Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

This view is not encouraged by Establishment institutions and publishers. It has become their apparent mission to convince the American people that the system is not intrinsically flawed. It merely has been in the hands of bumbling oafs. For example, 22 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

William Greider was a former Assistant Managing Editor for The Washington Post. His book, Secrets of The Temple, was published in 1987 by Simon and Schuster. It was critical of the Federal Reserve because of its failures, but, according to Greider, these were not caused by any defect in the System itself, but merely because the economic factors are "sooo complicated" that the good men who have struggled to make the System work have just not yet been able to figure it all out. But, don't worry, folks, they're working on it!

That is exactly the kind of powder-puff criticism which is acceptable in our mainstream media. Yet, Greider's own research points to an entirely different interpretation. Speaking of the System's origin, he says:

As new companies prospered without Wall Street, so did the newregional banks that handled their funds. New York's concentratedshare of bank deposits was still huge, about half the nation's total, butit was declining steadily. Wall Street was still "the biggest kid on theblock," but less and less able to bully the others.

This trend was a crucial fact of history, a misunderstood realitythat completely alters the political meaning of the reform legislationthat created the Federal Reserve. At the time, the conventional wisdomin Congress, widely shared and sincerely espoused by Progressivereformers, was that a government institution would finally harness the

"money trust," disarm its powers, and establish broad democraticcontrol over money and credit.... The results were nearly the opposite.

The money reforms enacted in 1913, in fact, helped to preserve thestatus quo, to stabilize the old order. Money-center bankers would notonly gain dominance over the new central bank, but would also enjoynew insulation against instability and their own decline. Once the Fedwas in operation, the steady diffusion of financial power halted. WallStreet maintained its dominant position—and even enhanced it.1

Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace, and also Professor of Economics at California State University, Los Angeles, provides a somewhat deeper analysis. He writes:

Warburg's revolutionary plan to get American Society to go towork for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today,... academictheoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, andthe general public struggles in bewildered confusion with inflationand the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple explanation of 1. Greider, p. 275.

THE JOURNEY TO JEKYLL ISLAND 23

the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely uncomprehended.

The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the moneysupply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise ofprotecting and promoting the public interest.