A kingdom of thieves.

Country birthing is an expensive business.

Throughout our history, as we have grown into nationhood,
wealthy individuals have provided "loans" to the government.
The quid pro quo for these loans was usually a monopoly
granted by the government to these individuals for their
support in supplying the nation's treasury with liquidity.

The most recent chapter in our history started with the
robber barons acentury and a half ago. Carnegie, Mellon,
Vanderbilt, etc. all gained control of basic businesses
necessary for the survival and growth of the country.
These guys were no saints. They extracted a pound from
the treasury for every penny they loaned.

Here's what I think happened.

After the panic of '07 (last century and interestingly
enough this century also) an idea was hatched whereby
private individuals would help with a national liquidity
problem by establishing a bank called the Federal Reserve.
In 1913 the Federal Reserve was created.

There was nothing federal about it... it was a private bank
funded with private money.

The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of
the United States. It was created in 1913, with the enactment
of the Federal Reserve Act , and
was largely a response to prior financial panics and bank
runs, the most severe of which being the Panic of 1907


A group of wealthy white boys saw a war looming on the
horizon and hatched a plan to finance the war. (Or maybe
they started a war with help from European bankers and then
hatched a plan???)

They needed security if they were to loan money to a
government under a war cloud so the government agreed to
establish an income tax as surety for the debt incurred
to these wealthy gentleman. Coincidently (the incidence
of coincidence decreases dramatically the older one gets)
the 16th amendment to the Constitution was ratified the
same year. The tax started at a maximum of 6% and before
the war was over that rate had risen to 77%.

Look out folks, I see this comming!

This 16th amendment would hearld the birth of the IRS.

This was the quid pro quo the government agreed with
in order to assure sufficient funds to wage the war.
It is similar thinking to the “carte blanche” the
government gave the railroad barons when they granted
a swath 100 miles wide from coast to coast to the railroad
on the off chance they could actually build a railroad
across the country. The risk was huge..The reward, well,
150 years later, still counting.

Amazing what a few "good old boys" could accomplish back then.

Suppose things are ever going to change?