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Dirty Secrets of the Temple - How the FederalReserve Runs the US
By Stephen Lendman07/03/06 "Information Clearing House"
-- -- Years ago I read William Greider'sexcellent book published in 1987 on how the US Federal Reserve System works. Itwas detailed and explicit and makes wonderful and informative reading, except for the solution he suggests to a huge problem. His was far too timid. This article proposes a much different one. Greider called his book Secrets of the Temple with asub-title: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country. A better sub-title might have been how the Fed (and other key central bankers) runs the world. This article attemptsto summarize what it does, how it does it, for whose benefit and at whose expense.For those who don't know, prepare for some stunning information and commentary.Let's be clear at the outset. The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Bank of Japanand the European Central Bank (for the 12 European countries that adopted the singleeuro currency in 1999) are institutions with enormous power far beyond what most people everywhere can imagine. These most dominant of all central banks, as well asmost others, have a powerful influence on the financial conditions in virtually allcountries including their own, of course, in an increasingly borderless financial worldwhere a significant economic event in one nation can affect most others for better or worse.One other powerful bank is also part of today's financial world. It needs mentioning because of its importance, even though it requires a separate article to explain how itworks more fully. It's the secretive, inviolable and accountable to no one Bank of International Settlements (BIS) founded in 1930 and based in Basle, Switzerland.This bank most people never heard of is the central banker to its member central banks - a sort of banking "boss of bosses" equivalent to what apparently exists in theshadowy world of Mafia dons. Like most other central banks, including the FederalReserve (explained below), it's privately owned by its members.It's believed by some academicians and others who've studied the BIS that the rulingelite of financial capitalism established this bank of banks to be the apex of power toexercise authority over a world financial system owned and controlled by them. It'sthought their plan was to use this bank to dominate the political system of everycountry and control the world economy in a feudalistic fashion. In a word, thethinking goes that these super-elite want to rule the world by controlling its money,and they set up this supranational all-powerful bank of banks to do it. As important asthat is, that discussion remains for another time as the intent of this article is to focussolely on the US Federal Reserve.The dominant central banks and BIS, together with most others, wield their influencein cartel-like alliance with each other to assure they all benefit more than theyotherwise would without such a cozy arrangement. With their immense power it's no play on words to say these financial institutions do indeed rule the world. Becausethey're able to create money, they fund the needs of their governments, their militariesand all business activity that couldn't function without a ready supply of that most
 
needed of all commodities. It's money, not love, that makes the world go round, andcentral bankers have the power to create or remove from circulation as much or littleof it as they choose and for whatever purpose they have in mind. That kind of power can move mountains or destroy them. No nation's central bank is more powerful today than the US Federal Reserve, but itwasn't always that way, and it now has competition for the top spot it hasn't knownsince WW II. The Fed, as it's called, has existed since it was first established by an actof Congress in 1913. But the Bank of England has been around since Britannia ruledthe waves beginning in1694 when King William III needed help funding the kind of escapade that takes lotsof ready cash - war. Back then it was with France, and the king needed a friendly banker to print it up for him to help him fight it. He also needed financial help tofacilitate trade and manage the country's debt that always mounts up when wars arefought. The Bank of England wasn't the first central bank, but it was the modernworld's first privately owned one in a powerful country.It was called the Bank of England to keep the public from knowing that it, like our Federal Reserve, was and still is privately owned and not part of the government. Itwas also the model used in the formation of our own central bank and most others.The Brits may have had a 219 year head start on the Fed, but central bankers are onlyas powerful as the countries they represent and their economies. Today the former dominant Brits must settle for a far lesser role as being just one of many junior  partners to a US hegemon that emerged post WW II as the world's dominanteconomic power. It still is today, even though some credible experts believe thiscountry may have seen and past its peak and is now in decline. Some go further andclaim our decline has been accelerated by the disastrous policies of the Bushadministration that irrationally believes waging war on the world without end is theway to rule it, promote endless economic growth and dominance, and thus preservethe nation's preeminent position as the reigning economic champion.It's easy to challenge that view and think that champ has climbed into the ring a fewtimes too many, has endless plans for more return engagements, and is likely to meetthe same fate many a former human one did who didn't know when to quit and endedup with chronic brain damage known as dementia. The lesson from history is alwaysthe same. The price for reckless behavior is high, painful and inevitable. It's true for countries as well as individuals, but too often neither one sees it until it's too late. The biggest difference between the US today and other nations in the past that paid dearlyfor not yielding when their day had passed is that we have an all-powerful arsenalothers never did. Should we decide to use it, there likely wouldn't be much left behindfor a successor. Not a pleasant thought, but a very real one.
It All Began in 1910 On Jekll Island
It sounds like the title of a horror movie, but the real life events that happened at this privately owned island off the coast of Georgia in 1910 would have challenged eventhe Hollywood bad dream factory to come up with. It was here that seven very richand powerful men met in secret for nine days and created the Federal Reserve Systemthat came into being three years later on December 23, 1913 by an act of Congress.Since that time, the nation and world would never be the same, but only the rich and
 
 powerful were the beneficiaries. That was the whole idea, and it worked as planned.The Federal Reserve Act that began it all must surely rank as one of the mostdisastrous and outrageous pieces of legislation to the public welfare ever to come outof any legislative body. It may have also have been and still is illegal according toArticle 1, Section 8 of the Constitution which happens to be the inviolable law of theland. The article states that Congress shall have the power to coin (create) money andregulate the value thereof. In 1935, the US Supreme Court ruled the Congress cannotconstitutionally delegate its power to another group or body. The Congress thus actedin violation of the Constitution it's sworn to uphold and in so doing created theFederal Reserve System that, as will be explained below, is a private for-profitcorporation operating at the expense of the public welfare. By its action, our lawmakers committed fraud against the people of the country and so far have gottenaway with it without the public even knowing about the harm done.The shameful result is that what should have arrived stillborn is now the mostdominant institution on earth, and all because of what began on a privately ownedisland with a scary name. But had the Congress acted responsibly, the act of Fedcreation might never have happened. The legislation establishing it was so harmful tothe public interest, it likely never would have passed if it hadn't been shepherdedthrough a carefully prepared Congressional Conference Committee meeting scheduledfor between 1:30 - 4:30 AM (when most members of Congress were asleep) onDecember 22,1913. The Act was then voted on the next day and passed although many members of the body had left for the Christmas holidays and most others who stayed behind hadn'thad time to read it or know its contents. Sound familiar? Still it passed (like a thief inthe night) and was signed into law by an unwitting or complicit Woodrow Wilson wholater admitted he made a terrible mistake saying "I unwittingly ruined my country."But it was too late for postmortems, and the American people have paid dearly ever since. It's about time the public understood that and began to demand an end to over 90 years of damage done.It almost happened 43 years ago when one president decided to act on behalf of the people who elected him. That man was John Kennedy, who before his death plannedto end the Federal Reserve System to eliminate the national debt a central bank creates by printing money and loaning it to the government. That debt has now risento over $8,400,000,000,000 ($8.4 trillion) which every taxpayer must pay for and hasdone so in the amount of nearly $174,000,000,000 ($174 billion) in just the first threemonths of 2006. This debt service is now an annualized amount exceeding two-thirdsof a trillion dollars. It's made the bankers rich (which was the whole idea) and the public poorer because we're taxed to pay the tab. It's no exaggeration to call this thegreatest financial scam in world history and one that gets greater every day.The debt was less onerous 40 years ago, but Kennedy understood its danger to thecountry and the burden it placed on the public. Thus, on June 4, 1963, he issued presidential order EO 11110 giving the president authority to issue currency. He thenordered the US Treasury to print over $4 billion worth of "United States Notes" toreplace Federal Reserve Notes. He intended to replace them all when enough of thenew currency was in circulation so he could end the Federal Reserve System and thecontrol it gave the international bankers over the US government and the public. Just
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