Yes, and since these governors are then employees of the Fed and are almost impossible to remove once appointed, what does this mean with respect to *ownership*? The Fed is normally responsive to the political atmosphere, but it is disconnected from it by structure. This is called an “independent” central bank, as compared to a central bank full of political hacks which is what happened to various previous US government central banks.
Even so, the only real leverage that the President has on the Fed is to get Congress to change the law. To even touch on that threat touches political forces that go to the heart and core of power-oriented politicians, which is to say, almost every one of them.
The US Government does not hold any shares in the corporation, and never has. Indeed, when Roosevelt under Presidential Executive Order number 6102, confiscated all privately held Gold in the United States on April 5, 1933, he directed citizens to “exchange” their all their gold for Federal Reserve Notes. To whom did the financial benefit accrue? Only to the shareholders of the Federal Reserve corporation (the national banks) because the Federal Reserve was able to print money to pay for it.
This was not an inconsequential amount of gold. The Fort Knox Bullion Depository was constructed to provide the necessary storage for the flood of gold that was smelted into bar form.
Some followers of the history of fiat money/central banking in the United States call this forced liquidation a de-facto bankruptcy. With the addition of the outlawing of the “gold clause” in contracts, this forced citizens to only use Federal Reserve money as tender in their business transactions. Today with electronic money, in truth, all forms of dollars reside in sub-accounts of the Federal Reserve, meaning that the Federal Reserve owns all money in the US.
If you think that you own, in the full legal meaning of the word, the Federal Reserve Notes that are in your wallet, just change one of them, say by putting Alfred E. Newman’s drawing over Lincoln’s face, and then take it down to your local bank to deposit.
If you own your car, you can paint it any color you want. It is a felony to do the same with US currency, even if you don’t change the face value or attempt to defraud anyone.
See: “Feds Call Silver Surfer Quarters Illegal” at: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/news/articles/3647.asp
I want to own FRN's to buy things, not to use as coloring books, or any other purpose. They do what they are supposed to do.
The shareholders don't get any of the "profits" earned by the Fed.
If you think that you own, in the full legal meaning of the word, the Federal Reserve Notes that are in your wallet, just change one of them, say by putting Alfred E. Newman’s drawing over Lincoln’s face, and then take it down to your local bank to deposit.
Deface your FRNs all you want. Don't expect someone else to accept your defaced bills.
What probably made FDRs stunt so popular, is he gave his buddies forewarning. So, they cleaned out their accounts and sent their gold overseas for safekeeping. Then, FDR confiscates coinage gold from the public and then re-values the official price from $20 to $35, thus netting a hefty 60 per cent profit overnight. Even today, virtually all “new stock” old US gold coins for sale to collectors come from european vaults, apparently.