"The two quintessential private central banks of Europe—the Bank of England and the Bank of France." When you look at private banks, and you see how well they are doing...are you sure you want them to be private? 'The Federal Reserve is less private than these other central banks. The stockholders of the Federal Reserve are the private member banks of the twelve regional Reserve Banks. But these shares are not traded on any stock market and US statutes dictate how much stock these member banks must own. This is hardly a matter of private investors buying up equity as would be in the case with normal ownership. The shareholders can’t simply dump their stocks if they disagree with management." I found this a bit comical, that they cant just dump stocks when they are upset. Just imagine how many roller coaster rides we would be going on if that happened. Not saying the Federal Reserve is a good thing.