The Federal Reserve is going back to Jekyll Island to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the infamous 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that spawned the draft legislation that would ultimately create the U.S. Federal Reserve.  The title of this conference is "A Return to Jekyll Island: The Origins, History, and Future of the Federal Reserve", and it will be held on November 5th and 6th in the exact same building where the original 1910 meeting occurred.  In November 1910, the original gathering at Jekyll Island included U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department A.P. Andrews and many representatives from the upper crust of the U.S. banking establishment.  That meeting was held in an environment of absolute and total secrecy.  100 years later, Federal Reserve bureaucrats will return to Jekyll Island once again to "celebrate" the history and the future of the Federal Reserve.

Sadly, most Americans have no idea how the Federal Reserve came into being.  Forbes magazine founder Bertie Charles Forbes was perhaps the first writer to describe the secretive nature of the original gathering on Jekyll Island in a national publication.... 

Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily riding hundred of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned, lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance. I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written... The utmost secrecy was enjoined upon all. The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done. Senator Aldrich notified each one to go quietly into a private car of which the railroad had received orders to draw up on an unfrequented platform. Off the party set. New York's ubiquitous reporters had been foiled... Nelson (Aldrich) had confided to Henry, Frank, Paul and Piatt that he was to keep them locked up at Jekyll Island, out of the rest of the world, until they had evolved and compiled a scientific currency system for the United States, the real birth of the present Federal Reserve System, the plan done on Jekyll Island in the conference with Paul, Frank and Henry... Warburg is the link that binds the Aldrich system and the present system together. He more than any one man has made the system possible as a working reality.

It was a system that was designed by the bankers and for the bankers.  Now, the bureaucrats running the system are returning to Jekyll Island to congratulate themselves.  Those attending the conference on November 5th and 6th include Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Goldman Sachs managing director E. Gerald Corrigan and the heads of the various regional Federal Reserve banks.  You can view the entire agenda of the conference right here.  It looks like that there will be plenty of hors d'oeuvres to go around, but should the Federal Reserve really be celebrating their accomplishments at a time when the U.S. economy is literally falling to pieces?

Today, 63 percent of Americans do not think that they will be able to maintain their current standard of living.  1.47 million Americans have been unemployed for more than 99 weeks.  We are facing a complete and total economic disaster.

Today, the Federal Reserve has more power over the economy than any other single institution in the United States.  It is the Fed that primarily determines if we will see high inflation or low inflation, whether the money supply with expand or contract and whether we will have high interest rates or low interest rates.  The President and the U.S. Congress have far less power to influence the economy than the Federal Reserve does.

As this election has demonstrated, the American people are absolutely furious about the state of the U.S. economy, but American voters have been mostly blaming our politicians.  They just don't understand that it is actually the Federal Reserve that has the most control over the performance of the economy.

It would be hard to understate how powerful the U.S. Federal Reserve really is in 2010.  U.S. Representative Ron Paul recently told MSNBC that he believes that the Federal Reserve is actually more powerful than Congress.....

"The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress."

So how has the Federal Reserve performed over the years?

Well, since 1913 inflation has been on a relentless march upwards, U.S. government debt has increased exponentially and the U.S. dollar has lost over 96 percent of its value.

That is not a record to be celebrating.

The truth is that the Federal Reserve was created to enslave the United States government in an endlessly expanding spiral of debt from which it would never be able to escape.  As I wrote about yesterday, that is exactly what has happened.  The U.S. government debt is escalating at an exponential rate.  It is a trap from which the U.S. government will never be able to get out of under our current system.

Now many at the Federal Reserve are touting more "quantitative easing" as the solution to our economic problems.  But anyone with a brain should be able to see that creating a gigantic pile of paper money out of thin air and dumping it into the economy is only going to make our long-term problems even worse.

But the Federal Reserve system was never designed to benefit the American people.  It was designed to make massive amounts of money for the banking establishment.  As I wrote about in "11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad", the Federal Reserve was created to transfer wealth from the American people to the U.S. government and from the U.S. government to the super wealthy.

The sad truth is that the Federal Reserve is at the very core of our economic and financial problems, and that is nothing to celebrate.

Max Keiser takes offense to Goldman Sachs story pt1 of 2 Channel MaxKeiserTV

pt2 

Pt 1/3 Max Keiser : Goldman Sachs - The Real Pirates behind America's Economic Implosion 7/2/10

pt2, pt3

Corrupt Bailout & Martial Law. (Part 1)

Watch and learn that the biggest bailout in history was a FRAUD, perpetrated by the Government.

The Creature from Jekyll Island pt 1

The Left Right Paradigm is Over: Its You vs. Corporations

I love the article you are about to read because it is very much in line with some of what this site is about.  USAWatchdog.com is neither “Democrat nor Republican, liberal or conservative.”  I just want to connect the dots and find out what’s really going on, no matter which party is in power.  Guest writer Barry Ritholtz does a great job of laying out real issues Americans need to deal with.  His post centers on corporations and how they have corrupted both political parties.  For example, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein gave equally to both political parties this year.  Big corporations don’t care who is in power just as long as they get to call the shots.  It is a foregone conclusion that the U.S. House of Representatives will change over to Republican control.  The folks holding the signs that say “fire Nancy Pelosi” are going to get their wish.  But when she is gone as Speaker of the House, I ask, then what?  I haven’t heard Republicans (or Democrats vs Republicans for that matter) talk much about the big banks ripping off the country.  What is unraveling now is the biggest financial fraud in history, but it is not a campaign discussion.  I don’t think it will be addressed when the Republicans take control of the House proving, once again, both Democrats and Republicans are just one body with two heads.

Ritholtz describes himself this way, “I’m Chief Market Strategist for an institutional research firm, and the Chief Economics Commentator for an asset management firm.” I say Ritholtz is a big thinker and a regular commentator in the financial press.  I have been holding this article for about a month because I thought it was more appropriate a day away from the mid-term elections.  I hope this enhances your perspective.  –Greg Hunter–

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By Barry Ritholtz

Guest Writer for USAWatchdog.com

Every generation or so, a major secular shift takes place that shakes up the existing paradigm. It happens in industry, finance, literature, sports, manufacturing, technology, entertainment, travel, communication, etc.

I would like to discuss the paradigm shift that is occurring in politics.

For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs. Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets.

The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual. These two “interest groups” – I can barely suppress snorting derisively over that phrase – have been on a headlong collision course for decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power.  The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights.

This may not be a brilliant insight, but it is surely an overlooked one. It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate – and the Humans are losing.

Consider:

• Many of the regulations that govern energy and banking sector were written by Corporations;

• The biggest influence on legislative votes is often Corporate Lobbying;

• Corporate ability to extend copyright far beyond what original protections amounts to a taking of public works for private corporate usage;

• PAC and campaign finance by Corporations has supplanted individual donations to elections;

• The individuals’ right to seek redress in court has been under attack for decades, limiting their options.

• DRM and content protection undercuts the individual’s ability to use purchased content as they see fit;

• Patent protections are continually weakened. Deep pocketed corporations can usurp inventions almost at will;

• The Supreme Court has ruled that Corporations have Free Speech rights equivalent to people; (So much for original intent!)

None of these are Democrat/Republican [1] conflicts, but rather, are corporate vs. individual issues.

For those of you who are stuck in the old Left/Right debate, you are missing the bigger picture. Consider this about the Bailouts: It was a right-winger who bailed out all of the big banks, Fannie Mae, and AIG in the first place; then his left winger successor continued to pour more money into the fire pit.

What difference did the Left/Right dynamic make? Almost none whatsoever.

How about government spending? The past two presidents are regarded as representative of the Left Right paradigm – yet they each spent excessively, sponsored unfunded tax cuts, plowed money into military adventures and ran enormous deficits. Does Left Right really make a difference when it comes to deficits and fiscal responsibility? (Apparently not).

What does it mean when we can no longer distinguish between the actions of the left and the right? If that dynamic no longer accurately distinguishes what occurs, why are so many of our policy debates framed in Left/Right terms?

In many ways, American society is increasingly less married to this dynamic: Party Affiliation continues to fall, approval of Congress is at record lows, and voter participation hovers at very low rates.

There is some pushback already taking place against the concentration of corporate power: Mainstream corporate media has been increasingly replaced with user created content – YouTube and Blogs are increasingly important to news consumers (especially younger users). Independent voters are an increasingly larger share of the US electorate. And I suspect that much of the pushback against the Elizabeth Warren’s concept of a Financial Consumer Protection Agency plays directly into this Corporate vs. Individual fight.

But the battle lines between the two groups have barely been drawn. I expect this fight will define American politics over the next decade.

Keynes vs Hayek? Friedman vs Krugman? Those are the wrong intellectual debates. Its you vs. Tony Hayward, BP CEO, You vs. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO. And you are losing . . .

~~~

This short commentary was conceived not to be an exhaustive research, but rather, to stimulate debate. There are many more examples and discussions we can have about this, and I hope readers do so in comments.

But my bottom line is this:  If you see the world in terms of Left & Right, you really aren’t seeing the world at all

ron paul on supervising the fed