"The 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by the Congress as the operating arms of the nation's central banking system, are organized similarly to private corporations--" ... " For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks." ... "The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year." http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_14986.htm What about that seems to not be privately owned? Does congress or the government own the shares? I know you are bright, I wonder if your purposefully ignorance on these important matters is because you are paid to be that way or you have a mental block preventing you from taking in info contrary to your worldview.
the federal reserve is chartered by Congress and therefore Congress could pull its charter. but per the FEDs website the system is owned by private shareholders. I note...we don't even know how those shareholders are. So really its a very private, privately owned Bank.
"What about that seems to not be privately owned?" Hmmm, maybe the fact that the stock can't be sold, traded, or pledged as security. Do you suppose? Or possibly the fact that these branch banks have .org internet addresses. Or maybe that any net profits after expenses go back to the U.S. treasury. I don't know, What do you think? There are probably Et folks who are getting confused at this point. You could clear everything up for them if you could quote that part from the Fed website where it says these branch banks are "owned by private shareholders". As per your post #123 above.
The Federal Reserve is Private. It says right on their website. It's owned by private shareholders (memberbanks) with nearly no Government oversight. The Congressional Charter mandates selection of board and chairpersons by Government AND member bank approval. As for Bernie, he's a communist. Not sure why people hate free markets so much around here. We need way less regulation, not more. Regulation, in 98% of cases, is used to restrict competition and tailor rules favorable to Corporate America. Who also in 98% of cases, write the regulations to begin with. Fox guarding the henhouse.
1. many tightly controlled private businesses restrict the sale of stock... I set a corporation up that way when I was part owner of a trading LLC a decade ago. 2. I currently own a .org for one of my own businesses. 3. Are you worried about the profits from the Federal Reserve bank when you can have it place a billion or a trillion in your own banks sub account? You need to come up to speed on this subject.
At the end of the day, nobody really knows what the FED is doing. We assume they play by the rules set out in the Charter, pay only 6% dividend etc, but no independant audit has ever been done. So we simply have to take their word for it. OPEC is basically like the FED (Banks). They control the supply of an essiential commodity. Thus, in addition to their regular functions of selling that commodity, can act as a traders, and pick cyclical tops and bottoms. Think about Saudi Arabia after their decision to flood world markets with oil. Sure, they knew it would decimate their revenues, but who's to say they didn't establish a massive short position across the energy market, over the span of several months, before they opened the spigot? This is insider trading at the State level, and totally legal. This would of course, enhance, or at least offset a gigantic portion of their losses from 25 dollar a barrel oil. FED banks can operate the same way. As the board coalesce around higher rates before they're actually raised, member banks can speculate in all kinds of products to profit from the jump. And/or, short the broader market. Now, that isn't true across the board. Seems even bankers drank their own koolaid in 2008, and didn't see the crash coming of their own making. I chalk it up to hubris. Another interesting and fascinating thing about all this - it's the business cycle. Recession, recovery, boom, crash. It's always been this way. Fractional reserve banking has simply exacerbated what is a very human phenomenon that will always be with us. So as traders, this is a good news. Why I find that important, is because every crash is accompanied by flabbergasted investors and panicked headlines and aghast pundits. The implication is they never saw it coming. Which is partially why it happens to begin with ;P
Did anybody listen to this? Time index 14:00 Bernie plans a financial transaction tax on "Wallstreet speculation" to pay for his socialist medical program. Holy moly. Wants free college education to be paid for by a tax on Wallstreet speculation. This is suicide to traders. Why would you guys support this?
I had to google that one. Tried to read it backwards first. I guess 'better' is all relative. Are you still trading man? If so, how do you plan to get around the FTT if Bernie is anointed.