The Creature from Jekyll Island

In November 1910, a group of the most powerful men in America boarded a private train car in New Jersey. They traveled under assumed names to a private club on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Their mission: to draft legislation for a central bank that would give them control over the nation's money supply.

The participants admitted the secrecy decades later. Frank Vanderlip wrote in 1935: "I was as secretive—indeed, as furtive—as any conspirator... Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would be wasted."

Griffin explains that the Federal Reserve is not federal (it's privately owned) and has no reserves (it creates money from nothing). It is a cartel—a group of competitors who agree to limit competition and protect each other from losses.

Griffin names the money creation process the "Mandrake Mechanism" after the comic-book magician who creates things out of thin air. This is how it works:

Griffin dedicates significant attention to how the Fed enables war. Before central banking, governments had to raise taxes or borrow from citizens to fund wars. This was unpopular and limited military adventures. With the Fed, governments can simply print money.

Griffin documents how the Fed's role as "lender of last resort" has created a system of perpetual bailouts. When banks make reckless bets, they keep the profits. When those bets fail, the Fed (and ultimately taxpayers) covers the losses.

Griffin doesn't just complain—he proposes a solution. He advocates for the complete abolition of the Federal Reserve and a return to a monetary system based on honest commodity money (gold/silver).

Griffin acknowledges these changes are politically difficult. But he argues the alternative—continued inflation, ever-larger crises, and eventual currency collapse—is far worse.