When the Fed was established a century ago, monetary authority was distributed across 12 regional reserve banks, each of which had considerable autonomy. The fact that the heads of each of the regional Fed banks were called “governor” – the same title given to heads of the long-established European central banks – was indicative of their authority.
美联储经验——由历史上分散的权力结构形成——突出了不同观点对决策制定过程的好处。一个世纪以前美联储成立时，货币机构是分布在12个地区的储备银行，它们有着相当大的自主权。事实上，各地区联储银行的领导人被称为“总裁”（governor）——这一头衔与历史悠久的欧洲中央银行领导人相同——来体现他们的权威。