Fed not part of gov't

[Max Sawicky]

> Re Barkley's:  "Without doubt the Fed is a strange beast."
> 
> "Constitutionally, the Federal Reserve is a pretty queer duck," is the
> way longtime Fed enemy Wright Patman put it.  At Rep. Patman's urging,
> the District of Columbia's tax collector once badgered the Fed to pay
> property taxes on its headquarters building.  The Fed claimed it was a
> public institution, hence tax-exempt; countering this, it was argued
> that -- since commercial banks held stock in Federal Reserve Banks --
> the Fed was a creature of the private sector, hence taxable.  Things got
> so heated that the District of Columbia threatened to seize the Fed's
> headquarters and sell it at a public auction.  After years of court
> wrangling, the Fed's view prevailed (as always).

D.C. more recently tried to get Fannie Mae to pay taxes.
Note this outfit provides returns to private investors.
They argued they served the same purposes as a non-profit
and should be exempt.  Still don't pay taxes.

mbs