Bond Fundamentals – Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy

It’s the Federal Reserve Bank that influences the money supply. Three tools are used to implement monetary policy:

  1. Open Market Operations
  2. Discount Rates
  3. Reserve Requirements

Since open market operations is the tool used most, we will cover it. Here’s how it works: When the economy is growing too fast and the Fed is worried about the inflation rate, it will sell government securities from its portfolio to the open market. This decreases bank reserves, which means the money supply decreases. When there are less bank and businesses have to pay the bank more in order to borrow. This discourages consumers and businesses from borrowing. Less borrowing means less spending, which slows the economy and eventually can reduce price pressures.

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Thinking Positively About Monetary Policy – How “Quantitative Easing” Can Serve The Public Good

Nervous pundits are predicting the end of American life as we know it, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced on March 18 that he would be dropping yet another trillion dollars in helicopter money – up to $300 billion to buy long-term government bonds and an additional $750 billion to buy private debt, with the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to be opened up for the sake of consumers and small businesses. The dollar immediately experienced its worst drop in 25 years, amid worries that the Fed’s intervention would spur hyperinflation. Typical of the concerned commentators expressing these sentiments was Mark Larson, who wrote in “Money and Markets” on March 20:

“This is Banana Republic-type stuff! And I’m not talking about the clothing store. Printing money out of thin air at the central bank, only to turn around and buy debt securities issued by your Treasury, is the kind of practice you typically see in emerging market regimes. We’re essentially monetizing our country’s debt and deliberately devaluing our country’s currency.”

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Is Traditional Education Better Than Technology-Based Education?

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding education. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about education.

On-line education is in trend nowadays. In the future, students may have the opportunity to study at home with computers rather than go to traditional schools like what we are used to doing. And in some cases online education is the only way available.

The most common on-line form of education today is English tutorials. As of now, students and tutors use IM (instant messaging), headset and web camera as the path of communication and of education. Is this the better option?

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