# Federal Reserve Conspiracy A family of [[Conspiracy Theory]] narratives claiming that the [[Federal Reserve]] System was created through a secret plot by international bankers to control the U.S. economy. The historical kernel — that the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was partly shaped at a private 1910 meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia — gets inflated into claims of a shadowy cabal manipulating [[Monetary policy]] for private enrichment. [[Woodrow Wilson]] is often misquoted as having regretted signing the Act. These theories have deep roots in American [[Populism]] and frequently carry [[Antisemitism]] undertones, echoing centuries-old tropes about Jewish banking conspiracies. The [[John Birch Society]] popularized anti-Fed narratives in the Cold War era; [[Ron Paul]]'s "Audit the Fed" campaign mainstreamed them in the 2000s; and they now circulate within [[QAnon]] and [[Deep State]] frameworks. The [[Gold Standard]] remains a recurring alternative proposed by Fed skeptics. *Stub — expand with: Jekyll Island meeting participants, "The Creature from Jekyll Island" (Griffin), overlap with sovereign citizen movement, modern crypto-libertarian anti-Fed arguments.*