Podcasts Government Unprecedential The Cost of Greatness: Jay Cost on the Bank of the United States

The Cost of Greatness: Jay Cost on the Bank of the United States

Published: Aug. 7, 2020, 12:30 a.m.


\nWhen George Washington\u2019s
\nAdministration proposed to create a national bank, it exploded divisions among
\nAmericans\u2014and, more specifically, among Alexander Hamilton and James
\nMadison\u2014about what our Constitution means. The Bank, and the arguments
\nsurrounding it, continue to echo today.
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\nTo discuss the Bank of the United States, Adam was joined on the podcast by AEI\u2019s own Jay Cost, who has written about Madison\u2019s concerns that the Bank and other federal initiatives would foster corruption and oligarchy. (See especially his recent two-part AEI essay series.) Jay and Adam discuss problems inherent in factionalism, private-public partnerships, established churches\u2014and whether Madison would have ever admitted that Hamilton was right about the Bank.
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\nThis discussion follows previous Unprecedential episodes on McCulloch v. Maryland (with Gary Schmitt and Nelson Lund) and on Madison\u2019s notion of constitutional \u201cliquidation\u201d (with Will Baude).