G. Edward Griffin’s novel, The Creature from Jekyll Island, proposes a conspiracy between the United States government and the central bank of the United States, The Federal Reserve (the Fed). This alleged conspiracy dates back to the establishment of the Fed with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The basis of Griffin’s conspiracy is that rather than acting as an emergency line of credit for American banks and a regulator of the money supply, the Fed is a scheme for private bankers to profit off of the National Debt. Prima facie, this conspiracy theory appears to bear some merit. With Griffin’s considered audience, the burden of proof for the establishment of a conspiracy is relatively low. A preponderance of the evidence is sufficient to convince
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They have been fed the narrative that the Federal Reserve is a part of their government. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Fed is actually its own private bank with its own private shareholders that profit off the interest payments on the national debt. Each member bank is required by law to hold a share of the Federal Reserve. Their dividends are paid out at 6%. According to Griffin, this system is the definition of a Ponzi scheme. Banks are essentially borrowing money from themselves that is created out of debt, less than nothing. Then they pay themselves back with interest. This monetary system that relies on keeping individuals in debt did not always exist. It was not until Christmas of 1913, when most American were too preoccupied to notice their government giving the country away to a private bank, that the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Wilson. This piece of legislation originated in a private meeting in 1910 on Jekyll Island, of the coast of Georgia. Attending this meeting was Senator Nelson Aldrich; Assistant Treasury Secretary, Abraham Andrew; President of the National City Bank of New York, Frank Vanderlip; Senior Partner of J.P. Morgan, Henry Davison; President of J.P. Morgan’s First National Bank of New York, Charles Norton; head of J.P. Morgan’s Bank Trust Company, Benjamin Strong; and Partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, Paul Warburg who was representing the Rothschild banking family in England. The financiers “had been instructed to arrive separately to avoid reporters […] and to use first names only so as not to reveal each other’s identity (Griffin 4). At this meeting, this coalition of bankers and government officials sought to find and answer to the problem of bank runs and insolvency. Their solution was the Federal Reserve Act which had five objectives: stop the growing competition from the nation’s newer banks; obtain a franchise to create money out of nothing
They have been fed the narrative that the Federal Reserve is a part of their government. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Fed is actually its own private bank with its own private shareholders that profit off the interest payments on the national debt. Each member bank is required by law to hold a share of the Federal Reserve. Their dividends are paid out at 6%. According to Griffin, this system is the definition of a Ponzi scheme. Banks are essentially borrowing money from themselves that is created out of debt, less than nothing. Then they pay themselves back with interest. This monetary system that relies on keeping individuals in debt did not always exist. It was not until Christmas of 1913, when most American were too preoccupied to notice their government giving the country away to a private bank, that the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Wilson. This piece of legislation originated in a private meeting in 1910 on Jekyll Island, of the coast of Georgia. Attending this meeting was Senator Nelson Aldrich; Assistant Treasury Secretary, Abraham Andrew; President of the National City Bank of New York, Frank Vanderlip; Senior Partner of J.P. Morgan, Henry Davison; President of J.P. Morgan’s First National Bank of New York, Charles Norton; head of J.P. Morgan’s Bank Trust Company, Benjamin Strong; and Partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, Paul Warburg who was representing the Rothschild banking family in England. The financiers “had been instructed to arrive separately to avoid reporters […] and to use first names only so as not to reveal each other’s identity (Griffin 4). At this meeting, this coalition of bankers and government officials sought to find and answer to the problem of bank runs and insolvency. Their solution was the Federal Reserve Act which had five objectives: stop the growing competition from the nation’s newer banks; obtain a franchise to create money out of nothing