Do foreign banks control the Federal Reserve?

Just a lot of untrue and out-of-date conspiracy talk.

Let's look at the list...

Rothschild Bank of London - No such bank exists today.

The Rothschild name is used a lot in international banking conspiracy theories. And there was a time when the Rothschold family did have signficiant power in world banking.

But times change. Once considered one of the great fortunes of the world, the Rothschild empire is but a shadaw of it's former self. "Rothschild bankers of today being only a minor player in the global economy." - ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_...

Warburg Bank of Hamburg - Currently doing business as "M.M. Warburg and Company"
([http://mmwarburg.de/en/bankhaus/adre... )

The Bank has not been owned or controlled by the Warburgs since the 1930s driven out by anti-semite practices in Nazi Germany.

"Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht told Max M. Warburg during a meeting in Berlin in September 1937 that he could no longer keep the bank…(it) was confiscated when the war broke out." ([http://mmwarburg.de/en/bankhaus/hist...

"… Virtually all members of the Warburg family had fled to the United States or Great Britain by 1938." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_family])

Rothschild Bank of Berlin - There is no such bank. Rothschilds does not even have an office in Berlin ([http://rothschild.com/groupprivatebanking/?id=globallocations/Germany])

Lehman Brothers of New York -
Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008.

Lazard Brothers of Paris - No such firm exists.

Lazard Ltd is a publicly traded firm with a market value of $2B which is rather small compared to other major banks. It's major assets can be viewed in the annual report. http://nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=LAZ

Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York - Has not exist since 1977 when it merged with Lehman. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuhn,_Loeb_&_Co.]).

Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy -
A search for the existance of this bank did not turn up a single reliable source.

Goldman, Sachs of New York -
Currently called Goldman, Sachs Group Inc, this is a real bank and a big one at that with $78B in market value. The annual report shows about $1B in assets but no Federal Reserve ownership. ([http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/investors/financials/current/annual-reports/2007-annual-report.html])

Warburg Bank of Amsterdam - No such bank could be found

Chase Manhattan Bank of New York - Merged and renamed to JP Morgan Chase

This one does exist and is pretty darn big. Since it is publicly traded, you can view the top shareholders and assets online.

So who does own the Federal Reserve?

The FRS is headed by the Board of Governor a Federal Agency with no mechanism of any sort for anything resembling private ownership.

The concept of ownership comes at the branch level which are organized similar to corporations. Member banks are compelled to subscribe to shares in their local Fed branch. These shares are very limited in their power. (For more detail, see [http://webskeptic.wikidot.com/federal-reserve-system])

Regardless of who the share owners are, the law is fairly clear about ownership of shares in a Fed branch:

- Only member banks can own shares
- All member banks must be domestic (i.e. a majority of the shares in a member bank must be owned by Americans)
- Regardless of the number of shares a bank owns it has only one vote.
- Regardless of the number of branches a bank has, it can only own shares and have it's vote in a single branch.

So involvement and influence in Fed branches is spread over thousands of banks.

And, of course, no bank has any vote within the Board of Governors which oversees the entire system.

The stocks of the regional federal reserve banks are owned by the banks operating within that region and which are part of the system. I'm sure Chase owns part of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The others not unless Goldman is now a member.

No, foreign banks do not control the Federal Reserve.

Most conspiracy theories come into existence because when things happen we simply have to know *why*. Sometimes, the desire of people to know *why* leads them to come up with their own answers, even if those answers are not exactly correct. However, they become absolutely conviced that their answer is correct and once that happens changing their mind is extremely difficult. This becomes mindboggling when no clear evidence exists to support their conclusion--the default response to this is "the conspiracy is so powerful that they can cover up evidence of their existence".

In reality, there was a conspiracy that led to the current downfall, but it was a public conspiracy of short-sightedness and greed. The Federal Reserve artificially lowering interest rates, people buying houses they couldn't afford (probably because they were trying to "flip" the house and make quick money), businesses pushing subprime mortgages to those people, and other businesses investing in securities backed by the subprime mortgages.

The truth of the matter is that the FED is not part of the US Government. It is a Privately Controlled entity.