Sheldon Richman writes here about the origins and nature of the Federal Reserve system. The impetus behind it was a cabal of big bankers who envisioned the Fed as a mechanism for making their business into a more profitable cartel. The Fed has been a great boon most of all to authoritarian politicians, right and left, who use its ability to finance endless deficits to help them in their schemes for improving and remaking society — and just lining the pockets of political allies.