Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

have none of the usual elements of control that come with ownership and, in fact, they are subservient to the central board.

The seven members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It is true that the Fed is independent of direct political control, but it must never be forgotten that it was created by Congress and it can be extinguished by Congress. In truth, the Federal Reserve is neither an arm of government nor is it private. It is a hybrid. It is an association of the large commercial banks which has been granted special privileges by Congress. A more accurate description would be simply that it is a cartel protected by federal law.

But the more important point is that it makes no difference whether the Fed is government or private. Even if it were entirely private, merely turning it over to the government would not alter its function. The same people undoubtedly would run it, and they would continue to create money for political purposes. The Bank of England is the granddaddy of central banks. It was privately owned at its inception but became an official arm of the British government in more recent times. It continues to operate as a central bank, and nothing of substance has changed. The central banks of all the other industrialized nations are direct arms of their respective governments. They are indistinguishable in function from flie Federal Reserve. The technicalities of structure and ownership are not as important as function. Turning the Federal Reserve over to the Treasury without at the same time denuding it of its function as a central bank—that is, its ability to manipulate the money supply—would be a colossal waste of time.

Hie proposal of having the Treasury issue the nation's money is another question and has nothing to do with who owns the Fed.

There is nothing wrong with the federal government Issuing money so long as it abides by the Constitution and adheres to the principle of honesty. Both of these restraints forbid Congress from issuing paper money that is not 100% backed by gold or silver. If you are in doubt about the reasoning behind that statement, it would be a good idea to review chapter fifteen before continuing.

It is true that, if Congress had the power to create as much money as it needs without the Federal Reserve System, interest would not have to be paid on the national debt. But the Fed holds only a small percentage of the debt. Over 90% of those bonds are held by individuals and institutions in the private sector. Terminat-A REALISTIC SCENARIO

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ing interest payments would not hurt those big, bad bankers nearly as much as it would the millions of people who would lose their insurance policies, investments, and retirement plans. The Social Credit scheme would wipe out the economy in one fell swoop.

And we still would not have solved the deeper problem. The bankers would be cut out of the scam, but the politicians would remain. Congress would now be acting as its own central bank, the money supply would continue to expand, inflation would continue to roar, and the nation would continue to die. Besides, issuing money without gold or silver backing violates the Constitution.

THE JFK RUMOR

In 1981, a rumor was circulated that President Kennedy had been assassinated by agents of the hidden money power because he had signed Executive Order #11110 instructing the Treasury to print more than $4 billion in United States Notes. That is precisely the kind of money we are discussing: paper bills without gold or silver backing issued by the government, not the Federal Reserve.

According to the rumor, the bankers were furious because they would lose interest payments on the money supply. When the Order was tracked down, however, it involved Silver Certificates, not United States Notes. Silver Certificates are backed by silver,'

which means they are real money, so the rumor was wrong on that point. But there is no interest paid on Silver Certificates either, so the rumor held up on that point. There was a third point, however, which everyone seemed to overlook. The Executive Order did not instruct the Treasury to issue Silver Certificates. It merely authorized it to do so. There is no evidence that this was ever done. If the Certificates were printed at all, they never found their way into circulation. In 1987, the order was rescinded by President Reagan.

The Treasury did print a small supply of United States Notes in 1963, but these were authorized by an 1878 act of Congress to replace Civil War Greenbacks which had been retired from circulation. JFK did not initiate that issue. The greatest quantity of those Notes to be in circulation since their last printing in 1969 was $322

million—not a significant figure compared to Federal Reserve Notes. Most of them are now collectors' items.1

1. See Currency in U.S. History, (Kansas City: Federal Reserve Bank, n.d.), pp. 10,11

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

The persistent rumor regarding the bankers' role in JFK's death was reinforced by several books circulated in conservative circles.

They contained an ominous passage from Kennedy's speech at Columbia University, just ten days before his assassination. He is quoted as saying: 'The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the Americans' freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizen of his plight.'1 However, when Columbia University was contacted to provide a transcript of the speech, it was learned that Kennedy never spoke there— neither ten days before his assassination nor at any other timel Ronald Whealan, head librarian at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, provides this additional information: 'Ten days prior to the assassination he was at the White House meeting with, among others, the ambassador to the United States from Portugal.'2

It is possible that the President did make the remarks attributed to him on a different date before a different audience. Even so, it is a cryptic message which could have several meanings. That he intended to expose the Fed is the least likely of them all. Kennedy had been a life-long socialist and internationalist. He had attended the Fabian London School of Economics; participated in the destruction of the American money supply; and engineered the transfer of American wealth to foreign nations. There is little reason to believe that he had suddenly 'seen the light' and was preparing to reverse his life-long beliefs and commitments.

MONETARISTS VS SUPPLY-SIDERS