Federal Reserve System Quotes

“The Fed is a disaster. We should have a discussion in this country about whether we need a Fed.”

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit….”

“The Federal Reserve Board regulates the Reserve Banks, but direct supervision and control of each Bank is exercised by its board of directors.”

“The Federal Reserve and this administration failed the American people by not heeding these warnings a year ago, and not acting sooner to address it”

“I cannot say with what deep emotions of gratitude I feel that I have had a part in completing a work which I believe will be of lasting benefit to the business of the country.”

“The Federal Reserve, as one writer put it, after the recent increase in the discount rate, is in the position of the chaperone who has ordered the punch bowl removed just when the party was really warming up.”

“Neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities. Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper, deposits merely book entries. Coins do have some intrinsic value as metal, but generally far less than their face value.”

“When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money.”

“This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized […] the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill.”

“The Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes…. This court held that a Federal Reserve Bank employee who was responsible for recommending expenditure of federal funds was a "public official" under the Federal Bribery Statute.”

“The Banks are empowered to sue and be sued in their own name…. They carry their own liability insurance and typically process and handle their own claims. In the past, the Banks have defended against tort claims directly, through private counsel, not government attorneys….”

“The Consumer Price Index is 15 times higher than it was when the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913. In the hundred years prior to the advent of the Federal Reserve, prices in America fell by one third.”

“Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and through its Board of Governors manipulates the credit of the United States.”

“Examining the organization and function of the Federal Reserve Banks, and applying the relevant factors, we conclude that the Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA [Federal Tort Claims Act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.”

“The Federal Reserve Banks, while not part of the government, are the central banking sytem for the Nation.… Holdings of Federal debt by the Federal Reserve Banks do not have the same impact on private credit markets as other debt held by the public. Their holdings of Federal debt arise from their role as the country's central bank.”

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

“The Reserve Banks are deemed to be federal instrumentalities for purposes of immunity from state taxation…. The test for determining whether an entity is a federal instrumentality for purposes of protection from state or local action or taxation, however, is very broad: whether the entity performs an important governmental function…. The Reserve Banks, which further the nation's fiscal policy, clearly perform an important governmental function.”

“By making money artificially scarce interest rates throughout the country can be arbitrarily raised and the bank tax on all business and cost of living increased for the profit of the banks owning these regional central banks, and without the slightest benefit to the people. These 12 corporations together cover the whole country and monopolize and use for private gain every dollar of the public currency, and all public revenues of the United States.”

“The powers vested in the Federal Reserve Board seem to me highly dangerous especially when there is political control of the Board. I should be sorry to hold stock in a bank subject to such dominations. The [Federal Reserve] bill as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency.… I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency.”

“Brinks Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System … held that a Federal Reserve Bank is a federal instrumentality for purposes of the Service Contract Act.… Unlike in Brinks, plaintiffs are not without a forum in which to seek a remedy, for they may bring an appropriate state tort claim directly against the Bank; and if successful, their prospects of recovery are bright since the institutions are both highly solvent and amply insured.”