Hall of Infamy
The architects of economic destruction. Those who wielded state power to violate property rights, inflate currencies, and impose central planning—creating boom-bust cycles and transferring wealth from producers to the politically connected.
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
— Ludwig von Mises
Central Bankers
Architects of Fiat Inflation & Business Cycles
Central banking represents the original sin: a state-granted monopoly on money that enables endless inflation, moral hazard, and wealth redistribution to insiders. By suppressing interest rates and printing fiat currency, central bankers fuel malinvestment, credit bubbles, and recessions.
JOHN LAW
1671–1729 | France
The Scottish gambler who engineered France's Mississippi Bubble (1716–1720), the first major fiat currency experiment. He flooded the market with paper notes backed by illusory colonial wealth, leading to hyperinflation and economic collapse.
Ruined thousands. Set the template for modern central banking fraud.
FEDERAL RESERVE FOUNDERS
1913–Present | USA
Paul Warburg, Benjamin Strong, and subsequent chairs. The Fed enabled WWI financing via inflation, the Great Depression, the 2008 crisis, and endless bailouts. A cartel for banks, eroding savings through 97%+ dollar devaluation since inception.
Trillions in devalued savings. Endless boom-bust cycles.
ALAN GREENSPAN
Fed Chair 1987–2006
Once a gold standard advocate who wrote brilliantly about sound money, Greenspan became the architect of the "Greenspan Put"—bailing out markets at every dip. His easy money policies inflated the dot-com bubble and planted seeds for the 2008 housing crisis.
Two major bubbles. Institutionalized moral hazard.
BEN BERNANKE
Fed Chair 2006–2014
"Helicopter Ben" who promised subprime was "contained" before it detonated the global economy. Responded with unprecedented QE money printing, bailing out banks while Main Street lost homes. Received a Nobel Prize for his troubles.
$4.5T balance sheet expansion. Wealth inequality explosion.
Politicians
Builders of the Warfare-Welfare State
Politicians who expanded the state's extractive apparatus—via income taxes, deficits, and regulations—funding wars and entitlements through inflation and confiscation. They turned government from protector to predator.
WOODROW WILSON
28th President | 1913–1921
Signed the Federal Reserve Act and 16th Amendment (income tax) in 1913, unleashing fiat money and direct wealth seizure. This duo financed U.S. entry into WWI and birthed the regulatory leviathan.
Federal Reserve • Income Tax • WWI Entry
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
32nd President | 1933–1945
Confiscated gold (Executive Order 6102), imposed wage/price controls, and birthed the New Deal's alphabet-soup agencies. Bretton Woods (1944) made the dollar the global fiat reserve, backed by U.S. military power.
Gold Confiscation • New Deal • Bretton Woods
RICHARD NIXON
37th President | 1969–1974
Closed the gold window in 1971, ending dollar convertibility and birthing full fiat globalism. This unleashed 1970s stagflation and perpetual debt monetization. "We're all Keynesians now."
Nixon Shock • End of Gold Standard • Stagflation
Intellectual Enablers
The Pseudo-Science of Interventionism
Ideas have consequences. The worst are those justifying state meddling as "science"—providing intellectual cover for the welfare state and fiat experiments, blinding generations to the knowledge problem: no central planner can replicate the price signals of free exchange.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES
1883–1946 | Economist
His General Theory (1936) popularized deficit spending, demand stimulus, and central bank "fine-tuning." It provided cover for the welfare state and fiat experiments, ignoring that supply creates demand and that intervention spirals toward socialism.
"In the long run, we are all dead."
— Keynes, justifying short-term thinking
PAUL SAMUELSON
1915–2009 | Nobel Laureate
His textbooks normalized "central planning lite," teaching generations that governments can outsmart markets. Famously predicted USSR would overtake U.S. economically—right up until the Soviet collapse proved central planning's impossibility.
Miseducated millions of economists worldwide.
Crony Capitalists
State-Backed Monopolists & Cartelizers
True innovators compete freely. Villains are those who lobby for subsidies, tariffs, and barriers—turning capitalism into cronyism. Market monopolies dissolve via competition; state-backed ones endure via coercion.
RAILROAD BARONS
19th Century
Those who secured land grants and eminent domain for transcontinentals—using government force rather than pure competition to build empires.
J.P. MORGAN
1907 Panic
His bailout cartel during the 1907 panic paved the way for the Federal Reserve—socializing losses while privatizing gains. The original "too big to fail."
MODERN CRONIES
Present Day
Goldman Sachs' revolving door with Treasury. Big Pharma's FDA patent rackets. ESG mandates. Subsidized giants that exemplify how states pick winners—and losers (taxpayers).
Central Planners
Architects of Famine & Collapse
The ultimate proof of planning's folly is in the body count. Without private property and prices, resources cannot be rationally allocated. The result: waste, starvation, and collapse.
LENIN & STALIN
USSR | 1917–1953
Collectivization caused the Holodomor famine (3–7 million dead, 1932–1933). Five-Year Plans prioritized steel over bread, yielding gulags and chronic inefficiency. They abolished property and proved socialism's impossibility.
20+ Million
Famine, gulags, purges
MAO ZEDONG
China | 1949–1976
The Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) killed 15–55 million via forced communes and backyard furnaces. Pseudoscience destroyed agriculture. The Cultural Revolution added millions more to history's deadliest economic experiment.
45–80 Million
Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution
FIDEL CASTRO
Cuba | 1959–2008
-35%
Special Period (1989–1993)
THE CARIBBEAN CATASTROPHE
A charismatic revolutionary who seized power in 1959 promising independence, only to impose Soviet-style socialism that devastated Cuba's pre-revolutionary prosperity. Pre-Castro Cuba ranked high in Latin America for GDP per capita, literacy (76%), and life expectancy.
Expropriated $1B+ in assets. By 1968, world's most nationalized economy. Obliterated the middle class.
10 million ton harvest goal yielded only 7.56M despite total mobilization. Castro blamed "technocrats."
$4–6B annual aid at rigged prices. USSR collapse caused 35% GDP plunge and famine-like shortages.
"The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." — Fidel Castro to The Atlantic
Without private property and prices, resources were chronically misallocated. Per capita food consumption fell 11% from 1954–1997. Over 1 million fled. Subsidies masked failure until exposed—proving central planning's reliance on external plunder to survive.
Scammers & Fraudsters
Thieves Who Exploited Trust
While central bankers steal through inflation, these criminals stole directly—running Ponzi schemes, fabricating technology, and defrauding investors. They give ammunition to regulators seeking to crush legitimate innovation.
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
FTX | 2022 Collapse
The "Effective Altruist" who stole $8B+ in customer funds from FTX to gamble at Alameda Research. Bought politicians, regulators, and media puff pieces while running a fraud. His lobbying for crypto regulation was designed to crush competitors. Sentenced to 25 years.
$8B+ stolen • 1M+ victims • Set crypto adoption back years
DO KWON
Terra/Luna | 2022 Collapse
Architect of the Terra/Luna "algorithmic stablecoin" that collapsed spectacularly, wiping out $40B in days. Mocked critics as "poor" while his death spiral design was mathematically doomed. Fled to Montenegro. Triggered crypto contagion affecting Celsius, 3AC, and more.
$40B vaporized • Suicides reported • Triggered industry collapse
BERNIE MADOFF
Ponzi Scheme | 1970s–2008
Ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history for decades under the SEC's nose. Former NASDAQ chairman who used credibility to defraud charities, celebrities, and retirees of $65B. Proves regulators protect nobody—they just create false confidence.
$65B fraud • 37,000 victims • Multiple suicides
ELIZABETH HOLMES
Theranos | 2003–2018
Claimed to revolutionize blood testing with technology that didn't work. Raised $700M from investors including Rupert Murdoch and the Waltons. Faked demos, endangered patients with false results. The fake deep voice was just the start of the con.
$700M fraud • Patients endangered • 11-year sentence
RUJA IGNATOVA
OneCoin | 2014–2017
The "Cryptoqueen" who ran OneCoin—a $4B Ponzi with no blockchain at all. Targeted developing countries with MLM tactics, promising financial freedom while stealing life savings. Disappeared in 2017, now on FBI's Most Wanted. Still at large.
$4B+ stolen • Millions of victims worldwide • FBI Most Wanted
GARY GENSLER
SEC Chair | 2021–2025
Former Goldman Sachs banker who taught crypto at MIT, then weaponized the SEC against the industry. Sued Coinbase for listing coins he previously called compliant. Met with SBF while ignoring FTX fraud. Regulation by enforcement with no clear rules—designed to kill innovation.
Drove crypto offshore • Protected FTX • Crushed US innovation
The Infamy Rankings
Ranked by systemic damage to human prosperity
| RANK | CULPRIT | KEY SIN | ECONOMIC TOLL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Bankers | Fiat inflation, bailouts | Trillions in devalued savings, endless cycles |
| 2 | Statist Politicians | Taxes, debt, regulations | $30T+ U.S. debt, warfare-welfare empire |
| 3 | Keynes & Disciples | Interventionist dogma | Global adoption of failed macro policies |
| 4 | Crony Capitalists | Subsidies, barriers | Wealth to insiders, poverty for outsiders |
| 5 | Hyper-Planners (Lenin, Mao) | Collectivization | 100M+ deaths, famines, collapses |
| 6 | Fidel Castro | Nationalization, dependency | 35% GDP drop, chronic shortages, exodus |
| 7 | Crypto Scammers (SBF, Do Kwon) | Fraud, Ponzi schemes | $50B+ stolen, set adoption back years |
The Lesson
These evils share one root cause: the state's monopoly on violence, expanded to control exchange. Free markets—voluntary, decentralized—alone foster genuine prosperity. End the meddling, restore property rights, and let spontaneous order heal the wounds.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else."
— Frédéric Bastiat