The Money Factory
July 18, 2005
Walking near the White House I was surprised to find a small crowd of people carrying small Indian flags. The lampposts on Pennsylvania Avenue were decked with both Indian and American flags.. my first picture on the left catches one of these with the statue of Lafayette in the background. Continuing, I found that the Old Executive Office Building was sporting a large Indian and American flag on its front, side by side. A dunce could have concluded that something was up involving India.. but just what was up was only clarified when I read the Post more carefully at lunch. This was the day for a rare official dinner at the Bush White House, one which would include the new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
I walked by the White House because I was on my way to see the World Bank. It is a modern white building, obviously designed by one of architecture’s current crop of stars.. with big windows latticed by white, and, I am sure, a stunning interior. Yet the street in front of the building had been blocked off by stationary police cars, and a row of low concrete blocks, surely never envisioned by the architect, stood in front of the building. The security reminded me that the World Bank is a controversial organization.. capable of drawing quite a crowd of protesters.
The bookstore for the World Bank, in addition to some nice mugs and T-shirts, offered a unique range of books. Nothing literary, but lots of books on the history and development of countries, along with books that tackle current thought on globalization, urban poverty, and the environment,. plus a first class group of travel guides to places all over the globe. Interspersed among all these books were studies published by the World Bank itself, which addressed practical issues pertaining to development, health, and resources. The primary concerns of the World Bank are hard to gainsay, and from the Lonely Planet travel guides I can see that my own experiences are part and parcel of the World Bank project.
Later in the day I took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Every single one of our new $20 bills is printed right here. Whenever and wherever you touch a $20 bill, whether it comes from an ATM machine in Beirut or Los Angeles, that bill has its origins here. You should see the stacks and stacks of money standing in piles.. or soon-to-be money, since they do not become legal tender until the final stage when the serial numbers and treasury seals are printed on the bills. At the end of the tour we had the opportunity to purchase uncut sheets of $1, $2, $5, $20, or $50 bills. I thought about getting their big sheet of sixteen $50 bills, but thought Emily would find it extravagant.. “But, Emmy, it is a sheet of the new bills with the fancy red marking on them.. We can hang it on our wall..”
Washington, as home to the World Bank and all $20 bills, gives one pause to consider the financial control that emanates from here. The emotional response that money matters stir can be glimpsed on the District of Columbia license plates, which read: Taxation Without Representation. It is a serious, although playful, poke at the lack of congressional representation for the District of Columbia. In effect, people here pay taxes for which they cannot vote.. Their license plates, of course, echo one of the great complaints of our original colonists, who detested England’s ability to call the economic shots without any input from themselves.
Taxation without representation seems an antiquated complaint today.. unless you live in the District of Columbia. But the deeper issue is the natural resentment that arises when one’s livelihood and lifestyle is controlled by someone far away, someone who does not feel bound to listen to your point of view. The complaint in our day is transformed to something more abstract, like: “Economic Control without Representation.” American economic decisions affect a good portion of the world, yet American leaders only have to listen to a national constituency.. which was fine at one time, but in a world which is so interconnected, it can well strike people as strange that their income is tied to the interests of people living in Kansas.
Democracy must leaven the whole batch of world affairs, not simply go to work within closed countries. Poor workers in India will eventually have a say..
