Question

You are Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. In your meeting with the Federal Open Market Committee, the committee unanimously votes to increase the money supply using open market operations (OMOs). During the press conference after the meeting, a reporter asks you to explain what OMOs are and how you will use them to increase the money supply. You reply that:

a. OMOs are the selling and buying of government securities. The money supply increases when purchasing occurs and contracts when selling occurs. OMOs work by changing the amount of excess reserves available in the banking system.
b. OMOs alter the reserve requirement up or down. The money supply will increase when we use OMOs to decrease the reserve requirement.
c. Open market operations refer to manipulating the rate at which the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) loans money to member banks. An increase in the money supply occurs when the Fed increases this rate, which decreases the amount of required reserves in the banking system.
d. OMOs are the selling and buying of government securities. The money supply increases when selling occurs and contracts when buying occurs. OMOs work by changing the amount of excess reserves available in the banking system.

Answer 1

Answer:

a. OMOs are the selling and buying of government securities. The money supply increases when purchasing occurs and contracts when selling occurs. OMOs work by changing the amount of excess reserves available in the banking system.

Explanation:

OMOs are open market operations and refer to the purchase and sale of government securities by the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) in an effort to change the money supply. If the Fed wants to increase the money supply, it will purchase government securities. The Fed buys the securities and pays for them by increasing the selling banks' reserves in their account at the Fed. The increase in reserves will increase the amount of excess reserves in the banking system and fuel deposit expansion, assuming the bank wishes to keep excess reserves at a minimum.

Answer 2

The answer to your question should be A.