The Fed chair and board is appointed by the President and approved by Congress. It hasn't been tested in court whether the President can fire them.
What?
the US Mint in the US Department of Treasury creates money (which it then banks in its account at the federal reserve), though perhaps the ebb and tide of money into and out of the economy is more like what you describe?
"The actual process of money creation takes place primarily in banks." [0]
[0] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Modern_Money_Mechanics/Introd...
Here's where money is physically created, somewhat of a curious point since so much of transacted 'money' is digital, and perhaps why the article above misleadingly says "creates".
The primary way money is made is through loans, though the Fed buying treasuries also creates large amounts of money. When you deposit at a bank, they're only required to create a fraction of that deposit available. Hence - fractional reserve banking. [1] You deposit at a bank, they take that deposit and lend it out to somebody who now spends that money which eventually ends up getting deposited at a bank again, and the process iterates. If at some point everybody demands their money, a run on the bank, which the bank could not afford as they've lent out deposits to other people, then the Fed bails them out.
The exact process is slightly more subtle, but not fundamentally different. There's a lot of great videos on a search for 'how money is created' at any video site. Because it's a question few know the answer to, everybody wants to know the answer to, and the answer itself is somewhat unsettling.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
Owners of money are those that actually own it in the bank. Then there are those who own it in the form of assets which also helps divert control of value away from the Fed.
In fact almost all rich people don't own money, they own some form of asset which has intrinsic value.
Therefore rich people are the owners of money.
When you have banks that are incentivized to raise interest rates enough to make a ton of money but not enough to crash the economy, you keep the dollar as the strongest currency in the world. That's a good thing - the last thing I would want is for less free countries to expand their influence.
Got these anyway. ZIRP priced the middle class out of equity ownership. That historic bull run is from goosing the numbers, not record productivity. The S&P was ~750 in 1990. Things are not 6x better.
We should let treasury auctions decide the yield curve, not a committee of 12 people.
The Federal Reserve (which, despite its name, is not a part of the US Government) is the de facto institution that controls money in the United States. All US Dollars are created by the Federal Reserve.
It was created "for central control of the monetary system in order to alleviate financial crises".
It is owned by member banks - "A member bank is a private institution and owns stock in its regional Federal Reserve Bank. All nationally chartered banks hold stock in one of the Federal Reserve Banks... The amount of stock a member bank must own is equal to 3% of its combined capital and surplus"
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bsx0wq4jdzo82... -
"Now, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request filed late last year by Institutional Investor, we know the truth.
II asked the New York Fed for the capital stock holdings of its members as of year-end 2018, as well as for each year going back to 2007. The bank responded with copies of what it calls its Capital Stock Master Report, a compendium of shareholdings of member banks, for each of those years.
The big reveal for year-end 2018: Citibank, the No. 1 institution on the roster, held 87.9 million New York Federal Reserve Bank shares – or 42.8 percent of the total.
The No. 2 holder stockholder was JPMorgan Chase Bank, with 60.6 million shares, equal to 29.5 percent of the total. In other words, the two banks together control nearly three-quarters of the regional bank’s capital shares."
The Federal Reserve banks pay 6% dividend to member banks holding shares.
The big banks effectively own the Federal Reserve.