PARALLELS TO HISTORY

Welcome to the best interest rate observer of the air. I have Hugh Grant, and with me as always is the great deputy editor of grants, Evan Lorenz. And, in a new wrinkle to the new year, Harrison Waddill, the man of all trades he grants, is the sound engineer. And our guest today is the, the versatile Christopher Whelan, Richard Christopher Whelan. I will get around to talking to mister Whelan in just a moment. Evan, happy New Year. Happy New Year. Yeah. We were up late last night. We closed an issue with Grant's, and, it was, you know, it was great. First one of the year. And what was your favorite part of Grant's this? I think it was about 10:01 when we finally closed the issue. No, I'm not asking you what time you got to go home. I'm asking you what essay was the best part of it, and let me give you a little hint. The front page that you wrote was fantastic. Thank you. Questions the nature of money, and kind of the risk that people are taking. We're talking about, fintechs and likening some of this to, a single best quotation, Chris, that Christopher is a, among other things, is a, an acute observer of the present, but no less an historian of financial past. And, Chris, I'm going to share with you while we have introduction, I'm at the single best, most colorful, and most perhaps informative single quotation I've I've come across about financial history and the nature of money and nature of credit and of banking. Right? It's a it's a big claim. This comes from the, Salmon p Chase papers. He as you know, mister Chase was a supreme court justice who had the pleasure of, did he reject his own? No. He he anyway, he had a mixed he was secretary of the treasury under Lincoln, and, he said, and he was in correspondence with all such interesting people, among whom was Joseph Medel. Medel was the, a newspaper publisher of some substantial means and also a, a one time, perhaps two time, mayor of Chicago. Anyway, Mittel was talking this is 05/30/1862. Mhmm. And nobody is allowed to turn this podcast just because they think it's irrelevant. This is totally relevant to everything we're gonna talk about. And, Mittel's reporting to, to, I guess, to Chase, to Sam and Chase, about the state of things in Chicago and about the state of credit. And he said, you know, we we we he said we need more, like, more, treasury issues. In the place of those is now, is now filled up by, quote, the irredeemable trash of a thousand shin plaster debt factories. It's not that marvelous. Yes. It is. Yeah. Especially given his role in financing the, the war and the railroads and everything else. So Well, Chris Whalen, as you've, perhaps have picked up from that knowing laugh is is an historian who has …