Free Downloads Tower Of Basel: The Shadowy History Of The Secret Bank That Runs The World
Tower of Basel is the first investigative history of the world's most secretive global financial institution. Based on extensive archival research in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States, and in-depth interviews with key decision-makers including Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve; Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England; and former senior Bank for International Settlements managers and officials. Tower of Basel tells the inside story of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS): the central bankers' own bank. Created by the governors of the Bank of England and the Reichsbank in 1930, and protected by an international treaty, the BIS and its assets are legally beyond the reach of any government or jurisdiction. The bank is untouchable. Swiss authorities have no jurisdiction over the bank or its premises. The BIS has just 140 customers but made tax-free profits of $1.17 billion in 20112012.Since its creation, the bank has been at the heart of global events but has often gone unnoticed. Under Thomas McKittrick, the bank's American president from 19401946, the BIS was open for business throughout the Second World War. The BIS accepted looted Nazi gold, conducted foreign exchange deals for the Reichsbank, and was used by both the Allies and the Axis powers as a secret contact point to keep the channels of international finance open. After 1945 the BIS still behind the scenes for decades provided the necessary technical and administrative support for the trans-European currency project, from the first attempts to harmonize exchange rates in the late 1940s to the launch of the Euro in 2002. It now stands at the center of efforts to build a new global financial and regulatory architecture, once again proving that it has the power to shape the financial rules of our world. Yet despite its pivotal role in the financial and political history of the last century and during the economic current crisis, the BIS has remained largely unknown until now.
Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 10 hours and 15 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Audible Studios
Audible.com Release Date: May 28, 2013
Whispersync for Voice: Ready
Language: English
ASIN: B00D24AJ98
Best Sellers Rank: #37 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Intergovernmental Organizations #128 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Business & Investing > Economics #388 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Banks & Banking
After reading this book cover to cover, I find it valuable merely as an introduction to the BIS, which is barely written or spoken about in the financial press or with regard to monetary history in textbooks.However, the author's myriad references to a seeming 'brotherhood' of elites, coupled with only a cursory review of the personalities of founding bankers Montagu Norman, Hjalmar Schacht, Per Jacobsson and others, beg the question over the existence of deeper secretive issues regarding the BIS that the author presumably prefers to avoid.I.E. The book leaves the reader wondering 'just to whom -- or *what* -- is the ultimate loyalty of the actors surrounding the BIS owed?' The author leaves this core issue inconveniently unexplored. In this day of increasing transparency regarding the existence of secret societies and their overt influences over global political and economic affairs, it is not enough for this author to just claim that technocrats practice fidelity to their own professional class...and that alone. Exploring more esoteric subject matter within this book wouldn't have been outside the confines of sober academic inquiry, especially considering the wider stakes involved.The perennial sense of 'alchemy' practiced by the higher-up bank(st)ers such as those who confer regularly in the unaccountable meetings of the BIS clearly has very longterm goals. Hence why the BIS manages to stick around despite what the author lists as various functions reaching obsolescence. Thus, the 'friendships' bonding the likes of Norman & Schacht then, or Bernanke & King now, extend deeper than what this book's prose allows for, which ultimately serves to the detriment of illuminating (pun intended) its subject matter."Tower of Basel" is shining a prescribed, albeit politically correct, tactically limited light upon an institution that's gathering increasing global attention in an Internet age where invaluably rare historical texts are easier to access online for the inquiring mind --gnostic or otherwise.Little wonder, then, that other Establishment-approved writers of global finance such as Liaquat Ahamed endorse "Tower of Basel". "Basel", along with Ahamed's anesthetizing "Lords of Finance" and Neil Irwin's "The Alchemists", serve to limit the realms of discussion regarding international finance, its history and its actors to safer, exoteric topics that can quite frankly be gleaned off of flacid Establishmentary journalistic periodicals such as The Financial Times or The Economist. Readers should therefore also consider more thorough, courageous authors such as René Guénon, Julius Evola, Guido Preparata, Carroll Quigley, Antony Sutton, Joseph P. Farrell, William Engdahl, Ellen Hodgson Brown, Peter Levenda, Eustace Mullins, Daniel Estulin and Michael Hoffman, on the issue of banking, its history, and what our modern notion of money is ultimately being used for.
This book is a must-read if you are interested in money and banking, and it probably should be read by everyone. Even though I consider myself reasonably well-informed when it comes to money, banking, investments, economics, etc., I had no more than a vague awareness of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This book is a real eye-opener. After all they did, it is amazing that it was not demolished after WWII (but that is part of the story, of course). It is certainly not a feel-good summer beach read, but it is interesting, and I think it tells an important story. Pay no attention to the men behind the curtains at the BIS, move along, nothing to see here...This is a jaw-dropping story, and after decades of doing a lot of reading, I don't say that about many books. And just for the record, I'm not a shill for the author or anyone else, I was not aware of the author before reading this book. Interesting, informative, and more than a bit disturbing. I highly recommend it.
Not only is this Secret Bank exempt from the taxes and oversight of any nation in the world, but also has been that way since it was founded in 1930. This is the inside story of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) which is based in Basel Switzerland but does not answer to Swiss authorities or anyone else. It is the world's Central Bankers own bank. Learning about this super secret Super Bank will add much credence to the conspiracy theory of the bankers trying to create a New World Order. It's like a shadow world government that is so powerful and useful that no nation in the world is willing to try and control or shine the spot light into its dark recesses. The world's most exclusive and powerful club has only eighteen members most of whom are men. The power and influence they exercise is almost unbelievable. It is said the Nazi's didn't invade Switzerland because they didn't want to cut off their access to this institution, which is where they shipped much of the wealth they striped from the nations they invaded. The book contains an introduction and sixteen information packed chapters contained in three major sections. Those chapters are titled "The Bankers Know Best, A Cozy Club in Basel, Hitler's American Banker, An Arrangement with the Enemy, The German Phoenix Arises, The Rise of the Desk-Murders, The Tower Arises, The Second Tower, The All-Seeing Eye, (despite the familiar sounding names this is not "Lord of the Rings") and the Citadel Cracks." "The Tower of Basel reaches only eighteen stories above the city skyline, but the fate of the biblical tower-builders should give the bankers pause. For When God saw their work, he confounded their speech and introduced a multitude of tongues. The builders could no longer understand one another. The construction work stopped, they were dispersed and their town vanished into history." The bank is fighting for its survival by trying to evolve into a socially responsible institution. "Secrecy, opacity, and unaccountability--like gold--are embedded in the bank' DNA. The bank may find it can't continue as it has since its birth. This in a wonderful investigative report on one of the most secret and powerful institutions in world history. A reader doesn't have to like economics or banking to be mesmerized by this highly readable expose.
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