Who Owns The Fed? - Wrong Question

Many people have been frustrated when trying to determine who actually owns the private entity known as the Federal Reserve.  That's because the Fed itself has historically taken pathologically profound steps to ensure against it becoming known.

But if you think about it, perhaps ownership - who the shareholders are - might not be as important as who directs its activities.  In other words, in whose behalf the Fed actually functions.  We hear a lot about the Fed existing to preserve the country's basic banking system and serve the nation by accomplishing its dual mandates.

Consider the relationship between the Fed and the primary dealers.  These bodies basically want the public to believe that primary dealers facilitate the Fed's objectives by acting as trading counterparties of the NY Fed.  That they ensure the Fed's objectives are implemented to achieve desired results.

But what if this is actually ass-backwards?  What if the evolution of the financial industry is such that the Fed now exists to carry out the desires of the banking elite?   The most recent development of the Fed supporting Bank Of America transferring toxic assets from its Merrill Lynch division to the bank holding company supported by customer accounts (despite deserved disagreement from the FDIC) appears to support this thesis.  The FDIC believes the taxpayer should not again act as a backstop for Merrill's gambling habit while the Fed apparently does.  Add this to the $700 billion TARP program, Fed discount window policies and the basic free money with no conditions attached philosophy and it becomes pretty apparent who's running the show.  Also the insane decision to allow such entities as  Goldman Sachs to become bank holding companies in the first place.  Not to even mention exchanging liquid treasuries for "value unknown" pieces of paper (derivatives) or "100 cents on the dollar" decisions.  A never ending arrangement of exchanging solid assets for trash.

A quick review of the NY Fed primary dealers list reveals it is filled to brimming over with TBTF  banks.  While Bank Of America proper is not on it, Merrill is.  And the list does not consist only of American institutions.  Actually BAC could be said to be on it by some kind of convoluted situation involving Merrill and Banc of America.

The primary dealers constantly meet and interact with the Fed.  Interact to the extent that they know before anyone else about forthcoming Fed actions.  Getting this information early allows them to front run every QE implementation and Twist policy.  To allow them to set up their positions and profit from everything others learn about later.  But it gets worse - of late the Fed has even been requesting advice from the TBTFs about moves it is considering.

No, the Federal Reserve does not act to preserve the banking system as a whole - it exists to serve the desires of the primary dealers.  The question of who owns the Fed is not the proper one.  The appropriate question is who controls the Fed and ensures that it acts in their best interests.  The answer to this question is the primary dealers.  And the primary dealers list is synonymous with the list of TBTF banks.

The TBTF banks have actually taken over a private entity which profoundly effects the lives of every American.  This country is very far from a free capitalism democracy with equal opportunity for all.  It has been hijacked by the most greedy, wanton, unpatriotic species known to man.  The .01% that the Occupy Wall Street/99% demonstrators target - but Congress, Presidents, Treasury Secretaries and the Federal Reserve serve.

UPDATE :  The recent audit of the Fed revealing $16 trillion in secret near-zero interest loans to certain banks and biggest corporations does VERY little to dispel the above and much to support it.