Review: CRASHMAKER: A Federal Affaire
by James J Odle
[email protected]

Special to TLE
[Part I of III]

"Given their record, do you really want politicians and bankers such as Allen Stillwell to control the quality, quantity and distribution of money? Do you really want Allen Stillwell in charge of your family's financial future? Or do you want to protect yourself and your children by taking back your country, before Allen Stillwell commits some colossal blunder that blows the bottom out of the markets? If you think carefully about it, you'll agree with me that, for everyone's financial security, America needs an immediate, complete, absolute, and permanent separation of bank and state!" [page 519-20]

CRASHMAKER: A Federal Affaire, by Victor Sperandeo and Alvaro Almeida, (c)2000, Sheridan Books, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan, Library of Congress Catalog Number 99-93805, ISBN: 0-9671759-0-9, Hardbound, 2 volumes, 1572 pages. Available at www.crashmaker.com.

I hereby nominate this book for a Prometheus Award!

If F. Paul Wilson's Deep as the Marrow - which devotes a total of two pages to explaining the main character's opposition to the War on Drugs can be nominated for a Prometheus Award - then CRASHMAKER which serves up page after page of legal, Constitutional and economic arguments for the gold standard and truly limited government should be given serious consideration as well.

Be warned! This is not a book for simpletons! For in CRASHMAKER we sail the high seas of global finance and economics with ports-of-call in Constitutional and natural law, monetary history and policy, environmental wackoes, conspiracy theories and the role of morality in daily life. Frankly, to do a proper job of reviewing this tome requires an advanced education in law and economics. Undaunted, I will proceed with my own amateurish efforts. As the authors themselves put it, "CRASHMAKER challenges the reader - in its themes, its characters, even its style and vocabulary. But by design. For any people capable of self-government deserves and demands something more substantial than politically sanitized intellectual pabulum." (Pgs. iii-iv)

The book's two volumes and 1572 pages should not intimidate potential readers as the average chapter length is only 4.5 pages long. This makes any individual chapter a fast read.

At the end of this tome, the discerning reader will reach the inevitable conclusion that it took a great deal of education to write it. I assure you that when it comes to income taxation as well as monetary history and policy that they know the subjects inside out, upside down, forwards and backwards. To share just one example of their breadth of learning, they mention that Spanish churchmen such as Saravia de la Calle, Mart�n de Azpilcueta and Luis de Molina were the intellectual precursors to the Austrian School of Economics, and that Spanish theologian Francisco de Vitoria was talking about the unalienable individual rights and sovereignty of the people two centuries before Thomas Jefferson, [p. 818]. In fact, one of the authors claims to "not be disabled by his four degrees from Harvard." I predict that readers who enjoyed Atlas Shrugged will enjoy CRASHMAKER more as there are no long winded, 68 page speeches to wade through. The philosophical arguments are structured in the form of rancorous debates between opposing camps within meetings of the FED's Board of Governors, or economic conferences, simple conversation, talk shows and the like. This presents multiple sides of any given issue, avoids Ayn Rand's polemics, and makes for a much more interesting novel. Nevertheless, you can depend on the heroes {as well as the authors} to stand foursquare behind guns, the gold standard and limited Constitutional government. The real thing, that is.

PARTIAL CAST OF CHARACTERS

Dominic Ancona: 'The CRASHMAKER' and founder of 'The Enterprise,' a 'gold bug' and self made man who schooled himself in law, Austrian economics, finance, and Ayn Rand's philosophy and thus becomes a rousing success as a market trader.

Professor Lara Bernot: Member of 'The Enterprise,' and a woman of mystery throughout the first half of the novel whose motives and intentions are obscure. Also, a child prodigy in economics and finance who crafts the actual market strategy that crashes the FED. Her expertise in the psychopathology that is Allan Stillwell leads to the FED's downfall.

Allan Stillwell: Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors, former adherent to Ayn Rand's philosophy, member of 'The Lodge' and New World Order. He leaves a successful career in the private sector and abandons his belief in the 'gold standard' to become Chairman of the FED. Haunted by past misdeeds, he is nevertheless a predator of women who is obsessed with power and the unavailable Lara Bernot.

President Robert Cosgrove: a dying man who risks assassination to defy 'The 'Cheesewheels,' that is, the 'hidden controllers' who attempt to run everything from behind the scenes.

Julian Maxfield: Member of 'The Lodge,' and CEO of a global agribusiness who seeks the top spot in the New World Order and who believes that he is predestined to be a 'great man.'

STORY AT A GLANCE

How do you describe a novel that sprawls over two volumes and consumes 1572 pages? In the words of Franklin Sanders, "Byzantine!" In short, this novel is unbelievably complex. Nevertheless, I'll have a go.

The action begins when Stillwell, in a blatantly political manner, manipulates the markets one time to many and causes Dominic's latest market play to founder, costing him millions. Dominic then realizes that neither he nor America will be safe as long as such unbridled power lies in the hands of the FED chairman. Thus he responds by vowing that he "has had enough!" of the FED Chairman's monetary manipulations and "that he will take it no more!" At an economic conference he meets and teams up with Lara Bernot who has her own reasons for despising Stillwell. Together the form 'The Enterprise.'

As part of the game plan it is determined that the luscious Lara Bernot must play upon the predatory sexual appetites of Allan Stillwell. Keeping the FED chairman in a perpetual state of frustration she plays Stillwell as a cat plays with a doomed mouse and lures him to implement a monetary policy that helps to create the conditions that crashes the FED.

Meanwhile, 'gold bug' and believer in free markets Professor James Allister Madison resigns his position on the FED's Open Market Committee so as to reinstate the 'gold standard' in Russia. There he will be stymied by the FED chairman's underhanded partnership with CIA operative Frazier 'Bat' Masterson who helps to coordinate an economic 'sneak attack' upon Russia.

After the FED crashes, the members of 'The Enterprise' continue their program of attempting to return America to the 'gold standard' by supporting candidates who will work to disestablish the FED permanently and help return America to real constitutional government - a program that includes the abolition of income taxes and other economic reforms.

While attempting all this, they contend with Dominic's brother Mafia Don Carlo Canona who demands some 'insider trading' info about the forthcoming FED crash. They also contend with assassination attempts from the New World Order, specifically from Julian Maxfield and Allan Stillwell.

James J. Odle holds a BS degree in Management from Arizona State University. This doesn't necessarily qualify him to commit about economic matters even though one of his courses was 'Money, Banking and the Economy.' Further, unlike the vast majority of so-called 'public servants' he has a real job in the private sector performing real work, which a real employer voluntarily pays him to perform.

He is also a Life Member of Gun Owners of America.

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