USA Federal Reserve Bank The Federal Reserve Act - passed by 3 (THREE) senators in a unanimous voice vote on 23 December 1913 - while everyone else was home for the holidays. Some people think of the Federal Reserve Banks as United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a missalocation of resources and an artificial "boom" followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts. From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble, to the housing market crisis, every economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy.