"Where such a shift in power is in favor of the governing elite, Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse. Most state sponsored murder occurs under the cover of war, revolution, or guerrilla war, or in their aftermath."
R. J. Rummel
"The commerce and industry of the country, however it must be acknowledged, though they may be somewhat augmented cannot be altogether so secure when they are thus as it were suspended upon the Daedalian wings of paper money, as when they travel about upon the solid ground of gold and silver."
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
