Politics:
The magnitude by which [the
reality of the Federal Reserve] deviates from the accepted myth,' writes
G. Edward Griffin, 'is so great that, for most people, it simply is
beyond credibility.' But as he makes abundantly clear in his landmark
book, The
Creature From Jekyll Island, now in its
fourth edition, the case against the Fed is overwhelming. [1]
Creature, as Griffin explains, is four books in one: a
crash-course in money and banking; a history of central banking in
America; a discussion of the Fed itself and its role in American and
world affairs; and finally, a detailed look at how the Fed and other
central banks become 'catalysts for war.' Without
central banking, much of the carnage of the past 90 years would not have
been possible. In November 1910, seven men
representing roughly one-fourth of the world's wealth took a clandestine
train ride from New Jersey to a resort on Jekyll Island, Georgia,
ostensibly to hunt ducks. But instead of shooting birds, they shot us
the bird and drew up plans for a cartel, which served as the blueprint
for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. For years, most
people left the Jekyll Island tale for the fringe that loves conspiracy
theories. But gradually the story leaked out, beginning with an article
by B. C. Forbes, the future founder of Forbes magazine, in Leslie's
Weekly in 1916. Following discussions with Paul Warburg, the Fed's
chief architect and one of the Jekyll attendees, Forbes confirmed the
trip in his opening paragraphs. [9] Later writers, including some of
those in attendance at Jekyll Island, corroborated Forbes' story.
Why did they want a cartel? So they could practice
fractional reserve banking with impunity, while shifting the negative
consequences to the public. [2] The American people,
of course, have been handed a thoroughly scrubbed version of the Fed: It
exists to stabilize the economy and protect the public. Never mind the
crashes in '21 and '29, the Great Depression from '29 to '39,
recessions in '53, '57, '69, '75 and '81, another crash in '87, a bear
market in 2000 that wiped out $7 trillion in stock market wealth by
2003, and constant inflation eating away 95% of the buying power of the
dollar. As economist Antony Sutton noted, 'Warburg's
revolutionary plan to get American society to go to work for Wall Street
was astonishingly simple . . . . The Federal Reserve System is a legal
private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few
under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.'
Griffin is detailed and clear about how the Fed works. In
the old days, when governments wanted more money but were afraid to
increase taxes, they printed it and forced citizens to accept it by
making it legal tender. It was too crude a scheme to fool most people,
but now, with modern central banking, the theft is virtually
imperceptible. First, government doesn't create money
directly; its central bank does. Second, the bank rarely needs to turn
to the printing presses. Instead, it often buys government debt, such
as bonds, by writing a check. 'There is no money to back up this
check,' Griffin explains. 'By calling those bonds 'reserves,' the Fed
then uses them as the base for creating nine additional dollars for
every dollar created for the bonds themselves. The money created for
the bonds is spent by the government, whereas the money created on top
of those bonds is the source of all the bank loans made to the nation's
businesses and individuals . . . . 'The bottom line
is that Congress and the banking cartel have entered into a partnership
in which the cartel has the privilege of collecting interest on money
which it creates out of nothing . . . . Congress, on the other hand, has
access to unlimited funding without having to tell the voters their
taxes are being raised through the process of inflation.'
What might government do with such 'unlimited funding'?
As Murray Rothbard has noted, the country had been in recession
during 1913 and 1914 ' high unemployment, with many factories operating
at only 60% capacity. The Morgan empire in particular had been losing
money in railroads and had lost out to Kuhn-Loeb in the market for
industrial finance. [3] The Morgans had always been
closely connected to the Rothschild financial empire in Europe. When
war in Europe broke out, the House of Morgan, in partnership with the
Rothschilds, became the American sales agent for English and French war
bonds. When the money came back to the States to acquire war-related
materials, it was funneled through Morgan as the U.S. purchase agent.
From 1915 to 1917, J. P. Morgan arranged for $3 billion in exports to
France and England, earning a commission of $30 million. [4] As
historian Thomas Fleming has dryly noted, the U.S. became a branch of
the British armament industry during the first 32 months of its
neutrality. [5] But it was a precarious feast. If
the Allies should lose, American investors would sustain huge losses and
Morgan's business would nosedive. Getting the U.S. into the war would
extend the financial windfall, but the American public opposed
involvement by ten to one. In May 1915, the British
passenger ship Lusitania gave war hopefuls a much-needed boost. Nearly
1,200 passengers, including 128 Americans, lost their lives when a
German U-boat torpedoed it off the coast of Ireland. With its hold
stuffed with U.S. munitions contraband, the Lusitania exploded a second
time and sank in less than 18 minutes. As Griffin documents
meticulously, British and American officials did everything in their
power to make Lusitania a sitting duck. With
Morgan-controlled newspapers beating the drums for American
participation, Wilson finally got his war on April 16, 1917. Eight days
later, Congress extended $1 billion in credit to the Allies. The
British took their initial advance of $200 million and paid it to
Morgan. When they ran up an overdraft of $400 million three months
later, Morgan turned to the U.S. Treasury for help. Treasury Secretary
William McAdoo stalled until Benjamin Strong, the Fed's main man, came
to his rescue and paid Morgan piecemeal during 1917 - 1918. Where did
Strong get the money? He simply created it. The
income tax, also enacted in 1913, raised $1 billion during World War I.
[6] But 70% of the cost of the war came from inflation, through a
doubling of the money supply. As Rothbard understates, 'For those who
believe that U.S. entry into World War I was one of the most disastrous
events . . . in the Twentieth Century, the facilitating of U.S. entry
into the war is scarcely a major point in favor of the Federal Reserve.'
[7] In addition to grabbing wealth through direct taxes, government,
in collusion with the Fed, took roughly one-half of the people's savings
from 1915 ' 1920. It also took the lives of nearly a half-million
Americans for a war they never wanted. [8] In his
1919 book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John
Maynard Keynes wrote that by 'a continuing process of inflation,
governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part
of the wealth of their citizens . . . and, while the process
impoverishes many, it actually enriches some . . . . The process engages
all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and
does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.'
[9] Griffin lifts the curtain on the Fed's
operations and exposes it for what it is: a counterfeiting cartel in
partnership with government soaking the blood and treasure of our
country.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen