I hear this a lot.  There are many anti-Fed people out there who say, “did you know that the Fed is a private organization?”  I will also hear things like, “the Fed is disguised as a government organization, when it is actually private.”  Unfortunately, the truth is almost the opposite.

I am always happy to hear people when they are against the Federal Reserve system.  Unfortunately, many people are misled and don’t really understand what the Fed does and what purpose it really serves.  Now, it is certainly true that the Fed serves the interests of the big bankers.  However, the Fed also serves the interests of the politicians in Washington DC.

Here are four reasons that the Federal Reserve is a government organization.

1) Look at the website for the Federal Reserve.  It ends in “.gov”.

2) The chairman of the Fed is chosen by the President of the United States.  The chairman is confirmed by the United States Senate.  The seven members of the Board of Governors is also appointed by the President.  Is the CEO of Apple or McDonald’s chosen by the government?

3) The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was passed by Congress and signed into law.  Why was this necessary if the Fed is a private organization?

4) This is by far the most important point.  The Federal Reserve has been granted a monopoly over the U.S. dollar, which is the legal tender for the whole country.  Any person or corporation who tried to do what the Fed does, would be considered a criminal and would most likely go to jail.  If the Fed didn’t have a government-granted monopoly over the money supply, then it wouldn’t be a big deal.

While I like anyone who is anti-Fed, I think it hurts our cause when people get hung up on the idea of the Fed being a private organization.  In fact, even if your definition of a private organization is different than mine, does it really matter?  The whole point is that the Fed does great harm to us by funding Congress, devaluing our money, and causing an artificial business cycle.

We don’t really need to abolish the Federal Reserve.  We just need to revoke its special privileges in having a monopoly over the supply of money.  In fact, we really just need to repeal the legal tender laws, stop taxing gold and silver, and allow for private minting.  We just need to be free to use the form of money of our own choosing.

The Federal Reserve may have been formed by the bankers to help the bankers.  The Fed certainly does help the big bankers as we saw in the fall of 2008.  But the Fed is allowed to exist by Congress because it helps fund Congress.  There is no way that the government could be running trillion dollar deficits without a central bank.  This is why states have to balance their budgets and are very limited as to how much debt can be accumulated.  The federal government doesn’t have these restraints, thanks to the Fed.

In conclusion, you can call the Fed a private organization all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that it has been granted a monopoly over the money supply by the government.  It also doesn’t change the fact that it helps fund the government by buying government debt through money creation.