(精)宏观经济学 第三讲.pptVIP

* Source: Federal Reserve, Board of Governors, Statistical Release H.6. The latest H.6 release can be found at: /releases/h6/Current/ * In subsequent chapters (including the chapter immediately following this one), students will learn that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy can have huge effects on many macroeconomic variables, like inflation, interest rates, unemployment, and even stock price indexes and exchange rates. As chair of the FOMC, Ben Bernanke is in the news quite frequently. * Segue from last slide: The Fed controls the money supply and regulates banks. Banks clearly play an important role in the money supply because bank deposits are part of the money supply (recall that M1 includes checking account deposits, and M2 also includes savings account deposits). In the interests of parsimony, I have combined the definitions of “fractional reserve banking system” and “reserves,” as shown in the first bullet point. I believe it is sufficient to convey the meaning of both terms. * Deposits are liabilities to the bank because they represent the depositors’ claims on the bank. Loans are an asset for the bank because they represent the banks’ claims on its borrowers. Reserves are an asset because they are funds available to the bank. * The notion that banks create money by making loans is a new and perhaps awkward idea for students. The following slide may help. * Students more easily accept the idea that banks create money when they see that banks do not create wealth. * Reserve requirements were introduced defined on the slide titled “Bank Reserves,” immediately following “The Structure of the Fed.” Reserve requirements are not a good tool for monetary policy: To make the money supply grow over time, the Fed would have to continually reduce reserve requirements. This is neither possible – they cannot be reduced below 0 – nor desirable – if reserves are too low, then banks will have liquidity problems, and bank runs (discussed