No. 28 · The Presidents
Woodrow Wilson
1913-1921
By abandoning hard money and creating the Federal Reserve in 1913, Wilson hoped to make the nation's money supply more elastic, in order to better avoid market volatility and cope with changing economic conditions. Instead, this system, which creates paper money backed by nothing, simply tries to avoid any and all downward market corrections and has allowed America to blindly spend money we don't have. Later, when referring to the Federal Reserve, Wilson is quoted to have said, “I have unwittingly ruined my country.”
Lyrics
C, Em, G, D/F♯
I'm sick of the ups and the downs
What if we turn things around?
What if we could make some money
Out of absolutely nothing
absolutely nothing
And Spend what we don't have
It can't be all that bad
'cause look at all the good that it's doing
no, don't turn around,
hey hey, what's that sound?
The ups and the downs
Got on everybody's nerves
so good ol' Woodrow
Made the Federal Reserve
The goal of the system
Is to keep the system up
but that doesn't fix the problem
It's Woodrow admitting
A few years later
“I have unwittingly
Ruined my country.”
From the book, published 2009 · song & page updated
I have unwittingly ruined my country