The Monetary Conundrum
Is the international monetary system fundamentally flawed?
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly
ruined my country. A great industrial nation is
controlled by its system of credit. Our system of
credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation,
therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of
a few men. We have come to be one of the worst
ruled, one of the most completely controlled and
dominated Governments in the civilized world. No
longer a Government by free opinion, no longer
a Government by conviction and the vote of the
majority, but a Government by the opinion and
duress of a small group of dominant men.”
- Woodrow Wilson,
28th President of the United States
In 1910 a meeting took place in Jekyll Island, off
the coast of the Southern US state of Georgia. The
attendees of the meeting were instructed to use only
one another’s first names, lest their identities be
divulged to the public subsequently by eavesdropping
waiting staff.
In attendance were a select cabal of some of the
world’s leading bankers, including John Pierpont
Morgan and Paul Warburg. They were joined by
Senator Nelson Aldrich. The reason that secrecy
was paramount at the week-long retreat was that the
delegates were planning a critical change in the how
the monetary system functioned. At that time, the
US Treasury had the sole responsibility for printing