Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy

by Murray N. Rothbard

Official Mises Institute EditionThis fiery monograph shows a side of Murray Rothbard not seen in his theoretical his ability to employ "power elite" analysis to understand the relationship between money, power, and war.Rather than allow the left to dominate this approach to history; Rothbard shows how wealthy elites are only able to manipulate world affairs via their connection to state power. Those mainstream historians might deride Rothbard's history as a "conspiracy" approach, Rothbard himself is only out to show that world affairs are not random historical forces but the consequence of choices and paths chosen by real human beings.Here he gives the grim details of how a network of banks, bond dealers, and Wall Street insiders have both favored war and profited from it.The contents of this volume include a long and thoughtful introduction by Anthony Gregory and an afterword by Justin Raimondo.

Genres: Economics, Politics, History, Banking, Nonfiction, War, Conspiracy Theories

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Murray Newton Rothbard was an influential American historian, natural law theorist and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism. Rothbard took the Austrian School's emphasis on spontaneous order and condemnation of central planning to an individualist anarchist conclusion, which he termed "anarcho-capitalism".

In the 1970s, he assisted Charles Koch and Ed Crane to found the Cato Institute as libertarian think tank.

Reviews

[Andrew Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't think Pepsi at Coke would be so heavily involved.

[Christopher Goins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Heavy on listing who is connected with whom (So and so was a board member of J.P. Morgan and also a key member of Eisenhower administration). That get's boring.

Nonetheless, Rothbard's work shows that the banking interests have always been at work in U.S. foreign policy. Think of American foreign policy as a white styrofoam plate and J.P. Morgan Chase, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council of Foreign Relations as little kids each with their own plate. Now imagine these kids with paint on their hands and then being asked to make a picture of foreign policy on the plate. As soon as the teacher says "go," they all begin swirling their hands on the plates, making foreign policy. Yeah, history was kind of like that.

[Brad Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me say first that this book is free at Mises.org, and I read it as part of a class on Murray Rothbard at Mises Academy. Half of this book is about the influence that the bankers have had on the politics and foreign policy of our nation. the other half is simply list of the numerous government officials who were connected with the banking and financial industry. Although it's not the most enjoyable read, it is eye opening. If simply the working history of everyone mentioned in the book is true it's clear who rules the nation.

[Bob Bingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in the interlocking of corporatism, politics, and war profiteering in post Civil War America would benefit from this brief but trenchant book. It takes the reader through the mid 1980s, so does not include Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. but things haven't changed. Each generation of evil and corrupt men in high places is replaced by a new one.

[Niladri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was largely a dry info-dump of who's who from the Rockefellers, Chase, and J. P. Morgan that were responsible for war crimes throughout the 20th century up until 1984 when Rothbard delivered this monograph.

As a work of narrative history this thing mostly fails to make sense of why the general audience should care about these legendary sociopaths. But for those who are already knee deep in political history, this is a must.

[Nicholas Zerangue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A who’s who of the most powerful “American Interests” of the last 150 years. This essay is simply a quick overview, but very interesting nonetheless.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book

[Theodore Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weaker in terms of what Rothbard has published

[Garrick Andres · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many names

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Documents relations between bankers and politicians right up to the Reagan administration. Reducing everything to just the scheming role of psycho-greedy banking interests acting in the shadows is necessary for Rothbards explanatory framework for why the "free market" has never worked exactly right. Private interests capturing public policy for their own ends is problematic but Rothbards and what free market think tanks are pushing ain't any better.

[The Duchess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction by Anthony Gregory in the 2011 version is worth the .pdf download alone.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative regarding the connections politicians and other individuals in power have to banks and other institutions.