Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats. - Joe Perez, here's a far better source on the history of the Fed

I've had this book for a couple of years now, and didn't know til now that there was an online PDF version.

Murray Rothbard's book "The Case Against the Fed".
Rothbard was an economist.
Nothing tinfoil hatty about the author nor the book, as it goes into money mechanics too:
http://mises.org/books/fed.pdf
It has a chapter on the now-famous Jekyll Island meeting.

Here's a short review of the book:
Book Review: The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard| The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty

Quote:

Rothbard lays to rest the myth that the Panic of 1907 led to the creation of the Fed. Bankers began scheming for a central bank after William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. Long gone were the days of the hard-money Jacksonian Democratic party, and the populist Democrat Bryan pushed for monetizing silver to increase the supply of money. Wall Street's bankers supported McKinley, not wanting inflation that they couldn't control.

The Panic of 1907 was used to whip up support for a central bank. But, it was the meetings of the Indianapolis Monetary Convention that started the political wheels turning, culminating in the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in December of 1913.

With the system in place, all that was needed was the “right” man to control the money machine. In 1914, that man was Benjamin Strong, then president of J. P. Morgan-owned Bankers Trust and best friend of Morgan partners Harry P. Davison, Dwight Morrow, and Thomas W. Lamont.

Strong ruled the Fed until his death in 1928. During World War I, he engineered a doubling of the supply of money, financing the U.S. war effort.

The continuous Fed propaganda is that a zealous public clamors for more inflation, and only the Federal Reserve's cool heads are standing in the way of a hyper-inflation armageddon. Of course, just the opposite is true. As Rothbard points out, “The culprit solely responsible for inflation, the Federal Reserve, is continually engaged in raising a hue-and-cry about `inflation,' for which virtually everyone else in society seems to be responsible. What we are seeing is the old ploy by the robber who starts shouting `Stop, thief!' and runs down the street pointing ahead at others.”

Rothbard saves the fun part of dismantling the Fed for last. Liberty lovers are always being told that, “your ideas sound good, but how are you going to get there from here?” Rothbard has given us simple directions for the Fed's liquidation.

With the Fed abolished, banks would be on their own; no more lender of last resort, or taxpayer bailouts. The inflation dragon would be slain. The boom-and-bust roller coaster ride leveled.

For those who would rather watch a video, here he is in a lecture. He starts talking about the Jekyll Island meeting at around the 37 minute mark.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer...78078021403586

Before the 37 minute mark he talked about the history of government regulation from the "Progressive" era of 1890-1910 - that when corporations started cartelizing, startup competition would bust their cartel. Big Business then came up with the idea of lobbying government for regulations to "serve the public" when in reality they wanted rules to shut out startup competition.