Under no article nor section in the Constitution is there a mention of the right of the Congress to establish a central bank; however, in 1913 the Federal Reserve System was created by an act of Congress. The Federal Reserve Bank is run by a board of seven "governors" appointed for fourteen-year non-renewable terms by the President and confirmed by the senate. This permanent, ad-hoc "fourth" branch of government has the power to influence the value of the dollar as well as the economy in general, yet is relatively immune to the will of the people. With fourteen-year terms, the governors are more or less free to do as they please with little, if any, chance for the American people to hold them responsible for their actions. The board can be thought of as analogous to a hypothetical group of fourteen-year cabinet members who, as a whole, would wield as much or more power than the President.
The Constitutionality of the Federal Reserve is examined by Ross DeForrest.
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