Federal Reserve College Essays Samples For Students

___________ University
When the United States was finished fighting the Revolutionary War, many Americans were left very deep in debt. Furthermore, there was an economic crisis that was widespread. The government needed a way to keep the United States economy from collapsing. There were several attempts at nationalizing the American banking system which was unsuccessful. However, on 23 of December 1913, former President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Federal Reserve Act. The passing of the Federal Reserve Act created what is known today as the Federal Reserve. According to its website, the Federal Reserve “was created by the ...

Introduction

Monetary policy is the endeavor by the federal or state government to control the amount of money circulating within an economy. These control measures are undertaken to cub the instances of inflations or to control the interest rates to sustainable levels. Monetary policies can either be expansionary or contractionary. Expansionary monetary policies are meant to expand the supply of money to the economy thereby boosting the economic activities (Afonso, 2012). Expansionary monetary policies also lead to a reduction in average interest rates. Contractionary monetary policies, on the other hand, are macro-economic tools used by the federal or the state ...

Corse Lecturer

There are big changes that have occurred in the economy over the years. Some positive and others negative. A large number of people now are enlightened on issues related to the economy and are involved in investment. More businesses are growing and resources are continuing to be strained. Greed is common as many people aim to have a large pool of resources at their disposal to grow their businesses as well as finances. There are now many economic vices that are stunting the growth of the economy. This paper will look at some of the economic issues today and ...

The United States economy influences the global business environment in a significant way. The reason behind the control is that the US is a superpower, and its economy is linked up with other foreign nations that the US is interacting with through international trade. Also, the US connects with the developing countries through aids and grants it issues to the countries. Through the international trade, United States acquires a significant amount of revenue since the economy invests in the importation of primary inputs and exportation of machinery and auxiliary products. The earnings make the economy run on a relatively ...

1) Which were the primary causes of the Great Depression?
According to Walton and Rockoff, an acceptable explanation for the Great Depression has to distinguish between the initial forces, which brought a downturn in financial activity, and later events, that turned a downturn into a calamity. We can detect two issues on the economy that foreshadowed the real slump in economic activity. First, there was a decline in the construction industry that began 1925, that had a significant impact on the depression. Second, the agricultural sector suffered greatly, with falling world prices and massive indebtedness (422).
Walton and Rockoff ...

Abstract

The current paper explores the main differences of the Great Recession in 2007-2009 from other economic collapses in the history if the United States. Section I discusses the general features of a recession and describes the main responsibilities of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Section II is devoted to the comparison of the Great Recession with the recession of 1980s. The section is divided into four subsections. Subsection A presents the basic comparison of recessions in the U.S. history and explains the choice of the 1980s period for the further comparison. Subsection B explores differences in unemployment in ...

Global Financial Crisis in the US

Introduction
It was hard for the economists, professional analysts and policymakers among other players in the financial industry to foresee the crisis in the US mortgage lending industry in 2007 that resulted in the world's worst economic recession in two years' time (Sher and Iyanatul 2010). Initially, there was a housing bubble characterized by high house prices, low-interest rates, more support for subprime mortgage and increased speculation by the buyers (Acharya and Schnabl 2010). Eventually, there were decline of house market prices, increased lending rates and increased default and foreclosures by the mortgagors (John 2009). Notably, by mid-2008 the ...

The American Economy has faced one of the most destructive economic crises in 2008. The crisis started in the sub-mortgage markets has expanded to the financial markets, and the largest financial institutions have declared their bankruptcies. Subsequently, the collapse of the financial markets has spread to all the industries in the country.
What the American lost in the global financial crisis and what made the recovery from the crisis tough was the loss of trust for the American Economy among the agents in the economy. Until 2008, the economic development in the US was based on the consumption economy. ...

The Federal Reserve has one of the most unique duties in the world. Tasked with keeping both employment high and inflation low, it is the only central banking authority in the world that performs both functions as its mission. Studies performed by A. Phillips describe the inverse relationship between unemployment and the inflation of real wages. The Federal Reserve and Congress enact policies to counteract the inverse nature of unemployment and inflation. The Fed achieves its goals with manipulation of monetary policy, which is the control of the monetary supply, while Congress controls fiscal policy to help achieve similar ...

Biography for Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen was born on August 14, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother was a teacher and the father a doctor. She attended Fort Hamilton High school. She excelled in many subjects and became the editor of the institution's newspaper and graduated as a valedictorian in 1963. She then attended Brown University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1967. She proceeded to Yale University and received a Ph.D. in 1971. She married George Akerlof, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and an economic noble prize winner in 1978. Yellen has one adult ...

In America, central banking was introduced in 1913 with the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, based in Washington DC (Federal Reserve 10). Congress passed an Act that addressed the need for a central bank that ensures a stable, safe and flexible financial mechanism. The Federal Reserve provides oversight and regulatory functions over banks to protect clients, manages risk, implement monetary laws that boost the economy and offers services to government institutions (Federal Reserve 10).
Based in London, the Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and it manages the central accounts of the government ( ...

Prior to the Great Depression policy makers in the United States generally tended to accept that business cycles happened and in accord with Adam Smith's "invisible hand," tended to be self-correcting. The stock market crash of 1929, and the more general problem of massive unemployment forced a reconsideration. Smiley (2008) and Bernstein (2016) both point out that the human face of the Depression left no choice but for some government intervention. Jahan and Papageorgiou (2014), discussing Keynesian Economics put it plainly: “The central tenet of this school of thought is that government intervention can stabilize the economy.” The centerpiece ...

The beginning of the XX century is known as Progressive Era in the American History. Many important historical changes and reforms took place at that time. The reforms have shaped the American society for the next century.
Three important reforms of the Progressive Era are the expanding of democracy, women’s suffrage and the creation of the Federal Reserve Board.
Expanding democracy was an important process that shaped the political and electoral climate in the United States for decades. At the beginning of the XX century, many common citizens were dissatisfied with the level of accountability of the government ...

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014 stated in the year 2015 on October 4  that for the first time the federal reserve has taken the decision to raise from 'zero interest rate' and the decision was taken after the great depression. When the markets crashed in the year 2008 then the monetary policy of the federal reserve saved the economy to recover from the recession. However there are other criticisms that the 'zero interest rate' policy of the federal reserve was the reason of the Great Depression of 2008. But Bernanke argued ...

The film Too Big To Fail (2011) tells a story of the events that took place in 2008 in the financial industry in the USA when several largest financial service companies including Lehman Brothers faced bankruptcy due to the subprime mortgage crisis that hit the USA. Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest bank in the USA and it was surprising to see that the Federal Reserve did not help this bank to survive by offering extensive financial support. Instead the Federal Reserve wanted to make the other largest banks like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, etc. to purchase Lehman Brothers ...

The question of minimum wage introduction for low-skilled workers offers conflicting research findings. Some theorists suggest that the introduction of minimum pay for low-skilled labor may affect the whole employment. However, the general model of competitive market for labor assumes that the introduction of minimum wage will cause job loss among the low-skilled employees. This report is dedicated to the economic analysis of this model.

What Economic Theory Predicts Will Happen

The simplest approach includes the analysis of one separate labor type. In such market, the minimum wage that overshoots the competitive equilibrium in the market causes harm to employment from two standpoints. First of ...

The economies of Canada and the USA are the most developed ones in the whole American continent. The two nations have very intensive economic ties. Furthermore, the whole scope of relations between Canada and the USA is at such intensive level that these two countries will inevitably cooperate, and to understand the possible ways of the development of their economies we should figure out their current situation in financial sector.
Canada is a developed market economy with less government regulation than in Europe, but slightly higher than in the United States. Canada is a member of the Organization for ...

The Federal Reserve System collects and disseminates a variety of monetary statistics including interest rates, money supplies, and foreign exchange tariffs. In the current surveys of business conditions published by the Board and the Federal Reserve banks, economic data summarized are made available to the business community. These publications and the activities of other Government and private agencies in the gathering and interpretation of information concerning current economic conditions are contributed to a better understanding of the factors at work in the business situation and appreciation of the relation between commercial movement and the volume of credit. The circumstances ...

“If it has ‘science’ in its name, it ain’t (Minnick).” Those words were said to this writer by the smartest person he ever knew personally, a man with PhDs in Mathematics and Physics, a true scientist. He went on to explain that science, if it is science, can be reduced to mathematics and then can predict. “Science can generate electricity or flatten cities,” he said. The problem, of course, is that whenever one deals with the “soft sciences,” political science or economics (the dismal science) or sociology or history or any of the disciplines that are housed in ...

Recession refers to short period associated with decline in economic activities such as decrease in stock market business, high unemployment rates, poor housing facilities, high cost of due to low purchasing power of the country’s currency and general failure in the financial institutions. Recession may vary in terms of magnitude and in terms of how long it may persist (Gaston, 1994). Most economists’ belief on this subject is that recession differs from depression only by the degree of their severity. The implication is that depression is more severe form of recession-though with similar consequences.
Usually, recession happens after ...

Introduction

Full employment is defined as the stage at which all the resources of an economy are engaged in the production of output. Generally, an economy is said to be at full employment when the rate of unemployment is in the range of five to five and a half percent and the capital utilization capacity is at 85 percent (Mathews, 2015). Full employment is beneficial to the economy since the resources are used to produce goods that satisfy the needs of the users thus reducing the problem of scarcity. There is a correlation between full employment and natural unemployment. The ...

The savings and loans crises did not occur until the 1980’s. Sudden deregulation, competition and market volatility in the late 1970’s started the crises. In 1979 there were sudden changes to traditionally low interest rates because the Federal Reserve doubled the interest rate to combat inflation. The savings & loans associations (S & Ls) made most of their money from low interest mortgages and tried to increase their interest rates to make up the shortfall. Furthermore, The S & Ls was restricted by regulation Q that capped the amount of interest that they could pay to depositors; they could not ...

Articulate why an export business would prefer a rising or declining exchange rate for their domestic currency.

Exchange rate shows the price of one currency in terms of another one. Modern economies are open to international trading and business, thus the value of the national currency is regularly monitored and interpreted in terms of the foreign currencies. Mostly, a direct exchange rate is used, which defines the price of a unit of the foreign currency in terms of the national one. However, sometimes. An indirect quote is used to express the price of a unit of the domestic currency in terms of the foreign one.
Most economies now use floating exchange rates that determine currency rates ...

The Federal Funds Rate Hike

The New York Times, in an article by Binyamin Appelbaum entitled "Fed raises key interest rate for first time in almost a decade" discussed the pronouncement of the Federal Open Market Committee ﴾FOMC﴿ to increase the Federal Funds rate. The decision came exactly seven years after the financial crisis in 2008 when the FOMC reduced its rates to near‐ zero level to prevent the economy from collapsing. The article described the move as signaling the beginning of the end of the Fed 's stimulus program and highlighted the Fed statement that the Fed intends to increase the rates gradually ...

Currency is valueless, and it is all about the confidence of the people in it. Since the start of the economic crisis in 2007, the Federal Reserve has juxtapositionaly employed conventional and non-conventional monetary policies to caution the effects of such crisis on economic activities and stabilize the financial market. Price stability and maximum employment were necessary for the nation and the world that uses the US dollar as the standard. To achieve this, the Federal Reserve turned to Large Scale Asset Purchases. Although the ends of all the policies formulated are the same, ambiguity shrouds the means to ...

Most of the services offered by a bank are largely financial in nature. However, the terms Assets and Liabilities have a different meaning when it comes to banks. For instance, assets in banking terminology would indicate fund usage, while liabilities in case of banks would, in fact, be a source of funds for banks. This essay will consider five different services or function that a bank offers and would explain with reasons if the said service is an asset or a liability, while also evaluating the services and providing an overall impression of the same.
This essay considers the ...

Increase Government Spending to Fight Recessions

Introduction
Government spending as a recession recovery tool has been the subject of debate numerous times. To date, there is no definitive proof of its success or failure of its application. An active fiscal or a monetary policy is the sum total of the actions taken as a reaction to the current economic conditions; the government chooses to use a specific policy to deal with something in the economy (Mankiw, 2001).

Government spending as a method for lessening recession is a tool that has been proposed and even applied by many governments when they are experiencing a recession. This ...

Personal Finance

Personal Finance

Introduction

The economy of the United States impacts personal finance either directly or indirectly. Importantly, the government regulates personal finance through interest rates and taxes. Most taxes are directed to social programs to help the needy. Due to income disparities, citizens opt to acquire credit cards from local banks or other lenders. The credit card allows consumers to spend in advance and keep track of their expenditure. However, those who settle their credit card balance late, pay high-interest rates. The purpose of this paper is to address the role of government in the personal finance. Also, the paper ...

The great moderation is the period between the 1980s and 2007 preceded by the great inflation and followed by the great recession of 2008. The time experienced a decreased macroeconomic volatility evidenced by the following aspects. Most central banks could keep inflation low without compromising economic growth. The reduction of inflation created a stable growth by avoiding the boom and bust cycles of the economy. Besides the economy grew because of the absence of uncertainty and greater risk taking resulting to increased trust in the economy of the country. Asset prices like houses and land increased significantly.
The causes ...

Introduction

In 2008, the entire world was rocked by the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis first affected the entire financial system of the United States before then quickly spread globally. The casualties of the crisis included the whole investment banking industry of the US. Other casualties were the US largest insurance company, largest mortgage lender, among other firms in the financial services sector. The US auto industry was severely hit leading to loss of jobs. The US unemployment rate increased by 4.9% points from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2009. The ...

Introduction

The Tulip Mania that took place between 1636 and 1637 is one of the earliest recorded financial bubbles (Veen, 2012). While there is no universally accepted definition of a financial bubble, the term financial bubble is used to refer to a situation where an asset price exceeds the asset intrinsic value, or the value that could be earned by holding the asset to maturity for an extended period of time (The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2012). The Tulip Mania fits the description of a financial bubble because at its height, the price of some tulip bulbs exceeded the ...

Introduction

The capitalism and socialism debate have been conflict-ridden as the left-wing rarely does agree with right-wing. In the United States, the Democrats are referred to as left wing while the Republican is referred to as right-wing. Most of the right wing policies are geared towards pure capitalism while the left-wing is socialism or communism inclined. The left wing support capitalism with a human face while the right wing desires to have a fully supported freedom to do things be it business or politics. It is in this regard that fault socialist capitalist for ills happening in the world.

Capitalism and Socialism Supporters views about 2008Financial Crisis

The ...

U.S. House of RepresentativesWashington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative Johnson:

I am a young constituent of Texas interested in observing the political developments in the country. As a representative of Texas serving the nation for more than two decades, I would like to bring to your kind notice a key problem of public interest to initiate necessary actions for effecting a policy change in the near future.
My strong concern is about the current monetary policies of this great nation. As a youngster who is observing the economic development of this country with interest, I would like to express my views on some ...

The organization that has been considered is the Regions Financial Corporation. The details of the organization as obtained in the Bank Holdings Company Performance Report are as follows:

RSSD Number: 3242838

Federal Reserve District: 6
Consolidated Assets ($000): 124,891,540
Peer : 1
Company Introduction and Activities:
With an aim to strengthening the financial activities in the United States, Regions Financial Corporation was established in the year 2014. It has its headquarters situated in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Company address of Regions Financial Corporation is mentioned as

1900 5th Avenue North

25th Floor

Birmingham, AL 35203
The official website of the company is http://www.regions.com. The industry in which the Company belongs to ...

Introduction

Money is a means of payment for services and goods. Money can also be defined as anything that allows us to purchase goods and services (Stanford 2008, 189). Money serves number of functions like measure of value, means of exchange and store of value. These functions often contradict each other and these contradictions may lead to economic crisis.

Function of money

Money: In ancient times, barter system was used for payment of services and commodities. It was difficult to put exchange value on commodities or services rendered. Trading in barter system was highly inefficient, as seller had to find a buyer who ...

Introduction

Through several stages of the development the world faces new challenges. One of them has the form of financial crisis. The cut down taking place in 2008 was not the first crisis that slow down the global economy and welfare of the state, while it was not the last one. This paper considers the situation at the financial sector during the spread of financial crisis in 2008, its main reasons and forthcoming consequences. Simultaneously, the author analyzes in this paper the impact of the crisis over the welfare of such states as the United States of America, the United ...

In the financing market, there is an important need to balance the powers between lenders and borrowers. In this market, the borrowers are in a relatively weak position to negotiate the interest rates of their loans, being the party in need. Lenders, in accordance to the law of supply and demand, can strategically withhold money supply to increase demand and interest rates. Historically, government regulators ensured, through usury laws, that the consumers were protected against financial predators (Bowsher, 1974). However, the current trend in the financing market has moved steadily towards loosening the usury laws and allowing the markets to ...

Market discipline has evolved from the real need to address the financial concerns that brought on the last few financial crises. The international economy is tied deeply to the financial sector, and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been tasked with providing ease of liquidity throughout the world, while also helping to protect the flow of capital across borders to facilitate trade. These financial institutions are remarkably limited to what they can do because they hold little sovereignty over the independent nation-states that compose them; only the World Bank is effective when ...

Significant increases in the national debt, with no relief or plans to deal with the problem, and its effect on the economy
An increase in national budget, with no relief or plans to deal with the problem, will result in a deficit, or more spending with less national input. Repercussions for a budget deficit can mean more borrowings for the national government from the private sector, such as the selling of bonds or gilts to the private sector.
The debate over the budget deficit has two opposing views. The first one is that the deficit is destructive to the ...

1. The Financial Crisis: Avoidable but Inevitable
Theoretically, the financial crisis could have been avoided as investigation findings revealed . Under the circumstances however, the crisis was an inevitable consequence of everything that was going.
The Federal inquiry concluded that the 2008 financial crisis could have been avoided. The crisis was the result of “widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street”. It was the result of “greed, ineptitude or both” on the part of government and the private sector.
Among the persons found responsible for the crisis included Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and, ...

The article addresses that the housing market remains robust in the economy that is characterized by sluggish wage growth, volatile stock market and higher oil prices that depress the consumer spending. The author highlights the shares of home price tracker Zillow and Pulte (PHM) and KB Home (KBH) home builder stocks that justify the robust housing market. Nonetheless, Monica asserts that the experienced higher earnings Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) have been instrumental in describing the growth of the housing market (La Monica).
La Monica contends that the trickle up effect compels the consumers spending to increase ...

Article Review

The US economy is well known for the wide range of detailed data that is available through various organizations like the Fed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Affairs and many others. The world’s largest economy has a high reputation on the quality and reliability of the data that it provides. Though the data provided by the government organizations have a high degree of accuracy the data is not a real time one. This is because the organizations need updated statistics on the various macroeconomic variables. For this reason there is a time lag in ...

Article 1: The case for minimizing risk in your bond holdings by William Bernstein

There is always a trade-off between risk and return. Investors are rational and risk-averse hence, they require additional returns when the risk involved in any investment is high. In this article, William Bernstein explains how investors can reduce the risk in their investments in bonds without necessarily interfering with the expected returns on the bonds. One of the risks affecting bondholders is the interest risk. Changes in interest rates affect the return on bonds. When interest rates rise, bondholders lose since the prices of bonds fall. This is because the bond will be paying a lower coupon interest compared ...

Tyler Cowen’s “The Inequality that Matters”, published in the January-February 2011 issue of The American Interest Magazine, addresses the type of income inequality that Americans, and people all over the globe, should be concerned about. Most people, Cowen says, are unaware of the bigger, economic picture, and are instead more concerned about their neighbors’ income status. According to Cowen (2011), the American economy may collapse again because of an unstable economic situation in China and Europe, undercapitalized banks, or because the economic system is broken – and no one no one quite knows how to fix it. Cowen (2011) ...

Gupta and Goldfajin defined a tight monetary as “a case in which real interest rates in the aftermath of the crises are higher than the average real interest rate during the 24 months preceding the crises”(Goldfajn and Gupta, 1999, p.4). The primary objective of ensuring that the monetary policy is tightened is to make sure that the supply of money in the economy is reduced and also to ensure a conducive environment for businesses. For a commercial bank to lend money, there are a lot of factors that it considers. Some of the factors include the volume of ...

Introduction

Unemployment in America has been a cause of great economic concern for the government and people of America. Measuring the correct unemployment rate depends on a number of factors, which need to be analyzed for taking policy decisions by the Fed and other government agencies. Summaries of three articles that appeared in the leading publications are given below in the attempt to shortlist the reasons behind the dwindling unemployment rate and the reasons behind the present economic condition that has made it difficult for the researchers and the government level stakeholders to predict the movement of the economy for ...

The money supply of a certain nation is determined by the monetary policy of its central bank. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the U.S. A. Moreover; monetary policy refers to the methods central banks use to increase or decrease the amount of money held by banks. The central bank can increase the money supply by changing discount rates, reducing bank reserves or buying government securities. Selling government securities or increasing the banks’ deposit reserves will contract or limit money supply.
The Federal Reserve utilizes monetary tools to control the amount of money and credit available in ...

Simulation Game

So far, I had only theoretically read about Federal Reserve altering the monetary policy by changing the interest rates in order to maintain the economic stimulus. However, the simulation game provided hands on experience about the impact of monetary policy on employment and inflation rate. For instance, a reduction in the federal rates infuses momentum in the economy and while the reduction I the interest rates fuels the employment rate, it increases the inflation rate also. Similarly, an increase in the interest rates, results an increase in unemployment while controlling the inflation rate. Therefore, the game is all about ...

Module 3. The Money Market

1.
Debit and credit cards have some commons and differences. The main similarities between these types of plastic are security of funds and personal information; convenience in reducing the amount of cash carried; ability to pay in almost any country of the world; an option to withdraw money at ATMs; internet purchases and on-line banking services. However, there cards have more differences than commons.
Debit cards allow their owner to use money he put on the account, but no extra loan is offered additionally. Most debit cards are free of charge, unless they are prepaid ones. The only fees ...

Introduction

The twin deficits hypothesis claims that government budget deficits cause current account deficits. To understand how this is possible, a breakdown of the hypothesis is useful: firstly, the national account identity tells that the income of a country (GDP) comes from the monetary amount of private (household) consumption, the government’s consumption, and the investment. Given that a large part of economies is nowadays, open one adds to the consumption side the monetary value of exports and subtracts the imports, as they are goods and money which leave the economy. Very intuitively, a government budget deficit arises when the ...

Causes of Great Depression in Europe

The Great Depression in Europe occurred during 1930s due to the economic depression that started in America in 1929. The depression was one of the biggest economic slowdown noticed by the Britain in 20th century. World trade was reduced almost by fifty percent, unemployment increased and industrial output were reduces significantly. The foundation of Great Depression started developing after World War I when various countries started manipulating their currencies and abandoned gold standard. Though various countries returned to gold standard, but it did not help in strengthening their economy or increase in spending. Britain also established gold standard in ...

President Woodrow Wilson was presiding over the United States of America when the Federal Reserve of the country was created and sanctioned in 1913.
Documentation: iMinds. Us Federal Reserve. Mosman: iMinds Private Limited, 2014.Print
The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was a radical addition that gave the women the right to vote. It was passed by the Congress in the year 1919, and ratified in the year 1920.
Documentation: Thomsen, Natasha. Women's Rights. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2010. Print
The word Boycott originated in the 19th century in Ireland. When the Irish Land League was adopting different ...

Effect of inflation of 1960’s and 1970’s

Effect of inflation of 1960’s and 1970’s
Economic system of free enterprise has contributed to economic success of United States. Success or failure of business enterprise or individual is determined on merit in free and competitive market with least government intervention. Most of the banks operate to make profit. However, unlike other industries banking industry plays a central role in country’s economy. Its performance affects the economic wellbeing of the society. Since 1930’s, the government has devised regulations to control operations of banking industry (U.S. Department of State, n.d.). In the wake of great depression ...

John Maynard Keynes is considered one of the greatest economists of the 20th century. He wrote the General Theory of Employment Interest and Money. Sheehan considers it the most important contribution to economists in recent history. He proposed policy prescriptions for saving the capitalist system from both the scourge of communism and saved it from itself. His contribution aided in driving policy after the Great Depression and the economic downturn of the 1930s. He furthered the idea that the free-market had no solutions to the sustained economic downturn. The old ways of reducing interest rates and old policy prescriptions ...

The main duties of the Federal Reserve are;

Formulating, implementing, and supervising the monetary policy of the country with a view to influence credit and monetary conditions in the economy, ensuring stable prices.
Regulation and supervision of important financial institutions including banks. It ensures that the banking system is safe and that credit consumers are protected.

Ensuring that the financial system is stable.

Providing essential financial services to U.S government and its institutions and also taking care of the government’s payment activities.
The Fed increases the money supply in three ways. The Fed can buy Treasury bond, bills or and notes thereby releasing money into the economy. It can also increase the ...