How Can the Federal Reserve Pay Dividends to Its Shareholders When It Has No Profits?

A political compromise struck in 1913 has put the system of our central bank in an untenable position.

AP/Andrew Harnik, file
The seal of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building at Washington. AP/Andrew Harnik, file

Although the Federal Reserve is — and thinks of itself as — part of the government, 100 percent of the $37 billion in paid-in stock of its twelve component Federal Reserve Banks is owned by private shareholders. This was part of the political compromise of the original 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

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