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The Fed is not a government agency.

How about some FACTS, instead of the usual rubbish (such as the idiotic link that you posted) that gets repeated over and over?

Here's something I wrote years ago in response to someone else who had the same misconceptions about the Fed that you (and others) seem to have:

The Federal Reserve System Board of Governors is a FEDERAL AGENCY created by federal law. All 7 members of the Board are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for 14 year terms. The System BoG formulates monetary policy. The System BoG is where reserve requirements are set, where the discount rate is set, and where rules and regulations are adopted.

The 7 System BoG members are a PERMANENT MAJORITY of the 12 member Federal Open Market Committee, the other 5 members being the President of the NY Fed and 4 other regional Fed bank presidents each serving one year terms.

Regional Fed bank presidents are appointed (subject to approval by the System BoG) by each regional Fed bank's 9 member Board of Directors, 3 of whom are appointed by the System BoG (none of these 3 may be an officer, director, employee or shareholder of any bank,) and 6 of whom are elected by the member bank "shareholders" (3 of these 6 may not be an officer, director or employee of any bank.) One of the directors appointed by the System BoG is designated by the System BoG as Chairman of the Board and another as Deputy Chairman.

The 3 "bank" representatives on each 9 member regional Board are excluded from the process of appointing the regional Fed bank's president.

The Chairman of the System BoG is also the Chairman of the FOMC. The FOMC implements System BoG monetary policy. The FOMC is where fed funds target rates are set, where margin rates are set, and is responsible for open market operations to carry out policy.

The System BoG and the FOMC are where ALL of the actual power of the Fed resides. The 7 System BoG members nominated by the President are an absolute and permanent majority of both the BoG and the FOMC. They hold and exercise ALL of the power of the Fed.

The Boards of the regional Fed banks suggest changes in the discount rate, but the System BoG must approve them. Other than that, the primary function of the regional Fed banks is to provide services like check clearing and FedWire to member banks. They do the scut work and a lot of research, and their presidents give lots of speeches.

Here are 14 key differences between the regional Fed bank "shares" and actual shares of real common stock in the real world:

1) If you want to buy shares of IBM (or any other public company) you may buy any amount you wish. The "shares" Fed member banks have to buy is equal to 6% (3% in cash, 3% on-call) of their paid-in capital and retained earnings. By statute.

2) If you own shares of IBM, you will never be required by anyone to buy more for any reason. As Fed member banks' capital increases, they are required to purchase more Fed regional bank "shares." By statute.

3) You buy IBM shares through a broker on a market like the NYSE or NASDAQ, not from the government. You simply buy them, you don't fill out an application to the Federal Reserve as prospective Fed member banks do, by statute.

4) You buy your IBM shares from some (unknown) individual or institution on the other side of the trade. Not from the government, as Fed member banks must, by statute.

5) When you want to sell IBM shares you use the same markets you used to purchase them, and do so whenever you wish. Fed member banks can only sell their "shares" back to the government and only when they cease to be a member bank. By statute.

6) You can pledge your IBM shares as collateral on a loan at anytime you wish. No member bank can pledge or hypothecate its regional Fed bank "shares" under any circumstances, ever, by statute.

7) An owner of IBM shares can vote on all issues that are put to a shareholder vote. Regional Fed bank "shares" entitle a member bank to vote for 6 of the 9 members of its regional bank's Board of Directors. That's it. By statute.

8) Owners of IBM shares gets one vote for each share. Member banks holding regional Fed bank "shares" get one vote, period, no matter how many "shares" they own. By statute.

9) Candidates for IBM's Board of Directors are nominated by IBM or its shareholders in accordance with its by-laws, and are then voted on by shareholders. The Fed's Board of Governors are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and neither Fed member banks nor their 12 elected regional bank Boards of Directors have anything whatsoever to say about it. By statute.

10) If IBM's Board of Directors decides that they want to increase the dividend payable to shareholders they can do so at anytime they wish. The 6% "dividend" on Fed regional bank "shares" is set by statute.

11) If IBM wants to amend its corporate by-laws, it can do so at anytime with the approval of a majority of shareholders. By statute, no regional Fed bank can amend its charter, ever.

12) IBM is a profit-making private enterprise, and they may do whatever they wish with any after-tax profits. The Fed regional banks must turn over 100% of their operating income (net after payment of the statutory 6% "dividend") to the US Treasury each year. By statute.

13) As time goes on, the value of IBM shares fluctuates, sometimes widely. The value of each member bank's regional Fed bank "shares" is fixed at $100. By statute.

14) If IBM is liquidated, your shares entitle you to your relative proportion of assets left (if any) after all creditors of IBM have been paid. Fed regional bank "shares" entitle member banks to exactly zero Fed assets under any circumstances. By statute.

"Shares" of the regional Fed banks owned by Fed member banks are mandatory, totally restricted, entail virtually no rights or privileges, and confer no ownership of anything under any circumstances.

The reality is that regional Fed bank "shares" are nothing more than a semi-permanent deposit of capital by another name.

It's unfortunate that the word "shares" was ever associated with the mandatory deposits by Fed member banks because it creates an impression that they're something that they're not.

The use of the word "share" was very narrowly technically correct as these quasi-governmental regional Fed bank entities were formed as corporations which issue shares, as do all corporations. But, it gave rise to conspiracy theories cooked up and propagated by people who know little or nothing about the Fed, banking, government or law, but focus laser-like on the regional Fed bank "shares" to claim that "the Fed is privately owned." Never mind that the regional Fed banks have no power over anything.

The Fed is not privately owned and never has been. For good or ill, it's a 100% government-controlled operation.

For the ill-informed/tin-foil hatters, FACTS are unfortunate, but nonetheless remain true.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea, I think the Fed should be abolished. It was always a bad idea, remains so and has always, from day one been a 100% government-controlled entity.

Rant and rave all you want, but FACTS are stubborn things.