A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the Nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men […] We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilised world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.

Woodrow Wilson (28th US President) quoted in “National economy and the banking system of the United States”, 76th Congress, 1st Session, Document No. 23, 1939