The US Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy

The Federal Reserve is the single entity in control of the monetary policy of the United State of America. Monetary policy is the process that the Federal Reserve takes in order to control the supply of money and to attempt the control the direction of interest rates. The reason for doing these actions is in attempt to control the country’s inflation and employment rates, which are the biggest indicators and factors of a healthy economy.

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).

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. (Federal Government, 1977)

The Federal Reserve exercises its power to stimulate stable employment economies and economic prices. The pursuit of the required employment rate and the creation of price stability, the Federal Reserve can increase or decrease the interest rate.

The United States government continues to attempt to control the stability of the economy through the monetary policies management of the United States money supply, being economically strong in the world’s economy is an attribute that the government continue to strive to maintain. Although theories leading to the Federal Reserve are controversial basic knowledge is important. This paper explores the monetary policies tools of the open market operations, discount rates, and the required reserve ratio. In the context monetary policies will be identified, explained, and the usages noted. Also highlighted is how the monetary policies are used to balance unemployment and high inflation. Monetary Policies plays a vital role in the upholding

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 Federal Reserve System plays an important role in the economy. It was created to predict and prevent or solve problems that arise from financial crises'. Financial crises' can cause a panic and panic can lead to a recession. Generally, when people think there is a panic, they rush to their bank and withdraw all their money eventually, the bank runs out money this is when the Federal Reserve intervenes. The Federal Reserve measures and calculates different aspects of the economy and considers the outcomes to make important economic decisions and plans. The Federal Reserve System is a system created to maximize employment, stabilize prices, ensure moderate long-term interest rates and prevent a recession or try to stop it. In order to increase

Therefore, one of the expansionary activities conducted by the Federal Reserve is to set federal fund rate lower, which will affect credit availability, the money supply, interest rates, and security prices. That is to say, ceteris paribus, when the Federal Reserve buys securities in the open market, bank’s reserve accounts (deposit and assets) increases and when the discount rate is lowered it reduces the interest rate in the economy, thereby promoting borrowing, excessive spending by the economic agents, possibility that household, business and government will invest in fixed assets, increment in household purchasing durable goods (plant , state and local government and construction of new

Monetary policy uses changes in the quantity of money to alter interest rates, which in turn affect the level of overall spending . “The object of monetary policy is to influence the nation’s economic performance, as measured by inflation”, the employment rate and the gross domestic product, an aggregate measure of economic output. Monetary policy is controlled by

The Federal Reserve has a mandate to foster economic growth, manage inflation and manage the unemployment rate (Federal Reserve, 2005). In order to achieve these mandates, the Fed has been given a number of tools. The three primary tools of Fed policy are open market transactions, setting the discount rate and setting the reserve requirements for banks. This paper will discuss how each of these works and what effect each should have on the state of the economy.

Similar to the United States and as noted by Taylor (2008) and Ahrend and others (2008), In light of these considerations, the evaluation of policy settings is perhaps best done through a comparison of projected outcomes for the policy objectives given policy expectations; such a comparison involves examining whether the forecasts of policymakers, the private sector, or other forecasters were consistent with a balancing of the price stability objective and the full employment objective (for example, the unemployment rate in the neighborhood of its estimated natural rate). This guidance was designed to influence asset prices, economic activity, and inflation in a manner consistent with the goals of price stability and full employment. As has been emphasized by many researchers, the guidance of expectations is the primary channel through which policy affects economic outcomes—the overnight interest rate in the interbank market is in itself in consequential for economic activity, except to the extent that it affects expectations of the future path of this rate, which in turn influence a broad array of asset prices important to aggregate spending and price setting.

By increasing or reducing the nominal interest rates, the money supply is either increased or reduced. When the rate goes up, people are not able to borrow, thus the money does not enter into circulation. But when the rates go down, people borrow in big numbers therefore increasing the money supply. So the monetary authority just needs to adjust the interest rates either upwards or downwards, and in-direct results will be reflected on the money on circulation.

We are going to aim our focus on two basic goals of monetary policy: to promote maximum employment as well as stable prices. What does this mean exactly? First we need to understand that in the long run, the goods and services the economy produces, known as GDP, as well as the jobs created, are not as influenced by monetary policy in comparison to the short term. In the short term however, the Fed can play a major role. Let’s say through lower levels of demand, a recession occurs. The Federal Reserve

The bank of England uses several techniques to control interest rates. They do this in order to keep the money market in equilibrium. Equilibrium interest rate is set where the money supply and demand for money is the same, shown in the diagram below.

In an economy monetary policy is being changed exchange policies intended affecting the total volume of money and credit activity by the central bank. Organization in charge of conducting monetary policy is the Central Bank in a country. For this purpose, for example, preventing unemployment or inflation to domestic economic stability, external payments deficit or surplus in the form of external