The animus towards the Fed is striking, considering that its unprecedented market interventions almost certainly averted a financial meltdown last year and a far more severe recession. But many congressmen care less about the disaster avoided than the injustice of bailed-out bankers taking home record bonuses as unemployment keeps rising. The Fed is now guilty by association, seen as too close to banks, too quick to bail them out and too generous and secretive when it does so. The Fed’s structure supplies fodder for this critique. The compromise that led to its creation in 1913 split responsibility for monetary policy between politically-appointed governors in Washington, dc, and the presidents of 12 regional banks, whose boards are appointed in part by private bankers.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The 2009 Obama Administration Bank Bailout Plan • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Senate

1. tgs wrote: The Fed is owned by a group of large financial institutions. They obviously represent the interests of these institutions and not the American people. Abolish the Fed! November 30, 7:53 am | [comment link]

Registered members must log in to comment.