hfly,

We've now come full circle. When I started this thread, I was going to include a link to the NY Fed's financial statements to illustrate this point, but I didn't. Since you've brought it up, here's the link. (BYW, there are 11 other Fed banks, but NY is the most profitable, at least in total dollars.) Impressive margins, huh?

http://www.ny.frb.org/pihome/annual01/finance.pdf