>I overheard an argument at a meeting yesterday and, not knowing the
>answer, didn't say a thing. But
>I was thinking that maybe someone on this list knows for sure and
>can clarify things. Is the US
>Federal Reserve Bank a private entity or a government agency?
It's a public-private partnership, you might say. The 12 regional banks are technically owned by member banks in their districts, and they choose 2/3 of the board of directors. The Board in Washington, however, is a government entity, with its members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Monetary policy is set by the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee, 7 of whose members are the appointed and confirmed members of the Board, with the remainging 5 members consisting of the regional bank presidents, who serve in rotation (with the exception of the president of the New York Fed, who is a permanent member, because the NY Fed is the agent that carries out monetary policy, by buying and selling Treasury securities on the open market).
Note that the regional Feds all use .org suffixes on their websites, not .gov's. The Board uses both bog.frb.fed.us and federalreserve.gov. The New York Fed isn't listed in the blue government pages of the phone book; don't know about other branches.
Doug