Читать книгу Corporate Finance For Dummies онлайн

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The reality is that the Federal Reserve is simply acting as a middleman for the distribution of funds, although the government can distribute funds without help from the Federal Reserve by way of spending more money through hiring contractors or distributing stimulus spending (like the new homebuyer’s tax credit). Banks tend to only purchase money from the Federal Reserve when they need to increase the total amount of money available, because interbank loans are a cheap, fast, and easy way to handle short-term shortages of money in reserve.

The U.S. Treasury is a division of the U.S. government and is, quite possibly, the simplest arm of the U.S. government to understand, at least regarding finance. The U.S. Treasury isn’t a decision-making body, so the actions it takes must always be set in motion by the federal government — either Congress, the president, the Supreme Court, or some combination of the three. For instance, the Treasury distributes payments on behalf of the federal government, but it doesn’t make those payments on its own. Congress sets the budget for each branch of the government, and when the branches spend that money, the Treasury’s job is to distribute the allotted funds.