Who prints the money?

In a 1970's Saturday Nite Live skit, President "Jimmy Carter" picks up the phone and calls the mint. "Hello. This is Jimmy," says Dan Ackroyd, "print me some more of them 20's."

The Federal government prints money, but who do they give the money to? "Monetary Policy" says we need to expand the money supply. and so the presses run. We need more money in circulation. Sounds good to me and I'll do my part. I am ready, willing, and able to spend many stacks of $20 bills.

I always wondered who exactly got the money that the mint printed. I don't know anyone, personally, who had a mint truck show up with guards who handed over stacks of $20's and in a voice "Joe sent me," the guards would mutter, "spread it around."

No! It turns out the money is handed over to the "Federal Reserve Bank" which, as one wag quipped, " is about as Federal as Federal Express." It happens to be a private corporation.

Some months before his assassination, President Kennedy authorized a new currency - not a Gold Certificate or Federal Reserve Note, but a United States Note. Samples survive,

[img]system/files?file=United States Note 200.jpg[/img]

For a [url=http://usrarecurrency.com/1966$100RedSealSpecimenSuperSizeSnH12345678G.htm]close-up[/url] there is a site that shows these for sale to collectors.

It was not part of the Federal Reserve system money. Kennedy died before his new notes could be put into circulation and President Reagan, years later, rescinded the notes along with a lot of other executive orders that were lame ducks, as it were.

Is the government, under the Constitution of 1789, or otherwise, obligated, there's that word again, to give any of this money to the citizens, or can they give it to a private corporations whose inner workings are somewhat mysterious. Is the government obligated to do anything but line the pockets of other millionaires? Miles ahead, the money system has been privatized for years and maybe it's time to make things a bit more competitive in that private sector of printing money and giving it to a private corporation.

I won't get into the intricacies of this monopoly but you'd think this laissez-faire capitalist (at least in lip service) regime would wants some competition; something called "free enterprise" to mix things up a bit.

I know! "The Matsu Reserve Bank" It'll be great--now picture and hear the song "On the Cover of the 'Rolling Stone.'"

"Hey, Georgie," I say, "this is Matsu. Send me some more of them 20's."

"Beautiful."