Darkness Visible II
We have been lied to, forever, about everything
https://www.pricevaluepartners.com/darkness-visible-ii/
âFor we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.â
Ephesians 6:12, King James Version.
It comes as something of a shock to appreciate that we have been lied to, basically forever, about pretty much everything. That, at least, is the central thesis of Feargus OâConnor Greenwoodâs extraordinary book, â180 Degrees: unlearn the lies youâve been taught to believeâ. (Our interview with the author here.)
They say that constant dripping can wear away rock. That would seem to be the case for the revelations contained within the voluminous Epstein files, which are doing for the credibility of politicians and globalists what bulk-ordered sulphuric acid will do to the bodies of the victims of child trafficking, say. This magisterial essay from Substack does what the legacy media seems incapable of doing, and weaves the various threads to form a cohesive narrative.
In the interests of brevity, we asked Grok to provide a short synopsis:
âIt presents a detailed, investigative re-examination of Jeffrey Epstein, moving far beyond the conventional sex-trafficking and paedophile-network narrative. Drawing from what the author describes as three million pages of recently available (2025â2026) Department of Justice correspondence and related documents, the piece argues that Epstein functioned as a central âswitchboard operatorâ or high-level connector in a much larger, decades-long project to build a global financial control and governance system.
âKey Points and Structure:
Origins and Network: The system traces back to intellectual and institutional roots (e.g., meetings at Waddesdon Manor / Rothschild properties), evolving through Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub initiatives, and ultimately manifesting in the UNâs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the visible âapplication layer.â
Epsteinâs Role: He is portrayed not primarily as a lone predator, but as a credentialed, trusted intermediary who routed connections across finance, politics, intelligence, technology, and philanthropy. Examples include:
Early validation by David Rockefeller (board seat at Rockefeller University, invitations to Trilateral Commission and CFR).
Deep ties to Rothschild family branches (e.g., advising Ariane de Rothschild on family/business strategy, representing their interests to others like Peter Thiel).
Routing political/intelligence access (e.g., passing UK government memos via Peter Mandelson, dinners with figures like Ehud Barak, Vitaly Churkin, Thomas Barrack).
Personnel pipelines (placing people like key figures into Gates Foundation, World Bank, WEF Young Global Leaders program).
Financial Architecture: A major focus is Epsteinâs design of the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) in 2011 (with JPMorgan and Gates Foundation), seen as a proof-of-concept for âblended financeâ and impact investing to fund SDGs. This ties into later concepts of programmable digital currency / purpose-bound money (traceable aid, sovereign digital currencies), with emails showing Epstein pitching these ideas to Lawrence Summers, UAE/Dubai officials (Bin Sulayem), Richard Branson, and others.
AI and Control Layer: Epstein funded AI researchers (e.g., Ben Goertzelâs OpenCog, Joscha Bach, others) working on classification, behavioral modeling, and early AGIâaligning with BIS AI projects (AISE, Gaia, Aurora). The author suggests this contributes to an emerging system of AI-enforced compliance and conditional economics.
Conclusion / Thesis: After Epsteinâs 2019 death, his personal ârouting tableâ became unnecessary because the system had become formalized institutional infrastructure. The piece argues the architecture ultimately serves network control and private/public capital coordination under the moral cover of SDGs and âsocial good,â rather than genuine societal benefit. It quotes Stafford Beerâs systems maxim: âThe purpose of a system is what it does.â
âThe tone is serious, heavily documented/sourced (specific emails, dollar amounts, address book stats, etc.), and conspiratorial in the sense of alleging coordinated elite institutional capture. The purpose appears to be exposing what the author views as the real (financial/governance) significance of Epsteinâs network, urging readers to see beyond the surface-level scandal.â
Then consider this follow-up. Grok, again:
âIt uses recently released Department of Justice correspondence (from 2025-2026, totalling millions of pages) to argue that Jeffrey Epstein orchestrated a major, multi-year private initiative to develop and promote sovereign programmable digital currencies (early CBDC concepts), operating as a parallel effort outside official channels like the World Economic Forum (WEF).
âCore Thesis
âEpstein is portrayed not just as a criminal financier or predator, but as a key coordinator who scouted WEF limitations on digital/alternative currencies (2011-2012), extracted talent, built a separate âparallel initiativeâ to overcome transparency/funding issues, solved technical hurdles (e.g., tax integration via tokenization), framed programmable money with incentives like negative interest rates and surveillance under âsocial goodâ/SDG covers, assembled technical teams, and pitched it directly to sovereign governments. The author claims this privately designed architectureâlacking institutional records due to Chatham House rules and private fundingâfed into todayâs BIS-led CBDC projects (e.g., Project Rosalind for purpose-bound/programmable money) and enables future conditional economics tied to compliance (e.g., SDGs as enforcement layer).
âMain Sections and Key Claims
Reconnaissance (2011-2012): Epstein scouted the WEFâs Alternative Currencies working group, contacted figures like Katherine Keating for access, met Barnaby Marsh at Davos, and commissioned Jem Bendell (future âDeep Adaptationâ author) to run an anonymous 2012 convening of ~15 experts under Chatham House rules. Emails show Epstein probing tax/payment integration flaws in existing crypto/alternative systems.
Parallel Structure: Advised by Boris Nikolic (Gates Foundation ties), Epstein created a non-WEF track for flexibility/no disclosure. This included panels (e.g., Larry Summers), reports, and funding flows (e.g., MIT Digital Currency Initiative grants).
Strategic Reframing: A circulated 2014-2016 document (âThoughts on Bitcoinâ) repositioned Bitcoin as a âuniversal ledgerâ prototype for sovereign digital currencies, not decentralized money. Incentives proposed: negative rates via digital ledgers, traceable transactions for tax/surveillance, elimination of intermediaries.
Deployment & Framing: Linked programmable currency to UN SDGs for âethicalâ justification (e.g., conditional spending on social good/charity). Pitched âsocial good currencyâ to Richard Branson; emphasized sovereign backing over crypto anarchy.
Sovereign Pitches (2013-2017): Direct outreach to nations like Saudi Arabia (Sharia-compliant coin, 2016), Mongolia (influenced 2017 election of Khaltmaagiin Battulga, proposed âGENGHIS COINâ backed by sovereign), Dubai (via Sultan Bin Sulayem/DP World as vehicle), plus mentions of Qatar, Israel, India. Peter Thiel routed connections.
Technical Build: Austin Hill (Blockstream co-founder) assembled a team for a Sharia-compliant blockchain coin with Middle East expertise. Epstein funded Bitcoin developers at MIT; ties to Gates-funded CBDC research there.
Behavioral/Control Layer: Consulted Nicholas Christakis on trust in currencies and AI bots for group behavior facilitation/synthetic societies.
Current Positions & Legacy: Maps network alumni to influential roles (e.g., Summers at OpenAI until 2025 resignation; Gary Gensler at SEC; Kevin Warsh Fed nomination push; Thiel/Palantir CBDC contracts). Claims the design phaseâs opacity allowed seamless transition to public BIS projects without traceable origin.
âTone and Conclusion
âThe piece is heavily sourced from the DOJ releases (specific emails, dates, dollar amounts, names), presenting Epsteinâs work as a commercial/elite-driven effort to create traceable, programmable sovereign money enabling negative rates, tax extraction, sanctions structuring, and SDG-enforced restrictionsâwrapped in moral language of transparency and social good. The author concludes the BIS now implements it (e.g., purpose-bound money, AI integration), with sovereign immunity preventing oversight. The âmoral authorityâ of SDGs makes restrictions politically viable, turning private design into irreversible global infrastructure. This builds on the prior âEpsteinâ essayâs broader network overview (switchboard role in finance/governance/SDGs), focusing here narrowly on digital currency development as a core âproductâ Epstein advanced. The tone remains investigative and conspiratorial, urging readers to view the scandalâs financial-system significance beyond the criminal surface.â
And you thought bitcoin was something that arose spontaneously out of a free market â like, say, gold..
Something has clearly gone very badly wrong with the West. The author of â180 degreesâ puts it, more or less, as follows:
Want to know why the world as you know it is experiencing controlled demolition ? See how many of these factors you can personally identify:
1) The creation of spurious racism offences and hate speech laws
2) The dumbing down of education
3) The teaching of sex and gender fluidity to young children
4) The systematic undermining of parental authority
5) The promotion of excessive drinking and recreational drugs
6) The promotion of sexual deviancy
7) Encouraging the breakdown of the family unit
8) Dependency on state benefits
9) Inconsistency in the Stateâs attitude to the law
10) An unreliable legal system biased against the victims of crime
11) State control of the media
12) Continual changes in the rules to create confusion
13) Attacks on Christianity
14) Destruction of national cultural identity via mass illegal immigration.
Together they constitute the poison of cultural Marxism as now practised by most governments in the West. Short version: whatâs happening, culturally, economically and politically, is not happening by accident but entirely by design.
It is sometimes said that we get the politicians we deserve. Heaven help us, if thatâs true. On a more positive note, Jordi Pigem for Brownstone draws the following conclusion:
âWe find ourselves in a world that, to a large extent, is morally, cognitively, and spiritually already collapsing. To face this darkness without being bulldozed by it, it is essential to be aware that the primordial Source of reality (call it God or what makes sense to you) is ultimately Light, Goodness, and Truth. And that is what shall prevail at the end.â
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Tim Price is co-manager of the VT Price Value Portfolio and author of âInvesting through the Looking Glass: a rational guide to irrational financial marketsâ. You can access a full archive of these weekly investment commentaries here. You can listen to our regular âState of the Marketsâ podcasts, with Paul Rodriguez of ThinkTrading.com, here. Email us: info@pricevaluepartners.com.
Price Value Partners manage investment portfolios for private clients. We also manage the VT Price Value Portfolio, an unconstrained global fund investing in Benjamin Graham-style value stocks and real assets, and also in systematic trend-following funds.
quite depressing