米什金_货币金融学_第9版各章学习指导(5)

This chapter has an appendix on the Web site that derives the M2 money multiplier and explains the

intuition behind it. Some instructors may want to cover this material in class because it shows how money supply analysis can be extended to monetary aggregates other than M1. In addition, it provides students with additional practice in using the concepts they have learned in the chapter.

For instructors who would prefer to deemphasize discussion of the money supply process in their course, this chapter can easily be skipped. I have also found that I can skip this chapter.

Part Two: Overviews of the Textbook Chapters and Teaching Tips 41

Chapter 15

Tools of Monetary Policy

Chapter 15 examines in detail the tools at the Fed’s (and the European Central Bank’s) disposal for

conducting monetary policy. To fully understand how the Fed’s tools are used in the conduct of monetary policy, this chapter shows how they affect the federal funds rate directly. Students are introduced to the nitty gritty of how the Fed wields these tools and are exposed to current debates on whether Fed policymaking could be made more effective by altering their use of these tools. One basic conclusion that should be emphasized in class is that open market operations are the Fed’s primary tool in conducting monetary policy.

To keep the material in this chapter from being too descriptive, I have started the chapter with an analytic analysis of how Federal Reserve actions influence the federal funds rate. This analysis reflects the changes in the way the market for reserves works because the Fed now pays interest on reserves. The chapter also includes applications on why reserve requirements have been declining throughout the world and on the channel/corridor approach for setting interest rates used by other countries. Teaching these applications encourages students to use their economic intuition to understand the tools of monetary policy better. One topic that frequently does not get enough attention in money and banking courses is the lender-of- last-resort function of discounting. I feel this function should be stressed in class because students find it inherently interesting in the wake of the recent massive operations by the Fed during the subprime financial crisis. Students particularly like to hear about real-world examples of discounting to avoid banking and financial panics. It is particularly worth discussing in class the examples in the Inside the Fed box on the Federal Reserve’s lender-of-last-resort facilities during the subprime financial crisis.