Talk:Federal Reserve Bank

Image of Federal Reserve Bank Locations
I noticed that the image of a map of the US showing the 12 federal reserve banks is not correct ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Federal_Reserve_Districts_Map.svg"), showing one of the banks located out of Cincinnati instead of Cleveland, when the Cincinnati location is really only a branch of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. A better image would be the one provided by the federal reserve itself at:

("http://www.federalreserveonline.org/")

Function section
The final paragraph of the "Function" section says:
 * "A major responsibility of The Federal Reserve is to oversee their banking and financial systems. Overseeing the banking and financial systems of a bank is crucial in a society.(citation)
 * ":Confidence in the soundness of the banking and financial systems is what mobilizes a societies savings, allows the savings to be channeled into productive investments, and encourages economic growth."

This strikes me as either opinion or a poorly written cite to an opinion. I'm considering just deleting the section. Any discussion? Cranialsodomy (talk) 04:09, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Attention tag.
This article is off to an alright start, but I noticed a lot of it comes directly from material on the web. As far as I can tell, it's public domain stuff, so there's no copyright issue persay, but it might be nice if the material were more original. I went ahead and put an attention notice on the page. NymphadoraTonks 29 June 2005 04:08 (UTC)

Merge into Federal Reserve?
Is there any reason for this page and Federal Reserve to coexist? Since that page has much more material, maybe this should redirect there and any differences between the pages can be resolved.

Afelton 18:12, August 4, 2005 (UTC)


 * OK, this has been done given the interest expressed on Talk:Federal Reserve Afelton 18:52, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I have unmerged it because the current Federal Reserve System article doesn't cover this adequately and is itself facing a split.Smallman12q (talk) 20:28, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I removed the Controversy section, it was confusing, poorly worded, and contained no actual controversy. The only useful reference it made was to implied powers, which is better left for the main Federal Reserve page anyway, but if someone wants to stick it back in somewhere: "Through this argument, a whole new way of interpreting the constitution came about known as the doctrine of implied powers. Cowen, David J. and Robert E. Wright. Financial Founding Fathers. Chicago: Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen, 2006." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.247.156.10 (talk) 19:00, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree that this page is of poor quality and generally fits within the scope of page Federal Reserve System and should be either removed or completely redone to have a much narrower focus. Consider the following example of problems. In the next to last paragraph of the section "Function", the subject is the "Federal Reserve System" (rather than Federal Reserve Bank). It says, "The only means in which the Federal Reserve System can create money is by offering banking institutions additional credit on the reserves held by the Federal Reserve System to those financial institutions in need of additional assistance." This is incorrect, per article Federal Reserve System which correctly states the Federal Reserve creates money via the Open Market Operations (i.e. printing money to buy Treasuries from non-government entities), Discount Window loans to banks (i.e. printing money and loaning it to banks), Changing Reserve Requirements (the fraction of demand deposits that must be be deposited with the Federal Reserve.) This is correct per Samuelson, Robert, "Economics" Eleventh Edition, 1980 McGraw-Hill, Inc., Chapter 17, Federal Reserve and Central Bank Monetary Policy, pp. 295-312.

Expanded FED Power
The Paul Samuelson and William Nordhaus book "Economics" though correct in its assertions regarding powers of the FED, is somewhat outdated. The FED can "print" money anytime it likes by extending loans. In 2008 the FED extended a two trillion dollar loan (reported in Bloomberg 11/10/08) and refused to discuss to whom it was made or what its purpose might be. That is a significant increase in the money supply with apparently neither government intervention nor knowledge. There was certainly little, if any, transparency. This reflects the capacity of the FED not only to monitor the economy, but the ability to influence or change it at will.

Merger from Federal Reserve Districts
The merger from Federal Reserve districts (original) is sloppy in that sources and quotes weren't copied over.Smallman12q (talk) 00:57, 1 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I tried my best. Feel free to fix any problems you see. LK (talk) 08:50, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

How does it work?
The article says nothing about how the Fed works. Is it like conventional banks that invest depositors' money in loans or other securities? Was the two-trillion-dollar loan described above based on bank assets or did the bank create money out of thin air by some means? If the latter, how can it do that? What is meant when it's said that the Fed "prints" money? Virgil H. Soule (talk) 02:32, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

The Federal Reserve Banking system or Fed, set up in 1913 after the Economic Panic of 1907 is the central bank of the United States of America. It offers insurance on investors money. By doing this it prints money to send to local banks for distribution to investors. However, this act would lead to inflation as more money is printed and put into circulation so the Fed also destroys old money from banks. However, destroying too much money could lead to economic depression if the Fed is unable to give money to local banks and local banks in turn give money to investors. It is because of this the Fed works to keep a middle ground between inflation and economic depression. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.125.10.48 (talk) 04:29, 16 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Zbvhs: The Fed must be understood as a system. For that explanation, see Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve's creation of money happens independently from its issue and retirement of notes. The Fed doesn't create money by "printing" but rather by crediting the accounts of other institutions. Inflation from this activity is not limited by destroying notes; it is limited by exchanging the new money for assets that already exist in the economy. 2001:558:6045:D8:61BE:60A0:94BA:A195 (talk) 05:11, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

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