Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank That Runs the World Adam LeBor 2013 Part 1 There is something profoundly disturbing about the possibility that a country’s government can collapse, its people can be driven from their homes, its children can be murdered, its national wealth can be confiscated, and yet the international financial institutions handling that wealth can continue operating almost as though nothing has happened. This is the world that investigative journalist Adam LeBor examines in Tower of Basel, published in 2013. It is a history of the Bank for International Settlements, an institution established in Switzerland in 1930, and of the extraordinary relationships between central bankers, governments, wartime economies, and international finance. But to understand why this institution matters, we must first understand the world in which it operated. We must understand the countries that were invaded, the people who lost everything, the gold that disappeared, the banks that handled it, and the financial decisions that continued long after the human beings affected by them had lost their ability to resist. Because this is not simply a story about gold. It is a story about power, sovereignty, institutional responsibility, and the disturbing ease with which the suffering of human beings can disappear behind the language of financial administration. And much of what follows is not speculation. The historical record includes central-bank ledgers, parliamentary debates, captured German financial documents, postwar investigations, restitution agreements, and the official history of the Bank for International Settlements itself. Some of these events are central to LeBor’s investigation. Others are drawn from separate archival investigations that illuminate the wider financial system in which the BIS operated. They must be distinguished, because understanding history requires knowing not only what happened but also what the evidence actually establishes. Europe before the catastrophe: the lives that existed before the money was taken In the years preceding the Second World War, Europe was still struggling with the consequences of the First World War. Germany had suffered military defeat in 1918, the collapse of its monarchy, political revolution, economic upheaval, and the burden of reparations imposed through the postwar settlement. The German hyperinflation of 1923 had devastated the value of money, wiping out savings and undermining confidence in financial institutions. The Great Depression, beginning in 1929, brought another wave of unemployment, poverty, bank failures, and political instability. These events mattered because money was not an abstract concept to the people experiencing them. A lifetime of savings could disappear when a currency collapsed. A person who had worked for decades might discover that the money intended to support retirement could no longer purchase necessities. A business owner might lose access to credit. A farmer might be unable to finance the next planting season. A family might be forced to sell possessions simply to survive. The effects of monetary instability were felt in kitchens, workshops, farms, and crowded city apartments long before they appeared in historical accounts of central banking. Yet the consequences were not confined to Germany. Across Europe, governments faced financial pressures, political extremism, and growing uncertainty about the international order. In this environment, central bankers sought ways to stabilize monetary relationships and manage the financial obligations left by the First World War. The Bank for International Settlements was created in Basel, Switzerland, in 1930. archive.org/details/towerofb…