Nov 4, 2010
A Homage To Counterfeiters Everywhere
Forget mulling over the Republican gains or tomorrow's employment number - $600,000,000,000 is even now still a boatload of money and it makes me think of my dear, departed Uncle Louie. In his time (during the 1920s and 1930s) he was a rather well-known counterfeiter on the Lower East Side and kept my family in bread during some hard times and, it must be admitted, some rather not hard times. He was good at what he did, and enjoyed it.
I remember stories told us by my Aunt Gurdy (Uncle Louie's wife) of the constant, sudden moves from one apartment to the next, the windfalls of money followed by times of drought, the months and (one time) years waiting for Uncle Louie to get out of jail. And now I read of $600,000,000,000 of newly created money out of nothing and wonder how he would have fared today. No fellows from Treasury coming after him with guns and handcuffs and no time in Sing Sing, but instead a nicely remunerative job with the Federal Reserve, with medical and dental benefits, maybe a corner office down in the financial district. So as soon as I get my hands on some of this new money I'm going to visit his grave (out in Queens) and lay a freshly minted dollar on his final resting place. He was not a criminal, I now realize, but simply a man with the poor luck to be born too early. God rest his soul.
I remember stories told us by my Aunt Gurdy (Uncle Louie's wife) of the constant, sudden moves from one apartment to the next, the windfalls of money followed by times of drought, the months and (one time) years waiting for Uncle Louie to get out of jail. And now I read of $600,000,000,000 of newly created money out of nothing and wonder how he would have fared today. No fellows from Treasury coming after him with guns and handcuffs and no time in Sing Sing, but instead a nicely remunerative job with the Federal Reserve, with medical and dental benefits, maybe a corner office down in the financial district. So as soon as I get my hands on some of this new money I'm going to visit his grave (out in Queens) and lay a freshly minted dollar on his final resting place. He was not a criminal, I now realize, but simply a man with the poor luck to be born too early. God rest his soul.