OT: Federal Reserve (Was:bitcoin mining)

[Christopher Browne]

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Scott Sullivan <scott-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 06/23/2011 03:57 PM, Ori Idan wrote:
>>
>> PS - On the "gov't run" v. "legal tender" front.  Answer the question,
>> "Who owns the US federal reserve?" first. :(
>>
>> Regards,
>> --matt
>
>
> The federal reserve I guess is owned by the federal government.
>
> The Federal Reserve is a Private bank, the only thing Federal about it is
> that it has the word in it's name.

The Canadian equivalent, the Bank of Canada, is also a private
institution, whose governor is elected by the Bank's board of
directors, but who may be dismissed by the government.  That policy is
not identical to the US analogues, but it's close enough for a number
of purposes.

It has historically been considered a feature, not a bug, to have
these institutions private, as this insulates them at least somewhat
from partisan politics.  For ministers to try to modify central bank
policy for the convenience of whatever policy they're trying to
sharpen today is a pretty awful thing to contemplate.

Of course, there's plenty of room for other theories to layer on top,
and there is certainly no lack of theories.  On the "Net of a Million
Lies" <http://everything2.com/title/net+of+a+million+lies> it's often
troublesome to figure out what ought to be considered believable.
-- 
When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
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