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Summary: The United States Federal Reserve System

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The United States Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is the nation’s central bank. They govern all the other banks and use monetary policy to control the money supply and the interest rates. The Fed has four key tools to do this and they are reserve requirement, discount rate, federal funds rate, and open-market operations. In this essay I will explain how each tool works and what it accomplishes. The reserve requirement is a certain percentage set by the Fed that banks must hold in cash either in their bank vault or as a deposit with the Fed. The main function the reserve rate accomplishes is controlling liquidity, or the availability of cash in the financial system. By decreasing the reserve requirement there is more cash to be circulated in the economy, while increasing the reserve requirement would reduce cash being circulated and slow down the economy. The second tool available to the Fed is the discount rate which is the rate at which banks can borrow from the Fed. Since there is a reserve requirement that needs to be maintained, …show more content…

When a bank is short on the reserve requirement they will borrow from other banks. This rate is what banks charge for overnight loans, which leads us to open-market operations. Open-market operations is the sale or purchase of securities by the Fed from member banks. The major function of an open-market operation is to raise or lower the interest rates. If the Fed wants to raise interest rates they will sell securities to member banks. For the reason that banks have lower funds to loan the interest rates will go up, but if the Fed wants to lower interest rates they will buy securities from member banks. This will give banks funds that are more than sufficient to meet the reserve requirement thus having excess cash to lend out, lowering the interest rate. Open-market operations is another great to to combat

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Through the open market operation the Fed can try t o promote and/or achieve aggregate demand growth which is the sum of private consumption, investments, government spending and imports by purchasing government securities on the open market. This will definitely yield specific economics results which will include an increase in the reserves of commercial banks, an increase in the price of government securities and an effective decrease in government securities' interest rates and the overall interest rates. The move can effectively promote business investments. Whenever banks increases the reserves, they increase their loans and investments. The sell of those government securities will definitely do the opposite.

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The Federal Reserve is the centralized banking system of the United States. It was designed to provide the US with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system (federalreserve.gov). The Federal Reserve uses various tools such as open market operations, reserve requirement, discount window lending, or quantitative easing when it comes to conducting the monetary policy. Even though some may argue on weather why they believe the Federal Reserve System is or is not beneficial to our economy, the Federal Reserve Act is still one of the most talked about laws concerning the US financial system today.

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The Federal Reserve is both a private and public government institution that is necessary for the country’s economic stability. According to Newsweek, The chairman of the Fed is considered the second most powerful man in the United States with his ability to keep the economy stable on the verge of a financial crisis. The creation of the Fed was due to the Panic of 1907, where a series of stock market speculations caused several large to lose a great deal of money. In order to prevent future speculations, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act 1913. This act entitled the Fed to manipulate the money supply as needed giving it two powerful jobs: a lender in last resort and to carry out the Monetary policy.

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The Federal Reserve bank is the central bank of all American banks. Its main job is to make sure the America economy is safe and sound. It is known as nicknames such as the “Fed” and ‘The Banks’ Bank.” For many years this “banks’ bank,” is met with animosity. In an article on the BBC by Zoe Thomas, titled “Why do many Americans mistrust the Federal Reserve?”

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With its power to stabilize the financial industry and consolidate monetary policy under a single body, the Federal Reserve is a vital component of the US economy. The independence of the Federal Reserve, which spares it from the influence of political demands, is one of the institution's advantages. This independence aids in keeping the Fed from adopting measures that could be advantageous for reelection in the short run but would cause long-term economic harm down the road. In addition, the Federal Reserve's function as a lender of last resort to commercial banks guarantees that banks will always have access to money when they need it and contributes to the stability of the banking system. The Fed has been successful in lending money to banks

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For example, if the Federal Reserve decreases the discount rate, then the bank can afford to borrow the money and in turn, the consumer would be able to benefit

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To conduct the nation’s monetary policy is to “promote maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates in the U.S. economy;” (Board). The Federal Reserve promotes the stability of the financial system. Promoting the stability of the financial system is to seek to “minimize and contain systemic risks through active monitoring and engagement in the U.S. and abroad;” (Board). The Federal Reserve promotes the safety and soundness of individual financial institutions, “and monitors their impact on the financial system as a whole;” (Board). The Federal Reserve “fosters payment and settlement system safety and efficiency through services to the banking industry and the U.S. government that facilitate U.S.-dollar transactions and payments;” and “promotes consumer protection and community development through consumer-focused supervision and examination, research and analysis of

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The Federal Reserve has four main areas that they focus on and they are. • Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices. • Supervising

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The Federal Reserve plays a negative role in the United States. Since the Federal Reserve can operate without Congress or the president's approval, their accountability can be limited. This gives the Federal Reserve a large amount of authority, especially involving money supply. Since they control the money supply of the United States, this makes them a powerful bank in the United States. Their power gives them the ability to control a huge part of the government.

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The Federal Reserve controls over the federal fund rates give it the ability to influence the general level of short-term market interest rates. The Fed has three main tools at its disposal to influence monetary policy which are the open-market operations, discount rate, and reserve requirements. b. Monetary policy is the actions of a central bank, currency board or other regulatory committee that determine the size and rate of the money supply, which in turn affects interest rates. The concept of Monetary Policy simply stated is that the cost of credit is reduced, more people and firms will borrow money and the economy will heat up. c. The controls that Federal Reserve used worked because the use of the three main tools the Fed uses is the most important that can manipulate monetary policy.

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Established by an act of Congress in 1913, the Federal Reserve System had several goals, including stabilizing the economy, regulating the money supply, and preventing bank failures. The Federal Reserve has played a vital role in the country's financial system, and its policies have had a significant impact on the economy over the years. Its creation was a major step towards establishing a more stable and secure financial system in the United States. The Federal Reserve System has not met its goals of greater stability and low inflation, which is just further examples of the problems with it. Unfortunately, it was also created for the purpose of making credit more readily available, which drives the country further into debt.

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The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was an attempt to stabilize the to the fiscal markets, after the Panic of 1907 demonstrated the issues inherent with a system without control. This established twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks with a lot of autonomy and gave them the authority to discount eligible securities from member banks to provide some elasticity to the financial system. During the early years, the Federal Reserve System (FRS) had a limited part in the United States’ economic life. It was not till the Great Depression that things changed for the FRS. The 1935 Banking Act created in Washington D.C., a Board of Governors with more authority over the operations of open market and the discounting of rates for Federal Reserve Banks.

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The Fed’s main desirable goals are low unemployment, economic growth, price stability or low inflation, and financial market stability. The Federal Reserve’s profession is to also encourage a “sound banking system” and a well economy. To reach this goal, the Federal Reserve has to fulfill as “the banker’s bank, government’s bank, and the nation’s money manager” (Investopedia). The Fed also sells and saves the government’s securities, which supplies the country’s paper currency.

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This is done by lending reserves to banks when the banks need more for their own reserves. Typically, banks borrow from the Federal Reserve and pay an interest rate on the money that they borrowed which is defined as a discount rate. The Fed can use the discount rate to their advantage if they want to increase or decrease the supply of money in the economy. They increase the discount rate when they want banks to borrow less, which would deter the banks from seeking a loan and thus the money supply decreases. If the Fed wants to add more to the money supply, they would lower the discount rate.

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