The financial debacle which is unfolding today as the pyramid of unsupportable debt begins to collapse is no accident. Exactly 100 years ago, the engineered Bank Panic of 1907 set the stage for the secret Jekyll Island conference where a group of New York bankers established the Federal Reserve system, which was then sold to the public as a means to prevent such crises.

"Wall Street speculation brought on the Panic of 1907. The depositors' funds were loaned to gamblers and anybody the Money Trust wanted to favour. Then when the depositors wanted their money, the banks did not have it. That made the panic."

-- Charles Lindbergh, Sr., Congressional testimony, Dec 15, 1911

Some 20 years later, after the Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression, the Chairman of the House Banking Committee had this to say:

"Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks...This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government...

Some people think the Federal Reserve banks are United States Government institutions. They are not Government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders."

-- Rep. Louis T. McFadden, speech to Congress, 1932

UPDATE: The New Yorker recently posted an article on this same topic, although it portrays banker J.P. Morgan as a "hero" and makes no mention of J.D. Rockefeller's role in the crisis. Both bankers were represented at the Jekyll Island conference.