Is the Money Supply Controlled by the Federal Reserve?

The idea that the money supply should be controlled by a government institution is, in the long span of history, a relatively novel theory. Congress decided a century ago that the private system wasn't working very well because it we kept having panics which would cause banks to collapse and the supply of money to contract. That's why they decided there had to be a government based institution, a central bank, to do the job. But even at the time, there is a deep suspicion of all that power being in the hands of a few individuals. And so that's why they came up with the structure that spread the power between presidential appointees and these private individuals.