The American money capture

[hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)]

>The Fed is pretty easy to understand. Although its set up to be
>quasi-independant, it more or less the government body that regulates
>the banking industry and controls the money supply.

I have the opportunity of a group meeting with some of the SF Fed
operations staff a couple of weeks ago.  Their words:

	"The Fed is in the government but not of the government"

Other tidbits:

-- The new Fed funds transfer system will continue to use DES, and
will not be using Clipper.

-- The Fed wants to get rid of paper checks.  The check subsidy from
the float is enormous.  The purpose of the Expedited Funds Transfer
Act (mandated two day clearing of checks over $2500, among other
things) was to start squeezing the float out of the checking system.

Eric