The chairman is appointed by the President.
Agreed
The board members by who knows.
I think the Regional Fed Reserve Banks
The gold in Ft Knox is gone.
NO Rick yer real wrong here!!
The chairman of the Fed does make a report to Congress and the Fed is chartered by the government.
Agreed
The government does not control the actions of the Fed.
Not directly day to day, this was set up to take the best minds of banking n' let them run this aspect of our monetary system. The Gubmint would mess things up with politics if it worked any other way. The ultimate corntrol is indirectly by the Gubmint.
The Fed can cause depression and inflation.
Yup, but monetary policy is VERY transparent n' takes at least six months to have effect fer a reason n' no Fed Chairman or Fed Res Board would stay in place long without the full faith of our political leaders. [Some exceptions are reserve requirements n' other EMERGENCY tools that could bring any Federal Reserve Bank to a halt in a couple of minutes.]
they can inflate the money supply or contract the money supply.
Yup
When we enter a recession the money just doesn't up and disappear.
OH yes it does Rick! It's called disintermediation. The recent crisis was related to this very corncept, n' the cornfidence came back after the European Central bank n' our Fed acted to liquify.
It just changes hands and goes back the banks and the men who control the banks.
Wrong: see above! Disintermediation is like the tide, cornfidence is the only way to stop it.
Some people get rich from depressions.
Of 'course they do. Most get poor. Short stocks n' go long credit worthy long bonds!! Maybe gold, (much less predictable with tangables).
Greenbacks have not been printed in a very very long time by the government.
I was usin' slang fer Federal reserve notes if yer tryin to score points now about the silver certificates, gold standard carp. Knock it off already. Let's not intentionally cornfuse every one here!! The US Treasury PRINTS ALL US CURRENCY n' has since 1913.
It may not be a bad idea to go back to the old greenback system but the Central Banks of this planet would put up a big fuss.
OK OK sorry I used slang, (greenbacks) lets stick with Fed Reserve Notes (in shades of green hence the slang), backed by the full faith n' credit of Nanny Gubmint that's the US gubmint. Yer really full of this stuff.
What makes a Federal Reserve Note worth anything is that it is legal tender for all debts public and private. We accept them and the government will accept them for the paying of taxes.
Yup.
The money supply is all borrowed from {{{Wrong: created by}}} the Fed.
Based on one and only one thing Rick: "the full faith n' credit" of the largest entity on this planet with the strongest military n' the POWER to tax the wealthiest people n' corporations on said planet: US GUBMINT.
The government borrows money from the Fed.
No Rick technically the Fed borrows money based on the credit of the US Gubmint, n' said Gubmint prints the stuff NOT THE FED!
The government does issue bonds.
