The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is uniquely responsible for implementing monetary policy on behalf of the Federal Open Market Committee and acts as the market agent of the entire Federal Reserve System (as it houses the Open Market Trading Desk and manages System Open Market Account).[2] It is also the sole fiscal agent of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the bearer of the Treasury's General Account, and the custodian of the world's largest gold storage reserve.[3] Aside from these distinct functions, the New York Fed also performs the same responsibilities and tasks as the other Reserve Banks do, such as supervision and research.[4][5]
Given its central role within the Federal Reserve System, the New York Fed and its president are therefore considered first among equals among the other regional Reserve banks.[6] Its current president is John C. Williams.
Establishment
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York opened for business on November 16, 1914, under the leadership of Benjamin Strong Jr., who had previously been president of the Bankers Trust company. He led the bank until his death in 1928. Strong became the executive officer (then called the "governor"—today, the term would be "president"). As the leader of the Federal Reserve's largest and most powerful district bank, Strong became a dominant force in U.S. monetary and banking affairs. One biographer has termed him the "de facto leader of the entire Federal Reserve System".[7] This was not only because of Strong's abilities, but also because the central board's powers were ambiguous and, for the most part, limited to supervisory and regulatory functions under the 1913 Federal Reserve Act because many Americans were antagonistic to centralized control.
When the United States entered World War I, Strong was a major force behind the campaigns to fund the war effort via bonds owned primarily by U.S. citizens.[8] This enabled the United States to avoid many of the post-war financial problems of the European belligerents. Strong gradually recognized the importance of open market operation, or purchases and sales of government securities, as a means of managing the quantity of money in the U.S. economy and thus affecting interest rates. This was particularly important at the time because gold had flooded into the United States during and after World War I. Thus, its gold-backed currency was well-protected, but prices had been pushed up substantially by the currency expansion due to the gold standard-imposed expansion of currency. In 1922, Strong unofficially scrapped the gold standard and instead began aggressively pursuing open market operations as a means of stabilizing domestic prices and thus internal economic stability. Thus, he began the Federal Reserve's practice of buying and selling government securities as monetary policy. John Maynard Keynes, a prominent British economist who had previously not questioned the gold standard, used Strong's activities as an example of how a central bank could manage a nation's economy without the gold standard in his book A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923). To quote one authority:
It was Strong more than anyone else who invented the modern central banker. When we watch ... [central bankers of today] describe how they are seeking to strike the right balance between economic growth and price stability, it is the ghost of Benjamin Strong who hovers above him. It all sounds quite prosaically obvious now, but in 1922 it was a radical departure from more than two hundred years of central banking history.[9]
Strong's policy of maintaining price levels during the 1920s through open market operation and his willingness to maintain the liquidity of banks during panics have been praised by monetarists and harshly criticized by Austrian economists.[10]
With the European economic turmoil of the 1920s, Strong's influence became worldwide. He was a strong supporter of European efforts to return to the gold standard and economic stability. Strong's new monetary policies not only stabilized U.S. prices, they encouraged both U.S. and world trade by helping to stabilize European currencies and finances. However, with virtually no inflation, interest rates were low and the U.S. economy and corporate profits surged, fueling the stock market increases of the late 1920s. This worried him, but he also felt he had no choice because the low interest rates were helping Europeans (particularly the United Kingdom) in their effort to return to the gold standard.
Economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger states that Strong was one of the few U.S. policymakers interested in the troubled financial affairs of Europe in the 1920s, and that had he not died in 1928, just a year before the Great Depression, he might have been able to maintain stability in the international financial system.[11]
Since the founding of the Federal Reserve system, the Reserve Bank of New York has been the place where monetary policy in the United States is implemented, although policy is decided in Washington, D.C. by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). It is the only Reserve Bank with a permanent seat on the committee, and its president is traditionally selected as the committee's vice chairman. Operating in the financial capital of the U.S., the bank conducts open market operations—the buying and selling of outstanding Treasury securities and agency securities—through its trading desk.[13] Like other regional Reserve Banks, the Reserve Bank of New York distributes coins and currency, participates in the Fedwire system that transfers payments and securities between domestic banks, and conducts economic research.
The bank is the exclusive fiscal agent of the U.S. Treasury. In this role, it conducts all primary auctions of marketable Treasury securities, as well as government buybacks when authorized. It carries out exchange rate policy by swapping dollars with foreign currencies under the Treasury's direction. The Treasury receives all direct federal revenue and borrowed funds, and pays nearly all federal expenses, through its General Account at the Reserve Bank of New York.
A gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The bank's underground gold bullion depository lies 80 feet (24m) below street level and 50 feet (15m) below sea level,[14] resting on Manhattan bedrock. By 1927, the vault contained 10% of the world's official gold reserves.[12] The vault (designed by Frederick S. Holmes) is the largest known and confirmed gold store in the world, and holds approximately 7,000 tonnes (7,700 short tons) of gold bullion, more than Fort Knox does. The gold does not belong to the bank, which transferred all of its domestic gold reserves to the Treasury under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Nearly 98% of it belongs to the central banks of foreign governments.[15] The rest belongs to the United States and international organizations such as the IMF. The bank stores the gold at no charge, but charges for handling whenever it is moved.[16]
The bank publishes a monthly recession probability prediction derived from the yield curve and based on the work by Esteban Rodriguez Jr.[17] Their models show that, when the difference between short-term interest rates (using three-month T-bills) and long-term interest rates (using ten-year Treasury notes) at the end of a Federal Reserve tightening cycle is negative or less than 93 basis points positive, a rise in unemployment usually occurs.[18]
In 2009, the bank commissioned a probe into its own practices. David Beim, finance professor at Columbia Business School submitted a report in 2009, released by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011, saying "that a number of people he interviewed at the reserve bank believe that supervisors paid excessive deference to banks and, as a result, they were less aggressive in finding issues or in following up on them in a forceful way".[21]
In 2012, Carmen Segarra, then an examiner for the bank, told her superiors that Goldman Sachs had no policy governing conflicts of interest. She was dismissed in May 2012 and brought a lawsuit for whistle-blower retaliation in October 2013. In April 2014 the U.S. District court in Manhattan dismissed the case, "ruling that Segarra failed to make a legally sufficient claim under the whistle-blower protections of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act".[21] In September 2014, Segarra's secretly recorded conversations were aired by This American Life and the bank was accused of political corruption by being a "captured agency", i.e., subject to regulatory capture, of the banks which it supervises.[22][23]
Board of directors
The following people serve on the board of directors as of April2022[update].[24] Terms expire on December 31 of their final year on the board.[24]
In the first Godfather movie, the "meeting of the Dons" scene uses the Federal Reserve building exterior, even though the interior of another New York building (the Penn Central railway boardroom) was also used for filming.
In the 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America Max suggests a New York Federal Reserve Bank heist, which Noodles and Carol deem a suicide mission.
In the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three hijackers take over a subway train car and demand $1 million for release of the car and 19 passengers, and the city must deliver it to the train car within one hour or the hijackers will start killing passengers at the rate of one per minute until it is delivered. The money for the ransom, to be provided in bundles of used $50 and $100 bills, is frantically assembled by workers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York while a police cruiser waits at the front entrance for it to be assembled for delivery.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York plays a prominent role in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, starring Bruce Willis and Jeremy Irons. The Federal Reserve Bank is the setting for a major heist of the gold by Jeremy Irons' character, Simon Gruber. The vault is penetrated under the pretense of construction work and the gold bullion transported via dump trucks to a location outside the city.
The New York Fed publishes a series of educational comic books about its activities. Included are such titles as Once upon a Dime, The Story of Money, Too Much, Too Little, A Penny Saved ..., and The Story of Foreign Trade and Exchange.[25]
During the final season of the TV series The Strain, the protagonists use the abandoned Federal Reserve to hide their stolen nuclear warhead until they can determine how to use it against the Master. While the gold supply is acknowledged, more focus is given to the silver, which is melted down to create weapons to use against the vampires.
In the TV series The Endgame, the Federal Reserve is one of the banks targeted by Elena Federova's Snow White criminal organization. However, it is revealed that this apparent robbery is merely a means of exposing the fact that the gold has already been stolen and replaced with painted clay bars by the rival Belok syndicate, with help from the corrupt President Andrew Wright.
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of financial panics led to the desire for central control of the monetary system in order to alleviate financial crises. Over the years, events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and the Great Recession during the 2000s have led to the expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve Act was passed by the 63rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. The law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States.
The monetary policy of the United States is the set of policies which the Federal Reserve follows to achieve its twin objectives of high employment and stable inflation.
In macroeconomics, money supply refers to the total volume of money held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits. Money supply data is recorded and published, usually by the national statistical agency or the central bank of the country. Empirical money supply measures are usually named M1, M2, M3, etc., according to how wide a definition of money they embrace. The precise definitions vary from country to country, in part depending on national financial institutional traditions.
A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The banks are jointly responsible for implementing the monetary policy set forth by the Federal Open Market Committee, and are divided as follows:
Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability. Further purposes of a monetary policy may be to contribute to economic stability or to maintain predictable exchange rates with other currencies. Today most central banks in developed countries conduct their monetary policy within an inflation targeting framework, whereas the monetary policies of most developing countries' central banks target some kind of a fixed exchange rate system. A third monetary policy strategy, targeting the money supply, was widely followed during the 1980s, but has diminished in popularity since then, though it is still the official strategy in a number of emerging economies.
In macroeconomics, an open market operation (OMO) is an activity by a central bank to exchange liquidity in its currency with a bank or a group of banks. The central bank can either transact government bonds and other financial assets in the open market or enter into a repurchase agreement or secured lending transaction with a commercial bank. The latter option, often preferred by central banks, involves them making fixed period deposits at commercial banks with the security of eligible assets as collateral.
Foreign exchange reserves are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence the foreign exchange rate of its currency, and to maintain confidence in financial markets. Reserves are held in one or more reserve currencies, nowadays mostly the United States dollar and to a lesser extent the euro.
This history of central banking in the United States encompasses various bank regulations, from early wildcat banking practices through the present Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve System, commonly known as "the Fed," has faced various criticisms since its establishment in 1913. Critics have questioned its effectiveness in managing inflation, regulating the banking system, and stabilizing the economy. Notable critics include Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz, who argued that the Fed's policies exacerbated the Great Depression. More recently, former Congressman Ron Paul has advocated for the abolition of the Fed and a return to a gold standard.
Money creation, or money issuance, is the process by which the money supply of a country, or an economic or monetary region, is increased. In most modern economies, money is created by both central banks and commercial banks. Money issued by central banks is a liability, typically called reserve deposits, and is only available for use by central bank account holders, which are generally large commercial banks and foreign central banks. Central banks can increase the quantity of reserve deposits directly, by making loans to account holders, purchasing assets from account holders, or by recording an asset, such as a deferred asset, and directly increasing liabilities. However, the majority of the money supply used by the public for conducting transactions is created by the commercial banking system in the form of commercial bank deposits. Bank loans issued by commercial banks expand the quantity of bank deposits.
The United States Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934 required that all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in the sole title of the United States Department of the Treasury. It also prohibited the Treasury and financial institutions from redeeming dollar bills for gold, established the Exchange Stabilization Fund under control of the Treasury to control the dollar's value without the assistance of the Federal Reserve, and authorized the president to establish the gold value of the dollar by proclamation.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the United States' central bank. Missouri is the only state to have two main Federal Reserve Banks.
Quantitative easing (QE) is a monetary policy action where a central bank purchases predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets in order to stimulate economic activity. Quantitative easing is a novel form of monetary policy that came into wide application after the 2007–2008 financial crisis. It is used to mitigate an economic recession when inflation is very low or negative, making standard monetary policy ineffective. Quantitative tightening (QT) does the opposite, where for monetary policy reasons, a central bank sells off some portion of its holdings of government bonds or other financial assets.
The United States Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913.
The System Open Market Account (SOMA) is a securities portfolio managed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, that holds the assets it has purchased through open market operations (OMOs) in the course of carrying out monetary policy. Through SOMA transactions, the Federal Reserve System influences interest rates and the amount of reserves in the US banking system. Income from SOMA assets also provides funding for the Federal Reserve's activities, which are not funded by Congress. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) instructs the Reserve Bank of New York as to how it should use the SOMA to support monetary policy.
The Structure of the Federal Reserve System is unique among central banks in the world, with both public and private aspects. It is described as "independent within the government" rather than "independent of government".
Benjamin Strong Jr. was an American banker. He served as Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 14 years until his death. He exerted great influence over the policy and actions of the entire Federal Reserve System and indeed over the financial policies of all of the United States and Europe.
Monetary policy in the United States is associated with interest rates and availability of credit.
Julie Ann Remache is an American economist who currently works as selected deputy SOMA manager at the Federal Reserve of New York. Remache has worked at the Federal Reserve of New York since 2000, where she held several positions before being promoted to Senior VP in February 2015. She briefly worked in the private sector between 2008-2009, but returned to the Federal Reserve in January 2009 as Director for Portfolio Analytics. In this position, Remache was part of a team responsible for buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) as part of the Federal Reserve's MBS purchase program during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
References
Notes
↑ "Bank Leadership". www.newyorkfed.org. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
↑ Mightiest Bank. Aired on Monday, November 14, 2011, 7–8pm EST on Planet Green. 51 minutes. (See also Inside the World's Mightiest Bank: The Federal Reserve.Archived April 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Tug Yourgrau and Pip Gilmour. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences. 2000. Originally produced for the Discovery Channel by Powderhouse Productions. Retrieved November 14, 2011)
Alessi, Lucia, et al. "Central bank macroeconomic forecasting during the global financial crisis: the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve Bank of New York experiences." Journal of Business & Economic Statistics (2014) 32#4 pp: 483–500.
Chandler, Lester Vernon. Benjamin Strong: Central Banker (Brookings Institution, 1958)
Clark, Lawrence Edmund. Central Banking Under the Federal Reserve System: With Special Consideration of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Macmillan, 1935)
Greider, William. Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (Simon and Schuster, 1989)
Meltzer, Allan H. A History of the Federal Reserve (2 vol, University of Chicago Press, 2010)
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