ABEL GRIMMER - TOWER OF BABEL - PAGE 6 Central Bank Rapes America Landslide - Unfortunately, even with all the resistance that President Andrew Jackson devoted to the cause of freeing Americans from the grips of the demonic international bankers, he failed to grasp the entire picture and recognize the root cause. - Although Jackson had killed the privately owned central bank, the most isidious weapon of the money changers fractional reserve banking, remained in use by the numerous state chartered banks. Terre Haute Wabash Courier - May 25, 1849 - This fueled economic instability in the years before the Civil War. - Still, the private central bankers were out of the game and as a result, America thrived as it expanded westward. - During this time, the principal money changers struggled to regain their lost centralized power, but to no avail. 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) Slavery - Then, finally, they reverted back to the old central banker's formula; war to create debt and dependency. - If they couldn't get their central bank any other way, America could be brought to its knees by plunging it into a civil war, just as they had done in 1812 after the First Bank of the United States was not rechartered. Alexander Gardner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Abraham Lincoln - 16th president - One month after the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln (1809=1865), the first shots of the American Civil War were fired at Fort Sumpter in South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. - Certainly slavery was a cause for the war, but not the primary cause. - Lincoln knew that the economy of the South depended upon slavery and so before the Civil War, he had no intention of eliminating it. - Lincoln had put it this way in his inaugural address only one month earlier. I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it now exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. (Abraham Lincoln) Fort Sumpter - Even after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumpter, Lincoln continued to insist that the Civil War was not about the issue of slavery. - He stated that his paramount objective was to save the Union, and that is was not either to save or destroy slavery. - He felt that if he could save the Union without freeing any slave, he would do that. - But what was the Civil War all about, there were many factors at play. - Northern industrialists had used protective tariffs to prevent the Southern states from buying cheaper European goods. - Europe retaliated by stopping cotton imports from the South. Deep south - As a result, the southern states were in a double financial bind. - They were forced to pay more for most of the necessities of life, while their income from cotton exports plummeted. - The South was angry, but there were other factors at work. - First off, the money changers were still stung by America's withdrawal from their control 25 years earlier. - Since that time, America's wildcat economy had made the nation rich, a bad example for the rest of the world. - The central bankers now saw an opportunity to split the rich new nation, to divide and conquer by war. - Was this just some sort of wild conspiracy theory at the time? - A well placed observer named Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, the man who united the German states a few years later had entered the debate. The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid tht the United States, if they remained as one block, and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence which would upset their financial control over the world. (Otto von Bismarck) War moves - Within months after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumpter, the central bankers loaned Napoleon III of France, the nephew of Napoleon who tangled at Waterloo, 210 million francs to seize Mexico and station troops along the southern border of the U.S., taking advantage of their war to violate the Monroe Doctrine and return Mexico to colonial rule. - No matter what the outcome of the Civil War, a weakened America, heavily indebted to the money changers, would open up Central and South America once again to European colonization and domination. - The very thing America's Monroe Doctrine had forbade in 1823. - At the same time, Great Britain moved 11,000 troops into Canada and positioned them menacingly along America's northern border. The Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed by President James Monroe in 1823, is a foundational U.S. foreign policy that warned European powers against further colonization or interference in the Americas, asserting the Western Hemisphere as a separate sphere of influence for the U.S. and its newly independent neighbors, and pledging U.S. non-interference in European affairs in return, becoming a cornerstone for asserting American hegemony and intervention in Latin America. (Assistant) British fleet - The British fleet went to war alert should their quick intervention be called for. - Lincoln knew he was in a double bind and that's why he agonized over the fate of the Union. - There was a lot more to it than just differences between the North and South and that's why his emphasis was always on Union and not merely the defeat of the South. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Salmon Portland Chase - But Lincoln needed money to win and in 1861, Lincoln and his Secretary of Treasury, Salmon P, Chase, went to New York to apply for the necessary loans. - The money changers, anxious to see the Union fail, offered loans at 24-36% interest. - Lincoln told them thanks, but no thanks and returned to Washington. Salmon P. Chase was a significant rival to Abraham Lincoln, primarily for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, but he became a vital ally by serving as Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War, raising crucial funds and advocating for emancipation; later, Lincoln appointed Chase as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he presided over President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial and continued his influential career. (Assistant) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Edmund Dick Taylor - Abraham Lincoln sent for an old friend, Colonel Edmund Dick Taylor (1804-1891) who was an American businessman, politician, and soldier from Illinois. - Lincoln put Taylor on the problem of financing the war. - Taylor is remembered as the first person to suggest that the United States should issue paper currency ('Greenbacks') during the American Civil War. - During one meeting, Lincoln asked Taylor what he discovered and Taylor advised getting Congress to authorie full legal tender treasury notes. - When Lincoln questioned whether the American people would accept the notes Taylor told him that the people, or anyone else would not have any choice in the matter. Why, Lincoln, that is easy; just get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes, and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also. (Colonel Taylor) National Numismatic Collection,National Museum of American History, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Image of one dollar "Greenback" first issued in 1862 - Taylor believed that if Lincoln made them full legal tender, they would have the full sanction of the government and would be just as good as any money because Congress would have given that express right of the Constitution. - That's exactly what Lincoln proceeded to do in 1862-63 he printed up $450 million of the new bills. - In order to distinquish them from other bank notes in circulation, he printed them in green ink on the backside which is why they were called 'Greenbacks.' - With this new money, Lincoln paid the troops and bought their supplies. - During the course of the war, nearly $450 million worth of Greenbacks were printed at no interest to the federal government. Consumers - Lincoln understood who was really pulling the strings and what was at stake for the American people. - He explained his rationale by saying he believed that the government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of the consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers wil be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. (Abraham Lincoln) Central bank - An article in the London Times explained the central bankers attitude towards Lincoln's Greenbacks. - The newspaper described his actions as a 'mischievous financial policy' with origins in North America. - It went on to say that the Government would furnish its own money without cost and pay off debts and it would become prosperous without precedent in world history. - The editor went on to say that, 'The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America and that America must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.' - What a bunch of greedy central banker bunk and very telling about who owned the press in Britain, the Rothschilds. Gathering for war - The bankers scheme was effective, so effective that the next year,  1863, with federal and confederate troops beginning to amass for the decisive battle of the Civil War. - At the same time, the treasury was in need of more Congressional authority to issue more Greenbacks, Lincoln allowed the bankers to push through, the National Bank Acts of 1863 and 1864. - These acts created a dual currency system that linked bank notes to government bonds (debt) and aimed to standardize paper money, however, Greenbacks remained legal tender for a time. - It designated how new national banks would operate under a virtual tax-free status and collectively have the exclusive monopoly power to create the new form of currency, banknotes. - For years, both Greenbacks and National Bank Notes circulated, creating confusion, but the goal was to phase out the less stable state bank notes and integrate federal debt into the currency. - But most importantly, from this point on, the entire U.S. money supply would be created out of debt by bankers buying U.S. government bonds and issuing them for reserves for banknotes. The National Bank Acts (1863, amended 1864) created a system of federally chartered banks to provide a stable, uniform national currency, replacing chaotic state banknotes, and to finance the Civil War by selling government bonds, establishing the OCC and a framework for national banks that persists today, though modified by later laws like the Federal Reserve Act. These acts mandated banks hold U.S. bonds to issue currency, creating a federal banking system, but also led to complex preemption rules for state laws, a topic still debated in courts. (Assistant) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Czar Alexander II - As historian John Kenneth Gailbraith explained it, 'In numerous years following the war, the government ran a heavy surplus, however, it could not pay off its debt, retire its securities, because to do so meant there would be no bonds to back the national banknotes; to pay off the debt was to destroy.' - Later in 1863, Lincoln got some unexpected help from Czar Alexander II of Russia. - Czar Alexander, like Bismarck and Germany, knew what the international money changers were up to and had steadfastly refused to allow them to set up a central bank in Russia. Headquarters - If America survived, and was able to remain out of their clutches, the Czar's position would remain secure. - However, if the bankers were successful at dividing America and giving the pieces back to Great Britain and France, both nations under control of their central banks, eventually would threaten Russia again. - The Czar gave orders that if either England or France actively intervened and gave aide to the South, Russia would consider such action as a declaration of war. - He did the same with part of his Pacific fleet and sent them to port in San Francisco. - Lincoln was re-elected the next year in 1864, and had he lived, he would surely have killed the national bank's money monopoly extracted from him during the war. Abe Lincoln as Jefferson Davis Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 2/12  4/15 Jefferson F. Davis 1808-1889 6/3    12/6 16th president - So far, we know that Lincoln did not really intend to end slavery and that was his election promise, and that he was the one who allowed the bankers to push through the National Bank Act. - But you have to wonder what they were really up to? Big government - When you realize that Alexander Hamilton, who was a Founding Father, was really working for the bankers and wanted a private central bank as well as a centralized federal government instead of states rights. - And he was not the only one. - We sometimes mistake all their lofty words as something good but are they really, especially since we know all our history has been rigged? - Additionally, how Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson who lamented about not being able to add amendments to the Constitution, when he worked on drafting it to make it so. - Then you wonder how in the world these men completely left any provisions about our currency or its control out of the document!! - Because that's really a red flag, it's rather hazy and all seems very handy (for them)? War machine - On November 21, 1864, Lincoln wrote a friend that, 'The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity.' - Shortly before Lincoln was murdered, his former Secretary of Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, bemoaned his role in helping secure the passage of the National Bank Act only one year earlier. - Chase remarked that his agency in passing the act was the greatest financial mistake of his life because it built a monopoly which affected every interest in the country. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. (Abraham Lincoln) Alexander Gardner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons John Wilkes Booth - On April 14, 1865, a short 41 days after Lincoln's 2nd inauguration, and just 5 days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington. - Ottot von Bismarck well understood the money changers plan. The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots... I fear that foreign bankers with their craftiness and tortuous tricks will entirely control the exuberant riches of America, and use it systematically to corrupt modern civilization. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into war and chaos in order that the earth should become their inheritance.  (Otto von Bismarck) Elon Musk as John Wilkes Booth Elon Reeve Musk 1971 6/28 John Wilkes Booth 1838-1865 5/10   4/26 Mercenary - Allegations that international bankers were responsible for Lincoln't assassination surfaced in Canada 70 years later in 1934. - This happened when Gerald G. 'Gerry' McGeer (1888-1947), a popular and well-respected Canadian attorney, revealed a stunning charge in a 5-hour speech before the Canadian House of Commons blasting Canada's debt-based money system. - This happened in 1934, the height of the Great Depression, which was ravaging Canada as well. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Gerry McGeer - McGeer had obtained evidence deleted from the public record provided to him by Secret Service agents at the trial of John Wilkes Booth after Booth's death. - The evidence showed that Booth was a mercenary working for the international bankers. - According to an article in the Vancouver Sun on May 2, 1934, that Lincoln, the martyred emancipator of the slaves, was assassinated through the machinations of a group representative of the international bankers who feared the U.S. president's national credit ambitions. - Apparently the plan was hatched in Toronto and Montreal. Gerry McGeer as John Wilkes Booth Gerald G. 'Gerry' McGeer 1888-1947 1/6   8/11 Journalist John Wilkes Booth 1838-1865 5/10   4/26 Actor Mayor - Always playing both sides of the game. Elon Musk as Gerry McGeer Elon Reeve Musk 1971 6/28 Gerald G. 'Gerry' McGeer 1888-1947 1/6   8/11 Journalist Canadian gold miner - Mercenary - There was only one group in the world at that time who had any reason to desire the death of Lincoln, they were the men opposed to his national currency program. - They had fought Lincoln through the whole Civil War on his policy of Greenback currency. - Interestingly, McGeer claimed that Lincoln was assassinated not only because of international bankers wanted to establish a central bank in America, but because they also wanted to base America's currency on gold. - That is, gold they controlled, in other words, put America on a gold standard. - Lincoln had done just the opposite by issuing U.S. notes, Greenbacks, which were based purely on the good faith and credit of the U.S. They were the men interested in the establishment of a gold standard and the right of the bankers to manage the currency and credit of every nation in the world. With Lincoln out of the way, they were able to proceed with that plan and did proceed with it in the United States.  (Gerry McGeer) Bank machinations - Obviously, for many decades following Lincoln's assassination, central bankers were very involved in creating currency backed by gold. - With Lincoln out of the way, the money changers next objective was to gain complete control over America's money, however, this was no easy task. - As the American West opened, silver was discovered in huge quantities and on top of that, Lincoln's Greenbacks were generally popular. Established institution - Despite the European bankers deliberate attacks on Greenbacks, they continued to circulate in the U.S. - In fact, until not too long ago, according to historian W. Cleon Skousen, 'Right after the Civil War there was considerable talk about reviving Lincoln's brief experiment with the Constitutional monetary system.' - Had not the European money-trust intervened, it would have no doubt become an established institution. - It is clear that the concept of America printing her own debt-free currency, sent shock waves throughout the European central banking elite. - They watched with horror as Americans clamored for more Greenbacks. Support grew - They may have killed Lincoln, but support for his monetary ideas grew but it's unfortunate that he turned the banks over to the central bankers. - On April 12, 1866, nearly one year to the day of Lincoln's demise, Congress went to work at the bidding of the European Central banking interests. - They passed the Contraction Act, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to begin to retire some of the Greenbacks in circulation and thereby contract the money supply. Hardship after the Civil War - Authors Theodore R. Thorne and Richard F. Warner explained the results of the money contraction in their classic book on the subject, The Truth in Money Book. - They believed that the hard times after the Civil War could have been avoided if the Greenback legislation had continued as Lincoln had intended. - Instead, there were a series of money panics, what we call recessions, which put pressure on Congress to enact legislation to place the banking system under centralized control. Master masons - Eventually, the Federal Reserve Act was passed on December 23, 1913, when most of Congress was away on holiday break. - The money changers wanted 2 things; the reinstitution of a central bank under their exclusive control, and an American currency backed by gold. - Their strategy was twofold, first of all, cause a series of panics to try to convince the American people that only centralized control of the money supply could provide economic stability. - Secondly, remove so much money from the system that most Americans would be so desperately poor that they wouldn't care, or they would be too weak to oppose the bankers. Bow down to the banker - In 1866, there was $1.8 billion in currency in circulation in the U.S., or about $50.46 per capita. - In 1867 alone, about $500 million was removed from the U.S. money supply and 10 years later in 1876, America's money supply was reduced to only $600 million. - In other words, a full two-thirds of America's money had been called in by the bankers. - This left only $14.60 per capita remaining in circulation and 10 years later, the money supply had been reduced to only $400 million, even though the population had boomed. - The result was that only $6.67 (666) per capita remained in circulation, a 760% loss in buying power over 20 years. Recessions and depressions - Now can you see why you feel so poor and our economy seems to be always in a recession, it's maddening? - Especially when you figure out who's holding all our money, greedy overpaid Jewish bankers and thieves. - Today, economists try to sell the idea that recessions and depressions are a 'natural' part of something they call the business cycle. - But that's a massive lie. - The truth is, our money supply is manipulated now just as it was before and after the Civil War. Sent to bribe Americans - How did this happen, how did money become so scarce? - Simple, bank loans were called in, and no new loans were given. - In addition, silver coins were melted down. - In 1872, a man named Ernest Seyd was given £100,000, about $500,000 by the Bank of England and sent to America to bribe necessary congressmen to get silver demonetized. - Seyd was told if that was not sufficient, he could draw an additional £100,000, or as much as necessary. - The next year, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873 and the minting of silver dollars abruptly stopped. Gold Standard - Within 8 years after Lincoln's death, silver was demonetized and the old standard money system set up in the United States. - The Coinage Act of 1873 officially ended the U.S. policy of bimetallism (using both gold and silver) by demonetizing silver and effectively putting the U.S. on a gold standard, a move critics called the 'Crime of '73.' - Representative, Samuel Hooper, who introduced the bill in the House acknowledged that Ernest Seyd drafted the legislation. - This act stopped the free coinage of silver dollars, shifting the monetary system away from silver, which caused economic shifts and political battles. - Not since Lincoln has the U.S. issued debt-free U.S. notes. The U.S. formally adopted the gold standard with the Gold Standard Act of 1900, linking paper currency directly to gold reserves for stability, but the country had moved towards it earlier, particularly after the Coinage Act of 1873 ended bimetallism and following the Civil War. This system allowed paper money to be redeemed for gold and lasted until President Roosevelt suspended gold convertibility for domestic use in 1933, fully ending the link in 1971. (Assistant) Red sealed noted Red sealed noted/tr> - These red sealed bills, which were issued in 1963, were not a new issue from President John F. Kennedy, but merely the old Greenbacks reissued, year after year. - Kennedy issued a 1963 directive through Executive Order 11110 that delegated authority to the Treasury Secretary to issue silver certificates against silver builion. - This was a technical move to help transition away from silver-backed currency after Congress repealed the Silver Purchase Act. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette - November 14, 1892 - The "red sealed note JFK gold standard" refers to a popular theory linking President Kennedy's assassination to his alleged attempt to challenge the Federal Reserve by issuing silver-backed U.S. Notes (with red seals) instead of Federal Reserve Notes. - This was supposedly to return to a gold standard or at least a silver-backed system, enabling silver certificates, thus threatening bankers, though the order actually just transferred some silver certificate authority and notes weren't backed by gold. Silver - Why was silver bad for the bankers, and silver good? - Simple, because silver was plentiful in the U.S. and very hard to control, while gold was, and always has been scarce. - Silver has historically been 15 times more plentiful than gold. - In 1994, Congress pushed through the Riegle-Neal Interstate Act to allow banks to operate across state lines. - This caused a flurry of bank failures and branches were purchased by larger bank systems such as Wells Fargo in the 1990s. The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, a landmark US law that allowed banks to operate and open branches across state lines, ending restrictive interstate banking bans, and promoting a unified national banking system after years of fragmented state laws. (Gerry McGeer) Silver scheme - It gets even worse, in 1874, Ernest Seyd admitted who was behind the scheme. - Seyd claimed that he went to America in 1872, authorized to secure the passage of a bill demonetizing silver and it was in the interest of those he represented, the governors of the Bank of England, to get it done. - By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money. - But the contest over control of America's money was not yet over. - Only 3 years later, in 1876, with one-third of America's workforce unemployed, the population was growing restless. Fall of an empire - American's were clamoring for a return to the Greenback money system of Abraham Lincoln, or a return to silver money, anything that would make money more plentiful. - That year, Congress created the U.S. Silver Commission to study the problem. - Their report clearly blamed the monetary contraction on the national bankers. - The report is interesting because it compares the deliberate money contraction by the national bankers after the Civil War to the fall of the Roman Empire. - Despite the report from the Silver Commission, Congress took no action. The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices, without money, civilization could not have had a beginning and with a diminishing supply, it must lanquish, and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to $1.8 trillion. By the end of the 15th-century it had shrunk to less than $200 million. History records no other such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire. (U.S. Silver Commission) Riot - That next year, 1877, riots broke out from Pittsburgh to Chicago and the torches of starving vandals lit up the sky. - The bankers huddled to decide what to do and they decided to hang on. - Now that they were back in control to a certain extent, they were not about to give it up. - At the meeting of the American Bankers Association (ABA) that year, they urged their membership to do everything in their power to put down the notion to return to Greenbacks. - The ABA secretary, James Buell, authored a letter to the members which blantantly called on the banks to subvert not only Congress, but the press. It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural and Religious press, as will oppose the greenback issue of paper money and that you will also withhold patronage from all applicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money. To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore to circulation the government issue of money will be to provide the people with money and will therefore seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders. (James Buell, ABA) Mounted - The ABA went on and urged their members to 'see your congressmen at once and engage him to support our interests that we may control legislation.' - As political pressure mounted in Congress for change, the press tried to turn the American people away from the truth. - The New York Tribune put it this way on January 10, 1878, 'The capital of the country is organized at last and we will see whether Congress will dare to fly in its face.' - But it didn't work entirely, on February 28, 1878, Congress passed the Sherman Law, allowing the minting of a limited number of silver dollars, ending the 5-year hiatus. Depression finally over - The Sherman Law did not end gold backing of the currency, however, nor did it completely free silver. - Previous to 1873, anyone who brought silver to the U.S. mint could have it struck into the silver dollars free of charge. - This was no longer allowed, but at least some money began to flow back into the economy. - With no further threat to their control, the bankers loosened up on loans and the post Civil War depression was finally over. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 was a U.S. law requiring the Treasury to buy large amounts of silver (4.5 million ounces monthly) to support struggling farmers and miners during deflation, issuing notes redeemable in gold or silver, but it failed, worsening economic instability and contributing to the Panic of 1893, leading to its repeal in 1893 by President Grover Cleveland, who favored the gold standard. (Assistant) Brady-Handy Photograph Collection., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons President James Garfield - Three years later, in 1880, Republican James Garfield (1831-1881) was elected. - Garfield understood how the economy was being manipulated. - As a congressman, he had been chairman of the Appropriations Committee and was a member of banking and currency. JD Vance as James Garfield James David Vance (ne James Donald Bowman) 1984 8/2 Trump's vice president James Abram Garfield 1831-1881 11/19   9/19 20th president Bow man - After inauguration, Garfield slammed the money changers publicly in 1881. - Unfortunately, within a few weeks of making this statement, on July 2, 1881, Garfield was assassinated. Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce. And when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate. (James Garfield) Free silver - The money changers were gathering strength fast and they began a periodic fleecing of the flock, as they called it, by creating economic booms followed by further depressions, so they could buy up thousands of homes and farms for pennies on the dollar. - In `1891, the money changers prepared to take the American economy down again. - Their methods and motives were laid out with shocking clarity in a memo sent out by the American Banking Association, an organization in which most bankers were members. - Notice that this memo called for bankers to create a depression on a certain date, 3 years in the future. - These depressions could be controlled because America was on the gold money standard and since gold is scarce, it's one of the easiest commodities to manipulate. On September 1,1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On September 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become morgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi, and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price.. Then the farmers will become tenants as in England. (ABA, Congressional Record April 29, 1913) Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons William James Bryan - People wanted silver money legalized again so they could escape the stranglehold the money changers had on gold money. - Americans wanted silver money reinstated, reversing Ernest Seyd's act of 1873. - By 1896, the issue of more silver money had become the central issue in the presidential campaign. - William James Bryan (1860-1925), a Senator from Nebraska, ran for president as a Democrat on the free silver issue in 1896. - At the Democrat National Convention in Chicago, he made an emotional speech which won him the nomination entitled, 'Crown of Thorns and Cross of Gold.' - Though Bryan was only 36 years old at the time, this speech is widely regarded as the most famous oration ever made before a political convention. We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them; You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucity mankind upon a cross of gold. (William James Bryan) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons William McKinley - 25th president - The bankers lavishly supported the Republican candidate, William McKinley (1843-1901), who favored the gold standard. - The resulting contest was among the most fiercely contested presidential races in American history. - Bryan made over 600 speeches in 27 states, and the McKinley got manufacturers and industrialists to inform their employees that if Bryan were elected, all factories and plants would close and there would be no work. - The ruse succeeded, McKinley beat Bryan by a small margin. - Bryan ran again in 1900 and 1908, but fell short each time. Winston Churchill as William McKinley Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill 1874-1965 10/14   9/10 William McKinley 1843-1901 1/29   9/14 25th president Ruse - William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, in the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, 6 months into his 2nd term. - McKinley died on September 14 of gangrene caused by the wounds. - He was the 3rd American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. Beao, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons John Pierpont Morgan - John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. - Now it was time for the money changers to get back to the business of a new private central bank for America. - During the early 1900s, men like JP Morgan led the charge. - One final panic would be required to focus the nation's attention on the supposed need for a central bank. - The rationale was that only a central bank could prevent bank failures. Donald Trump as J.P. Morgan Donald John Trump 1946 6/14 45th/47th president John Pierpont Morgan 1837-1913 4/17   3/31 Banker Titanic - Morgan was clearly the most powerful banker in America and a suspected agent for the Rothschild's. - He had helped finance John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Empire. - Morgan had also helped finance the monopolies of Edward Harriman in railroad, and Andrew Carnegie in steel, and many others in numerous industries. - On top of that, Morgan's father, Junius Morgan, had been America's financial agent to the British. - After his father's death, J.P. Morgan took on a British partner, Edward Grenfell (1870-1941), a long time director of the Bank of England. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Theodore Roosevelt - 26th president - In fact, upon Morgan's death, his estate contained only a few million dollars. - The bulk of the securities most people thought he owned were in fact owned by others. - In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) allegedly went after Morgan and his friends by using the Sherman Antitrust Act to try to break up their industrial monopolies. - Actually, Roosevelt did very little to interfere in the growing monopolization of American industry by the bankers and their surrogates. - For example, Roosevelt supposedly broke up Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly, however, it wasn't really broken at all, it was merely divided into 7 corporations, all still controlled by the Rockefeller's. - The public was aware of this thanks to political cartoonists like Thomas Nast who referred to the bankers as the 'money trust.' The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is the foundational U.S. law prohibiting anti-competitive practices, outlawing monopolies and conspiracies in restraint of trade to ensure free competition in interstate commerce, criminalizing price-fixing, bid-rigging, and monopolization, and serving as a cornerstone of antitrust enforcement against large trusts like Standard Oil to protect consumers and workers. (Assistant) J.P. Morgan as Theodore Roosevelt John Pierpont Morgan 1837-1913 4/17   3/31 Banker Theodore Roosevelt Jr. 1858-1919 10/27   1/6 26th president 33rd degree square deal - Teddy Roosevelt previously was involved in New York politics, including serving as the state's 33rd governor for two years. - He served as the 25th vice president under President William McKinley for six months in 1901, assuming the presidency after McKinley's assassination. - How amazing. Triangled - By 1907, the year after Teddy Roosevelt's re-election, J.P. Morgan decided it was time to try for a central bank again. - Using their combined financial muscle, Morgan and his friends were secretly able to crash the stock market. - As a result, thousands of banks were vastly overextended. - Some had reserves of less than 1% thanks to the fractional reserve principle and within days, bank runs were commonplace across the nation. - Now Morgan stepped into the public arena and offered to prop up the faltering American economy by supporting failing banks with money he manufactured out of nothing. - It was an outrageous proposal, far worse than even fractional banking, but Congress let him do it. Hoarding money - Morgan manufactured $200 million worth of this completely reserveless money and bought things with it, paid for services with it, and sent some of it to his branch banks to lend out with interest. - His plan worked, and soon the public regained confidence in money in general, and quit hoarding their currency. - But as a result, banking power was further consolidated into the hands of a few large banks. - By 1908, the panic was over and Morgan was hailed as a hero by the president of Princeton University by a man named Woodrow Wilson. All this could be avoided if we appointed a committee of 6 or 7 public-spirited men like J.P. Morgan to handle the affairs of our country. (Woodrow Wilson) Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Woodrow Wilson - 28th president - During the 1912 Democrat Convention, William Jennings Bryan was a powerful figure who helped Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) win the nomination. - It was during Wilson's term that the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. - When Wilson became president, he appointed Bryan as Secretary of State. - However, Bryan soon became disenchanted with the Wilson administration and he served only 2 years before resigning in 1915 over the highly suspicious sinking of the Lusitania. - This was the event used to drive America into World War I. - Although William James Bryan never gained the presidency, his efforts delayed the money changers for 17 years from attaining their next goal, a new privately owned central bank for America. Panic of 1907 - Economic textbooks would later explain that creation of the Federal Reserve was the direct result of the Panic of 1907. - Quote, 'With its alarming epidemic of bank failures, the country was fed up once and for all with the anarchy of unstable banking.' - Minnesota congressman, Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., Republican, later explained that the Panic of 1907 was really just a scam. - Now can you see how all these chumps line up for public offices and play both sides? - Since the passage of the National Bank Act of 1863, the money changers have been able to create a series of booms and busts. - The purpose was not only to fleece the American public of their property, but to later claim that the banking system was basically so unstable that it had to be consolidated into a central bank once again. Those not favorable to the money trust could be squeezed out of business and the people frightened into demanding changes in the banking and currency laws which the Money trust would frame. (Charles A. Lindbergh) Jekyll Island - After the crash, Teddy Roosevelt in response to the Panic of 1907 signed into law a bill creating something called the National Monetary Commission. - The commission was to study the banking problem and make recommendations to Congress. - Of course, the commission was packed with J.P. Morgan's friends and cronies. - The National Monetary Commission was a U.S. congressional commission created by the Aldrich–Vreeland Act of 1908. - The commission's reports and recommendations became one of the principal bases in the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which created the modern Federal Reserve system. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons Nelson W. Aldrich - The chairman was a man named Senator Nelson Aldrich from Rhode Island and he represented the Newport homes in his state owned by America's richest banking families. - Aldrich's daughter married John D. Rockefeller Jr., and together they had 5 sons; John, Nelson, Lawrence, Winthrop and David, who was the head of the Council on Foreign Relations and former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, which later combined with JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Son Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979) was vice president to Republican Gerald Ford, the 38th president, in 1974. - As soon as the National Monetary Commission was set up, Senator Aldrich immediately embarked on a 2-year tour of Europe where he consulted at length with the private central bankers in England, France and Germany. - The total cost of his trip alone to the taxpayers was $300,000 which was an astronomical sum in 1908. J.P. Morgan as Nelson Aldrich John Pierpont Morgan 1837-1913 4/17   3/31 Banker Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich 1841-1915 11/6   4/16 Banker crony Crooks - Shortly after Aldrich returned from Europe, on November 22, 1910, some of the wealthiest men in America boarded his private rail car, and in the strictest secrecy, journeyed to Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. Public Doman via Wikimedia Commons Paul Moritz Warburg -  With the group came Paul Warburg (1868-1932), a German born American investment banker. - Warburg had been  given a $500,000 per year salary to lobby for the passage of a privately owned central bank in America by the investment firm, Kuhn Loeb & Company. - His partner in this bank was a man named Jacob Schiff, the grandson of the man who shared the 'Green Shield' house with the Rothschild family in Frankfurt, Germany. - Schiff was in the process of spending $20 million to finance the overthrow of the Czar in Russia. Kuhn, Loeb & Co., a major player in finance for decades, involved in massive deals like recapitalizing the Union Pacific Railway alongside figures like Jacob Schiff and James Stillman. (Assistant) J.P. Morgan as Paul Warburg John Pierpont Morgan 1837-1913 4/17   3/31 Banker Paul Moritz Warburg 1868-1932 8/10   1/24 German born banker   Jekyll and hide - These 3 European banking families, the Rothschilds, the Schiffs and the Warburgs were interconnected by marriage down through the years, just as their American counterparts, the Rockefellers, Morgans and Aldriches were. - Secrecy was so tight that all 7 primary participants were cautioned to use only first names to prevent servants from learning their identities. Public Doman via Wikimedia Commons Frank A. Vanderlip - Years later, one participant, Frank A.Vanderlip (1864-1937), president of National City Bank of New York and a representative of the Rockefeller family, confirmed the Jekyll Island trip in a February 9, 1925, Saturday Evening Post article. I was as secretive indeed, as furtive as any conspirator... Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would be wasted. If it were to be exposed that our particular group had got together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage in Congress. (Frank A.Vanderlip) Banks slipping - The participants travelled to Jekyll Island to figure out how to solve their major problem, how to bring back a privately owned central bank. - But there were other problems that needed to be addressed as well. - First of all, the market share of the big national banks was shrinking fast. - In the first 10 years of the 20th-century, the number of U.S. banks had more than doubled to over 20,000. - By 1913, only 29% of all banks were national banks, and they held only 57% of all deposits. - As Senator Aldrich later admitted in a magazine article, 'Before passage of this Act, the New York bankers could only dominate the reserves of New York, now we are able to dominate the bank reserves of the entire country.' Expansions - Therefore, something had to be done to bring these new banks under their control. - As John D. Rockefeller put it, 'Competition is sin.' - Secondly, the nation's economy was so strong that corporations were starting to finance their expansions out of profits instead of taking out huge loans from large banks. - In the first 10 years of the 20th-century, 70% of corporate funding came from profits. - American industry was becoming independent of the money changers and that trend had to be stopped. - All the participants knew that these problems could be hammered out into a workable solution. Hidden - But perhaps their biggest problem was a public relation problem, the name of the new bank, a decision that took place in a conference room in the sprawling Jekyll Island Club Hotel. - Aldrich believed that the word 'bank' should not even appear in the name. - Warburg wanted to call the legislation the National Reserve bill or the Federal Reserve bill. - The idea here was to give the impression that the purpose of the new central bank was to stop bank runs, but also to conceal its monopoly character. - However, it was Aldrich, the egotistical politician, who insisted it be called the Aldrich Plan which promoted the need to create a private central bank. Money out of nothing - After 9 days at Jekyll Island, the group dispersed and the new central bank would be very similar to the old Bank of the United States. - It would be granted a monopoly over U.S. currency and create that money out of nothing. - How does the Fed create money out of nothing? - It's a four-step process, but first a word on bonds. - Bonds are simply promises to pay, or government IOUs. - People buy bonds to get a secure rate of interest because at the end of the term of the bond, the government repays the bond plus interest, and the bond is destroyed. - There are about $38 trillion worth of these loans or bonds at present and that is called the national debt. Money making process - Now here is the Fed money-making process. - Step one, the Federal Open Market Committee approves the purchase of U.S. bonds on the open market. - Step two, the bonds are purchased by the Fed from whoever is offering them for sale on the open market. - Step three, the Fed pays for the bonds with electronic credits to the seller's bank, which in turn credits the seller's bank account and the trick is that these credits are based on nothing, the Fed just creates them. - Step four, the banks use these deposits as reserves, they can loan out over 10 times the amount of their reserves to new borrowers, all at interest. Thin air - In this way, a Fed purchase of say a $1 million worth of bonds gets turned into over $10 million in bank accounts. - The Fed in effect creates 10% of this totally new money and the banks create the other 90%. - To reduce the amount of money in the economy, the process is just reversed. - The Fed sells bonds to the public and the money flows out of the purchaser's local bank. - Loans must be reduced by 10 times the amount of the sale. - So, a Fed's sale of $1 million in bonds results in $10 million less money in the economy. Jekyll bankers cast in stone - How does this benefit the bankers whose representatives huddled at Jekyll Island? - First, it totally misdirected banking reform efforts from proper solution. - Second, it prevented a proper debt-free system of government finance like Lincoln's Greenbacks from making a comeback. - The bond-based system of government finance forced on Lincoln was now cast in stone. - Third, it delegated to the bankers the right to create 90% of our money supply based on only fractional reserves, which they then loan out at interest. - Fourth, it centralized overall control of our nation's money supply in the hands of a few men. - Fifth, it established a centra bank with a high degree of independence from effective political control. Fooled the public - Soon after the banks creation, the Fed's great contraction in the early 1930s would cause the Great Depression. - This independence has been enhanced since then through additional laws. - In order to fool the public into believing the government retained control, the plan called for the Fed to be run by a board of governors appointed by the president and approved by Senate. - But all the bankers had to do was to be be sure their men got appointed to this board. - That wasn't hard because bankers have money and money buys influence over politicians. Endorse - Once the participants left Jekyll Island, the public relations blitz was on. - The big New York banks put together an educational fund of $5 million to finance professors at 'respected' universities to endorse the new bank. - Woodrow Wilson at Princeton was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon but banker's subtrifuge didn't work. - The Aldrich Plan bill was quickly identified as the banker's bill, a bill to benefit only what became known as the money trust. The Aldrich Plan is the Wall Street Plan. It means another panic, if necessary, to intimidate the people. Aldrich, paid by the government to represent the people, proposes a plan for the trusts instead. (Charles A. Lindbergh) Public Doman via Wikimedia Commons Bernard Mannes Baruch - Seeing that they didn't have the votes to win in Congress, the Republican leadership never brought the bill to a vote and the bankers quietly decided to move to track two, the Democratic alternative. - They began financing Woodrow Wilson as the Democratic nominee. - Wall Street financier, Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) was put in charge of Wilson's education. Baruch brought Wilson to the Democratic Party Headquarters in New York in 1912, leading him like one would lead a poodle on a string. Wilson received an indoctrination course, from the leaders convened there. (James Perloff) Frank Vanderlip as Bernard Baruch Frank Arthur Vanderlip 1864 - 1937 11/17   6/30 Banker Bernard Mannes Baruch 1870-1965 8/18   6/20 Wall Street financier   Brainwasher - So now the stage was set and the money changers were poised to install their privately owned central bank once again. - The damage that President Andrew Jackson had done 76 years earlier had been only partially repaired with the passage of the National Bank Act during the Civil War. - Since then, the battle had raged on across the decades. - The Jacksonians became the Greenbackers who became the hardcore supporters of William Jennings Bryan. - With Bryan leading the charge, these opponents of the money changers, ignorant of Baruch's tutelage, now threw themselves behind Democrat Woodrow Wilson, they and Bryan would soon be betrayed. Daily Iowa State Press - January 21, 1901 Grimmer Grimmer - Tower of Babel - Page 7

If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bears thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure