Lecture 19
MONEY SUPPLY AND THE CENTRAL BANK
1. Role of the central bank (Federal Reserve)
- Objectives
- To keep inflation in check
- To promote economic growth
- Question: Are these goals at odds with each other?
- Conducting monetary policy
- Change money supply (equivalently, interest rates)
- Independence of the central bank
- Is it okay that Chair of the Fed is not an elected official?
2. The Fed's balance sheet
- Assets:
Government securities, loans to commercial banks
- Liabilities:
Currency in circulation, reserves of commercial banks
3. Changes in money supply
How does the Fed do it?
- To increase money supply, the Fed will inject (excess) reserves into the banking system
- To decrease money supply, the Fed will soak up (excess) reserves from the banking system
Method 1: Open-market operations
- Purchase, or sale of government securities to commercial banks
- Suppose the Fed buys Treasury bonds from Citibank
- Citibank's holdings of govt. securities will fall ...
... and its reserves will rise (why?)
- Citibank will lend out its excess reserves ...
... causing M1 to increase
- The overall increase in M1 will depend on the required reserve ratio
- If the Fed sells govt. securities to the commercial banks, money supply will [ increase / decrease ].
Method 2: Changes in reserve requirements
- Commercial banks are required to maintain a certain proportion of their checking deposits in reserves
- In order to decrease money supply, the Fed will [ raise / lower ] the required reserve ratio (m)
Method 3: Changes in the discount rate
- What is the discount rate?
- If the Fed wants to increase money supply, it will [ increase / decrease ] the discount rate. Explain how this works.
4. The federal funds rate
- Interest rate at which banks lend to each other
- Why would Citibank borrow from Chase?
- The Fed generally tries to target the federal funds rate
- The current federal funds rate is _______%. (Look at WSJ.)