SOME NOTABLE QUOTES
Quote from former Georgetown Professor Carroll Quigley's 1966 book Tragedy and Hope:
The powers of financial capitalism have another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. . .
. . .I know of the operations of the network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records. . .
. . .It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. . . The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called 'international' or 'merchant' bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These found a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secretive than that of their agents in the central banks. This dominance of investment bankers was based on their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and throughout the world. They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their countries by their influence over the flow of current funds through bank loans, the discount rate, and the rediscounting of commercial debts; they could dominate governments by their own control over government loans and the play of the international exchanges. . .
Quote from Milton Friedman, American Nobel Laureate economist and - initially at least - a proponent of the Chicago School of economics:
The stock of money, prices and output was decidedly more unstable after the establishment of the Federal Reserve System than before. The most dramatic period of instability in output was, of course, the period between the two wars, which includes the severe [monetary] contractions of 1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38. No other 20-year period in American history contains as many as three such severe contractions. This evidence persuades me that at least a third of the price rise during and just after World War I is attributable to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System . . . and that the severity of each of the major contractions - 1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38 - is directly attributable to acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities. . .Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far-reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system for believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic - this is the key argument against an independent central bank. . . To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers.
Excerpt from Debt Virus, c1992 by Dr. Jacques Jaikraan discusses the provisions in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which requires the central bank to return a small portion of its gains to the U.S. Treasury. Here is an example of the numbers:
In 1988 the Federal Reserve has an income of 19.5 billion, and it turned back $17.36 billion to the U.S. Treasury as provided under its charter. . .The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 provided that a substantial portion of the Feds annual profits be turned over to the National Treasury. Does this fact dilute the argument that there are vast profits built into the commercial banking system? No. Consider for a moment that the total debt (public debt plus private debt) at the end of 1988 was in excess of $11 trillion. [Editorial note: Today it is well in excess of $53 trillion.] Then, the discount rate, the rate at which banks can borrow from the Federal Reserve, was about 9.4%. Assuming the debt carried the same rate as the discount rate, there was an annual interest charge of almost $1 trillion on the total debt owed to the banking system. . . While all of this interest payment does not go to commercial banks, an overwhelmingly large part of it does. The $17.36 billion turned over to the U.S. Treasury is thus much less than 2% of the total carrying charge on the total debt. which they created out of thin air. Now can you appreciate what is happening? page 216
Concurrent to Lincoln's issue of Greenbacks a leaflet known as The Hazard Circular was distributed among the wealthiest of the investment classes in the Northern States in 1862. As recorded in The Little Statesman, edited by K.L. Armstrong and published in 1895 by the Schulte Publishing Company, the Hazard Circular leaflet stated in part:
Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital (money lenders) shall control labor by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt (national) that capitalists (money lenders) will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money. To accomplish this the bonds (debts created out of the war) must be used as a banking basis. We are now waiting for the Secretary of the Treasury to make this recommendation to Congress.
American Bankers Association statement of 1891 as printed in the Congressional Record of April 29, 1913 which reads:
On Sept 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price... Then the farmers will become tenants as in England...
The Banker’s Manifesto of 1892 revealed by U.S. Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. from Minnesota before the U.S. Congress and recorded in Lindberg's 1923 book Economic Pinch.
We (bankers) must proceed with caution and guard every move made, for the lower order of people are already showing signs of restless commotion. Prudence will therefore show a policy of apparently yielding to the popular will until our plans are so far consummated that we can declare our designs without fear of any organized resistance. . .The Farmers Alliance and Knights of Labor organizations in the United States should be carefully watched by our trusted men, and we must take immediate steps to control these organizations in our interest or disrupt them. . .At the coming Omaha Convention to be held July 4th (1892), our men must attend and direct its movement, or else there will be set on foot such antagonism to our designs as may require force to overcome. This at the present time would be premature. We are not yet ready for such a crisis. Capital must protect itself in every possible manner through combination (conspiracy) and legislation. . .The courts must be called to our aid, debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. . .When through the process of the law, the common people have lost their homes; they will be more tractable and easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of the government applied to a central power of imperial wealth under the control of the leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. . . History repeats itself in regular cycles. This truth is well known among our principal men who are engaged in forming an imperialism of the world. While they are doing this, the people must be kept in a state of political antagonism. . . The question of tariff reform must be urged through the organization known as the Democratic Party, and the question of protection with the reciprocity must be forced to view through the Republican Party. . . By thus dividing voters, we can get them to expand their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us, except as teachers to the common herd. Thus, by discrete action, we can secure all that has been so generously planned and successfully accomplished.
“Panic Circular” sent out on March 12, 1893 by the American Bankers' Association and recorded in Congressman Charles A. Lindberg Senior's book Banking and Currency and The Money Trust, pages 104 to 105 as follows:
The interests of the national bankers require immediate financial legislation by Congress. (1) Silver, (2) silver certificates and (3) Treasury notes must be retired, and the National Bank Notes, upon a gold basis, made the only money. . . This requires the authorization of $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 of new bonds as a basis of circulation. You will at once retire one-third of your circulation and call in one-half of your loans . . .Be careful to make money stringency felt among your patrons, especially among influential business men. Advocate an extra session of Congress for the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman law; and act with other banks in your city in securing a large petition to Congress for its unconditional repeal, as per accompanying form. Use personal influence with Congressman; and particularly, let your wishes be known to your Senators. The future life of National Banks as fixed and safe investments depends upon immediate action, as there is an increasing sentiment in favor of Government Legal Tender Notes and Silver Coinage.
Offered here is evidence that the 1892 re-election of Grover Cleveland had been orchestrated by the “money powers” as detailed in a book titled Real Money vs False Money – Bank Credits by T. Cushing Daniel, p69 and 73:
In order to show that the people were deceived in the Presidential Campaign of 1892 and that the money power was the controlling force back of this campaign, and that their purpose was to stop the Government from adding to the currency system by the coining, or use of any more silver as currency, and by doing this increase the hold of the money power and banking interests over the money system of the United States. . . the people were kept excited and their attention centered on the Tariff, the Nominal Issue, while the real issue was kept from them.
A valuable witness is at hand from the inner money circle to prove that this was the case. Mr. Solomon, a partner of Speyer & Co., International Bankers, made the following statement in the Forum for July, 1895, entitled Sound Currency and the Dominant Issue [as follows]: 'It was well understood that a reform of the tariff was to be the nominal issue of the campaign of 1892, and that all the changes were to be rung upon that theme, but enthusiasm for reform of the tariff would not have produced. . . the sinews of war (Campaign contributions). What did produce them was the conviction that the triumph of the Democratic party, with Cleveland at its head, would mean repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act.'
This article was written by Mr. Solomon, who was in a position to know the facts, and he put himself on record as above, three years after the people thought they had elected Cleveland upon the Tariff issue. At this time (1892) the Government was purchasing and putting into circulation 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month, represented by silver certificates. This the banks determined to stop, and as soon as Cleveland had taken the oath of office as President of the United States, the American Bankers' Association, realizing that there was a large majority in Congress against the repeal of this Act whereby the Government was issuing additional currency, determined to force its repeal by creating a panic. . .
Just eight days after Cleveland was sworn into office, on March 12, 1893, the American Bankers' Association, representing the Incorporated National Banks of the United States, through their all-powerful influence and control of the currency of this country, deliberately planned to destroy the prosperity and business welfare of over 80,000,000 people in order to increase their stranglehold on the Monetary System of the United States, their plan being to drive the people into misery and poverty, hiding their intentions by loudly proclaiming that it was due to the Government adding to the currency by issuing silver certificates, charging that the panic was brought on by the Government using silver bullion and issuing silver certificates to increase the currency.
Fortunately the Panic Circular [quoted above] sent out on March 12, 1893, by this organization, The American Bankers' Association, is at hand and can be correctly designated as the panic circular of the organized money power of the United States, as it was the immediate and only cause of the panic of 1893.
. . .The next step taken by this association of banking interests was to absolutely discredit and convert into debts, $350,000,0000 of money that had already been issued by the Government."
Additional information on the circumstances surrounding the 1892 election can be found in the Preface to the English edition of the 1894 book The Money Problem by Arthur Kitson.
The Bankers Manifest of 1934, taken from the Civil Servants' Year Book titled 'The Organizer'” of January 1934, excerpt:
Capital must protect itself in every way, through combination and through legislation. Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law, applied by the central power of wealth, under control of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capital to govern the world. By dividing the people, they can be made to expend their energies in quarreling over questions of little importance to us, except as teachers of the common herd."