Abel Grimmer - Tower of Babel

ABEL GRIMMER - TOWER OF BABEL - PAGE 5

Rothschild - How International Bankers Gained Control

Master masons

- You have to ask what's going on in America today and why are we over our heads in debt?
- Why can't any of these politicians we've elected bring debt under control?
- Why are so many people, often both parents, working at lowpaying deadend jobs and yet still having to make do with less and less while the 'elites' have more and more?
- You have to wonder what will happen to the economy and American way of life.
- Why does government continue to tell us that inflation is low when the buying power of our paychecks is declining at an alarming rate?

Government debt

- The problem is that since 1864, we've had a debt-based banking system.
- All of our money is based on government debt.
- Unfortunately, we can't extinquish this debt without extinquishing our money supply.
- That's why talking about paying off the national debt without reforming our banking system is an impossibility.
- This means that the solution does not lie in discussing the size of the national debt.
- Rather, it lies in reforming our banking system.

Bank vault

- The headquarters for the Federal Reserve resides in Washington DC.
- It has an impressive address on Constitution Avenue, right across from the Lincoln Memorial.
- But it has nothing to do with 'federal' because it's a private corporation, not part of our federal government and it has no 'reserves.'
- The name is a deception and was created before the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913.
- This was to make American's think that our central bank operates in the public interest.

Private

- The truth is that the Federal Reserve is private bank owned by private stockholders and run purely for their private profit.
- This bank has no actual reserves, at least no reserves available to back up the Federal Reserve notes which is our common currency.
- That is to say it had doubtful reserves and is a private bank that is owned by member banks and it was chartered under the guise of deceit by an act of Congress.
- If there is still any doubt that the Federal Reserve is part of government, check your local telephone book and you will notice it is not listed in the blue government pages.
- Instead, it is listed in the business white pages, right next to Federal Express, another private company.

Independent bank

- But more directly, U.S. courts have ruled time and time again that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation.
- So why can't Congress do something about the Federal Reserve?
- Most members of Congress don't understand the system, or they profit from it.
- The few who do understand are afraid to speak up.
- However, there are some who have spoken up, one was Republican representative Charles A. Lindbergh from Minnesota in 1923.
- Lindbergh knew that the Federal Reserve Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group.

Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. ( father of the famous aviator) was a fierce critic of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, calling it the "most gigantic trust on earth," a legalized "invisible government," and a system that would allow a "money trust" to control the nation's finance for profit, creating panics and burdening citizens through private control of credit, according to his book Lindbergh on the Federal Reserve. (Assistant)

Bank profiteers

- The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money (ours).
- One of the most outspoken critics of the Federal Reserve, also know as the 'Fed,' was the former chairman of the House Banking Currency Committee during the Great Depression.
- This was Lewis T. McFadden, Republican from Pennsylvania, who said in 1932 that the Fed was one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.
- He called it an evil institution that has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government.
- And that the Fed had accomplished this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

More dangerous

- Republic Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona was a frequent critic of the Fed and he made it known that most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international moneylenders.
- The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have to this day, never been audited.
- It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States.
- Even though the Federal Reserve is not part of the government, it is more powerful than the Federal government.
- More powerful than the president, the Congress and the courts.

Controls your house payment

- Many people challenge this, but what the Federal Reserve does is estimate what the average person's automobile payment is going to be, what their house payment is going to be, and whether they have a job or not.
- Whether you believe it or not, that is total control, the borrower is servant to the lender.
- The Federal Reserve is the largest single creditor of the U.S. government.
- What one has to understand is that from the day the U.S. Constitution was adopted, right up to current day, the individuals who profit from privately owned central banks, the money changers, have fought a running battle for control over who gets to print American money.

Profit

- Why is who prints the money so important?
- Think of money as just another commodity, and realize that if you have a monopoly on a commodity that everyone needs, everyone wants, and nobody has enough of, there are lot's of ways to make a profit.
- At the same time, it can be used by these racketeers to exert tremendous political influence.
- That's what this battle is all about because throughout the history of the U.S., the money power has gone back and forth between Congress and some sort of privately owned central bank.

Moving our money

- The Founding Fathers knew the evils of a privately owned central bank.
- First of all, they had witnessed how Britain's privately owned central bank, the Bank of England, had run up the British national debt to such an extent that Parliament had been forced to place unfair taxes on the American colonies.
- In fact, Benjamin Frankin claimed that this was the real cause of the American Revolution.
- Most of the Founding Fathers realized the potential dangers of banking and feared the bankers accumulation of wealth and power.

Thomas Jefferson famously stated, "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies," reflecting his deep suspicion of centralized financial power and debt, seeing private banks as threats to republicanism and the people's property, especially compared to the visible threat of a military force. He believed private banks could corrupt the government, control currency, and create perpetual debt, ultimately enslaving future generations, a concern he voiced in letters, particularly to John Taylor, and in opposition to the National Bank. (Assistant)

Return to rightful owners

- Thomas Jefferson believed that the issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it belonged.
- This succinct statement of Jefferson is in fact the solution to all our economic problems today.
- James Madison, the main author of the Constitution called those behind the central bank scheme money changers and he strongly criticized their actions.
- The battle over who gets to control our money has been the pivotal issue throughout the history of the U.S.
- Wars are fought over it, depressions are caused in order for the profiteers to acquire it.

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. (James Madison)

Wars are fought for profit

- Yet, after World War I, this battle over the issuing power of the Federal Reserve was rarely mentioned in newspapers or history books.
- How did this happen, by World War I, the money changers with their dominant wealth had also seized control of most of the nation's media and press.
- Throughout U.S. history, this battle over who gets the power to issure our money has raged.
- In fact, it's changed hands, back and forth 8 times since 1764.
- Although this history has virtually vanished from public view for over 3 generations behind a smokescreen emitted by Fed cheerleaders in the media.

Former Republican representative Ron Paul famously views the Federal Reserve as detrimental, calling it the "biggest taxer of them all" for devaluing the dollar through money printing, causing artificial booms and busts, and undermining sound money principles, advocating its abolition (End the Fed) for true capitalism and liberty. He believes the Fed creates economic crises, saying every major downturn traces back to its policies of easy credit and central planning, which ultimately harm the middle class. (James Madison)

Hiding behind deception

- In fact, you might say that outspoken critics like Ron Paul were laughed out of Congress.
- Until we finally stop talking about deficits and government spending, and start talking about who controls how much money we have, it's all just a big shell game.
- A complete and utter deception because it won't matter if you pass an ironclad amendment to the Constitution mandating a balanced budget.
- Our situation is only going to get worse until we root out the cause and its source.

Theft and deception

- What's the solution for our national problem?
- First of all, we need to educate everyone, but secondly, we must act, we must take back the power to issue our own money.
- Issuing our own money is not a radical solution.
- It's the same solution used at different points in U.S. history by our leaders.
- To sum it up, in 1913, Congress gave an independent central bank, deceptively named the Federal Reserve, an undeserved monopoly over the issuence of American money.
- The debt generated by this quasi private corporation is what is killing the American economy.

Hazy

- Though the Federal Reserve is now the most powerful central bank in the world, it was not the first.
- So where did this idea come from?
- To really understand the magnitude of the problem, we have to travel back to Europe.
- So who exactly are these money changers that our Founding Fathers spoke about?
- As corrupt and 'retranslated' as the Bible is, the only time 'money changers' were mentioned was when the Jews came to the temple in Jerusalem to pay their temple taxes.
- They could only pay it with a special coin, the half shekel of the sanctuary which was a half ounce of pure silver about the size of a U.S. dime.

Shekel's required

- The shekel was the only coin during that time that was the pure silver assured weight without the image of the 'pagan' emperor such as Julius Caesar.
- Therefore, to Jews, the half shekel was the only coin acceptable to their God.
- But these coins were not plentiful, the Jewish money changers had cornered the market on them.
- Then they raised the price, just like every other commodity to whatever the market would bear.
- In other words, money changers were making exorbitant profits and taxpayers would have to exchange their assets at the local temple for one of their shekel's because it was the only currency the money changers would accept.
- They held a virtual monopoly on money and the Jewish taxpayers were obligated to pay whatever they demanded.

Back door

- However, this money changing scam did not originate in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, because 200 years prior to that, Rome was also having trouble with money changers.
- In fact, two early Roman emperors had tried to diminish the power of the money changers by reforming usary laws and limiting land ownership to 500 acres.
- They were both assassinated and in 48 BC, Julius Caesar took back the power to coin money from the money changers and minted coins for the benefit of all.
- With this new plentiful supply of money, Caesar built great public works projects and by making money plentiful, he won the love of the common man, but the money changers hated him.

Caesar's assassination

- Some believe that this was an important factor in Caesar's assassination.
- One thing is for sure, with the death of Julius Caesar, came the demise of plentiful money in Rome, and taxes increased as did corruption.
- Just as in the case of in America today, usery and debased coin became the rule.
- Eventually, the Roman money supply was reduced by 90% and as a result, the common people lost their land and their homes.
- Just as what is happening in America with the demise of plentiful money, the masses lost confidence in the Roman government and refused to support it.
- They stopped paying taxes and Rome plunged into the gloom of the dark ages.

Directs the money supply

- A thousand years later, the money changers, those who loan out and manipulate the quantity (and quality) of money were active in medieval England.
- In fact, by acting together, they could manipulate the entire English economy.
- These were not bankers per se, because the money changers were typically the goldsmiths.
- They were the first bankers because they started keeping other people's gold for safekeeping in their vaults.
- Much the same way the original Knights Templar would store the gold of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem and protecting them along the way, they owned the 'bank' and became terribly corrupt.
- The first paper money was merely a receipt for the gold left with the goldsmith.

Demanding their gold

- Paper money caught on because it was more convenient than carrying around a lot of heavy gold and silver coins and the risk of theft decreased.
- Eventually, these crafty goldsmiths noticed that only a small fraction of depositors ever came into their shops and demanded their gold at any one time.
- Greedy goldsmith's started cheating on the system and they quickly discovered that they could print more paper money than they had gold and usually, no one would be the wiser.
- Next they discovered that they could lend out this money and collect interest on it.

Fractional reserve banking

- This was the birth of fractional reserve banking which means you are loaning out many times more money than you have assets on deposit.
- So if $1,000 worth of gold were deposited with them, they could loan out about $10,000 in paper money and draw interest payments on it and no one would ever discover the deception.
- Through this means, goldsmiths gradually accumulated more and more wealth and used this wealth to acquire more and more gold.
- Today, this practice of loaning out more money than there are reserves is known as fractional reserve banking.

Rush

- Every bank in the U.S. is now allowed to lend out at least 10 times more money than they actually have.
- That's why they get rich on charging, let's say 8% interest, it's not really 8% per year which is their income, it's 80% and that's why bank buildings are always the largest in town.
- And when they talk about a 'rush' on the bank this happens when people lose trust and all run to the bank and demand their money at the same time, which the bank does not have, they only have 10% of it at any one time.

Forbade interest on loans

- But that does not mean that all banking, or all interest should be illegal.
- In the middle ages, Canon law, the law of the Catholic Church, forbade charging interest on loans.
- This concept followed the teachings of Greek Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas who taught that the purpose of money was to serve the members of society.
- In order to facilitate the exchange of goods needed to lead a virtuous life.
- Interest in their belief, hindered this purpose by putting an unecessary burden on the use of money.
- In other words, interest was contrary to reason and justice.

Crime

- Reflecting the same beliefs in the Middle Ages, Europe forbade charging interest on loans and made it a crime called usery.
- As commerce grew, and therefore opportunities for investment arose in the late Middle Ages, it came to be recognized that to loan money there was a cost involved to loan that money.
- The casheir needed a paycheck and it was a full-time job.
- For the lender, it was both risk and lost opportunity and so some charges or fees were allowed, but not interest per se.
- However, all moralists, no matter what religion, condemned fraud, oppression of the poor, and injustice as clearly immoral.
- As we will see, fractional reserve lending is routed in a fraud, results in widespread poverty, and reduces the value of everyone else's money.
- The ancient goldsmiths discovered that extra profits could be made by controlling the money through easy money versus tight money.

Expanding business

- When they made money easier to borrow, then the amount of money in circulation expanded and money was plentiful.
- People took out more loans to expand their businesses, however, then the money changers would tighten the supply.
- They would make loans more difficult to obtain and what happened next is the same thing that still happens today.
- A certain percentage of borrowers could not repay their previous loans and could not take out new loans to repay the old loans.
- Therefore, they went bankrupt and had to sell their assets to the goldsmiths for pennies on the dollar.
- The same thing is still going on today, only today we call this 'rowing' of the economy, up and down the business cycle.

Money power

- Like Julius Caesar, in England, King Henry I finally resolved to take the money power away from the goldsmiths about 1100 AD.
- Henry I could have used anything as money, seashells (Caligula), feathers, or even Yak dung, as is often done in remote Tibetan provinces, but he invented one of the most unusual money systems in history.
- It was called the tally stick system, and this form of British money lasted 726 years, until 1826.
- A tally stick was adopted to avoid the monetary manipulation of the goldsmiths and the sticks were money fabricated out of sticks of polished wood.

Tally stick

- Notches were cut along one edge of the stick to indicate the denominations.
- Then the stick was split lengthwise through the notches so that both pieces still contained a record of the notches.
- The king kept one half, to protect against counterfeiting, then he would spend the other half into the economy and they would circulate his money.
- A tally stick was often so large it could represent £25,000.
- One of the original stockholders in the Bank of England, purchased his shares with such a stick.
- In other words, he bought shares in the world's richest and most powerful corporation with a stick of wood.

Winchester City Council Museums, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Tally stick

- It's ironic that after its formation in 1694, the Bank of England attacked the tally stick system because it was money outside the power of the money changers, just as King Henry I had desired.
- Why do people accept sticks of wood for money, that's a great question, the same as they accept a piece of paper, they trusted it.
- Throughout history, people would trade anything they thought had value and used it as money, for example the taxpayers at the Jewish temples would bring chickens and exchange them for shekels.
- So the secret is that money is only what people agree on to use as money.
- Like our paper money today, it's really just a piece of paper, but here's the trick, King Henry I ordered that tally sticks had to be used to pay his taxes.
- This built in demand for tally sticks immediately made them circulate and be accepted as money, and they worked well, in fact no other form of money has worked as well for so long.

A tally stick was an ancient memory aid used to record and document numbers, quantities, and messages. Tally sticks first appear as animal bones carved with notches during the Upper Palaeolithic; a notable example is the Ishango Bone. Historical reference is made by Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) about the best wood to use for tallies, and by Marco Polo (1254–1324) who mentions the use of the tally in China. Tallies have been used for numerous purposes such as messaging and scheduling, and especially in financial and legal transactions, to the point of being currency. (Wikipedia)

Money circulating

- Keep in mind, the British Empire was built under the tally stick system and it succeeded, despite the fact that the money changers constantly attacked it by offering the money coin system as competition.
- In other words, metal coins never went completely out of circulation, but tally sticks were so successful because they were always good for tax payment.

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Henry VIII testoon

- Finally, in the 1500s, King Henry VIII relaxed the laws concerning usery, and the money changers wasted no time reasserting themselves.
- They quickly made their gold and silver coins plentiful for a few decades.
- Corrupt old Henry VIII saw the advantage to this and he minted his 'coppernose' coins as silver but it was just a veneer and when it rubbed off he had a copper nose on the coin and this was called 'the Great Debasement.'

"Coppernose" refers to Henry VIII and his infamous Great Debasement (1544-1551) in England, a period when he drastically reduced the silver and gold content in coins, adding copper to fund wars and lavish spending, leading to inflation and the nickname because the silver wore off the nose on his portrait, revealing the base copper underneath. This policy eroded trust in the currency and caused economic hardship, only being reversed later under Edward VI and Elizabeth I. (Assistant)

Queen Elizabeth I takes the throne

- However, when Queen Mary took the throne and tightened the usery laws again, the money changers renewed the practice of hoarding gold and silver coins, forcing the economy to plummet.
- When Mary's sister, Queen Elizabeth I took the throne, she was determined to regain control over English money, something her father, Henry VIII had lost.
- Her solution was to issue gold and silver coins from the public treasury and remove control of the money supply from money changers.
- Although control of money was not the only cause of the English Revolution in 1642, religious differences fueled the conflict, but monetary policy played a major role.

After Samuel Cooper, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Oliver Cromwell

- Financed by the money changers, Oliver Cromwell finally overthrew King Charles I, purged the Parliament, and put the king to death.
- The money changers were immediately allowed to consolidate their financial power.
- The effect was for the next 50 years, the money changers plunged Great Britain into a series of costly wars.
- They took over a square mile of property in the center of London known as the City of London and this area today is still recognized as one of the 3 predominant financial centers of the world.
- Conflicts with the Scottish Stuart kings, led the money changers in England to unite with those in the Netherlands to finance the invasion of King William of Orange, who overthew the Stuarts in 1688 and took the English throne.

Financial ruin

- By the end of the 1600s, England was in financial ruin because 50 years of more or less continuous wars with France and Holland had exhausted resources.
- Frantic government officials met with the money changers to beg for the loans necessary to pursue their political purposes.
- The price was high, a government sanctioned privately owned bank which could issue money created out of thin air.
- It was to be the modern world's first privately owned central bank, the Bank of England, although it was deceptively named this to make the general population think it was part of the government, it was not.
- Like any other private corporation, the Bank of England sold shares to get started.

City of London

- The investors, whose names were never revealed, were supposed to put up £1.4 million in gold coin to buy their shares in the bank, but only £750,000 was ever received.
- Despite the huge shortfall, the bank was duly chartered in 1694 and began the business of loaning out several times the money it supposedly had in reserves, all at interest.
- In exchange, the new bank would loan British politicians as much of the new currency as they wanted as long as they secured the debt by direct taxation of the British people.
- So, legalization of the Bank of England amounted to nothing less than legal counterfeiting of a national currency for private gain.
- Unfortunately, nearly every nation now has a privately controlled central bank, using the Bank of England as the basic model.

Central bank control

- Such is the power of these central banks that they soon take total control over a nation's economy.
- It quickly amounts to nothing but a plutocracy ruled by the rich, it would be like putting control of the nation's army in the hands of the mafia.
- The danger of tyranny would be extreme but yes, we need central banks, however, we don't need them in private hands.
- The central bank scam is really a hidden tax because the nation sells bonds to the bank to pay for things it does not have the political will to raise taxes to pay for.
- But the bonds are purchased with money that the central bank creates out of nothing and this is called national debt.
- More money in circulation, causes your money to be worth less.

Plutocracy, oligarchy, and kleptocracy all involve rule by a few, but differ in the basis of power: an oligarchy is rule by a small group (elite, military, etc.); a plutocracy is a type of oligarchy where wealth is the sole basis for power, often through legal policy; while a kleptocracy (rule by thieves) is a corrupt system where leaders use political power to steal state resources for personal enrichment, often secretly and illegally, subverting institutions for illicit gain. Plutocracies can be legalistic, while kleptocracies are defined by outright theft and corruption. (Assistant)

Inflation

- As a result, the government gets as much money as it needs and the people pay for it in inflation.
- Sound familiar?
- The beauty of the plan is that not one person in a thousand can figure it out because its usually hidden behind complex sounding economic gibberish.
- You need a college degree in banking and finance to figure it out.
- With the formation of the Bank of England, the nation was soon awash in money, and prices throughout the country doubled.
- Massive loans were granted for just about any wild scheme.
- One venture proposed to drain the Red Sea to recover gold supposedly lost when the Egyptian army drowned pursuing Moses and Israelites.

Debt

- By 1698, government debt grew from the initial £1.4 million to £16 million.
- Naturally, taxes were increased, and then increased again to pay for all of this.
- With the British money supply firmly in the bank's grip, the economy began a wild roller coaster series of booms and depressions, exactly the sort of thing a central bank claims it is there to prevent.
- Sound familiar?
- There are two things involved generally in the central bank, first is an involvement in the formation of monetary policy with the specific objective of achieving monetary stability.
- However, since the Bank of England took control, the British currency has rarely been stable.

Great coat of arms of Rothschild family

- Now let's take a look at the Rothschild family, the family that is said to be the wealthiest in the world.
- The Rothschild family is an Ashkenazi Jewish 'noble' banking family originally from Frankfurt in Germany.
- The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567.
- The first member of the family who was known to use the name 'Rothschild' was Isaak Elchanan Rothschild, born in 1577.
- Unlike most previous court factors, Rothschild managed to bequeath his wealth and established an international banking family through his 5 sons, who established businesses in Paris, Frankfurt, London, Vienna, and Naples.

Ashkenazi refers to Jews of Central and Eastern European descent, named from the Hebrew word for Germany, who developed distinct cultural, linguistic (Yiddish), and religious traditions in the diaspora after settling in the Rhineland and migrating eastward. Today, they form a major branch of Judaism, distinguished from Sephardic (Iberian/Middle Eastern) or Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) Jews by unique customs, liturgy, and a shared history, contributing significantly to global culture, science, and arts. (Assistant)

Gold miners

- The family was elevated to noble rank in the Holy Roman Empire and the United Kingdom, however, the only subsisting branches of the family are the French and British.
- During the 19th-century, the Rothschild family possessed the largest private fortune in the world, as well as in modern world history.
- The Rothschild family dominated international finance in Europe between the 1820s and the 1870s, when their hegemony over European finance was broken by joint stock banks.
- The family's wealth declined over the 20th-century and was divided among many descendants, however, they remain incredibly wealthy.
- Today, their assets cover a diverse range of sectors, including financial services, real estate, mining, energy, agriculture, and winemaking.

Rothschild means "red shield" in German, a name taken from a house sign in Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto by the famous banking dynasty founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812). The name signifies a wealthy, influential European banking family known for international finance, with branches established by Mayer's five sons in London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, and Frankfurt, becoming synonymous with immense wealth and financial power. (Assistant)

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Mayer Amschel Rothschild

- The family's ascent to international prominence began in 1744, with the birth of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1813) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- He was the son of Amschel Moses Bower Rothschild (born circa 1710) a money changer who had traded with the Prince of Hesse.

The name is derived from the German zum rothen Schild (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "at the red shield", in reference to the house where the family lived for many generations (in those days, houses were designated not by numbers, but by signs displaying different symbols or colours). (Wikipedia)

Fred Trump as Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Frederick Christ Trump Sr.
1905-1999
10/11 6/25
Real estates Mayer Amschel Rothschild
1744-1813
2/23   9/19

Money changer

- Some 50 years after the Bank of England opened its doors, a goldsmith in Frankfurt named Amschel Moses Bower opened a coin shop, or counting house, in 1743.
- Over the door he placed a sign depicting a Roman eagle on a red shield, and the shop became known as the 'Red Shield' firm, or in German, Rothschild.
- When his son, Amchel Mayer Bower inherited the business, he decided to change his name to Rothschild.
- He soon learned that lending money to governments and kings was more profitable than loaning to private individuals.
- Not only were the loans bigger, but they were secured by the nation's taxes.

Shielded

- In 1785, Amchel Mayer Rothschild moved his entire family to a larger house in Frankfurt, a 5-story dwelling he shared with the Schiff family.
- This house was known as the 'Green Shield,' and both the Rothschild's and the Schiff's would play a central role in the rest of European financial history, and of that in the U.S.
- Rothschild had 5 sons and he trained them all in the skills of money creation, then sent them out to the major capitals of Europe to open branch offices of the family banking business.

Greedy bankers

- His 1st son, Mayer Amschel Rothschild stayed in Frankfurt to mind the hometown bank.
- The 2nd son, Solomon Rothschild, was sent to Vienna, while his 3rd son, Nathan Rothschild, was clearly the most clever and he was sent to London at age 21 in 1798.
- This was some 100 years after the founding of the Bank of England.
- His 4th son, Carl Rothschild, went to Naples, and his 5th son, Jacob Rothschild, went to Paris.

G. Le Gray & Cie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Frederick William II of Hesse-Kassel

- The Rothschild's broke into dealings with European royalty at Williams Hall, the palace of the wealthiest man in Germany.
- In fact, the wealthiest monarch in Europe, Prince William of Hesse-Kassel.
- At first the Rothschild's were only helping William speculate in precious coins, however, when Napoleon chased the prince into exile, he sent £550,000, a gigantic sum at that time, to Nathan Rothschild in London with instructions to buy 'consoles,' British government bonds, also called government stock.
- But Rothschild used the money for his own purposes; with Napoleon on the loose, the opportunities of wartime investments were nearly limitless.

Prescott Bush as Prince William

Prescott Sheldon Bush
1895-1972
5/15 10/8
Nazi support Prince William
1787-1867
12/24   9/5
Hesse-Kassel

Hessian

- Prince William returned to his palace sometime prior to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and he summoned Rothschild and demanded his money back.

European royalty

- The Rothschld's returned Prince William's money with the interest the British consoles would have paid him, had the investment actually been made.
- But the Rothchild's kept all the past profits they had made using William's money.
- Nathan Rothschild later bragged that in the 17 years he had been in Britain, he increased his original £20,000 stake given to him by his father, some 2,500 times.
- By cooperating within the family, the Rothschild soon grew unbelievably wealthy and by the 1800s they dominated all European banking and were certainly the wealthiest family in the world.

Alexander Bassano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Cecil John Rhodes - 1890

- Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
- He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895.
- He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory.
- Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.

Elon Musk as Cecil Rhodes

Elon Reeve Musk
1971
6/28
Emeralds Cecil John Rhodes
1853-1902
7/5   3/26
Diamonds

Diamonds or Emeralds

- The Rothschild bank financed Cecil Rhodes which allowed him to establish a monopoly over the diamond and gold fields of South Africa.|
- He founded the De Beers company in 1888 after he was financed by the South African diamond magnate Alfred Beit and the London-based N M Rothschild & Sons bank.
- Elon Musk's father Errol Musk, was given an emerald mine by De Beers for some reason.

The idea that Elon Musk's father, Errol, owned an emerald mine, possibly given by De Beers, is a persistent but disputed rumor; Errol claims he had access to Zambian emeralds through deals, not ownership, and denies it funded Elon, while Elon has called the mine story "fake," though past interviews show confusion, with Errol saying his son saw the gems and knows the truth, while Elon denies it to portray a harder upbringing. (Assistant)

Great wealth

- In America, the Rothschild bank financed the Harriman's and the railroads, and the Vanderbilt's and railroads and the news press as well as Carnegie and the steel industry, among many others.
- In fact, during World War I, J.P. Morgan was thought to be the richest man in America, but after his death, it was discovered that he was only a lieutenant of the Rothschild's.
- Once Morgan's will was made public, it was discovered that he owned only 19% of J.P. Morgan companies.

J.P. Morgan wasn't exactly a "lieutenant," but he and his father, Junius Spencer Morgan, had extremely close, mutually beneficial ties with the powerful Rothschild banking dynasty, essentially acting as their American partners, expanding Morgan's firm (J.P. Morgan & Co.) through Rothschild trust, shared deals, and connections, establishing an international financial powerhouse based on trust and collaboration, a model J.P. Morgan expanded globally. (Assistant)

World standing

- By 1850, James Rothschild, the heir of the French branch of the family, was said to be worth 600 million French francs, 150 million more than all the other bankers in France put together.
- He built a mansion near Paris so large that even Prince William Hesse-Kassel exclaimed, 'Kings couldn't afford this, it could only belong to a Rothschild.'
- Another 19th-century French commentator put it this way, 'There is but one power in Europe and that is Rothschild.'
- There is no evidence that their predominant standing in European or world finance has ever changed.

American Revolution

- It's claimed that the results of what the Bank of England had produced on the British economy was the root cause of the American Revolution.
- By the mid-1700s, the British Empire was nearing its height of power around the world, but Britain had fought 4 costly wars in Europe, just since the creation of their privately owned central bank and the cost had been high.
- To finance these wars, the British Parliament had borrowed heavily from the bank and by the mid-1700s, the government's debt was £140 million, a staggering amount for those days.
- Consequently, the British government embarked on a program attempting to raise revenue from their American colonies in order to make their interest payments to the bank.

The Wild Western colonies

- But in America, it was a different story because the scourge of a privately owned central bank had not yet hit.
- In the mid-1700s, pre-revolutionary America was still relatively poor and there was a severe shortage of precious metal coins to trade for goods.
- Because of this, the early colonists were forced to experiment with printing their own homegrown paper money.
- Some of these experiments were successful and Benjamin Franklin was a big supporter of the colonies printing their own money.
- He owned the printing presses.
- In 1757, Franklin was sent to London and he ended up staying for the next 18 years, nearly to the beginning of the American Revolution.

Benjamin Franklin and David Hall (printers), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

- During this period, the colonies began to issue their own paper money called Colonial Scrip.
- The endeavor was very successful because it provided a reliable medium of exchange and it also helped to provide a feeling of unity between the colonies.
- Colonial Scrip was debt-free paper money printed in the public interest and not backed by gold or silver coin, in other words, it was a totally fiat currency.
- Officials at the Bank of England asked Franklin how he would account for the new found prosperity of the colonies and without hesitation he told them it was because the colonies issued their own money.
- Also, that it was issued in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make products pass easily from the producers to the consumers, and because of that, the colonies owed interest to no one.

Fiat currency is a type of money issued by a government and declared legal tender, but which is not backed by a physical commodity like gold or silver. Its value is based entirely on the public's trust and confidence in the issuing government and the stability of the economy, rather than any intrinsic value. (Assistant)

Colonial Scrip by Franklin

- This was just common sense to Franklin, but you can imagine the impact it had on the Bank of England.
- America had learned the deep secret of money and that genie had to be returned to its bottle as soon as possible.
- As a result, Parliament hurriedly passed the Currency Act of 1764 and this prohibited colonial officials from issuing their own money and ordered them to pay all future taxes in gold or silver coins.
- In other words, it forced the colonies onto a gold or silver standard.
- For those who still believe that a gold standard is the answer for America's current currency problems, look what happened to America after that.

America

- Franklin wrote in his autobiography that in one short year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended and a depression set in.
- To such an extent that the streets of the colonies were filled with unemployed and he claimed that this was the basis for the American Revolution.
- Britain took away the colonies money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction.
- The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money and keep it out of the hands of George III and the international banks was the main reason for war.

In letters around 1773, Franklin expressed that the small 3-pence tax on tea was "silly" and a poor excuse for a revenue tax, as it was less than the English paid and made tea cheaper in America, but it was kept by Britain to assert their right to tax the colonies, which Franklin felt would provoke more serious conflict over principle, not money, ultimately leading to the Boston Tea Party. (Assistant)

Colonial homes

- By the time the first shots were fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19th, 1775, the colonies had been drained of gold and silver coin by British taxation.
- As a result, the Continental government had no choice but to print money to finance the war.
- At the start of the revolution, the colonial money supply stood at $12 million but by the end of the war, it was nearly $500 million.
- And the currency as a result, was nearly worthless.
- For example, shoes sold for $5,000 a pair and the whole reason that Colonial Scrip had worked was because just enough was issued to facilitate trade.
- As George Washington lamented, 'A wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions.'

Soapbox

- Today, those who support a goldbacked currency point to this period to demonstrate the evils of a fiat currency.
- But remember, that same currency had worked so well 20 years earlier during times of peace that the Bank of England had Parliment outlaw it.
- Toward the end of the revolution, the Continental Congress meeting at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, grew desperate for money.
- In 1781, they allowed Robert Morris, their financial superintendent, to open a privately owned central bank.
- Incidently, Morris was a wealthy man who had grown even wealthier during the revolution by trading war materials.

Robert Edge Pine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Robert Morris

- Robert Morris Jr. (1734-1806) was a British-born American merchant, investor, and politician, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
- Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature, the Second Continental Congress, and the United States Senate.
- He was one of only two individuals (along with Roger Sherman) to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.
- From 1781 to 1784, he held the post of Superintendent of Finance of the United States, a role that earned him the title 'Financier of the Revolution.'

John D. Rockefeller as Robert Morris

John Davison Rockefeller
1839-1937
7/8 5/23 Robert Morris Jr.
1734-1806
1/20   5/8
War and money

War debt

- Alongside Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is often regarded as a founder of the financial system of the United States.
- Morris called the entity, the Bank of Northern America and it was closely modeled after the Bank of England.
- It was allowed to practice fractional reserve banking, meaning it could lend out money it didn't have and then charge interest.
- If any of us tried doing that, we would be charged with fraud, a felony.

Bank of North America

- The new banks charter called for private investors to put up $400,000 worth of initial capital.
- When Morris was unable to raise the money, he brazenly used his political influence to have gold deposited in the bank, which had been loaned to America by France.
- He then loaned this money to himself and his friends to reinvest in shares of the bank.

John Trumbull, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Alexander Hamilton 1794

- Just like the Bank of England, the new bank was given a monopoly over the national currency.
- Soon the dangers became clear, the value of American currrency continued to plummet.
- Four years later, in 1785, the banks charter was not renewed.
- The leader of the effort to kill the bank, William Findley of Pennsylvania, explained that 'the institution had no principle but that of avarice.'

George Bush Jr. as Alexander Hamilton

George Walker Bush
1946
7/6 Alexander Hamilton
1755-1804
1/11   7/12
British spy

Kite steel hit plane

- Lesson 60 on page 153.

John Wollaston the Younger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Thomas Willing

- Thomas Willing (1731-1821) was an American merchant, politician, and slave trader.
- He served as mayor of Philadelphia and as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress.
- He was also the first president of the Bank of North America and later of the First Bank of the United States.

George Bush Sr. as Thomas Willing

George Herbert Walker Bush
1924-2018
6/12 11/30 Thomas Willing
1731-1821
12/19   8/19
Banker

Skull and bones

- The men behind the Bank of North America, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, and the bank's president, Thomas Willing, did not give up.

Assets

- Only 6 years later, Hamilton, then Secretary of Treasury, and his mentor, Robert Morris, were able to ram a new privately owned central bank through the new U.S. Congress.
- Called the First Bank of the United States, Thomas Willing again served as the bank's president.
- The players of the bank were the same, only the name was changed.
- In 1787, colonial leaders assembled in Philadelphia to replace the ailing Articles of Confederation.
- As we saw before, both Jefferson and Madison were still opposed to a privately owned central bank.

Problems

- Both men had seen the problems caused by the Bank of England and they wanted nothing of it.
- During the debate with the Founding Fathers, Governor Morris castigated the motivations of the owners of the Bank of North America.
- Governor Morris was head of the committee that wrote the final draft of the Constitution.
- He knew the motivations of the bank well, along with his old boss, Robert Morris, Governor Morris and Alexander Hamilton were the ones who had presented the original plan for the bank to the Continental Congress in the last year of the revolution.
- In a letter he wrote to James Madison on July 2, 1787, the governer revealed what was really going on.
- He knew that the rich would strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest because that's what they always did.

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then deflation, the banks and the corporation which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. (Thomas Jefferson)

Convincing

- Despite the defection of Governor Morris from the ranks of the bank, Hamilton, Robert Morris, Thomas Willing and their European backers were not about to give up.
- They convinced the bulk of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to not give Congress the power to issue paper money.
- Most of the delegates were still reeling from the wild inflation of the paper currency during the revolution.
- They had forgotten how well Colonial Scrip had worked before the war.
- But the Bank of England had not, and they could not stand to have America printing their own money again.
- Unfortunately, the Constitution is silent on this grievous defect and this left the door wide open to the private bankers, just as they had planned.

Sruck again

- In 1790, less than 3 years after the Constitution had been signed, the money changers struck again.
- The newly appointed first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, proposed a bill to Congress calling for a new, privately owned central bank.
- Conincidently, that was the very year that Amschel Rothschild made a pronouncement from his flagship bank in Frankfurt saying, 'Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws.'
- Alexander Hamilton revealed himself to be a tool of the international bankers and he wanted to create the Bank of the United States and did so.

Hamilton's national blessing to whom?

- Interestingly, one of Hamilton's first jobs after graduating from law school in 1782, was as aide to Robert Morris, the head of the Bank of North America.
- In fact, the year before, he had written Morris a letter saying, 'A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.'
- After a year of intense debate, in 1791, Congress passed the bill and gave it a 20 year charter.
- The new bank was to be called the First Bank of the United States (BUS).
- They were granted a monopoly on printing U.S. currency, even though 80% of its stock would be held by private investors.
- The other 20% would be purchased by the U.S. government.
- However, the reason was not to give the U.S. government a piece of the action, it was to provide the capital for the other 80% owners.

BUS

- As with the old Bank of North America and the Bank of England before that, the stockholders never paid the full amount for their shares.
- Instead, the U.S. government put up their initial $2 million in cash.
- Then the bank, through their old magic of fractional reserve lending, made loans to its charter investors so they could come up with the remaining $8 million in capital needed for this 'risk free' investment.
- Like the Bank of England, the name for the bank in the U.S. was chosen to deliberately hide that it was privately controlled.
- And like the Bank of England, the investors were never revealed.
- Many years later, it was a common saying that the Rothschild's were the power behind the old bank of the U.S.

Congressional security is war

- The bank was sold to Congress as a way to bring stability to the banking system and eliminate inflation.
- So what happened next?
- Over the first 5 years, the U.S. government borrowed $8.2 million from the Bank of the United States.
- In the same 5-year period, prices rose by 72%.
- Jefferson, as new Secretary of State watched the borrowing with sadness and frustration, unable to stop it.
- Also as one of the Founding Fathers he signed the Constitution with no provision for any of this?

Head shape shifting demon

- The Secretary of State (U.S.) is the President's chief foreign policy advisor, heading the State Department, managing foreign relations, negotiating treaties, issuing passports, and protecting U.S. citizens abroad; at the state level, they often serve as chief election official, keeper of state records (like the Great Seal), registrar of businesses, and commissioner of notaries, with roles varying by state.
- So you have to wonder, why Jefferson was unable to stop it if he's the one in control of registering businesses?
- He was quoted as saying, 'I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution, taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.'!!!!!

Out on the ledge

- Millions of Americans want the ability to add an amendment to the Constitution, so why were the Founding Fathers so careful not to allow this to happen?
- They watch in helpless frustration as the federal government borrows the American economy into oblivion.
- To the point now they are tearing down the White House without any approval to build 'ball rooms' to take the scapegoated Edomites to hell for the Jews crimes.
- Despite being called the First Bank of the United States, it was not the first attempt at a privately owned central bank in this country.
- As with the Bank of North America, the government put up most of the cash to get this bank going.
- Then the bankers loaned the money to each other to purchase the remaining stock in the bank.

Public hanging

- It was a scam, plain and simple, and they wouldn't be able to get away with it for long.
- We have to travel back to Europe to see how a single man was able to manipulate the entire British economy by obtaining the first news of Napoleon's final defeat.
- The Bank of France was organized in Paris in 1800, just like the Bank of England.
- But Nepoleon decided France had to break free of debt and he never did trust the Bank of France.
- He declared that when a government is dependent upon bankers for money, the bankers, not the leaders of the government are in contol.
- Back in America, unexpected help was about to arrive.

The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.. (Napoleon Bonaparte)

Jacques-Louis David, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Napoleon Bonaparte

- In 1800, Thomas Jefferson narrowly defeated John Adams to become the 3rd president of the U.S.
- By 1803, Jefferson and Napoleon had struck a deal, the U.S. would give Napoleon $3 million in gold in exchange for a huge chuck of territory west of the Mississippi River and this was the Louisiana Purchase.
- With that $3 million Napoleon quickly forged an army and set off across Europe, conquering everything in his path.
- But the Bank of England quickly rose to oppose him.

Monti-cello

- They financed every nation in his path, reaping the enormous profits of war.
- Prussia, Austria and finally, Russia all went heavily into debt in a futile attempt to stop Napoleon.
- Four years later, with the main French army in Russia, 30-year-old Nathan Rothschild, the head of the London office of the Rothschild family, personally took charge of a bold plan to smuggle a much needed shipment of gold right through France to finance an attack by the Duke of Wellington that took place in Spain.

Thomas Lawrence, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Duke of Wellington, c.1815 - upper house
Tory

- Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington (né Wesley) was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during the early 19th-century, twice serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- He was one of the British commanders who ended the Anglo-Mysore wars by defeating Tipu Sultan in 1799, and among those who ended the Napoleonic Wars in a Coalition victory when the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Duke of Wellington as Napoleon Bonaparte

Arthur Wellesley
1769-1852
5/1 9/14
Prime Minister Napoleon Bonaparte
11769-1821
8/15   5/5
Emperor

My sore

- Rothschild later bragged at a dinner party in London, that it was the best business he's ever done.
- Little did he know that he would do much better business in the near future.
- Wellington's attacks from the south and other defeats eventually forced Napoleon to abdicate and Louis XVIII was crowned.

Elba

- Napoleon was exiled to Elba, a tiny island off the coast of Italy, supposedly exiled from France forever.
- While Napoleon was exiled and temporarily defeated by England with the financial help of the Rothschild bank, America was trying to break free of its central bank as well.
- In 1811, a bill was put before Congress to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States.
- The debate grew very heated and the legislatures of Pennsylvania and Virginia, passed resolutions asking Congress to kill the bank.
- The press corp of the day attacked the bank openly calling it a great swindle, a vulture, a viper and a cobra.
- How nice it would be to have an independent press again in America.

War bank

- A congressman named P.B. Porter attacked the bank from the floor of Congress saying, 'if the banks charter is renewed, Congress will have planted in the bosom of this Constitution, a viper, which one way or another, will sting the liberties of this country to the heart.'
- Prospects didn't look that good for the bank but some claim that Nathan Rothschild was quoted as saying that the U.S. would find itself in the most disastrous war if the banks charter were not renewed!!
- But it wasn't enough, when the smoke had cleared, the renewal bill was defeated by a single vote in the House, and was deadlocked in Senate.

Whitehouse

- By now, America's 4th president, James Madison, was in the White House and he was a staunch oppenent of the central bank.
- His vice president, George Clinton, broke a tie in the Senate and sent the bank into oblivion.
- Within 5 months, England attacked the U.S. and the War of 1812 was on.
- But the British were still busy fighting Napoleon, so the War of 1812 ended in a draw in 1814.
- Though the money changers were temporarily down, they were far from out.
- It would take them only another 2 years to bring back their bank, bigger and stronger than ever.

Banking house

- Nothing in history more aptly demonstrates the ingenuity of the Rothschild than their control of the British stock market after Waterloo.
- In 1815, a year after the end of the War of 1812 in America, Napoleon escaped his exile and returned to Paris.
- French troops were sent out to capture him, but such was his charisma that soldiers hailed around their old leader and hailed him as their emperor once again.
- In March of 1815, Napoleon outfitted an army which Britain's Duke of Wellington defeated less than 90 days later at Waterloo.
- Some writers claim that Napoleon borrowed £5 million from the Bank of England to re-arm, but it appears these funds actually came from the Hubbard Banking House in Paris.
- Nevertheless, from about this point on, it was not unusual for privately controlled central banks to finance both sides in a war.

War is debt

- Why would a central bank finance opposing sides in a war?
- Because war is the biggest debt generator of them all because a nation will borrow any amount for victory.
- The ultimate loser is loaned just enough to hold out the vain hope of victory, and the ultimate winner is given enough to win.
- Besides, such loans are usually conditioned upon the guarantee that the victor will honor the debts of the vanquished.
- The Waterloo battlefield is located about 200 miles northeast of Paris in what today is Belgium.
- It is here that Napoleon suffered his final defeat, but not before thousands of French gave their lives on a summer day in July 1815.
- On June 18, 1815, some 74,000 French troops met 67,000 troops from Britain and other European nations.
- The outcome was certainly in doubt, in fact, Napoleon had attacked a few hours earlier, he would have probably won the battle.

Big bank

- But no matter who won or lost, back in London, Nathan Rothschild made plans to use the opportunity to try and seize control over the British stock and bond market, and possibly, even the Bank of England.
- Rothschild stationed a trusted agent, a man named Rothworth on the north side of the battlefield, closer to the English Channel.
- Once the battle had been decided, Rothworth took off and he delivered the news to Nathan Rothschild a full 24-hours before Wellington's own courier reached England.
- Rothschild hurried to the stock market and took up us usual position in front of an ancient pillar.

See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Nathan Rothschild

- All eyes were on him because the Rothschild's had an ancient communications network.
- If Wellington had been defeated and Napoleon was on the loose on the continent again, Britain's financial situation would become grave indeed.
- Rothschild looked saddened and he stood there motionless with his eyes downcast, then suddenly he began selling.
- Other nervous investors saw that he was selling and it could have only meant one thing, Napoleon must have won and Wellington must have lost.
- The market plummeted and soon everyone was selling their consoles, British government bonds, and prices dropped sharply.
- However, Rothschild started secretly buying up the consoles through his agents for only a fraction of their worth a few hours before.
- How perfectly despicable and deceptive.

Soldiers returning

- Myths, legends, some claim, but 100 years later, the New York Times ran a story that said that Nathan Rothschild's grandson had attempted to secure a court order to suppress a book that had the stock market story in it.
- The Rothschild family claimed the story was untrue and liabilious, however, the court denied their request and ordered the family to pay all court costs.
- What's even more interesting about this story is that some authors claim that the day after the Battle of Waterloo, in a matter of hours, Nathan Rothschild came to dominate not only the bond market, but the Bank of England as well.

Family logo

-Whether or not the Rothschild family seized control of the Bank of England, the first privately owned central bank in a major European nation and the wealthiest, one thing is certain.
- By the 1800s. they were the wealthiest family in the world, bar none.
- They dominated the new government bond markets and branched into other banks and industrial concerns.
- In fact, the rest of the 19th-century was known as the Age of the Rothschild's and it's been estimated that they controlled half the wealth of the world.
- Despite this overwhelming wealth, the family has generally cultivated an aura of invisibility, although the family controls scores of industrial, commercial, mining and tourist centered corporations, only a handful bear their name.
- Somehow since the turn of the century, the Rothschild's have cultivated the notion that their power has somehow waned, even as their wealth increases.

Shady business

- Meanwhile back in Washington in 1816, just one year after Waterloo and the Rothschild's alleged takeover of the Bank of England, the American Congress passed yet another bill permitting yet another privately owned central bank.
- This bank was called the Second Bank of the United States and the charter was a copy of the previous banks.
- The U.S. government would own 20% of the shares of the bank, of course the federal share was paid by the U.S. Treasury upfront into the banks coffers.
- Then, through the magic of fractional reserve lending, it was transformed into loans to private investors who then bought the remaining 80% of the shares.
- Just as before, the primary stockholders remained a secret.
- However, it is known that the largest block of shares, about one-third of the total, were sold to foreigners.

Shareholders

- As one observer put it, that it is certainly no exaggeration to say that the Second Bank of the United States was rooted as deeply in Britain as it was in America.
- By 1816, it's claimed that the Rothschild's had taken control over the Bank of England and had backed a new privately owned central bank in America as well.
- After 12 years of manipulation of the U.S. economy on the part of this latest bank, the American people had had just about enough.
- Opponents of the bank nominated a dignified senator from Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, to run for president.

Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Andrew Jackson - 7th president

- Initially, no one gave Andrew Jackson a chance and the bank had learned long ago how the political process could be controlled with money.
- To the surprise and dismay of the money changers, Jackson was swept into office in 1828.
- He was determined to kill the central bank at the first opportunity and wasted no time in trying to do so.
- However, the banks 20 year charter didn't come up for renewal until 1836, the last year of his 2nd term, if he could survive that long.
- During his first term, Jackson contented himself with rooting out the bank's many minions from government service.

Capital doings

- Jackson fired 2,000 of the 11,000 employees of the federal government.
- In 1832, with his re-election approaching, the banks struck an early blow, hoping that Jackson would not want to stir up controversy.
- They asked Congress to pass a renewal bill 4 years early and naturally Congress complied and sent it to the president to sign.
- But Jackson weighed in with both feet, Old Hickory, never a coward, vetoed the bill.
- His veto message is one of the great American documents as it clearly laid out the responsibility of American government towards its citizens, rich and poor.

Citizens should matter

- Jackson was angered that 8 million shares of stock in the bank were owned by foreigners.
- He questioned what danger to our liberty and independence is placed in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country.
- Jackson stated that foreigners were controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of citizens in dependence, and felt that was more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy.
- He felt that the document that had been placed in front of him to sign, was a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.

The duty of government is to leave commerce to its own capital and credit as well as all other branches of business, protecting all in their legal pursuits, granting exclusive privileges to none. (Andrew Jackson)

Attempt to override presidential veto landslide

- Later that year, in July 1832, Congress was unable to override Jackson's veto, although they tried.
- Now Jackson had to stand for re-election so he took his argument directly to the people.
- For the first time in U.S. history, he took his presidential campaign on the road.
- Before that, presidential candidates stayed at home and looked presidential.
- His campaign slogan was 'Jackson and no bank.'
- The Republican Party ran Senator Henry Clay against Jackson, and despite the fact that the bankers poured over $3 million into Clay's campaign, Jackson was re-elected in a landslide in November 1832.

Battle only beginning

- Despite his presidential victory, Jackson knew the battle was only beginning.
- The newly elected Jackson said, 'The hydra is only scotched, not dead.'
- He ordered his new Secretary of the Treasury to start removing the governments deposits from the second bank and place them in state banks.
- However, the Secretary of the Treasury refused to do so, and Jackson fired him and appointed William J. Dwayne as the new secretary and he also refused to comply with Jackson's requests.
- So Jackson fired him as well and appointed a third man to the office, Roger B. Taney,
- Taney began withdrawing government funds from the bank starting on October 1, 1833, and Jackson was jubilant.

William Inman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Arrogant banker Nicholas Biddle

- But the bank was not yet done fighting and the head of the bank, Nicholas Biddle, used his influence to get Senate to reject Taney's nomination.
- Then in a rare show of arrogance, Biddle threatened to cause a depression if the bank was not re-chartered.
- Biddle made the statement that, 'This worthy president thinks that because he has scalped Indians and imprisoned judges, he is to have his way with the Bank and he is mistaken.'
- Next, in an unbelievable fit of honesty for a central banker, Biddle admitted that the bank was going to make money scare to force Congress to restore the bank.
- He claimed it would cause widespread suffering and that the banks only safety was in pursuing a steady course of firm restriction and that he had no doubt that such a course would ultimately lead to the restoration of the currency and the recharter of the bank.

N.Y. : Printed & publd. by H.R. Robinson, 1836; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 07:04, 16 June 2010 (UTC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

- What a stunning revelation, here was the pure truth revealed with shocking clarity what these central bankers were willing to do.
- Biddle intended to use the money contraction power of the bank to cause a massive depression until America gave in.
- Unfortunately, this has happened time and time again throughout U.S. history.
- Biddle made good on his threat and the bank sharply contracted the money supply by calling in old loans and refusing to extend new ones.
- A financial panic ensued, followed by a deep depression and naturally Biddle blamed Jackson for the crash saying that it was caused by the withdrawal of federal funds from the bank.
- Unfortunately, his plan worked well and wages and prices were depressed, unemployment soared along with business bankruptcies.

Unemployment soared

- The nation quickly went into an uproar and newpaper editors blasted Jackson in editorials.
- The bank threatened to withhold payments that were made directly to key politicians for their support.
- Within months, Congress assembled in what was called the 'Panic Session' and 6 months after he had withdrawn funds from the central bank, Jackson was officially censured by a resolution that passed the Senate by a vote of 26 to 20.
- It was the first time that a president had ever been censured by Congress and Jackson lashed out at the bank and called them 'a den of vipers' and he intended to route them all out.
- America's fate teetered on a knife edge, if Congress could muster enough votes to override Jackson's veto, the bank would be granted another 20-year monopoly, or more, over America's money.

Crashed economy

- Then a miracle occurred when the governor of Pennsylvania came out supporting President Jackson and strongly criticized the bank.
- On top of that, Biddle had been caught boasting in public about the bank's plan to crash the economy.
- Suddenly, the tide shifted and in 1834, the House of Representatives voted 134 to 82 against rechartering the bank.
- This was followed by an even more lopsided vote to establish a special committee to investigate whether the bank had caused the crash.
- When the investigating committee arrived at the bank door in Philadelphia, armed with a subpoena to examine the books, Biddle refused to give them up.

High horse

- Nor would Biddle allow inspection of correspondence with congressmen relating to their personal loans and advances he'd made to them.
- He also refused to testify before the committee back in Washington.
- On January 8, 1835, Jackson paid off the final installment of the national debt, which had been necessitated by allowing the banks to issue currency for government bonds rather than simply issuing treasury notes without such debt.
- He was the only president to pay off the debt.

Charter not renewed

- A few weeks later, on January 30, 1835, an assassin named Richard Lawrence tried to shoot Jackson, but by the grace of God, both pistols misfired.
- Lawrence was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
- After he was released, he bragged that powerful people in Europe had put him up to the task and promised to protect him if caught.
- The following year, when it's charter ran out, the Second Bank of the United States ceased functioning as the nation's central bank.

Trumansburg Advertiser - September 28, 1836

- Nicholas Biddle was arrested and charged with fraud although later acquitted, but he died shortly after while still embroiled in civil suits.
- After his 2nd term, Jackson retired to his home in Nashville, the Hermitage, and is known for his determination to kill the bank.
- In fact, he killed it so bad, it took the money changers 77 years to undo the damage.
- When Jackson was asked what his most important accomplishment had been, Jackson replied, 'I killed the bank' and next up Abraham Lincoln working on the same problem.

Grimmer

Grimmer - Tower of Babel - Page 6

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!