All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power

I hate to take away a star as there is so much important financial historical work otherwise so well exposited in this book. But I found in crucial passages a fallback to financial slang – not included in the glossary or in a note – which obscures the deeper nature of the transactions being described. For example, page 419 (bottom), “These government debt securities were issued by the US Treasury, purchased by the banks, and then _reverted_ [my italics] as excess (nonrequired) reserves to the Fed — in other words, a nonproductive circle of extra national debt issued for no real reason.” I believe I can divine the meaning of what the author is trying to say, especially given her bent, but I need a bold-faced, plain English statement of what is going on if I am going to point this sentence out to parties that have not read the book. In particular, what is the process by which the securities were “reverted”, how was it set up, by whom, who initiates the process? I assume, regarding the “reversion” process, that some kind of value has to flow from the Fed to the banks, no? A brief word or two that conveys that would be very helpful. To Nomi there is “no real reason” for the extra national debt, and I believe I know what she means, but you can bet there was a real reason, from their point of view, for the parties involved to participate in the “nonproductive circle”. It would be helpful to the reader for the author to continue on and plainly state this reason, as she sees it (or as it might appear), rather than have the reader struggle to review and generate this for herself. All this could be put in a note so as not to impede the flow of the narrative, but it would assist those less knowledgeable to readily understand the deeper meaning of the passage when this sentence is pointed out to them. If there is a later, second edition, I hope an approach that helps accomplish what is being discussed here is included in it.
Otherwise a very excellent book.

I always wondered about the mechanisms behind the power shift in favor of the Executive Branch, whereby the President acquired more influence and authority than the Legislative or Judicial Branches [when originally all three were supposed to be co-equal]. So it was eye-opening to read Ms. Prins’ book, “All the Presidents’ Bankers,” and to see the incremental steps by which the president went from being the mere “chief executive” who executed the laws that Congress wrote, to being “Leader of the Free World,” i.e., President of the Planet. It’s all based on economics. On the dollar becoming the world’s reserve currency, and how that boosted the President’s power and global prestige. (Of course to be able to enjoy that new-found influence, he had to find loopholes to bypass Congress.) Congress, for instance, Constitutionally is in charge of the Treasury. But by creating the Federal Reserve, and allowing the President (not Congress) to appoint its commissioners, the power effectively slipped from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch. The President’s stature thus rose, as the profile of Congress shrank into insignificance. And this didn’t just happen in a void. As Nomi Prins documents, it took place when J.P. Morgan (in a Faustian deal) appealed to Teddy Roosevelt’s vanity and got him involved in a process that would change the American political system forever. Ever since the creation of the Federal Reserve, a symbiotic relationship took place between Washington and Wall Street. This ever-deepening relationship radically changed the nature of how our politicians are elected, and created the first real stress cracks in our Constitutional system. If you want to see how the system got to this point, and look at the step by step degrees that took place by which our modern political [and crony-capitalist economic] system was formed, read this book. It’s not just intellectually edifying, it’s also aesthetically pleasing–given Ms. Prins’ beautiful prose and command of the English language. Someone so good at math should never have been allowed to get so good at writing.

This book is as substantial in content as it is in size – and not a page too long. A scholarly work, it takes the reader through the history of banking from the late 1800s to the present day. It highlights the impact American banking has had (and is still having) on world affairs and traces the path taken for it to achieve such influence. So far so good but there was an issue. Throughout the book, I got the feeling that Ms Prins was asking that I read as much between the lines as she wrote on them – if not more. She spurred this sensation on in no small measure by a statement on page 275:

In 1973, Rockefeller established the Trilateral Commission an elite organisation that gave influential private-sector men ways to retain global power and spread democratic capitalism which in practice means western financial control over international economies.

The Trilateral Commission clearly constitutes a dark cauldron of manipulation with representatives at all Bilderberg Group meetings.

Prior to this, on page 255, she took a sideswipe at John McCloys handling of the inquiry into the assassination of John Kennedy.

This book makes compelling reading. Id be very interested in hearing your opinions.

This book addresses the ignorance of the central banks system , which almost all the populace of every country are unaware.
We all believe money is necessary,in a civilised society to distribute and accommodate trade and yet meetings of men of whom we are mostly unaware contrive to gain its control and seek to use its expansion and contraction or the fulfilment of financial favours to like minded men or corruption of officials to wrestle sound trade and its benefits to mankind to exert a hidden arm of financial cream making , facilitating the grandest schemes of government irrespective of their validity or appropriateness to the time with the power to ruin great business people or prop up and continue the most destructive wasteful or most actively connected to the political beg basket. What are the solutions? That’s up to us
Money creation and its effective control are not evil but without moral laws and discussion on the roles and limits of central banking or the buying of those interests of political control we will continue to ” have two daughters , both named GIVE ME…” Lol ie the political and central banking system as they are.

I intended just to take notes from a few sections that interested me.
However I made the fortunate mistake of reading the beginning of the first chapter. I was hooked. The prose are simple, non elaborate and just flow as does the tale she tells. It is a long story with many actors entering and leaving the story as the core theme, a mighty history of American banking unfolds.
Nomi Prins can be rightly proud of this grand achievement

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