"The banks that the Federal Reserve regulates are the legal shareholders of the Federal Reserve, and they collect a statutory dividend every year from the institution that's supposed to be policing them."

… the 12 regional banks that actually run the system, owned by JP Morgan, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, the very banks the Fed is supposed to regulate, those banks are the legal shareholders of the regional Federal Reserve banks. Required by law to buy stock, pay the dividend on it up to 6% a year off the Fed's earnings. Listen to that again. The banks that the Federal Reserve regulates are the legal shareholders of the Federal Reserve, and they collect a statutory dividend every year from the institution that's supposed to be policing them. Imagine if Pfizer and Merck owned shares in the FDA and got paid an annual dividend by law out of the regulators' earnings. You would lose your mind. There would be hearings. There would be perp walks. But because it's banks, nobody talks about it. It just is, for over a hundred [snorts] years. …

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