Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward полностью

Europe did require money, and Sidonia was ready to lend it toEurope. France wanted some; Austria more; Prussia a little; Russia afew millions. Sidonia could furnish them all....

It is not difficult to conceive that, after having pursued the careerwe have intimated for about ten years, Sidonia had become one of theThe New York Times, in its April 1, 1915, edition, reported that Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild had attempted to secure a court order to suppress a book written by Ignatious Balla entitled The Romance of the Rothschilds on the grounds that me Waterloo story about his grandfather was untrue and libelous. The court ruled that the story was true, dismissed the suit, and ordered Rothschild to pay all court COQfrc r J

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

most considerable personages in Europe. He had established a brother, or a near relative, in whom he could confide, in most Df the principal capitals. He was lord and master of the money market of the world, and of course virtually lord and master of everything else. He literally held the revenues of Southern Italy in pawn; and monarchs and ministers of all countries courted his advice and were guided by his suggestions.1

That Disraeli was not exaggerating was made clear by the boast of James Rothschild himself. When U.S. Treasury agents approached him in Paris in 1842 with a request for a loan to the American government, he said to them: "You have seen the man who is at the head of the finances of Europe."2

There have always been men who were in a position to make private fortunes out of cooperating with both sides in a war. The Rothschilds were not unique in this, but they no doubt perfected the art and became the personification of that breed. They were not necessarily evil in a moral sense. What preoccupied their minds were not questions of right or wrong but of profit and loss. This analytical indifference to human suffering was aptly described by one Rothschild when he said: "When the streets of Paris are Q

running with blood, I buy." They may have held citizenship in the country of their residence, but patriotism was beyond their comprehension. They were also very bright, if not cunning, and these combined traits made them the role model of the cool pragmatists who dominate the political and financial world of today. Disraeli well described this type when he wrote of Sidonia:

He was a man without affections. It would be harsh to say he had no heart, for he was susceptible of deep emotions, but not for individuals.... The individual never touched him. Woman was to him a toy, man a machine.4

It would seem that an absence of patriotism and a cold,

analytical outlook would lead financiers to avoid making loans to governments, particularly foreign ones. Private borrowers can be hauled into court and their assets confiscated to make good on their 1. Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, originally published in England in 1844), p. 225.

2. Stephen Birmingham, "Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 73.

3. Quoted in The Neiv York Times, October 21,1987, cited by Chernow, p. 13.

4. Disraeli, p. 229.

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debts. But governments control the legalized use of force. They are the courts. They are the police. Who will seize their assets? The answer is another government. Speaking of a relatively modern example of this principle, Ron Chernow explains:

The new alliance [between the monetary and political scientists]