Gerald Celente of Trends Research Institute believes that the financial reform bill being put forward by Chris Dodd is just more dog and pony show coming out of the District.  Mr. Celente does not pull any punches in this interview with Russia Today about the players involved and the massive amount of money that is flowing back and forth between D.C. and Wall Street.  He even talks about the $10 million that Dodd has received from the financial sector in five years, and Greg Craig slithering from the White House over to Goldman Sachs to help out.

When I read that Politico article, it only made sense that Craig would leave the WH a few months earlier if the big cheeses knew they were going to pull out all the stops to get financial deformity passed.  It is such a win-win situation for everybody involved excluding the American people.  Goldman agrees to be the sacrificial lamb in order to get this bill passed, they get a WH counsel to ‘defend’ them, Barry moves his main lawyer handling all of his eligibility suits into the WH counsel chair, the bill is shot through the Senate and the banks are forever going to be bailed out AND the government knows everything there is to know financially about every single American (read further).  Sounds pretty good to me, unless of course, you are one of US!

It’s just another episode in the presidential reality show to make people feel like they are doing something.

Commentator: If this is just a show, as you are arguing that it is, why are wall street lobbyists fighting it in full force in Washington D.C. as we are hearing has been reported.

Gerald Celente: Because they are money junkies; they want every penny that they can squeeze.

(I have my own thoughts farther down in the post about why there is so much “resistance” to financial reform.)

Mr. Celente also mentions future bank bailouts in the bill on page 1379.  He was correct, and here is the screenshot of page 1379 of Dodd’s markup.

Pg. 1379, click to enlarge

(The Corporation is the US Government)

(UPDATED: I just found this article on Politico; Obama: Bank bill would end bailouts with the following quote that appears to be misinformation considering page 1379 of the Dodd bill:

“That’s why I went to New York City this week and addressed an audience that included leaders in the financial industry,” he said. “And once again I called for reforms to hold Wall Street accountable and to protect consumers. These reforms would put an end – once and for all – to taxpayer bailouts.”  (yeah, right!)

(End of update)

Awhile back, I posted the 12 part series of G. Edward Griffin’s lecture on the Federal Reserve System based on his book The Creature From Jekyll Island.  During the course of that lecture, Mr. Griffin mentions that the media in 1912 and 1913 were publicly denouncing the Fed so as to swing the public’s opinion toward passage.  Please keep that in mind when you think about banks and lobbyists hammering this bill.  Almost 100 years has passed since we were saddled with a european central bank, and the end product of this bill is going to be anything but positive.  Come to think of it, my host and my site starting going sideways again right after I posted Obama Turns Financial Reform Into A Political Fight which details the new federal agency, Office of Financial Research that is allowed to invest any funds they aren’t using in the same institutions they are reporting on, and the returns aren’t considered the government’s money.  I just heard a report that the yearly budget of this office is $500 Billion with a large initial start up budget.  We don’t need another federal agency but above and beyond that, do we want every single record of every single transaction (including you going to the ATM) in a centralized computer database that will become the Vahalla for hackers and a treasure trove of information for a government already gone wild?  I freakin’ thought the Patriot Act was bad enough.  Greta interviewed Karl Rove about financial reform with the pertinent information starting at 2:50 and the clearing house of financial information at 6:30.

Wow, getting a bit off topic there, sorry.  Back to the Fed.

If Glass Steagal is considered so great, why does almost nobody know that the Federal Reserve Act was written by Carter Glass?

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 – A Legislative History

Part of LLSDC’s Legislative Source Book and its
Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet
Ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251-275, Pub. L. No. 63-43, December 23, 1913
Guide to Legislative History of the Original Federal Reserve Act

Chronology Before 63rd Congress (1907-1913)
July 10, 1832 – President Andrew Jackson vetoes renewal of Second Bank of the United States
Oct. 1907 – Panic of 1907 (Wikipedia entry)
May 08, 1908 – Aldrich-Vreeland Act enacted; establishes National Monetary Commission
1909 – 1911 – National Monetary Commission publishes a series of 21 reports on banking
Jan. 08, 1912 – Final report of National Monetary Commission with recommendations

& proposed draft bill, known as the Aldrich Plan, after its Chairman, Nelson Aldrich.
Jan. 11, 1912 – Aldrich bill introduced as S. 4431 by Sen. Burton, R-OH (no further action)
1912 – 1913 – House Subcommittee hearings held May thru February,

chaired by Rep. Arsene Pujo, D-LA, on the “Money Trust Investgation”
Aug. 1912 – Democratic party approves platform opposing the “Aldrich bill for the establishment

of a central bank,” but supports banking law reform
Nov. 1912 – Democratic Party sweeps the U.S. House, Senate, and White House,

electing Woodrow Wilson as President
Jan – Feb 1913 – Hearings before a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency

Committee, “Banking and Currency Reform”

Chronology in the 63rd Congress, 1st Session (1913)
Apr. 07, 1913 – Aldrich bill introduced as S. 7 by Sen. Lodge, R-MA (no further action)
Jun. 23, 1913 – Pres. Wilson addressed joint session of Congress on banking and currency reform.
Jun. 25, 1913 – H.R. 6454 & S. 2639 introduced by Rep. Carter Glass & Sen. Robert L. Owen – 1st official introduction of President Wilson’s proposed Federal Reserve Act

Aug. 29, 1913 – H.R. 7837 introduced by Rep. Carter Glass, D-VA, chair of the House

Committee on Banking and Currency

Sep. 10, 1913 – H.R. 7837 reported, H. Rpt. 63-69, pp. 1-74 (Majority views – Rep. Glass)
Sep. 10, 1913 – H.R. 7837 as reported, H. Rpt. 63-69, pp. 111-132 (Appendices C & D – reserves)
Sep. 10, 1913 – H.R. 7837 reported H. Rpt. 63-69, pp. 133-166 (Minority views & Rep. Lindberg’s)
Sep. 10 – 18, 1913 – H.R. 7837 considered on the House floor
Sep. 18, 1913 – H.R. 7837 passed by House – 287 yeas, 85 nays, 5 present, 55 not voting

with 26 announced pairs – v. 50 Cong. Rec. pp. 5127-5135
Sep. 2 – Oct. 27, 1913 – Hearings by the Senate Banking and Currency Committee chaired by

Sen. Robert L. Owen, D-OK. (Vol. II, Vol. III – Frank Vanderlip testimony)
Nov. 06, 1913 – Vanderlip persuades Senate Banking Cmte to adopt some of his plan – NYT
Nov. 20, 1913 – Senate Banking Committee deadlock, 6 to 6 (v. 50 CR 5950)
Nov. 22, 1913 – H.R. 7837 reported in disagreement. See (S. Rpt. 63-133, pp. 1-28 ) by

Senate Banking and Currency Committee with views of Owen
Nov. 22, 1913 – Text of H.R. 7837 as proposed by Owen S. Rpt. 63-133 pp. 32-66 – Appendix
Nov. 22, 1913 – H.R. 7837 as proposed by Sen. Hitchcock S. Rpt. 63-133 Pt. 2, pp. 1-24

– views of Sen. Gilbert Hitchcock, D-NE, and text of bill as proposed (Vanderlip plan)
Nov. 24, 1913 – S. Doc. 63-242 – Comparative Print of H.R. 7837 as passed by House; with Owen & Hitchcock amendments

Chronology in 63rd Congress, 2d Session (1913-1914)
Dec. 1 – 18, 1913 – H.R. 7837 (Owen substitute amdt) considered on Senate floor
Dec. 18, 1913 – Senate passed H.R. 7837 (v. 51 Cong. Rec. 1230) 54 yeas to 34 nays & 7 not voting. Bill includes Owen amendment as amended.

Dec. 20, 1913 – House voted to disagree to Senate amendment and send bill to conference
Dec. 22, 1913 – Conference Report submitted to Senate and House
Dec. 22, 1913 – S. Doc. 63-335 – Comparative Print of H.R. 7837 as passed by the House,

the Senate, and the proposed Conference Report
Dec. 22, 1913 – Explanation of conf. rept. by Rep. Glass ( 51 Cong. Rec. A561 – A564)
Dec. 22, 1913 – House agreed to conference report on H.R. 7837 (v. 51 Cong. Rec. 1464) by

298 yeas to 60 nays and 76 not voting but with 34 announced pairs
Dec. 23, 1913 – Senate agreed to conference report on H.R. 7837 (v. 51 Cong. Rec. 1487-88) by

43 yeas to 25 nays and 27 not voting but with 13 announced pairs
Dec. 23, 1913 – President signs H.R. 7837, Pub. L. No. 63-43. See NYT article.
Apr. 10, 1914 – report of the Federal Reserve Bank Organization Committee (Documents)

Other Historical Resources
Aldrich Plan Compared with Glass Bill by Rep. S.D. Fess, R-OH, Sep. 18, 1913 – Cong. Rec. A282
Banking Reform – National Citizens’ League For the Promotion of a Sound Banking System, 1912
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: History, Membership, and Current Issues,

Congressional Research Service report – Feb. 9, 1995
Brief History of Central Banking in the United States by Edward Flaherty, PhD., 2003
Defects and Needs of Our Banking System by Paul Warburg, NY Times article, Jan. 6, 1907
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913: History and Digest by V. Gilmore Iden, 1914
Federal Reserve System – Its Purpose and Work – v. 99, Annals of the American Academy of

Political and Social Science, Jan. 1922
Historical Beginnings … The Federal Reserve by Roger T. Johnson, Fed. Res. Bank of Boston, 1999
Paul Warburg’s Crusade to Establish a Central Bank in the United States by M. A. Whitehouse, 1989.

Compiled by Rick McKinney, Assistant Law Librarian, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC. Last updated in August 2009

For those that still do not know how we were hijacked, and continue to be held hostage by the Fed, here is a short 4 minute video from Mr. Griffin summarizing The Fed.  What follows is the entire lecture (audio) on one vid for those that want the entire story and want to double check my media reference.  If you need more information or want to join Mr. Griffin’s coalition, Freedom Force International, just hit the link.

And last, but not least, by any means;

The Aldrich Plan which morphed into the Fed.

Edward Vreeland, co-author of the bill, wrote in the August 25, 1910 Independent (which was owned by Aldrich),

“Under the proposed monetary plan of Senator Aldrich, monopolies will disappear, because they will not be able to make more than four percent interest and monopolies cannot continue at such a low rate. Also, this will mark the disappearance of the Government from the banking business.

*break*

Glass’s denunciation of the Aldrich Bill as a central bank plan ignored the fact that his own Federal Reserve Act would fulfill all the functions of a central bank. Its stock would be owned by private stockholders who could use the credit of the Government for their own profit; it would have control of the nation’s money and credit resources; and it would be a bank of issue which would finance the government by “mobilizing” credit in time of war. In “The Rationale of Central Banking,” Vera C. Smith (Committee for Monetary Research and Education, June, 1981) writes,

“The primary definition of a central bank is a banking system in which a single bank has either a complete or residuary monopoly in the note issue. A central bank is not a natural product of banking development. It is imposed from outside or comes into being as the result of Government favors.”

Thus a central bank attains its commanding position from its government granted monopoly of the note issue. This is the key to its power. Also, the act of establishing a central bank has a direct inflationary impact because of the fractional reserve system, which allows the creation of book-entry loans, and thereby money, a number of times [greater than] the actual “money” which the bank has in its deposits or reserves.

*break*

Congressman Lindbergh’s Speech

Testifying before the Committee on Rules, December 15, 1911, after the Aldrich plan had been introduced in Congress, Congressman Lindbergh stated,

“Our financial system is a false one and a huge burden on the people . . . I have alleged that there is a Money Trust. The Aldrich plan is a scheme plainly in the interest of the Trust . . . Why does the Money Trust press so hard for the Aldrich Plan now, before the people know what the money trust has been doing?”

Lindbergh continued his speech,

“The Aldrich Plan is the Wall Street Plan. It is a broad challenge to the Government by the champion of the Money Trust. It means another panic, if necessary, to intimidate the people. Aldrich, paid by the Government to represent the people, proposes a plan for the trusts instead. It was by a very clever move that the National Monetary Commission was created. In 1907, nature responded most beautifully and gave this country the most bountiful crop it had ever had. Other industries were busy too, and from a natural standpoint all the conditions were right for a most prosperous year. Instead, a panic entailed enormous losses upon us.

Wall Street knew the American people were demanding a remedy against the recurrence of such a ridiculously unnatural condition. Most Senators and Representatives fell into the Wall Street trap and passed the Aldrich Vreeland Emergency Currency Bill. But the real purpose was to get a monetary commission which would frame a proposition for amendments to our currency and banking laws which would suit the Money Trust. The interests are now busy everywhere educating the people in favor of the Aldrich Plan. It is reported that a large sum of money has been raised for this purpose. Wall Street speculation brought on the Panic of 1907. The depositors’ funds were loaned to gamblers and anybody the Money Trust wanted to favour. Then when the depositors wanted their money, the banks did not have it. That made the panic.”