Improving Money Stock Control


Book Description

On October 30-31,1981, the Center for the Study of American Business and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cosponsored their sixth annual conference, "Improving Money Stock Control: Problems, Solutions, and Consequences." This book contains the papers and comments delivered at that conference. The Federal Reserve System has moved, over the last decade, toward setting policy in terms of explicit and publicly announced monetary aggre gate targets - specifically, growth ranges for alternative measures of the money supply. This conference, as the title suggests, was wide ranging in its discussions of monetary control. But rather than dealing with the merits of monetary aggregate targeting, its focus was instead on solving the problems associated with, and evaluating the consequences of, im proved monetary control. The initial paper outlines the current operating procedures followed by the Federal Reserve and suggests reforms to improve monetary control. The following three discussion papers in Part I critically examine the Fed's operating procedures. The two papers in Part II discuss the experi ence of other countries with monetary aggregate targeting - the United Kingdom and Switzerland, respectively - and Part III examines the con sequences of improved monetary control.




The Federal Reserve System Purposes and Functions


Book Description

Provides an in-depth overview of the Federal Reserve System, including information about monetary policy and the economy, the Federal Reserve in the international sphere, supervision and regulation, consumer and community affairs and services offered by Reserve Banks. Contains several appendixes, including a brief explanation of Federal Reserve regulations, a glossary of terms, and a list of additional publications.




New Approaches in Monetary Policy


Book Description

The Colloquium at Wiesbaden was the seventh in a series organized by the Societe Universitaire Europeenne de Recherches Financieres (SUERF) at intervals since 1969. The titles, places and dates of previous Colloquia are noted on page ii, with brief particulars of the ensuing publications. From the beginning, the emphasis has been on money and finance in a European setting, and the most recent Colloquium, held in Wiesbaden for the three days beginning on September 29, 1977, followed this well-established pattern. The subject, "New Approaches in Monetary Policy", was divided into four aspects, each discussed in separate commissions, as described in the General Report (since the languages used by SUERF are English and French, it appears in the original French on page 327, and in an English translation, on page 355. Three other chapters and the Preface are in French. ) The separate commissions, each with its own chairman and rapporteur, were addressed by the authors of the specially written papers, all experts, active in their fields, and they also led the discussions. M. Raymond Bertrand, the President ofSUERF, was Chairman for the Colloquium as a whole, which was in plenary session for the opening and closing meetings. The Rapporteur General was Professor Paul Coulbois, whose report is mentioned above. Attendance at the Colloquium has risen over the years, and so has the number of papers presented.







Monetary Policy Rules


Book Description

This timely volume presents the latest thinking on the monetary policy rules and seeks to determine just what types of rules and policy guidelines function best. A unique cooperative research effort that allowed contributors to evaluate different policy rules using their own specific approaches, this collection presents their striking findings on the potential response of interest rates to an array of variables, including alterations in the rates of inflation, unemployment, and exchange. Monetary Policy Rules illustrates that simple policy rules are more robust and more efficient than complex rules with multiple variables. A state-of-the-art appraisal of the fundamental issues facing the Federal Reserve Board and other central banks, Monetary Policy Rules is essential reading for economic analysts and policymakers alike.







Money Stock Control and Inflation Targeting in Germany


Book Description

1.1 Intermediate strategies for monetary policy The launch of a single European currency in January 1999 has been sparking a heated debate over what strategy the European Central Bank's policy should be based on so as to distribute and maintain monetary stability in Europe. In order to pass the Bundesbank's reputation as a tough inflation fighter on to the European Central Bank there have been strong efforts to make the ECB a close copy of the Bundesbank. It might be surmised that there will be a lot of similarities in its intermediate strategies. Among other indicators, the ECB's policy will be based on the growth rate of a broad monetary aggregate consistent with its definition of price stability. As a key instrument in the new central bank's instruments, REPO operations will constitute the main refinancing source of private banks and, in addition, minimum reserve requirements have been introduced to facilitate the authority's command over the banking sector's liquidity by means of stabilising the demand for central bank money. After having introduced monetary targeting in the 1970s, in the 1980s, the Bank of England and the Fed soon abandoned it again, because of distor tions from financial innovations and currency substitution. But the Bundes bank strongly defended its intermediate strategy of monetary targeting and advocated its implementation in the European System of Central Banks.










Inflation, Depression, and Economic Policy in the West


Book Description

Experience during the last ten years has encouraged economists to review their judgements regarding behavior and policy. The experience of the 1970s brought inflation to prominence in the minds of policymakers and academic economists, raising questions about labor markets and other supply considerations, but also resulting in an atmosphere conducive to increasing attention on monetary and financial variables. An account of some of the issues that, in this environment, occupied the thoughts of economists and conditioned the responses of policymakers in various Western countries is what this volume is about.