Unfortunately in my experience, despite the evidence to the contrary, the notion that the Fed is a private institution is still considered "tin foil" by those who are well "educated" in business/finance.

My grandfather won't even entertain the notion that the FED is private. He says, with much confidence, "The President can fire the chairman of the FED anytime he wants. If he's not doing exactly what the President wants, he's gone."

He's a mainstream Democrat, and has ultimate faith in the government to control macro and micro economics (and he thinks that's a good thing.) I've been trying to lead him to the truth about our capital markets and monetary policy, but combating such blind faith is a challenge. He believes with great certainty that there are crooks and frauds out there, he says he's seen that himself for 40 or 50 years. But, ultimately, there are things he doesn't understand, so he simply has "faith" in his party of choice to do the right thing.

My Dad's got the same problem, but he has faith the republicans will fix it.

Pointless exercise to discuss it.

Is there some significance to Bill's choice of bumper music? Am I a racist for asking the question?

What exactly is the Federal Reserve and how did it come to be? Watch the first 15 minutes of this intriguing story from a video that was made in the late 90s (I think):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhMacPvc5....

G. Edward Griffin (from video above)...author of The Creature from Jekyll Island. If you want to know all about the Fed and a lot more, it's a great book.

Though this reply is to a post on another thread, it would have fit better here given the prominent display Fed worship I was responding to.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?single....

(edit)(In response to Iamedwardteach)

Here is what you get when experts get together. Rothbard puts the pieces together and if you can read between the lines as well as the black part, the function of the Federal Government becomes clear.

There is some extra government control over the Fed, but it is a bankers game. I will repeat this until I am blue in the face that QE only has to do with putting more funds in the banking system for banks to pass around without having their solvency questioned. Note how they let go of the money to run corners in many of the commodities. They don't need delivery on many contracts to use price to squeeze the other side, but they have to have the product off the market. It don't cost anything to finance at zero. I have watched 1 million barrel bids or asks swallowed in a minute on the exchange. Without the Fed covering this mess, these guys would have to give up their positions. They can eventually eat $30 on 10 contracts if they can make $15 on 90 by denying the 10 from the market. These rallies are all about the free access of money for bankers from the Fed. More Fed money, more hot checks can be passed. If the can is kicked far enough down the road, the bankers can be gone, once the fart gets noticed.

Back to Rothbard. The bankers got together, namely the Rockefeller and Morgan interests, put together a group of what they branded as experts and drew up a national banking act. It seized the creation of money from the people, concentrated power in the big banks and was put in place to cartelize industry and inflate the return on capital of these cartels. The Democrats switched money positions from being in favor of gold to some other form, the Republicans using the opportunity to change their outward policy and attract the hard money Democrats. The Republicans really wanted paper, bank paper. Endorsable paper to pass between them. The system of the European elites. This is the history of how the Republic was overthrown. Karl mentions from time to time the popular election of Senators. This was just one piece of the puzzle along with the income tax, the Fed and the change in money.

http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae2....

No, 9th Circuit ruled on this.


"The Federal Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities..." — Lewis vs. United States
9th Circuit 1992

"The regional Federal Reserve banks are not government agencies. ...but are independent,
privately owned and locally controlled corporations." — Lewis vs. United States, 680 F. 2d 1239
9th Circuit 1982

"The Federal Reserve banks, while not part of the government..." — United States budget for

1991 and 1992 part 7, page 10

--

SF Fed official admits PRIVATE, dividends paid to BANKS:

I still think this whole Fed thing is just a dog and pony show to try to convince the hoi polloi that the money is actually worth something.