All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars, Says Video

Someone sent me a video called “All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars.” Within three minutes I had to turn it off. It begins with a fake quotation from Ben Franklin, arguing that the most important driving force of the American Revolution was the British prohibition on paper money in the colonies. (Not to mention that the Currency Act was not even close to the driving force behind the Revolution.) Then the narrator quotes Rothschild, and this quotation is another fake. So the first two quotations of the whole video are unverified. Why should I keep watching?

My advice to Greenbackers: if the only sources for a quotation are other Greenbacker sites, it’s probably a fake. Have some decency as a researcher and seek out the actual source before repeating a quotation.

The narrator keeps emphasizing “private central bankers.” His problem is that the central banks aren’t socialistic enough? My problem is that they’re creations of government and are given government-granted special privileges. He libels the free-enterprise system by claiming that these government-privileged institutions are “private central banks.” They are not.

The gist of all this is that our problems stem from “private central banks,” and that if only we had fiat money being issued directly by government, we could live debt-free, have no war, etc.

Check out my “Why the Greenbackers Are Wrong,” which examines a couple of their major claims in detail.

And by the way, the topic raised in the video is not a foolish one, but it is handled in a cartoonish way, to say nothing of the inaccuracies. For a sound treatment of the question, read Murray Rothbard’s “Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy.”

http://twitter.com/paranomalousart Drawing4Liberty

I kinda feel cheated here… I understand about shutting down a video abruptly, I do it all the time, but this quite a cliff-hanger – I’m wondering how your post would differ if you had watched the whole thing… Seriously! I’m trying to understand this stuff – and you are one of my favorite teachers.
http://www.TomWoods.com Tom Woods

I understand. But my point is that the Greenbackers do this constantly. They have zero scholarly standards. I linked you to Rothbard, from whom you can learn a lot.
http://twitter.com/paranomalousart Drawing4Liberty

OK, well thank you, I will follow the links later, and I’ll also look into the two initial misquotes – that’s the kinda thing that fascinates me. As a victim of public education, I’m hungry for knowledge… especially historical issues.
guest

These are helpful, too:

Ellen Brown’s Historical Errors
http://www.garynorth.com/public/department142.cfm
Jp

This is one of the things that I cant stand about alex jones. He has sound people like you on there but then he goes and discredits himself by having people like max keiser on there and gets people way off in the wrong direction.
http://www.facebook.com/james.ruhland.7 James Ruhland

Speaking of which, this Gary North video on “Social Credit” and Greenbackers is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqUSbrHguO0
http://www.facebook.com/michael.figaro.37 Michael Figaro

I give no credibility to anything these days which is not cited at least to the standards of a Tom Woods book.
Arash

Tom, I listened to that video a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure of the veracity of his quotes, though on the Daily Paul comments to the video link several were shot down as fake. The red flags I spotted in the video were his proposal for more government intervention as you noted, and the fact that he made Hitler look like a victim cornered by bankers and forced to go to war on account of that. I found that ludicrous.

One interesting historical note he points out somewhere in the second half of the video regards to the Knights Templar. I’ve read historical sources discussing their pioneering and success in banking. The video makes them out to be a proto-Federal Reserve regime that has a choking grip on Europe, and that’s why the Pope and the French king had famously disbanded and purged the Order. The author made the French king’s plan to rout all the bankers at the same time a heroic and necessary move. Tom, Is any of that true? I’m more curious about the history than any underlying point the video was trying to make.
I-330

Greenbackers are lacking, very seriously, in scholarly standards. The worst of the bunch are the MMT’ers because some have academic posts and they should know better. They are wholly irrelevant. Forget them. However, one book Thomas Woods has to read and not put off any longer: Tragedy and Hope. Paul Johnson Modern Times….thats for children. Tragedy and Hope. Its time. No more procrastination.
jda2000

“He libels the free-enterprise system by claiming that these government-privileged institutions are “private central banks.” They are not.”

Come again?
Mike

Tom it would be a good idea to just make a video where you debunk a lot of the quotes that are inaccurately credited to the founding fathers.
jda2000

Ok, Nevermind. I found your reasoning. You are technically correct. I’m not going to quote to you anything about how the Fed came into being just to cheapen your victory.

But, I would like to ask, because I think it is central to a lot of “Greenbacker” sentiment how the command “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother” got lost.

You allude to a positively brilliant treatment of the topic in one of your books but I’m hoping you can site a cheaper authority.
jda2000

Why must I go back to go forward? Can’t you have your web guy put next and back buttons on the “whole article” pages?

Thanks In advance.
Luke Sunderland

Benjamin Franklin said that the most important driving force behind the Revolution was that the colonists wanted paper money but that the British forced them to use sound money? LOL! Yeah, okay then.
jda2000

OTOH, To quote Rothbard:

Many critics of the Fed like to harp on the fact that the private bankers legally own the Federal Reserve System, but this is an unimportant legalistic fact; …

He goes on to explain that:

“… the Morgan Empire was in almost supreme control of the Fed..”

So private interests own and control it. I’m not sure how characterizing them as “private central banks” is some kind of libel of the free-enterprise system. A privately owned Federal “instrumentality” is clearly fascism.
guest

Matthew 25:27 “Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.”

The parable doesn’t work as a parable unless the allegory is also true.

Also:

Exodus 22:25 “If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.”

Leviticus 25:35-36 “35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.”
Jp

If you want to read more on the morality question read gary norths book on biblical money.
jda2000

Ok, thanks. By my count that’s one verse arguably for and three clearly against and in thou shalt not mode.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Grim/26519204 Steven Grim

Yep, anytime I hear Alex Jones or anyone else talking about the evils of the big 6 megabanks I immediately tune them out. The banksters aren’t the ones holding a gun to my head and stealing my wealth.
guest

None of them are against usury.

It says “if they are poor” then don’t take usury of them. It does not say don’t take usury from anyone, ever.

Interest rates come from people’s time preferences, which would happen under a barter economy:

Basic Economics Lesson 4 – Time Preference, Interest Rates, and Production
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2OK5D_3TzM
Lending at interest is extremely beneficial. There’s nothing wrong with usury, per se.
Anonymous

I will just be honest, I have had correspondence with Mike Rivero over the years and I do respect him on a personal level (something that I grant to most anybody who shows me mutual respect regardless of our difference in beliefs/opinions).

I almost never agree with him economically, but I often find him quite good in other areas. He’s generally a Greenbacker through and through, but I often chalk this up to economic ignorance (not surprising). Also, I think he gives far too much credence to the Jewish banker conspiracy, which I find quite deplorable. There are many more disagreements that I have with him, but there’s no need to get long-winded here.

All of that aside, I do think that he does provide a great resource in that his website embraces the blogosphere and that he continually posts news stories that you simply won’t see in the mainstream (or they’ll be hidden quite effectively). On the real level he is not a bad guy, just very confused on certain topics (esp. money).