The position of POTUS comes with great financial responsibility. Just consider the bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry. Or Main Street issues as basic as credit card protections.
Ideally, anyone who has sat at the desk in the Oval Office has had to deal with money matters. In honor of Presidents’ Day on Monday, here are a few famous (and one infamous) presidential quotes on money and credit:
John Adams: “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”
Calvin Coolidge: “I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
John F. Kennedy: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
George W. Bush: “It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
Barack Obama, at the signing of the CARD Act in 2009: “Credit card debt is all too easily a one-way street. … Contracts are drafted not to inform, but to confuse. Mysterious fees appear on statements. Payment deadlines shift. Terms change. Interest rates rise. And suddenly, a credit card becomes less of a lifeline and more of an anchor.”