Customer Reviews

The Naked Capitalist

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the original book that exposed and documented the power wielded by the Council on Foreign Relations and other interrelated elite groups. He did this by reviewing Tragedy and Hope -- a history book written in about 1966 by Dr. Carroll Quigley, an insider with connections to the power elite.

Remember that Bill Clinton, in his inauguration speech, praised his favorite professor in college--DR. CARROLL QUIGLEY!!

I have read this book two or three times, and have never looked at current events the same. No matter who gets into office, the key positions always get filled with people from the same elite clubs.

This book will definitely make you THINK.

Once you read "The Naked Capitalist", you will embark on a quest to get a copy of "Tragedy and Hope", just to verify that what Mr. Skousen reviews in his book was actually printed in Dr. Quigley's, and IT IS! Then you realize that reading "Tragedy and Hope", as confirmed in other reviews, is a daunting task for the first 7 or 8 hundred pages. Then it gets really interesting and we begin to see that Mr. Skousen has presented a very balanced review, and an explosive commentary, on the world as "Hope" portrays.

I had the rare chance to hear W. Cleon Skousen speak about the time "The Naked Capitalist" was first published, and the 6 hours of audio tapes I got from those sessions filled in, nicely, the information outlined in his book about the implications of "Tragedy and Hope".

Once one reads "The Naked Capitalist" for the seventeenth time, one realizes that Mr. Skousen's comments about the events around the world, put in the context of the information contained in "Tragedy and Hope", fit together extremely well.

There is no way that this is all fiction, as contained in both books, as some reviewers have stated. Those reviewers' comments must be viewed with skepticism, as they are precisely the kinds of comments meant by the "Power Bloc", as Skousen called it, to throw "us little people" off the trail of the truth. Too many of the people and events mentioned can be independently confirmed as having done or happened as both books state.

If you REALLY want an eye-opening experience, just read the membership roster of the Council on Foreign Relations, and then ponder what Quigley exposed and Skousen discussed, about people who are, or were, members of the CFR. Its membership roster reads like a "Who's Who" in the world today.

Despite the considerable reading that I do, it was most helpful to have this book as both a capstone to reading Quigley's Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, and as a form of Cliff's Notes. While I am an estranged moderate Republican and shy away from those that have been too close to the extremes of either left or right, this is a sensible book, and it earns five stars on its merits.

The single most important contribution this book makes, at least for me, is in its discussion of the manner in which tax-exempt foundations are used to conceal and protect wealth from taxes, and to reward corrupt politicians who "went along."

Lest the more conventional readers dismiss the reviewer comment below about wars being about profit, about lending money to both sides and arbitraging the instability, I would point quickly to Smedley Butler's War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It. General Butler was one of the most decorated Marines in history, and in his book he publicly denounces the role of the Marine Corps as an enforcer for the US banks. Then of course you have Confessions of an Economic Hit Man which I judge to be 15% fluff and 85% raw gold substance.

So there you have it--books like this are now entering the consciousness of the middle class, and with Lou Dobbs leading the pack, the middle class is beginning to rouse from its passive acceptance of elitist screw jobs on Congress, the White House, the economy, the military, and the poor. We *are* farm animals from whom profit is being harvested, and we will remain farm animals for so long as we fail to read and think and discuss and demand.

I end by urging one and all to join Reuniting America, and demand Electoral Reform as the one non-negotiable expecation from the current Congress and before November 2008.

After nearly 40 years, "The Naked Capitalist" is still the authorative masterwork on the subject of who is really in control in this godforsaken world. (At least from the material point of view.) I had the incredulous fortune of finding this book in the belongings of a dead man. The title caught my eye and I knew that further study would be a must. To my wonder and amazement, the whole plot which I have been uncovering one piece at a time, is laid out in revealing detail within the pages of this book.
To know that this information has been readily available to the public for nearly 40 years, and still so few have a clue, is quite irksome.
It's all here. The formulation of the CFR, (The Council on Foreign Relations) the Federal Reserve, The Rockefellers, Morgans and their ilk. How the rich secretively support "communist" and "fascist" rule the world over, while convincing the sheeple that "freedom" and "democracy" are their aims.
There are pictures of the Rothschilds and the story of the founding of the Bank of England in 1694. Details of how the election of 1912 was fixed to ensure Wilson's victory as opposed to Taft, (who wasn't hospitable to the elite's aims) by financing a third party candidate (Teddy Roosevelt) to split Taft's support base. There are the case studies of Cecil Rhodes and how he was influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin who in turn was influenced by Plato.
Basically this is the story of the corporate takeover of the world by the banking elite, resulting in the fascist enslavement of the masses, the world over. This book does not ring with "sensasionalist" conspiracy rhetoric, it merely portrays the cold facts and allows the reader the ability to get their head around it.
When Quigley wrote his mammoth text "Tragedy and Hope," (which, for the uninitiated, this book is a review and commentary of) it was as an insider and advisor for the clandestine elite. Against many of their objections, he thought it time to unveil the true archtects of the governing world, so that credit could be given where credit was due. This is the egotistical nature of man that was evident in the final days of the Roman Empire as well. Heinous and treacherous as these beasts are, one can't help but agree with Quigley's assessment, as Skousen puts it, "...that it is now too late for the little people to turn the tide. In a spirit of kindness he (Quigley) is therefore urging them not to fight the noose which is already around their necks. He feels certain that those who do will only choke themselves to death. On the other hand, those who go along with the immense pressure which is beginning to be felt by all humanity will eventually find themselves in a man-made millenium of peace and prosperity. All through his book, Dr. Quigley assures us that we can trust these benevolent, well-meaning men who are secretly operating behind the scenes. THEY are the 'hope' of the world. All who resist them represent 'tragedy.' Hence, the title for his book."
Mr. Skousen warns us to put away the ideas that it is the Jews or the Catholics, or the 'communists' or the 'fascists' that are solely to blame for our misfortune. We must understand that those with money and power come from all backgrounds and share common interests of world domination and a never satisfied lust for wealth. They use a variety of fronts to carry out their aims, and they own all the major outlets of media so that they may concoct a reality which suits them best.
Skousen has stated elsewhere that we haven't had an honest choice in presidential elections since 1932, as both sides have been owned by the corporate/banking elite since that time. (And at least one side for considerably longer than that.)
So God Bless America and keep sending your kids off to guard the piles of wealth these bloodthirsty tycoons own. That is what freedom is all about, 'Chase Freedom,' the freedom to use your credit card. In light of Skousen's disclosures about the Rockefeller owned Chase-Manhatten, those commercials, heck, all these wretched corporate jingles, become black comedy of rarefied irony.

This book continues to be a great reference on the elitist process. Nothing has changed since this book was written. The process of globalization has occurred, and the same people and their children continue to dictate domestic and world policies.
"The USSR was made in the USA." A great and chilling statement! The elites like to create conflicts in order to advance their agendas of global domination. So in order to create conflicts that the public approve of and to maintain the illusion of democracy, they have to create monsters that scare people enough to support their conflict. Every few years a new monster appears on the world stage, from Nazism to Communism/Sovietism to today's Islamism. What's next ? Chinism or Indianism? we are building these two large and highly populated and competitive countries to become great economic and military powers that will eventually clash with each other if the right strategies are put in place. That will make a great and profitable conflict for the military industrial complex, which will reduce population and incorporate these broken countries into the new world order and the one world government. However, if the elites can't instigate a popular conflict, they will keep lending these poor countries money at the American taxpayers' expense, and when they can't pay it back, or their economic bubble explodes, the elites own them.
Skousen's book is ageless, and makes a great reading for the curious mind.

"I think the Communist conspiracy is merely a branch of a much bigger conspiracy!"
~ Dr. Bella Dodd; former member of the National Committee of the U.S. Communist Party.

W. Cleon Skousen spent 16 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and was, for 4 years, the Chief of Police in Salt Lake City. Skousen was also a university professor for 7 years and spent a decade as the Editorial Director of "Law And Order", at the time, the nation's preeminent law enforcement magazine.

In 1970, Skousen wrote "THE NAKED CAPITALIST", his extensive, book-length review of Dr. Carroll Quigley's infamous 1966, 1,300 page book "TRAGEDY AND HOPE: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN OUR TIME." Quigley was a highly regarded professor of history at Georgetown University, a member of the editorial board of the periodical "Current History", and a great influence on the young Bill Clinton. (It should be remembered that during his first inaugural address, Bill Clinton publicly thanked Carroll Quigley for mentoring him.)

Skousen's "THE NAKED CAPITALIST" begins by asking "WHY?: Why do some of the richest people in the world support Communism and Socialism? Why would they support what appears to be the pathway to their own destruction? Dr. Carroll Quigley of Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown universities states that he has been associated with many of these dynastic families of the super-rich. He therefore writes as an authority on the world's secret power structure. His answers to the above questions may astonish you."

The author then proceeds to examine in-depth the various facets of an Elite "Insiders" plan to gain global control - a complex plan that Quigley claimed to have knowledge of as a result of having been granted permission to study the secret papers of this Elite. And it is an agenda that Quigley supported.

Skousen's book is a very straightforward account, a distillation of Quigley's massive tome that necessarily covers a large variety of interrelated topics such as: International banking and economic monopolies; the strange promotion of Communism and Socialism from U.S. Government departments; the linking of American presidents to Revolutionary movements abroad; the creation of the Federal Reserve System; the influence of John Ruskin on Fabian Socialists and the Feminist movement; the anti-American activities of supposedly "American" tax-exempt foundations; the goal behind the establishment of the Council on Foreign Relations, and more. This relatively slim volume is packed with shocking information gleaned from the publication of a respected and well-informed scholar on the "Inside" of American power.

You may live in this country, but chances are you have no idea how this country really operates, and why so many seemingly nonsensical decisions are made year after year by U.S. government representatives in Washington D.C. who ought to know better. Well, don't assume that they DON'T know better! Don't accept the idea that they are incomprehensibly stupid AND that they just happened to rise to highly influential positions in government; that their errors in judgment are mere mistakes. Life rarely works that way. As President Franklin Roosevelt once said: "In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet it was planned that way."

W. Cleon Skousen's "THE NAKED CAPITALIST" will go a long way toward educating you about the world you live in. I recently created a 3-part Ammyland "So You'd Like To..." Guide titled, STOP BEING A "USEFUL IDIOT", and I quoted from Skousen's excellent examination of Quigley's book and recommended it (along with A. Ralph Epperson's equally excellent The Unseen Hand" ) as an overview to the Elite's conspiracy. It is an ideal place to begin your journey to truth, and every "Loose Dog" (i.e., Neo-American Revolutionary resisting "The New World Order") should be familiar with it.

Be advised that a number of editions of this title are available on this site, and if you don't mind an older, used copy, you might obtain "THE NAKED CAPITALIST" less expensively by reentering the title under the "Books" category and checking out the numerous other Product Pages for the various editions of Skousen's publication. You can also gain a basic understanding of this same Elite agenda by reading my concise Guide, "So You'd Like To... STOP BEING A USEFUL IDIOT", accessible by clicking on my name above and then scrolling down my Ammyland Profile Page to the "So You'd Like To..." Guide category located toward the bottom of the page.

"Dr. Dodd said she first became aware of some mysterious super-leadership right after World War II when the U.S. Communist Party had difficulty getting instructions from Moscow on several vital matters requiring immediate attention. The American Communist hierarchy was told that any time they had an emergency of this kind they should contact any one of three designated persons at the Waldorf Towers. Dr. Dodd noted that whenever the Party obtained instructions from any of these three men, Moscow always ratified them. What puzzled Dr. Dodd was the fact that not one of these three contacts was a Russian. Nor were any of them Communists. In fact, all three were extremely wealthy American capitalists! Dr. Dodd said, `I would certainly like to find out who is really running things.' " [~Page 1]

Like others, I sought out, among other books, "Tragedy and Hope" by Dr. Quigley, Clinton's Foreign Service School professor at Georgetown to look up Skousen's references for myself after reading "The Naked Capitalist." As it turns out, Quigley's book was just one source for Skousen.

In the back of his book, Skousen describes the idealogical shift of the depression-era Democratic party the same way my liberal American government professor from an urban metropolitan university did in one of my class lectures several years ago.

I was fascinated by Skousen's discussion on how tax-exempt foundations can be used to wield great influence in world affairs by destabilizing and indebting governemts on the one hand while encouraging the West to make charitable donations for "worthy causes" on the other. I couldn't help but noting the similarities between Skousen's take on tax-exempt foundations and the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. After establishing their foundation, the "M" stock symbol on the NYSE was made available to Microsoft for the taking - Microsoft declined and elected to remain on the NASDAQ. (Macy's department stores have the NYSE "M" slot now). Also, after Bill Gates established his foundation and went abroad saying that computers couldn't solve the third world's problems (an odd sentiment for one of the world's foremost capitalists), the governemt antitrust suit against Microsoft fizzled into oblivion. Bill Gates acquiesced to "play ball" by using his excess fortune in the same way described in Skousen's book.

When the issue of lowering inheritance taxes came up in the news a few years ago round about that same time, Bill Gates' father who headed up the Gates Foundation publicly spoke out against lowering the tax, reasoning that trillions of dollars stands to change hands over the next few years between boomers and their children; when aging boomers are faced with the choice of bequeathing their estate to their children and losing a substantial amount in taxes or bequeathing it to a tax-exempt foundation, they'd give it to a foundation. In essence, the inheritance tax helps ensure their continued existence.

Is this the "noose around the neck" of the working class that Quigley alludes to in "Tragedy and Hope?"

For further insight and corroboration, read "Phillip Dru: Administrator" by Edward Mandell "Colonel" House, one of FDR's top advisors and chief architect of the New Deal.

For an entertaining and well-informed look at American and world affairs, watch the 1976 miniseries, "Captains and the Kings", starring Richard Jordan based on the Tayler Caldwell novel.

Skousen isn't making this stuff up.

"The Naked Capitalist", first published in 1970, is a review and critique of a much longer book, "Tragedy and Hope", first published in 1965. While the references are inevitably dated, this book contains insights that are essential for understanding our current situation. While I wholeheartedly recommend it, it important to take into account the book's context and point of view.

This book must be understood as an attack from the right on "Tragedy and Hope" -- not the 21st century neocon right, but the old fashioned right that may be best thought of as a libertarian point of view these days. Mr. Skousen's approach is consistent with his conservative religious background (LDS) and his background in law enforcement (FBI and later Salt Lake City Chief of Police). Skousen's academic background is reflected in his exegesis of "Tragedy and Hope".

I thought his defense of J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy was thought provoking, and not to be dismissed out of hand as most left-leaning people would tend to do. By illustrating the clear link between the Eastern Establishment and Communism, the author perhaps provides a better understanding of the criticism of corporate media as "Liberal". Corporate owned media did at times cover the issue of Communists in government in a way that tended to downplay the extent to which the government, particularly the State Department, was infiltrated by Communists, which could lead a right-wing or even a neutral observer to believe that the fourth estate had Communist sympathies.

But that's only part of the story. The corporate owned media has also had a history of covering up the extent to which Fascism has infested USA finance, corporations and government. One example from the time span that Skousen focused on, but which he failed to mention, is the Fascist plot to overthrow the US government shortly after the start of FDR's first term. Jules Archer's recently re-printed book, The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR, tells this story persuasively. The earliest incarnation of the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities), the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1934-1937) actually investigated not only domestic Communist activities, but domestic Fascist activities as well, including the plot just mentioned. Contemporary press coverage of the Congressional hearings and the plot itself was shameful for the most part, particularly the coverage by Time magazine and the New York Times. They covered the story in a way similar to later coverage of UFO and Elvis sightings, poking fun at the very suggestion that such a plot could even exist.

While I am grateful that Skousen wrote this unique review/critique of "Tragedy and Hope", I would urge readers to take "The Naked Capitalist" as a point of departure in their study of the power elite, not the final word. The plutocrats who run things behind the scenes take on many guises, using politicians and movements across the political spectrum to further their malevolent aims. They quite obviously used both Fascism and Communism simultaneously for a time and have moved on to other totalitarian movements, such as neoconservatism and various religious movements. Focusing excessively on these movements and philosophies only serves to distract us from discovering the actual puppet masters.

I must finally express my disappointment with the inclusion of a vitriolic attack by Al Smith on FDR's New Deal policies in an appendix. Al Smith had preceded FDR both as Governor of New York, and as a Democratic presidential nominee. Smith lost the nomination in 1932 to FDR, who, unlike Smith in 1928, went on to win the election. There is the argument that while Smith had maintained his previous progressive beliefs, the Democratic Party under FDR had moved on to Socialist tendencies. (In other words, the Democratic party left him, he didn't leave the party.) However, if Skousen were to choose a disaffected Democrat to criticize the New Deal, he could not have picked a better example of a sellout, a turncoat, and perhaps even a traitor, than Al Smith. Smith was first of all a sore loser, and secondly had by that time become a 100% owned asset of the Eastern plutocrats, the very class that "The Naked Capitalist" rails against. Smith was a prominent member of the Liberty League which sponsored the Fascist plot against FDR I referred to above. I again refer to The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR for details.

By suggesting that Al Smith was still the brown bowler wearing "Happy Warrior" in 1936 that he had been in the 1920s disingenuous to put it mildly.

If this book were written by anyone less credible, you'd have to pass it off as conspiracy theory nonsense. But Skousen is anything but a conspiracy theory nut. He is a very well respected scholar. So what makes this book so infuriating is to realize both political parties are being swayed towards collectivism and totalitarianism through the robber-barons' self-percieved notion of good for the world and their "generous" donations to non-profits that promote this communist agenda. Thus, the Naked Capitalist reveals the wealthy elite to be promoters of exactly what would destroy not them, but the vast middle class of America. Ever notice that Karl Marx was fighting against the Bourgesie and not the aristocracy? The Bourgesie is the middle class. The rich want us middle-classers to simply revert to the equitable poverty of socialism while they continue to live luxuriously at our expense. This is a must read.

"The Naked Capitalist" was written by W. Cleon Skousen as a sort of book report or summary of Dr. Carroll Quigley's 1300 + page tome "Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in our Time. "
W. Cleon Skousen, after passing the D.C. Bar exam, was hired by the FBI in the capacity of a special agent. W. Cleon Skousen spent 16 years in J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau before leaving to teach at BYU.
Dr. Carroll Quigley was mostly known as professor of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; however, Professor Quigley also taught at other ivy league schools and served on various boards and panels for the government including the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense.
Dr. Quigley writes about a secret cabal of power brokers and investment bankers whose goal is a one world super state. Although the cabal started in England, it eventually was brought to the U.S. through J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller.
The Rhodes -Milner Group, as in Cecil Rhodes and Lord Alfred Milner, is a secret society formed by Cecil Rhodes in the later part of the 19th century with the goal of world domination. This group is the group that Dr. Quigley is writing about. This cabal used a series of sub groups called the "Roundtables" to institute their will across the globe. Some of the organizations created by the cabal are:
The Rhodes' Scholarship is one method of recruitment of new talent into the cabal.
"The Council on Foreign Relations" in the U.S. and their Counterpart in Britain "The Institute on Royal Affairs"
The following is a quote from Quigley's "Tragedy and Hope"
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds' central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups."
After reading the above quote, it is easy to understand why Skousen called his book "The Naked Capitalist". In "The Naked Capitalist" Skousen methodically removes the cover built up by the Rhodes-Milner cabal and leaves their plans naked for all to see.
I highly recommend reading "The Naked Capitalist" not only because the sheer length of "Tragedy and Hope" will deter some from obtaining knowledge of the true history of the twentieth century , but also because of the perspective of Skousen himself. Dr. Quigley wasn't opposed to the goals of the cabal, he just didn't believe it should be kept secret. Unlike Quigley, Skousen was totally opposed to these goals. "Tragedy and Hope" was published in 1966. The "Naked Capitalist" was published in 1970

Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time
Anglo-American Establishment