About the Federal Reserve's notes being a liability or not of the Fed:  
I think James Ahiakpor has exagerated the significance of his  
observation that a defective US note may be returned to the Fed,  and a  
good one obtained in its place  
If I buy a bucket and discover it has a hole, then by both common law  
and consumer law I have the right to a refund or exchange from the  
retailer.  
  
Does that make the the value of sold buckets a liability of the  
retailer?  
  
I would not have thought so.  
  
I guess there is a contingent liability there: equal to the value of  
buckets sold that are defective, but that would be an almost negligible  
percentage of the total value sold.  
  
  
William Coleman