Expansionary Policy

The United Stated Federal Reserve Board (the Fed), a component of the Federal government, conducts monetary policy. The Fed essentially plays the role for the nation’s banks that these banks play for us. Just as we borrow money from the banks, the banks borrow money from the Fed. Just as we pay interest on the money we borrow, banks pay interest on the money that they borrow from the Fed. The Fed can use monetary policy to decrease unemployment by lowering the interest rate that it charges banks. If banks are able to pay a lower interest rate to borrow from the Fed, they are likely to lower the interest rate that they charge the

If unemployment rate lowered, that means that the job market would increase. An increase in the job market would vastly increase the overall GDP of an economy (Doc 1). With the economy handing out pink slips and firing employees, a boost in employment would lead to an economic expansion (Doc 3). An economic expansion would go so far as to slow

This policy is results in faster results to speed up the economy for the short term. Fiscal Policy is later used to develop a plan of yearly actions and is a long term way to stabilize the economy. The next idea to stabilize the economy is a theory called monetarism which is the belief that if government did not interfere with the market economy that employment would be high and inflation low. Followers believe the government is the reason of downturns such as the recent recession.

“Is the current U.S. monetary policy too expansionary? Are interest rates too low or are they not low enough?”

In order to properly explain the expansionary economic policies that the federal government engages in, it is important to understand the vocabulary being used. The Federal Reserve Bank, commonly referred to as the Fed, “is the central bank of the United States” (Arnold, 2014). According to Steven Pressman (2013), “the Federal Reserve is the institution in which the federal government and private banks do their banking. The central Federal Reserve banks are responsible for monitoring banks and ensuring they remain solvent. They also control interest rates and thus borrowing costs for consumers and business firms. This, in turn, affects unemployment and inflation, giving the Federal Reserve substantial control over the U.S. economy.” Expansionary fiscal policy

A current elasticity issue is the U.S. Federal Government deficit spending that incurred a large national debt in which had a negative affect on our economy. “The U.S. Federal Government has spent more money than what it is bringing in for Americans. This is known as the ‘crowding-out effect’ which causes the Federal Reserve to increase unaffordable interest rates. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, 2011, Tom Petruno reports that, “as of June 18, 2011, the Federal Reserve has been trying to bail the U.S out of debt in the past year by purchasing the Treasury’s Net bond issuance and created $600 billion new paper bills for the financial system via bond purchases since November 2010.” (Petruno, 2011) On March 15, 2011, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FBR) reported that, “the Fed Committee is promoting a stronger pace for economic recovery and have expanded its holdings on securities. They have reinvested principal payments from the security holdings and will invest an additional amount of $600 billion into long-term treasury securities by the end of the fiscal year. Feds state that household expenditures, business investments in equipment, and software continue to expand throughout the nation. The nonresidential structures remain weak at this time and the housing sector is still depressed. There have been some improvements in the labor market that is slowly decreasing the unemployment rate.” The Fed Board

If the Federal Reserve saw or presumed that the monetary policies on economic stability were directly related to employment growth, then they were right to just serve one mandate of price stability. It was correct to argue that when the economic policies of a nation are favorable, the economic status of the country will grow. It is during economic growth when there are investments in the economy that attracts employments. When the economic growth is favorable, the lending of a nation will be better and thus self-employment will be evident. Therefore, the two mandates could be effectively joined into one another (Lalonde, & Parent, 2006).

The city of East Wallingford, a rapidly growing community of 45,000 people has been plagued by chronic traffic congestion which brings average trip times during peak hours far below State standards for the community of this size. The officials of the city are seeking to solve this problem and have asked for assistance from the Community Transportation Planning Division of the State Department of Transportation.

How can monetary policy and fiscal policy greatly influence the US economy? Keynesian economics says, “A depressed economy is the result of inadequate spending .” According to Keynesian the government intervention can help a depressed economy through monetary policy and fiscal .The idea established by Keynes was that managing the economy is a government responsibility .

     With America in recovery from the attacks on our freedom and our economy, many wonder if we will return to phase one (expansion) and how long it will take to reach phase two (recession) again. The Keynesian Theorists of America believe that the government should actively pursue Monetary policies (enacted by the Federal Reserve Bank) and Fiscal policies (enacted by Congress) to reach adjustments to price, employment, and growth levels. In our full market economy, we must use these economic policies to control aggregate demand. When these policies are used to stimulate the economy during a recession, it is said that the government is pursuing expansionary economic policies.

Our economy is a machine that is ran by humans. A machine can only be as good as the person who makes it. This makes our economy susceptible to human error. A couple years ago the United States faced one of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, which was the Great Recession. The Great Recession was a severe economic downturn that occurred in 2008 following the burst of the housing market. The government tried passing bills to see if anything would help it from becoming another Great Depression. Trying to aid the government was the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve went through a couple strategies in order to help the economy recover. The Federal Reserve provided three major strategies to start moving the economy in a better direction. The first strategy was primarily focused on the central bank’s role of the lender of last resort. The second strategy was meant to provide provision of liquidity directly to borrowers and investors in key credit markets. The last strategy was for the Federal Reserve to expand its open market operations to support the credit markets still working, as well as trying to push long term interest rates down. Since time has passed on since the Great Recession it has been a long road. In this essay we will take a time to reflect on these strategies to see how they helped.

Browsing through Trump’s budget blueprint he plans to eliminate a lot of programs that make him seem, in my opinion, more of a Keynesian economist. Trump is focused on the short-term, even though he claims to be thinking long term, by using government spending to rebuild our military. This is to say, that he will be creating many jobs and drop the unemployment rate. The FED is already faced with the dilemma of the unemployment rate dropping,

As interest rates bottomed out quickly after the onset of the recession, the Federal Reserve could no longer stimulate the economy with traditional and time-tested techniques. The controversial and unconventional method chosen by the Federal Reserve, and other central banks around the world, is known as “quantitative easing” (QE). QE functions by injecting large amounts of reserve capital into commercial banks with the hope that those banks will then be willing to lend the money at affordable interest rates. Ideally, the addition to economic activity affected by the influx of capital to banks should keep the value of the dollar relatively low, avoiding deflation and encouraging foreign investment by those wishing to take advantage of an affordable dollar. The cheaper dollar should also make American exports look more attractive to potential consumers in other countries. If interest rates stay low, and banks begin lending again, consumer and investor confidence should hopefully rise, leading to more spending and thus, economic growth.

Therefore, the quantitative easing adopted from 2009 was trying to gradually resume sustainable economic growth. Quantitative easing has helped to avert what could have been a second great depression (Wall Street, 2011). The US economy has been clawing its way out of the recession in 2009 and recovery has been slow compared to previous economic cycles. Regular review of the pace of securities purchase by the Federal reserve and the overall size of asset-purchase program in light of incoming information and adjusting the program as need be will help foster maximum employment and price stability.

This policy involves increasing government spending and cutting taxes, in order to spur economic output. But if the government decides they need to do the opposite the government may adopt concretionary fiscal policy. This involves a reduction in government spending and an increase in taxes when faced with an overheating economy. But these actions, may have other effects in the economy. For instance, and expansionary fiscal policy may lead to the crowding out of investment.