It is 5:05 on Friday night so you know what that means... time to talk about my second favorite thing in the world. MONEY. (First being the hit 1980’s show ALF) You can imagine my excitement when I was told that Fast Forward would be getting the chance to shoot at the Federal Reserve! Yep, betcha didn’t think that was in Atlanta... unless you’ve driven down Peachtree Street; then you probably did.

One of the most well known activities at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is the shredding of old money. At first I was a little perturbed by this. If they REALLY wanted to get rid of money, I would be more than happy to provide a good home for it. Right when I was fantasizing diving into dunes of dollars like Scrooge McDuck at Bobby’s Hu-monetary Society, our wonderful guide, Jean, informed me that the Reserve’s purpose for shredding money is to take the beaten up bucks out of circulation in order to make way to the fresh, new youngins. As a twenty-two year old, I am okay with this sentiment... Just kidding boss!

If you think all they do at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is shred money, then you are totally wrong! Seriously people, you think they’d have a huge marble building on Peachtree that only did one thing...? One of the biggest duties of the Federal Reserve is to conduct the monetary policy for the whole United States. (That’s right Hawaii, you’re not getting left out of this one!) I.E. they kind of set that whole money value thing...

BUT you did get left out of this picture...

Interestingly enough, even though the Federal Reserve is the central banking system of the United States, it is actually a separate entity from the actual government... and in an election year that’s the closest I will get to talking about politics... you’re welcome boss!

You may be asking yourself things like, “What is Bobby’s favorite part of the Federal Reserve?” and “I wonder when that Gotye song will get off the radio?” Well, to be honest, while I thoroughly enjoyed seeing money shredded, their delicious coffee shop, and a REAL life gold bar, my favorite part was the people! (and I honestly have no clue when they will take that song off the radio). All of our hosts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta were unbelievably courteous and, unlike the bank goblins in Harry Potter, they are also charismatic, average height, and LOVE sombreros!

I could go on about how much I love the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta but, in all honesty, time is money and I am sort of biased towards the Personal Reserve Bank of my pocket.

P.S. Fast Forward would like to give a special thanks to the folks at Wells Fargo whose generosity made our Federal Reserve episode possible!