By John A. Heffern Jr
J.P. Morgan and Company, like many big businesses today, was not satisfied with its already huge profits and success. J.P. Morgan took what he could and soon realized through mergers and acquisitions of new companies, he could corner and manipulate the free market. We haven't seen a conglomerate of this scale in our time since Microsoft was broken down by the Department of Justice in 1998.
In business, in the late 1800's, the level of wealth one could obtain reached never before seen heights. Two of the most famous names in the business world in the early 1900's were J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. These names were synonymous with success. Each respectively sat atop a very well-structured and tightly controlled empire he had worked tirelessly to create.
Rockefeller and Morgan clashed on many fronts in the business world. They were powerful on their own, but combined, untouchable. They agreed on this key idea regarding monetary reform: the imporance of an increased "elasticity" of the money supply. They agreed they would both benefit if they worked together to push for and collaborated on this reform movement.
They could make exorbitant amounts of money from the creation of a centralized system that was able to expand money and credit as much as they wished. Decorated economist Murray Rothbard explains in his book, A History of Money and Banking in the United States, that Morgan and his fellow bankster John D. Rockefeller realized, "the only way to establish a cartelized economy, an economy that would ensure their continued economic dominance and high profits, would be to use the powers of the government to establish and maintain cartels by coercion. In other words, to transform the economy from roughly laissez-faire to centralized and coordinated statism."
Under the guise of an entity to promote fairness and competition in business, Morgan and Rockefeller created an organization to ensure the dominance of their monopoly. It has gone through many stages and been called many things, but at the end of the day, what they created was the Federal Reserve.
In a business sense, for Morgan and Rockefeller, it was undoubtedly a genius plan. To the public, it appeared as though this new watch dog organization could ensure the free market thrives. Behind the scenes, the newly formed group would be able to control price cutting by rival companies and competitive business practices. This was an opportunity to stint the growth of competitors and tighten their stranglehold on the markets in America.
None of this happened overnight. A decade's worth of work would be necessary before the fruits of their labor began to morph into what we know today as the Federal Reserve. Countless elections and schmoozing of government officials occurred. However, the government officials were not the only crowd the banksters needed to win over. The glue that held this movement together was the intellectuals. The nation's intellectuals were and still are the "professional opinion-molders in society." It just so happened the nation's top minds were eagerly awaiting a new challenge.
Rockefeller and Morgan both knew they needed to avoid going up against the one entity left that had the power to dismantle their empire… the U.S. government. By figuring out a way to empower the government with a new agency, they were able to streamline the movement and get the support they needed at every level.
The above originally appeared at The Project to Restore America.
This--the imporance of an increased "elasticity" of the money supply--is code for having the government create money from thin air and give (loan) it to them (the banksters). It relieves the banksters of having to pay a market rate of interest to persuade savers to give up their cash for a time. Let's stop using the language of economists, and make clear what it happening.
ReplyDeleteFederal Reserve Act Preamble Dec. 23, 1913: "An Act to provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes."
ReplyDeleteDemocrats also became the party for the Morgan interests, and the Republicans became the party for the Rockefeller interests
ReplyDeleteElasticity of the money supply is important. The inelasticity of the money supply was the reason for the Panic of 1907 and many panics previous. It was a good plan to centralize banking, the only snag here was that the control of centralized banking was given up to the very private interests that could benefit from controlling the money supply. What we need is a centralized and state-owned bank that is disinterested and controlled by the legislature through the democratic process.
ReplyDelete