What is the current role of the Federal reserve and what is the proper role of the Federal reserve?
Having ascertained that, the question then becomes, can this be done better, and by whom?
Always start at the beginning.
Excellent idea.
Money Panics occurred in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, and 1907. Each of these panics was preceded by substantial bank money creation for various speculative purposes: western lands, canal building, railroads, railroad stock, stock market, etc. At the end of each period of irrational exuberance, a money panic ensued (you've seen those Wily Coyote cartoons when he runs off the cliff and his feet are still moving...until he looks down!). The irrational exuberance was the disease; the money panic was the free enterprise medicine.
The perpetrators/promoters of these irrational exuberance bubbles convinced people that the free enterprise medicine (money panics) was actually the disease for which a lender of last resort was the medicine. Thus the Federal Reserve System was foisted upon us. Lenders of last resort are capable of keeping Wily's feet churning a little longer but then the ultimate crash is even worse (16 years after the Fed we got the Mother of All Stings---thus far). It is like giving a needle in the arm to a strung out druggie: you can make him function better for a while, but you are just guaranteeing the ultimate collapse will be even worse.
It's all explained, quite clearly in Special Privilege