Hatboro’s Economic Problem

Directions: Your answers to questions 1-6 must be placed on these three pages. Please type your answers to question 7 and the Bonus Problem and staple together with pages 1-3. If more than one person prepared the answers to this part of Macro-Problem 2, write your name in the blank above.
The Board of Governors of Hatboro have provided the following solutions to Hatboro’s economic problem. Evaluate each proposal and then choose the one that would be the most effective at reducing the level of inflation.
Option 1:   The Reserve Requirement
1.    Governor Gummo suggests raising the Reserve Requirement from 10% to 70 %. If this step was taken, using the Reserve formula, 
(a)    how will this affect MegaBank Reserves? 
(b) how will this affect the money supply?                    
Option 2: Discount Rate
2.    Governor Harpo suggests raising the Discount Rate from 2% to 3%.  MegaBank could then borrow money from the Central Bank and raise the interest rate on future loans to
its customers. For example, the mortgage loan rate would rise from 6% to 7%.

Option 3: Open Market Operations (Circle the correct choice for the following questions.)
3.    Governor Chico suggests that the Central Bank use its Open Market Operations tool for 
monetarypolicy. He recommends that the Central Bank slow the growth of the money  
supply. He recommends a(n) expansionary / contractionarypolicy to be effective in 
reducing inflation.The CB shouldbuy / sell$50million in government securities (but 
keep the reserve requirement at 10 percent.After the sale, the MegaBank would have 
more dollars / fewer dollars   ofrequired reserves and more dollars / fewer dollars of 
excess reserves. As a result ofthis transaction, MegaBank’s ability to create additional 
moneywith reserves / loans would most likely increase/ decrease. Thus the rate of 
growth of the money supply would most likely speed up / slow down. 
Option 4: Alternative Policy
4.    Governor Groucho is the richest man in Hatboro. He is willing to contribute his personal fortune to save Hatboro.Groucho could withdraw $5 million from his checking account and bury it in his backyard.  (He owns MegaBank and is its largest depositor.)How will this affect the loanable funds for MegaBank and the money supply? 

Option 5 Another Alternative
5.    Governor Zeppo believes the answer to inflation is to use a “two-fisted” approach. He proposes flooding the market with T-bills to raise the yield equal to the rate of inflation.
Then to add stricter controls on loan able funds, he would raise and maintain the IOER 
Rate at 200 basis points above the rate of inflation. Thus, as inflation comes down, the interest on IOER would decrease as well.
6.    Analyze Governor Zeppo’s proposal. Investor Lydia has a one-year $10,000 Hatboro Treasury Bond that pays 6% on face value and has a yield of 6 %.
a.    What price did she pay for the bond? 

b.    Due to inflation, the CB floods the T-Bond market by selling T-Bonds.         The CB wants to raise the interest rate to 18%.  What will be the         new price of thebond?    
                                                                     
c.    Lydia can hold this bond to maturity at the end of this year (Dec.)one yearor sell it now (April)at the new, lower price. What would you advise her to do? Why (Consider the inflation rate!)?
7.    Choose the best solution recommended by Gummo, Groucho, Harpo, Chico or Zeppo.
Describe fully the effect of this policy on the money supply and economic growth.
Include a graph of the money supply as well as AD/AS to support your answer.          Also, provide a new balance sheet for MegaBank to show this change.  
[Reminder: You need to slow the growth of the money supply,            not choke off all lending and borrowing. Hint: a tighter policy!]

 

 

Evaluation:

Option 1:   The Reserve Requirement

If the reserve requirement will be raised from 10% to 70% then the reserves of MegaBank will reduce as it will have to deposit more money with central bank. Earlier it was required to keep only 10% of its reserve with the central bank, now it will keep 70% of its reserves with the central bank. The Mega bank will be left with less reserves hence it can give less funds to the public in the form of loans, borrowings etc. So, the money supply will reduce as bank will have very less money to lend and people will not be able to borrow much. 

Option 2: Discount Rate

If the discount rate increases from 2% to 3%, the other interest rates will rise as well because increase in discount rate means that if Mega bank wants to borrow money from central bank it will now have to pay 3% interest instead of 2% which means that borrowing has become expensive for Mega bank. So, it will increase its interest rates. The mortgage loan was given earlier at 6%, now it will be given at 7% to the public. This will reduce the borrowing of money by the people of the economy, they will invest less, and hence the money supply will decrease. 

Option 3: Open Market Operations (Circle the correct choice for the following questions.)

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Governor Chico suggests that the Central Bank use its Open Market Operations tool for monetary policy. He recommends that the Central Bank slow the growth of the money supply. He recommends a(n) expansionary /  contractionary policy to be effective in reducing inflation. The CB should buy / sell $50 million in government securities (but keep the reserve requirement at 10 percent. After the sale, the Megabank would have more dollars / fewer dollars   of required reserves and more dollars / fewer dollars of excess reserves. As a result of this transaction, Megabank’s ability to create additional money with reserves / loans would most likely increase/ decrease. Thus the rate of growth of the money supply would most likely speed up / slow down. 

Option 4: Alternative Policy

If Groucho withdrew $5 million from his checking account and buries it in his backyard, the Mega bank will be left with less reserves as Groucho owns MegaBank and is its largest depositor. Due to lack of funds, the bank will not be in a position to supply more money to public, its loanable funds will declineand hence the money supply will reduce. 

Option 5: Another Alternative

Governor Zeppo believes the answer to inflation is to use a “two-fisted” approach. He proposes flooding the market with T-bills to raise the yield equal to the rate of inflation.Then to add stricter controls on loan able funds, he would raise and maintain the IOER Rate at 200 basis points above the rate of inflation. Thus, as inflation comes down, the interest on IOER would decrease as well.

Opinion

In my opinion, Harpo has recommended the best solution to this problem. If the discount rate increases from 2% to 3%, the other interest rates will rise as well because increase in discount rate means that if Mega bank wants to borrow money from central bank it will now have to pay 3% interest instead of 2% which means that borrowing has become expensive for Mega bank. So, it will increase its interest rates. The mortgage loan was given earlier at 6%, now it will be given at 7% to the public. This will reduce the borrowing of money by the people of the economy, they will invest less, and hence the money supply will decrease. 
 
Here, money demand is Md and money supply  is Ms. The interest rate is ‘I’. When a contractionary monetary policy is adopted, the money supply falls to M’s, and interest rate increases to I’. 
 
Here, the economy was at point ‘a’ initially when aggregate demand (AD) met aggregate supply (AS) and price level was ‘p’. After the contractionary monetary policy, the demand fell to AD’ and the price reducedto p’.

Balance Sheet for MegaBank
ASSETS    LIABILITIES
Required Reserves          $ 2,000,000    Checking Deposits   $10,000,000
Excess Reserves              $ 1,000,000    
Total Reserves                 $4,000,000    
Loans                                $1,000,000    
Government Securities    $ 2,000,000    
TOTAL                           $10,000,000    TOTAL     $   10,000,000                                    
 

Bonus problem


1.    
a.    An 18% inflation will lead to more lending and borrowing because people have high purchasing power and they will be willing to invest more. So, they will take more loans and banks will lend them too. The money supply in the economy is high.
b.    The unemployment will fall as more money supply will lead to more investments and more spending by both households and business firms. Several projects willstart like infrastructure, It etc. and more people will start getting jobs in these new projects.   
c.    The real wages of people will rise too as demand for labor will be more than the supply and hence the wages will increase. Also, with more money supply, more wages will be paid. 
 
2.    There are few difficulties in achieving successful fiscal policy solution to this problem. If the government plans to rise its spending, it takes a lot of time to filter in the economy. By the time it is done, it may be too late to react. The plans for spending are set only once in a year. The implementation of changes and the spending patterns gets delayed due to political disturbances and other official issues.  
 
3.    Monetary policy is better than fiscal because the time lag problem that is there in fiscal policy does not exists in monetary. The effects of monetary are immediate and fiscal policy takes time to show results. The implementation of monetary policy is comparatively easy and fair. Monetary policy is implemented by central banks which are neutral and are politically fair. While there may be some partiality in fiscal policy like some sectors are lent more funds and others are not. The tools used in monetary are general and affects the entire economy whereas fiscal tools may affect particular sectors or people. 

References:

Contractionary Monetary Policy: Slowing the Economy Down - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. (2016). Study.com. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/contractionary-monetary-policy-slowing-the-economy-down.html
 
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. (2016). Frbatlanta.org. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from https://www.frbatlanta.org/cenfis/publications/notesfromthevault/1501
 
Moffatt, M. (2016). Expansionary Monetary vs Contractionary Monetary Policy. About.com Education. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://economics.about.com/cs/money/a/policy_2.htm
 
What is the Fed: Monetary Policy. (2016). Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://www.frbsf.org/education/teacher-resources/what-is-the-fed/monetary-policy
 
Finance & Development. (2016). Finance & Development | F&D. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/monpol.htm
 
Nominal vs. Real GDP, and the GDP Deflator - CFA Level 1 | Investopedia. (2008). Investopedia. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/cfa-level-1/macroeconomics/nominal-real-gdp-deflator.asp


 

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