Federal Reserve Bank

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Federal Reserve Bank Introduction Federal Reserve System, commonly referred to as Fed, was established in 1913. This was after American congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in December the same year, establishing a new set of institutions which were meant to govern the relationship between banks, the government, and the production of money (Broz 1997 p. 1). The Federal Reserve System divides the nation in 12 districts, each with its own federal reserve bank (Boyes & Melvin, 2006). Overall administrative structure of the system consists of: Board of Governors. The board is headed by a chairman who is appointed by the president to a four year term (Boyes & Melvin, 2006). The chairman serves as a leader and also as a spokesperson for the board and exercises more authority in the determining the course of monetary policy than do the other governors in the board. The Boards of Governors work in coordination with the District banks. According to Boyes and Melvin (2006) these banks are directed by a nine-person board of directors, whereby six of these individuals are elected by the Federal Reserve System member banks in the district and the rest are appointed by the Feds board of governors. Of the nine directors, three represent the commercial banks in the district, three represent the non banking business interest and the last three are responsible for overseeing the bank operations. The last is the federal open market committee. This is the official policy making body of the Federal Reserve System (Boyes & Melvin 2006, p.318). The committee is made up of the seven members of the board of governors plus the five of 12 district bank presidents. All the district bank presidents take turns in serving on the federal open market... ... middle of paper ... ...o serve any good. Its influence and benefits will be felt by the few who hold the power and who have the understanding to know what really happens behind the curtains. References Arnold, A, R, 2008, Macroeconomics, Cengage Learning, Australia Broz, L, J, 1997, the International Origins of the Federal Reserve System, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York Hafer, W, R, 2005, The Federal Reserve System: an encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, Knoop, A, T, 2011, Recessions and depressions: understanding business cycles, ABC-CLIO, United States of America Lindbergh, C, A, 1913, Banking and Currency and The Money Trust, Zed books, United States of America Meltzer, H, A, 1988, Keynes's monetary theory: a different interpretation, Cambridge University Press, USA Mises, L, 1935, the theory of money and credit, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Australia

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