As Halloween approaches, we wanted to pick a spooky topic to kick off the week.  We’ll follow it up next with our annual edition of Halloween Horror Stories, so stay tuned!

For this episode, our topic is The Creature from Jekyll Island.  For the uninitiated, this is the title of the epic and iconic expose on the Federal Reserve by award winning documentary filmmaker G. Edward Griffin.  And while it isn’t quite as entertaining as Rocky Horror Picture Show, it certainly has its own cult of rabid fans.  However, like Rocky, Creature probably has more than it’s fair share of closet followers.

So when our good friend Robert Kiyosaki (who is no stranger himself to controversy) not only promoted, but endorsed The Creature from Jekyll Island, we thought we’d use the power of our press passes to get a face to face interview with the author.

Lurking around the microphones for a frightening discussion about the Federal Reserve:

• The mad scientist of radio magic, host Robert Helms
• His humpbacked henchman, co-host Russell Gray
• Documentary filmmaker, prolific author and outspoken critic of The Fed, G. Edward Griffin

Anthony J. D’Angelo says, “Your mind is like a parachute.  It only works when it’s open.”  How true!  But this doesn’t mean that you should blindly accept everything you hear.  However, it certainly encourages exposure to various points of view for further contemplation.  In fact, that’s just how Griffin expanded some simple research for a speech on inflation into a seven year research project and one of the best known critiques of the Federal Reserve ever penned.

The Federal Reserve Bank is arguably the most powerful, non-governmental institution on the planet.

What’s that?  You thought that “Federal” meant it was part of the government like the Treasury department?  Not so.  And that fact in and of itself isn’t even considered to be all that controversial!  It’s widely acknowledged, even by Fed supporters like David Wessel, author of the New York Times bestseller In Fed We Trust, that the Fed is NOT an official part of the U.S. government.

So what’s the big deal about the Fed and why should a real estate investor pay attention?

First. the Fed controls the money supply of the (for now) world’s largest economy.  It has a profound impact on interest rates and inflation – two topics which all real estate investors hold near and dear.  Plus, the Fed has tremendous authority over ALL banks in the USA, even the little commercial ones in the flat middle states.  And if all that power wasn’t enough, because the U.S. dollar serves as the reserve currency of the world, the Fed and its policies also profoundly affect global trade and currency exchange rates.

Yeah, the Fed’s a pretty big deal.

It’s no wonder then, that as the 2012 elections approach and so much emphasis is on the economy, that the topic of the Federal Reserve has made its way into the mainstream of presidential debates.

Ron Paul wants to End the Fed (the title of his book).  Rick Perry has publicly denounced the Fed’s activities as “treasonous” and the last time we looked, “treason” was a pretty egregious crime.  Although politicians are often guilty of putting their feet in their mouths, we’re guessing that wasn’t a comment Perry made lightly.

Meanwhile, Herman Cain actually has a stint as a Chairman of the Kansas City Fed on his resume!  What’s an investor to think?

To top all of this off, love him or hate him, all the major polls show that President Obama’s odds for re-election are not good.  So it’s quite possible one of the aforementioned GOP candidates will end up in the White House.

Now we aren’t here to say who should or shouldn’t be in the White House, or even if the Fed is good or bad.  As you might guess, we have our own opinions.  But since you’re investing YOUR money and not ours, then the opinion you should be most interested in is your OWN.  Hopefully, you are forming it carefully!

To help you formulate an informed opinion on the Fed (and anything else we can think of that may affect job creation, the value of real estate, interest rates on mortgages, taxes paid on profits, etc), we will continue to scour the universe for news, information, perspectives and ideas to share with you.

After reading The Creature from Jekyll Island, we found it to be both well-researched and documented, as well as thorough and extremely thought provoking.  And after sitting down with the author for several hours both on and off mic, we found him to be a whole lot less scary than some of his critics portray him.  In fact, in many ways, it was refreshing to talk to someone who was willing to go where the evidence led him – even if it was to a highly controversial conclusion.

So listen in to our discussion with Mr. G. Edward Griffin, then form your own opinion.  And we encourage you to continue your education on the Fed by devouring some of the other books in our Recommended Reading list on the topics of Banking & Politics.  Happy Trick or Treating!

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