Serious question. IS the fed really private?
The Fed is owned by its member institutions (National Banks are required to be members, state banks can opt to be (state member banks), not sure on thrifts and credit unions). Therefore, it is privately owned.
The Fed is run by the board of governors who are appointed by the president. there are seven, but two spots have been vacant for a while. Each Fed Branch(there are 12) has a president which is nominated by that branch's board, but subject to fed board (or maybe its the president) approval. each fed board is elected by the member institutions. there is a new agency created under dodd-frank that is an arm of the fed which is made up of each banking regulator and the head of the new consumer protection agency (also created under dodd-frank) which is supposed to make sure the financial world doesn't collapse again. previously this was the fed board of governors job, but they didn't know how to do it. apparently the new government body of the same people will though, so that's good. clearly the governance of the fed is public and an arcane bureaucracy, so obviously part of the federal govt.
