Quote from MarketMasher:
The Fed does have a lot of power and influence - not just in the US but around the world. Makes sense, because if you could print money, you'd have a lot of influence too.
The question has come up before - who owns the Fed? Don't think it was ever answered completely. But I guess that, since the Fed has assets on it's books - if the gov't were to close the Fed tomorrow - who would be the owners of those assets? Would they all revert to the U.S. Treasury? I guess whoever owns those assets, owns the Fed....