The Federal Reserve and Macroeconomic Factors
Introduction
The Federal Reserve controls the economy of the United States through a variety of tools. They use these tools to shape the monetary policy of the United States in order to promote economic growth and reduce the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate. By adjusting these tools, the Fed is able to control the amount of money in the supply. By controlling the amount of money, the Fed can affect the macro-economic indicators and steer the economy away from runaway inflation or a recession.
The Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve uses three main tools in order to control the money supply. The first tool is open-market operations. These operations consist of the buying and selling of government bonds to commercial banks and the public. Open-market operations are the most important tool that the Fed can use to influence the money supply (Brue, 2004, p. 252). By buying bonds from the open market, the Federal Reserve increases the reserves of commercial banks which in turn will increase the overall money supply in the country. The opposite is true if the Fed sells bonds on the open market. By doing so, the Fed reduces the reserves of banks and, in turn, takes money out of the system. By being able to control how much money the commercial banks can lend, the Fed has a very powerful tool to adjust the economy.
The second tool the Federal Reserve uses is the adjustment of the reserve ratio. The reserve ratio is the ratio of the required reserves the commercial bank must keep to the bank’s own outstanding checkable-deposit liabilities (Brue, 2004, p. 254). By raising and lowering the ratio, the Fed can control how much the commercial banks can lend. For example, if the Fed lowers the reserve ratio, commercial banks will now have more excess reserves allowing them to lend more money to businesses or individuals. Vice-versa, by increasing the ratio, the Fed forces the banks to lend less money due to having smaller excess reserves. If the bank is deficient in the amount of reserves it has, the bank is forced to reduce checkable deposits and, subsequently, reduce the money supply. It may also need to increase its reserves by selling bonds, which would also lower the money supply (Brue, 2004, p. 274).
Finally, the last tool the Fed can use is to adjust the discount rate. The discount rate is the interest rate at which the Federal Reserve charges commercial banks for a loan (Brue, 2004, p.
The financial crisis of 2007–2008 is considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. The crisis led to a series of events including: the 2008–2012 global recessions and the European sovereign-debt crisis. The reasons of this financial crisis are argued by economists. The performance of the Federal Reserve becomes a focal point in this argument.
Monetary Policy is another policy used in Keynesianism which is a list of protocols designed to regulate the economy by setting the amount of money that is in circulation and controlled interest levels. The Federal Reserve system, also known as the central banking system in the U.S., which holds control of this policy. Monetary policy has three tools used by the Federal Reserve to enforce this policy. Reserve Requirement is the first tool that determines the lowest amount of money a bank must possess and is not able to lend out. The second way to enforce monetary policy is by using the discount rate or the interest rate a bank will charge.
The Federal Reserve uses two other types of tools besides the open market operations (OMO), and they are the discount rates and reserve requirements. The FOMC is responsible for the OMO and the discount rate and reserve requirements are taken care by the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors. The three fundamental tools can influenced the demand and supply of and the balances that depository institution hold which can result in the change in federal funds rate.
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking authority of the United States. It acts as a fiscal agent for the United States government and is custodian of the reserve accounts of commercial banks, makes loans to commercial banks, and is authorized to issue Federal Reserve notes that constitute the entire supply of paper currency of the country. Created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, it is comprised of 12 Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Open Market Committee, and the Federal Advisory Council, and since 1976, a Consumer Advisory Council which includes several thousand member banks. The board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System determines the reserve requirements of the member banks within statutory limits, reviews and determines the discount rates established pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act to serve the public interest; it is governed by a board of nine directors, six of whom are elected by the member banks and three of whom are appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve banks are located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas.
By definition, the federal funds rate is the interest rate at which private depository institution (mostly banks) lend balances (federal funds) at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions, usually overnight. Changing the target rate is one form of open market operations that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve uses to regulate the supply of money in the United States in the U.S economy. Short-term interest rates were relatively stable during the first half of the funds’ fiscal year. Toward the middle of the second half, however, short-term rates started to move down a little bit when concerns about the strength of the housing and credit market and the current economy led the Federal Reserve to reduce short-term rates. The Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by 25 basis points (0.25%) and pumped $41 billion of short-term reserves into the markets. On the daily basis, most businesses operate regardless of the Federal rate and completely independent of it. Coca-cola sells Coke by the truckload regardless of the trickle-down effect of the Federal Funds Rare. In addition, it generated gobs of excess cash that allowed it to service virtually and interest rate the banks threw at it. The Coca-cola company reports that the earnings per share of $1.77 for the year, versus $1.23 in the prior year. In addition, cash from operations has increased 15% to 5.5 billion. In addition, the fourth quarter earnings per share of $0.38 and the worldwide unit case volume growth of 3% in the fourth quarter and 4% for the full year. Opinions on if the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the future abound, with conventional wisdom siding with a rate increase. However, the decision probably will not affect what happens to stock prices as much as it would with news of corporate earnings surprises. With the benchmark lending rate at 1.5%, rates are still quite low – past economic recoveries have seen rates at 3% or higher at this stage.
Currently the policy is expansionary. This involves increasing AD, therefore the government will increase spending and cut taxes. Lower taxes will increase consumers spending because they have more disposable income. This will worsen the govt budget deficit.
Another problem prior to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System was the inelasticity of bank credit and the supply of money. Small banks placed their excess reserves in large central reserve banks. Whenever a bank’s depositors wanted their funds, the smaller banks would be covered by the central banks. The system worked well during normal conditions. Some banks would draw down on their reserves as other banks would be building up their reserves. In times of excessive demand, however, the problem became quite serious. When the public wanted large amounts of currency, the
It’s mandatory for all the banks to deposit a certain determined percentage of their assets with the central bank to make sure that the banks’ customer deposits are safe. These percentages are what the central bank adjusts to reduce or increase the banking lending ...
The first major aspect of the monetary policy by the Federal Reserve is its interest rate policy. This interest rate policy is mainly determined by the figure for the federal funds rate, which is the rate at which commercial banks with balances held within the Federal Reserve can borrow from each other overnight in ord...
In the study of macroeconomics there are several sub factors that affect the economy either favorably or adversely. One dynamic of macroeconomics is monetary policy. Monetary policy consists of deliberate changes in the money supply to influence interest rates and thus the level of spending in the economy. “The goal of a monetary policy is to achieve and maintain price level stability, full employment and economic growth.” (McConnell & Brue, 2004).
The Federal Funds Rate is the interest rate that Federal Reserve uses to trade funds with banks. Changes in this rate can trigger a chain of events that can be beneficial or devastating to the economy. If a bank is charged a higher interest rate to trade money or take out a loan, then the increase will be passed on to their customers, causing them to pay higher transaction fees or more interest. Each month, the Federal Open Market Committee meets to determine the federal funds rate. This in turn affects other short term interest rates. The determining rate immediately impacts the rates at which banks borrow money and the interest rates the banks use to charge their customers on loans. If the rate raise is too high, then money flow drops dramatically and banks and customers curtail lending and borrowing, waiting until a better rate is reached. This effect can have a dramatic impact on the economy and economic spending.
According to federalreserveeducation.org, the term "monetary policy" refers to what the Federal Reserve, the nation 's central bank, does to influence the amount of money and credit in the U.S. economy, (n d). The tools used are diverse but the main ones are:
The Federal Reserve use several tools like discount rate, federal funds rate, required reserve ratio and open market operations to control the money supply. In the simulation, the effect of controlling the money supply on the economy was presented. Typically, releasing money into the system results in higher Real GDP and lower unemployment. On the other hand, it also raises inflation.
Holders may opt to trade their bonds in markets and prices may vary according to market conditions. The Bank of England affects the money supply through three methods; Control by open market operations, the discount rate, where this operation emphasises the Bank of England’s role as lender of last resort and the alteration of the reserve ratio(r).
The Fed either buys or sell government securities in the open operations market to either lower of increase the funds rate. For instance, the Federal Reserve may buy the government securities in order to lower the funds rate (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco). The Fed uses the open market operations (OMO) method because it cannot directly influence macroeconomic activities such as employment and production. So, it uses the OMO to either increase or decrease money supply in the