Ephemeris of the Mind (Book Review) The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Time to read: 3 min read
Book Cover
Another obstacle to communication is that this tale truly is incredible, which means unbelievable. The magnitude by which reality deviates from the accepted myth is so great that, for most people, it simply is beyond credibility. Anyone carrying this message is immediately suspected of paranoia. Who will listen to a madman?
Review
In this highly ambitious book, Griffin attempts to explain the origins of the modern monetary system, namely how the Federal Reserve came to be and the impacts of the Fed on the world throughout history. What is surprising is that, rather than being written by a serious academic, this book is written by a mass market author whose other books cover diverse and miscellaneous topics such as vitamin B17 and archaeology. While the tome is hefty (over 600 pages), the language is actually easily accessible and filled with examples which help the average reader understand the (relatively) complex mechanisms of the Fed.
It took me a long time to finish this book, and to be fair, Griffin intended for this book to be tackled in multiple stages, as the book has clearly divided individual sections each with a summary of the section’s contents. Griffin dives deep into the historical context of the Fed, the actual history of the Fed, and the consequences of the Fed existing. Griffin uses a rich source of references, including various primary sources in his narrative. If anything, the book is worth reading for a good understanding of the Fed and American economic system, including topics such as monetary policy and inflation.
Griffin makes a libertarian/ classical economics argument against the Fed, which he views as a cartel being used by bankers to perpetuate their influence at the expense of the American people. Griffin also alleges a globalist conspiracy to weaken America in order to create an international socialist state. Some of Griffin’s ideas are interesting, such as the Mandrake Mechanism, the way in which the Fed can create money “out of nothing” through the leverage of fractional reserve debt. I also partially agree with many of his main arguments, such as the benefits of moving away from fiat money (although probably towards something more akin to cryptocurrency than traditional gold, as suggested by Griffin) and the importance of a fiscally responsible (lean) government. Some of his other ideas, such as his allegation of an organized Fabian world government conspiracy and his take on global warming replacing war as the pressure to keep people complacent within social structure, are a bit more fringe and border on conspiracy theories.
Conclusion
Just the fact that Griffin managed to distill such a complex system down to something digestable by normal people is impressive and worth reading.