In 1910 seven powerful bankers, representing a full one fourth of the world’s wealth, held a very secretive meeting on Jekyll Island in North Carolina. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how they might form a banking cartel and convince the US government to grant that cartel full control of the United States monetary system.
In his book, The Creature From Jekyll Island, G. Edward Griffin outlined the following eight elements in the plan of action formulated by these men in order to convince congress that the establishment of a banking cartel was somehow a measure to protect the public.
1. Never refer to the proposed cooperative as a cartel or a central bank.
2. Create the illusion that the cartel is a government agency.
3. Establish regional branches to create the illusion of decentralization.
4. Start out with conservative, sound banking principles, with the understanding that these principles could later be abandoned.
5. Use the anger generated by recent panics and bank failures to create demand for monetary reform.
6. Present the Jekyll Island plan as a solution to that demand.
7. Employ university professors to endorse and support the plan.
8. Speak out against the plan in order to create the illusion that Wall Street bankers actually opposed it.
It is upon this foundation of deceit that the Federal Reserve of the United States was founded in 1913. The name was chosen carefully; Federal implying that it was a government agency, and Reserve implying financial soundness. However, in spite of the carefully chosen name, The Federal Reserve is not a government agency, and there are no reserves of anything.
United States currency initially consisted of silver and gold coinage and section 8 of the US Constitution granted Congress the authority:
“To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;”
This language was chosen carefully, and it conveys the intent that money was assumed to be coins of precious metals, not printed paper receipts (although it should be noted that printed bills might be acceptable, as long as they were one hundred percent backed by precious metals). Furthermore, the language seems clear that the authority to coin money and establish standards to ensure the quality of the coins (or backing of the paper bills) rests with congress alone. There is no authorization for congress to delegate that responsibility to another agency, and certainly not to a cartel of private bankers. Yet that is exactly what has happened.
Since congress illegally authorized the transfer of control of the United States monetary system to a private cartel of bankers called the Federal Reserve, the quality and stability of our money has depreciated at an alarming rate.
• Minting of gold coins ceased in 1933.
• Private ownership of gold was outlawed and citizens were compelled to surrender gold coins, bullion, and certificates in 1933.
• Minting of silver coins ceased in 1965.
• Gold and silver backing of paper currency was gradually reduced until there was no backing whatsoever.
• Today, our economy is based entirely on fiat money, which is “money” that has no real value.
The question then arises, why did congress allow this to happen? How did the bankers convince congress that it would be in their interest to surrender the responsibility of regulating the monetary system? I will attempt to answer these questions in the remainder of this article.
Under a legitimate banking system, where all money is backed by a gold and silver standard, the ability of government to raise money to fund programs and projects, including wars, is limited to the money raised through the collection of taxes from citizens. It is never popular for a politician to raise taxes, especially when that money is used to fund unpopular endeavors. This is an inherent check on the power of congress and restricts them in terms of obtaining funding by ensuring that spending is carefully budgeted and only those programs that are widely supported and viewed as essential are funded.
The Federal Reserve appealed to congress and government because they offered the politicians a way to obtain virtually unlimited funding without raising taxes on their constituents. In return, the Federal Reserve eventually obtained the power to create money out of thin air by simply printing it or adding some digits to a computerized account. The Federal Reserve then loans this money to the government and collects interest on these loans.
According to the law of supply and demand, the more that exists of a commodity, the less it is worth. Consequently, the more money that is created out of thin air, the less value it retains. The longer you hold your federal reserve notes, the less they’re worth, allowing government and the Federal Reserve to confiscate your wealth through the hidden tax of inflation.
The constitution of the United States places limitations on the power of government. Politicians don’t like limitations and that is why the United States government has grossly deviated from the principles enumerated in the constitution.
Congress has illegally surrendered its responsibility to ensure the soundness of our money and we now find ourselves with a system based solely on fiat money. Throughout history, every economy based on fiat money has failed. There are no exceptions.
Congress has also illegally surrendered its constitutional responsibility to issue a declaration of war before any military campaign is launched. This clause was written to ensure that there is widely accepted agreement that a grave threat exists and that war is the last resort. It also ensures that no president can unilaterally send our troops to foreign countries to fight wars of economic conquest and that congress is held accountable for the results of their decisions.
Today, we find ourselves living in a country where there is unlimited funding for wars of aggression with no declaration of war necessary. Congress doesn’t have the integrity to justify their decisions to their constituency and the money to finance these wars is confiscated through the hidden tax of inflation. The president exercises dictatorial power by sending our troops anywhere he wants anytime he wants with little or no justification. Meanwhile, bankers profit from war by loaning the money to fund them, often financing both sides of the conflict, and corporations improve their bottom line by providing the resources necessary to wage war.
These three entities (governments, bankers, and corporations) have conspired to form an unholy alliance that profits from perpetual war at the expense of citizens who sacrifice their loved ones. This conspiracy is not just a theory, it is a fact.
Congressman Ron Paul describes the connection between fiat money and war in his article The End of Dollar Hegemony
If you want to gain a comprehensive understanding of the complex scam called the Federal Reserve, I highly recommend:
The Creature from Jekyll Island
by G. Edward Griffin