Macro11C Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macro11C - Essay Example The higher the RR, the lower the amount of money lent by banks and vice versa. 3) Federal funds rate (FFR): The FFR refers to the rate at which banks lend each other money overnight in order to maintain the reserve requirement. If the FFR is high, banks would be unwilling to lend beyond the reserve requirement and vice versa. 4) Discount rate (DR): The DR refers to the rate that the federal reserve charges the bank if it wants to borrow money from it in case when the money is not available to be borrowed from other banks. The DR is usually higher than the FFR. The open market operations are the most widely used tool for controlling the money supply in the market. The decisions for these open market operations are made during the Federal Open Market Committee meetings which since 1981 have been held 8 times at regularly scheduled times each year. These open market operations change the money supply without impact the money multiplier. The most powerful tool that the Fed has to control the monetary policy is the Reserve Requirement. Changing the RR not only impacts the money supply but also the money multiplier as it directly influences the bank lending. ... Easy money policy: To fight recessions, the Fed can use its monetary policy tools to increase the growth of money and credit, which tends to lower interest rates and spur growth of the economy. This monetary policy is said to be easy or expansionary. Tight money policy: To restrain inflation, the Fed can use its monetary policy tools to reduce the growth of money and credit, which tends to raise interest rates and slow the growth of the economy. This monetary policy is said to be tight or contractionary. For the easy money policy, first the MS increases which causes the interest rate to decrease which causes the amount of investment to increase. This causes AD to increase leading to a higher real GDP and a little inflation. The implementation in reality is done by the Fed by buying securities from banks and/or reducing the reserve ratio for banks, the FFR and the DR. For the tight monetary policy, first the MS decreases which causes the interest rate to increase which causes the amou nt of investment to decrease. This causes AD to decrease leading to a lower real GDP and a decrease in price levels. The implementation in reality is done by the Fed by selling securities from banks and/or increasing the reserve ratio for banks, the FFR and the DR. Q3: Comment on the theory underlying the use of a monetary rule by the Federal Reserve. Does the use of such a rule seem appropriate under current economic conditions? Explain. The theory underlying the ue of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve is also known as the Taylor Rule. It is an interest rate forecasting model invented by John Taylor in 1992 and described in his 1993 study called â€Å"Discretion Vs. Policy Rules in Practice". In general, the Taylor rule mean that for a 1% increase in