City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Tower of Basel, the shadowy history of the secret bank that runs the world, Adam LeBor

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Tower of Basel

Adam LeBor

the shadowy history of the secret bank that runs the world

Set up in 1930 by an international treaty, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and its assets are legally inviolable. The Swiss authorities have no jurisdiction over the bank or its premises. The BIS has just 140 customers but made tax-free profits of $1.17 billion in 2011-12. Under Thomas McKittrick, the bank's American president, the BIS continued operating throughout the Second World War. The BIS accepted looted Nazi gold, conducted foreign exchange deals for the Reichsbank and was used by both the Allies and the Axis powers as a secret contact point to keep the channels of international finance open. After 1945 the BIS for decades provided the necessary technical and administrative support for the trans-European currency project, from the first attempts to harmonize exchange rates in the late 1940s to the launch of the Euro in 2002. The bank is now at the centre of efforts to build a new global financial and regulatory architecture. Yet despite its central role in the history of the last century and during the current crisis, the BIS remains largely unknown until now. This book is an unauthorised investigative history of the world's most influential global financial institution. Based on extensive archival research in Switzerland, Britain and the United States, and in-depth interviews with key decision makers including Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England and former senior BIS managers and officials, this book tells the story of the secretive institution at the heart of the global banking network: the central bankers' own bank

I. KAPITAL UBER ALLES. The Bankers Know Best -- A Cozy Club in Basel -- A Most Useful Bank -- Mr. Norman Takes a Train -- An Authorized Plunder -- Hitler's American Banker -- Reassuring Wall Street -- "An Arrangement with the Enemy" -- II. BUNDESREICH. United States to Europe: Unite, or Else -- All is Forgiven -- The German Phoenix Arises -- The Rise of the Desk-Murderers -- The Tower Arises -- III. MELTDOWN. The Second Tower -- The All-Seeing Eye -- The Citadel Cracks

adult

Shadowy history of the secret bank that runs the world