283 of 293 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must, MUST read., April 16, 2003
Think you know anything about the dollar bills in your wallet?
Think you know who runs this country?
Think that we live in a "free market" economy?
Think again.
Griffin piles up facts and analyzes them with relentless, cold logic. The picture he paints isn't pretty. The Federal Reserve System is a legal cartel expressly designed to create riskless profits for member banks, while simultaneously turning our entire financial system into the legal and moral equivalent of a Las Vegas casino. Yeah, you might get lucky for a while, but the house will always win. Our monetary system is a pyramid scheme that only functions as long as debt is being created at an accelerating rate.
This all sounds crazy, but Griffin has the facts to back it up. The challenging part about Griffin's arguments is that he explicitly states that the foundation and perpetuation of the Federal Reserve System was a conspiracy. Whenever the "C"-word is mentioned, it is an unfortunate truth that many people get turned off. But as Griffith himself says, if a group of people, operating in secret, create a system that explicitly benefits themselves at the expense of others, what else can you call it but conspiracy? Heck, I guess you could call it a "peanut" or a "canteloupe" but it would still add up to the same thing--a system expressly designed to reward failure and punish diligence and honesty. Kinda explains all the crookedness and incompetence behind all the wall street and corporate shenanigans of the last decade, doesn't it?
And if you keep an open mind and pay close attention to his arguments, you'll see that the best place to hide a conspiracy is in plain sight.
If you care about free markets, and your constitutional rights, you will read this book today.
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369 of 387 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Evil Of MONSTROUS Proportions!, May 5, 2006
This review is from: The Creature from Jekyll Island (Hardcover)
What is The Creature From Jekyll Island? Well, first of all, it's uglier than The Creature from the Black Lagoon; it's more densely wrapped in deception than the Mummy is in cloth; it sucks the lifeblood of America more ravenously than Dracula does his victims; it reeks worse than the Werewolf; and it's stronger and more dangerous than Doctor Frankenstein's miscreation!
The Creature from Jekyll Island is the PRIVATE Federal Reserve that holds America and Her People hostage with an astoundingly perverse and "criminal" economic system that is an evil beyond your worst monster-infested nightmare. But the Creature comes in a guise to mislead the people, like a Wolfman in sheep's clothing.
Why is the system "criminal"? Because the U.S. Constitution proclaims itself to be the "supreme Law of the Land" (see Article VI), and Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution states that "The Congress shall (Constitutionally speaking, "shall" has been legally defined as "must")...coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures." Why Congress? Because it is answerable to the People it represents! Remember, our Constitutional Republic was meant to be representational government! We're a long way from that now! The Federal Reserve is NOT Congress; it is unelected, meaning nonrepresentational, and being therefore unconstitutional, it is illegal, hence "criminal."
I first read G. Edwrd Griffin's magnificent study, 'The Creature From Jekyll Island' eight years ago. I had read plenty of political books prior to this one, and countless since, but Mr. Griffin's tour de force has yet to be equaled when it comes to educating the reader in wide-ranging topics that coalesce most of the geopolitical mysteries of our time into the diabolical scheme known as the Federal Reserve System.
Don't make the mistake of letting the sophisticated subject matter drive you away as forcefully as the intriguing title beckons you. Despite the complexity of the topic, G. Edward Griffin masterfully organizes the material and lays it out, not only in a very readable manner, but he actually fashions a carefully researched, extensively footnoted nonfiction tome into a spellbinding journey that reads nearly like a page-turning mystery novel.
In the process of explaining and demystifying the history, the stated goals of the Federal Reserve, and the real agenda behind it, Mr. Griffin necessarily enlightens the reader about myriad conspirators who occupy positions in a variety of social engineering organizations. Without this understanding, one could not possibly grasp the full scope of the problem, nor fathom how such a demonstrably evil entity could have remained cloaked and in power since 1913. (Indeed the thirteenth year of the Twentieth Century represented an unlucky number for America and eventually the world.)
You will find some reviewers here complaining that Mr. Griffin has unfortunately polluted his 600+ page study with John Birch Society style conspiracy theories. What you WON'T find is where any of those same reviewers have proven any errors in fact committed by Mr. Griffin. They challenge the idea of a conspiracy, but not any of the abundant and overt evidence that clearly points to it. I myself don't like little yapping dogs, but I'm not prepared to say that they don't exist simply because I'd prefer not to even think about them. And I can hear those yapping quadrupeds as clearly as I can see the indisputable evidence of underhanded collusion in high and influential places when it comes to this country's monetary system.
"You are a den of vipers!" President Andrew Jackson thundered at a delegation of supporters of the central Bank of the United States in 1834. "I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God I will rout you out!" Jackson succeeded in ridding this country of the inherent perniciousness that a central bank levels on a nation. But President Jackson's hard-earned victory for his countrymen was sadly overturned in 1913, when a corrupt privately owned central bank was again foisted on the sleeping people of this once free nation in the form of The Federal Reserve cartel. As Griffin states on page 573, "The Federal Reserve is the world's largest and most successful scam."
I will tell you plainly that regardless of what you think you know about the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, civil rights and corporate greed, socialism and capitalism -- regardless of how well informed you may think you are by reading mainstream news magazines and newspapers, listening to NPR and talk radio programs and watching political debates on nightly news TV shows -- until you have read and digested G. Edward Griffin's, 'THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND', you will never really understand contemporary American and global politics. But afterwards, the political puzzle will come together before your eyes, and never again will you follow the red herring into the brainwashing house of mirrors which is our current political milieu.
If you're inclined to read only one political book, be sure it's this one, as it will make sense of your world like nothing else. 'THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND' belongs in the personal library of every American who truly cares about his or her country (regardless of political party affiliation); by rousing the people of this nation from the ignorance of deep sleep, it has the potential to be the silver bullet or the stake through the heart of America's worst monster! Read it now or the Wolfman's gonna getcha!
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184 of 196 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bechmark In The Realm Of Civic Knowledge!, August 29, 2004
This review is from: The Creature from Jekyll Island (Hardcover)
Author G. Edward Griffin's book "The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look At The Federal Reserve" is a most well researched and written historical text. Griffin presents the background with almost an air of mystery that the reader must peel away, like layers of an onion, to reveal the truth.
The book provides, in great detail, the time, place, and manner in which the groundwork for the Federal Reserve was laid, and more importantly, the reasons why. Griffin explains why even the name is misleading. The Federal Reserve is not a federal or governmental administration, and it is not a reserve, such as a bank.
Also provided is great historical detail about the commerce and industry in our nation during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. This book will not disappoint the reader looking to expand his or her knowledge of how the collective financial machinations of our country are run.
I read this book during my undergraduate years and once presented the book in defense of a historical argument I had with one of my history professors. Needless to say the professor looked at my reference (the book is so well researched), acceded to my contention, borrowed the book "for his own enrichment" and never gave it back! I gratefully let him keep it so maybe he would soften his ascribed "socialist democrat" leanings. Unfortunately I am sans the book this day. Oh well, we march on.
As the topic of Civics is not really taught in public schools, or even required in undergraduate studies anymore, this book will serve to "illuminate" the reader into the background of how private finances and politics are inseparable. My only criticism of this text is the highlighted aspect of a government conspiracy at work. Not that Griffin's arguments have no merit, they certainly do, as Lord Acton so aptly is quoted "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!" However, the mere aspect of "a conspiracy notion" is all the extremists on all sides need to "debunk" a truly great piece of historical research and writing.
I rate this wonderful book five stars. It is well worth the money and deserves a place on the library shelf of every institution and the home of every student of history.
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