Romney or Obama?

[John Snowstorm]

It does. The "dividend" is a reimbursement of sorts. It is not a distribution of profit. That is a big difference.

All dividends are reimbursement, you're just playing semantics. I have shares in a glass company, the dividends I receive are both a distribution of profits AND a reimbursement for my investment. The difference is, the fed pays out a 6% dividend by law every year, perhaps not astoundingly profitable by wall street or hedge fund standards but a surefire guaranteed 6% payout is huge. I'd take it. lol.

If you really think banks need compensation above and beyond the rewards they reap from receiving huge fed loans at next to no interest, approved by their own CEOs who are on the board, then we have a fundamental disagreement which I don't think is likely to be resolved.

There is good reason for the elected government to not control monetary policy. Otherwise right before elections, guess who will be printing money?

Which is so much better than bankers printing money to give themselves interest free loans. You're assuming the fed isn't riddled with conflicts of interest.

The government owns no stock because the Fed doesn't hold any government security. Since the stock is essentially a receipt saying "we received your money, thanks" the government doesn't need to hold stock.

All stock are receipts saying thanks for the cash.

You are partially right. It was set up to be largely independent of "government" and it was expected that it would work closely with private banks. Doesn't make it private. It is still very much a public institution that maintains the health of the fiscal system by setting and executing monetary policy. And if you view the recent recession as a result of bad fiscal policy, it isn't. It was a failure of federal oversight on the financial system, not bad macroeconomics on the part of the Fed.

That is a different discussion, which I may agree with you on, however that is not what I am saying.

If you have a group which is not controlled, or even accountable to, the executive or legislative branches of government, who's stock is owned by private entities who sit on the board of that group then it is a farce to claim that it is "very much a public institution". A few presidential appointments a public institution does not make.