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Basic economics also teaches that the money supply shrinks when loans are repaid; [13] [14] however, the money supply will not necessarily decrease depending on the creation of new loans and other effects. Other than loans, investment activities of commercial banks and the Federal Reserve also increase and decrease the money supply. [15]
Central banks may also affect the money supply more directly by engaging in various open market operations. [21] They can increase the money supply by purchasing government securities, such as government bonds or treasury bills. This increases the liquidity in the banking system by converting the illiquid securities of commercial banks into ...
The term "money supply" commonly denotes the total, safe, financial assets that households and businesses can use to make payments or to hold as short-term investment. [11] The money supply is measured using the so-called "monetary aggregates", defined based on their respective level of liquidity. In the United States, for example:
Through open market operations, a central bank may influence the level of interest rates, the exchange rate and/or the money supply in an economy. Open market operations can influence interest rates by expanding or contracting the monetary base , which consists of currency in circulation and banks' reserves on deposit at the central bank.
Alternatively, central bank may try to change the money supply by expanding or contracting the monetary base, which consists of currency in circulation (a very small amount, as does not include any funds held in a commercial bank, including current accounts) and banks' reserves on deposit at the central bank.
The central bank may exacerbate this by increasing the money supply, by lowering interest rates for example, in an effort to combat a recession. The increased money supply props up the demand for goods and services, though demand would normally drop during a recession. [citation needed]
The direct corollary is that monetary policy is mostly transmitted via general equilibrium effects that work through the household labor income, rather than through intertemporal substitution, which is the main transmission channel in Representative Agent New Keynesian (RANK) models. There are two main implications for monetary policy.
The acceptance and value of commercial bank money is based on the fact that it can be exchanged freely at a commercial bank for central bank money. [20] [21] The actual increase in the money supply through this process may be lower, as (at each step) banks may choose to hold reserves in excess of the statutory minimum, borrowers may let some ...