Anger grows over Lew's decision to remove or demote Hamilton from the $10 bill

[davidn3600]

The Obama administration has a money problem.

More specifically, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is under attack for announcing that the U.S. Treasury will change the $10 bill in order to add a woman’s portrait to the currency.

The scathing critiques, from former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to the USA Today editorial board and leading historians, have come after Lew’s decision to demote Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, from his prominent position on the face of the $10 bill.

“I was appalled,” Bernanke said upon hearing the news.

Lew’s decision is “sad and shockingly misguided,” wrote Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow.

The Wall Street Journal even compared Lew to Aaron Burr, the vice president to Thomas Jefferson who killed Hamilton in a duel.

Former Treasury officials are expressing their “disappointment” to the current administration directly as well.

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/treasurys-new-10-bill-idea-prompts-outcry-in-122389900176.html

Alexander Hamilton, although never a president, was a founding father and played a critical role in the creation of the US economy and federal banking system. He was also one of President Washington's closest advisers helping to establish early trade relations for the new country.

Instead, many suggest President Andrew Jackson be removed from the $20 bill. But Lew choose the $10 bill because it is up next to be redesigned.

[MADem]

1. They need to put HAMILTON on the twenty if they won't put a woman on it.

Jackson hated paper money. Dump him, time to go. He'd have had us carting around sacks of gold and silver if he had his way.

Hamilton was a brilliant economist and an all around good guy.

The twenty is a very popular bill. You get twenties in the ATM machine--not tens.

I think they should have just put the woman on the damn twenty.

[Cha]

5. Thanks for the history, MADem.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Considering that paper money in Jackson's day often became worthless or nearly worthless overnight,

there was reason to distrust paper money, especially considering that America's first attempt at issuing paper money, the Continental Currency, had been such a spectacular failure.

And in the 1820s and 1830s, no country wanted to accept American paper money for international payments.

That's just how it was in those days. Paper money most definitely was not "good as gold".

[MADem]

7. That's all well and good, but it's still a reason why he doesn't belong on a twenty.

Put him on a coin.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. I don't deny that

Jackson was one of the most overrated presidents.

But he has already appeared on a coin-- and a coin that was actually recently made for circulation at that, although few people have noticed, and even fewer care.

[MADem]

9. Leave him there, and distribute him in coin-op laundromats!! nt

[chillfactor]

2. oh for goodness sake...

I think it would be quite a step forward to see a woman on a $10 bill....many women have fought and died for this country..and.while fighting for equal rights...about time one of them was honored....

[bravenak]

3. Move him to the twenty and take Jackson off:Solved!

[Jamastiene]

12. That would be nice.

I could go for that.

[JI7]

14. that's my position on this

[PoliticAverse]

4. Oh the Irony of Jackson being on a "Federal Reserve Note"...

Andrew Jackson's farewell address containing comments warning about the danger of a privately-owned central bank:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=67087

[Sherman A1]

10. I think Jackson & Hamilton need to go

and be replaced.

[JI7]

13. why Hamilton ?

[TheKentuckian]

18. Because he is the father of our bullshit economics and an elitist piece of shit.

He and Jackson can both go.

[Jamastiene]

11. Didn't they quit making $500 bills?

Maybe they could start back and put a woman on that. Maybe that will shut them up. It's not like they cannot make a coin $10 with Hamilton on it. So, he would technically still be hanging around on the money. They issued Susan B. Anthony dollars and Pocahontas dollars in coin form ages go. Personally, I'd prefer more women on the coins, in a way, because I like coins better. I would certainly save up and buy a roll of Rosa Parks $10 coins or Eleanor Roosevelt $10 coins or Harriet Tubman $10 coins to keep.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Also,. . .

. . .i'm thinking that we could do with another denomination. Why not a $40 dollar bill? Same as 2 twenties. Or, a $30 which is about what it costs for most people to buy gas.

Seems like we're stuck in the mindset that we have the denominations we can have. There are lots of other numbers.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. Add me to the "Dump Jackson!" contingent. nt

[HFRN]

17. Jody Foster should replace Hamilton

at least there would be a continuum, a man shot in a duel replaced by a woman who (unintentionally) inspired an assasin

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

19. I think we need to start a rumour that they're putting Michelle Obama on the $10.

Bile-induced heart attacks would cause half of the Republican electorate to drop dead.

[Kurska]

20. Removing Hamilton is perplexing.

Put Hamilton on the 20 and Eleanor Roosevelt on the 10. Problem solved.

[Octafish]

21. I was appalled when millions got tossed from their homes so Banksters could skate.

No offense, Ben.

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. Americans are incredibly small-c conservative about a lot of things, and this is one of them

it's really kind of weird, honestly. Other countries tend to change the portraits on their banknotes every 10-20 years or so. In the UK, for instance, the current monarch is on every banknote, but there are other portraits as well which have included people like Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare, Christopher Wren, Florence Nightingale, Isaac Newton, and assorted other historically and culturally significant figures. The portraits on US banknotes were last changed in 1929 when the switch was made to small-size notes. Surely America has enough history at this point that people can get over this whole weird quasi-religious cult of the Founding Fathers?

[kentuck]

23. Dump Hamilton!

A snobby Federalist Republican and elitist.

Jackson was one of the founders of the Democratic Party and a defender of the common man.

[hunter]

24. I can't see how being on money is any kind of "honor."

Perhaps that's my extremist religious upbringing, Render unto Caesar and all...


Caesar Augustus Tiberius,
son of the Divine Augustus

Where's the honor in economic imperialism and money?

Money is grease for the engines of destruction.

We humans think we are pretty smart. Isn't it time to move on to economic systems that don't boil everything down, good and evil, into a single distasteful slop measured out in "hard" currencies?

The innovation of money has lived past its usefulness, and now it's killing our planet.