Interest Rates: The Federal Reserve System

Federal Reserve can be very confusing to understand and know what is their purpose and how they help the economy. The Federal Reserve was started in December 23,1913 by President Woodrow Wilson who sign the Federal Reserve Act. The Fed has many things that it controls in are economy. One of the Reason that President Woodrow Wilson put the Federal Reserve Act in to place because in 1913 there were a feel that banks were instable so many investors did not feel confident in the banks and felt that it was unsafe. One thing that made Woodrow Wilson make the Federal reserve is the people making a run on the banks frequently, which many bank at this time did not keep enough money in the bank and people panic heard about other banks falling so they would try and get all their money out of the banks as fast as possible. With so many people running on the bank would cause the bank to fell which became a big problem following the Great Depression. Then Woodrow Wilson need to find a way to make the bank safer and build a more secure financial system. One thing to understand is also the monetary policy which refers to Fed nation central bank, which influence the amount of money and credit in the U.S. economy and how we spend money and credit affects interest rates which help the U.S economy perform. However, the monetary policy main reason it to promote maximum employment, stable prices, and long term interest rates which help the feds control the 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.

When it comes to the supply of money, different actions are taken to assure stability in our country. To ensure we are keeping consistent with the loss in value of currency throughout the years, the Federal Reserve changes either the inflation or the interest rates so that prices will be able to balance the debt amount. With actions like such, there are purposes sought by the Federal Reserve Act set toward “the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee…: to promote… the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates” (Federal Reserve). These are a matter of acts under the monetary policy. However, today in America, we are still suffering from the continuous increase in our national debt, a problem that has been growing since the start of the new century.

The Federal Reserve System is the most powerful institution in the United States economy. Functioning as the central bank of the United States, acting as a regulator, the lender of last resort, and setting the nation’s monetary policy via the Federal Open Market Committee, there is no segment of the American economy unaffected by the Federal Reserve [endnoteRef:1]. This power becomes even more substantial in times of “unusual and exigent circumstances,” as Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act gives authority to the Board of Governors to act unilaterally in lending and market making operations during financial crisis[endnoteRef:2]. As illustrated by their decision making in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 Great Recession,

The Federal Reserve System was founded by Congress in 1913 to be the central bank of the United States. The Federal Reserve System was founded to be a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary financial system. Over the years, the role of the Federal Reserve Board and its influence on banking and the economy has increased. Today, the Federal Reserve System's duties fall into four general categories. Firstly, the FED conducts the nation's monetary policy. The FED controls the monetary policy by influencing credit conditions in the economy. The FED measures its success in accomplishing these goals by judging whether or not the economy is at full employment and whether or not prices are stable. Not only

The Federal Reserve System was created by Congress in 1913 and passed the Federal Reserve Act in order to provide for a safer and more flexible banking and monetary system. According to the changing needs of the system, its objectives have been changing throughout the history of the Fed. At first, “its original purposes were to give the country an elastic currency, provide facilities for discounting commercial credits, and improve the supervision of the banking system under a decentralized bank.” (The Federal Reserve System, 1984, 1). Prior to its establishment (the Fed), the supply of bank credit and money was inelastic, thus resulting in an irregular flow of credit and money, and contributed to unstable economic development. These objectives were aspects economic policies and national monetary. However, through time, stability and growth of the economy, high employment levels, stability in the purchasing power of the dollar, and reasonable balance in transactions with foreign currencies have become to be recognized as primary objectives of the governmental economic policy.

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

Over the past few years we have realized the impact that the Federal Government has on our economy, yet we never knew enough about the subject to understand why. While taking this Economics course it has brought so many things to our attention, especially since we see inflation, gas prices, unemployment and interest rates on the rise. It has given us a better understanding of the effect of the Government on the economy, the stock market, the interest rates, etc. Since the Federal Government has such a control over our Economy, we decided to tackle the subject of the Federal Reserve System and try to get a better understanding of the history, the structure, and the monetary policy of the power that it holds.

The Federal Reserve System is a central banking of the US Government, most commonly known as the Fed. A central bank serves as the banker to both the banking community and the government. It issues the national currency, conducts monetary policy, and plays a major role in

In the video “In Plain English, Making Sense of the Federal Reserve Video”, Buck uses easily understanding languages to talk about how Federal Reserve System works which is the most complex system in America. Federal Reserve System is a huge system. It has three main parts, which is the Board of Governors, the Reserve banks and the Federal Open Market Committee. The System started 100 years ago. At that time, a bank failure would cause many banks to fail together, even though the bank was in a good situation. So, it had a huge negative impact on the economy, and usually called that “banking panics”. In order to deal with this situation, the Federal Reserve System needed to help banks to get over this “banking panics”. Another purpose of it

The Federal Reserve System regulates the economy of the United States through monetary policy. For instance, the “Fed” keeps the federal fund rate low to provide lower mortgages, increases investments, and boosts the economy. Alternatively, the Fed manages the economy when the opposite effects take place. When the federal fund rate is high the mortgages increase, reduces investments, and will slow the economy, which means the Fed has to manipulate the interest rates and try to shape economic potentials for the future. There are 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks in the Federal Reserve System which rely on an intrinsic technological infrastructure to keep the member banks connected and all data comprised from all regions backed-up in-case of

The Federal Reserve System has a crucial role as far as the United States economy is concerned. Very few individuals are aware of how the Federal Reserve System works including the functions that are associated with it and the impacts it will have on the general economy so to say. The Federal Reserve System (Fed) plays a significant role in terms of dealing with predatory lending. With its base in Washington, D.C., it has strict measures put in place to regulate the United States banks (Greenspan, 1997). The Fed takes part in studying the economic trends of the United States and uses the final analysis to come up with policies that will make the general economy operate more efficiently. These policies that are made also moderate the way banks

The Federal Reserve is the central banking authority of the United States and is responsible for regulating monetary policy. The Federal Reserve’s main goal is to focus on price stability when creating monetary policies. Along with this, they must also keep in mind high employment and output stability, economic growth, stability of financial markets, interest-rate stability and stability in foreign exchange markets. They do this with the intention to help the economy as a whole, not one specific sector. Unfortunately, it is difficult to do all this for the entire economy with money constantly changing hands. These results of the redistribution of money are known as redistributive consequences of monetary policy. These consequences can be seen throughout many different parts of monetary policies, and some are even significant enough that policy makers have started taking them into account when debating monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve has the responsibility of keeping the American Economy as stable as possible. One of the ways that the Fed does this is by implementing contractionary policy. The purpose of contractionary policy is fight against inflation by decreasing the amount of funds in the economy. When a contractionary policy is being pursued interest rates are increased, the reserve requirements increase and the money supply is reduced.

First one must understand, that the money supply and interest rates are dependent upon one another meaning that if the Fed or Central Bank sets a goal to keep interest rates below 5%, then that will affect the money supply, because when the Federal Reserve wants to adjust the money supply it shifts interest rates. To reduce the money supply, the Fed will increase interest rates, meaning that fewer people will borrow money for projects, homes, or investments, because for many projects/ investments the rate of return may not be high enough to overcome the high interest rates, that they would have to pay back on their loan. When interest rates are high, then people tend to keep less funds in cash, and instead put money into savings/ bank accounts (banking institutions) where they can earn interest on their money. To increase the money supply (aka put more money into the economy), the Fed could reduce the interest rates, which would mean the rates of return on investment would not have to be so high, to make