Random musings

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. 

That is the first sentence of "The Strange Tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. A great book, you may say, but why am I quoting it here?

Because it reminds me of another book with a similar title, "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin, which tells the story of the creation of the Federal Reserve System which came into existence on December 23, 1913…101 years ago.

Here is the first sentence from "The Creature from Jekyll Island",

The secret meeting on Jekyll Island in Georgia at which the Federal Reserve was conceived; the birth of a banking cartel to protect its members from competition; the strategy of how to convince Congress and the public that this cartel was an agency of the United States government.

I think they've accomplished the latter point pretty well. The Federal Reserve is as much a part of the government as Federal Express.

I'm not an expert on this subject, and I need to do a lot more research, but it seems interesting to me that the monetary supply of the United States is controlled by a handful of private bankers and not the government.

However, my understanding is that it's not a coincidence that the Federal Income Tax was also created in 1913. The government ran fine without a federal income tax until the Federal Reserve was created. In fact, your tax dollars do not fund the government but is used to pay principal and interest to the Fed, since the Fed doesn't create those dollars for free, but loans them to the government and charges them interest for it. Also, the Fed is the only for profit business in America that pays absolutely no taxes!

You can read the book for free at https://archive.org/details/CreatureFromJekyllIslandByG.Edward-G.EdwardGriffin

Interesting days

Today - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/festivus/ Oh, Festivus pole, oh, Festivus pole

Tomorrow - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/egg-nog-day/ I better stock up now

Next Tuesday - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/bacon-day/ Need I say more?

January 23 - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/pie-day/ Not to be confused with Pi Day which is on 3.14