What are the tools of U.S. monetary policy?
The Fed can’t control inflation or influence output and employment directly; instead, it affects them indirectly, mainly by raising or lowering a short-term interest rate called the “federal funds” rate. Most often, it does this through open market operations in the market for bank reserves, known as the federal funds market. What are bank reserves? Banks and other depository institutions (for convenience, we’ll refer to all of these as “banks”) keep a certain amount of funds in reserve to meet unexpected outflows. Banks can keep these reserves as cash in their vaults or as deposits with the Fed. In fact, banks are required to hold a certain amount in reserves. But, typically, they hold even more than they’re required to in order to clear overnight checks, restock ATMs, and make other payments. What is the federal funds market? From day to day, the amount of reserves a bank wants to hold may change as its deposits and transactions change. When a bank needs additional reserves on a shor
