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Federal of Market Committee

In:

Submitted By tiov
Words 595
Pages 3
To: Janet Yellen
From: Victor Tio
Date: October 24th, 2014
RE: Recommendation to sustain interest rates

In August 2007, the Fed started to gradually lower the federal funds rate approximately from 5% to 0% – 0.25%. The Fed funds rate has been in this extraordinarily low rate of 0% - 0.25% since 2009 in order to boost the US economy growth after the financial crisis initiated by the Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy. At first, the policy had not shown significant impact towards the economy. However, over months trying to regain investors’ confidence, investors eventually decided to reinvest their capital and rebuild the US economy. I believe by maintaining the Fed funds rate between 0% and 0.25%, will foster the US economy to maximum growth. Most interest rates are directly influenced by the federal funds rate. Banks, in general, lend capital by setting interest rates similar to federal funds rate plus certain premium. On the other hand, other lenders set interest rates by following bank rates plus premium. Thus, the federal funds rate is directly or indirectly tied to all US interest rates. When the Fed decreased interest rates by lowering federal funds rate, its intention was for the people to consume and spend more, instead of keeping their money in banks. When spending is greater than savings, the economy will grow. The Fed had noticed the economy growth was slowing down in 2007, it decided to lower the federal funds rate for the first time in almost a decade. Although the economy kept expanding, the impact of lowering the federal funds rate was not as effective as it was supposed to be. The economy growth kept decreasing and the worst-case scenario eventually popped up. In September 2008, the financial crisis started. The Fed knew they needed to do an immediate monetary action by bailing out 700 billion US dollars to the market. As a result, in Q1 2009, the

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