Talk:United States Department of the Treasury

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Comment/Question[edit]

The image of the Treasury building that was suppossedly burnt in 1814 is incongruous with the facts. According to Rhodri Windsor Liscombe's book "Altogether American," Mills' Treasury was built between 1836 and 1842. On page 191 of his book he includes images of the plan which was drawn up in 1838. Does anyone have information on when/how this fire suppossedly happened? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.12.88.24 (talk) 16:04, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

History[edit]

Can somebody add info and format this part so it reads as a description of the history of Dept. of the Treasury? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.2.184.40 (talk) 03:51, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Comment[edit]

That quote from "Chapter XII of the Constitution" must come from a different source. The Constitution has Articles, not Chapters, and only seven of those. And it's not Amendment XII either, since that only concerns the election of the President. This language is not familiar to me; where did it really come from?

The Original DOT?[edit]

The US Department of the Treasury pre-dates the US Department of Transportation by 177 years. Is there any reason why Treasury didn't hold the acronym first? Thanks.70.108.154.226 01:40, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Operation Question[edit]

What '''''''determines''''''' how much money is produced by the treasury? I'm assuming it can't just print as much as it wants. There must be something to control inflation, right? 83.67.201.204 14:17, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

That is correct. The Treasury only prints as much money as the Federal Reserve purchases from it. The Federal Reserve purchases money (at the cost of printing/coining it) and banks purchase it (at face value) from the Fed. Of course, physical money is just a small part of the total financial system -- Fed open market operations are entirely electronic. The Treasury estimates that 95% of the money it prints is just to replace worn-out money.[1] But in a sense, yes, it can print as much as it wants -- our legal system is what keeps it in check! Afelton 20:43, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

i have a coin that is the size of a half-dollar, one side is the seal of "THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASUREY, 1789" and the other side is of the DENVER MINT, printed on top "UNITED STATES MINT" printed on bottom, "DENVER, COLORADO" the Denver Mint building is pictured in the middle of this side. the coin has the color of old copper. could this be a commemoritive coin, when would it have been minted, and what would be it's history??24.253.238.33 17:01, 10 August 2007 (UTC)Ann Cole

!!![edit]

Wait a second, what does the Federal Reserve purchase the money with? Why would they purchase money? This does not make any sense.

If they pay with gold, why aren't the notes backed with metals? jesiaca whang me to that is confusing

--- The Federal Reserve does not purchase the bonds with 'anything' other than an electronic book-keeping record. Many do not realize this, but Federal Reserve Notes (aka the money we all currently use) are 'created' by the Federal Reserve, a private entity with some elements of public control, not the United States Government. Look up United States Notes to learn the extremely important difference. Money today is therefore 'created' in response to an obligation of debt on the part of the Federal Government. This debt also bears interest, hence the criticism of the current monetary system as being 'debt-based.'

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 effectively delegated money creation to the Federal Reserve. Through fractional-reserve banking private banks also create 'credit money' based on this Fed-created fiat money. This 'credit money' actually represents over 90% of the 'money' in the economy (assuming reserve ratio of 10%). The Fed thus directs the effective money supply (assuming no changes in the velocity of money).

The obvious question is why the US Government does any of this at all. It could simply print the money (aka United States Notes) debt-free to begin with. Many reformers believe that money creation should be a government function accountable to the people.

(http://www.themoneymasters.com/faqs.htm) -J -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.163.126.153 (talk) 02:52, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Seal size[edit]

Hello

Is it it really quite necessary for the seal to be this big?

Amhantar (talk) 12:20, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Duties section vs. Responsibilities[edit]

Why is there a section titled Duties (no citations) and an almost identical section called Responsibilities? Is one of these redundant? JettaMann (talk) 02:33, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Buidling template removed[edit]

I removed the following buidling template from the article, which I think is confusing at first and annoying at second. It gives the article multiple purposes, which is not Wikipedia policy. I propose somebody writes a spearate article about the buidling, if it is such a landmark. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 11:55, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Followup: There is a separate article at Treasury Building (Washington, D.C.) now, with the NRHP/NHL infobox that was removed. doncram (talk) 17:14, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Passports[edit]

I got to this page from the Passports WP article. There needs to be info that the Dept of State does passports. http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html And it would be nice to have a link so if people have further questions they can go there. Like, "What happens when you don't have your passport and try to get back in to the US?"Kristinwt (talk) 03:43, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

OpenTreasury[edit]

http://opentreasury.ideascale.com seems to be the first example of Treasury attempting to solicit general ideas for reform form the public. Is there an earlier example? 99.191.75.124 (talk) 14:41, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Checks drawn on the US Treasury?[edit]

Are there institutions that will cash checks drawn on the US Treasury? Leaving aside the obvious question of why, for example, Federal income tax refunds don't get sent out as postal money orders, is there some place someone can go to get his income tax refund check redeemed for cash, preferably without requiring the moral and legal questions that dealing with a bank raises? I have heard the claim that in the US, banks chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the US Treasury (and in the US, such banks are required to have the word "National" or the abbreviation "N.B." in their names), are required to cash checks drawn on the Treasury. An hour of fruitless phone calls to such local institutions got me only adamant denials. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.61.156.96 (talk) 21:29, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

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