruits of our work will merge together.
Vladimir Abarinov: In the same 1964, when Lyndon Johnson set out his program to Congress, the beginning politician Ronald Reagan, participating in the presidential campaign of Republican Barry Goldaoter, made a speech that entered the annals of American rhetoric under the heading “Time to choose”.
Ronald Reagan: Not a single nation in history endured a tax burden, reaching a third of its income. Today, the share of the tax inspector is 37 cents from each earned dollar, and our government spends 17 million dollars more per day than puts in the treasury. Over the past 34 years, for 28 years we have not had a balanced budget. Over the past 12 months, we raised the limit of our duty three times, and today our national debt is one and a half times higher than the debts of all countries of the world combined. Our treasury has gold $ 15 billion, but not a single ounce of this belongs to us from this. The volume of dollars circulating abroad is 27.3 billion. And they just announced to us that the dollar banknotes of 1939 would exchange at the rate of 45 cents from the face value.
Vladimir Abarinov: Republicans in the Congress made repeated attempts to hold a law on the placement of the portrait of Ronald Reagan on a 10-, 20- or 50-dollar banknote or on a 10-center coin, but not one of these attempts has yet succeeded.
As for changing the total design of American money, there are many projects on this score. Among them there are dollars similar to the euro, with the image of Barack Obama on a one -dollar bill (but during his lifetime this is impossible), with portraits of the brave pilot Amelia Erhart, the leader of the civil rights of Martin Luther King and the astronaut Neil Armstrong. But the Ministry of Finance says that he does not plan to radically change the currency design. The appearance of money changes only with the aim of more reliable protection against fakes. On October 8 this year, a new 100-dollar bill was appointed to the appeal. It still depicts Benjamen Franklin.