The word money comes from the Roman god Juno Moneta, in whose temple coins were minted. In the United States, the governors of the central bank, the Federal Reserve, who are tasked with overseeing the money supply, are treated like oracles of sorts; their pronouncements are scrutinized like the goat entrails of olden days. Fed officials are endowed with a level of power and independence given to almost no other government leaders, and the task of protecting the nation’s currency is entrusted to a specially created agency, the Secret Service, that was only later given the additional
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