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Federal Reserve System Analysis

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In 2008 the United States economy faced it most serious economic downturn since the great depression. This crisis began in 2006 when the subprime mortgage market showed an increase in mortgage defaults. This would lead to the decline of the U.S. housing market after a decade of high growth. The problems in the mortgage market where able to spread to other sectors of the economy especially in financial markets because of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations or CMOs. CMOs where mortgage backed securities that where given out by investment banks and where not regulated by the government. These securities fell as did mortgages due to increasing default rates. Because of CMOs companies bought Credit Default swaps or CDSs. These CDSs where nominally …show more content…

It serves as the central bank of the U.S. government and regulates the nation’s financial institutions. The Federal Reserve System is the system used by the Fed to control monetary policy and the financial system. The system consists of the central agency in Washington D.C., which is known as the board of governors, and twelve other regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities across the U.S. The governing body of the Federal Reserve System is called the Federal Reserve Board. A branch of the Federal Reserve Board that controls monetary policy is known as the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC. They meet in order to decide whether to increase or decrease money supply and also to set interests rates. …show more content…

There is much speculation that the Fed help caused the crisis because it kept its policy rate to low due to fear of deflation. Ben S. Bernanke, who was the chairman of the Federal Reserve during the crisis, defends the Fed by saying “The collapse of house prices interacted with vulnerabilities in both the private and public sectors to produce the crisis.” (Hoover.org) It is hard to determine whether or not the Fed helped caused the crisis, but it is certain they had a part. During the crisis the Fed decided to bail out investment bank, Bear Stearns and insurance company, AIG, while letting Lehman Brothers fail without a bail out. This was because AIG and Bear Stearns where considered too big to fail, while Lehman Brothers was considered insolvent and the Fed felt that they did not have legal authority to do so. When Lehman Brother collapsed it led to a market panic, in response the Fed extended the discount window to non-bank financial institutions and financial markets. They also provided funding for money market mutual funds. Bernanke argues that these policies help prevent a global financial system crash.

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