Have you noticed how many people believe that the Federal Reserve is a department of the federal government? It was brought to mind by some of the claims I’ve read this afternoon that Bear Stearns was bailed out by the government.
The Federal Reserve isn’t “the government”. It’s an odd public-private hybrid that exemplifies the underlying structure of our society in some interesting ways.
IIRC we haven’t had a real national bank since Jackson was president.
