Federal Reserve System?

Question

What is the mission of the federal reserve system and how does it go about acomplishing its mission?

Answer 1

Their mission statement can be found at their web site

"The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded.

Today, the Federal Reserve’s duties fall into four general areas:

- conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates

- supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers

- maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets

- providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system "

(Ref: http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinf...

The Board of Governors handles monetary policy, while the branches perform day to day operations.

Here are some links to check out

The Federal Reserve - Board of Governors site - http://www.federalreserve.gov/

A Federal Reserve site for educators - http://www.federalreserveeducation.org

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Res...

FAQs - http://www.federalreserve.gov/faq.htm

How the Fed works - http://money.howstuffworks.com/fed.htm

What is the Federal Reserve - http://www.thisnation.com/question/033.h...

Answer 2

It is an illegal system that was not given constitutional permission by the 16th amendment, since it was never ratified anyway(not enough people present.)  

It pretty much is the reason that we had the Great Depression, since it causes mass inflation, whereas if we had a gold standard prices for goods would go down, not up.  Just compare prices from early 1800's to 1900 and then to now.  

Also, it prints lots of paper money which is worthless, though it must be used to buy items.  Each dollar comes with its own "worth" plus interest, so that the money that is unlawfully taken away from citizens for the income tax pays for this interest on the dollar (and our foreign interventionist policies.)

Really it is the reason the US is screwed up right now, and in debt.  Basically, because of that system, we will probably not get out of debt for decades to come.

Answer 3

The mission is to create inflation and brainwash the public into thinking there is such a thing as an "acceptable" level of inflation. The chairman of the FED is also in charge of pushing the UP/DOWN interest rate buttom and handing over public money to bail out private enterprises.