Government Policies: Impacting Economic Growth

The Federal Reserve increases its reserves by issuing loans to a commercial banking system. This allows the bank that is borrowing reserves to disburse credits to the public. The Federal Reserve Banks offer primary credit, secondary credit, and seasonal credit, to bank organizations each with its own interest rate. Depending on if the Fed wants to decrease or increase the interest rate can be a positive or negative effect to the public. If the rate is decreases it encourages banking organizations to get more loans. When this is done the banks acquire more funds and are able to disburse more loans the people.

Given its mandate to maximize employment and maintain price stability, the Fed took monetary policy actions in December 2008 to keep long-term interest rates at near zero (between 0.0% and 0.25%) to help stabilize and revive the U.S economy -- leaving no option for further interest rate reduction.

By law, the Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy to achieve its macroeconomic objectives of stable prices and maximum employment. The Federal Open Market Committee usually conducts policy by adjusting the level of short-term interest rates in response to changes in the outlook of the economy. Since 2008, the FOMC has also used large-scale purchases of Treasury securities and securities that were guaranteed or issued by federal agencies as a policy tool in an effort to lower longer-term interest rates and thereby improve financial conditions and so support the economic recovery (What).

Reserve requirements also known as reserve deposits are funds that banks are required to place with the Federal Reserve. Reserves fall into two categories, required reserves which is a mandatory dollar amount mandated by law and additional reserves which the bank voluntarily places with the Fed. The excess reserves on deposit with the Fed earn a small amount of interest so it is usually kept to a minimum however; these funds can be lent to banks that currently

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

To stabilize the economy bonds are used which release money into the market. The responsibility of the Central Bank is to maintain the health of the banking system and regulating the purchase and sale of bonds. The interest rates are controlled to balance the markets. According to the Monetary Policy Report to Congress, “The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintained a target range of 0 to ¼ percent for the federal funds rate throughout the second half of 2009 and early 2010” while representing forecasted economic decisions to rationalize low levels for longer times on the federal funds rate (Federal Reserve, 2010). Purchases were still being made by the Fed’s to result in improvements to the economy through focusing on mortgages, the real estate market, and the credit market. Predictions by the Federal Open Market Committee depicted low levels on the federal funds rates in early 2010 which would continue for some time while over time the economy would see growth, a rise in inflation, and a decline in unemployment. Feds were in agreement though they expected the recovery process to be slower. Purchases by the Federal reserve were slowed, “$300 billion of Treasury securities were completed by October” and “the purchases of $1.25 trillion of MBS and about $175 billion of agency debt” were suppose to be finished the first quarter of 2010 (Federal Reserve, 2010).

One form of direct control can be exercised by adjusting the legal reserve ratio (the proportion of its deposits that a member bank must hold in its reserve account), and as a result, increasing or decreasing the amount of new loans that the commercial banks can make. Because loans give rise to new deposits, the possible money supply is, in this way, expanded or reduced. This policy tool has not been used too much in recent years. The money supply may also be influenced through manipulation of the discount rate, which is the rate if interest charged by the Federal Reserve banks on short-term secured loans to member banks. Since these loans are typically sought to maintain reserves at their required level, an increase in the cost of such loans has an effect similar to that of increasing the reserve requirement. The classic method of indirect control is through open-market operations, first widely used in the 1920s and now used daily to make some adjustment to the market. Federal Reserve bank sales or purchases of securities on the open market tend to reduce or increase the size of commercial bank reserves. When the Federal Reserve sells securities, the purchasers pay for them with checks drawn on their deposits, thereby reducing the reserves of the banks on which the checks are drawn. The three instruments of control explained above have been conceded to be more effective in preventing inflation in times of high economic activity than in bringing about revival from a

The Fed was originally created to prevent the supply of money and credit from dissipating. In the United States today the Fed controls monetary policy. Monetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of a country, controls the supply of money, often targeting a rate of interest for the purpose of promoting economic growth and stability (Unknown). When the United States is smitten-ed by debt the Fed has the ability to lower interest rates. When interests rates are lowered, it encourages people to acquire loans and make acquisitions. The short run effect of this cycle can be positive, the long run may not be as positive. When handled erroneously the long run of inflation will be negative. In the short run when people secure loans, the loan enables the person purchasing power, which may help their finances. If the individual receiving a loan does not financially dispense their loan wisely, that individual can be in a arduous financial problem. A dire financial problem can be the possibility of becoming bankrupt, which leaves the person in a situation that is extremely difficult to over come.

14-7. When a bank is deficient in reserves, it can go to the federal funds market to borrow what it needs from another bank.

Reserve requirements have been used for a long time as a monetary policy tool in order to control money supply. In the recent years this policy tool has been also proven to be a powerful tool of macroprudential policy. Opportunity costs associated with maintaining required reserves affect the decisions of banks about their borrowing and lending activities. Therefore central banks, changing reserve requirement ratio can influence the lending behavior of commercial banks and therefore the loan supply of banks.

An interest rate is the cost of borrowing. Alternatively, it is the compensation for the service and risk of lending money. The role of the US Federal Reserve is to ensure that the country achieves sustainable economic growth (Federalreserve.gov, 2016). It attempts to achieve this objective through the monetary policies at its disposal. A key policy of the Federal Reserves’ is its ability to influence interest rates. The interest rate the federal reserve tries to shift ‘the federal fund rate’, is the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans (Amadeo, 2016). Banks must obtain these funds to meet the federal reserve requirement each night. The Fed can control this rate by buying and selling securities (mainly treasury bills) (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 2016). There is a graph shows process in appendix 1. However, this mechanism does work anymore because quantitative easing was published by fed. To stimulate the economy, $3.8 trillion worth of treasuries and other securities was bought by fed in 2008. 2008.In doing so, huge amount of money was

The Federal Reserve went into action in response to the 2008 recession by rapidly reducing interest rates with the hopes of encouraging economic growth. The federal funds target rate was decreased to between zero and .25 percent. The results of the rate changes caused what is called “zero bound”, this reduced the effectiveness of monetary policy with the near non-existence of interest rates.

      Monetary policy is under the control of the Federal Reserve System and is completely discretionary. It is the changes in interest rates and money supply to expand or contract aggregate demand. In a recession, the Fed will lower interest rates and increase the money supply. The Federal Reserve System’s control over the money supply is the key Mechanism of monetary policy. They use 3 monetary policy tools- Reserve Requirements, Discount Rates/Interest Rates, and Open Market Operations. The reserve requirement is the percentage of bank deposits a bank must hold in reserves and cannot loan out. By raising or lowering the reserve requirements, the Fed controls the amount of loanable funds. The interest rate is the amount the FED charges private banks, so they can meet the reserve requirements. The prime rate is currently set at 5%. If the Interest rate is low, the banks will borrow more money from the FED and the money supply will increase. Interest rates have been above average for the past 20 years, but are currently considered low. Open Market Operations is the most effective and most used

Monetary policy involves manipulating the interest rate charged by the central bank for lending money to the banking system in an economy, which influences greatly a vast number of macroeconomic variables. In the UK, the government set the policy targets, but the Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are given authority and freedom to set interest rates, which is formally once every month. Contractionary monetary policy may be used to reduce price inflation by increasing the interest rate. Because banks have to pay more to borrow from the central bank they will increase the interest rates they charge their own customers for loans to recover the increased cost. Banks will also raise interest rates to encourage people to save more in bank deposit accounts so they can reduce their own borrowing from the central bank. As interest rates rise, consumers may save more and borrow less to spend on goods and services. Firms may also reduce the amount of money they borrow to invest in new equipment. A

together both the borrowers and the savers in an economy. This is because the banking and non-banking financial institutions accepts deposits or savings from individuals and business and thus creates a pool of funds in the process called credit creation. These funds will be given to borrowers in form of loans at some interest over a give period of time. Rødseth, A. (2000) stated that the lending ability of commercial financial institutions is controlled by the central bank which is in charge of regulating the amount of money that is circulation in the economy. To increase money circulating in the economy so as to achieve some macroeconomic goals, the central bank may reduce their leading rate (bank rate) and thus encourage the commercial banks to borrow more loans from the central bank and thus expand their lending capacity to the borrowers in the money market.