ARGGGGH, the amount of Ron-Paul "End The Fed" nonsense on DU is mind-boggling!

[Odin2005]

Somebody tell these people that the Federal Reserve is NOT a "private cabal", it's a typical central bank run by a committee appointed by Congress.

And when you go down the rabbit hole and research the sources of this ignorance you find lots of anti-Semetism and nativistic anti-European "evil Jewish Bankers commin' over from Europe" crap.

[onager]

1. But...there was a REAL Federal Reserve crime conspiracy!1!

I heard this bit of trivia (for the first time) in the Ken Burns documentary about Prohibition.

In 1929, tired of costly gang wars, hijackings and vendettas, America's major criminals met in Atlantic City to establish territories. Everybody was there, or at least everybody who had survived the past decade: Capone, Meyer Lansky, Luciano, etc. etc.

To set up the crime territories, they borrowed the national "grid" system used by the Federal Reserve banks.

[Warpy]

2. I tend to shut them up quickly

when I suggest that a central bank is a good idea, but we might consider nationalizing ours.