Should we kill the Bank?

When asked what his greatest accomplishment had been during his two terms as President, Andrew Jackson replied "I killed the Bank." He was talking about the "Second Bank of the United States", which was our country's second central bank.

So, why was Jackson so passionate about terminating the central bank? And why did he believe that central banks were so insidious? And why should you care?

A couple of reasons you might be interested to know about what motivated Jackson:
1) Though Jackson ended the central bank, it was re-created in 1913 under a new innocuous-sounding name "the Federal Reserve", which is still with us today.
2) Also, it's interesting to note that Andrew Jackson's populist message relating to banking helped to launch the Democratic party.

To find out what motivated Jackson, read all about Jackson's struggle to kill the Bank, in the transcript that I created below (scroll down a ways). This transcript comes from "The Money Masters", which is a 3-hour video that talks about the history of central banking.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8753934454816686947&q=money+masters">The Money Masters - Part 1 of 2 - the transcript begins at minute marker 1:00:50
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2665915773877500927&q=money+masters">The Money Masters - Part 2 of 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Money_Masters">wikipedia article - The Money Masters - Video was made in 1995.

Though the Federal Reserve has a ".gov" web address, it is actually a private bank dedicated only to generating profits for its owners.
www.FederalReserve.gov - quote is taken from upper right-hand corner of the website

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcript from the Money Masters - This is just the part about Andrew Jackson. "I Killed the Bank." - (minute marker 1:00:50)

15. Second Bank of the U.S.

Meanwhile back in Washington, in 1816, just one year after Waterloo and the Rothschild's alleged takeover of the Bank of England, the American Congress passed a bill permitting yet another privately owned central bank. This bank was called the Second Bank of the United States. The new bank's charter was a copy of the previous banks. The U.S. government would own 20% of the shares of the bank. Of course, the Federal share was paid by the Treasury up front into the Bank's coffers. Then, through the magic of fractional reserve lending, it was transformed into loans to private investors who then bought the remaining 80% of the shares. Just as before, the primary stock holders remained a secret, but it is known that the largest block of shares, about 1/3rd of the total, were sold to foreigners. As one observer put it, it is certainly no exaggeration to say that the Second Bank of the United States was rooted as deeply in Britain as it was in America. So, by 1816, some authors claim, the Rothschilds had taken control of the Bank of England and backed the new privately owned central bank in America as well.

16. Andrew Jackson

After 12 years of manipulations of the US economy on the part of the Second Bank of the U.S., the American people had had just about enough. Opponents of the Bank, nominated a dignified senator from Tennessee named Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, to run for President. This is his home, "The Hermitage". No one gave Jackson a chance initially. The Bank had long ago learned how the political process could be controlled with money. To the surprise and dismay of the "money changers", Jackson was swept into office in 1828.

Jackson was determined to kill the Bank at the first opportunity. And he wasted no time in trying to do so. But the Bank's 20-year charter didn't come up for renewal until 1836, the last year of his second term, if he could survive that long. During his first term, Jackson contented himself with rooting out the Bank's many minions from government service. He fired 2,000 of the 11,000 employees of the federal government.

In 1832, with his re-election approaching, the Bank struck an early blow, hoping that Jackson would not want to stir up controversy. They asked Congress to pass a renewal bill 4 years early. Naturally, Congress complied and sent it to the President for signing, but Jackson weighed-in with both feet. "Old Hickory", never a coward, vetoed the bill. His veto message is one of the great American documents. It clearly lays out the responsibility of the federal government towards its citizens, rich and poor.


Later that year, in July 1832, Congress was unable to override Jackson's veto. Now, Jackson had to stand for re-election. Jackson took his argument directly to the people. For the first time in US history, Jackson took his Presidential campaign on the road. Before then, Presidential candidates stayed at home and looked Presidential. His campaign slogan was "Jackson and no Bank". The National Republican party ran Senator Henry Clay against Jackson. Despite the fact that the bankers pored over 3 million dollars into Clay's campaign, Jackson was re-elected by a landslide in November of 1832.

Despite his Presidential victory, Jackson knew the battle was only beginning. "The hydra of corruption is only scotched, not dead", said the newly elected President. Jackson ordered his new Secretary of Treasury, Lewis McClean, to start removing the government's deposits from the Second Bank and start placing them in state banks.

But McClean refused to do so. Jackson fired him and appointed William J Duane as the new Secretary of the Treasury. Duane also refused to comply with the President's requests and so Jackson fired him as well. And then appointed Roger B Teney to the office. Teney did withdrawal government funds from the Bank starting on October 1st, 1833. Jackson was jubilant. "I have a chain. I'm ready with screws to draw every tooth and then the stumps." But the Bank was not yet done fighting. Its head Nicholas Biddle used its influence to get the Senate to reject Teney's nomination.

Then, in a rare show of arrogance, Bittle threatened to cause a depression, if the Bank was not rechartered.

Next, in an unbelievable fit of honesty for a central banker, Biddle admitted that he was going to make money scarce to force Congress to restore the Bank.


What a stunning revelation. Here was the pure truth, revealed with shocking clarity. Biddle intended to use the money-contraction power of the Bank to cause a massive depression until America gave in. Unfortunately, this has happened time and time again throughout US history, and is about to happen again, in today's world.

Nicholas Biddle made good on his threat. The Bank sharply contracted the money supply by calling in old loans and refusing to extend new ones. A financial panic ensued, followed by a deep depression. Naturally, Biddle blamed Jackson for the crash, saying that it was caused by the withdrawal of federal funds from the Bank.

Unfortunately, his plan worked well. Wages and prices sagged. Unemployment soared, along with business bankruptcies. The nation quickly went into an uproar. Newspaper editors blasted Jackson in editorials. The Bank threatened to withhold payments, which then could be made directly to key politicians for their support. Within only months, Congress assembled in what was called the "Panic Session."

Six months after he had withdrawn funds from the Bank, Jackson was officially censured by a resolution that passed the Senate by a vote of 26 to 20. It was the first time that a President had ever been censured by Congress. Jackson lashed out at the Bank. "You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by eternal God, I will rout you out."

America's fate teetered on a knife edge. If Congress could muster enough votes to override Jackson's veto, the Bank would be granted another 20-year monopoly or more over America's money, time enough to consolidate its already great power.

Then, a miracle occurred. The governor of Pennsylvania came out supporting Jackson and strongly criticized the Bank. On top of that, Biddle had been caught boasting in public about the Bank's plan to crash the economy.

Suddenly the tide shifted. In April of 1834, the House of Representatives voted 134 to 82 against rechartering the Bank. This was followed up by an even more lopsided vote to set up a special committee to investigate whether the Bank had caused the crash.

When the investigating committee arrived at the Bank's door in Philidelphia, armed with a subpoena to examine the books, Biddle refused to give them up, nor would he allow inspection of correspondence with Congressmen, relating to their personal loans and advances he made to them. He also refused to testify before the committee back in Washington.

In January 8th, 1835, Jackson paid off the final installment on the national debt, which had been necessitated by allowing the banks to issue currency for government bonds, rather than simply issuing treasury notes without such debt. He was the only President to ever pay off the debt.

A few weeks later, on January 30th, 1835, an assassin by the name of Richard Lawrence, tried to shoot President Jackson. But by the grace of God, both pistols misfired. Lawrence was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. After his release, he bragged to friends that powerful people in Europe had put him up to the task and promised to protect him if he were caught.

The following year, when its charter ran out, the Second Bank of the United States, ceased functioning as the nation's central bank. Biddle was later arrested and charged with fraud. He was tried and acquitted, but died shortly thereafter, while still tied up in civil suits.

After his second term as President, Jackson retired here to the Hermitage outside of Nashville to live out his life. He is still remembered here for his determination to kill the Bank. In fact, he killed it so well that it took the "money changers" 77 years to undo the damage.

When asked what his most important accomplishment had been, Jackson replied, "I killed the Bank."

17. Abe Lincoln

Unfortunately, even Jackson failed to grasp the entire picture and its root cause. Although Jackson had killed the central bank, the most insidious weapon of the "money changers" - fractional reserve banking - remained in use by the numerous state-chartered banks. This fueled economic instability in the years before the Civil War. Still, the central bankers were out 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. Then, finally they reverted 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 re-chartered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, here's another good video, which is similar to "The Money Masters". The first part of this video focusses on the creation of the income tax in 1913, which was also the same year that the Federal Reserve was created. Then, the video moves on to many other subjects, and includes a clip of the Daily Show with Paul Krugman about how the credit card companies got the Bankruptcy Bill passed.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198&q=america%3A+freedom+to+facism&hl=en">America Freedom to Fascism - authorized version

and then gave the holdings to friends of his state banks. they made a killing out of it.

the federal reserve system provides stability and is an important part of our modern monetary and banking system.

But where should he have put the money? And was not the 2nd Bank a little bit tyrannical?

Also, does our modern-day central bank (the Federal Reserve) have undue influence, like most major corporations? Isn't it a little suspicious that they no longer publish M3 (the broadest measure of our money supply)?

What's wrong with Abraham Lincoln's Greenbacks? Why can't we just print the money we need? Why do we have to borrow it from a central bank, who has been granted the sole privelege to create the money?

And many blame former Fed Chairman "Easy Al" Greenspan for the 1990s Bubble, as well as our current housing bubble. Is that stability?

if you just print money, without regulation it leads to rampant inflation.

it seems like we're already doing that. There seems to be little check on our Federal spending. Also, ridiculously low interest rates, lax lending policies, and money creation of 8% per year has led (at least according to some experts) to inflation in various asset markets, like the stock market and real estate.

An economist named John Williams thinks inflation is actually running 8% (if accurately measured).
http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/data

Also, when our government borrows money, then we owe interest. I've read that our 2nd largest Federal expense is just paying interest on the debt. Since we have an 8 trillion dollar debt, then my guess is that the annual interest could be 400 billion (at 5% interest).

But to maker your point, during the Revolutionary War, I believe that the "Colonial Script" was over-printed, which caused massive inflation.

But before the War, the "Colonial Script" worked out well. One of our most famous, progressive Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin supported "Colonial Script" and he also thinks the central Bank (the Bank of England) was ultimately the cause of the Revolutionary War.
http://www.kamron.com/Liberty/colonial_script.htm

but i still voted yes.

Jackson's bad experience with land speculation and debt...almost broke him...and

A personal imbroglio with Nicholas Biddle, President of the 2nd BUS. Jackson suspected, not wholly without justification, that Biddle has used the resources of the Bank to campaign against him in the Presidential election.

Biddle's political petulance and refusal to go along with Jackson's legitimate requests to look into improper behavior on the part of the bank were also to blame.

Biddle then squeezed credit, helped throw the country into a recession, further angering Jackson, steeling his resolve.

Unfortunately Jackson did not have a good back up plan, putting the federal deposits into "Pet" banks, run by primarily Democratic supporters.

Had there been two different personalities involved the bank might have been saved.

It's interesting how the personal history of state/corporate leaders can affect their public actions. But maybe it was just as well that the Bank was not saved (although it came back in 1913 as the "Federal Reserve"). Jackon's struggle really illustrates the extreme amount of power that a private, central bank can wield. Do we want a bank to have so much power?

The Bank was largely successful in that it expanded credit for those for whom it was previously unavailable. The Bank certainly could have used some reform. But I don't think killing it without an adequate backup was really wise either. If it weren't for Biddle, Jackson probably would have accepted a reform proposal. It was Biddle's intransigence that put him over the top. Of course a less hot-headed man than Jackson might have found a way even with Biddle there.

It is certainly one of those issues that makes Jackson's Presidency among the most interesting!!!

I really don't know that much about this subject, except just a few articles and videos I've seen on the Web. But some people think the Fed is at least partially behind the income tax and CAFTA and other modern banes.

What do think about "Colonial Script"? What about just printing the money, as Benjamin Franklin recommended and Abraham Lincoln did with his "Greenbanks"?

I'm no economist. I studied the political fights surrouonding the Bank War in grad school...but it seems to me issuing currency not backed by specie, or under the control of a central banking structure could lead to significant inflation...seems to me some measure of control is required.

I know it was a populist issue after the Civil War with the greenback party advocating a permanent use of greenbacks not backed by specie.

in corporate interests that we have today. If we can get rid of one powerful, privately owned, for-profit entity without negatively impacting the economy, then I'm in favor of it.

I like the idea of "colonial script" or "greenbacks", but if we do need it to be backed by specie, I don't think it should be backed by gold, because I've read that's not plentiful enough. Perhaps, silver or something else like that.

As another Democratic politician (William Jennings Bryan) said in 1896 before the Democratic National Convention:

-----------
Congressional Scorecards on the Subject: Reduce Unnecessary FOREIGN WORKERS Visas (career) .........
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/view_list.php3?&Category=5&Status=Career&Flag=4">U.S. House
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/view_list.php3?&Category=5&Status=Career&Flag=7">U.S. Senate

edited... forgot the sarcasm tag! :sarcasm:

Andrew Jackson's objection to a private bank controlling the issuance of currency which is FORBIDDEN according to the Constitution.

Used as part of his justification...

Not that Jackson wasn't a strict constructionist (though not strictly a states rightist). He was willing at the beginning of the bank war to go along with reform...it was Biddle's intransigence that drove him to oppose a bank in any form.

The constitutionality of the Second Bank of the U.S. was never strictly tested...

However the constitutionality of the First Bank of the U.S. was upheld in McCulloch vs. Maryland...

It is entirely likely the constitutionality of the second would have been as well..

The difference though with the Federal Reserve compared to the Second Bank is that the Federal Reserve issues US Currency. The Second Bank did not.

According to the Constitution: Article I, Section 8, enumerates the various powers of the Congress. Among these is the power to "coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures."

I'm no legal expert, and perhaps their are court cases that legitimize the Fed's issuance of currency, but it seems to violate this clause.

To the Bank War...

But the federal reserve does not coin money, and I believe the "value thereof" relates to the denominational values.

I don't really see a conflict

Jackson did argue that The Second Bank of the US was unconstitutional as there was no specific mention of it in the Constitution, and no clause he argued, that would allow the federal government to operate it...

In McCulloch vs. Maryland, the Supreme Court validated the notion of implied powers, meaning laws could be passed that were not specifically listed as long as they were for a purpose given to the federal government in the Constitution.

You may misunderstand the phrase because language was used differently at the time. This paragraph explains it better than i could:

"In order to understand the meaning of this section, one must understand the prevailing situation and the parlance of that time. The form of money which we use now was not the form used back then. At the time of the writing of the Constitution, the substance of money was gold and silver coin, but now, almost all the money is in the form of bank credit, with the remainder in paper bills and base metal coins. Congress was given the power to stamp precious metals into coins of measured weight and fineness, and to decide how much metal was to be contained in the monetary unit, i.e. to "regulate the value of," the dollar. It was not given the power to print paper money or to create some other form of "legal tender.""

Any organization who has led an effort to reform the Federal Reserve is driven into bankruptcy or the founder is railroaded into jail within a few years. Congressman Louis McFadden tried unsuccessfully to stop the Fed. from being created; a few months later he died of food poisoning. Has anyone read a critical article of the Fed recently? I haven't. And if there are any, they pale in comparison to the articles on big business.

The Fed is as Federal as Federal Express. The Fed has stock ownership like a corporation. The dollars you hold are not government notes; they are issued on behalf of a private organization. The Fed is a collusion of private banks who hold ownership (stock) in the Federal Reserve. It is a means to avoid (really) competing with one another over the interest rate. The worst I've heard about the Fed in the press was some economist saying, "Economies don't fail suddenly on their own; the Fed kills it." The boom and bust cycles are devised specifically to enrich the banks.

The Fed was created in 1913 with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act. A few decades after its creation, it orchestrated the Great Depression in 1929 by withholding money from the economy. Shortly afterwards, FDR was forced to turn over the country's gold reserves to the Federal Reserve. That's why today 95% of the gold in Fort Knox is not owned by the United States.

Anyhow, I'd love it if we could have an open discussion of whether or not a private organization should be responsible for the country's money supply or whether, as the Consitution dictates, the Treasury should be solely responsible for it. Based on everything I've read though, I somehow doubt this will happen.

Doing so can have you labeled as a racist. I learned this the hard way even though I have no knowledge of their religion or background.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence ** - - Published 1976

Here is some data, but it is old. In the 19th century, it was customary to debate the country's banking policy. Even so in the beginning of the 20th. Now, it is virtually impossible; in large part due their influence over the mainstream media Good information is hard to find- esp. which private banks own what stock ownership in the regional Feds.
--
N.M. Rothschild , London - Bank of England
______________________________________
| |
| J. Henry Schroder
| Banking | Corp.
| |
Brown, Shipley - Morgan Grenfell - Lazard - |
& Company & Company Brothers |
| | | |
--------------------| -------| | |
| | | | | |
Alex Brown - Brown Bros. - Lord Mantagu - Morgan et Cie -- Lazard ---|
& Son | Harriman Norman | Paris Bros |
| | / | N.Y. |
| | | | | |
| Governor, Bank | J.P. Morgan Co -- Lazard ---|
| of England / N.Y. Morgan Freres |
| 1924-1938 / Guaranty Co. Paris |
| / Morgan Stanley Co. | /
| / | \Schroder Bank
| / | Hamburg/Berlin
| / Drexel & Company /
| / Philadelphia /
| / /
| / Lord Airlie
| / /
| / M. M. Warburg Chmn J. Henry Schroder
| | Hamburg --------- marr. Virginia F. Ryan
| | | grand-daughter of Otto
| | | Kahn of Kuhn Loeb Co.
| | |
| | |
Lehman Brothers N.Y -------------- Kuhn Loeb Co. N. Y.
| | --------------------------
| | | |
| | | |
Lehman Brothers - Mont. Alabama Solomon Loeb Abraham Kuhn
| | __|______________________|_________
Lehman-Stern, New Orleans Jacob Schiff/Theresa Loeb Nina Loeb/Paul Warburg
- ------------------------- | | |
| | Mortimer Schiff James Paul Warburg
_____________|_______________/ |
| | | | |
Mayer Lehman | Emmanuel Lehman \
| | | \
Herbert Lehman Irving Lehman \
| | | \
Arthur Lehman \ Phillip Lehman John Schiff/Edith Brevoort Baker
/ | Present Chairman Lehman Bros
/ Robert Owen Lehman Kuhn Loeb - Granddaughter of
/ | George F. Baker
| / |
| / |
| / Lehman Bros Kuhn Loeb (1980)
| / |
| / Thomas Fortune Ryan
| | |
| | |
Federal Reserve Bank Of New York |
|||||||| |
______National City Bank N. Y. |
| | |
| National Bank of Commerce N.Y ---|
| | \
| Hanover National Bank N.Y. \
| | \
| Chase National Bank N.Y. \
| |
| |
Shareholders - National City Bank - N.Y. |
- ----------------------------------------- |
| /
James Stillman /
Elsie m. William Rockefeller /
Isabel m. Percy Rockefeller /
William Rockefeller Shareholders - National Bank of Commerce N. Y.
J. P. Morgan -----------------------------------------------
M.T. Pyne Equitable Life - J.P. Morgan
Percy Pyne Mutual Life - J.P. Morgan
J.W. Sterling H.P. Davison - J. P. Morgan
NY Trust/NY Edison Mary W. Harriman
Shearman & Sterling A.D. Jiullard - North British Merc. Insurance
| Jacob Schiff
| Thomas F. Ryan
| Paul Warburg
| Levi P. Morton - Guaranty Trust - J. P. Morgan
|
|
Shareholders - First National Bank of N.Y.
- -------------------------------------------
J.P. Morgan
George F. Baker
George F. Baker Jr.
Edith Brevoort Baker
US Congress - 1946-64
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Hanover National Bank N.Y.
- ------------------------------------------
James Stillman
William Rockefeller
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Chase National Bank N.Y.
- ---------------------------------------
George F. Baker

Did ANYONE else notice that the film fails to mention the SILVER CERTIFICATES of John F. Kennedy? He was also assassinated. Still, this far right-wing conspiracy theory offers some hard-hitting info on international banking. The MONEY MASTERS, like the OP, would be better if the conspiracy theory dropped the hero worship of the most devastating man to ever occupy the White House, when it comes to Native American cultures. His policies were responsible for the death and displacement of millions. Perhaps we owe a bit more respect to this land's original care-takers. They never destroyed nature on the scale that we see today. John Birch ideas closely mirror those put forth by Hitler and Dr. Goebbels prior to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. Those ideas, which portray Jews as evil money-masters, led to the murder of over 6 million innocent hard-working people in Europe.

Currency processes should be a direct function of our government and not private entities.

Thomas Jefferson 1816, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

He was on the wrong side of history here...

Central banking has largely been a positive, though imperfect, system

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote: "All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, as much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation". Responding, Thomas Jefferson wrote:... "And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by prosperity, under the same name of funding is swindling futurity on a large scale."

British bankers have stated "Those that create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in their hands the destiny of the people".

Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln believed that banker capitalism was more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. In a republic, banks would lend money but could not create or manufacture it.

Later, Jefferson used stronger language and denounced the institution as "one of the most deadly hostilities against the principles and form of our Constitution." Some have said that Jefferson did not favor a strong central bank. What he did not favor was the delivery of our monetary system into private hands to be run for private profit.

President James A. Garfield said: "Whoever controls the money in any country is absolute master of industry and commerce".

By controlling our own money, Thomas Jefferson expected that the government would incur no debt, as had occurred in the European system. European banks are like the FED.

All the people and orgs who've tried to abolish it recently are republicans: Ron Paul, Milton Friedman, and Liberty Lobby.
-
At one extreme are a few economists from the Austrian School and the Chicago School who want the Federal Reserve System abolished. They criticize the Federal Reserve System’s expansionary monetary policy in the 1920s, arguing that the policy allowed misallocations of capital resources and supported a massive stock price bubble.

Milton Friedman, leader of the Chicago School, argued that the Federal Reserve System did not cause the Great Depression, but made it worse, by contracting the money supply at the very moment that markets needed liquidity. Friedman argued that the Federal Reserve System could and should be replaced by a computer system that sets rates calculated from standard economic metrics.
--

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Federal Reserve into existence

on our democracy

I think we should kill as many banks as it takes

My understanding is that the bankers sit one level up from the corporations.

"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson, referring to financial barons

This is like watching someone attack the Theory of Gravity.

It appears you have recently stumbled into an old-school far-right wing conspiracy theory, which is based, for the most part, on some unavoidably direct logic. Not to say, it is untrue or absurd in any way, the ideas of John Birch indeed offer an accurate version of history, when it comes to banking and money. His attacks on Jews, in regard to banking and economics, however, are nothing but a pack of anti-semitic lies, which resemble to a large part, ideas put forth by Hitler in Nazi Germany. Glen out the anti-semitism and perhaps you can form some reasonable conclusions on war profiteering, international banking and even the current NEW WORLD ORDER Bushco intends to inflict upon working peoples of the planet.

<on edit> Also never forget, the tool commonly referred to as money cannot build self-worth or real wealth. Money can, however, create an illusion of economic wealth, which is never lost by the middle-class during hard-times, only transferred.

that has EVER shamed the White House. His lies to them and racist policies lead to the death and displacement of millions of Native Americans during his term in office.

agree.

And the fact that Jackson has killed a lot of natives has no bearing on the validity of his view on the central banking system.

The people in whose interests the Federal Reserve charges us interest to print our own currency are Jewish and Christian and Moslem and Atheist and... You are correct that many people who have told this tale in past have been virulently anti-Semitic and that is THEIR personal problem - and our societal problem to the extent that their hatred is allowed to spew unchecked.

But, JG - Look beyond this. When Arun Gandhi & Milton Friedman agree there might be something to it...

Arun Gandhi: "What you have shown in the scenario is what we are constantly doing at the personal level as well as the public level. It is the policy of exploitation that the rich employ against the poor. This is why grandfather said 'Materialism and morality have an inverse relationship - when one increases the other decreases.' If I may, I would like to keep the videos as resource material to teach students about economic violence in the world. With good wishes. Yours sincerely, Arun Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence"

Milton Friedman: "As you know, I am entirely sympathetic with the objectives of your Monetary Reform Act...You deserve a great deal of credit for carrying through so thoroughly on your own conception…I am impressed by your persistence and attention to detail in your successive revisions... Best wishes. Milton Friedman," Nobel Laureate in Economics; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace

http://www.themoneymasters.com/viewcim.html

==================================================More...

The Federal Reserve is a private, for-profit bank that makes HUGE profits by charging the US government interest for printing our money. That is, when the government needs money, they issue bonds to the Fed and the Fed prints money for the government to spend. Problem? The government goes into debt - and has to buy back the bonds in $$ plus interest. What guarantee does the government give the Fed that the "loan" (the new dollars for government spending) will be repayed? Us. The guarantee that we will pay our income taxes.

Further: When the Fed constricts the money supply the nation goes into a depression. When the Fed relaxes the money supply too much the nation goes into an inflationary period in which dollars don't buy much.

Milton Friedman outlined a strategy by which we would replace $ printed by the Federal Reserve with money (scrip) printed by the US Government. The US had a scrip-based economy before the American Revolution. The scrip-based economy was so successful that England outlawed it and according to Benjamin Franklin, that action - not the taxes - was what caused the Revolutionary War. Jackson, Lincoln & Van Buren all tried to get the US economy back on a scrip system.

Why does a private bank print our money?

The Bank of London was the first Central Bank and it spawned Central Banks of other nations - including the US. These banks have had HUGE impact on world history. War is profitable for the Central Banks, because nations will go into debt to win a war - more debt that has to be paid back with more interest than for any other cause.

The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank - you will understand a LOT more about it and our options for *really* changing this nation and our world if you watch "The Money Masters" or check out their website:

Frequently Asked Questions:
http://www.themoneymasters.com/faq.htm

Comments from People Around the World
http://www.themoneymasters.com/letters.htm

inflammatory. And while the videos are at google -- not a conspiracy/bigoted site -- their content is conspiracy theory