Badlands Book Club: The Creature From Jekyll Island - Chapter 19

Ashe in America and CannCon continue The Creature From Jekyll Island with Chapter 19, Greenbacks and Other Crimes. G. Edward Griffin argues the Civil War was driven by economic and political interests more than the question of slavery, and walks through how both the Union and the Confederacy paid for the war with fiat money. The crew covers Lincoln's greenbacks and why the bankers hated them, Confederate notes, the National Banking Act of 1863, and the role foreign powers played, from France's puppet regime in Mexico to the Russian fleet's visit. Along the way they connect it to today, including Scott Bessent comparing the Genius Act to Lincoln's National Currency Act, and close with the Golden Circle, John Wilkes Booth and a debate over whether the two parties are really different. Grab the book, read along, and join the bad mood hour.