Linder pointed out in his spintro that the Federal Reserve Bank ("the Fed") is a private entity. Upon visiting one of the links Linder provided, I came upon this page here, one of the most cleverly deceptive pieces of PR I have ever come across:

http://www.philadelphiafed.org/publicaffairs/faq.html

Let's take a close look at the Feds claims on that page a little more closely, and read between the lines, particularly regarding the question of "who owns the Fed?":

About The Fed

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns the Fed?

Federal Reserve Banks, created by an act of Congress in 1913, are operated in the public interest rather than for profit or to benefit any private group.

Really? Let's see about that...

Member banks hold stock in their regional Reserve Banks, but do not control the Federal Reserve System.

Member banks own the stock of the Fed, which means that they own the Fed.

Holding this stock does not carry with it the control and financial interest that holding publicly traded stock allows.

A lie.

Why?

Because two lines later, they reveal that:

Member banks receive a fixed 6 percent dividend annually on their stock

A fixed 6 percent annual dividend IS most certainly a "financial interest".

And that is on top of the profits those banks make from their daily operations such as lending at interest and collecting fees from accountholders.

So, where does that illegitimate 6% annual dividend go?

Right into the pockets of the private shareholders of the member banks.

Yet, in the very first line, they claimed that the Federal Reserve Banks are "operated in the public interest rather than for profit or to benefit any private group."

So, here they have been exposed, by their own words, as outright liars.

Does it get any clearer than that?

As if that weren't enough, they are so audacious that they even expand on their lies while pretending to answer the initial question:

So, who owns the Fed? Although it is set up like a private corporation and member banks hold its stock, the Fed owes its existence to an act of Congress and has a mandate to serve the public.

The Fed has a mandate to "serve the public", yet it is set up like a private corporation, and it's profits (6% annual dividends) flow into the pockets of the private individuals who own the stock of the member banks.

How is that "serving the public"?

Therefore, the most accurate answer may be that the Fed is “owned” by the citizens of the United States.

Another lie. They just admitted, in their own words, that the stock and financial dividends (profits) both flow to the stockholders of the member banks, yet they have the audacity to lie right to our faces and falsely claim that the Fed is "owned" by the citizens of the United States!

Ok Fed liars, if I, as a citizen, "own" the Fed, then where are my dividends?

Since they aren't being sent to me annually, where are they going?

Are they being deposited into the US Treasury in my name, to offset my taxes?

No.

Then where are they going?

Oh that's right, the profits from the Regional Federal Reserve banks are going directly into the pockets of the private groups or individuals who own the stock of the member banks.

Yet the Fed website told us that:

Federal Reserve Banks... are operated in the public interest rather than for profit or to benefit any private group.

A system truly "operated in the public interest" would deposit it's 6% annual dividends into the US Treasury, to pay for the Federal Budget, instead of into the pockets of private shareholders of private banks.

The member banks who own and profit from the Federal Reserve System are liars, and are stealing billions (perhaps trillions) from the US Government and the citizens of this great country.

Please disseminate this post all over the internet, and to every Congressperson and Senator you can in order to expose, and put a stop to, this massive fraud.