The Federal Reserve of San Francisco has been undergoing safety construction for several years. The building is almost surrounded by steel and concrete posts to block car bombs from getting too close.

If you know what the Fed really is, you know how insane a terrorist organization would have to be to bomb it. The Fed does absolutely nothing. None of its more than a dozen offices do anything.

The building is filled with economists and their staffs writing reports. So is every other regional Fed. The entire operation of the Fed could be carried out by Alan Greenspan from his home phone. The Fed sets the rates on a queer little line of credit available only to banks. The rate is only symbolic. Nothing changes hands. The Fed also buys Treasury notes. But nothing changes hands and nothing is stored outside of a computer disk.

The Fed contracts with armored car companies to move currency around. But currency is stored in many places.

The Fed does nothing physical. Bombing it would have no effect on American daily life except the physical mess it would make.