>>> cberlet at igc.org 10/03/00 06:51PM >>>
Most of the rhetoric about the Federal Reserve being private originally comes from the John Birch Society and other right-wing populist groups.
There are two main conspiracist variants:
secular: secret banking elites own the Fed to suck money out of the middle class. See: G. Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island.
antisemitic: same as above but it is Jewish bankers controlled by the Rothschilds. See: Eustace Mullins, Secrets of the Federal Reserve.
Search the web on these two titles and open Pandora's box.
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Charles B: There's also the theory of state-monopoly capitalism, that the government in general is on balance an agent of the private sector, helping to suck money out of the working class. This theory is not just rhetoric , but a claim well supported by evidence. One thing we can see clearly, the Fed doesn't act against the interests of finance capital and the financial oligarchy. Another thing definite is that secret or very private banking elites exist and are the main sector of the capitalist ruling class in 2000. Ergo, banking elites no doubt do control the Fed. Alan Greenspan is not a public servant, rather a private servant.
In this era of privatization of every aspect of government, it is not at all strange to think of the Fed as privatized.