ECON 211 Week 8 Discussion

Should we call Ghostbusters or 911 (the emergency number), if the flow of money becomes sluggish within our macroeconomy? In this activity, you will explore the concepts of monetary policy, monetary policy tools, and expansionary and contractionary monetary policy.

Locate a recent article (published within the last year) that discusses the objectives of the Federal Reserve Banking System, monetary policy tools and how they work, and whether the Federal Reserve Banking System is using expansionary or contractionary monetary policy.

You can use the Hunt Library, newspapers, new stations, or other credible sources to locate an article. Analyze the article and then provide the following in your discussion.

• Define the term monetary policy tools.
• Explain how each monetary policy tool is used.
• Provide an example of a real-life application in which the Federal Reserve Banking System would use contractionary monetary policy over expansionary monetary policy.
• Discuss which monetary policy is used most often and why.

Summarize your findings using at least 250 words and provide a minimum of one reference. Use current APA formatting to document your sources.

 Post & Respond

Post your findings by the third day of the module week. Return by the sixth day of the module week to review your classmates’ posts. Respond to at least two of your peers. Your response should be at least one paragraph, two to three sentences in length, and include the following.

• Whether you agree or disagree with the findings and why
• A probing question that facilitates further discussion of the topic

Review the Discussion Rubric for detailed grading instructions.