Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward полностью

By March of 1919, England's trade was so depressed that shehad no choice but to let the value of the pound "float," which meansto seek its own level in response to supply and demand. Within ayear it had dropped to $3.21, a loss of thirty-four per cent. Since theAmerican dollar was the de facto world monetary standard at thattime, receiving fewer dollars for each pound sterling meant that thepound was valued lower in all the markets of the world. The resultwas that the price Britishers had to pay for imported goods wasbecoming higher while the price she received for the export of herown goods was becoming lower. The British economy was, not onlybadly anemic, it was experiencing a monetary hangover from thevast inflation of World War I. In other words, it was undergoing apainful but, in the long run, healthy recovery and a return to reality.

Such a condition was intolerable to the monetary and politicalscientists who were determined to find a quick and painless remedywhich would allow the binge to continue. Several emergencytherapies were administered. The first was to use the Financial 422 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

Committee of the League of Nations—which England dominated—

to require all the other European nations to follow similar inflationary monetary policies. They were also required to establish whatwas called the "gold exchange standard," a scheme whereby allcountries based their currency, not on gold, but on the pound sterling. In that way, they could all inflate together without causing adisruptive flow of gold from one to the other, and England wouldact as the regulator and guarantor of the system. In other words,England used the power of her position within the League of Nations to establish the Bank of England as a master central bank for allthe other central banks of Europe. It was the prototype for what theCabal now is doing with Federal Reserve and the World Bankwithin the framework of the United Nations.

PROBLEM OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY

Europe was well in hand, but that still left the United States to becontrolled. America had also inflated during the war but not nearlyas much. She also had a fractional gold standard, but the stockpile ofgold was very large and still growing. As long as America continued to exist as the producer of so many commodities that Englandneeded for import, and as long as the value of the dollar continuedto be high, the anemia of the pound sterling would continue.1