Privately owned and in kahoots with the government - in the USA. Other central banks are government institutions. They all force the tender upon those within borders and demand payment in that tender - taxes. A true Free Market would have market derived currencies that people would voluntary adopt. No force. The very heart of ‘Capitalism’, that being capital, is not free, not libre. It is captured by private and/or state entities and controlled. True, although central banks are a tenant of communism, the situation in the USA is more akin to that of Fascism - the partnership of state and private business. The term Capitalism itself in its original meaning, as defined by Marx, is what we would more likely now call Crony-Capitalism. We need to abolish Capitalism/Crony-Capitalism and embrace Laissez-faire. Libre Software and libre markets!