Jesse James Thomas Jefferson and the American war against capitalism.

Some of America's greatest icons have given their life's work to fight against the very capitalist system that many hold to be a defining feature of the country and its people. In fact the economic dynamo that made America great has actually been viewed as intrinsically anti-American, often by founding fathers who in many cases believed that the constitution effectively blocked the creation of the economic system we take for granted today.

Thomas Jefferson probably put more intellectual energy into this than anyone. He correctly nailed he issue of what capitalism actually is with his visceral hatred of banks. In fact despite his much publicized genius, he claimed not to even understand how they worked. In 1813 he wrote on the subject of Congress’s plans to establish the second Bank of the United States “… I may not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them". One of the foremost scholars on the economic history of America during this period, Dr Robert E Wright is even more frank, pretty much calling him an idiot on matters of the economy which tend to be a problem for presidents..

For a capitalist system to operate successfully it requires a number of building blocks to be in place and one of these is a central bank. America's central banks have been created through a fairly narrow loophole in the constitution, so narrow that many felt it did not exist. As Jefferson said: “The idea of creating a national bank, I do not concur in, because it seems now decided that Congress has not that power ".

So Jefferson thought that banks, and the capitalist system that they are co-dependent on, were not only mysterious, they were illegal and un-American.

At the other end of the intellectual spectrum comes another folk hero with a flair for self publication, Jesse James. Although more noted for his gangsterism, Jesse was no slouch when it came to nailing his political colors to the mast. He shared a thoroughly Jeffersonian loathing for anything that smacked of Yankee modernism and felt fully justified in emphasizing his point with the business end of a six shooter.