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Dangerous Intellectuals: The Book Review--"Financial Vipers of Venice" Joseph P Farrell
By Brigadier General (ret) Blaine D. Holt | July 22, 2026
"And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Taylor, 1816What is it about the ledger? Is there a viper's nest effect that results when ambitious merchants, secretcouncils, bullion brokers, and the alchemy of debt come together? The Venetian oligarchs launched a financial empire from the lagoons that would light a fuse leading to modern central banking, national debts, fiat money, and the soft financial despotism we endure today. One such establishment in the fuse was the Rialto, where the methods of control were perfected.