The Federal Reserve, a Privately Owned Banking Cartel, Has Been Given Police Powers, with Glock 22s

reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!


Wow nice evidence to support your assertion.. Oh wait you didn't post any just your uniformed opinion... Sigh!

"“Lewis v. United States 680” (Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned: “…we conclude that the Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA (Federal Tort Claims Act), but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.” Lewis v United States, 680 F.2d 1239 (9th Cir. 1982)."

The Fed itself admits it is private:

The New York Fed is the most important Fed bank. As Bloomberg pointed out in 2009:

The New York Fed is one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks and the one charged with monitoring capital markets. It is also managing $1.7 trillion [now up to at least $1.9 trillion] of emergency lending programs [and accepting collateral from the banks in return].

However, the country's most powerful "agency" - the Federal Reserve - is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admitted (via Bloomberg):
While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.

For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in the lawsuit brought by Bloomberg to force the Fed to reveal some information about its loans - Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) - that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act. As Bloomberg reported in a separate article:

link

Government agencies are Subject to FOIA, The federal reserve is not because it is not a government agency.

The Fed Board of Governors contends that it is separate from member institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which runs most of the lending programs. Most documents relevant to the Bloomberg suit are at the New York Fed, which isn’t subject to FOIA law,..

The Freedom of Information Act obliges federal agencies to make government documents available to the press and public. The Bloomberg lawsuit, filed in New York, doesn’t seek money damages.
www.bloomberg.com...

I did not even have to break a sweat here, to bad all your hard work was a complete waste...

You people who do not understand why the Federal Reserve has their own armed security guards that have police powers ( the power to make an arrest on the property of the Federal Reserve Bank) need to take a moment and have a reality check.

Let's see.. make it simple for you. Umm why does Fort Knox need to have armed guards? Maybe.. theres a crap load of gold that needs to be protected.. and also the people that work there.

The FRB has more gold than Fort Knox..this is a fact. (This is a step up from.. lets say Target or McDonnalds.)

I have first hand knowledge on this.

There are NO.. Say it again.. NO tax dollars being used to support the FRB.

If you really want to have a better understanding of the Federal Reseve Bank, get off the internet and go take a tour of the FRB. It is free.

Just because there's a story on the internet, does not make it true.

reply to post by hawkiye


Thanks, but I never claimed the member banks aren't private institutions. Hang in there, I know this is all going over your head. Also, nice job ignoring my statement about providing sources at the end.

In the last post I mentioned how the 'lowest level' of organization in the Federal Reserve system includes all national-chartered banks as well as whatever state-chartered ones wish to join. All member banks become shareholders in their district bank, which I'll get to in a second.

These member banks are privately run. Sounds scary, doesn't it? All the Fed banks are owned by a conglomeration of other private banks. Surely the fact that these regional Fed banks are privately owned by their member banks means that the Fed itself is a private business, right? Let's keep going and find out.

The next level up is where the lines start to blur. The 'second tier' of the Fed are the regional Federal Reserve Banks and their districts. These 12 banks are located in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cleveland, Richmond, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Each of these regional banks forms a district (for example, all member banks on the west coast from Washington to California must report to the San Francisco Fed).

So what about these regional banks? What privileges and duties do they have that member banks don't? What sort of policy can they set? Are they public or private?

These district, or regional banks, perform functions such as collecting and destroying tattered and worn-out notes, clearing checks for member banks in their district, enforcing Fed policy on member banks, and buying and selling government bonds (which is a topic for a whole 'nother post).

As I pointed out above, these regional banks are owned by the member banks of their district. By joining the Federal Reserve System, a member bank will basically become a shareholder in their district bank.

So is that it? Has Hawkiye been vindicated? Are these regional banks setting sinister fiscal policies and running the country into the ground, all for a quick buck and far beyond government oversight?

Answer: no, because we're just now getting to the most important level of the Federal Reserve system. I'm talking, of course, about the Board of Governors; that inconvenient panel that destroys the 'private Fed' argument merely by existing.

The Board of Governors, or just 'the Board,' is a panel of 7 members headquartered in the Fed's Richmond district, in Washington D.C.. Each member's term lasts 14 years, and terms begin and end at a staggered rate. Much like the courts, the Board is meant to exist outside of mercurial political and special interest pressure, ergo why their terms last for so many years. Chairmen of the Board are appointed from one of the 7 members on the panel. Chairmen may serve for 4 years in that capacity before needing to be re-appointed.

Members of the Board are not allowed to hold any position at any bank during their tenure on the Board. Not even Federal Reserve regional banks. They're not allowed to hold bank stock, either, or otherwise be involved with any sort of private bank.

Now, the Board of Governors are the KEY to the whole Federal Reserve system. They are the only ones in the entire Fed allowed to set monetary policy. This means they decide how much money to print, they set the Discount Rate (interest rate charged to member banks on loans they get from their district Fed bank) and make other decisions that affect, well, everyone. Neither the regional banks, nor the member banks, can make decisions like this; they only carry out the Board's decisions. (The regional banks CAN have a say when it comes to buying or selling government bonds, in the form of the Federal Open Market Committee, but this is tertiary to the points I'm making.)

And the rub is that the Board of Governors is not privately run. Each member of the Board is nominated by the President, and then confirmed by the Senate. So, the members aren't allowed to be affiliated with any bank during their service, they're chosen by the President and Congress, and they also set monetary policy? What am I trying to say here?

What I'm saying is that should be obvious to anyone reading this that the part of the Federal Reserve that is privately owned (the member banks, the regional banks) has no say in Fed policy. Fed policy is controlled by the government through the Board of Governors. The private banks are generally toothless; they merely go along and do what they're told.

The Fed may not be a 100% public institution, but it's far from being outside of government or any legal jurisdiction. And all of its policies are formed by public servants, not private bank ownership.

Running low on characters again, so next post will just be a comprehensive list of sources. Expect it shortly.

reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!

Thanks, but I never claimed the member banks aren't private institutions. Hang in there, I know this is all going over your head. Also,

LOL over your head indeed... So you post more of your opinion with no evidence still. Sigh! And LOL at your assertion that the board makes the federal reserve cartel somehow a government agency. The board is nothing but a facade to appease the sheeple that the federal reserve somehow has government oversight. Even though there has never been an audit. The so called transparency (non-existent) is them telling us how things are going without any evidence whatsoever. The Board is "supposed" to monitor monetary policy for congress since they unlawfully delegated it to the private Federal reserve cartel and it does not even do that which is why Ron Paul has put forth a bill for a real audit not some feel good unverified report by some quasi board.

By the way the definition of Quasi:

qua·si   [kwey-zahy, -sahy, kwah-see, -zee] Show IPA
adjective
resembling; seeming; virtual: a quasi member.

dictionary.reference.com...

IOW it may resemble a government agency but it is not real.

But hey keep posting lots of words on several pages and saying nothing despite already losing the argument with the Feds own admission they are private and maybe you might get a few sheep to believe the BS....

Now back on topic still no one has ventured to address as to why a private company needs a new police force codified into law to protect their premises when they can either hire a security firm or hire their own guards internally just like Target and Walmart do.

All assertions thus far have depended on the premise they are a federal agency which has now been proven false beyond a shadow of a doubt!

I promised a list of links for the curious, and thankfully now I've got a devoted post for it.

I was going to continue my argument by going over more Fed myths but that'll have to wait for another thread. I'm satisfied that I've sufficiently demonstrated that the Fed is not a private business. Also, trying to argue with Hawkiye is like trying to run repeatedly at a brick wall and hope your particles vibrate at just the right frequency so that you pass through completely unharmed.

Now, here's some descriptive links. I'm mostly including links to myths about Federal Reserve ownership, though I did through in one or two about the Fed police or some closely related topic.

Links
www.federalreserve.gov... - map of the 12 Fed districts.
www.publiceye.org... - an index of articles busting popular myths about the Fed. A great read if you want to learn about how the Fed actually works, rather than how some conspiracy theorists claim it works.
www.publiceye.org... - my favorite article from the Public Eye mythbusting series. A good read if you want to learn about the FOMC and the buying and selling of government bonds, which I didn't cover here.
www.federalreserve.gov... - learn about the current members of the Board of Governors. Straight from the horse's mouth. Also, you can read about the complexities of how members are appointed, when and how long their terms last, and other answers regarding the Board.
www.law.cornell.edu... - part of Title 12 of the United States Code. See some of the rules laid out for members of the Board.
www.richmondfed.org... - the Richmond Fed on membership requirements.
www.federalreserve.gov... - a primer on the Discount Rate. A very important topic when discussing Fed policy.
www.factcheck.org... - FactCheck.org tackles the question of Fed ownership. I only wish their links to the Federal Reserve Education site still worked.
en.wikipedia.org... - Wikipedia page containing links to every section Title 12 of the United States Code. Potentially a lot of reading for anyone who wants to look at other banking information. Chapter 3 is the one dealing with the Fed.

Here's some Wikipedia articles (and links to Slate and JREF) for people who may not wish to spend a lot of time digging into the mechanics of the Fed:

en.wikipedia.org... - also tells about past members of the Board of Governors. History wonks might like it.
en.wikipedia.org... - the highly misunderstood police arm of the Fed that started this whole debacle.
en.wikipedia.org... - More info and another map about the regional Federal Reserve Banks.
www.slate.com... - a Slate magazine article that briefly touches base about the history and organization of the Fed, as well as bringing up a couple other myths (such as the idea that the Fed turns a profit).

Lastly comes the JREF links. JREF and the JREF forums are a rich resource for any skeptic, or even for any conspiracy theorist wanting to get to the bottom of the real story.

forums.randi.org... - a fact check against a reporter who was making conspiratorial claims about the Fed.
forums.randi.org... - a 100+ post thread containing countless links and professional opinions questioning and challenging the claims made in the most famous Fed conspiracy book ever printed; The Creature From Jekyll Island.

I'm worn out from spending so much time in the past 24 hours engaging in mythbusting. I'm gonna go outside and play with my dog and enjoy the weather. I've done my best to illuminate the real workings of the Fed, but some people won't ever appreciate any information that doesn't paint the Federal Reserve system as a shadowy network of bankers intent on dominating the US.

Enjoy the rest of the thread .I hope somebody's at least learned something from this.

Originally posted by hawkiye
reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!

 

Thanks, but I never claimed the member banks aren't private institutions. Hang in there, I know this is all going over your head. Also,

LOL over your head indeed... So you post more of your opinion with no evidence still. Sigh! And LOL at your assertion that the board makes the federal reserve cartel somehow a government agency. The board is nothing but a facade to appease the sheeple that the federal reserve somehow has government oversight. Even though there has never been an audit. The so called transparency (non-existent) is them telling us how things are going without any evidence whatsoever. The Board is "supposed" to monitor monetary policy for congress since they unlawfully delegated it to the private Federal reserve cartel and it does not even do that which is why Ron Paul has put forth a bill for a real audit not some feel good unverified report by some quasi board.

By the way the definition of Quasi:

qua·si   [kwey-zahy, -sahy, kwah-see, -zee] Show IPA
adjective
resembling; seeming; virtual: a quasi member.

dictionary.reference.com...

IOW it may resemble a government agency but it is not real.

But hey keep posting lots of words on several pages and saying nothing despite already losing the argument with the Feds own admission they are private and maybe you might get a few sheep to believe the BS....

Now back on topic still no one has ventured to address as to why a private company needs a new police force codified into law to protect their premises when they can either hire a security firm or hire their own guards internally just like Target and Walmart do.

All assertions thus far have depended on the premise they are a federal agency which has now been proven false beyond a shadow of a doubt!

edit on 21-9-2012 by hawkiye because: (no reason given)

One last post: notice how Hawkiye doesn't understand the definition of 'quasi-public;' defends one unverifiable conspiracy theory with another unverifiable conspiracy, rather than any facts; and also maintains that his whole argument rests on a false premise - that the Fed is a private company.

Lastly, note that his "The member banks are private, therefore the whole Fed is privately run! They even said so themselves!" line of thought was already confronted and debunked in a previous post and spending 10 minutes reading through the links I provided can prove it. He sounds kind of like a broken record seeing as how the only defense he has is to keep throwing out the same blatant misrepresentations in each post of his. Since he also seems to think the Federal Reserve is a monolithic entity (rather than a network of both private and public entities) I'm not that surprised that he's just building upon his fundamental misunderstanding with even more misunderstanding.

Don't throw pearls before, swine, though, as they say. I'll let the thread readers draw their own conclusions from this. I'm outtie.

reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!

One last post: notice how Hawkiye doesn't understand the definition of 'quasi-public;' defends one unverifiable conspiracy theory with another unverifiable conspiracy, rather than any facts; and also maintains that his whole argument rests on a false premise - that the Fed is a private company.

Lastly, note that his "The member banks are private, therefore the whole Fed is privately run! They even said so themselves!" line of thought was already confronted and debunked in a previous post and spending 10 minutes reading through the links I provided can prove it. He sounds kind of like a broken record seeing as how the only defense he has is to keep throwing out the same blatant misrepresentations in each post of his. Since he also seems to think the Federal Reserve is a monolithic entity (rather than a network of both private and public entities) I'm not that surprised that he's just building upon his fundamental misunderstanding with even more misunderstanding.

Don't throw pearls before, swine, though, as they say. I'll let the thread readers draw their own conclusions from this. I'm outtie.

Geeze use false arguments much?... Sigh! I posted the definition of quasi but genius here tells us it isn't so. Oh well i guess if he says so it must not be... LOL! Then claims he debunked the fed being private and that I believe the fed is monolithic even though I called them a cartel and posted other evidence to the contrary including their own admission and the lack of being able to use the FOIA and the 9th curcuit ruling they are private. Course I won't bother posting the definition to cartel since he will just claim it aint so... Yeah just rely on the Fed Board and their unverifiable reports LOL And then of course he self righteously bows out claiming false victory... Yes indeed we will let the readers decide for themselves. Pearls before swine indeed...

Originally posted by MentorsRiddle
A man once said, "Give me controll of a nations money, and I care not who makes its laws...."

Think about it.

ANd that's the guy our "forefathers"gave the control of the money to.

reply to post by magma



oK... SO. YOU ARE COMPARING MCDONALDS TO THE Central Bank of the U.S.

Really?

All you people must have just stepped off the short bus..
How can you all be so freakin stupid?

Originally posted by carl6405
reply to post by magma

 

oK... SO. YOU ARE COMPARING MCDONALDS TO THE Central Bank of the U.S.

Really?

All you people must have just stepped off the short bus..
How can you all be so freakin stupid?

Maybe you should take a look in the mirror. McDonald's is more fiscally responsible then the Federal Reserve which has bankrupted this country and stolen our wealth and property. McDonald's can't print money and loan it to corrupt governments at interest inflating the economy they actually have to earn it by working hard and not spending more then they make. In fact we would be a hell of a lot better off if our fiscal polices reflected the fiscal business habits of McDonald's.

Nowhere in the constitution is authority given for a Central bank. The Federal reserve is the root of all our economic problems. They should be dismantled and pass a constitutional amendment banning central banks period!

Do you know USA have a private Central Bank ?
All other country have Central Bank too and its fully owned by government except USA.

Do you know now USA have 2 central bank ?
USA have 2 new Central Bank because it allow China to bypass middle man to buy their bonds, sort of same level like the Fed. Just look up the news.

You may argue its "quasi-public"/partial government etc, but the basic premise is - its still a private entity.
We layman dont go too much detail about its hierarchy because we see the basic how it works.

To illustrate point of concept - USA government owe few billions to Fed. How can you owe money to yourself ?
To illustrate point of concept - Other country central bank "own" all the money in circulation and the government own the Central Bank. (EUR is different story)

What you are saying it is just the managerial aspect and detail structure. People dont really care, because in the end - USA government still owe money to Fed - which is , in other country, government OWN the central bank.

Under microscope you are right, but overall, USA is the only country without its own Central Bank.
How screwed government is that ? been almost 200 years remind you!
OK for some moral support - North Dakota have its own state owned bank.

Straight from the horse's mouth. Also! They wont say it clearly but, we all know, the USA government sell bonds to "its" central bank.

Originally posted by hawkiye

...McDonald's is more fiscally responsible then the Federal Reserve which has bankrupted this country and stolen our wealth and property. McDonald's can't print money and loan it to corrupt governments at interest inflating the economy they actually have to earn it by working hard and not spending more then they make. In fact we would be a hell of a lot better off if our fiscal polices reflected the fiscal business habits of McDonald's.

Nowhere in the constitution is authority given for a Central bank. The Federal reserve is the root of all our economic problems. They should be dismantled and pass a constitutional amendment banning central banks period!

THIS!!!!

Ron Paul and Peter Schiff have been warning us with what sounded to me like common sense since well before the housing bubble and the economic crash. I can only assume Bernanke is out for his business and banking(Fed Cartel) partner's best interest as opposed to actually fixing the economy as no one in his position could be this stupid:

Yet another reason to arm yourself.

People need to be buying firearms off the books from private sellers.

Today's observation: my local stores were completely out of 9mm.....shortage made possible by
a jump in government orders......

the last real power play was made long ago. but this is some hard evidence for no believers

Aww relax guys, they are preparing themselves against you. You know, when SHTF and fingers pointing to them, got to save themselves too against you guys... err I mean the riot mob

What's far scarier to me than policing powers is the fact that the Federal Reserve will be buying $40 billion/month in mortgage backed securities for QE3, it's gonna be bad for the people.

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by infiniteclarity
What's far scarier to me than policing powers is the fact that the Federal Reserve will be buying $40 billion/month in mortgage backed securities for QE3, it's gonna be bad for the people.

www.youtube.com...

You got that right! Its not QE3 It's QE indefinitely! It is the final run up to crashing the dollar and the final nail in the coffin of the economy...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by icepack
reply to post by hawkiye

 

the power of this new "police" is not hurting the constitution of the united states, is it ?

you have never read the Constitution, have you?

"Congress shall have the power to Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof."

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809)

it really is a sad day for America when so many people

blindly believe the Fed is working on behalf of the people..

reply to post by Sink the Bismarck!


and after all that..


you still can not see the corrupt angle?

you sir.. are what is referred to as a "mark"..


here is a resource to some very significant Americans who understand the problem you cannot see..