The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

G. Edward Griffin is an author and documentary filmmaker known primarily as a conspiracy theorist. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in Speech Communication. He has produced work pushing several conspiratorial beliefs, including fraudulent cures for cancer, HIV/AIDS denialism, 9/11 Truth conspiracies, and the search for Noah’s Ark. He founded the Red Pill University and Red Pill Expo organizations, which are dedicated to exposing what the organizations see as truth, though they have been criticized as “alt-right recruiting efforts” based on the attendees and the content of the instruction (Monares, Freddy. “Activists: Convention in Bozeman is ‘alt-right’ recruiting effort,” Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 3 Jul 2017). He is active in a variety of political organizations designed to reduce the size and scope of government. Jekyll Island is his most famous and influential work, having been lauded by prominent figures such as former senator Ron Paul and pundit Glenn Beck. However, most of the book’s major claims have been debunked by historians and economists, who have documented Griffin’s misrepresentations of historical fact as well as of the sources he purports to cite. Though Griffin presents some factual information and legitimate criticisms of the US’s financial institutions, economist Peter Conti-Brown notes that Jekyll should be read only for “entertainment but not information” (Conti-Brown, Peter.