Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World

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Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World Page 36

by Adam LeBor


  economic stability of, 232

  in European Economic Community, 217

  Franco, provision of financial aid to, 55

  gold standard, adherence to, 42

  Hague Convention, signing of, 20

  investment in by speculators, 213

  in London Gold Pool, 188

  Marshall Plan payments to, 146

  proposal of customs union, 147

  World War I reparations payments, 39

  J

  J. H. Stein bank, 17, 34, 35, 129

  J. Henry Schröder bank, 17, 34, 35, 187

  Jackson, Robert, 161

  Jacobssen, Erin, 88

  Jacobssen, Per

  Allen Dulles, introduction to, 127

  BIS, role of in, 52

  on curtailment of public expenditure, 175–176

  economic philosophy of, xvii

  Emil Puhl, relationship with, 84, 127–128

  evacuation from Basel, 81

  Japanese peace proposal, relay of to Allen Dulles, 131

  as president of IMF, 176

  as source of information for Allies and Germany, 127–129

  unified Europe, belief in, 165–166

  James, Harold, 212

  Japan, xvii, 20, 130–131, 255

  Japanese-Americans, internment of, 143

  Járai, Zsigmond, 232, 235

  Jaretski, Ludwig, 86

  Jean Monnet Program, 168

  Jenkins, Roy, 193

  Johnson, Karen, 229–230

  J. P. Morgan, xviii, 21, 38, 108

  JSC Directive, 138

  Jung, Carl, 4

  K

  Kádár, János, 202, 205

  Kan Yoshimura, 130

  Karmeinsky, Ewald, 104

  Kaufman, Samuel, 143

  Keilhau, Wilhelm, 122

  Kennedy, John F., 189

  Kennedy, Rudy, 103–104, 158

  Keppler, Wilhelm, 35

  Kersten, Felix, 118–119

  Keynes, John Maynard, 10, 52, 124

  Kharroubi, Enisse, 271

  Kindelberger, Charles, 88

  King, Sir Mervyn, xi, xii, 251

  Klein, Ezra, 256

  Kleinwort bank, 35

  Knight, Malcolm, xxii, 234, 250, 262

  Köcher, Otto, 87

  Kohl, Helmut, 220, 233

  Kojiro Kitamura, 130

  Kontinental-Öl, 183–184

  Korea, 255

  Kransberg Castle (Dustbin), 149

  Kreuger, Ivar, 75–76, 118, 169

  Kristallnacht, 44, 48

  Krupp, Alfried, 159

  Kubowitski, A. Leon, 144

  L

  Lamfalussy, Alexandre

  Delors Committee, membership in, 211–213

  as director of European Monetary Institute, 225–227

  ECC Governors’ Committee, membership in, 209

  on economic and fiscal policy, 235

  on European Payments Union, 166–167

  as “Father of the Euro,” xxii, 230

  Lamont, Thomas, 108

  Latvia, 25

  Laughland, John, 221

  Lausanne Conference (1932), 41

  Lawrence, Geoffrey, 162

  Layton, Walter, 3, 4–5, 13–14

  League of Nations, 90

  Lee, Higginson & Company, 73, 74, 76, 118, 120, 144, 169

  Lehman Brothers, 239

  Leica Camera, 156

  Leigh-Pemberton, Robin, 210

  Lend Lease program, 82–83

  Lenin, Vladimir, 40, 43, 44

  Leutwiler, Fritz, 197, 200, 203–206

  Libor scandal, 242

  Lisbon Treaty (2009), 246

  Lithuania, 25

  Lloyds, 35

  London Gold Pool (LGP), xvi, 188–189

  Long, Breckinridge, 106, 160

  Loser, Claudio, 261, 267

  Luther, Hans, 24

  Luxembourg, 146, 167, 217

  Luxford, Ansel, 123

  Luzatti, Luigi, 31

  M

  M. M. Warburg bank, 149–150

  Maastricht Treaty (1992), 220, 243, 245

  Macedonia, xxii

  MacLaren, Donald, 101–102, 157–158, 177

  Mahon, Guinness, 35

  Malik, Josef, 59, 60, 63, 66

  Mann, Henry, 37

  Marjolin, Robert, 174

  Markets Committee, xvi, 189

  Marshall Plan, 138, 140–141, 142, 146–147, 165–166, 175

  Martín-Aceña, Pablo, 55

  Marx, Karl, 6

  Mattuck, Israel, 77

  McCloy, John

  European union, support of by, 165, 173–174

  Jean Monnet, friendship with, 169–170

  ruthlessness of, 143–144

  ties to German businessmen, 142–143, 158–160

  as US High Commissioner for West Germany, 158

  World Bank, as president of, 142

  McDonough, William, 241–242

  McGarrah, Gates

  on Bank of Greece’s missing gold, 23

  on BIS secrecy, 32

  on currency speculation by BIS officials, 39–40

  with Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 17–18

  on German elections (1930), 24

  on German loan, 75

  on intervention in German money markets, 25

  letters to about Eleanor Dulles, 18

  Nazi party, view of, 34

  as president of BIS, 18, 23–25

  on purpose of BIS, 42–43

  Schrobanco, as board member of, 17, 18

  McKittrick, Thomas

  Allen Dulles, friendship with, 75, 113, 132

  Allied-German business cooperation, encouragement of, 120–121

  appointment as BIS president, 73, 76, 89–91

  background, 73–76

  Baltic states’ gold, refusal to turn over to Soviet Union, 79–80

  Chase National Bank, as a vice president of, 133

  cultivation of important people, 94–95

  Emil Puhl, relationship with, 82–83, 115, 156–157

  at European Cooperation Administration, 141

  evacuation from Basel, 81

  Hanfstaengel, role in release of, 76–77

  Jews, attitude toward, 77

  Nazi gold and, 114–115, 267

  obituary of, 194–195

  Orvis Schmidt, interview by, 125–126

  personal life, 88

  on plans for postwar financial system, 246

  as recipient of Order of Crown of Belgium, 133

  return to Basel, 110

  as source of information on wartime Europe, 96–99, 113–114

  Sweden, connections in, 116–117

  trip to New York, 96

  Wall Street, connections to, 99–100

  Meer, Fritz ter, 225

  MEFO bill, 46

  Mein Kampf (Hitler), 24

  Melchior, Carl, 29, 34, 36

  Mendes-France, Pierre, 31

  Messersmith, George, 105–106

  Mexico, rescue package for, 206

  Meyer, Laurence, xiv

  Mitchell, Charles E., 36

  Mitterand, François, 233

  Money, psychology of, 7

  Monnet, Jean, 168–170, 172–173, 192

  Monnet, Murnane & Company, 170

  Mooney, James, 104–106

  Moreau, Emil, 11

  Morgan, J. P., 24

  Morgan & Cie, 108

  Morgenthau, Henry

  on abolishment of BIS, 121–123

  on BIS “neutrality,” 54

  monitor of Chase National Bank’s German accounts, 106

  on moving Czech funds, 64

  opinion of BIS, 95

  Morgenthau, Henry, Sr., 96

  Morgenthau Plan, 138, 141, 142

  Murnane, George, 169–170

  N

  National Bank of Belgium, 85

  National Bank of Hungary, 202

  National City Bank of New York, 74

  Nation’s Busines
s magazine, on purpose of BIS, 42

  Nelson, Frank, 80

  Netherlands, 79, 146, 167, 188, 219, 246

  Neue Freie Press, on central banks, 31

  New York Federal Reserve

  blockage of BIS transactions by, 95

  Czech assets, transfer of, 64–65

  emergency loan to Germany, 28

  gold accounts in BIS, 67

  membership in BIS, 229–230

  ownership of shares in BIS, 20–21

  relationship with BIS, 147

  repatriation of German gold, 263

  New York Herald Tribune, on BIS wartime activities, 132

  New York Times

  on attendance at Schacht’s birthday celebration, 45

  on BIS culture of secrecy, xxiii

  on financiers’ meeting with Hitler, 37

  on Hjalmar Schacht, xix

  on liquidation of BIS, 66

  on Montagu Norman, 3

  obituary of Karl Blessing, 195

  obituary of Thomas McKittrick, 194

  New York Times Magazine, on BIS, 22

  News Chronicle, on Montagu Norman’s trip to Berlin, 45

  Niedermann, Carlos, 107

  Niemeyer, Otto, 61, 65–66, 76, 82, 122, 176

  Nigeria, looted assets of, 261–262

  NML Capital, 260

  Norman, Montagu

  as Baron Norman of St. Clere, 139

  collusion in transfer of Czech gold, 60, 62–63, 267

  as founder of BIS, xvii

  Hjalmar Schacht, friendship with, 30, 44–45, 162

  McKittrick, support for, 89

  personality, 3–4

  prestige of, 50

  Norman, Priscilla, 162

  Nuremberg Tribunal, 30, 139, 153, 158–162

  Nye, Archibald, 128, 129

  O

  Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

  Allen Dulles and, 94, 113

  continuation of U.S. links with German industry, 119

  Harvard Plan, 119, 121, 138, 224

  information on Nazi plans, 115–116

  Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, 249

  Ohlendorf, Otto, 154–155, 159

  The Old Wizard (Schacht), 11

  “Opinion on How the Reichsbank Should Conduct Itself in the BIS” (Blessing), 182

  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 140

  Organization for European Economic Cooperation, 140–141

  P

  Padoa-Schioppa, Tomasso, 212

  Paersch, Fritz, 152–153

  Papen, Franz von, 35

  Pennant-Rea, Rupert, 232–234, 240, 252

  Per Jacobssen Foundation, 192

  Peterson, Peter G., 252

  Pilet-Golaz, Marcel, 90

  Pilotti, Rafaelle, xix, 81, 110

  Playfair, E. W., 122

  Pohl, Karl Otto, 210

  Pol, Heinz, 130, 224

  Poland, 79, 153

  Pons, María A., 55

  Porters, Robert, 36

  Portugal, 87, 198, 248

  Potsdam Conference, 131, 138

  Price Waterhouse, 75

  Puhl, Emil

  conviction of for war crimes, 86, 159–160

  interrogation of by American intelligence, 126–127

  Jacobssen, relationship with, 84

  McKittrick, relationship with, 82–83, 90, 115, 156–157

  post-war trip to U. S., 177

  on relationship of BIS with Reichsbank, 83–85, 217

  Q

  Quantitative Easing, 247

  Quarterly Review (BIS), 237

  Quesnay, Pierre, 24

  R

  Red House Report, 155

  Reichsbank

  abolishment of, 151

  founding of, 30

  Hjalmar Schacht and, xvii, 7, 9, 24, 33

  policy on BIS, 27–28

  relationship with BIS, 83–85, 114–115, 127

  reparations payments and, 9–10

  Reichsgruppe Industrie, 153

  Rentenmark, 6–7, 9

  Reparation payments, World War I

  arguments about, 5–6

  cancellation of, 29

  Dawes Committee (1924), 9–10

  moratorium on, 28

  Reparations Commission (1921), 6

  Young Plan (1929), 11–13

  “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of Jews” (Morgenthau’s staff), 160

  Reserve currency rescue, coordination of by BIS, 193

  Retinger, Joseph, 173

  Revelstoke, Lord (John Baring), 11, 12

  Reynolds, Jackson, 18

  Ribbontrop, Joachim von, 90

  Rijksbank, 108

  Ripley, Joseph, 146

  Romania, 25, 87, 98, 184

  Roosevelt, Eleanor, 186–187

  Rooth, Ivar, 89, 108–109, 117

  Rooth, Lars, 108

  Rosière, Jacques de la, 204

  Ruiz, Elena Martínez, 55

  Russia, 257

  S

  Saudi Arabia, 257

  Schacht, Hjalmar

  acquittal of war crimes, 160–162

  appointment of von Schröder to BIS board, 35

  Ashton-Gwatkin, meeting with, 70–71

  background, 8–9

  Deutschmark, opinion of, 151

  economic achievements of, 45

  as founder of BIS, xvii

  as General Plenipotentiary for the War Economy, 46

  on Germany’s armaments program, 46

  Germany’s debt obligation, rewriting of, 38–39

  Hitler, attempt to bring down, 48

  Israel, inadvertent visit to, 162–163

  Jews, emigration plan for, 48

  lecture tour, 24

  Montagu Norman, friendship with, 9, 30, 44–45, 162

  Nazi party, assessment of, 33–34, 47–48

  The Old Wizard (autobiography), 11

  Owen Young, bank proposal to, 12

  prestige of, 51

  as Reich currency commissioner, 6–7

  Reichsbank, as president of, 7, 33, 70

  Reichsbank funds, manipulation of by, 46

  on trial at Nuremberg, 139

  Young Plan, anger at, 14, 24

  Schacht, Luise, 14

  Schacht, Manci, 163, 195

  Schacht, Wilhelm (Hjalmar’s father), 8

  Schacht, Wilhelm (Hjalmar’s grandfather), 8

  Schacht & Company bank, 162

  Schellenberg, Walter, 118–119

  Schering company, 118

  Schiller, Karl, 193

  Schindler, Dieter, 79–80

  Schleminger, Gunther, 201

  Schmidt, Orvis, 123, 124–126

  Schmitz, Hermann, 35–36, 50–51, 149, 158, 159

  Schnitzler, Georg von, 129–130, 158

  Schrobanco, 17, 18

  Schroder, Bruno von, 35

  Schröder, Kurt Freiherr von, 34–35, 38, 159, 187

  Schubert, Heinz Hermann, 159

  Sequel to the Apocalypse: The Uncensored Story—How Your Dimes and Quarters Pay for Hitler’s War (Booktab), 102

  Seyss-Inquart, Arthur, 221

  Sheets, Nathan, 235, 250

  Sibert, Anne, 244

  Siegman, Charles J., 229

  Simon, John, 61, 63

  Simpson, Christopher, 184

  65th Annual Report (BIS), 237

  Skinner, Thomas, 64

  Slovakia, xxii

  Slovenia, xxii

  Small Working Group, 153

  Smith, Walter Bedell, 173

  Snake in the Tunnel, xxi, 209, 222

  Solvay & Cie, 143, 170

  Solvay American Investment Corporation, 37

  South Africa, 198

  Soviet Union, 55, 79–80, 129, 205, 206

  Spain, 55–56, 198

  Spanish Civil War, role of transnational capital in, 54–57

  Special Drawing Right, 268

  Spitzweg, Carl, 46


  Square Mile, 227

  SS (Schutzstaffel), financial empire of, 154–155

  Stability and Growth Pact (1997), 231

  Standard Oil, 36, 100–102, 121

  Steffeck, Clara, 7

  Stephens, Glenn, 248

  Sterling Products, 101

  Stimson, Henry, 32, 131, 144

  Strauss, George, 59

  Streit, Clarence K., 15

  Strong, Benjamin, 3, 214

  Sudetenland, 53, 59

  Sullivan and Cromwell, 16, 18, 75, 170

  Sunday Times (London), on Mark Carney, 249

  Sweden, xi, 25, 84, 108–109, 116–117, 119

  Swiss Bank Corporation, 118

  Swiss Federal Council, 261, 263

  Swiss National Bank, 87–88, 114–115

  Switzerland

  BIS, defense of immunities of, 261

  in European Payments Union, 167

  on Financial Stability Board, 257

  General Agreement to Borrow, contribution to, 191

  gold, storage of in, 115

  gold-for-coal arrangement with Germany, 87

  Hague Convention, signing of, 20

  as intelligence-gathering location, 113

  as intermediary, 91

  in London Gold Pool, 188

  neutrality of, 81, 84, 91, 109

  Romanian oil, buyer of, 98

  T

  Taibbi, Matt, 257

  Tasca, Henry, 88

  Teagle, Foundation, 104

  Teagle, Walter, 36, 100, 104

  Thyssen, Fritz, 145

  Tiarks, Frank, 17, 34, 35

  Tietmeyer, Hans, 226

  Times (London), on London Gold Pool, 189

  Toniolo, Gianni, 20, 22, 29, 68, 264

  Tower of Babel, story of, 255, 271

  Treaty of Paris (1951), 167

  Treaty of Rome (1957), 217

  Tribune de Lausanne, on BIS wartime activities, 132

  Trichet, Jean-Claude, 242, 252–253

  Trip, Leonardus, 34

  Trott zu Solz, Adam von, 99

  Turkey, 87, 167, 198

  U

  Unilever, 183, 187

  Union Banking Corporation, 145–146

  United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (1944), 121–125

  United States

  BIS, investigation of, 82

  BIS, opposition to, 32, 89

  blockage of BIS transactions by, 95, 111, 133

  chemical companies, lawsuits against, 143

  continuation of links with German industry, 119–121, 129

  ESCU, loan to, 174–175

  gold reserves of, 55–56

  gold standard, 42

  influence on postwar Europe, 173

  in London Gold Pool, 188

  monitor of export of German capital, 156

  monitor of Wallenbergs and Enskilda Bank, 118

  Nazi industrial espionage in, 101

  Spanish civil war, view of, 56

  United States, takeover of GAF by Treasury Department, 102

  Urbig, Franz, 74

  V

  Vaulx, Charles de, 243

  Vocke, Wilhelm, 151–152

  Volcker, Paul, xiii, 206, 231

  Völkischer Beobachter newspaper, 76

  Voorhis, Horace Jeremiah, 97

 

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