Gods of Money [Paperback]

GODS OF MONEY F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL

If you control the money, you control the entire world (H. Kissinger)

F. William Engdahl exposes masterfully with ground breaking investigations how a tiny ultra wealthy oligarchy took control of the US and the world's financial system and shaped the fate of life and death on our planet. (C. Quigley: `a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the world economy in a feudalist fashion.')

The continuous greatest hold-up in the world
A. Lincoln said that `the privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but also its greatest creative opportunity.' But, with the Federal Reserve Act a tiny consortium of private bankers took total control of the US money printing press and US monetary policies, using the faith and credit of the US government to fill their own pockets.

The battle for world financial supremacy
This consortium (mainly the Houses of Morgan and Rockefeller) attacked the London-controlled Gold Standard and replaced it in 1925 by the US controlled Gold Exchange Standard (GES) with its gold-dollar link.
In the face of a market crash and a severe economic downturn the FR chose to defend the GES with a severe discount rate hike. A monumental depression made a `leftist' New Deal necessary.
With the bankruptcy of its main commercial rivals, the US forced the Bretton-Woods Agreements through at the end of WW II. It took control of the world economic space (raw materials and markets) and imposed worldwide its economic policies of free trade and open markets through the BIRD, the IMF and GATT. Moreover, the dollar (with a fixed gold price) became the world's only reserve currency giving the Fed uncontrolled power to issue virtually unlimited amounts of dollars.
The full speed dollar printing to finance the Vietnam War forced President Nixon to cut the gold-dollar link. But, the dollar was rescued by a monumental rise in the oil (quoted in dollars) price. Another rescue was nevertheless necessary as Fed chairman Paul Volcker blew the interest rates into the stratosphere. Today, the outlook for the dollar seems to be extremely bleak.

Battles in the US
With the Glass-Steagall Act (splitting the depository banks from the insurance and investment companies) enacted in 1933 after the Wall Street Crash the House of Morgan was beaten by its main rival the House of the Rockefellers.
A frontal attack against the FR was launched by President Kennedy when his government printed outside the FR interest free US Notes backed by silver. He died before the could be pyblicly distributed.
President Reagan attacked the New Deal and introduced financial deregulation opening a window for big financial mergers which became `too big to fail'. Under Fed chairman A. Greenspan the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. It all ended in 2007 in a worldwide financial tsunami when the global financial system collapsed.

World political supremacy
Strategically, the long arm of the financial consortium was the `Council on Foreign Relations', which shaped (shapes) US international policies.
By financing the European rivals in the two World Wars, the US not only bankrupted its main economic rivals, but it could lay its hands on the strategic European heartland.
After WW II the US reigned superbly, military (A-Bomb) and economically.
It defended its position all over the Western world, also in France where a financial and political attack by General De Gaulle was successfully parried.
Today, one of the two pillars of US domination (the dollar) fell from its throne. Can the US continue to finance the other pillar, unchallenged global military strength, in the face of a prolonged economic downturn?

F. William Engdahl wrote a fascinating, disturbing and courageous book. It is a must read for all historians and for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

The US sites has different reviews on it. Quoting from one of them, which made me look at Engdahl's list of titles a different way:

"A few years prior to these events, Henry Kissinger is reported to have said to a journalist, "If you control oil, you control nations. If you control food, you control people. If you control money, you control the world." Based on that comment and its subsequent implementation worldwide, F. William Engdahl began a long-term research project which resulted in his authorship of various books dealing with each aspect of that power equation - one book per control factor. "

Based on this, the series of titles makes sense as more than liberal agenda pleasing publications that will sell - and more of an analysis carried out over years. Given this, I have now put engdahl's *set* of books on my list to be read...

Gods of Money--Wall Street and the Death of the American Century is an admirably researched work which describes the activities of the international bankers and financiers over the past century.

While his earlier book, A Century of War, focused on how power was gained through the control of oil, this one presents the effort to control gold, then the money supply, and how paper money evolved into ever more complex financial products.

The importance of wars in enriching the financial sector and destroying other nations developing potential strength, and how money has flowed around the globe with the different events of history are described in a way that is clear and easy to understand. How extraordinary riches have been made by using debt as a commodity, and manipulating interest rates, are made understandable in this extraordinary work.

Finally, the way the financial sector, now centred in five Wall Street banks, became so bloated that it had the power to topple the economy of the world and had to be saved by the tax payers of America is revealed.

This is a truly epic work which should be read by all, in the interests of self protection as well as knowledge.