From: Doug Henwood
c b wrote: > The" Jekyll Island" meeting was to found the Federal Reserve. It's > list of attendees at the meeting is not guilty of anti-Semitism with > respect to characterizing the ruling clique of financiers. This is a classic right-wing tale of the origins of the Fed. That's the reason for the anti-Semitic flavor - it replaces class analysis with sensational tales of conspiratorial cliques. If you want a real book on the origins of the Fed, you can't beat James Livingston's. Among its many virtues is that it shows how the creation of the Fed was a foundational act for the modern American ruling class. Doug ^^^^^ CB: The founding of the Fed is the books main theme, but its idea that bailouts are a conscious strategy for concentrating wealth in finance capital is heavily confirmed by the facts of the last few years. This book declares in 1994 that the name of the game is bailout, and then these mind-boggling bailouts occur. Calling the author a right-winger does not divert attention from that startling fact. Its not logical political to define as "right-wing" a claim that finance capital uses the bailout maneuver as a main strategy. The fundamental definition of right-wing is pro-capital. Exposing capital's machinations is left-wing. All but one of the bankers listed in the book as attending the meeting seem to be "Christians". So, that would constitute a refutation of the anti-Semitic, "Jewish banker" trope, not an "anti-Semitic flavor". Morgan and Rockefeller ( who were heavily represented) weren't Jewish. Rockefeller was a Baptist. This book describes a "Christian" conspiracy to found the Fed. But as far as I know, it's not exactly a secret that Morgan was the main moving force behind founding the Fed. It 's faux Marxist class analysis to deny that that the ruling class has leaders who meet in conspiratorial cliques, not to mention it defies good sense. The capitalist system is not a non-human automaton. There's no such thing as the "Invisible Hand" or the magical price mechanism. The sooner the left drops it current fad of avoiding "conspiracy theories" the better. The idea that the Fed was founded ( or functions) for the working class good as opposed to the benefit of the finance capitalists seems a bit of a fairy tale. The idea that it just fell out of the sky as opposed to being put together by the leaders of the ruling class doesn't pass the smell test either. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
