Just how much is Stiglitz a fucking shill?

He likes to talk a lot which provides gems like this:

"If we had seen a governance structure that corresponds to our Federal Reserve system, we would have been yelling and screaming and saying that country does not deserve any assistance, this is a corrupt governing structure," Stiglitz said during a conference on financial reform in New York. "It's time for us to reflect on our own structure today, and to say there are parts that can be improved."

He's referring to the fact that member banks of the Fed can elect board of directors for each branch of the Reserve Banks.

There are some problems with his story. Like thinking all member banks of the Fed system are regulated by the Fed. They're not. Nationally chartered banks, which are mandated by law to become members of the Fed system (state chartered banks can become members but they don't have to), are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency which is part of the US Treasury. Unless they're also designated as a systemically important financial institution in which case they're regulated by the OCC and the Fed. The OCC is the biggest banking regulator in the US, not the Fed.

Also, only 1/3rd of the boards of the directors are bankers. The boards of directors are separated by three classes (A, B and C). Three directors come from the Board of Governors who elect oddball candidates (one came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) so three of the directors represent the public side. The other two classes, six directors, come from the districts the Reserve Banks oversee and are all elected by member banks. But only 3 of the directors are actually from banks, the other 3 are from oddball places too.

Not like they have any real say in anything either. They can nominate Reserve Bank presidents but those nominations must be confirmed by the Board of Governors.

We have checks and balances in place. Go figure.