From the FT:

The Battle of Waterloo. The deaths of six US presidents. The rise of Adolf Hitler. The deflation of the Japanese bubble economy, the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and even environmental destruction in the developing world.

In a new Chinese best-seller, Currency Wars , these disparate events spanning two centuries have a single root cause: the control of money issuance through history by the Rothschild banking dynasty.

I expect this kind of stuff from wackos living in the woods in Eastern Oregon, anywhere in the rural Deep South, or in just about any U.S. inner city, but China? Very disheartening.

The Chinese have a deep respect for Jews, but it does not really make me feel all that better when this respect is coupled with the belief that we are pulling the strings of global finance:

Mr Song is defensive about his focus on the Rothschilds and what the book depicts as their Jewish clannishness.

“The Chinese people think that the Jews are smart and rich, so we should learn from them,” he says. “Even me, I think they are really smart, maybe the smartest people on earth.”

Lovely stuff, really. Brings a tear to my eye. Actually, lots of tears to both of my eyes. So not only is China the number one global source of new converts to a religious sect that is historically very anti-Jewish (name left out intentionally), but it is now buying in to centuries-old anti-semitic propaganda. Just what the world needs.

In all honesty, I am not surprised that this kind of book would gain popularity here. Not only does it play to current nationalistic tendencies and a resentment towards the demands of the West, but there is a tremendous propensity here to buy into conspiracy theories. My wife firmly believes that the 1969 moon landing was a staged fake – hope she's not reading this.

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