The Federal Reserve System and Central Banks

Fed_building_DC

Federal Reserve Building, Washington, DC    Photo Credit: Flickr.com/wwarby

The Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is the part of government that controls the nation’s money supply. It should properly be viewed as a fourth branch of government, even though it is never mentioned in the Constitution nor in any of its amendments. Once appointments of the governors and regional bank presidents by the President are ratified by the Senate, these officers of the Fed can make decisions that need no approval by any other officer of the federal government. The posts linked below give a description not only of the Fed’s mission, organization, and powers, but also why they have developed their policies. Although this subject might seem like dry stuff, understanding the Fed is absolutely vital to understanding how we have descended into the economic hard times we have.

In addition, posts dealing with the central banks of other countries will be included. Their experiences give us added data points on the results of different monetary policies.

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Wasteland_Werewolf

The Federal Reserve is not part of the U.S Government at all. It is a private system.

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