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The Central Bank For The United States

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Blah blah blah something about an article I find. The federal reserve in simple terms is the central bank for the United States. In a more in depth description of the “the Fed” it is made up of the Board of Governors. This board is made up of seven members, all selected by the President himself. However, they also need to be confirmed by the Senate. This board is located in Washington D.C. but has 12 regional banks around the country. Some of these places include San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and nine other locations. These banks allow the Federal Reserve to collect data on the current economy. Obtaining this information allows the Federal Reserve to gauge the economy and create an appropriate monetary policy. Their main …show more content…

So, making the discount rate lower will allow the banks to have a lower interest rate, encouraging spending and borrowing. On the opposite of this if the interest rates were higher than this would discourage the spending and loans. The second of the three major tools that The Fed uses would be reserve requirements. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reserve requirements are “the portions of deposits that banks must hold in cash, either in their vaults or on deposit at a Reserve Bank” (In plain English, 2017, p.15). This works by by determining how much money is needed in the bank at any given time. This would mean that if The Feds decreased the requirement, then the commercial banks will have more money to give out and put into businesses. However, if they end up raising the required amount then then this would decrease spending in businesses this would be because the Reserve Bank would not have the money to give the commercial banks which would then be passed on to the people. The third and final tool that The Feds use is open market operations. This also happens to be the most used out of the three. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis open market operation is “the buying and selling of U.S. government securities” (In plain English, 2017, p.15). What this does to the economy is that it allows the discussion for the federal funds rate. Ultimately meaning that this has control over what the interest rates are on

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