On May 1, 1933, all holders of gold in the U.S., were required by Executive Order, to hand over their gold to the Federal Government at the exchange rate of $20.67 per Troy Ounce. People were allowed to keep $100 of gold coins, anything more would've been considered "hoarding" and punishable by fine, prison and confiscation.
The Federal Government then passed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which revalued the price of gold to $35 per Troy Ounce, netting themselves $2.3 Billion in the process. Confiscating gold and then revaluing it by $14.33 left them with a tidy profit, while also debasing the currency.
$2 Billion of the $2.3 Billion were funneled into the largest slush fund the world knew at the time, the Exchange Stabilization Fund. The ESF was created for the express purpose of foreign exchange intervention. Meaning that the ESF could buy and sell foreign currencies, with the intention of influencing Exchange Rates and protecting the dollar. That was the mandate, in reality, there were zero stipulations as to what the Treasury Secretary could do with these funds.
The Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which created the ESF, was worded in such a fashion, that Secretary of the Treasury had sole authority on what the fund could be used for and that the fund would be without oversight, even from the President. The funds' assets would not be taxed and the Treasury Secretary could not be compelled to open the fund to an audit.
As of 2009, the assets of the ESF were declared to be worth $105 Billion. This total was not based on an independent audit.
The ESF works through the trading desks of the New York Federal Reserve bank and remains very low profile, letting the NY Fed be it's public image. After the Gold Reserve Act was passed, the Federal Reserve Bank lost all of it's independence and was under the direct purview of the Treasury Department. All monetary decision making, foreign or domestic, was then run out of Treasury.
The ESF also funds the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, otherwise known as, the Plunge Protection Team. An arm of the Treasury that intercedes in stock markets, to ward off any unwanted valuation changes in systemically important markets. The PPT is often fingered when a particular segment of the market sells off and remarkably rebounds back to it's original prices.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that came out of the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, were the children of the ESF. The conference hosted 44 allied nations in New Hampshire, near the end of WWII, with the intent of stabilizing the world financial systems, post war. With the majority of funds coming from the ESF, the IMF and World Bank were formed.
That is the straight forward background of the ESF, but much reporting has been done on this clandestine slush fund, that shows that they have have had their hands in almost every global event since 1934. From propping up U.S. friendly Dictators to funding outright coups of foreign governments that were not friendly. The amount of money in the fund is essentially unknowable and it's reach, unstoppable.
This is how the Treasury describes the ESF's role:
The ESF can be used to purchase or sell foreign currencies, to hold U.S. foreign exchange and Special Drawing Rights (SDR) assets, and to provide financing to foreign governments. All operations of the ESF require the explicit authorization of the Secretary of the Treasury (“the Secretary”).
The Secretary is responsible for the formulation and implementation of U.S. international monetary and financial policy, including exchange market intervention policy. The ESF helps the Secretary to carry out these responsibilities. By law, the Secretary has considerable discretion in the use of ESF resources.
While reports of more nefarious activities continue to abound regarding the ESF's purpose.
It is impossible to understand the world today without knowing what the ESF is and what it has been doing. Officially in charge of defending the dollar, the ESF is the government agency which controls the New York Fed, runs the CIA’s black budget, and is the architect of the world’s monetary system (IMF, World Bank, etc).
ESF financing (through the OSS and then the CIA) built up the worldwide propaganda network which has so badly distorted history today (including erasing awareness of its existence from popular consciousness). It has been directly involved in virtually every major US fraud/scandal since its creation in 1934. The London gold pool, the Kennedy assassinations, Iran-Contra, CIA drug trafficking, HIV, and worse...
Take the time to watch the five part series done by Eric deCarbonnel, the series is in the ZeroHedge article sited below. He is the great-grandson of Frank Vanderlip, who was one of architects of the Federal Reserve System and a staunch opponent of the creation of the ESF.
This video series takes a very detailed approach to reveal a more sinister role that the ESF has played throughout it's history, all the way up to today. Take the time to listen to and read the whole trove of source material listed below, including Rob Kirby's interview with 
If the ESF claims that it's balance sheet is only valued, at roughly, $105 Billion, how was it able to loan AIG insurance $85 Billion, during the 2009 bailout?
Any public agency that acts in the shadows, shrouded in secrecy and answerable to no one, can rarely be acting in the best interests of the people it serves. The fund still exists today.
