Murder and Inflation: the Kentucky Tragedy
Following the Panic of 1819, the state of Kentucky sought to provide relief from the suddenly harsh burden of debt on many of its citizens, by creating the Bank of the Commonwealth, a new kind of bank, one completely owned by the state government and not at all bothered by specie, and by suspending foreclosure for up to two years upon the tender of paper money by debtors. Here I tell the story of inflation, economic collapse, political conflict, concern for the preservation of a republican form of government...and murder. FULL ARTICLE
