The following is said to have been an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam. The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well. 

  Here is the “Bonus Question” on the exam:

  Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

  Most  of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

  One student, however, wrote the following:

    First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time.   So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

   Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

  If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

  If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

  If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa (a girlfriend of mine during my Freshman year) that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you”, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is Exothermic and has already frozen over.

  The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct…leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A.”

 

 

The selfishness of each assures the prosperity of all.

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

Introduction

The Federal Reserve System is the primary regulatory agency governing the U.S. banking industry.  It has singular importance in setting monetary policy and many economists believe it has substantial influence on the course of the business cycle.  Yet, could it be that the most important economic institution in the United States is actually owned by foreigners?  Gary Kah (1991) and Eustace Mullins (1983) authored separate books alleging that a secretive international banking elite owns and controls the Fed.  Furthermore, his shadowy group uses its power to manipulate financial markets and to control the U.S. economy.

The focus of both books is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  What we typically call the ‘Fed’ is actually a two level system: 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks (the New York Fed is one of them) and the Board of Governors that runs them (Bernanke is the Board’s chair).  Gary Kah claimed foreigners directly own the New York Fed, the largest and most important of the dozen regional institutions.  Through it the international collaborators control the entire Federal Reserve System and reap its gigantic profits.  Eustace Mullins agreed on the importance of the New York Fed, but instead claimed it is owned indirectly by foreigners – through a European banking club he termed the “London Connection” which controls the Fed’s policies from abroad.

Are any of allegations true?  In this article I focus on whether foreigners own the Federal Reserve Bank of New York either directly or indirectly, whether it controls the enitre of the Federal Reserve System, and whether foreigners receive the Fed’s large annual profits.  

Who Owns the New York Federal Reserve?

Each of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks is organized as a corporation in much the same way as many other firms.  According to Kah, foreigners own a controlling interest in the shares of the New York Fed.  He claimed that “Swiss and Saudi Arabian contacts” identified the top eight shareholders as

• Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
• Lazard Brothers Banks of Paris
• Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
• Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam
• Lehman Brothers of New York
• Kuhn, Loeb Bank of New York
• Chase Manhatten Bank, and
• Goldman, Sachs of New York (Kah, p. 13).

He also described these groups as the bank’s “Class A shareholders” (p. 14).  This is curious because Federal Reserve stock is not classified in this manner.  It can be either “member stock” or “public stock,” but there are no such things as ‘Class A’ shares.  However, the directors of a Federal Reserve Bank are separated into classes A, B, and C depending on how they are appointed (12 USCA §302). This may have been the source of Kah’s confusion.Eustace Mullins compiled a very different list.  He reported that the top 8 stockholders of the New York Fed were

• Citibank
• Chase Manhatten Bank
• Morgan Guaranty Trust
• Chemical Bank
• Manufacturers Hanover Trust
• Bankers Trust Company
• National Bank of North America, and
• Bank of New York.

According to Mullins these institutions in 1983 owned a combined 63% of the New York Fed’s stock.  These American banks, in turn, were owned by European financial institutions.  Since the commercial banks in the New York Fed’s district elect its board of directors, the London Connection is able to use their American agents to pick the Bank’s directors and ultimately control the whole Federal Reserve System.  He explained,  

… The most powerful men in the United States were themselves answerable to another power, a foreign power, and a power which had been steadfastly seeking to extend its control over the young republic since its very inception. The power was the financial power of England, centered in the London Branch of the House of Rothschild.  The fact was that in 1910, the United States was for all practical purposes being ruled from England, and so it is today (Mullins, p. 47-48).   Read more…