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here.

MEET EDWARD FLAHERTY,
CONSPIRACY POO-POOIST
A
response to a critic of The Creature from Jekyll Island

© 2004 by G. Edward Griffin

Edward Flaherty is a Ph.D. of
Economics who has been critical of my book, The Creature from
Jekyll Island: A Second look at the Federal Reserve.
Periodically I receive inquiries from readers who have visited
Flaherty's web site, and they want to know if I can rebut what he
says. I put this off for a long time because, first, his critique is
lengthy and loaded with minutia that requires considerable time to
respond properly and, second, the number of inquiries has been so
small as to place the importance of this task far down on my list of
priorities. Nevertheless, whenever I get an inquiry, I dread that my
reader may think that a lack of response is a sign of not being able
to defend my work; so, at last, I decided to step up to the plate
and swing at the ball that Flaherty has thrown in my direction.

The essence of Flaherty's critique
is that anyone who opposes the Federal Reserve must be some kind of
a kook, totally lacking in scholarship. He lumps all Fed critics
together, those who bring scholarship to the topic as well as those
who do not, and the mixture tends to discredit everyone. It is an
old tactic of dumping garbage into the grocery bag so that it all
smells like garbage and is rejected in total.

On September 5, 2004, I received an email from a
reader who had compared comments made in my recorded lecture with
what Flaherty's web site says and asked for clarification. What
follows is his inquiry with my reply embedded at appropriate
locations.
My reader begins by
quoting from my recorded lecture, followed by a quote from Eustace
Mullins:
My lecture: I came
to the conclusion that the Federal Reserve needed to be abolished
for seven reasons. I’d like to read them to you now just so that you
get an idea of where I’m coming from, as they say. I put these into
the most concise phrasing that I can to make them somewhat shocking
so that, hopefully, you’ll remember them:

1. The Fed is incapable of accomplishing its stated
objectives.
2. It is a cartel operating against the public
interest.
3. It is the supreme instrument of usury.
4. It
generates our most unfair tax through inflation and bailouts.

5. It encourages war.
6. It destabilizes the economy.

7. It discourages private capital formation.

Eustace Mullins,
Secrets of the Federal Reserve: “...the increase in the
assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913
to 45 BILLION dollars in 1949 went directly to the private
stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks.”

My reply: I stand firmly behind
my seven points but I do not agree with Mullins on this. Please do
not lump my work with other writers. Flaherty does this a lot. Guilt
by association is a ploy that must be challenged and rejected.

Flaherty: It
would be a mistake to examine these conspiracy theories....

My reply: Stop
right there. There is nothing about my work that merits being
classified as a conspiracy theory. In modern context, it is
customary to associate the phrase “conspiracy theory” with those who
are intellectually handicapped or ill informed. Using emotionally
loaded words and phrases to discredit the work of others is to be
rejected. If I am to be called a conspiracy theorist, then Flaherty
cannot object if I were to call him a conspiracy poo-pooist. The
later group is a ridiculous bunch, indeed, in view of the fact that
conspiracies are so common throughout history. Very few major events
of the past have occurred in the absence of conspiracies. To think
that our modern age must be an exception is not rational. Facts are
either true or false. If we disagree with a fact, our job is to
explain why, not to use emotionally-loaded labels to discredit those
who disagree with us.

Flaherty continued: ... outside the context in which they
were written.
My
reply: I try hard not to present text outside its context. When
searching through hundreds of documents and thousands of pages, it
is inevitable that some subtleties of context may be missed, but so
far I have not yet been advised of any instances of this. I welcome
any corrections; but, until specifics are brought to my attention, I
stand firm on everything I have written. Furthermore, I resent the
implication that my work could not stand without taking text out of
context.

Flaherty: All the conspiracy authors whose work I study here
profess a belief in the alleged ‘New World Order’ conspiracy, or
some variant thereof.

My reply: An informed reader would not waste time beyond this
point. It is absurd to claim that a blueprint for a New World Order
based on the model of collectivism is merely “alleged.” The evidence
that this is a demonstrable fact of modern history abounds. Some of
that evidence is presented in my work, The Future Is
Calling, found in the Issues
Section of the Freedom Force website.

Flaherty: Hypothesis: Each of the
12 Federal Reserve banks is a privately owned corporation. Like any
firm, their main objective is to maximize profits. They do so by
lending the government money and charging interest. They manipulate
monetary policy for their own gain, not for the public good.
Facts: Yes, the Federal Reserve banks are privately owned,
but they are controlled by the publicly-appointed Board of
Governors. The Federal Reserve banks merely execute the monetary
policy choices made by the Board.

My reply: Basically, Flaherty is correct as far
as he goes. But, as we shall see in so many of his statements, he
stops short of the entire truth. A half-truth is just as much of a
deception as an outright lie. Flaherty says that the Board of
Governors is politically appointed. This is true and it is supposed
to make us feel safe in the thought that the President responds to
the will of the people and that he selects only those who have the
public interest at heart. The part of the story omitted by Flaherty
is that the President does not select these people from his own
personal address book, nor does he ask the public to submit
nominations. With few exceptions, he makes appointments from lists
given to him by the staffs of banking committees of Congress and
from private sources that have been influential in his election
campaign. The most powerful of all these groups are the financial
institutions (including prominent members of the Fed itself) and the
media corporations over which they have effective control. One does
not have to be a so-called conspiracy theorist to recognize the
tremendous influence that these institutions have over the outcome
of presidential campaigns, and anyone with knowledge of how our
current political system works will understand why the President
makes exactly the appointments that the banks want him to make. All
one has to do to see the accuracy of this appraisal is to examine
the backgrounds and attitudes of the men who receive the
appointments. While there is an occasional token individual who
appears to come from the consumer sector of society, the majority
are bankers deeply committed to the perpetuation of the system that
sustains them. Anyone who would seriously challenge the power of the
banking cartel would never be appointed. So, while Flaherty is
correct in what he says, the implication of what he says (that the
Fed is subject to control of the people through the political
process) is entirely false.

Flaherty: Nearly all the interest the Federal Reserve
collects on government bonds is rebated to the Treasury each year,
so the government does not pay any net interest to the Fed.

My reply: Here
is another half-truth that is a whopper deception. It is true that
most of the money paid by the government for interest on the
national debt is returned to the government. That is because the
Fed’s charter requires any interest payments in excess of the Fed’s
actual operating expenses to be refunded. However, before we jump to
the conclusion that this is a wonderful benefit, we must remember
that the banking cartel is able to use tax dollars to pay 100% of
its operating expenses with few questions asked about the nature of
those expenses. After all of those expenses are paid, what is left
over is rebated to the Treasury, as Flaherty says. There is no
secret about this, and you will find an explanation of it in my
book. Technically, there is no “profit” on this money. However,
remember that creating money for the government is only one of the
functions of the Fed. The real bonanza comes, not from money created
out of nothing for the government, but from money created out of
nothing by the commercial banks for loans to the private sector.
That’s where the real action is. This is the famous slight-of-hand
trick. Distract attention with one hand while the coin is retrieved
by the other. By focusing on the supposed generosity of the Fed by
returning unused interest to the Treasury, we are supposed to
overlook the much larger river of gold flowing into the member banks
in the form of interest on nothing as a result of consumer and
commercial loans.

Flaherty: Hypothesis: Bankers and senators met in
secret on Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910 to design a central bank
that would give New York City banks control over the nation’s money
supply. Facts: The meeting did take place, but plans for a
return to central banking were already widely known. Regardless, the
proposal that came out of the Jekyll Island meeting never passed
Congress. The one that did, the Federal Reserve Act, placed control
over monetary policy with a public body, the Federal Reserve Board,
not with commercial banks.

My reply: Here again we have a half-truth that
functions as a deception. Plans for a return to central banking,
indeed, were already know, but they were unpopular with the voters
and large blocks of Congress. That was the very problem that led to
the great secrecy. Frank Vanderlip, one of the participants at the
Jekyll Island meeting, later confirmed that, if the public had known
that the bankers were the ones creating legislation to supposedly
“break the grip of the money trust,” the bill would never have been
passed into law. The facts presented in my book, and fully
documented by references from original sources, show that my version
is historical fact. Flaherty attempts to minimize these facts by
implying that the original, secret meeting was not important because
the first draft of the legislation was rejected. What he does not
say is that the second draft that was passed into law was
essentially the same as the first. The primary difference was that
Senator Aldrich’s name was removed from the title of the bill and
replaced by the names of Carter Glass and Robert Owen. This was to
remove the stigma of Aldrich as an icon for “big-business
Republicans” and replace it with the more popular image of
Democrats, “defenders of the working man.” It was a strategy
advocated by Paul Warburg, one of the participants at the Jekyll
Island meeting. The fact that Flaherty makes no mention of this
suggests that he has not made an objective analysis but, instead,
has presented a biased critique in the guise of scholarship. His
statement that “the Federal Reserve Act, placed control over
monetary policy with a public body, the Federal Reserve Board, not
with commercial banks” cannot be taken seriously. The Federal
Reserve is not a public body in any meaningful sense of the phrase.

Flaherty:
Hypothesis: Through fractional reserve banking and
double-entry accounting, banks are able to create new money with the
stroke of a pen (or a computer keystroke). The money they lend costs
them nothing to produce, yet they charge interest on it.
Facts: The banking system is indeed able to create money with
a mere computer keystroke. However, a bank’s ability to create money
is tied directly to the amount of reserves customers have deposited
there. A bank must pay a competitive interest rate on those deposits
to keep them from leaving to other banks. This interest expense
alone is a substantial portion of a bank’s operating costs and is de
facto proof a bank cannot costlessly create money.

My reply: Flaherty presents facts
that in no way contradict what I said in my book. I speak of rotten
apples, and he speaks of sweet oranges. My book makes it clear that
the bank’s ability to create money is tied to its reserves. The
current average ratio (it varies depending on the bank) is about
ten-to one. In other words, for every one dollar on deposit and held
in reserve, the bank can create up to an additional nine dollars out
of nothing for the purpose of lending. The statement that the banks
must pay a competitive interest rate on those deposits is humorous
when one considers the math. For example, let us assume for the sake
of illustration that the bank pays 1.5% interest. Then it turns
around and charges, let’s say 6.5% interest. That’s a spread of 5%.
Although that’s a pretty good brokerage commission, it doesn’t sound
exorbitant. But, here is another of those half-truths. Don’t forget
that the bank uses each deposited dollar as a so-called reserve for
creating up to an additional nine dollars in loans. It collects
interest on these loans as well. Let us assume that the bank is not
fully loaned up, as they call it, and has an average of only eight
dollars in magic-money loans for every one dollar on deposit. In
that case, it will collect 6.5% interest on all eight of those
dollars. That means, based on each dollar placed on deposit, the
bank will collect 52% in interest. After paying the original
depositor the generous “competitive” amount of 1.5%, the bank
actually receives a brokerage fee of approximately 50%. When
Flaherty says that “This interest expense alone is a substantial
portion of a bank’s operating costs and is de facto proof a bank
cannot costlessly create money,” one can only wonder what banking
system he is describing. It certainly is not the one in the United
States.

Flaherty: Hypothesis: Supporters of the Federal
Reserve Act knew they did not have the votes to win, so they waited
to vote until its opponents left for Christmas vacation. Since a
majority of senators were not present to vote on the bill, its
passage is not constitutionally valid. Facts: The voting
record clearly shows that a majority of the senate did vote on the
bill. Although some senators had left Washington for the holiday,
the Congressional Record shows their respective positions on the
legislation. Even if all opponents had all been present to vote, the
Federal Reserve Act still would have passed easily.

My reply: I agree with
Flaherty on this issue and often have said so in the Q&A
portions of my lectures. Please note that this is not contradictory
to what I wrote in The Creature. What I said there is an accurate
historical fact. There is little doubt in my mind that the vote
would have passed eventually, but by slipping it through as they
did, it circumvented the possibility of challenges and debate. I
have never commented on the Constitutionality question, although I
tend to think that a strict interpretation would have made this vote
invalid. The problem here, however, has nothing to do with the
Federal Reserve Act but with the rules of Congress.

Flaherty:
Hypothesis: All money is created only when someone takes out
a loan. Therefore, there can never be enough of this debt-money in
circulation to repay all principal and interest. This imbalance
causes inflation, financial crises, social maladies, and will
eventually destroy the economy unless there is a massive injection
of “debt-free” money. This idea is from Dr. Jacques Jaikaran’s book,
The Debt Virus. Facts: The hypothesis shows an incomplete
view of how the banking system interacts with the economy. The
system necessarily creates an amount of “debt-free” money equal to
the interest on its loans. It does this whenever it pays operating
expenses, dividends, or purchases assets. As a result, there is more
than enough money in circulation to retire all bank-related debt.

My reply: I
object to being lumped together with other analysts on this issue. I
did not write The Debt Virus, I wrote The Creature from
Jekyll Island. On page 191, I explained why I consider the
claim that there is not enough money to pay off interest to be a
myth.
Flaherty:
Hypothesis: The Federal Reserve consistently resists attempts
to audit its books. This is because any independent inspection would
reveal the Fed’s treachery. Fact: Independent accounting
firms conduct full financial audits of the Federal Reserve banks and
the Board of Governors every year. The Fed is also subject to
certain types of audits from the Government Accounting Office.

My reply: I
never wrote or implied, as Flaherty says, that “any independent
inspection would reveal the Fed’s treachery.” What I wrote is: (1)
The Fed resists external audit; (2) If it were audited by an
independent party, I suspect there would be nothing illegal found;
(3) The problem is not that it steals from the American people
illegally but that it does so legally; (4) Therefore, we do not need
to audit the Fed, we need to abolish it.

Flaherty: Hypothesis: Major
European banks and investment houses own the Federal Reserve. From
across the Atlantic they dictate monetary policy for their own
benefit. Facts: No foreigners own any part of the Fed. Each
Federal Reserve bank is owned exclusively by the participating
commercial banks and S&Ls operating within the Federal Reserve
bank’s district. Individuals and non-bank firms, be they foreign or
domestic, are not permitted by law to own any shares of a Federal
Reserve bank. Moreover, monetary policy is controlled by the
publicly-appointed Board of Governors, not by the Federal Reserve
banks.
My
reply: Flaherty is basically correct, and I have never claimed
in my book or in my lectures that it was otherwise. I do not
appreciate being lumped together with those who claim foreign
control over the Fed. The real danger in this line of reasoning is
that it is often coupled with the argument that, if we could only
get control away from foreigners and put it into the hands of
Congress or the Treasury, then everything would be all right. In
truth, even if the Fed were in the hands of foreigners, placing it
into the hands of American bankers and politician would make little
difference. The Fed does not need to be converted into a government
agency. It needs to be abolished.

************

Testimonials

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"What every American needs to know about central bank power. A
gripping adventure into the secret world of the international
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Coordinator Academic Affairs,

Ludwig von Mises Institute

"A magnificent accomplishment — a train load of heavy history,
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from your single book than I did pursuing a BBA at a state college.
Fractional reserve banking and fiat money were mentioned, but their
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time was devoted to the derivation of economic formulas, (educated
the masses to be productive, not thinkers)."

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Review of Creature from Jekyll Island

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

Has it ever occurred to you
that the federal government has no need of taxes for revenue? Are
you aware that banks prefer lending to governments because
governments seldom repay loans? Do you realize that if all debts,
both public and private, were paid, there would be no money at all
in circulation?
These are only
a few of the startling facts that fill the pages of this
illuminating expose of the Insider scam called The Federal Reserve
System (Fed). Although author G. Edward Griffin admits to having
wondered if another book on the Federal Reserve is necessary (his
six pages of bibliography suggest that the subject may have
previously attracted attention), it is unlikely that any book has
ranged across 2,000 years of money and banking from Diocletian to
the Rothschilds to Alan Greenspan — and tied it into the new world
order — as thoroughly as The Creature From Jekyll Island.

Griffin cuts through the obscurities
about the Fed that are intentionally meant to mystify and disarm its
victims (all of us). Convinced that the subject of money and banking
is too arcane and complicated to understand, we victims are trapped
in a world view that utterly fails to jibe with reality. The money
manipulators, says Griffin, are exploiting our ignorance for the
advancement of their own appalling plans; the urgency of awakening
us to our danger has driven Griffin to write this extraordinary
book.
Although Griffin has
never held an academic position, he is a top-notch teacher. Making
this little-understood subject simple by splendid organization, his
account is divided into six sections with varying numbers of
chapters; each section and chapter is introduced by a concise
paragraph while each chapter is also summarized. Thus the reader is
kept in touch with where he has been and where he is going, an
ingenious and helpful device considering the enormous scope of
Griffin’s narrative.
His
explanations and definitions are meticulously worded; one can sense
the care with which each word was chosen, leaving no room for
confusion. Griffin continually draws documentation from primary
sources, quoting letters, speeches, and published works that both
enlighten and horrify. His own writing is difficult to quote; it is
so trenchant that nearly every sentence entices. Yet at the same
time Griffin has mastered the art of speaking personally to the
reader, who never loses the feeling of being directly addressed. All
this adds up to a superbly clear, engrossing book that, once
started, is impossible to put down.

Setting the Stage

In order to help us fully
understand our present predicament, Mr. Griffin ranges far afield in
explaining the historical, economic, and political antecedents of
today’s money system. We are given a crash course on the nature of
money; the origin of banks and the concept of fractional reserves;
how this led to the seductive idea of using the same money over and
over; how this inevitably led to economic disaster wherever and
whenever tried. We are instructed about the Rothschild formula,
which perfected the art of making enormous profits from loans to
governments, especially for wars; how this led to preventing any one
nation from becoming strong enough to establish peace (the famous
balance of power); how those who could instigate wars or revolutions
were financed (including the Bolsheviks in 1917); how we Americans
were sucked into World War I in order to save J.P. Morgan’s loans to
England; how environmentalism is now the weapon of choice replacing
war.
We are taken to the
super-secret meeting of Insider financiers and Rothschild agent Paul
Warburg on Jekyll Island in 1910 where the basic plan for what
became the Federal Reserve Act was formulated; we learn that these
plotters were already affiliated with the conspiratorial British one
world Round Table group which preceded the Council on Foreign
Relations (our secret government); we are astounded by the brazen
deception of Congress that pushed through this unconstitutional act
creating the Insiders’ fundamental tool — a central bank with the
ability to inflate. We are told how this same tool has been expanded
internationally through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Bank in order to create worldwide inflation, pay enormous sums
of perpetual interest on never paid-up loans to Insider banks, and
socialize the Third World, all courtesy of us unsuspecting
taxpayers. Lastly, Griffin foretells our dismaying fate if our
course is not altered; then he lays out a step-by-step procedure of
how to alter it, inviting us to join with him in doing so.

Griffin looks the Fed “creature”
straight in the eye and tells us it is not federal, it has no
reserves, and it is not a bank. It is, in fact, a pernicious cartel
operating against the public interest. The widespread belief that
the Federal Reserve exists to “stabilize the economy” is hogwash;
the real reason for its existence is the making of money — not out
of “thin air” as is commonly supposed, but, more accurately, out of
debt. Griffin explains that it is the act of borrowing by the
federal government that causes money to spring into
existence.
Griffin takes us
through the Open Market steps by which Treasury IOUs (bonds) are
inverted by the Federal Reserve into money through the issuance of
Federal Reserve checks with no money in existence to cover them;
anyone else doing this would go to jail. Congress has made this
legal for the Fed, however, because this hidden process allows our
congressmen to enjoy unlimited revenue without having to visibly
raise taxes. Without this service, says Griffin, the
monetary/political partnership would dissolve, and Congress would
abolish the Fed.

Money Multiplied

Griffin explains that these
Federal Reserve checks are endorsed by the government, deposited in
a Federal Reserve bank, and used to pay government expenses by
checks which create the first wave of fiat (unbacked paper) money
that floods into the economy. Recipients deposit these checks into
commercial banks that are part of the Fed system. Here is where the
real inflationary action is. (The Federal Reserve holds “only” seven
percent of the national debt of almost $5 trillion. The 12 percent
held by foreigners and the 56 percent held by Americans are not
inflationary because the money used for purchase already
existed.)
Commercial banks,
like the Federal Reserve, also create money out of nothing — and
collect interest on it — by multiplying every dollar deposited nine
times. This amazing feat is accomplished through the device of
fractional reserves, whereby the Fed allows 90 percent of deposits
to be loaned out. As deposits become loans and loans become
deposits, this process repeats with smaller numbers each time
around. For instance, $1 million in government money (first wave) to
$900,000 (second wave), which gives birth to $810,000 (third wave),
etc., until the process plays itself out. Thus, the banking cartel
creates an amount of money that is nine times the amount of the
original government debt that made the process possible.

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

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

Griffin is astonished at the
public’s indifference to this fleecing; he blames it on ignorance
based on disinformation. Nothing could prove him more right than the
current deception that inflation is higher prices caused by full
employment and a strong economy; therefore, letting the "steam" out
of the economy and slowing growth (and thereby employment) is
“good.” This talk is madness. Alan Greenspan. chairman of the
Federal Reserve (who has the temerity to say he is “worried about
inflation”), is repeating this claptrap as he pretends to control
inflation by increasing interest rates that merely devastated the
bond market, clobbered the stock market, and helped only the
bankers. Thus the Insiders are perfectly protected and the scam
rolls on.
There are many more
threads to Griffin’s discourse on the operations of the banking
cartel that should not be missed, such as:

* How holders of Treasury
bonds can be paid off only by the creation of an identical bond out
of nothing.
*Why the U.S. has
to be, must be, in debt.
*How
the Discount Window (Fed loans to banks) creates more phony
money.
*How the federal
government could operate without levying any taxes
whatsoever.
*How the Fed
causes booms and busts.
*How,
since 1913, our money has depreciated by over 1,000
percent.
*How a gold standard
automatically stabilizes prices.

*How the Fed can now monetize the debts of foreign
governments!
*Without the
extensive knowledge offered by Griffin, no American can fully
understand the financial reality of our time.

Understanding the Game

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

So, says Griffin, "since the System makes it profitable for banks to
make large, unsound loans, that is the kind of loans banks will
make. Furthermore, it is predictable that most unsound loans will go
into default." Sure enough; pretty soon default threatens. The bank
creates additional money out of nothing and lends that so its
interest stream continues on both the original loan plus the new
loan (the “roll-over” play). At the next crisis, the bank creates
still more money out of nothing to cover the interest on both loans
plus an additional amount for the borrower to spend freely (the
“up-the-ante” play). Finally the bank agrees to a lower interest
rate and a longer period for repayment (the rescheduling" play).
Eventually it is time for the “Final Maneuver.” Congress agrees to
guarantee future payments and the whole mess is shifted to the backs
of U.S. taxpayers while the borrower is trapped into an IMF
“austerity” program that makes an “end run” around his
sovereignty.
Now money moves
through various foreign aid channels to the deadbeat borrower, who
continues to pay perpetual interest to the bank. Almost all of this
money is generated by the Federal Reserve; as it moves out into the
economy it dilutes the value of the money already there. The
American people, says Griffin, have no idea they are footing the
bill to enrich the Insider bankers.

Founder’ Fears Realized

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

* George Mason of Virginia: “I have a mortal
hatred of paper money.”
* John
Langdon of New Hampshire: “I would rather reject the whole
[Constitution] than grant the new government the right to issue fiat
money."
* George Reed of
Delaware: “The right to issue fiat money would be as alarming as the
mark of the beast in Revelation."

* Thomas Paine: “The punishment of a member of Congress who
should move for such a law ought to be death."

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

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

Life in the New World Order

What will life be like in the
Insiders' new world order? Griffin spells it out from the words of
the Insiders themselves. One source is the 1966 secret Hudson
Institute study commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara,
entitled Report from Iron Mountain. This study cold-bloodedly
discusses various means by which government might control the
populace and perpetuate itself in power in the absence of war (UN
peace).
Griffin's review (with
extensive quotes) of this truly diabolical Insider study is
masterful; he takes it apart and shows us its consummate evil. The
study's premise is that historically the only means by which a
government has ever been able to "secure the subordination of
citizens to the state" is war. Only war has been able to provide the
external threat without which no government can accumulate power.
War is used to make the masses put up with all kinds of privation,
taxation, and controls without complaint. No amount of sacrifice in
the name of victory is rejected. Resistance is viewed as
treason.
But, says Griffin,
Report From Iron Mountain explains that the war system may
have to be replaced because "it may now be possible to create a
world government in which all nations will be disarmed and
disciplined by a world army, a condition which we will call peace.
"In this case, what could be a substitute for war?

Here, explains Griffin, is the origin of the
stratagem to promote ecological doom as the new enemy that threatens
the entire world. The threat need not be real, provided the masses
can be convinced it is real. Credibility is the key, not reality.
Griffin writes that Report From Iron Mountain explains the
avalanche of phony scientific claims that are uncritically
publicized by the Insider-controlled media, as well as the funding
of environmental "crazies" by corporations and businesses that would
appear to have the most to lose. He sees the plan as being
brilliantly successful.
The
barrage of propaganda has had a phenomenal result. Politicians are
now being elected on nothing but "concern for the environment and a
promise to clamp down on nasty industries," with no one caring about
the damage done to the economy or our freedoms. Just as no sacrifice
is too great in time of war, what happens to the economy or our
freedom is of no consequence "when the very planet on which we live
is sick and dying."
Griffin
introduces us to multi-millionaire Maurice Strong, the powerful UN
environmental czar, who gives us the whole line: The U.S. is
committing environmental aggression against the rest of the world.
Current lifestyles of the affluent middle class — high meat intake,
frozen and convenience foods, electric household appliances, cars,
air conditioning, suburban housing — all this has to go. The world’s
ecosystems can be preserved only by lowering our standard of living
by rationing, taxation, and political domination by world
government.
Reading this
section will forever change the way in which you view government.
Yet, says Griffin, this perverted, power-mad Insider fix need not
prevail. None of these dreadful things needs to happen. He outlines
a procedure by which the Federal Reserve can be abolished, the
national debt paid, and the country returned to a sound monetary
system based on silver and gold. All that is needed are the efforts
of concerned and caring Americans. Griffin invites us to join him in
freeing ourselves from the one-world conspirators. It can be done.

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