Econ 212 Week 3

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Federal Reserve Week 5 (Individual) ECON 212/Principles of Economics December 22, 2011 Instructor: Baiyee-Mbi The Federal Reserve is in charge of all operations and the flowing control of money. They use three policy tools to manage the money within the United States. The three tools they use are Open Market Operations, Discount Policy, and Reserve Requirements. The Open Market Operations policy allows the U.S. Treasury to buy & sell bonds which are also known as securities. When sellers sell their securities and put their funds into banks this causes an increase in the banks’ reserve. This increase in the reserves allows banks to increase loans and deposits which in turn increases the money supply. To decrease the money supply the Trade Desk will sell securities and pays for them by checks. This causes the reserves in the banks to fall by contractions in loans and deposits which decreases the money supply. When a bank borrows money from the U.S. Treasury at a small interest rate, this is called a Discount Policy. This allows banks to take out more loans from the FED so they can issue more loans out to the economy and charge a higher interest. Banks become the “middle man” to earn profits from interest. People not only pay high taxes to the government…show more content…
The four main goals that are managed are Price Stability, High Employment, Stability of Markets and Institutions, and Economic Growth. Price stability has to do with the control and flow of inflation. High employment policies try to maintain enough jobs within America so that everyone has the opportunity to work for a living. The stabilizing of markets and institutions is to make an efficient flow of funds from borrowers and savers. Economic growth is to raise the living standards and allow businesses and households to make long term investments that are needed to sustain economic

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