Rating: 
Summary: Given enough readers, this book could save the country.
Review: "The Creature from Jekyll Island" shows you the greatest fraud in history: the Federal Reserve System. You will read what it has let its creators do to our country. And you will learn how we, the people, can get rid of it. "Creature" says what many Washington and Wall Street insiders know, but would never say: that through the Federal Reserve System, powerful men use inflation to rob us blind. G. Edward Griffin does not stop there. He visits remote continents and distant times to show how rulers have used their control of money to control their peoples. And, he relates how, at considerable risk and cost, Andrew Jackson returned to our people a great deal of economic freedom by refusing to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. This book's information shines a light on current events that is stark, strong, and new. It will affect not merely how you see financial or business news, but all sorts of news relating to domestic and foreign developments. You will understand much more about the "New World Order," the Kyoto "Global Warming" treaty, the latest adjustment of Federal Reserve interest rates, and why your children's history textbooks leave out so much. You may find yourself discussing this book with your friends and neighbors. You may change your political registration. You may even try to elect candidates whose ideas reflect knowledge of the history Mr. Griffin describes. Do yourself a favor: please read this book.
Rating:
Summary: World's most profitable criminal enterprise!
Review: This is an absolute must read for every person!!! This book explains how most of the wars of the past 90 years have been made possible by the crime of corrupting and counterfeiting the money supply, which is what the Federal Reserve does. It destroys, steals, the purchasing power of your hard earned money, to the benefit of a private group of bankers and their incestuous relations with government.
Most "bankers" don't understand how the system really works, all of which becomes clear with the reading of this book! But that is not all, the history, fraud, deception, story of Rhodes, deBeers, Rothschild, who bankrolled the Russian revolution, how we were tricked into participating in WWI, WWII, and a multitude of other sins contained herein, fully cited, is truly amazing to discover. Written in a clear and interesting manner easy to absorb. So much information I doubted it until I had accumulated and read another 5 feet of supporting material and other books. It IS your responsibility to understand this system being reigned against us all.
Contrary to another reviewer, there is nothing socialistic about this book but for the blessing of knowledge of the evil that has been perpetrated against us all by the promoters of counterfeiting, fiat, paper money! It is a moral issue! del
Rating: 
Summary: Q: What in the world is "fractional reserve fiat money"?
Review: A: Your bank account. I learned more about money from this book than I have in business school. Our present monetary system has no backing but the faith of those holding the currency. Did you know that every dollar you "own" was "borrowed" from the Federal Reserve, and if the US ever repays this debt that all US money will vanish? The book is fascinating and eye opening. It paints a clear picture that via the Federal Reserve, the US has the ability to raise unlimited funds without taxation. Further, this is the third US "central bank", the other two failed miserably while creating a convenient means for funding wars. The book has several chapters of pure speculation that offer some insight but tend to distract from the otherwise fascinating facts. Because of these chapters (which can be easily skipped) I give the book an 8. This book has done more to influence my opinion of the US monetary system than anything else I have read. This should be required reading for all Americans.
Rating:
Summary: Great, Great, Great (But Not Perfect) Book
Review: Conspiracy theorists often reach too far in criticizing the establishment, overestimating elite influence. On the other hand, most mainstream individuals stray further than conspiracy theorists in their underestimation of establishment corruption. This book is the single best primer on the "conspiracy" most are unaware of that I have ever encountered. Griffin has synthesized a VAST amount of information to provide a compelling "reinterpretation" of world history since the inception of modern central banking.
Creature is not perfect, but its most fundamental and controversial claims are generally correct. To reiterate, it is the best single tome to educate the neophyte about the formation and operation of the Federal Reserve, basic monetary theory, and the actions the ultra-rich take to create wars, socialism, and business cycles that enhance and perpetuate their power at the expense of the common man.
An institution granted a money monopoly can levy a "hidden" inflation tax by creating more money and spending or lending it. This power is a singular focus of the ultra-elite because it allows enormous profit without the production of real goods/services. Once private individuals obtain this power, they leverage it into effective control of a nation, and they are therefore willing to go to extraordinary measures to obtain and perpetuate a monetary monopoly.
It is no harder than that, but Griffin takes readers on a journey through several hundred years of history and documents the corruptive process exhaustively. He deciphers the absurdities of central banking, explains how currency manipulation creates the business cycle, and documents the machinations the elite have engaged in to create the Fed, drag America into World War I, etc. These are bold claims which sound absurd or even deranged to the uninitiated, but in aggregate they are generally correct. Unfortunately, the history that Griffin documents is very disturbing and disheartening.
A note on inaccuracies. Some of Griffin's history sections are distillations of other sources. For example, he summarizes the engineering of the Lusitania sinking and America's entry into World War I in roughly a dozen pages. Though he cites credible sources and highlights the key points, he does not systematically make the entire case for the Lusitania sinking being engineered. If you want this much detail, read the sources he cites. Some criticize the book on the grounds that EVERYTHING is not documented; this is an ambitious work in terms of scope, and such detail would have made it larger than a set of encyclopedias. It is always possible to claim that conspiratorial interpretations of history are skewed, and while skepticism is healthy, beyond a certain point, when voluminous proof of a point has been offered, it is irrationality. I have read most sources cited in Creature's bibliography, and am very strongly of the opinion that Griffin's summaries, which distill the accrued wisdom and revelations of roughly a hundred books, are generally accurate.
It is true that Griffin makes some errors about the more subtle and/or advanced intricacies of modern banking. Bank deposits versus money, etc. But this does not change the fact that his most fundamental claims about the parasitic nature of the Fed are correct. Like many gold standard advocates, Griffin does not admit or recognize the gold standard's weaknesses; in spite of them, I still favor it, but it would have been better to mention them. It also wouldn't hurt to at least consider the theoretical rules under which a pure fiat money system (all federal revenues collected by the inflation tax, no direct (income) taxation) could be run ethically; Griffin would probably argue that fiat money ALWAYS leads to corruption, but sections like these might have provided a better sense of balance. But overall, in spite of these errors and others I did not mention, which I would characterize as minor, this book is accurate. The average mainstream individual who discarded their views and adopted Creature's interpretation including errors would still be MUCH closer to a truthful and accurate worldview.
This is a thick book that reads slow in many places, but it is worth the work. If you are a person of average intelligence who has never formulated penetrating questions about the Fed, the purpose of money, inflation, the origin of wars and the business cycle, etc., and you read this book out of the blue, you may never view the world the same again.
Rating:
Summary: This is absolutely dumb founding
Review: I mean when I first heard about this from a friend, and he told me to read this book which he called "the creature"... I though why should I read about the federal reserve, how in the world does that matter??? WELL PEOPLE WAKE UP!!! It matters...
I'm not saying believe all of Mr. Griffins Ideas, but don't ignore the facts! which is basically we the people of these United States are actually being screwed!!! every day!!! and yes I knew we were being screwed... I mean thats the governments job... right? but YOU HAVE NO IDEA BY HOW MUCH!!!
and to answer the question... yes I have to know this.. it is my duty as an American to know what's going on with my country... I don't know about the socialistic ideas that Mr. Griffin is spouting... whether true or not... but the fact remains is that we were lied too, and maybe the Federal Reserve System is something that has done more bad than good... and has done that bad on purpose...
do I have an answer... no... but we as Americans have to know at least the truth... and I believe this book brings us one step closer to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Socialism, not
Review: I notice many of the reviews written here say "The economics part is good/ ignore the conspiracy parts." Anyone who believes this simply has not done their homework. The America of today is a SOCIALIST country. Its not a matter of "we're becoming a socialist country." Its here- Right Now! All the major goals presented in the Communist Manifesto were implemented here long ago. The income tax, central bank, social security, public education, civil rights/women's rights, and "free trade" were all Communist issues. In the course of the 20th century, America suffered a dramatic shift to the left. This didn't happen by accident. It was all planned out in the late 19th century. Take a close look at who orchestrated these shifts. They were all either Fabian socialists or the ideological descendants of Fabian socialists. From the income tax to the 'progressive' education system to the United Nations- they were all Fabian creations. If you read articles or books written by these socialists, you will find that they admit everything. They openly admit their true intentions and true goals. And they did all of this with the financial backing of American bankers and tycoons who wanted to increase their own power and wealth by becoming the rulers of this new socialist government. Their ultimate goal, from the very beginning, was to create a socialist world government. They are well on their way toward achieving that goal. The amount of evidence to support all of this is enormous. The information is out there. All people need to do is read it! As for this book, I must say it is the best book on the subject. Anyone interested in history or economics should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: timewaster
Review: The author confuses bank deposits with money and makes many false and misleading statements. (It appears that he does understand that the process of creating money is quite different from the process of creating bank deposits (with different effects on the economy), nor that bank deposits can be created by several types of transactions, of which banks pretending to lend money is only one.) The problem with this type of article is that it is easy for bankers to show these errors, and cast doubt on what the author says, including the valid arguments. The many positive comments about this book stem from the surprise effect of many readers, who seem to discover for the first time this subject of 'money creation'. There are better links on the web. It's a half hearted approach towards the walth creation of the conspiracy. Mr. Griffin also operates the site freedom-force.org, which is collecting membership fee for an unclear service and which solely seems to benefits him. This site seems to support his book sales. In general his views are lacking foundation and proper research. He also claims wrongly that the IMF activities are indirectly financed by the US taxpayers. timewaster
Rating:
Summary: Very good book indeed, but is narrow-minded and dogmatic
Review: There seem to be two points of view on this book. Some think it is conspiracy theory nonsense. The second group think it reveals a secret cabal of financiers who stretch back centuries and run the financial system, and have kept the common man in penury through their evil machinations. Unsurprisingly, my view is that the truth is halfway between these two positions. In my opinion, it is critically important for any reader of this book to read and understand the "Austrian" economic school's position on central banking. There is not space to go into the relevant conclusions - just read Rothbard's "The case against the Fed", "What has the government done to our money?", and von Mises "The theory of money and credit", and you will have a good idea. Almost all Griffin's points against the Fed are contained in the works listed above. The rest of his argument is mixed. Institutions like the IMF and World Bank, supposedly created to help cure poverty and world financial instability, are almost certainly disastrous for poor people and the world economy (I say this as a pro-free trade free-marketeer btw). Wars create great opportunities for financially literate speculators, and for governments to benefit at the expense of the common man, from harmful inflation and debt issuance. This does not mean, as Griffin claims, that such crises were created deliberately for this reason. Furthermore, Griffin makes some entirely speculative claims about the UN and world banking system, implying that it is all part of some grand Fabian scheme to take over the world. Now this may have been the secret fantasy of Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and J.M. Keynes a long time ago, but I suspect he is pushing things a bit far. Here I think Mr Griffin has been unable to realise the change in the last 10 years towards inflation targeting and central bank independence. Central banking is still a force for destruction and destabilisation, but not the same corrupt political tool that it was in decades past. However, enough of the bashing. Griffin presents a 200 year+ history of the arguments and experiments for and against central banking and sound money (meaning a money supply that is not artificially increased - or decreased - each year). At times his historical accounts enter the realm of genius - I have never read an account as enthralling and informative as Griffin's description of the war between Nicholas Bidden and Andrew Jackson for whether or not the nascent American Republic should have a central bank. Sections like this will give you a truly new appreciation for history, and for the intelligence and conviction of many of our ancestors. In fact, I would argue that in monetary terms at least, we in the US and UK have seriously regressed since the 19th century (the Germans and Swiss would agree - at least until the 90s when they abandoned their own monetary discipline which had ensured their prosperity for so long.) There are many such eras that Griffin covers with a masterly touch. His explanation of the monetary game of poker played by Bank of England governor Montagu Norman and Fed Chairman Strong in the 20s will give you an entirely fresh perspective on the 1929 crash and subsequent depression (including the superb anecdote from an average Englishman who met Norman incognito on a transatlantic steamer - he was asked not to mention anything, and in return told "get out of stocks if you can - there is a great disaster coming" - this being early 1929). My conclusion is that this book is brilliant but flawed. Griffin is an incredible researcher (the footnotes are possibly the most rigorous and comprehensive of any book I have read - he puts most full time academics to shame), and his ability to explain difficult concepts of esoteric high finance in layman's terms is awe-inspiring. But he simply cannot resist filling the entire work with his political views (he's a self-confessed John Bircher after all). Furthermore, I feel that he is viewing today's central banking/international finance system as if it were virtually the same as 20, 50, 100 years ago. All in all though, the average layman or even intelligent financial/Wall Street person will learn and incredible amount from this book. It is an essential purchase.
Rating:
Summary: How/why the Rothschilds, Rockefellers... created the Fed
Review: This book exposes the international banking cartel.
According to the book jacket
"In preparation for writing this book, he enrolled in the
College of Financial Planning located in Denver. He has also written the book World Without Cancer
that explains the previously unreveiled reasons behind the
continuation of cancer, another topic for which he has a comparably strong educational background. Only with deep research on topics that also include
US foreign policy, archaeology ... has he been able to
develop such a well known reputation for taking complex
topics and (as the book jacket says)
"presenting them in clear terms that all can understand."
Rating:
Summary: The Most Comprehensive Book Written on the Federal Reserve
Review: This book is without a doubt the best book written on the "Federal" Reserve (which is about as "federal" as Federal Express). The book's four chapters explaining what money is (and isn't!) are the best I have ever read (and that includes the late, great economist Murray Rothbard's "What Has Government Done to Our Money"). My only qualm with this book is that Mr. Griffin should have left out the "C" word (i.e., conspiracy) from the text. He should just tell the history of the "Fed" along with his excellent economic analysis and let the reader figure out for him or herself what is going on. It becomes difficult to recommend this book to anybody outside of the John Birch Society (for which Mr. Griffin is a writer). But all in all, Mr. Griffin has done an admirable job. This is the true story of the monstrosity we affectionately call "The Fed" -- not like that Establishment whitewash on the "The Fed" by Rolling Stone writer William Greider called "Secrets of the Temple." For those of you who are skeptical about reading Mr. Griffin's long tome, you might want to start with Murray Rothbard's much shorter "The Case Against the Fed," before moving on to the Griffin work.
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