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To: Rockingham
Who owns The Federal Reserve?

How many votes did the Federal Reserve Act get in the Senate?

54 posted on 10/11/2011 7:24:19 PM PDT by sklar
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To: sklar
The Federal Reserve is an agency of the US government. Banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System are required to contribute toward interest bearing stock in the Federal Reserve System, but it is not stock in a conventional sense of representing genuine, unfettered ownership.

The stock of member banks in the Federal Reserve cannot be sold, transferred, or pledged. The stock is actually in the nature of forced interest bearing loans from banks. Some nonprofit organizations like apartment co-ops and private clubs have a similar structure, with members required to put money in when they join and getting it back when they leave. In both cases, part of the reason for such a system is to weed out those who are unable to spare significant money to become and remain a member.

Congress could abolish the Federal Reserve member stock system. Doing though so would require paying the member banks back for what they had put in and would tend to open Federal Reserve membership to weaker and less substantial banks that had an interest in diminishing the regulatory oversight of banks and other financial intermediaries.

The creation of the Federal Reserve System was hotly debated at the time. I do not know what the vote in Congress was.

The following two papers provide useful accounts of the origins of central banking in the US and of the formation of the Federal Reserve System:

Historical Beginnings… The Federal Reserve

New York and the Politics of Central Banks, 1781 to the Federal Reserve Act

58 posted on 10/11/2011 8:42:45 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: sklar
Who owns The Federal Reserve?

The US government.

How many votes did the Federal Reserve Act get in the Senate?

How many do you think it got?

99 posted on 10/14/2011 8:03:21 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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