Showing 1 – 3 of 3 results.
Curated
Conducting Monetary Policy Without Government Debt: The Fed's Early Years (ICPSR 1259)
Released/updated on: 2003-01-23
Geographic coverage: United States
The Federal Reserve implements its monetary policy by using open market operations in United States government securities to target the federal funds rate. A substantial decline in the stock of United States Treasury debt could interfere with the conduct of monetary policy, possibly forcing the Fed to rely more heavily on discount window lending or to conduct open market transactions in other types of securities. Either choice would cause the implementation of monetary policy to resemble the methods used by the Fed before World War II. This paper describes two things: (1) how the Fed implemented monetary policy before the war and (2) the conflicts that arose within the Fed over the allocation of private-sector credit when discount window loans and Fed purchases of private securities were a substantial component of Federal Reserve credit. Those conflicts help explain the Fed's failure to respond vigorously to the Great Depression. The experience suggests that a renewed reliance on the discount window or on open market operations in securities other than those issued by the United States Treasury could hamper the conduct of monetary policy if it leads to increased pressure on the Fed to affect the allocation of credit.
Curated
Information Content of Treasury Inflation-Indexed Securities (ICPSR 1232)
Released/updated on: 2001-04-02
Geographic coverage: United States
United States Treasury Inflation-Indexed Securities (TIIS) were first issued in January 1997. They are now a small but growing fraction of outstanding Treasury debt. This article describes TIIS and explores what these securities can and cannot tell us about financial market expectations of inflation and real interest rates.
Curated
More Money: Understanding Recent Changes in the Monetary Base (ICPSR 25061)
Released/updated on: 2009-03-11
Geographic coverage: United States
The financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 took a turn for the worse in September 2008. Until then, Federal Reserve actions taken to improve the functioning financial markets did not affect the monetary base. The unusual lending and purchase of private debt was offset by the sale of United States Treasury securities so that the total size of the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve remained relatively unchanged. In September, however, the Federal Reserve stopped selling securities as it made massive purchases of private debt and issued hundreds of billions of dollars in short-term loans. The result was a doubling of the size of the monetary base in the final four months of 2008. This article discusses the details of the programs that the Federal Reserve has initiated since the crisis began, shows which programs have grown as the monetary base grew, and discusses some factors that will determine whether this rapid increase in the monetary base will lead to rapid inflation.