🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3hb7pt$7lr@csnews.cs.Colorado.EDU>
           bear@tigger.cs.colorado.edu "Bear Giles" writes:

> In article <3hb2il$lvs@crl12.crl.com>, Bruce Tomlin <btomlin@aol.com> wrote:
> >Cliff Woods (Cliff@arcmusic.demon.co.uk) wrote in alt.2600:
> >> 
> >>Give us a break!  I thought the Feb res Bank was a PRIVATE bank - what's 
> >>this "the nation" stuff????
> >
> >It's a sad fact that more non-US citizens know that the Fed is a private
> >(and monopolistic) bank than US citizens.  At least Federal Express was
> >honest enough to refer to themselves as "not a part of the US government". 
> 
> I think the Fed is actually one of those semi-public hybrids.  It's
> not a "private" bank because the officers are named by the President
> and confirmed by the Senate, but it's not "public" because it's 
> independent of the normal bureaucracy and the President can't fire
> the officers once confirmed.  He has to wait until their term expires,
> and then simply replaces them.  (Or there's an impeachment process,
> but it's ungainly and rarely/never used.)
> 
> The central bank in other countries is generally part of the government,
> but there's a lot to be said for an organization which keep it fairly
> independent.  For instance, we don't have to worry about a President
> drastically increasing M1 so everyone feels "rich" prior to the election...
> and is unemployed due to hyperinflation a few months later.
> 
> Considering the events around the start of the Great Depression, it's
> hard to fault the desire to keep the Fed fairly independent.
> 
> "Federal Express", in contrast, is a purely public corporation.  The
> President can no more name officers of FedEx than he can of GM, or Ford,
> or IBM.
> 
> BTW, was "Cliff Woods" a sly pseudonym?  I seem to remember "Clifford Woods",
> or something similar, being the name of an important monetary treaty.
> I think it might have been the one that took the U.S. and Europe off
> of fixed exchange rates... aka the "gold standard."

no - not a sly pseudo - just my name - and it was Clifford Woods as far 
as I recall...

and BTW - I think the Fed is ACTUALLY very private indeed!  That 
election bit is a public showcase!

> 
> -- 
> Bear Giles
> bear@cs.colorado.edu/fsl.noaa.gov
> 

-- 
Cliff Woods, International Sales and Marketing  Phone: +44 1342 328567
ARC Music Productions Int. Ltd, PO Box 111      Fax:   +44 1342 315958
East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 2YF, UK       cliff@arcmusic.demon.co.uk