(LifeSiteNews) — World-renowned economist Richard Werner recently told Tucker Carlson that funding wars is a major purpose of central banks, including the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“Central banking and warfare are very closely linked,” said Werner, a bestselling author, during an extensive interview with Carlson on the harm of modern banking practices. He cited two of the world’s most prominent central banks as examples: the central bank of England and that of the U.S.
Werner pointed out that the Bank of England, the world’s second-oldest central bank, was established in order to lend money to the government to wage war, as is stated in its founding document. Indeed, the Bank of England Act of 1694 refers to funds needed to continue “war against France.” The plan was reportedly not “well received” in part because an “immediate peace” was expected after the most recent battles of the Nine Years’ War, during which the British Royal Navy was defeated by the French Navy.
Werner told Carlson that the players behind the current U.S. central bank — the so-called Federal Reserve — had similar aspirations, and suggested it was not a coincidence that there was a “rush” to establish the Federal Reserve by 1914. The Federal Reserve was established on December 23, 1913, and the First World War broke out about seven months later.
The Shocking Link Between Central Banks and Mass Death – Finally Explained pic.twitter.com/I5L87pLehq
— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) July 29, 2025
Interestingly, as Werner pointed out, the “key” driving force behind the Federal Reserve was Paul Warburg (elsewhere described as its “mastermind”), who was the brother of Max Warburg, director of Germany’s central bank, the Reichsbank. Paul Warburg himself was influential on the two continents: While continuing as a leading member of investment banking firm M.M. Warburg and Company of Hamburg, and Amsterdam, Paul bought partnerships in the New York investment banking firm of Kuh, Loeb & Company.
According to Werner, his brother Max’s influence in Germany continued for decades, as he “signed off on Hitler’s proposed head” of the German central bank in the 1930s.
Carlson expressed amazement that the Warburg brothers were involved in the central banks of the U.S. and Germany, respectively, even as these countries were at war with each other. The suggestion that the creation of the Federal Reserve aimed at least in large part at the funding of World War I is explosive, since history narratives overwhelmingly exclude any mention of such a connection.
There are a few exceptions. In his book The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, G. Edward Griffin also asserts that the Federal Reserve, and central banks in general, are instrumental in waging war. In his description of the mentality of central bankers, Griffin writes, “All that is necessary, therefore, to insure that a government will maintain or expand its debt is to involve it in war or the threat of war. The greater the threat and the more destructive the war, the greater the need for debt.”
World War I was, accordingly, a “bonanza” for the bankers, according to author Tedd Flynn. In his book Hope of the Wicked, Flynn points out, “The expense of the war meant that the government had to borrow money from the bankers that had just taken control of our money system at high rates of interest.”
According to Werner, financing wars are not central banks’ only means of profit and control. They enable their entire credit operation by printing money out of thin air, with no requisite hard asset to back it; they fund developing countries at unsustainable rates, leaving them indebted to, and then controlled by the banks; and they encourage financial crashes in various countries to enable Western investors to buy up their assets on the cheap.
Werner told Carlson that in his book Princes of the Yen, he explains how the Bank of Japan, with the encouragement of the U.S. and the Federal Reserve “in particular,” “created the asset bubble of the 1980s on purpose” in order to trigger a recession in Japan. Western actors could then buy up Japanese assets “very cheaply.”
The economist said that, in fact, the fostering and exploitation of financial crises is a pattern repeated in other Eastern countries like Thailand.
As Werner was being interviewed about his book in Japan, where it was a number-one bestseller, he ran up against censorship in high-profile TV shows and magazines. He told Carlson how he would suddenly receive calls from these outlets explaining that their biggest advertiser said he could not be featured on their show. These advertisers were reportedly given this order by their bank, which was in turn given orders by their central bank.
“That’s the chain of command,” Werner remarked.
Before he had authorized an English translation of Princes of the Yen, Werner learned that one was circulating in Washington, D.C. Sometime afterward, he received a call from the U.S. embassy in Japan informing him that a senior member of the U.S. State Department was planning on visiting him in Tokyo.
Upon their meeting, the main message was: “The CIA is watching you,” he told Carlson.
‘I’d spilled the beans upon both what is the most powerful means of economic growth and prosperity or arranging for boom-bust cycles,” Werner explained. “And I was naming names.”
“After that visit, all the U.S. publishers sent their polite letters turning down my book,” he continued, despite the book’s discussion of the U.S. and a remarkable conversation with former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
“Based on that encounter, and some analysis, I concluded that actually the Federal Reserve is on track … to create the biggest asset bubble in history,” Werner said.
