The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

Moving into the 20th century, Griffin explores the financial motivations at play in World War I. J.P. Morgan was the primary source of loans as well as the primary benefactor of munitions sales from the US to European allies. The Morgan group, headed by J.P. Morgan, loaned England and France a total of $1.5 billion over the course of the war. Griffin contends that a few years into the war, German submarines were devastating English ships and cutting off trade and supply lines to England, meaning that the Morgan Group was facing the possibility of a complete loss on the loans they had made so far. Therefore, they encouraged the US to enter the war, both to increase the likelihood of an Allied victory and therefore interest payments on the loans, and for the US to be able to give direct funding to the Allies.

E.M. House, a close advisor of Woodrow Wilson, traveled to England and negotiated a secret treaty: that the US would spearhead peace talks with specific conditions, and if either side refused the US would enter the war on the opposing side. The public’s opposition to the war delayed Wilson and House’s plan to enter the war surreptitiously. Wilson had to run for re-election on an anti-war platform. Germany announced plans for more U-boats, sparking concern for the Morgan House. The Morgan House and the Rockefellers controlled, either outright or through advertising revenue, a huge proportion of the press in the US. Using that control, they created a press campaign designed to inspire the American people to support joining the war against the Germans.

In addition to banking and other industries, Morgan also had an international shipping trust which included two major shipping lines in England. Cunard, who built the Mauretania and Lusitania, was his direct competition. Cunard was retained by the British government to build ships for the military in addition to its profitable shipping and passenger business. The Lusitania was a luxury liner that primarily transported passengers between New York and London. However, the ship was built with the potential to be a warship. In 1913, the ship was outfitted with armor and space for ammunition and weapons. From that point, it carried passengers and war materials from the United States to England.

Griffin argues, based primarily on Churchill’s speeches at the time and the orders he gave the British navy, that Winston Churchill intentionally created the situation that led to the German attack on the Lusitania. On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat’s torpedo, followed by an internal explosion likely caused by the munitions being secretly transported from the US to Britain. American citizens died in the disaster, and Griffin argues that the Lusitania was intentionally placed in danger to increase public support for the US entering the war.

Public support allowed Wilson to pressure Congress into declaring war on Germany. Once war was declared, Congress approved a $1 billion loan to the Allies, much of which returned to J.P. Morgan as interest payments. Three months later, Morgan House requested $400 million from the government, which Griffin claims was furnished quietly via the Federal Reserve.

Griffin argues that the Bolshevik Revolution was largely planned and funded by financiers from the US, Germany, and Britain. He asserts that Leon Trotsky was likely aided by various influential American and British sources. After being detained on his return to Russia from the US, he was surprisingly released due to pressure from Britain and America. There is also evidence that Trotsky was bankrolled by prominent wealthy British financier Lord Alfred Milner at a time when that could have been seen as treason.

Milner was the head of a secret society, the Round Table Group, founded by Cecil Rhodes (of Rhodes Scholar fame). The goal of the society, according to Griffin, was to preserve and extend the British Empire. Griffin argues that this society created front organizations, notably the Institute of International Affairs in England and the CFR in America. Milner bankrolled British agents in Russia to encourage revolutionary activity. These funds came into Russia through British Ambassador to Russia Sir George Buchanan. American agents came into Russia under the guise of the Red Cross which had become beholden to New York bankers including J.P. Morgan.

The Red Cross Russian mission was headed by William Boyce Thompson, who, among other things, had served as full-time director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The mission was ostensibly to support the Tsar, then to support the anti-German Mensheviks, and then to create sufficient goodwill with the Bolsheviks to prevent Russia from pulling out of the alliance with Britain and the US. However, each side was funded by the same small group of people. Griffin argues that Morgan, Milner, and the others were all part of the Round Table Group funding both sides of the conflict to maximize their own profit and power. In his closing summary, Griffin asserts that the CFR is “even more powerful than the federal government” because its members make up a large portion of the government (273).

Griffin asserts that the financiers of Wall Street supported the Bolsheviks from the start and intended for them to come to power. The goal was to gain control of Russia’s resources and to establish a political and financial foothold in Russia.

According to Griffin, many American and British companies profited in the wake of the Bolshevik coup d’état. Most industry and banking were nationalized, except for those owned by Rockefeller and Crane, both instrumental in the finance world. Russia’s gold was used to repay loans from British and American financial companies. Two different massive sales and shipments of food from the US to Russia directly benefitted family members of Red Cross Mission participants and US financiers. Resource mining produced wealth for Britain, Germany, and the US both through gaining the resources themselves and selling Russia the machinery to accomplish the mining.

During WWII, Griffin claims, a major German firm, I.G. Farben, was largely funded by American banks owned by the Morgan House, the Rockefellers, and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. During strategic bombing by the US, Farben’s buildings were spared. Also, during WWII, the US gave the Soviets money, equipment, and even uranium. This was all under the auspice of the Lend-Lease program which continued a full year after the end of the war.

Griffin gives more examples of US banks, the IMF, and the US government directly giving money and goods to communist-controlled countries with human rights violations. These loans primarily serve the Wall Street elite. Although these money and goods are supposedly in service of free trade and international movements toward world peace, Griffin points out that as of the late 1990s, the world is embroiled in small conflicts.

Griffin closes by claiming that world leaders are actively implementing the Rothschild Formula to use war to generate debt in the late 20th century. The weapons and infrastructure that allowed the Korean and Vietnam wars, Griffin argues, were supplied in large part by US sales and loans to the Soviets. Likewise, loans to China and Russia funnel into the Middle East, funding Saddam Hussein’s regime which was actively propped up by the US until Hussein tried to regain control of oil resources in the 1990s. His final point is that North Korea’s nuclear threat came from the direct support of Russia and China, both of which were funded in large part by the US.

Griffin closes with his fifth reason to abolish the Federal Reserve System: The System actively encourages war.