Question

Suppose the Fed carries out an open market sale of $100m and simultaneously decreases the minimum required reserve ratio from 10% to 5%. The banking system has initially $100m of securities and $800m of loans. Assume that loans are used as currency by the borrowers. Deposits are kept constant to $1000m. Show the T-account of the banking system before and after these two operations. Do these operations increase the monetary base? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Answer:

loanable amount after Fed operation = $950 M

Securities after fed operation = $50 M

attached below is the T-account table

Explanation:

Given data:

For assets : securities = $100 M ,  Loans = $800 M

For Liabilities :  Constant demand deposit = $1000 M

difference between the assets and liability = $100 M  and this makes the Banking system unbalanced hence the Banking system needs the intervention of the Fed. and the reduction in the required reserve ratio from 10% to 5% is the right action

How with the reserve ratio reduced to: 0.05

hence required  Minimum required securities after operation = 0.05 * 1000 M = 50 M

Note : Total demand deposits = securities + loanable amount

therefore loanable amount after Fed operation = $1000 M - $50 M = $950

Attached below is the T-table

When both tables are compared it can be seen that there is a significant increase  in the loanable amount after the Fed's operations and increase in Loanable amount transcends to increase in Monetary base