Bitcoin Forum

There has been some debate here about whether the Federal Reserve is a public or private institution.  Caught an interesting factum while watching CNN today: while talking about the consequences of a government shutdown*, the news host said the "good news" is that such a shutdown would not affect the Federal Reserve, so we can rest assured that "money will keep flowing" in the economy.  Yay...

* - for those who haven't been keeping up on US politics, unresolved debates over the budget have brought the government to within a few hours of ceasing all nonessential services and suspending pay to government employees

Any idea how the government defines "essential services"? That would be quite interesting, IMO.

No idea who makes the call, but from what I've heard it sounds pretty arbitrary.

Mostly the impression I get is that any agency or service that does not deal with emergencies (e.g. preventative health, tourism, etc.) will be shut down, and any office that does deal with emergencies will only keep enough people on hand to "pick up the phone" if one happens.

There are exactly two positions within the Federal Reserve that are paid for by the government.  Needless to say, those two positions are not essential for even the functions of the Federal Reserve, much less the nation as a whole.  The only way that the Federal Reserve shuts down is if Congress votes to end their charter.

Whether the Fed is privately or publicly owned is not really important. The important question is who controls it.

The Federal Reserve is controlled partially by the federal government (appoints Chairman and Board of Governors) and partially by the private member banks, which appoint class A and B Board Members of regional Federal Reserve Banks. Class C Board Members of the regional Federal Reserve Banks are appointed by the Board of Governors.

My understanding is that the list of possible choices for Chairman and Board of Governors is quite short, so it's not like the president (I think) could really pick someone new, of their choosing.

Correct, the pool of appointees for the board of governors is limited to employees of the Federal Reserve, or high ranking employees of member banks.

Do you have a link about this?

Not handy, but I'll try to find it again later.