The US Central Bank: The Federal Reserve (AKA "The Fed")

Many people believe the Fed is somehow a private entity. In some sense, that may be technically true, but presidents report Fed leaders, and the Fed follows the dictates of Congress to the letter. Yes, it has private shareholders, and it often does things congress and the public don't like, but it always creates the currency at the direction of Congress.

To find out about this institution, you can read William Greider's Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country, but without a framework of understanding, it comes across as just historical gibberish--both too much information and too little connecting the dots.

A better look at the Fed and its recent history is Matt Stoller's column about it "Federal Reserve  Independence is Bad" Subtitle: "Donald Trump wants to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell. He should be able to do so. The Fed needs to be controlled by elected leaders, not Wall Street. Even if those elected leaders are bad."

Stoller is no Trump fan, but he notes that this important institution has for too long been immune to electoral accountability for things like encouraging exploding derivatives, or bailing out banks despite legislative attempts to put an end to that (e.g., Dodd-Frank). It's supposed "independence" is a smokescreen for favoring the financial sector repeatedly.

Says Stoller: "I think we should respond to bad leaders by electing different leaders, not by removing important areas of politics from political control. I also think Trump, yes even Trump, will do a better job at managing the central bank than a leadership group insulated from political control.

"When it is not, there are three problems. First, Americans lose faith in democracy as a meaningful system. They want their elected leaders to deal with prices, but their elected leaders have foregone any control over the institution tasked with doing so. Second, the Fed operating without direction from elected leaders gives politicians bad habits. For instance, Joe Biden’s administration was crippled in part by his refusal to take control of monetary policy, giving him an excuse not to even try addressing inflation. And third, Federal Reserve leaders and the institutional culture, without political control, become dedicated to consolidating financial power."

Stoller then puts history in context, recounting the Fed's misbehavior, and its relatively recent independence from more political control. 

More Stoller: "Since the Federal Reserve became “independent” of political control in the late 1970s, America has not coincidentally undergone a period of dramatic financialization. And that was intentional. Remember, Fed Chair Paul Volcker used to carry around a card of union wage rates, as a reminder that his goal in achieving low inflation was to break union power. The Federal Reserve is responsible in part or fully for the legalization of derivatives, the explosion of subprime lending during the 2000s, the great financial crisis, a trillion dollar transfer of wealth to big banks as interest rates increased, the institutionalization of crypto-currencies, the merger explosion of the early 2020s, and the failed regulation of Silicon Valley Bank, among other problems. It’s also a highly political institution, pushing free trade and defending large banks; in the 1990s, Fed officials secretly bailed out Mexico so as to protect Citibank and pass NAFTA. " 

..."In 2020, I noted that every single board member of the central bank is a multi-millionaire. This institution is organized to represent creditors and debtors, and yet what “independence” really means is that millionaires make choices out of the limelight of anyone but Wall Street."

 Steve Keen evaluates Fed policy (and it doesn't bode well for continued "independence"):