the senate appoints the members of the board of governors of the federal reserve.
the senate appoints the members of the board of governors of the federal reserve.
who appoints the members of the board of governors of the federal reserve?
the senate
since the founding of the federal reserve banking system, the federal reserve bank of new york in manhattan's financial district has been the place where monetary policy in the united states is implemented, although policy is decided in washington, d.c. by the federal reserve board of governors. the federal reserve bank of new york is the largest in terms of assets of the twelve regional banks. operating in the financial capital of the u.s., the federal reserve bank of new york is responsible for conducting open market operations, the buying and selling of outstanding u.s. treasury securities. the trading desk is the office at the federal reserve bank of new york that manages the fomc directive to sell or buy bonds. note that the responsibility for "issuing" new u.s. treasury securities lies with the bureau of the public debt. in 2003, fedwire, the federal reserve's system for transferring balances between it and other banks, transferred $1.8 trillion a day in funds, of which about $1.1 trillion originated in the second district. it transferred an additional $1.3 trillion a day in securities, of which $1.2 trillion originated in the second district. the federal reserve bank of new york is also responsible for carrying out exchange rate policy by buying and selling dollars at the discretion of the united states treasury department. the federal reserve bank of new york is the only regional bank with a permanent vote on the federal open market committee and its president is traditionally selected as the committee's vice chairman.currently, it is reputedly the largest gold repository in the world (though this cannot be confirmed as swiss banks do not report their gold stocks) and holds approximately of gold bullion ($415 billion as of october 2011), more than fort knox. nearly 98% of the gold at the federal reserve bank of new york is owned by the central banks of foreign nations. the rest is owned by the united states and international organizations such as the imf. the federal reserve bank does not own the gold but serves as guardian of the precious metal, which it stores at no charge to the owners, but charging a $1.75 fee (in 2008) per bar to move the gold. moving the bars requires special footwear for the staff, to protect their feet in case they drop one of the gold bars weighing . the vault is open to tourists.
federal reserve bank of new york
the federal reserve banks have an intermediate legal status, with some features of private corporations and some features of public federal agencies. the united states has an interest in the federal reserve banks as tax-exempt federally created instrumentalities whose profits belong to the federal government, but this interest is not proprietary. each member bank (commercial banks in the federal reserve district) owns a nonnegotiable share of stock in its regional federal reserve bank. however, holding federal reserve bank stock is unlike owning stock in a publicly traded company. the charter of each federal reserve bank is established by law and cannot be altered by the member banks. federal reserve bank stock cannot be sold or traded, and member banks do not control the federal reserve bank as a result of owning this stock. they do, however, elect six of the nine members of the federal reserve banks' boards of directors. in "lewis v. united states", the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit stated that: "the reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the ftca [the federal tort claims act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." the opinion went on to say, however, that: "the reserve banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes." another relevant decision is "scott v. federal reserve bank of kansas city", in which the distinction is made between federal reserve banks, which are federally created instrumentalities, and the board of governors, which is a federal agency.
structure of the federal reserve system