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The Federal Reserve System Essay

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The Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve System was founded by Congress in 1913 to be the central bank of the United States. The Federal Reserve System was founded to be a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary financial system. Over the years, the role of the Federal Reserve Board and its influence on banking and the economy has increased. Today, the Federal Reserve System's duties fall into four general categories. Firstly, the FED conducts the nation's monetary policy. The FED controls the monetary policy by influencing credit conditions in the economy. The FED measures its success in accomplishing these goals by judging whether or not the economy is at full employment and whether or not prices are stable. Not only …show more content…

The act stated that its purposes were "to provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes." After the implementation of the Federal Reserve, several laws were passed to supplement it. Some of the key laws affecting the Federal Reserve Act are the Banking act of 1935; the Employment Act of 1946; the 1970 amendments to the Bank Holding Company Act; the International Banking Act of 1978; the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978; the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980; the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991. In two of the above-named acts, Congress defined the main goals of national economic policy. These acts are the Employment Act of 1946 and the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. The main goals of the Federal Reserve are economic growth, a high level of employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. The Federal Reserve System is considered to be an independent central bank. It is an independent central bank only in the sense that its decisions do not have to be passed by the

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