FED shareholders are private banks. In fact, 100% of its shareholders are private banks. None of its stock is owned by the government. The stock may not be sold, traded. Dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year.
If the Fed were actually a federal agency, the government could issue U.S. legal tender directly, avoiding an unnecessary interest-bearing debt to private middlemen (banks) who create the money out of thin air themselves.
The Fed’s mandate is to keep the private banking system intact. That means keeping intact the system’s most valuable asset, a monopoly on creating the national money supply.
When the Federal Reserve writes a check for a government bond it does exactly what any bank does, it creates money, it created money purely and simply by writing a check. There is no printing or engraving involved.
