textfiles/politics/jekyll.rvw

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The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070
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Book Review: The Creature From Jekyll Island.


                          Killing the Banking Beast
                              Jane H. Ingraham
                              The New American
                     Vol 10, Number 18 September 5, 1994

    The Creature From Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin, Appleton, WI:
    American Opinion Publishing, Inc., 1994, 608 pages, paperback, $19.50.
    (For ordering information, see end of article.)

    Has it ever occurred to you that the federal government has no need of
    taxes for revenue? Are you aware that banks prefer leriding to
    governments because governments seldom repay loans? Do you realize that
    if all debts, both public and private, were paid, there would be no money
    at all in circulation?

    These are only a few of the startling facts that fill the pages of this
    illuminating expose of the Insider scam called The Federal Reserve System
    (Fed).  Although author G. Edward Griffin admits to having wondered if
    another book on the Federal Reserve is necessary (his six pages of
    bibliography suggest that the subject may have previously attracted
    attention), it is unlikely that any book has ranged across 2,000 years of
    money and banking from Diocletian to the Rothschilds to Alan Greenspan --
    and tied it into the new world order -- as thoroughly as The Creature
    From Jekyll Island.

    Griffin cuts through the obscurities about the Fed that are intentionally
    meant to mystify and disarrn its victims (all of us). Convinced that the
    subject of money and banking is too arcane and complicated to understand,
    we victims are trapped in a world view that utterly fails to jibe with
    reality. The money manipulators, says Griffin, are exploiting our
    ignorance for the advancement of their own appalling plabs; the urgency
    of awakening us to our danger has driven Griffin to write this
    extraordinary book.

    Although Griffin has never held an academic position, he is a top-notch
    teacher. Making this little-understood subject simple by splendid
    organization, his account is divided into six sections with varying
    numbers of chapters; each section and chapter is introduced by a concise
    paragraph while each chapter is also summarized. Thus the reader is kept
    in touch with where he has been and where he is going, an ingenious and
    helpful device considering the enormous scope of Griffin's narrative.

    His explanations and definitions are meticulously worded; one can sense
    the care with which each word was chosen, leaving no room for confusion.
    Griffin continually draws documentation from primary sources, quoting
    letters, speeches, and published works that both enlighten and horrify.
    His own writing is difficult to quote; lt is so trenchant that nearly
    every sentence entices.  Yet at the same time Griffin has mastered the
    art of speaking personally to the reader, who never loses the feeling of
    being directly addressed. All this adds up to a superbly clear,
    engrossing book that, once started, is impossible to put down.


    Setting the Stage

    In order to help us fully understand our present predicament, Mr. Griffin
    ranges far afield in explaining the historical, economic, and political
    antecedents of today's money system. We are given a crash course on the
    nature of money; the origin of banks and the concept of fractional
    reserves; how this led to the seductive idea of using the same money over
    and over; how this inevitably led to economic disaster wherever and
    whenever tried. We are instructed about the Rothschild formula, which
    perfected the art of making enormous profits from loans to governments,
    especially for wars; how this led to preventing any one nation from
    becoming strong enough to establish peace (the famous balance of power);
    how those who could instigate wars or revolutions were financed
    (including the Bolsheviks in 1917); how we Americans were sucked into
    World War I in order to save J.P.  Morgan's loans to England; how
    environmentalism is now the weapon of choice replacing war.

    We are taken to the super-secret meeting of Insider financiers and
    Rothschild agent Paul Warburg on Jekyll Island in 1910 where the basic
    plan for what became the Federal Reserve Act was formulated; we learn
    that these plotters were already affiliated with the conspiratorial
    British oneworld Round Table group which preceded the Council on Foreign
    Relations (our secret government); we are astounded by the brazen
    deception of Congress that pushed through this unconstitutional act
    creating the Insiders' fundamental tool -- a central bank with the
    ability to inflate. We are told how this same tool has been expanded
    internationally through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World
    Bank in order to create worldwide inflation, pay enormous sums of
    perpetual interest on never paid-up loans to Insider banks, and socialize
    the Third World, all courtesy of us unsuspecting taxpayers. Lastly,
    Griffin foretells our dismaying fate if our course is not altered; then
    he lays out a step-by-step procedure of how to alter it, inviting us to
    join with him in doing so.

    Griffin looks the Fed "creature" straight in the eye and tells us it is
    not federal, it has no reserves, and it is not a bank. It is, in fact, a
    pernicious cartel operating against the public interest.  The widespread
    belief that the Federal Reserve exists to "stabilize the economy" is
    hogwash; the real reason for its existence is the making of money -- not
    out of "thin air" as is commonly supposed, but, more accurately, out of
    debt.  Griffin explains that it is the act of borrowing by the federal
    government that causes money to spring into existence.

    Griffin takes us through the Open Market steps by which Treasury IOUs
    (bonds) are inverted by the Federal Reserve into money through the
    issuance of Federal Reserve checks with no money in existence to cover
    them; anyone else doing this would go to jail.  Congress has made this
    legal for the Fed, however, because this hidden process allows our
    congressmen to enjoy unlimited revenue without having to visibly raise
    taxes. Without this service, says Griffin, the monetary/political
    partnership would dissolve, and Congress would abolish the Fed.


    Money Multlplied

    Griffin explains that these Federal Reserve checks are endorsed by the
    government, deposited in a Federal Reserve bank, and used to pay
    government expenses by checks which create the first wave of fiat
    (unbacked paper) money that floods into the economy.  Recipients deposit
    these checks into commercial banks that are part of the Fed system. Here
    is where the real inflationary action is. (The Federal Reserve holds
    "only" seven percent of the national debt of almost $5 trillion. The 12
    percent held by foreigners and the 56 percent held by Americans are not
    inflationary because the money used for purchase already existed.)

    Commercial banks, like the Federal Reserve, also create money out of
    nothing -- and collect interest on it -- by multiplying every dollar
    deposited nine times. This amazing feat is accomplished through the
    device of fractional reserves, whereby the Fed allows 90 percent of
    deposits to be loaned out. As deposits become loans and loans become
    deposits, this process repeats with smaller numbers each time around. For
    instance, $1 million in government money (first wave) gives birth to
    $900,000 (second wave), which gives birth to $810,000 (third wave), etc.,
    until the process plays itself out. Thus, the banking cartel creates an
    amount of money that is nine times the amount of the original government
    debt that made the process possible.

    Griffin shows that when the original debt is added in, the Federal
    Reserve and the commercial banks together have created approximately ten
    times the amount of the underlying government debt. Since this newly
    created money causes the purchasing power of all money to decline, the
    resulting rise in prices is, in reality, a hidden tax. As Griffin puts
    it:

        Without realizing it, Americans have paid over the years, in addition
        to their federal income taxes and excise taxes, a completely hidden
        tax equal to approximately ten times the national debt!

    Griffin is astonished at the public's indifference to this fleecing; he
    blames it on ignorance based on disinformation.  Nothing could prove him
    more right than the current deception that inflation is higher prices
    caused by full employment and a strong economy; therefore, letting the
    "steam" out of the economy and slowing growth (and thereby employment) is
    "good." This talk is madness. Alan Greenspan. chairman of the Federal
    Reserve (who has the temerity to say he is "worried about inflation"), is
    repeating this claptrap as he pretends to control inflation by increasing
    interest rates that merely devastated the bond market, clobbered the
    stock market, and helped only the bankers. Thus the Insiders are
    perfectly protected and the scaln rolls on.

    There are many more threads to Griffin's discourse on the operations of
    the banking cartel that should not be missed, such as:

        * How holders of Treasury bonds can be paid off only by the creation
          of an identical bond out of nothing.

        * Why the U.S. has to be, must be, in debt.

        * How the Discount Window (Fed loans to banks) creates more phony
          money.

        * How the federal government could operate without levying any taxes
          whatsoever.

        * How the Fed causes booms and busts.

        * How, since 1913, our money has depreciated by over 1,000 percent.

        * How a gold standard automatically stabilizes prices.

        * How the Fed can now monetize the debts offoreign governments!

    Without the extensive knowledge offered by Griffin, no American can fully
    understand the financial reality of our time.


    Understanding the Game

    Also critical to our reality check is an understanding of how the Fed
    protects and enriches the banking brotherhood in the international arena.
    The game our Insiders are playing makes the Rothschilds look like
    novices. Here it is in a nutshell: The game starts with a mammoth loan
    (created out of nothing through the magic of fractional reserves) from
    one of our megabanks (Citicorp, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, etc.)
    to a Third World country with scant means of servicing the debt much less
    ever repaying the principle.  Are these top bankers stupid? Hardly;
    Griffin explains that this is the kind of loan these bankers love, since
    they make their money from interest on the loan, not on repayment of the
    loan. They prefer the loan never to be repaid. They know they can't lose
    because the Federal Reserve guarantees that massive loans that go into
    default will not be allowed to seriously affect the issuing bank (too big
    to fail) because this would "disrupt the entire economy."

    So, says Griffin, "since the System makes it profitable for banks to make
    large, unsound loans, that is the kind of loans banks will make.
    Furthermore, it is predictable that most unsound loans will go into
    default." Sure enough; pretty soon default threatens. The bank creates
    additional money out of nothing and lends that so its interest stream
    continues on both the original loan plus the new loan (the "roll-over"
    play). At the next crisis, the bank creates still more money out of
    nothing to cover the interest on both loans plus an additional amount for
    the borrower to spend freely (the "up-the-ante" play). Finally the bank
    agrees to a lower interest rate and a longer period for repayment (the "
    rescheduling" play). Eventually it is time for the "Final Maneuver."
    Congress agrees to guarantee future payments and the whole mess is
    shifted to the backs of U.S. taxpayers while the borrower is trapped into
    an IMF "austerity" program that makes an "end run" around his
    sovereignty.

    Now money moves through various foreign aid channels to the deadbeat
    borrower, who continues to pay perpetual interest to the bank. Almost all
    of this money is generated by the Federal Reserve; as it moves out into
    the economy it dilutes the value of the money already there. The American
    people, says Griffin, have no idea they are footing the bill to enrich
    the Insider bankers.


    Founder' Fears Realized

    Readers may be surprised to learn that the Federal Reserve is the fourth
    central bank the United States has had, the previous three having crashed
    in inevitable raging inflation and widespread economic disaster. So
    clearly did our Founders understand and fear worthless paper money forced
    on the public by legal tender laws (precisely what we now have) that they
    filled the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention with statements
    of their horror of it. We Americans today, deprived of hearing such
    truth, need to listen to their words:

        * George Mason of Virginia:

            "I have a mortal hatred of paper money."

        * John Langdon of New Hampshire:

            "I would rather reject the whole [Constitution] than grant the
            new government the right to issue fiat money."

        * George Reed of Delaware:

            "The right to issue fiat money would be as alarming as the mark
            of the beast in Revelation."

        * Thomas Paine:

            "The punishment of a member of Congress who should move for such
            a law ought to be death."

    Griffin does not stop with presenting the known picture, but projects
    today's reality into the future. His frst projection is a doomsday
    scenario his second is a realistic plan for saving our country and
    ourselves. These chapters might, after all, be the most important ones in
    the book.

    Griffin sees doomsday as an engineered financial debacle the severity of
    which will cause panicked Americans to welcome a World Bank "rescue" with
    a world currency. The IMF/World Bank is already functioning-in
    conjunction with the Federal Reserve-as a world central bank. A worldl
    currency is already designed, awaiting a crisis to justify its
    introduction. From this point on, writes Griffin, ere will be no escape
    from the new world order. At present the U.S. is being deliberately
    weakened by seemingly insane spending both at home and abroad: As just
    one more dismaying example, during President Clinton's recent trip to
    Europe he blithely promised more billions of dollars to Poland, Ukraine,
    and the Baltic countries. The name of the game is to spend-on anything,
    anywhere. The object is to bring down the system.


    Life in the New World Order

    What will life be like in the Insiders' new world order? Griffin spells
    it out from the words of the Insiders themselves. One source is the 1966
    secret Hudson Institute study commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert
    McNamara, entitled Reportfrom Iron Mountain.  This study cold-bloodedly
    discusses various means by which government might control the populace
    and perpetuate itself in power in the absence of war (UN peace).

    Griffin's review (with extensive quotes) of this truly diabolical Insider
    study is masterful; he takes it apart and shows us its consummate evil.
    The study's premise is that historically the only means by which a
    government has ever been able to "secure the subordination of citizens to
    the state" is war. Only war has been able to provide the external threat
    without which no government can accumulate power. War is used to make the
    masses put up with all kinds of privation, taxation, and controls without
    complaint. No amount of sacrifice in the name of victory is rejected.
    Resistance is viewed as treason.

    But, says Griffin, Report From Iron Mountain explains that the war system
    may have to be replaced because "it may now be possible to create a world
    government in which all nations will be disarmed and disciplined by a
    world army, a condition which we will call peace." In this case, what
    could be a substitute for war?

    Here, explains Griffin, is the origin of the stratagem to promote
    ecological doom as the new enemy that threatens the entire world. The
    threat need not be real, provided the masses can be convinced it is real.
    Credibility is the key, not reality. Griffin writes that Report From Iron
    Mountain explains the avalanche of phony scientific claims that are
    uncritically publicized by the Insider-controlled media, as well as the
    funding of environmental "crazies" by corporations and businesses that
    would appear to have the most to lose. He sees the plan as being
    brilliantly successful.

    The barrage of propaganda has had a phenomenal result. Politicians are
    now being elected on nothing but "concern for the environment and a
    promise to clamp down on nasty industries," with no one caring about the
    damage done to the economy or our freedoms. Just as no sacrifice is too
    great in time of war, what happens to the economy or our freedom is of no
    consequence "when the very planet on which we live is sick and dying."

    Griffin introduces us to multi- millionaire Maurice Strong, the powerful
    UN environmental czar, who gives us the whole line: The U.S. is
    committing environmental aggression against the rest of the world.
    Current lifestyles of the affluent middle class -- high meat intake,
    frozen and convenience foods, electric household appliances, cars, air
    conditioning, suburban housing -- all this has to go. The world's
    ecosystems can be preserved only bg lowering our standard of living by
    ratioing, taxation, and political dornination by world government.

    Reading this section will forever change the way in which you view
    government. Yet, says Griffin, this perverted, power-mad Insider fix need
    not prevail. None of these dreadful things needs to happen. He outlines a
    procedure by which the Federal Reserve can be abolished, the national
    debt paid, and the country returned to a sound monetary system based on
    silver and gold.  All that is neeeded are the efforts of concerned and
    caring Americans. Griffin invites us to join him in freeing ourselves
    from the one-world conspirators.  It can be done.

    ---


    To order:

         "The Creature from Jekyll Island"

    send $19.50 + $2.00 shipping to:

        American Opinion Book Services
        P.O. Box 8040
        Appleton, WI 54913

    or by credit card:

        414-749-3783

    G. Edward Griffin will be in a city near you, for details call:

        414-749-3780


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