Structured Settlements 4Real®Blog 2026

With national elections upon us and the recent announcement by the United States Treasury that the Federal deficit as of September 30, 2008 was $455B (the largest in US history) the following timeless words of the Great Depression era seem appropriate:

"This is preeminently the time
to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from
honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure
as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert
my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless,
unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of
frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people
themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again
give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and
on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material
things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability
to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of
income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered
leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for
their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are
gone.

More important, a host of
unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great
number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark
realities of the moment.Yet our distress comes from no
failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the
perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not
afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty
and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous
use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

Primarily this is because
the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own
stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and
abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the
court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men

True they have tried, but their
efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure
of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the
lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership,
they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.
They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision,
and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled
from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that
temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent
to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary
profit.

Finally, in our progress toward
a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of
the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and
investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and
there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency….

It is to be hoped that the
normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to
meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented
demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that
normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my
constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the
midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as
the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my
constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the
Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the
national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty
that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining
instrument to meet the crisis broad Executive power to wage a war against the
emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact
invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I
will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no
less.

We do not distrust the future of
essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their
need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They
have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the
present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take
it.

In this dedication of a Nation
we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us.  May
He guide me in the days to come."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt… excerpted from FDR's  Inauguration speech March 4, 1933 and was re-published in many local newspapers today.